Secrets To Managing Your Realtor© Mindset

Secrets Managing Realtor MindsetDo you want to know the secrets to managing your Realtor© mindset?

“We all need a daily checkup from the neck up to avoid stinkin’ thinkin’ which ultimately leads to hardening of the attitudes.”Zig Ziglar

The “power of positive thinking” is a popular concept, and sometimes it can feel a little cliché. But the physical and mental benefits of positive thinking both personally and in your real estate business have been demonstrated by multiple scientific studies. Positive thinking can give you more confidence, improve your mood, and even reduce the likelihood of developing conditions such as hypertension, depression, and other stress-related disorders. All this sounds great, but what does the “power of positive thinking” really mean? You can define positive thinking as positive imagery, positive self-talk or general optimism, but these are all still general, ambiguous concepts. If you want to be effective in thinking and being more positive, you’ll need concrete examples to help you through the process.

Clever Tricks to Trigger Positive Emotions

1.) Start the day with positive affirmations. How you start the morning sets the tone for the rest of the day. Have you ever woken up late, panicked, and then felt like nothing good happened the rest of the day? This is likely because you started out the day with a negative emotion and a pessimistic view that carried into every other event you experienced. Instead of letting this dominate you, start your day with positive affirmations. Talk to yourself in the mirror, even if you feel silly, with statements like, “Today will be a good day” or “I’m going to be awesome today.” You’ll be amazed how much your day improves. Tell yourself these positive things every day.

2.) Focus on the good things, however small. Almost invariably, you’re going to encounter obstacles throughout the day—there’s no such thing as a perfect day. When you encounter such a challenge, focus on the benefits, no matter how slight or unimportant they seem. For example, if you get stuck in traffic, think about how you now have time to listen to the rest of your favorite podcast. If the store is out of the food you want to prepare, think about the thrill of trying something new. Find your silver lining.

3.) Find humor in bad situations. Allow yourself to experience humor in even the darkest or most trying situations. Remind yourself this situation will probably make for a good story later and try to crack a joke about it. Say you’re laid off; imagine the most absurd way you could spend your last day, or the most ridiculous job you could pursue next—like kangaroo handler or bubblegum sculptor.

4.)  Turn failures into lessons. You aren’t perfect. You’re going to make mistakes and experience failure in multiple contexts, at multiple jobs and with multiple people. Instead of focusing on how you failed, think about what you’re going to do next time—turn your failure into a lesson. Conceptualize this in concrete rules. For example, you could produce three new rules for managing projects as a result. You’re going to fail. Learn to use it to your advantage.

5.) Transform negative self-talk into positive self-talk. Negative self-talk can creep up easily and is often hard to notice. You might think I’m so bad at this or I shouldn’t have tried that. But these thoughts turn into internalized feelings and might cement your conceptions of yourself. When you catch yourself doing this, stop and replace those negative messages with positive ones. For example, “I’m so bad at this becomes”, “Once I get more practice, I’ll be way better at this”. “I shouldn’t have tried” becomes “That didn’t work out as planned—maybe next time”. Silence the negative voice in your head.

6.) Focus on the present. I’m talking about the present—not today, not this hour, only this exact moment. You might be getting chewed out by your boss, but what in this exact moment is happening that’s so bad? Forget the comment he made five minutes ago. Forget what he might say five minutes from now. Focus on this one, individual moment. In most situations, you’ll find it’s not as bad as you imagine it to be. Most sources of negativity stem from a memory of a recent event or the exaggerated imagination of a potential future event. Stay in the present moment. Be right where you are. Live in the moment.

7.) Find positive friends, mentors, and co-workers. When you surround yourself with positive people, you’ll hear positive outlooks, positive stories, and positive affirmations. Their positive words will sink in and affect your own line of thinking, which then affects your words and similarly contributes to the group. Finding positive people to fill up your life can be difficult, but you need to eliminate the negativity in your life before it consumes you. Do what you can to improve the positivity of others, and let their positivity affect you the same way. Surround yourself with 5 amazing people. Almost anybody in any situation can apply these lessons to their own lives and increase their positive attitude.

