Hank Avink purchased his first rental property at the age of 19 after wining a national championship as the captain of the Toledo Cherokee junior hockey team. He quickly grew his portfolio to over 40 rental properties and was featured on the Carlton Sheets late night commercial. Not long after, he had a commercial loan called which ultimately led to him filing bankruptcy.

From there, Hank moved into the lending world, seeking to understand all aspects of the real estate business. In 2007, Hank decided to get his residential real estate license as a buyer’s agent and followed the progression to a listing agent, then building his own team, to eventually taking over and running a brokerage. In 2013, Hank wanted to follow his love for coaching people, so he left his leadership position at the brokerage to become a BOLD coach for Keller Williams, logging 600 flights in 3 years and coaching thousands of agents. In a desire to be home more with his growing family, in 2016 Hank decided to leave the BOLD program and open his own coaching company, the National Coaching League (NCL).

Now going into the NCL’s 10th season, Hank has established himself as on of the top real estate and small business coaches in the country and is in the top 100 agents within eXp based on revenue share.

Hank lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan with his wife and three children.

When I asked Hank Avink what he’s building right now, he didn’t talk about growth.

He didn’t mention agent count or expansion or any of the things you’d expect from someone leading an organization of more than a thousand people.

He said, in his own way, that he’s not really trying to build more anymore. Hank said, "I’ve won the game of life… now it’s just about not screwing it up.”

At some point, more stops helping. Hank calls it “destructive abundance”—the moment where you have so much business that you can’t do the things that created it in the first place. The conversations get rushed. The follow-up slips. You start reacting instead of leading.

A lot of people are still in the phase of trying to get something off the ground—more leads, more conversations, more momentum. Hank has already crossed that threshold. What he’s focused on now is maintaining what’s in place without creating unnecessary chaos, while subtracting any necessary activity that isn’t providing a return on his relationships, energy, or finances.

It’s a quieter kind of ambition.

And we can learn a lot from Hank about how he got to where he is today. Let’s dive in!

If you want to understand how Hank got here, you don’t start with strategy. You start with how he spends his time.

His week is not complicated, but it is intentional. There’s a rhythm to it that removes most of the decisions people get stuck on.

On any given week, Hank is working from about 9am-3pm, Monday-Thursday. And at the top of each working hour, there’s a call. And if there isn’t a call, there’s time set aside to create one.

He said it simply: have a call, book a call.

It sounds almost too obvious to matter, but it explains more than most people realize. In a relationship-driven business, the only thing that consistently moves things forward is conversation. People stay busy. They tweak things. They spend time on tasks that feel like progress, but don’t actually move the business forward. And the hard truth is, most of it comes back to avoiding the one thing that does.

Talking to people.

There isn’t a shortcut around that. There isn’t a more efficient version of it that replaces it.

If you want to change your business, whether that’s attracting agents, coaching clients, buyers or sellers, employees, or customers, you have to increase the volume and quality of your conversations. And you have to do it consistently enough that it compounds.

Most agents and business leaders know that. They just don’t build their time around it.

Hank does.

And because of that, he doesn’t have to rely on motivation or momentum to build his revenue share organization, his coaching business, or investment opportunities. The structure carries him from one conversation to the next, one opportunity to the next, one hour to the next until his work day is done and he’s outside on the tractor or spending time with his family.

More doesn’t always mean more. Consistent activity over time is everything.

Hank is clear that he is building a lifestyle business. He’s not living to work. He’s working to live. Hank organizes his life and business around three things: relationships, energy, and finances.

If his relationships are strong, opportunities tend to show up. Conversations and connections lead to clarity and opportunities. Hank regularly asks himself, “How do I serve this person?” Hank went on to say that “giving a shit” is actually a tactical habit that has one of the highest ROIs in his business, but is so simple that most people overlook it. I couldn’t agree more!

Zig Ziglar’s famous quote, “You can have everything in life you want, if you just help enough people get what they want,” is not just a cliche, it’s actually a powerful principle to act on. And if you do, the results follow. Hank is proof.

Now, if Hank’s energy is off, everything feels harder than it should. The calls aren’t as good. The thinking isn’t as sharp. The consistency starts to slip. So instead of ignoring it, he manages it. He knows when he’s at his best and builds his schedule around that. Hank also isn’t afraid to say “no” to a person or opportunity that drains his energy. It’s just not worth the energy expense.

And when it comes to finances, he doesn’t guess. He tracks. Regularly. Because income can look good in the moment, but what actually matters is what’s being built over time. Hank reviews his one sheet every week - analyzing his income, cash flow projections, and the amount it takes to run his family’s life. When you can see your financial picture clearly, and are honest with yourself about where you are at, you make better decisions.

What stood out to me is that none of this is complicated. But it does require attention. Most people are trying to fix their business by adding something new. Hank’s approach is different. He focuses on getting the fundamentals right and then doing them again and again.

Relationships. Energy. Finances. Repeat.

So for those of you reading this who want to grow your business, Hank has some advice:

None of what Hank shared is complicated. But how many of us actually follow a simple plan, or any plan for that matter!? It’s so easy to drift…

To get busy instead of intentional. To chase more instead of protecting what’s already working. To avoid the conversations we know we should be having.

Hank doesn’t seem to struggle with that. He just keeps coming back to the same things.

The calls.
The relationships.
His energy.
His numbers.

And then he does it again the next day.

That’s probably the part most people don’t want to hear. But it’s also the part that works.

To learn more about Hank and his business, connect with him on Facebook and send him a DM!