Introduction
Not long ago, I met a real estate agent who was at the top of her game in every way.
She was making more money than she ever expected, and her business just kept growing. She had the space and flexibility to do all the other things she cared about, like spending quality time with her family and traveling. She felt confident in her planning, decision-making, and execution in every aspect of her business.
In short, real estate had turned out to be everything she had dreamed of. Her life was perfect, and she was loving every minute of it.
Just kidding.
I talk to thousands of real estate agents every year, and that story has never once been true. It is, however, what most people imagine will happen when they become real estate agents. That's what attracts people to this business: the promise of earning a six-figure income, being your own boss, and having a flexible schedule.
The dream of what real estate can be is very alluring.
However, those expectations can get crushed very quickly. The new agents I meet usually find themselves working unexpectedly long days to build their client base-not to mention being on call 24/7. They wanted to be their own boss, but it turns out that's a hard job, and they're feeling the anxiety and loneliness of having to make every decision themselves. Every dollar is a battle, and there's never enough. They think, If only I could sell more, I'd achieve the dream I set out with.
But the grass is not greener on the other side. Top-producing agents suffer just as much, if not more. After years of pounding the pavement and building their empires from scratch, they're still working twelve-plus-hour days and on call 24/7. They're still bad at being their own boss. They still want more sales. Only now they have more to lose, so their stress levels are even higher. Even worse, they are still giving away their commissions to put deals together.
I've been coaching real estate agents for more than thirty years, so I've seen this over and over and over. Every agent, new or experienced, aspiring or top performer, struggles almost every day.
Virtually everyone responds to this dilemma in the same way: by looking for new ideas. They think some other agent has sourced the "magic pill." Something has to be easier, faster, or more effective than what they're doing now. So they try different things-send a mailer, run an ad, up their social media game, buy some leads, revamp their listing presentation-anything that might move the needle.
The problem is, they can't tell what works and what doesn't. So, they just do what feels good or urgent at the moment-which usually means chasing after deals indiscriminately.
It seems logical, but instead of leading to more success, this approach leaves them stuck and frustrated. They're exhausted and perpetually racing to catch up. They're always too busy reacting to the present situation to plan for the future. They feel like the only way to grow their business is to work harder, but they're already maxed out.
Sound familiar?
You Don't Need a New Idea
It is possible to succeed in this business without constant work, stress, and overwhelm, but there are no shortcuts to that outcome. As you'll soon learn, real estate is a blue-sky business, and opportunity is truly everywhere. You just won't get there by looking for shiny new ideas. In over thirty years, I have yet to hear a good new idea in real estate.
At its heart, this is a very simple business.
People complicate it all the time, and usually not with your best interests in mind. All those quick fixes and secret strategies that land in your inbox-10 Listings in 90 Days! Get Every Buyer to Buy NOW!-are snake oil. They don't work.
How do I know? Because the moment markets get tough, top agents abandon that nonsense. If it really produced more business, they would do even more of it when times are hard. But they don't. They go back to the basics . . . because that's what produces results.
Those basics are the foundation of your business. You're a real estate agent; you know the importance of a strong foundation for a house. Well, same for your business. Too many agents build theirs on air-on the hope that some new twist can generate instant and lasting results. They ignore the basics and grasp at anything that seems like it can bring in leads instantly.
It doesn't work. Success in this business comes down to mastering those basics. Everything else, especially anything that promises instant gratification, is a waste of time and money. And despite advances in technology, the basics haven't changed. That's why, after thirty years in this business, I'm still coaching people on the same foundational concepts.
But while the fundamentals are simple, executing them consistently is not easy. You must be willing to look inward and become intensely self-aware. You have to unwind a lot of bad habits that have been in place for a really long time. You need an unwavering commitment to show up every day with a growth mindset, do your job (as you will learn in this book), put in your reps, and be accountable to the process.
If you can bring those qualities to the table, I can teach you the rest. In this book, you'll learn three things:
- How to be coachable. Without this, everything else is useless. No amount of guidance will help you if you don't commit to following it.
- How to grow a repeat and referral business. There are just six building blocks to master. As you'll see, how you do business is more important than how much business you do.
- How to enjoy every day no matter what. If you can't do that, what's the point? Don't kid yourself that you'll be happy if or when you achieve some goal-there's always another goal after that to keep your happiness out of reach.
These three skills are all it takes to succeed in real estate without burning out. Mastering them will allow you to do more than just make great money. You'll also be able to enjoy your work and feel valued by your clients. Most importantly, you'll have the free time and peace of mind to actually live your life-not just survive.
I Have Some Bad News
Here's the catch: the fundamentals are things you will not want to do.
I didn't make it this way on purpose. The six building blocks you'll learn in this book are the result of constantly refining my coaching process over many years. They just happen to be the six things agents hate the most. Funny how that worked out. They'll make you uncomfortable, and most agents let those feelings of discomfort get in the way of doing what needs to be done.
But you don't succeed in life by avoiding the things you don't want to do.
You've probably heard the popular "wisdom" that if you follow your passion, you'll never work a day in your life. Sorry, but that's BS. To be able to follow your passion, you have to do a lot of things that feel like work.
I learned this from an early age. I grew up playing sports, and my first career was in pro football as a linebacker for the Miami Dolphins. To succeed in sports, you have to master the fundamentals, and most of that stuff is not fun. It's hard work. In eleven years of playing serious football, there was never a single day that I wanted to go practice . . . but I also never missed a practice just because I didn't want to go.
Why? Because I wanted the result. I wanted to play in the game, do well, and be on a winning team. To have that, I had to do what my coach told me and put in the reps (plus a whole lot more on my own time), even when they were painful, boring, or difficult.
Real estate is no different. If you want to be a top agent, there's a lot of unglamorous work you have to do. There's no getting around it. But if you're willing to do that work, the results can be spectacular.
When I entered the real estate business in 1991, I started at square zero. I was in a new place with no database, no friends, no experience, and no knowledge of the area. It was my third career, after pro football and Wall Street.
Like most new agents, I wanted to make a lot of money quickly without making a big investment. I had heard an interview with two agents who were on track to sell one hundred homes in just their second year. They talked about how the business worked and how they approached it, and everything they said just clicked. It was simple. I understood the basics in about two minutes, and I knew immediately that I could do what it took to be successful.
I started out with a partner who had been in the business for a while already, doing ten to twelve transactions a year. The training we were getting at the time spelled out four different options for generating business: door knocking, calling expired listings, calling for-sale-by-owner listings, and cold calling. I chose the first two.
To be clear, I didn't want to do any of those things. I had played in a Super Bowl. I had worked for Salomon Brothers on their Treasury desk doing multimillion-dollar trades. The idea of knocking on doors and calling strangers in Fullerton, California seemed like quite a letdown . Who wants to spend all day bothering people who just want to go about their lives uninterrupted? But those were my...
