3. Your Attitude about YOU is Much More Important than Your Talent or your IQ

Malcolm Gladwell actually said this in the chapter in Outliers about proverbs. Study after study shows that, if you have the big “T” (tenacity), and you believe you can do something, YOU CAN!

I’m a graduate of the University of Oregon, and I always read the alumni magazine. In the latest edition, there’s a fascinating study by a couple of physicists (sounds like those physicists just can’t stop themselves from studying this, that, and the other). They found that students with lower American College Test (ACT) or SAT scores could compensate through hard work. So, don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t achieve what you want to achieve. Unless you’re trying to become an NBA center, and you’re 5’ 10” tall, you CAN achieve great things in real estate.

Here’s my favorite quote by one of my favorite leaders, Winston Churchill:

Give In?  Never!

Never give in!

Never give in!

Never, never, never, never

- in nothing great or small,

large or petty –

Never give in except to

convictions of honour

and good sense.

– Sir Winston Churchill

Speech at the Harrow School

October 29, 1941

Achievement Can be Yours

Work the hours it takes. Be honest with yourself about your work ethic. Use my analysis, Time and Activities, to check that your hard work is really the work that counts. Take the attitude that YOU CAN. You don’t need great height or great musical talent to do well in real estate. You need the values that you already have: Caring for people, wanting to do right by them, and putting the client above your best interests. Now, go and have a great rest of 2010!

2. Outwork ‘Em, Don’t Just Try to Out Smart ‘Em

So, you think that working smarter is better than working harder? Well, it’s certainly important to prioritize what you do. And, this month, I’m providing you an analysis tool so you can see how you spend your time. (See free giveaways in the September newsletter, or click here). But, how about those seminar gurus who tell you to just work 20 hours a week to attain your goals? Or, hire all those buyers’ agents so you don’t have to work? Personally, I’ve never found that avoiding work got you to achievement. I know that, of course, as a musician. If you don’t practice, you can’t play!

Scientific Studies Prove Outworking Works Better than Out-Smarting

Have you read the great book by Malcolm Gladwell, the Outliers? If you haven’t, get it today.  In an earlier newsletter, I wrote how Gladwell used studies of famous people to prove that practicing 10,000 hours was the magic number to master just about anything. (Read the Beatles’ story. It’s great). In addition, Gladwell provides stories and studies to show that hard work gets you to achievement. He provides the contrast of Chinese farmers with Russian peasants. The Chinese farmers believed in many proverbs, all of which have the theme of ‘hard work makes you rich’. Here’s one:

Don’t depend on heaven for food, but on your own two hands carrying the load.

In contrast, Russian peasants ‘ proverbs sounded like this:

If God does not bring it, the earth will not give it.

In other words, one set of proverbs put destiny in the person’s hands. The other, put destiny in someone else’s.

Which set of proverbs do you live by? Do you believe your own achievement is up to you? Or, is it up to the company? Your manager? The market?

Realtor Surveys Shows Higher Producers Work Longer Hours

The last National Realtor Association survey shows that Realtors who work 30 hours a week do four transactions, on average. Realtors who work 50 hours a week do 24 transactions, on average. In other words, if you want to achieve, work those hours!

Does it make any sense at all that working 20-30 hours a week can provide a successful career–when those who are actually making the money you want to make are working 50 hours a week? Step up to the line and put those hours in, and you’ll achieve past your dreams!

1. Quit Trying to Multi-Task Because You’re Taxing that Brain

I know. I know. We are compulsively ‘multi-tasking’ our hearts out—trying to get more done in less time. We exercise and listen to our iPod while we’re watching a video!  We’re proud of being able to do 2-3 things at once. We just don’t know how that’s hurting us from actually achieving our goals. Here’s the problem. When our brains are busy, we don’t retain information. The brain needs ‘down time’ to translate a pattern of new activity into a persistent memory, according to University of California scientists.

Take a Walk in the Woods

University of Michigan scientists showed that people learned significantly better after a walk in nature than after a walk in a dense urban environment. So, exercise, but do it without the media stimulation—and exercise outside, if you can.

Observation: Have you noticed how some people are ‘gadget junkies’? They spend all their time gathering the newest gadgets, learning them, and using them. The end game: Gadgets rule their lives, not their goals and achievements.

