10 Steps to Wealth in Real Estate.

There are three distinct phases that exist in the real estate business. The good news is it is your choice how you want your business to be. Keep in mind that today you are exactly where you chose to be. No matter what your business and life looks like today, it is the culmination of all the choices you have made to date. If you are happy with it, congratulations. If not, maybe it's time to make new choices.

 In Phase One, we have three distinct and important decisions to make to determine our level of success. It begins with a commitment to doing the business. It then requires we develop our confidence in how we operate our activities of our practice. We learn how to do a buyer meeting, a listing appointment or any other part of the process by first getting out of our comfort zone and learning how, until we have confidence in what we need to do. From there we must establish a consistent effort to make our business grow and prosper.  If you experience cash flow issues in your business, the problem is often found in these first three disciplines.

 In Phase Two, we chose to really step out of our comfort zone by moving out of the easy way of operating in a spontaneous and reactive way, consistently being pulled in a million directions by the crisis of the moment. This leads to a lot of wasted work chasing our tails and coming home at the end of long days frustrated for getting "nothing done" all day. So Phase Two starts with the discipline of Endurance, something that is always required in acquiring a new habit or skill. You will do well some days and poorly others, until those new skills are new habits. You will keep enduring until you can be fully Effective doing what is vital. What is important instead of what is urgent most of each day. At this point, you will see Efficiency where you not only focus on the important vital activities but the highest and best use and most dollar producing most of your days. If you want to be a Rich agent, this is all you need to focus on, and ever improving Effective and Efficiency of effort.

 If you want to leverage your time and money and gain wealth, then you must go to Phase Three and leverage other people's time. In Phase Three, you begin by developing the discipline of  Patience. Keep in mind you just developed your own endurance, effectiveness and efficiency in new skills and focus on only being vital in every activity throughout your work day, and now have hired others who have no idea what that really entails. So now you must be Patient as you coach them to understand your systems and have buy in to them. You will then need to Promote to them your systems and help them understand what benefits they will have as they too adopt them.  Once they do you will be guiding them to a Proficiency that they too are staying in their own and your teams Highest and Best Use of time.

Unfortunately only about 1-3% of agents and teams actually put themselves out of their comfort zones and through Phase Two, most simply bypass it and go from One to Three and take their lack of systems and chaos and add the lack of systems and chaos of other people to it.

If you want to know the path through Phase Two that is the commitment that Jimmy Dulin and I have made to keep our ongoing Momentum Training consistently offered throughout each year for you.

The Worst Enemy of Great is Good.

 "People assume everyone wants to reach their potential and be the best they can be. I've concluded most only want to be average and do just enough to get by." Nick Saban.

To realize your potential, it is reaching your capacity and has nothing to do with comparisons to anyone but yourself. Almost all unhappiness comes from comparing to others. We either compare our weaknesses to someone else's strengths and then feel badly about ourselves, or we compare our strengths to someone else's weaknesses and over inflate ourselves. What we should be doing is comparing our current selves with who we once were and celebrating the growth, and then comparing our current selves with who we could be and striving forward.

 How do you do it? You commit to being an active learning based individual rather than knowledge based. When I was hiring sales people, one of my questions I asked in interviews was "How many years of experience have you?" Then followed up with however many years they said, "Was that X years experience or one year experience repeated X times?" In other words tell me about the last class you took, the last seminar you attended, the last book you read or audio or video you consumed and what changes did you implement and what are the results?

The worst enemy of great is good. The "I'm doing good, I'm making money, life is good." holds more people back from what could be. It creates a temptation to be knowledge based where it is easy to dismiss out of hand "I've heard it all before." But are you doing it? If you were brought up on charges for knowing what you say you know, would there be enough evidence in your every day activities to convict you?

 The only way you can be Learning based is to force yourself out of your comfort zone. The most dramatic story that I can think of was Tiger Woods. Three times in his career, he hired coaches to relearn his swing. That was courageous to mess with a winning formula to reach a higher level. We too will have to step out of the comfort of what's already working for us and learn new ways of improving them.

 We begin by seeking new information, that 1%er thinking we spoke of last month, then we must learn to S.P.A.R. (Study, Practice, Action, Review.) After taking an active role in learning, we take that information back and study it-- maybe by learning scripts or the basic flow needed. We then must practice before we introduce it into our business. After that we take action and use these new developing skills with our clients, as we do so, we will learn where we may not yet have it right and we go back to class and review again and once again start that S.P.A.R. process until it's part of our new comfort zone.

