Reality Check

  • Reality Check

    When Things Go Wrong in Real Estate Transactions

    EPISODE 65

    When Things Go Wrong in Real Estate Transactions

    It’s not a matter of if, it’s only a matter of when something is going to go wrong in one of your real estate transactions. If you’ve been through a complaint or lawsuit before, you’re already painfully aware of the horrible toll it can take on you.

    For the rest of you that have been fortunate enough to not experience this trauma yet, this episode is going to arm you with 8 strategies to do everything you can to prevent it from happening in the first place, but will also give you some tools for dealing with it if it does happen, despite your best efforts at prevention.

    Here’s what you’ll learn:

    • The 4 most common areas where problems occur and strategies to prevent them
    • Strategies to stay on top of everything you need to know, to keep yourself out of trouble
    • Tools to ensure you never forget an important task or miss an important detail
    • Best practices to live by when taking on transactions you’re not qualified to
    • Tips for how to fight back when you’re accused of doing something you didn’t do

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    Episode Transcript:

    It’s not a matter of if, it’s only a matter of when something is going to go wrong in one of your real estate deals. If you’ve been through a complaint or lawsuit before, you’re already painfully aware of the horrible toll it can take on you. For the rest of you that have been fortunate enough to not experience this trauma yet, this episode is going to arm you with strategies to do everything you can to prevent it from happening in the first place, but will also give you some tools for dealing with it if it does happen, despite your best efforts at prevention.

    Hello hello hello. Welcome back to the show. As always I like to send a big shout-out of appreciation and gratitude to those that have left me reviews on Apple podcasts, they help the show, so I am very grateful to every one of you for taking the time to write them. I am now thanking you personally in my monthly newsletter, so if you’re not subscribed to my email list you can opt-in through the link in the show notes. For those of you that listen on Spotify, thank you for your ratings too. I can now engage with listeners on that platform, so make sure you check out my episode question and let me know your thoughts!

    Alright last week I was having an eXp discovery call with an agent and she
    said something that made me laugh and was so on point.

    We were talking about how much you have to know as a real estate agent and that the licensing process does not prepare you enough for the real world. She was telling me that she had been in Nursing before getting into real estate and that if the training she’d received to become a nurse had been the same as it is to become a real estate agent, she would have accidentally killed a bunch of people by now. I thought that was hilarious (concerning obviously) but so very true. So this episode is going to be all about how to help you not kill people by accident when doing transactions in real estate and some things you can do to protect yourself if you accidentally do.

    Now I’m going to insert a very important disclaimer here so everyone pays attention.

    The information provided in this episode does not and is not intended to, constitute legal advice. All information is for general informational purposes only. Always seek a professional opinion from your legislative body, your errors & omission insurance provider, and your brokerage, and always get independent legal advice from a qualified lawyer.

    Alright with that out of the way, there is one cliched saying that I want you to say to yourself on repeat. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. So we are going to start this episode off by focusing on the things you can do to try and prevent things from going wrong in your real estate deals in the first place, but also prevent you from taking the fall for it if it wasn’t your fault. Then we’ll spend some time talking about what to do if, despite your best prevention efforts, something goes wrong anyway.

    To start, when something does go wrong, one of four things is going to
    happen:

    1. You’ll get an unhappy quiet client who will not use you again or refer you.
    2. You’ll get an unhappy loud client who will tell lots of people about their experience. If they leave a public review you’ll know about it, but they may also be speaking negatively about you to everyone they can without you knowing.
    3. Next, you can get an unhappy client that takes it a step further and files a complaint with your legislative body and lastly,
    4. there are the ones who take it even a step further and files a lawsuit. In my opinion, it’s the third scenario that can damage your business the most. Although getting a negative review, can feel very upsetting, as long as there is only one or at most two and they are offset by lots of positive reviews, most people will see beyond it and recognize that you can’t always keep everyone happy. Again this does depend on the details of the review. If you get multiple scathing reviews that will impact your business.

    But having a complaint filed against you and losing the investigation resulting in the discipline outcome being posted publicly online can be career-ending. Lawsuits on the other hand usually get settled out of court and the settlement usually includes a non-disclosure clause. I’m not suggesting that a lawsuit isn’t ever damaging to your career, of course, it can be. But it’s often not AS damaging as a complaint.

    If you’ve been through any of those situations before, you know how awful it is. It is like sick to your stomach, keeping you awake for nights on end, wanting to go crawl in a hole and die, causing a horrible cold sore outbreak, like just a terrible feeling and an awful experience to go through. If you haven’t gone through it yet, take my word for how bad it is and get serious about implementing what you learn in this episode.

    Alright so when things do go wrong, it always happens for one of two reasons:

    1. You did something wrong OR
    2. Someone perceives that you did something wrong and let me tell you that sucks even worse. It’s brutal when you didn’t do anything wrong and someone believes you did and then takes steps based on that, to damage your reputation.

    It’s a bit easier to prevent the first situation, where you did do something wrong and so we’re going to start with that one scenario first, but you’d be surprised how many things you can do to prevent the second scenario one as well because unfortunately there will always be situations where you did absolutely nothing wrong and you will still get blamed. In those situations and depending on the circumstances, you may need to put up your dukes and fight back, so we’re going to circle back on this and get into those situations later on in the episode.

    So to get started, how do you prevent doing something wrong in your real estate transactions? The answer might seem obvious, but it happens enough that it’s clearly a question that needs to be unpacked a bit.

