I’ve compiled 10 questions you should ask yourself. In the last post, I gave you the first five.  In this post , I’ll give you the rest of the questions.

Ask yourself:

1. Do I know how long it will take to get a sale? To get a listing? To get a listing sold? (so you can project your income) (New agents tend to wait, and wait, and wait, to get into the business ‘stream’, thinking that there is no time frame to buyers’ decisions—wrong!)

Key point: Use the time lines in Up and Running to project your income. You don’t want to run out of money before you run out of time!

2. Do I have a method of setting goals and tracking accomplishments in the areas above—so I can analyze my specific strengths and challenges in this business? (Most agents never track what they do, so they don’t know what worked—or why what they’re doing isn’t working).

Key point: If you know how many listing appointments it takes, for example, for you to list one marketable property, you can project with confidence your income. You have truly become independent.

3. Do I have a budget so I know how much money I should be spending in marketing myself/marketing my listings?

Key point: Creating a marketing budget from day one assures you get paid for all that work you’re doing in lead generation (Up and Running has a prototype marketing plan for you, too).

4. Do I have someone to talk to regularly, to coach me, to keep me on track, and to help me if I fall off my start-up plan (to keep me from failing)?

Key point: Most new agents drastically over-estimate their mental toughness in the face of adversity. Studies show that having a mentor, a coach, someone on your side, greatly increases the chances of your success.

5. Do I have a method to keep myself motivated and inspired to keep on keeping on (like a coach or your manager)?

Key point: All the successful people I’ve ever met have a method to ‘keep themselves up’—diaries, logs, inspirational notebooks, readings, CDs, etc. That’s why I put so much inspiration and motivation in Up and Running—we all need it!

Give yourself every chance to succeed to answering ‘yes’ to all of these ten questions. You deserve success! Quit stumbling and get Up and Running!

How a Homeless Girl Got to Harvard

Khadijah Williams’s mother was last spotted living in a storage unit in Los Angeles. But, Khadijah isn’t living there. She’s on her way to Harvard. What an improbable—yet inspiring—story. For as long as she can remember, she and her family, consisting of her mother, and her sister, have drifted from one homeless shelter to another. Yet, she’s still not drifting. And, she’s not just graduating from high school, or getting an entry-level job, or going to a community college, she’s actually enrolled in Harvard. (Don’t get me wrong. It’s a terrific feat to go from homeless to a job, or to graduate from anything. But, Harvard?…..)

Where did Khadijah Get Her Tenacity? 

What aspects of Khadijah Williams’s life caused her to veer off the homeless, dependent path and toward higher education? Who inspired and motivated her?

 Five exceptional points stand out from her story:

 1. Hear the positive about yourself 

Someone told Khadijah she was smart. In the third grade, she scored in the 99^th percentile on a state exam. Her teachers told her she was gifted, and put her in special programs—even though her schooling was intermittent—and she moved schools constantly.

 Question: Are you able to block out the negative and focus on the ‘positive you’?

 2. Believe in your unique talents and skills 

Khadijah believed in herself because she believed what her teachers told her about herself—the positive.

 Question: Do you have the tenacity to turn the positive comments into unshakable belief?

 3. Seek out encouragement/inspiration from mentors  

Khadijah realized she couldn’t do it herself, and sought out organizations and mentors.

 Question: Do you seek out mentors who encourage and inspire you?

 4. Never give up    

Fueled by her belief in herself and the faith others had in her, Khadijah developed unbelievable tenacity to put herself into programs, stay in school, and ignored the taunts of the other students (you’re homeless, you can’t do this, etc., etc., etc.)

Question: How long are you willing to fail to succeed?

 5. Create your own environment  

Even though her mother and sister continue to live the homeless lifestyle, Khadijah has never blamed her relatives or her environment.

 Question: How good are you at putting yourself around winners/

 Yes. It’s a challenging market. But, if this homeless girl with absolutely none of the advantages almost all of us have can put these five attributes to work and step so very far out of her comfort zone, our challenges don’t look so huge, do they?

 Who/what inspires you? Let me know who and what inspires you and why by putting a comment on either of my blogs on this subject (1-2 paragraphs, please).   

And, the winner is……I’ll pick three inspiring comments, and send each of you a complimentary copy of Your Professional Portfolio, which helps you choose your best skills and talents and shows you how to share them with your clients to create loyalty.

 Deadline: Sept. 10. I’ll let everyone know who wins, and I’ll publish the inspirations for everyone in a later newsletter (and probably a blog).    

 Managers’ tip: Why not do this as an exercise with your agents? You’ll inspire them and re-light the fires of desire so they’ll be eager and enthusiastic to do what needs to be done to get back into the action.

 Read Khadijah’s entire article here.

Who’s inspiring you?