As you might imagine, positive thinking offers compounding returns, so the more often you practice it, the greater benefits you’ll realize.

Strength and courage,
Wade

Financial Freedom Strategies For Realtors© 2022

financial freedom strategies realtors 2022One of the greatest benefits of becoming a real estate agent is financial freedom and an unlimited income opportunity. However, the downside to this freedom is that it leads to undisciplined spending. The early years of my career I read and studied all I could about financial management and wealth building and this week I want to share the top ten financial independence tips that helped me personally and know will help you about saving for retirement, how to start accumulating your wealth, and how to have the right mindset when it comes to your finances.

1. Pay Yourself First – First on our list of financial independence tips is to pay yourself first. But this doesn’t mean buying material items. Instead, it means putting your money into a savings plan. You need to think of saving as paying yourself. Most people tend to spend their money every month, and then they don’t have anything left over to save. You have to watch the flow of your money. Otherwise, you’re going to lose it. Start saving now, and save as much as possible. Start out by putting 10% of your income into a long-term savings plan. Every bit you save goes towards paying yourself in the future.

2. Continually Seek to Increase Your Savings Rate. – Even as a real estate agent you should calculate your dollar-per-hour wage. Take how much you earned last year or plan to earn this year, and divide it by 2000 (the average amount of hours one works in a given year). If you’re currently saving 10% of that amount, try to get it up to 20%. You can increase your savings rate in two ways. You can either earn more money, or spend less. Your ultimate goal should be to try to save 50% of your income. As a realtor, this is challenging because you’re not on a fixed income. As a result, you will have to be more disciplined with your income and how much you spend. One of my goals every year is to increase my dollar-per-hour wage. You can do this by either earning the same amount and working more hours, or earning more with the same amount of hours. Figure out which method is best for you so that you can eventually get to a point where you can save half your income.

3. No Debt For Liabilities – One of the most common financial independence tips you might hear is to be careful with your debt. There is an argument for taking out debt for an asset. However, it’s not the same when it comes to liabilities. For example, going into debt to purchase a car for real estate agents. When you do this, you’re stealing money from your future self and will pay the price in the long term. If you’re in the habit of taking out debt and never saving, that’s ultimately costing you your wealth. If you currently have debt for liabilities, get on a system, like You Need a Budget (YNAB), to try and eliminate that debt as quickly as possible. Check out my other post on how to eliminate debt. Three small bags with dollar signs sit inside of a wooden outline of a house.

4. Invest in Education. – This can be specific education related to your job, or just general financial or business education. Investing in your education is important because we get paid for what we contribute through our knowledge. Think of it as investing in yourself. Utilize resources such as classes, conferences, training courses, videos, and books that can help you build on your current skills. Check out this post on the 25 best real estate agent books to help you get started.

5. Take Ownership of Everything. – The sooner you take ownership of everything, the sooner you can get on track to improving your time management and growing your wealth. For example, if something negative happens to you, take on the responsibility to figure out the solution. Try and see how you can be a part of that solution, rather than waiting on somebody else to find it for you.

6. Actively Seek Out Problems to Solve. – You need to have the mindset to actively seek out problems rather than avoid them. You should solve your own challenges first before you move on to helping other people. Solving other peoples’ problems will make you more valuable, help you contribute more, and get wealth to come your way. When you start to solve people’s problems, you stop being a dollar-per-hour employee and instead begin moving up the ladder to eventually run your own business.

7. Leverage Resources. – At a certain point, it becomes hard to progress your business when you’re the only one running the show. This is why you should leverage other people to help you. For example, you could hire a virtual assistant and transaction manager. Additionally, you can find other ways to diversify your income streams. Building my online content business is yet another way I can diversify my income and solve problems for other people. In addition, you need to leverage your money. This can mean putting your money into a wealth account or purchasing rental real estate. Think of every dollar as an employee that can work for you to earn more money.