Remember, to know and not to do, is not to know.

1 Percent Thinking

 Far too often I find myself asked "What does the average agent do?" This could be directed in any numbers of ways, but my answer is always the same, "Don't be average, average sucks." As one of my cherished mentors always described average "Average is the top of bottom and the bottom of the top, it's the cream of the crap."

What is average? What does it look like?

According to the National Association of REALTORS, last year:

The Average Agent completed two transactions.

The Average Agent, with five years of experience and above, had a gross commission income of 49,000.00. Which means they had a net nearer to 25,000.00.

RE/MAX reported that their Average agent had a gross commission income of 115,000.00 last year, much better, but keep in mind that means for every agent who earned a million last year that would mean as many as nine could have earned zero.

 The Average small business, no matter what it is, closes permanently within five years.

So what is our Aha here? Don't be average, it sucks. To not be average requires one common thing, the firm decision not to be and to follow up on what that means.

 Rick Setzer, one of my most admired mentors explained it this way, he taught the "Rule of 95%."

 The Social Security Administration has long had a chart that is used by insurance agencies and others as to what the financial outcomes are for people at 65 years old.

Out of every 100 people at 65;

36 would be dead.

54 would be dead broke, living off friends, family and the government.

5 would still be working.

4 would be financially independent.

1 would be rich.

If these numbers are true, and they are, it means that 95% of what you know you learned from someone in the 95%, true or false?

If true, what group would you have a 95% chance of eventually falling into?

How can that change? Learn to think like a 1%er.

Because you don't know what you don't know, and that is why you don't have.

Because if you knew what you don't know, you would have what you don't have.

And to know and not do, is not to know.

There is a lot of truth and wisdom in that seemingly silly little prose. Today there are so many ways to learn to think like a one percenter. There is a vast library of books, speeches and interviews with one percenters at a click of a search button.

RE/MAX has given us all a gift of a copyrighted program of 1%er training in the Momentum Complete Agent Development System. The information is there. It is up to you to choose if you will be an active learner or just know and not do. We will discuss this further in an upcoming blog.

We will also be discussing that "average" can have other scary definitions, when it is a landing pad called good when great is something you're capable of.

 It is your choice if you want to be Learning based not Knowledge based. Learning based is about active learning by Study, Practice, Action and going back to Review. Knowledge based is that Dead Sea of "I've heard it all before, I know that, that's old news, I don't need that." Remember to know and not to do means not to know.

To be continued.......

Tis The Season To Weigh Our Past, Present and Future

Tis the Season when we pause to reflect, take a look around at where we are, remember old times and put together our plans for the future, at least the next year. As we do this, how does this year differ from the last, or the past ones that keep getting further and further into our rear view? What is different today than then? What will be different tomorrow? Why?

 A couple weeks ago I was cleaning out some dresser drawers to remove the clutter and things long ago that should have been gone. While doing so I found an old journal I had been writing in until it sank below the surface of each weeks laundry out of sight and mind. Reading it was an interesting time capsule into my own life. It contained some very momentous days personally,  some infamous days historically, and it was interesting to see my impressions fresh at those moments.

 One of the things that spoke volumes to me was seeing what I thought were important to me at the time of the writings, but even more interesting was seeing the underlying comments that proved what was truly the most important then, and now. It was those that always won out in the end demanding my focus and attention, while what I thought was important rarely did.

 As we are working together on the Momentum Complete Agent Development System, we speak of finding your "Why," and how critical it is to moving you to success. There is little more important in that quest. What is yours? Why does it move you? Does it have you by the heart? It will never be money, it may well be something that money can help you do, but it won't be the money itself.

 Find your Why, develop your dreaming muscles once again. We all can dream as kids, but we have it driven out of us as we get older, or at least most do. The people we admire and talk about how they are special or geniuses in their chosen endeavors are actually people who somehow never quit dreaming, or relearned how.

 If you have a challenge with letting yourself dream again. Let me recommend a book that Lou Holtz claims turned his own life and career around. The Magic of Thinking Big.
Make the time to allow yourself to explore the idea of What if again.

The Magic of Thinking Big

Why Walk Through The Weeds When There Is A Path?

 Even though I often warn our agents to be aware of the language they use with their clients, that they don't use industry buzz words that all agents understand but clients who don't live in this industry may not. However, I just got caught doing the exact same thing with our agents. I learned that I might just as well have been speaking Chinese for the last few years.

