The Mid-Year Check-In: Why Agents Dread It (and How to Make It Matter)

Right-sized planning to reframe your year

Right-size your plans

The Mid-Year Ghost

Most agents and brokers never formally schedule a mid-year check-in—and when they do, it usually triggers a quiet little panic: the business plan you painstakingly wrote in January now feels like a ghost haunting the Google Drive, full of goals you haven’t touched in months.

If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone.

Why Business Plans Collect Dust

Why do so many business plans fall flat? Most agents, and plenty of brokers too, start the year with good intentions: a shiny new business plan, maybe a vision board, perhaps a goal or two scribbled in a journal. But all too often, those plans collect digital dust before the snow even melts. The culprit isn’t laziness—it’s the way our industry has taught us to approach planning. We’re told that a single annual plan, written in January, should chart the course for the entire year. But by June, the market has shifted, our lives have changed, and the plan no longer reflects reality.

So we stop looking at it.

The Cycle of Guilt and Avoidance

This is where negativity creeps in. When a business plan becomes a list of failures rather than a living tool, it breeds guilt, avoidance, and shame. Instead of providing motivation and focus, it becomes a monument to “what I should have done by now.”

Worse, the set-and-forget approach creates a cycle of negative reinforcement.

Each time you open that plan, you’re reminded of the gap between intention and reality. That gap doesn’t inspire; it drains you. The result is that most agents avoid mid-year reviews because nobody wants to tally up all the should-haves and could-haves. And if you’re a broker or team leader, your agents may not come to you unless forced. It’s not a lack of ambition—it’s a sign that your planning process needs a reset.

Changing the Conversation with IBRE

But guilt and avoidance don’t have to define your mid-year check-in. This is where Identity-Based Real Estate (IBRE) completely changes the conversation. Instead of forcing yourself to fit into someone else’s plan or duplicating last year’s version with a new header, IBRE invites you to reconnect with what’s true for you, right now. The Five Laws of IBRE aren’t just theory—they’re action steps you can use any month, week, or day. They move your review from a focus on what you haven’t done to an exploration of where you can recenter, realign, or consciously let go.

From Performance Review to Living Assessment

Think of this less as a performance review and more as a living assessment.

• Are you proud of how you’re showing up?

• Is there an area where you’re crossing your own boundaries or ignoring your strengths?

• Which law feels the strongest for you right now?

• Which one needs your attention?

When you use these laws as a lens, you start asking better questions:

• Am I building a business on my terms?

• Am I evolving or just reacting?

• Is my value clear in every client touch?

• Do my boundaries hold, even when the pressure is on?

• Am I truly guiding, or am I back to chasing?

This approach allows you to release the pressure of perfection and instead design a “right-sized” business plan that matches your current situation.

A Note to Brokers and Leaders

One-on-one mid-year reviews is less about business and more about building culture.

In practice, this is less about holding people accountable to an annual checklist and more about providing a blueprint and asking how the build is going.

The old playbook isn’t just out of date; it’s a recipe for irrelevance. Agents are looking to you for more than contracts and compliance. They want to know what it genuinely feels like to be in your care. Thriving leaders are the ones who model the IBRE Laws day in and day out—showing real authenticity, building systems that evolve with changing times, articulating meaningful value, holding boundaries, and acting as guides.

If you want agents who show up for right-sized planning and mid-year check-ins, you have to model it yourself. That means continually checking your own alignment.

• What’s your unique brand promise as a broker?

• Do your actions actually deliver on that promise, or are you running on autopilot?

• Do your agents know, without question, what you stand for, beyond the company logo?

• Ask yourself: Is my annual plan built around my core values?

• Are your agents excited to plan, or are they looking for the nearest exit?

Real culture isn’t built at annual meetings or in PowerPoint slides; it’s built in everyday moments. Brokers, just like agents, need permission to evolve. The IBRE Laws aren’t just for sales agents—they form the backbone of a future-ready brokerage.

Model the change. Check your alignment. Your agents will follow.

Turning the Page

As you step into the second half of the year, remember: your business plan isn’t a report card—it’s a living blueprint, meant to flex and evolve with you and the world you live in. Whether you’re an agent or a broker, a right-sized plan rooted in the IBRE Laws frees you from copycat strategies and helps you focus on real, sustainable growth.

Mid-year isn’t the end of the story—it’s a fresh chapter, and you get to write it.

… Next Sunday on The Sunday Setup

Brand Clarity in a Sea of Sameness—How to Define, Refine, and Actually Use Your “Why”

Next week, we’ll tackle one of the thorniest questions in real estate: what truly sets you or your office apart? We’ll move beyond buzzwords (and resume padding) and dig into how to uncover, articulate, and lead with your unique “why.” You’ll learn practical ways to put your core identity to work and evaluate whether your daily actions and marketing truly reflect what you stand for.

You’ll walk away with starter prompts and a system for refining your personal or team brand (imposter syndrome no more!)

Set aside time to reflect. Same day, same setup—see you next Sunday.

The Laws of Identity-Based Real Estate

Law 1: The Law of Authenticity

Success comes from claiming who you truly are - not who you think you should be. Your clients prefer the real you over any idealized version of a realtor. Never trade credibility for likability. Never.

Law 2: The Law of Business Evolution

You are not an employee with a job—you’re a business owner. Owners are responsible for growing and evolving their own brand. Generic sales tactics and "copy-and-paste" cultures create sameness. True success requires evolving beyond standard selling systems, so keep growing.

Law 3: The Law of Value First

Before you can articulate your value, you must know what it is. Once you do, it’s your responsibility to honor it.

Law 4: The Law of Boundaries and Bravery

Success requires both courage to claim your identity and discipline to maintain boundaries. Don't treat prospects like clients before they commit. Create clear rules of engagement, know who you serve, and be brave enough to say "no" to those who aren't your ideal clients. The right doors won't open until you're brave enough to claim the version of yourself meant to walk through them.

Law 5: The Law of Guide Evolution

Transform from selling to solving, from chasing to attracting, from hero to guide. This evolution requires you to identify your specific problem-solving abilities and the courage to claim them publicly. When you operate as a guide rather than a salesperson, you naturally attract those who need your style of expertise.