    To do that, let’s look first at the most common causes for the more serious outcomes of complaints and lawsuits: These kinds of fall into the following 4 categories:

    1. Fiduciary Duties: failure to provide conscientious and competent service or breach of duty or negligence
    2. Disclosures – misrepresentation, errors and omissions, failure to disclose material defects
    3. Offer Handling: multiple representations, handling multiple offers
    4. Agreements: chattels and fixtures being a big cause of issues, and failure to include relevant clauses in the case of buyers or failure to strike problematic clauses in the case of sellers

    When it comes to Buyers, pretty much anything that costs them unexpected money after purchasing, will cause you problems.

    When it comes to Sellers, problems typically arise after the face when the buyer comes after them for something. It often becomes a pass-the-hot potato thing, where they may have been super happy with you until they’re suddenly not and you’re to blame.

    So what are some of the things that you can do and the steps that you can take, to prevent doing something wrong?

    1. Obviously know the rules and follow the rules. As a Realtor, it’s your job to know the laws and the code of ethics. Passing your real estate exams means nothing if you don’t retain what you learned. So memorize the rules to protect your clients and yourself. If you’re supposed to convey offers in a timely manner, convey offers in a timely manner. If you’re supposed to notify all interested parties that an offer has been registered, make every effort to notify agents. If you’re not supposed to imply that real estate commissions are fixed, don’t imply that and the list goes on and on and on. You’ve got to know the rules because ignorance will never be accepted as an excuse. Now I get it, trying to stay on top of all the rules and regulations, can be a challenge if you’re not intentional about it. So be intentional about it. Set aside a time block in your calendar every month when you’re new and every quarter once you’re more established to review the rules and any new updates. Subscribe to your legislative body’s newsletters and actually read them, opt-in to your local lawyer’s newsletters, and read their blogs. Research court cases and understand new precedents that have been set. Regularly writing your own blogs and creating associated videos can not only be used to educate your audience, but it can also help you learn and retain information better as well
    2. After knowing your shit, the next most important thing is remembering to do shit. There are a lot of tasks that need to be done in the course of buying and selling real estate and even if you’ve been doing this for years, you will likely drop the ball at some point if you don’t have a digital system in place for task management. If you’re new, do not even try to do a transaction without a digital checklist. Ideally, you need to create a template with a standard set of tasks that need to be completed every time you do a transaction. Once this template is created, it can be expanded on as new things come up, but you’re essentially just inserting it into your project management system every time you start a transaction and then you can include relevant details, due dates, assign tasks to different people, and track completion. When you’ve got the right systems in place, nothing should fall through the cracks. I talked all about this in my Systems series which was episodes x through x. I use the program Notion for this and have created all of the templates a realtor needs to manage everything in their business. You can purchase this notion template pack on my website and I’ll also include a link below this episode. For those of you that already use it, they have just released a new feature called Buttons that is a game changer when it comes to task templates. I will be releasing new training to show you how to use the new feature, so keep an eye out for that.
    3. One of the fastest ways to get yourself in trouble is by taking on transactions you’re not qualified to. That means if you’re not qualified to sell commercial property, either don’t sell commercial properties or get qualified. If you’re not qualified to sell new construction, don’t sell it or get qualified. If you choose not to follow this best practice, just know that doing so is always going to be a ticking time bomb waiting to explode and if you think getting advice throughout the transaction from your broker will protect you, it won’t. In situations where a complaint is filed against you with your legislative body, as soon as it’s discovered that you weren’t qualified to take on the transaction, there are no pointing fingers anywhere else. Yes, your brokerage will take some heat too, but it will be separate from the heat you’ll take. So get intentional about recognizing when you don’t know, what you don’t know. Don’t gamble with clients’ lives and your reputation, because you need the commission. If you are going to take on transactions that you’re not qualified to, at minimum hire a mentor to oversee everything. Don’t rely on your broker. Ask a realtor who specializes in this type of transaction to mentor you on it and then share the commissions. Learn and be prepared to pay for that learning. If you choose not to do this, be prepared to accept the consequences and don’t blame anyone but yourself if you ruin your career. Sound harsh? Yes, but I’m saying it to protect you.
    4. Alright, moving along always always always keep everything in writing. If you try and defend yourself and don’t have written proof, it will always become he said/she-said situation and I assure you that your legislative body will always take the consumer’s side. After all, they are a consumer protection agency and if there are any grey areas, they will find them in favor of the consumer….even if you didn’t actually do anything wrong. The burden of proof falls on you, so you have to keep records and those records need to be in writing. Now as you well know, real estate transactions often involve a lot of conversations whether in person or on the phone and that’s why you need to always follow those conversations up with a written email outlining exactly what was discussed and what the decisions were. And always ask for those emails to be acknowledged. Don’t leave any room for misinterpretation or what I like to call….re-creating history. My husband is the king of this practice. He is constantly re-creating history to match his narrative and I often threaten him that I’m going to start recording conversations to put an end to it. Often people don’t even do this maliciously, they genuinely believe their version of events or at least they convince themselves of it, because it’s so much easier to blame someone else than it is to take ownership of the mistakes we make…especially if they’re big ones.
    5. Up next under the umbrella of preventing problems applies to buyers. One common area where mistakes get made relates to clauses in your offers and forgetting to insert important ones. For that reason, rather than remembering to insert them, delete them instead. Create an offer template and include all of the standard clauses that should be included in EVERY offer, including any conditions (like financing and inspections) even if you plan to strike them out. If a buyer wants to go in with an unconditional offer, don’t exclude the conditions from the offer. Include them, strike them out, and get your client to initiate the change. If you don’t include them, you’re potentially leaving yourself open to a serious complaint, unless you have it in writing that the buyer wanted the conditions excluded from the offer. Even in that case, it leaves you exposed. Once you’ve got all of the standard clauses in your template, then add the ones that may not be relevant with every offer, but occasionally are needed. Then when you are drafting your offers, you’re deleting clauses you don’t need rather than having to remember to add them. Now for this strategy to be effective, you’ve got to be really thorough when you’re creating your template to make sure you haven’t missed any important clauses. On the flip side, when representing a seller, be so careful about thoroughly reading and explaining each clause so that the seller clearly understands what they are agreeing to and what the implications or complications could be. This is particularly true with representations and warranties.
    6. Outside of offer templates, there are other types of templates you can and should create to prevent problems. At my brokerage, I always provided an exhaustive list of questions to ask the listing agent when representing a buyer. Granted, listing agents can sometimes get annoyed by a long list of questions, but sorry not sorry. As an agent representing a buyer, it’s our job to ask all of the questions that would fall under the caveat emptor principle. The listing agent is not required to disclose absolutely everything that may be important to a buyer. They are only required to disclose material known (or ought to have known) latent defects. So if something is important to a buyer, it needs to be explicitly asked in writing. By the same token, as the buyer’s agent, it’s up to you to ask your buyers what’s important to them, especially related to things like stigmas such as a past death in the home. Long story long, ask your buyers and ask the listing agent everything that would materially affect your buyer’s enjoyment of the home or decision to purchase or the amount they offer.
    7. When it comes to preventing other problems with Sellers, I’ve talked about this one in past episodes, but creating a very thorough Schedule B that is drafted by the Listing Agent and included with the listing to be added to the Purchase Agreement can be effective. Often your brokerage will provide a standard Schedule B, but that doesn’t mean you can’t add your own clauses to further protect yourself and your seller. Now I’m not sure if Schedule Bs exist outside of Ontario, but for those of you in Ontario, it is an added step you can take to prevent problems. Of the same token, if you are representing a buyer, make sure you read Schedule B very thoroughly and know what your client is signing! Agents can get lazy and just assume it’s a standard brokerage schedule with nothing important included and that is not always true.