 Recently we have added the copyrighted Complete Agent Development program, Momentum to our ongoing services for our agents to get free training in their practices. I have to confess that I love this program. It is very complete and really gives agents a clear path to operate their businesses in an intentional and proactive manner and moves away from the spontaneous and reactive state most REALTORS and small business owners find themselves. 

While leading a class on Buyer Lead Conversion I discovered where I was at a disconnect. As I was explaining that the course led us through a very effective Critical Sales Path system with scripts moving the client through the five stages of you must move them through. When the look of deer in the headlights reflected back to me I asked, who was currently using a critical path system? When no one was, I asked who has ever heard of one – again the same results. Out of eight classes around the state I only found a few who knew or were using this process, and all of them came from a professional sales background. This was a wake up call, where my message had often been poorly communicated by me, including when talking with our agents about the design of our Listing Presentation we create each year for all our agents. I would speak about how it was designed to follow a Critical Sales Path approach, overcoming objections with Silent Sellers throughout with attention to all four of the DISC profiles. What this taught me is that I was trying to explain a tool for them in a language that negated the message. 

So my next quest is to now teach it, but before doing so, to explain why you want to know it. What's in it for you to know? To get an image in your mind, if you are at all skilled with playing checkers or chess, this is much of what it is like. It is doing a "move" now that is setting up the "move" several turns away from now. It is like you are doing a play where you know the story and script but your client doesn't and you lead them to where THEY WANT to be by your questions. 

 Why do you want to learn this? Let me explain my very first year selling homes was in 1983 where we enjoyed 19.6% interest rates. You can imagine no one who was living in a home paying 6% mortgage interest was moving to one with 19.6%, so we had to target renters. We would send out letters to apartments that said, "If renting made sense your landlord would do it." We then told them if they made X amount of income and made an appointment at our office and bring a check stub and rent receipt we would pay them 50.00. We later learned that 25.00 worked just as well.  When they came in they couldn't be more skeptical they assumed it was a scam or something like a time share. I would book 7 appointments a day and when you sat down with them I would ask for the rent and check stub and cut them their check immediately, once done you could visibly see them relax. 

From there we started the critical sales path, we did a warm up to create a friendly environment. We did a needs and wants analysis, a financial assessment then showed them the differences between renting and owning. At the end of the hour they were getting excited! They came in for the 50.00 and had no interest in being in the home market, but now they realized they could and were excited. I then took it away from them, told them to go home and think about it, ask family, accountant, etc, but offered an opportunity for them to lock up the price and location of a home with a "lot deposit" that would last for 48 hours. If they decided no, come pick up the check and no harm, no foul or they could just do the paperwork on their new home.  

 This approach, this sale path, this checker board, took people who had no interest in a home walking in the door to giving a check to hold one in one hour.  7 per month wrote an agreement, with about 4-5 that actually qualified and closed.  I am not suggesting that exact thing is what you would use, but the critical path approach allows you to serve your client by helping them move through all the stages of the process the most efficiently in an intentional and proactive approach. This will lead to, not only more closing for you, but more referrals. Clients do not refer to agents just because they like them, they refer to experiences with systems they like. 

 I look forward to going into detail with you in upcoming classes. 

Can You Will It Done?

 We admire those who have the steely will power that seems to never break. We love watching movies with Rudy, Rocky and countless others fight on through seemingly insurmountable obstacles. We see ourselves rising to do the same, but do we? Do we start out strong and find ourselves fading under the heat? Have you ever emotionally beaten yourself up for your lack of will power? It's not your fault, no one has unending will power.  Paul even told us that "The Spirit's willing but the flesh is weak." It's not about Will Power-- it's about Why Power. 

 One of my favorite movies ( by the way you will hear that a lot, I have a lot of favorites) is called "Iron Will". It is a Disney movie from about twenty years ago, based on the true story of Will Stoneman, who was a high school kid in 1917 in South Dakota. His father was killed in an accident that left his family in a financial mess and they were about to lose their farm so there would be no money for Will to go to college. Will decided to enter a dogsled race, that his father would have been in had he lived, from Winnipeg, Canada to Saint Paul, Minnesota because the award money would cover the farm loan and college. The challenge was that he was a kid, who had never raced before, against men who were seasoned professionals and ruthless. 

 His journey was brutal over mountains, through freezing water, in life threatening cold. He was bullied and beaten, his lead dog was injured intentionally by a competitor yet he fought on.  He wasn't as good as the others, so he had to work harder, when they came in at night to rest, warm up, eat and sleep, he pushed on through the bone chilling cold. Of course he won, Disney made a movie of it, but it was pushing him to his last shred of himself. He gained national fame for his Will Power, but I will argue with you that it wasn't his will power at all, it was his Why Power that drove his Will. 