8. Stop The Dollar Per Hour Mindset. – If you want to advance your career, you need to stop thinking of yourself as a dollar-per-hour employee. When you have a dollar-per-hour income, you’re at a ceiling because there’s a maximum amount that somebody’s willing to pay you. But when you tie your value to helping other people, that ceiling becomes endless. For this reason, you have to start thinking about how you can help other people, even if it’s just a side hustle that you do in addition to your primary job. Build something that you can scale up over time and that can start to accumulate wealth. Build something that provides value for other people. A person dropping a quarter into a jar of money labeled “Retirement.”

9. Have a Clear Plan For Your Financial Future. – To come up with a plan for your financial future, you should ask yourself: What is your net worth today? What do you want your net worth to be five years from now? Ten years from now? Do you have spreadsheets that you track your goals on? Know what you want your wealth to be in the future, and then you can start to figure out what you need to do to get there. Even if you don’t have any wealth and just want to get out of debt, what is your one-year plan to do that? Three-year plan? Once you have a concrete plan for yourself, it becomes easier. There’s a saying that goes, “If you don’t have a vision for yourself, you’ll become part of somebody else’s vision.”

10. Take Calculated Risks. – Calculated risk means taking safe risks that you believe have a high probability of paying off. For example, every year I allocate 10% of my annual budget for “R&D” (Research and Development). If you think about it, almost every company has this built into their budget. So why should it be any different for real estate agents? This could mean investing in a new type of lead generation, or a new side hustle entirely. But the 10% doesn’t have to be purely financial, it could also include your time. It’s better to take calculated risks and learn all the necessary skills to be an entrepreneur. That way, no matter what happens in your financial future you’ll be prepared.

Final Thoughts on Financial Independence Tips for Real Estate Agents. Following these ten financial independence tips will help you have the proper mindset to properly manage your finances and save for retirement. Increasing your wealth takes time. But if you stay disciplined and stick to these tips, you’ll have a bright financial future ahead of you. What are you currently doing to diversify your income? What investments are you putting your savings in? I’d love to hear from you! Now, be well and go sell some homes!

Strength and courage,
Wade

Taking Control Of Our Thoughts

realtor taking control thoughtsThe human mind cannot tell the difference between what is real and what is not real. Think about the fact that Fear starts within your own mind, which means that your mind can help you overcome them if you give it a chance. If you want to move beyond your fear, you have to learn to discipline your mind. Whether in your personal life or in your real estate business your mind can be your biggest enemy or your biggest asset—it’s truly up to you. If you want your mind to be your friend, you’ll have to take control of the way you think. Many people aren’t intentional with their thinking; they allow whatever thoughts bubble up into their minds to have priority, as if they have no control over what they think about. I fully believe that your mind is something you must protect and take charge of; in the Bible, the apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Philippian church that we must take control over what we think.

 

Paul put it this way: “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy— think about such things” (Phil. 4:8).

 

Notice what Paul says we should think about: things that are good, noble, right, pure, lovely— it’s essentially the original call to the power of positive thinking! The content we think about has the power to transform our minds, something that Paul wrote about in his letter to the Romans when he said, “be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Rom. 12:2). If you’re tired of thinking negative, self- defeating thoughts that are darkened by fear, then you have to turn your thoughts to good, noble, and right things in order to renew your mind. It’s a challenge, because for some people, the power of positive thinking is really just the power of denial of negative thoughts. But denial doesn’t help you grow; denial doesn’t renew your mind. Only turning your thoughts to things that are good and healthy can do that.

 

Learning to renew your mind this way is crucial because, in my experience, there are plenty of people who will go out of their way to challenge your thinking and make you doubt. This has happened to me before some of my walks. People always focus on the potential negative outcomes, the possibilities of my failing and falling. I understand why they ask—they simply cannot imagine doing what I do because they cannot imagine overcoming what I’ve overcome. Their minds go only to the dark and negative places, and that’s where they expect me to go when they ask questions. But negativity is a vacuum—it will suck you in and hold you there, a trap that will disengage you from your visions and goals. That’s why I always encourage people to remove anyone and anything negative from their lives. You can’t live in the negative realm and overcome your fears, which means you can’t be around people who live there. Negative people will always want you to be negative.