    Alright, what about the situations where you did everything you could and still get blamed for something that someone perceives you did or didn’t do? Of the two times I had complaints filed against me, both were situations where I was the listing agent, and buyers who were not my clients and didn’t know me believed that I did something unethical in the handling of offers. Now in one of these cases, that buyer’s agent was actually the one that did something wrong and in order to get themselves out of trouble, they threw me under the bus and told their clients that I was to blame. Little did they know that their clients would file a complaint and in the investigation that it would come out that they were the ones who in fact had dropped the ball. Not a good look. So the moral of the story is to never blame the other agent in a transaction for something unless they are 100% to blame and you better be prepared to back it up with proof.

    These are the types of situations where you need to put up your dukes and fight back, as are the situations where your own client is re-creating history when they’ve either got buyer’s remorse or it’s a seller and the buyer is coming after them for something.

    For those situations you need records. We’ve already talked about putting everything in writing, but you can take things a step further and make it easy for you to access everything you need. Trust me when the situations come up a year later, it can be hard to remember everything that happened, let alone whether you’ve got proof or you don’t know what you’re looking for. So for every client create smart folders in your email system that automatically stores every email exchange with that client in a folder for easy access. Then make sure you back up those emails outside the server so that they don’t get deleted by accident. Be particularly careful with text messages. Remember that if you change phones you often lose them, so take screenshots of all important exchanges and save them to a folder stored in the cloud and not on your desktop.

    Another system that you can implement that will help you keep records and out of trouble, is to create Intake Forms for buyers and sellers. Remember that it’s up to you to ask the right questions. You’ve got to extract important information, which means knowing what you need to ask and then remembering to ask, and then getting the responses in writing. We always created a set of standard intake forms for buyers and a separate one for sellers. I can’t tell you how many times the answers in those forms got us out of trouble.

    Not only do you need to extract information from clients, but there’s also a lot of information that you need to communicate to buyers and sellers in the course of doing real estate. It’s almost impossible to remember everything you need to tell each and every client and so the easiest way to do this is through drip campaigns. These are sequences of emails that include all of the important information a client needs to know and when they need to know it. When you’ve done this properly and thoroughly, a client can try to say that you never told them something, but when you’re able to show them the email that was sent and on what date, it’s pretty hard to argue. Especially if you’ve explained in your onboarding process how important it is for them to read and watch every piece of communication thoroughly.

    Now full disclosure, this process is a big project to set up but it is well worth the time and effort required. If you want help with your own onboarding & intake process, client forms, and educational drip campaigns, I will be teaching everything step by step in my new Serve program launching soon. You can join the waitlist by clicking the link in the show notes if you’re
    interested.

    So to recap everything we’ve talked about

    1. Know the rules and follow the rules.
    2. Remember to do everything you need to do, by creating systems that allow you to manage and track the completion of tasks.
    3. Don’t take on transactions you’re not qualified to do OR hire a mentor to oversee it
    4. Keep everything in writing.
    5. Create templates for clauses and questions to ask & verify each and every time
    6. Keep records of all interactions & communications where they can’t be deleted and where they’re easily accessed in one place
    7. Create standard intake forms so that you remember to ask the right questions and so that you have written proof of the answers
    8. Craft educational drip campaigns to ensure you’re communicating important information when it’s needed.

