Secrets To Managing Your Realtor© Mindset

Wade Webb on November 23, 2022

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

The Top Things The Pros Have In Real Estate

Wade Webb on September 15, 2021

top things pros have in real estate Let me ask you a question. “Are you all in for real estate? Or are you just dabbling in real estate, hoping for what you’ve heard is quick, easy money?” Both of these types of agents exist in our industry. But only one has longevity… the real “professionals” will always outlast the “hobbyists.” Which begs the question: What does it take to become a true “professional” in real estate? What are the top traits of a true pro in the business. See how many of them you live up to?

Trait No. 1. They set goals, write plans, and execute on their plans. Implementation and execution. This one’s simple enough. Obviously to achieve big things requires goal setting and a business plan for how you’ll achieve those goals. Then it takes the discipline to actually execute your plan instead of getting distracted and pulled in a million different directions.

Trait No. 2. They have a strong work ethic, a “whatever it takes” spirit. Remember what I’ve been saying and what we see from our coaching members’ experiences: 10% of success is knowing what to do and how to do it. The other 90% is actually doing the work. If you’re not willing to work, if you tire easily, if you’re not fully committed… you’re not going to rise to the level of a true real estate “professional.”

Trait No. 3. They use technology to improve efficiency (speed) and provide a better experience for their clients (convenience) Being “pretty good” isn’t good enough. You need to be providing the type of service that wows your clients and gets them talking about you. That’s what professionals do. And they do the same thing when it comes to making things easier on themselves – by investing in technology to improve efficiencies in their business. Is your tech really moving the needle for you, your team, and your clients? Constantly delivering the unexpected.

Trait No. 4. They are good listeners & approach each customer with empathy, understanding, and respect. Put yourself in the consumer’s shoes. Make an effort to understand what makes them unique. Meet not only their housing desires but their emotional needs. Stop talking and listen.

Trait No. 5. They are knowledgeable about the process and know how to guide clients successfully through real estate transactions. Most agents probably say this one is a no-brainer. But what about when variables get introduced… how broad is your scope to successfully guide people through a transaction when there are “outside the box” factors involved? My point here is that you should never become content that you know it all, because there’s always a new twist to encounter coming around the bend. Keep learning, keep growing, keep improving how you do things. Always.

Trait No. 6. Professional realtors set realistic expectations for themselves and their clients – they don’t promise what’s not possible or reasonable. Professionalism is all about taking a long-term perspective. Hobbyists and hacks set themselves up for failure – or at best, short-term success – by overpromising and under-delivering. A recent 1000watt consumer survey found that “Open, honest communication” is the number one thing people are looking for to gain trust in their real estate agent.

Professionals provide honest, straightforward advice to prepare people for the realities of what they’re likely to face… and then they build long-term relationships with those clients in the process.

Trait No. 7. They delegate, when possible, to focus on their highest and best uses of time. You’ve heard me talk about your HABU – highest and best use of your time. But have you taken it to heart? Have you delegated tasks that someone could be doing for $20/hour to allow you to conduct more “dollar-productive” business? Have you explored hiring a Virtual Assistant to take the heavy workload off your desk? Have you systematized your business to free you up to focus on what matters most?

Trait No. 8. They market themselves and their homes for sale in a modern way. Using the best tools and mediums (MLS, video, direct mail, online ads) to generate the most exposure and hyperlocal response. It’s difficult to be a professional if you’re spending most of your time chasing new business. That’s why having effective marketing attraction systems is so important. When your marketing is automatically delivering a steady stream of new and returning clients, you can focus on providing the exceptional experience that keeps them coming back and referring you to their friends. If your marketing plan isn’t performing, I invite you to speak with one of our expert business consultants to help overcome the challenges you’re facing.

Trait No. 9. They’ve properly positioned themselves online, Google My Business, the portals, to all relevant social sites. Have you maximized your Google My Business page? If not, download this today. Are you engaging with people on social to grow your accounts? Are you posting consistently? Do you have a social media posting schedule or do you just “wing it”? Professionals have this stuff handled. Do you?

Trait No. 10. They respond to inquiries quickly, recognizing consumers expectations are “now”. Today’s consumer expects an Amazon-like experience. Push a button. Easy peasy. Results delivered overnight. Is it a fair expectation with something as complex as real estate? Doesn’t matter. That’s what they want, and it’s your role to respond immediately. And “I’m too busy for that” isn’t a valid response. Figure it out, or one of your competitors will figure it out and put you right out of business.

Trait No. 11. They know their local market, neighborhoods, schools, home price trends and all reliable home service providers. If you’ve been paying attention, I’ve been saying that agents should make studying the MLS part of their morning routine every single day. There’s no better way to make sure you’re dialed in when it comes to what’s selling, what’s not, how long properties are on the market, etc. Beyond that, I urge you to involve yourself in the community you serve and give back in a variety of ways – whether that means donating time and/or money to local causes or making videos informing people of local happenings and market conditions. Make yourself the “knowledge broker” in your market and share your expertise with the community.