 

Disciplining your mind will require sacrifices, but it will give you freedom. Start by writing down your thoughts so you can examine them. Take an hour and write down everything that comes into your head, without filtering it. Then, after the hour is up, take a look at what you’ve written down. Is it mostly positive or mostly negative? Full of doubt or full of faith? Look at the pattern because you’ll either need to break it or encourage it, depending on whether or not it’s building you up toward what’s good.

 

When you discipline your thoughts and where you allow them to go, you begin to move in the direction of your dreams. This discipline is crucial because it is the foundation for your future, and when you have a firm foundation, even if you fall, you get back up that much quicker. Build a firm foundation by surrounding yourself with positive people and positive things. Fill your mind with positive music and messages, positive words and images. Avoid putting destructive or hurtful junk into your brain, because what you put in you’ll inevitably get out.

Strength and courage,
Wade

The Right Mindset In Real Estate

Willing to Change Your Mind about Your Real Estate Business?

real estate mindsetEveryone has a story, reason or an excuse why they can’t do what we are supposed to do every day in real estate, including me!

Albert Schweitzer was quoted “Conformity, we all just do what all the others do to fit in.”

Did we get into real estate to be like everyone else?

Is it time to stop conforming and start separating ourselves from the herd?

In order to stop the conformity we must take control of what goes on in our heads. The right real estate mindset is nothing more than looking at what “thought” we hope to have at any given moment regarding ourselves, our business or what we are doing.

I remember getting in a small fender bender, call it a bump on the back of the car and the other person going on about how bad the accident was and making up this big story and acting like the whole thing was true.

It is our job to develop the mental strength to not allow us to react this way and to be honest with ourselves and others and develop a stronger mindset.

A large portion of the world operates in a state of negativity and negative thinking. Negative thinking is so powerful and so prevalent with media and our societies that idle minds default to negative thinking automatically.

Every day in real estate we have options that we are faced with…

  • To work or not work?
  • To follow schedules or to not follow schedules?
  • To prospect or not to prospect? To follow up or not to follow up?
  • To decide to succeed to allow ourselves to fail?

Ego, our little voice that reminds us every day of what we know, reminds us of our past experiences and protects us from being comfortable and just accepting every day and causes us to judge every day.

It is up to us to kill it off and to DECIDE it is going to end and squash our ego and that little voice. We all have those daily ups and downs and need to develop an intense desire to achieve our goals and keep a sound mindset in business and life.

We all have hundreds of distractions (CCATs meaning Creative, Call, Avoidance, Techniques) each day that can hurt our mindset and cost us time, money and the drama we create.

Develop a Stronger Mindset as a Realtor

Here is one simple powerful tip to maintain a stronger mindset. Take four fifteen minute breaks a day and reset, walk away and listen, read, or call someone that inspires and recharges and refuels your soul.

Our thoughts will lead to our beliefs and our beliefs will lead to our actions and our actions will lead to our results.

Too many people spend all their time focusing on what they don’t like or cannot do and keep themselves unproductive day in and day out. Start being open to the possibility and be a “yes” person to anything and everything.

You make decisions to work outside the boundaries of other traditional agents and start making nontraditional income which takes us all doing nontraditional activities that other agents do not do well or do not do period!

Develop a strong mindset that we are in a business of rejection and that we are only one more “No” closer to a “Yes” and this is just part of our typical day

What Would You Do for $360,000 a Year in Your Real Estate Business?

Consider this scenario for a second…

  • 6000 clients calls a year…
  • Call 25 a day
  • Call 240 days a year
  • List 70 homes
  • Sell 60 of them for $6000 each
  • Totals $360,000 commission
  • 5930 rejections in the year

Would you call 25 people a day for 2 to 3 hours a day for $360,000 a year?

The important question is… “why are we all not doing this”?

We become what we think of most and what the mind can conceive and believe we can achieve. Ask yourself these 4 important questions today.

1) What changes do I have to make to increase my production?

2) Am I willing to do something right now to increase my production?

3) When am I going to start?

4) What am I holding onto and need to let go to get to another level?

I trust this will help us all develop a stronger mindset in real estate and to make a change today in our personal and professional lives.

Strength and Courage,

Wade

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