    If despite all of those precautions you still find yourself in hot water, take responsibility, learn from it, grow from it, and know that this too shall pass. If you’re accused of something you legitimately didn’t do, then it’s time to put up your dukes, fight back and feel liberation like you’ve never felt before when you show ’em what you got and you’re vindicated.

    The more you learn the more you’ll stay out of trouble, especially if you actually implement what you learned in this episode.

    Until next time.

  • Reality Check

    6 Mega Myths I’m Busting About Working in Real Estate

    EPISODE 61

    6 Mega Myths I’m Busting About Working in Real Estate

    If you’re thinking about getting into real estate, have plans underway already, or are still growing your business, in today’s episode I am going to be busting 6 mega myths about working in real estate, that need to be put to bed once and for all.

    I’ll be sharing my insights and perspectives on these controversial topics and busting some myths while I do:

    • Niches
    • Commissions
    • Working full-time vs. part-time
    • Working with listings vs. buyers
    • Lead generation
    • and whether you’re too young or too old to get started (hint…you’re neither!)

    Listen Now:

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    Episode Transcript:

    If you’re thinking about getting into real estate, have plans underway already, or are still growing your business, in today’s episode I am going to be busting 6 mega myths that pervade this industry and need to be put to bed once and for all.

    If you’re new here, welcome back to the Women Rocking Real Estate podcast. My name is Jen Percival and I’m the host of the show and happy to have you here. For the rest of you loyal listeners, welcome back.

    So this year I had all of my episodes planned out until September and yesterday I looked at the calendar and was like ‘what the heck’ how is it Sept 30th already? And I realized I didn’t have a plan for what October’s episode was going to be about and I hit this wall of like “I’ve talked about everything there is to talk about in real estate”….like the well is dry and I got nothing left.

    So I sent out an email to everyone in my database and asked you all – what you want me to talk about and low and behold you all came to the rescue and saved the podcast! Thank you to each and every one of you that responded to that email and shared your ideas with me. I so appreciate it and it fired me right back up again. Like OMG apparently, I so have NOT talked about everything there is to talk about, there were so many great topic ideas….and then the pendulum immediately swung in the opposite direction (like it usually does) and I immediately become overwhelmed with where to start? So many great ideas!

    What I realized as I was going through everyone’s responses, is that there are a lot of big myths circulating around about what you all should be spending your time doing and what is.

    Before we dive into the good stuff, I wanted to give a personal shout-out to a bunch of you that left lovely reviews for the show on apple podcasts, so thank you to Stacie, Jessie, khodson, Sara, Mykael, Wake124, MissisPuff, Holly, Phredgirlie, Sam, Blaize & Dawn. I so appreciate each and every one of you.

    Ok, can we skip to the good stuff? Yes, we can, here we go. Oh actually before we go, I feel like I need to give a disclaimer here. The views and opinions represented on this podcast are strictly my opinions and thoughts and do not represent those of other agents, brokers, brokerages, coaches, other experts – I’m using air quotes, etc. In fact, many of them will vehemently disagree with the opinions I’m about to share and in fairness, they may be right, but they’re just my thoughts and I believe them to be true based on my observations and my experience. Take what you want, and leave what you don’t.

    Ok looking at my list of myths here, I don’t know which one to even start with…actually, let’s get a big one out of the way first.

    Myth #1 – I need to niche down to be successful.

    Everyone else in the world says yes, I also say yes, but not in the same way everyone else says yes. How’s that confusing? Clear as mud?

    Let me explain. I’m sure you’ve heard it before that the riches are in the niches and if you’re trying to speak to everyone, you’re speaking to no one…and yada yada yada.

    Yes and no. What I have learned is that there’s a very important distinction when it comes to niching in real estate.

    Before getting into real estate I spent 13 years in marketing. I was in the corporate world and was trained by some of the best marketing minds in the country. So when I got into real estate, I applied everything I had learned and knew and back then, this business was not very sophisticated so it was NOT hard to be different and stand out. Well, it had always been drilled into my mind that you HAD to have a niche if you wanted to get noticed and stand out. So when creating our brand messaging I told my partner that we HAD to have a niche and because we were both moms and that was predominantly our sphere of influence, we decided to focus on families with young kids.

    So that part was great. We started creating a lot of content around real estate and families, we got really involved in the mom community, we became experts on everything about the community as it related to families, and were the go-to people when anyone had a question about anything related to the communities we worked in. And guess what, after about 6 months to a year, our business took off – with a lot of families with young kids.

    So that was all great. Where we went wrong, however, was creating a tagline of “We Find Homes For Families” and we put that tagline everywhere our logo was – our website, business cards, postcard mailers, ads, and marketing materials. It was out there everywhere and in the beginning, I attributed our growth of working with families to that niche because we’d been so clear in our marketing efforts. And then as our business grew, people started saying things to me like “Oh I was going to refer so and so, but they’re not a family so I know you don’t work with them” or “oh we would have called you to list our house, but I know you only work with buyers” and I was like what NOOOOO???

    So it happened enough, that we decided to take that tagline off our logo. We still did everything else – we still created content that catered to that niche, our website still had loads of resources for families on it, we still networked with lots of other families…..and guess what happened? Our business continued to grow with families, but it also started skyrocketing with all sorts of other niches – investors, couples going through divorces, downsizers, and pretty much any other niche you can think of.