Trait No. 12. They have a growth mindset, to maintain relevancy and confidence in their business. Because that’s what professionals do. Professionals aren’t content with the status quo. They don’t settle for “good enough.” Instead, they maintain a steadfast commitment to moving forward, growing their business and expanding their empire. And it’s not just talk or swagger – they back it up with action! So… how many of these 12 can you say you demonstrate on a consistent basis? What do you need to work on as a result?

Strength and courage,
Wade

The 2021 Final Quarter Push for Realtors©

Wade Webb on September 1, 2021

2021 final quarter realtorsI don’t know about you but the first part of the year and my summer seemed to just fly by and I cannot believe it is September 2021 already. We are beginning the last quarter of the year and there are only two outcomes for us Realtors©. Will you finish in the red, or finish in the black? Will you finish strong or will you miss your targets and goals? Winning near the end of a game, final quarter or the year is a trait of all the best sales people I’ve ever met. Closing out strong is primarily the effect of a consistent quarter, there are still a handful of things you can do to strike off checkboxes in the win column to finish 2021 strong.

1. Be Active – There’s no substitute for being pleasantly persistent and respectfully blunt. Get out there and be straightforward. Taking action and getting after it is a choice and work on the high quality leads and not the low quality leads. Ask yourself “If you were me, would you forecast this listing or buyer prospect to buy or sell this month or in the next 90 days?” Remember, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Being direct will help you get real with your buying and selling customers and align yourself with the true sales cycle. It might also enable you to pull out a quick win.

2. Be Relational – For more than two decades now I have heard from thousands of top producing agents and almost 60% of their business comes from repeat and referral business. Focusing first on the people we already know, like and trust is working effectively and efficiently in this business. If you don’t have enough people that know, like and trust you then get out there and “S.T.P. – See The People” If you have a list of relationships in place that have not “felt the love” then get out there and see them and find ways to add value to them. Give them a call, email, text, handwritten note, small gift or even a coffee and just watch and see what happens with your last quarter.

3. Be Face to Face – Sales is a contact sport and we need to be belly to belly. Anyone of us making a large buying decision needs to know the person we deal with is someone we like and can trust. The only way we can sense if we like or trust someone is meeting them in person. Commit to the final quarter on sales activities that are primarily face to face and belly to belly activities like Open house, door to door, kiosk, networking, office duty, coffee, lunch, pop by, volunteer, client appreciation event or convention. This is a relationships business so get out there to create and deepen those relationships.

4. Stack-Rank Your Leads – We will never be able to manufacture more time, but we can manufacture more focus. I recommend looking at your pipeline and grading each opportunity on a scale of 1-4 with 4 being “highly closeable by the end of the quarter.” Then, focus your closing efforts on the 3’s and 4’s ONLY. You don’t have time to waste. If you don’t have enough 3 and 4 prospects in the funnel then take action and increase your marketing plan and daily prospecting, lead generation with planned marketing, activities that bring the level 3 and 4 prospects into your pipeline to finish 2021 strong.

5. Purge Your People – Almost every sales pro has them. They’re those big opportunities in the pipeline you’ve been working for months. The one deal that constantly disrupts your focus or the need to take action. The buyer or seller who is the time and energy vampire but you let them suck the life out of you because you don’t have anyone else to work with. Every time you think about punting them, you get a glimmer of hope from them. It’s time……Remove them!! They don’t deserve to be on your radar right now. Coming clean with yourself will open new vistas and invigorate you to add more productive opportunities to your pipeline.

6. Start Planning for 2022 – How much revenue do you plan to book in Q1 2022? Exactly how many new deals do you need to earn that amount? Knowing exactly what you plan to earn acts like a magnet to attract business your way. Having this exact number also allows you to project your required activities into month one of the new quarter. If you’re accurately measuring your deal metrics, you’ll be able to predict with some certainty how many calls, emails, appointments, presentations or opportunities you’ll need to make it rain. Ask for a review by management. Knowing your numbers is one thing, but to positively affect the business, it’s equally vital to understand your “why”, purpose and goals and have someone hold you accountable to them.

 

Bonus Tips: What NOT to Do in the last Quarter Of 2021

 

1. Don’t Work With Any Clients Just to Make your Numbers – Any client outside of your ideal customer profile will complicate servicing, produce a higher likelihood of churn or failure, and ultimately cost you more time and resources than it will be worth. Instead, focus on filling the pipeline with high quality leads for next quarter. It’s never too early to start filling the funnel.

2. Never Give Away More Than You Should – It’s just not worth it. You only have one reputation for your brand and offering, treat it respectfully. Concessions can quickly become a crutch that hides other issues. Sell on value, not on price. Don’t cut your commissions, offer cash backs or any other silly incentives just to get something before the year is done.

The key to closing out your quarter strong is to keep up the momentum that got you to where you are now. If you’re struggling to meet your numbers, it’s a time to embrace new sales insights and start building effective rhythm. Take the last minute shots on goal listed above, but remember to always be thinking about the bigger picture: Your reputation is the product of your past actions. Sales that allow you to produce predictable revenue are the future. Finish the last quarter and your year strong. I dare you!!

 

Strength and courage,
Wade

Taking Control Of Our Thoughts

Wade Webb on May 19, 2021

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

Tips to Achieve a Positive Mindset for Realtors©

Wade Webb on June 27, 2018

realtor positive 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 come up with 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