Put Down the Gadgets and Think

One danger I see today is people’s inability to think in a linear fashion. Oh, I know—it’s great to be creative and ‘fire’ on all brain cylinders. But, what about those times when you want to think through a problem? When you want to create a plan? The ability to focus and think through complex issues is really important to real estate success today. So, before you multi-task and gadget yourself to death, stop, look, and listen. You’ll get further faster—ultimately.

There are two reasons to organize.

1. Better client service. If I’m the consumer today, I want to know that you are trustworthy—that you’re good for your word. If I can see that you have systems, I know that you will have a much better chance of keeping your word to me. I’m using the word “see”, because we believe what we see, not what we hear.

2. Time Management. The agent’s biggest challenge is to find a way to make the same amount of money and quit working 24/7. Creating systems will take a long way toward that goal.

Creating Systems is Key to Effective Client and Time Management

Take system inventory now. Here are the minimum systems you need:

For sellers:

Prospecting system

Visual marketing presentation

Pre-first visit presentation

Checklists: Process at listing/marketing process

After close/client retention

Your personal marketing system

For buyers:

Prospecting system

Visual buyer presentation

Pre-first visit presentation

Checklists: process during buying/before closing/after closing—client retention

Your personal marketing system

How to begin. Real estate professionals are doers. We talk our way through processes.  We dread organizing things, and frankly, we’re not good at it. So, how do we begin? First, find your organizational resources. Here are three:

1. Other agents who already have systems and who are willing to share
2. Great assistants who are good at organizing
3. Professionals who sell these packages

You’ll probably want a combination of all three. I know it’s wonderful to think that you can hire an assistant and expect that assistant to organize from the ground up. But, my experience is that you will have to be involved in the process, and you will have to buy ready-made systems to help that assistant get a clue about what you want.

Start with one at a time. Make a list and prioritize it for the systems you need first. Put a date to start, and a date for completion (I know, there’s that organization again!). You’ll find that the first is the hardest, and then, it starts to actually get easy! It’s a skill like anything else. Bottom line: Systematization allows you to actually run a business, not just run after buyers and sellers.

Need a checklist for systemization? The Business Planning System for the Real Estate Professional will help you schedule your systems–including your technology systems.

If you’re a newer agent, I understand how difficult it is to organize that blizzard of information. And, admittedly, you’ll have to keep changing your organization as you progress. Yet, until you meet the organizational challenge, you can’t really move forward.

There are two reasons to organize.  The first is that it provides much better customer service. If I’m the consumer today, I want to know that you are trustworthy—that you’re good for your word. If I can see that you have systems, I know that you will have a much better chance of keeping your word to me. I’m using the word “see”, because we believe what we see, not what we hear.

The second reason is that it provides you much better time management. The agent’s biggest challenge is to find a way to make the same amount of money and quit working 24/7. Creating systems will take a long way toward that goal.

Take system inventory now.

Here are the minimum systems you need:

For sellers:

• Lead generating system (should be run with contact management software)
• Automated process for following the lead from first contact through listing
• Visual marketing presentation and a system for having them pre-done and always ready to go
• Pre-first visit presentation and a system to have them packaged, ready to use
• System for following the listing from first listed to after closing (can be automated with use of a contact management program)
• After close/client retention system (can be automated)
• Your personal marketing system—a marketing plan that can be automated and delegated to someone

For buyers:

• Lead generating system—driven by contact management
• System to follow the buyer from first contact to sale (can be automated)
• Visual buyer presentation—packaged and ready to use
• Pre-first visit presentation—packaged and ready to use
• Checklists: process during buying/before closing/after closing—client retention
• Your personal marketing system

How to begin. Real estate professionals are doers. We talk our way through processes.  We dread organizing things, and frankly, we’re not good at it. So, how do we begin?

Start with one system or process at a time. Make a list and prioritize it for the systems you need first. Put a date to start, and a date for completion (I know, there’s that organization again!). You’ll find that the first is the hardest, and then, it starts to actually get easy! It’s a skill like anything else. Bottom line: Systematization allows you to actually run a business, not just run after buyers and sellers.

Note: If you want to make it easy on yourself, get The Complete Buyer’s Agent Toolkit and Your Client-Based Marketing System, the complete buyer and seller systems, with dozens of checklists, processes, and presentations already created for you.

Webinar on Motivating Yourself/Others

Motivational and inspirational webinar coming up for you: On March 17, at 2 P. M. EST, I’ll be doing a webinar for the NAR Learning Library, titled Light ‘Em on Fire: Newest Truths about Motivation. Click here for more information. Join me!