    And this is where I learned the really subtle but important distinction about niching in real estate. You can have a niche without screaming from the rooftops that you have a niche and thereby turning away anyone that falls outside your niche.

    Do you see the distinction?

    You can speak to, resonate with, get noticed by, and attract a niche with your content and your marketing strategies, WITHOUT putting an obvious stake in the ground that that’s your niche and thereby unintentionally turning away business.

    So when you create generic content that doesn’t speak to anyone, it’s true that it won’t attract anyone. But you can be very strategic about how you do attract the right people, while also keeping your options open if you catch my drift. Nudge nudge wink wink. Anyways there is a very specific strategy to walk this line and it’s exactly what I teach in my Attract program as well as my Convert program.

    Alright moving along, the next big myth I want to bust is this….

    Myth #2 – I need to get listings to be a successful real estate agent.

    In real estate, there’s a saying List to Last and it essentially means if you don’t have listings, you won’t survive in this business, and in my opinion that is so completely not true. It’s hogwash.

    Now in fairness, the reason having listings does really help grow your business, is because they are great marketing opportunities. For-sale signs are probably the best marketing vehicle you can use, along with all of the other advertising opportunities a listing provides you, not to mention open houses, etc. But let’s be clear if you had a bunch of listings, but you did nothing to market them – no for-sale signs, no open houses, no postcards, no social media posts, no ads, etc. they would not be NEARLY as effective at helping you grow your business because the only people who would know you even had the listing, would be active buyers who look at the property.

    So instead of thinking that having listings in and of themselves is important, I want you to instead think of the marketing opportunities they provide as being important and then think about how you could replicate those opportunities, even if you don’t have any listings.

    So let’s touch on some of those things:

    • For sale signs. You know what signs are JUST as effective as an advertising tool? For lease or for rent signs. There ain’t no shame in the game of rentals. They are MUCH easier to acquire and they provide an amazing advertising opportunity. When someone drives by a For Lease sign on someone’s lawn they don’t think ‘oh that’s not a real listing’. They don’t even notice the lease part. They just see the sign and your name and your branding and think you’re a successful local realtor.
    • While we’re on the topic of rentals, they provide the exact same marketing and advertising opportunities. Yes you’re going to make less money, but have the foresight to know that a lot of renters become buyers, also they’re still people and can still refer you to other people. Working in the rental business can be a great lead generation strategy and if you’re in this business for the long term, you’re playing the long game. What you do today is helping you build your future business.
    • Let’s say you’re not able to do rentals where you work…..how else can you get signs on people’s properties? Get creative! How about creating Just Purchased Signs that your buyer agrees to have installed after they’ve taken possession? How you like them apples? I’m probably aging myself with that reference. If you’ve not seen Good Will Hunting with Matt Damon, it’s a classic, check it out. Anyways make sure you’re not breaking any rules when you get creative, but try to think outside the box when it comes to lawn signs. This has been really overdone here in Toronto, but on busy streets near schools real estate agents created Please Slow Down signs and asked homeowners if they could put them on the grassy section by the street. Great free advertising opportunity.
    • Getting back to the other marketing benefits of listings. Open houses are a big one – not just the marketing of them, but the hosting of them. The good news, you don’t have to be the listing agent to host an open house. So connect with other busy realtors in your community and ask to host their open houses. This is another thing loads of people will tell you not to waste your time doing, but in my early years I hosted every open house I could and they were a HUGE source of business for me. Almost to the point that I picked up a new client at every single one. How I did that is a topic for another episode, but it worked for me.
    • You also don’t have to be the listing agent to run ads for listings. With
      permission, of course, lots of agents will give you permission to advertise their listings. I always recommend you let them know that you’ll clearly identify that they are the listing agent and their brokerage in all of your marketing, but you should be looking for opportunities to advertise every listing you can find and put them on your website, social media and even run paid ads through Facebook, Instagram, and Google.
    • It will have the EXACT same benefit it would if they were your own listings.

    Alright before moving along to the next big myth I want to bust, I’ll leave you with this thought. The absolute best way to get lots of listings right now is to have had lots of buyers 5 years ago. Let that sink in. There are lots of benefits to working with buyers and building a strategy to find more of them. For starters, buyers are fun. It’s usually an exciting process. You often make more money because buyers don’t try to get you to cut your commissions as often as sellers will and they’re a little less difficult to please making them more likely to provide positive testimonials (if you get them quickly enough before they start blaming your for things going wrong in the property) and because they’re easier to please, they’re more likely to refer you. As long as you stay in touch and provide lots of value over the years, they will very likely turn into a listing at some point. So if you have a good buyer business today, you’re setting your future up for success in this business.

    Ok moving along….the next big myth I want to bust and this one will likely really make me unpopular is….

    Myth #3 – I should never cut commissions.

    Now before ya’ll jump all over me, I want you to hear me out. There is no other industry on this planet where people aren’t paid more money based on their years of experience and expertise. In most other industries, you have to work for free as an intern to learn the ropes. You have to spend years articling until you’re qualified outside of school and in the real world. When you hire a law firm to represent you, there are cheaper lawyers who have less experience and there are super duper expensive lawyers when you need to bring out the big guns. Go and get your hair cut, you’ve got junior stylists who are more affordable and senior stylists who are more experienced and they charge different amounts. There is nothing wrong with that, it is industry standard.

