When you work as a luxury real estate professional, you don’t have a “typical” 9–5 job by any stretch of the imagination. Whether it’s taking a client out to dinner, showing a property on the weekend, or attending networking events on a weeknight, it can be difficult to maintain a sense of work-life balance in this demanding field.

In a recent podcast episode of our Marketing Blueprint series, we discussed what goes into “Adopting a Luxury Mindset in Real Estate” with our very own Tami Simms and real estate professional Maria Babaev. Throughout the conversation, Maria offered a few tips for luxury real estate professionals looking to strike a healthier balance between their work and home lives based on her own experience in the field.

1) Work-Life Balance: Blend Your Work and Home Lives

First, Maria explains that focusing too much on separating your work and personal lives as a luxury real estate professional can actually create more unnecessary stress. Instead, she encourages real estate professionals to stop looking for that fine line and to give themselves permission to blend their careers with their home lives.

She offers up the example of feeling pressure to choose between attending her son’s baseball games on Sundays and taking clients to tour open houses. Ultimately, she explains how her career really took off once she stopped trying to separate these two facets of her world; by building professional relationships with her personal acquaintances (including parents on her son’s baseball team) and fostering stronger personal relationships with affluent clientele, she was able to grow her career substantially.

2) Work-Life Balance: Look at the Big Picture

Another piece of advice that Maria offers is to step back and look at the “big picture” when striving for work-life balance. Specifically, she recommends aiming for a more balanced week rather than seven balanced days in a row. After all, it is unlikely that you’re going to meet all your personal, professional, health, growth, and other goals for yourself all within a 24-hour period.

However, if you can look back at your week and find that you’ve spent enough time on your business, dedicated time to family and friends, engaged in a hobby, and taken steps to care for your mental/physical health, you can feel a stronger sense of balance.

3) Work-Life Balance: Be Your Authentic Self

Last but certainly not least, focus on being your authentic self not just in your personal life, but in your professional life as well. As you build relationships with your clients, you can absolutely blend both worlds together. Tami gives the example of how she scheduled a night out with a group of professional acquaintances and personal friends. She described how everybody had a wonderful time and how her two worlds were able to blend into a lovely evening. Separating work from your personal life may seem like the most appropriate approach, but that isn’t always the case — and it’s important to remember that being able to adapt is a key element in finding success not just in your career, but in life as well.

Ultimately, by surrounding yourself with like-minded people, your “work” doesn’t have to feel like work. By being your true authentic self in all that you do, you can network and build/maintain meaningful relationships with less effort.

Letting Go of the Pressure

There’s a lot of pressure to strike that perfect work-life balance — but the reality is that you’ll find more success by embracing a healthy blend of your work and social lives as a luxury real estate professional. Once you come to that realization and stop trying to walk that fine line between professional and personal, you can empower yourself to take your career to new heights.

Looking for more insights on improving your career as a luxury real estate professional? Keep an eye on our Luxury Insights for more actionable advice tailored specifically for real estate professionals interested in succeeding in the upper tier. And while you’re there, be sure to also check out more information about how you can earn our coveted Certified Luxury Home Marketing Specialist™ designation.