He wasn't putting himself through hell on earth to beat these men and win that race, he was saving his mother's farm and home, and as a by product paying for college. 

 Our will power can only sustain so long. We will get weary. We will get bruised in our quest to accomplishment. If it was easy, everyone would do it. It is our Why Power, the thing that you really want in your heart that allows you to pick yourself up, brush yourself off each time you get knocked off your feet and charge on. What is your Why? If you have forgotten how to find it, try reading the book "The Magic of Thinking Big" by Dr. David Schwartz, it is the book that Lou Holtz gives credit to getting him off his couch as a 28 year old unemployed assistant coach to setting 107 audacious "Why" goals for his life that 102 have been accomplished as of 2011!

 If your Why is Big Enough the Facts Simply Don't Count! 

Do It On Purpose!

 Whenever something new is introduced it seems that one of the absolute constants is that there is a belief that "my market's different," or "my situation is different." Frankly that is always true, they are, but it is also true that they are not as much as we want to believe. There is always a common thread where real learning can create massive impact. 

 We are now fully engaged with ongoing Complete Agent Development with the Momentum Training Maximum Results training program. We are now going into our third month of this outstanding training. As the instructor, I have been very excited about the reaction and early response by those attending. Frankly, I'm learning as much as I am teaching, so thank you to all who are attending, sharing, questioning, challenging those ideas put forth. I find myself consumed with thinking through many of those questions for days, but something is becoming crystal clear that seems to answer every exception that has been brought forth. 

 When learning any new idea, or putting any new systems and practises into place we all go through a learning curve. Just think of the first time you drove a car. It looked so easy watching adults do it for years before we tried, then we found out quickly the first time behind the wheel it might not be as easy as we thought, especially if it was a standard shift. We immediately went from the first stage of learning "Unconsciously Incompetent" where we didn't know we didn't know what to do, to "Consciously Incompetent" where we now knew we didn't know what to do. However with just a bit of practice we moved into the "Consciously Competent" phase were we could do it, as long as we thought about what we were doing. Then all too soon we moved into the "Unconsciously Competent" stage where we operate on autopilot. We do the same thing in almost all learning curve activities at work as well. Unfortunately, that is about where our professional growth ends as well. 

 In Goeff Colvin's book, "Talent is Overrated”, he challenges our belief that the superstars in anything are especially gifted or talented. He asserts that there is no such thing as talent, or at least, none that wasn't purposefully developed. I recommend the book, even though I kept arguing with him throughout and he kept making his point stronger. What he talks about is those who rise to that superstar status, somehow avoid the "Unconscious Competent" stage and stay focused on the moment. They keep their head in the game and are constantly aware of what decisions they are making, weighing the options, learning from them and adjusting them. Most of us, as we become competent in what we do, go into autopilot and operate spontaneously and reactively, Whereas, these superstars learn to operate in the moment intentionally and proactively. In other words, they stay focused and mentally engaged in the entire process. 

 One of the quotes in Momentum training is "It's unacceptable for my business to earn zero dollars."

The first time I read this it seemed too obvious to even give it a second thought. However, it is a key fundamental thought that can completely change your entire business life if you allow it to. What he is saying is it is unacceptable for your business to earn zero dollars, not just per year, or per month, but in ANY and Every minute of your business life! The only activities that earn money in real estate are Listing and Selling-- everything else is support but not active income producing. There are about 75% of required activities that are in some way administrative on only those two or 25% that produce dollars directly. So, if you are an individual agent and can't delegate them, you must be cognizant of while working in them that you are producing no income so you are uncomfortable wasting time there, get in and get done and back to rainmaking. 

 In every question or exception that came up this same idea holds true. 

"What do I do if I'm time blocking my schedule and an Internet lead, client emergency, family fun activities pop up unexpectedly? What if my market is so hot that if I don't stop everything to show a house it will be gone?" You can fill in many other such questions and the answer is the same.

Become purposeful. Be cognizant of what you are doing and when. If you have something that comes up and that needs to take priority, then be conscious of what decisions you are making, make the decision and then move your scheduled time block to an open time on your schedule. But be aware of what you are doing, be in the moment, be purposeful. Move your block but don't just run spontaneously or that block never reaches your calendar again. 

What could happen to your business if you took control of it, worked it with a defined purpose, were consistently intentional and proactive rather than spontaneous and reactive?