    But agents get up in arms when other agents charge less commission because they are threatened by it and feel like it undermines and undercuts them. If you’ve got 25 years of experience and have done 1000 transactions you need to clearly articulate the benefits of why that experience is so valuable, how it’s going to benefit the client and what will be prevented from happening as a result of that experience.

    Just like every other industry, there should be a sliding pay scale in real estate based on experience. Think about it, does it make any sense that a brand new agent who’s never sold a property in their life, makes the exact same amount as an agent that does 100 transactions a year and has been doing it for 10 years?

    The way we have structured this business undermines ALL OF OUR VALUE because the message it sends is that there is nothing different between any of us. All of us do the exact same job and anyone can do it even if they have zero experience…..and guess what message THAT sends? That this job doesn’t require any particular skills, knowledge, or experience, and all that tells buyers and sellers, is that they can do it themselves and that agents aren’t worth what we’re paid. We have undermined our own value by having standard commissions that aren’t based on skills or experience.

    Now if you are brand new to the business, I can guarantee your brokerage or team lead is not going to want you to cut commissions because they have a vested interest and make money off of everything you sell. This is where the ugliness of this business shows its colours. When people tell you to do things, that isn’t actually the right thing to do, they do it because they’re going to personally benefit from it. That’s wrong.

    So if you are new and want to cut your commissions to entice someone to take a chance on you, let them know all of the ways you’re going to mitigate any risks of using someone newer and cut your commissions proudly without feeling like you have to put your tail between your legs.

    Now if you’ve been doing this for years and have tons of experience, charge full commissions proudly, and don’t feel like you have to cut your commissions to compete. But do earn your worth.

    In the book the Go Giver (Go Givers Sell More is one of my all-time favourite books) the authors describe 5 laws of stratospheric success and one of the laws is the Law of Value which states “Your worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment.” When you can leave every client feeling like they got more in value than they paid, that is how your referral and word-of-mouth business will skyrocket. And sometimes that can be really difficult to do in real estate. When you’re making 30, 40, 50, or sometimes even more in commissions on one transaction, think about how much perceived value you’d have to provide to have your client think they got more value than what they paid?

    Now notice I said ‘perceived value’. People can perceive a lot of value in things that don’t cost you a penny. So providing value is not only about spending money. It’s not only about the services you provide. It’s about providing time, care, attention, and empathy. It’s about solving big problems and more importantly preventing them from happening in the first place. It’s about being really good at what you do and that requires a lot of self-improvement and a willingness to always be learning more and developing your skills beyond just paperwork and marketing and the legalities of real estate.

    One of my clients is a multi-multi millionaire. He is a super smart dude and insanely successful. He owns more businesses than I can count and under normal circumstances, someone like that would probably intimidate me. But even though he invests in businesses for a living, when it comes to buying personal real estate, he’s just like most other clients. He can get overwhelmed & frustrated in negotiations, he can let his emotions get the better of him and focus on little things that don’t really matter & then make decisions based on his emotions vs. what’s really important. He’s just a regular human being instead of a business superhero. So when it came to providing VALUE for him, I focused on what he really needed and that was someone who would help him navigate negotiating effectively, when his emotions were getting involved and getting the better of him and for him, that value was immeasurable. He’s done so many transactions with me over the years and trusts me implicitly. He tells me that he couldn’t buy real estate without me and I just find that so bizarre given how successful he is, but it just goes to show the value we can provide goes way beyond putting feature sheets together and hosting open houses.

    Alright the next myth I want to bust should be a quick one and it’s going to sound hypocritical when I tell you to want it is. I have heard this one 4 times in the last few days from different agents and I don’t know where it’s coming from, but….

    Myth #4 – I need to make 100 calls a week to my database to be successful.

    No, no. No, you don’t. In fact please don’t. There are a lot of brokerages and coaching programs out there that will drill this tactic into your head as the only thing that works to build a real estate business and it is so not true. So let’s break this strategy down, so I can show you why it’s not the best strategy to use.

    When you’re calling your database or sphere of influence, to see if they are thinking about buying or selling or know anyone who is, you are only reaching out for ONE reason and that is to get something from them. You are pursuing, you are hunting, and a lot of people actually describe it as stalking. I know this because when people I knew would call me, they’d always tell me they were calling me about real estate because I never called them about real estate. Everyone I spoke to for years relayed the same message over and over and over again, that they hated it. That they felt used, that it was disingenuous and that it was clear they only had a relationship with the person, because of real estate. People would tell me that they really liked the agent before they got into real estate, but after they became super offputting and they now avoided them like the plague.

    So do you want to be known as that? Do you want people talking about how annoying you are behind your back? No? Well then don’t call your friends and family and bring up real estate. In fact, the less you bring up real estate the more OTHER people will bring it up. It’s like a reverse psychology thing….people actually LOVE to talk about the market, they just don’t love you bringing it up. So stay quiet and watch what happens. The less you initiate conversations about it, the more they will.

    However, when they do bring it up, this is your opportunity to shine. Know what you’re talking about. Know the market, know pricing, provide value, and most important of all – don’t be biased. Don’t use it as an opportunity to see if they’re looking to buy or sell or tell them now is a good time to buy or sell. Even if it is! When you are starting out in this business, you need to focus on 4 things:

    • grow who you know
    • Build relationships with people – genuine relationships, not just so you can try and get business
    • Demonstrate your knowledge and authority
    • And Provide Value

    That’s it. Really your only goal is to build trust with people. So don’t sell, just serve.

    Now you do need to stay top of mind with people as well, but that should happen more organically and naturally, vs. Contacting them with the intention of trying to get business. Make plans with them for fun and to catch up, engage with their content regularly on social media, look for opportunities to provide value in their everyday life, and support them when and wherever you can. Connect them with other people that could be of value to them, and share helpful resources. Just be a normal human being like you always were, before getting into this business. Now if you didn’t make a habit of these things before getting into real estate and you suddenly start now, that is going to seem a bit weird, so just start being a little more intentional with doing these things gradually.

    Now when it comes to leads and past clients, you may not have a close relationship with them where you’re regularly seeing them in person. But that doesn’t mean you should be calling them all the time or either looking for a business. The same principle applies, serve don’t sell. In fact, a good rule to follow is to never reach out to them, unless you have a purpose of providing value.

    • sending a sales report
    • Sending a market update video
    • Sending an annual CMA on the anniversary of buying along with a video explaining the CMA
    • Dropping off a holiday gift
    • Sending flowers on their birthday
    • Inviting them to a client appreciation event
    • Sending them your monthly newsletter jam-packed with relevant and valuable content.

    Your Touchpoints should be regular, but they should always lead with value and giving vs. Getting. If you do this consistently, you won’t NEED to make 100 calls to your database every week and you won’t risk ruining the most important asset you have – your relationships.

    Alright moving along the next myth I want to bust is this.

    Myth #5 – You can only be successful in real estate if you’re full-time.

    Once again I’m sure there are lots of agents that are cringing when I say that, but I need you to hear me out.

    Full-time agents are almost always going to be more knowledgeable and experienced than part-time agents. Knowledge and experience both lead to being a better agent. Those are facts, However, I don’t believe that you have to START full-time to be successful eventually. In fact, for some people, in some circumstances, I actually think you’ll do better if you start part-time and have some financial stability outside of the real estate, while you’re building your business.

    The key point differentiating point here is that you INTEND to build your real estate business and do it full-time. You are invested and committed to being the best agent you can be. You want to genuinely help people and be of service in protecting their best interests.

    Where I do take issue, is someone that has a full-time job that they have zero intention of ever leaving and they don’t make any efforts to improve their knowledge or skill sets and they just do deals on the side here and there for extra income. That is getting into this business for the wrong reasons and contributes to the reputation that all realtors are only in it for the money.

    But for those of you that want to do this full-time, but are financially stressed, in my opinion, you are better off, then take the pressure off and have some sort of supplemental income. When you jump in full-time and have financial commitments or dependants, it can very quickly make you desperate for deals, so that you can make ends meet and that is never a good thing. For starters, people can smell desperation and it’s off-putting, but more importantly, it can make you make decisions that may not be in the client’s best interest or YOUR best interest long term.

    Now if you are going to start part-time, here are my two cents…

    • if you’ve got a full-time job and kids at home, set your expectations accordingly. It is going to take you a long time to get traction and it will require you to invest more of your dispensable time, than you may be prepared or able to give.
    • If you’re going to have a part-time job, I highly recommend choosing one you hate. Ideally, do something where you can choose your own hours so that you can work when you have time and focus on real estate when you need to and also pick something that requires zero creative energy. Our creativity is not a limitless bucket you can tap into. We only have so much creative capacity, so when you deplete your creativity for someone else, you’ll have less left for yourself. Whatever you do, do not start some other side hustle! That’s the worst thing you can do. When you try to chase multiple rabbits, you’ll catch none. So think about jobs like grocery shopping for Instacart or uber eats food delivery. Mindless, indépendant work that you can do when you need to and not do when you’ve got to a deal to focus on.

    Alright next on the list and I hear this one a lot.

    Myth #6 – I’m too young / too old / not attractive enough to be successful.

    I know a 23-year-old that makes $600,000 a year and a widowed woman that started when she was 65 and now makes a million dollars a year. If anyone else can do it, you can do it too. Your age and your looks mean absolutely nothing. What does matter is that you’re a great agent and that you care about people and protect their best interest. On the looks front, I just told this story this past Monday at our weekly eXp team meeting. I referred a past client of mine to an agent I’ve done one on one coaching with. This agent is awesome – she is amazing, so smart, so invested….all the things. Well, a few days after I referred her, my client called me and said ‘find me someone else, I’m not working with her.’ And I was like OMG what happened???? and she said nothing, I checked out her personal Instagram page and I’m not comfortable having someone that attractive work so closely with my husband and I.” So apparently there is such a thing as being too attractive and not the other way around and clearly, I didn’t fall into that bucket for her!

    So stop thinking about all the things you think are not enough about you, not outgoing enough, not a high enough D score on your DISC profile, not confident enough, not articulate enough, yada, yada, yada. Confidence comes from competence so focus on building your competence and your confidence will follow. Then accept and embrace everything that you think you’re not and go build a kickass real estate career that I know you can and that you deserve.

    Remember the more you learn the more you’ll earn, but only if you’re
    implementing what you’re learning.

    Until next time!

  • Reality Check

    Tired of the Commission Roller Coaster? 9 Things To Try in 2022 For More Consistency

    EPISODE 49

    Not Getting The Results You Want? 9 Things to Try in 2022

    There is one common denominator between those that get the consistent success and results they’re hoping for and those that don’t and it’s this….

    Must of us don’t have a problem learning, we have a problem implementing. We have a problem doing. We have a problem taking action and we certainly have a problem doing anything consistently.

    When I’ve observed and interviewed and coached successful realtors, they all used some or all of the 9 things I’m going to share with you today, that helped them stay consistent in taking action.

    So if you’re not getting the results you want, these are the 9 things that you could try to try and break the pattern, break the cycle of doing the same thing on repeat.

    Listen Now:

    LISTEN ON ITUNES
    LISTEN ON STITCHER
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    Show Notes:

    Ready To Start Attracting High-Quality Leads On Autopilot?

    In this 35-minute Masterclass, you’ll learn a proven system to generate more consistent business from people you know, earn more referrals & get discovered by new clients searching for a Realtor online…all without using any out-dated tactics.

    REGISTER NOW

    Episode Transcript:

    Hello hello welcome back to the Women Rocking Real Estate podcast I’m your host Jen Percival and am happy to be back after missing my October episode. I got really sick and was in the hospital for 2 days and it threw a whole wrench into everything. And that is what happens my friends when you don’t practice what you preach. Either it’s the universe dishing me some karma being like “you can’t tell people how to do it, if you don’t do it yourself.” Or it was just a good reminder why what I preach, is so important….and that is that if you don’t have a strategy and plan for executing it consistently with contingencies, you will not take the actions you need to take, to get the results you want and so that is what we’re going to be talking about in today’s episode. If you didn’t get the results you wanted in 2021 or you’re worried you won’t be able to replicated it, there’s 9 things you can tweak in your business that will help.

    But before we get into that, a few other important things I want to mention.

    Number one, as always I wanted to send a shout out to those of you that left reviews and also sent me messages, so thank you to two different Sarahs, 3 different Kristi’s, Bridgette, Joely, Jennifer, Andrea (actually it may be Andreea, the way it’s spelled so sorry – everyone should know by now my propensity to butcher names) and anyone else that sent me a DM through Instagram that I may have missed. Thank you ladies, love that you took the time to share your feedback. I have listeners in Canada and the USA and you guys are neck and neck in terms of numbers of reviews, with Canada trailing a little. People can only see the reviews from their own countries, but I can see them from every country so thank you ladies.

    One other quick thing I wanted to mention….an agent reached out to me a few weeks who was unfortunately the victim of a phishing scheme that has actually been targeting realtors for about a year and a half. She wanted to me to mention it on the podcast, and given they tried to do it from my email a year or so ago, I thought it would be worthwhile mentioning for any of you that don’t know about it yet. If you receive an email or text message that looks like it’s coming from your Broker or Team leader, asking for a quick favour. It’s a scam. They essentially trick you into buying something (usually iTunes gift cards) and sending them the codes with a promise you’ll be reimbursed. So anytime you receive a text or email – even if it looks like it’s legitimately coming from the person. Reach out to them directly (not replying to the email or text) and verify before taking any action. Thousands of realtors have been duped by this scam, so if it’s happened to you, you’re not alone.

    Alright there’s been a lot of new listeners on the podcast over the last few months and many of you have been reaching out to ask about my online marketing masterclass that I talked about back 2 years ago. That training is no longer available because what I taught in it is outdated now. The online marketing world moves really fast and if you have to stay on top of what’s working and be ready to pivot when it’s no longer working.

    What is working now, is a totally different strategy and I have a new masterclass that teaches it called the ATTRACT Accelerator and in it you’ll learn how to attract high quality leads, on autopilot and without using any outdated tactics like cold calling, door knocking, asking your friends and family for business or asking for referrals. So if you’re struggling to get clients or you feel like you’re on a commission roller coaster, I encourage you to watch this training. It’s 35 minutes long and it’s free. Once you register for the training, you’ll get instant access.

    The agents in my coaching program have been learning about and implementing this strategy for a few months now and the ones that have taken it seriously and gone all in, are seeing amazing results. You know who you are. And the ones that haven’t implemented it yet, you know who you are. They could be using it and started seeing amazing results….but herein lies the problem. Human beings are programmed to self-sabotage and get in their own way. If I could create a pill or a system or a program that would permanently stop people from getting in their own way and self-sabotaging, I would be a billionaire. It is literally the ONLY thing standing in the way of your success. You are the only thing getting in your own way.

    And it won’t matter how many self-improvement books you read, or how many podcasts you listen to, or how many videos you watch or conferences you attend. If you don’t decide, once and for all to get out of your own way, nothing you try is going to work. Nothing. No strategy, no routine, no plan, no structure, no idea. Nothing.

    You have to decide in advance, that you’re going to get out of your own gosh dam way. I bring this up, because there’s not actually a point of you watching the free masterclass and learning about this strategy, if you’re not going to implement it. Now granted you might be thinking “Jen how can I know I’m going to implement the strategy if I don’t even know what it is?” Because what it is, is not the point. If you don’t want to implement this particular strategy, that’s fine, but pick a different one and implement it! I don’t care what strategy you pick. Because breaking news, none of them will work, unless you implement it!!

    So what I want you to decide right now, in advance, is that after watching my masterclass, you are going to pick a lead generation strategy and you are going to implement it consistently in 2022. Spend the next few weeks deciding what strategy you’re going with, it might be the one you’re going to learn in the masterclass, but if you decide it’s not, pick a different poison, commit to it and implement it consistently for the next year.

    Because if you go and watch the training, I’m gonna gander a guess that you don’t have as many leads as you like and they’re not as consistent as you’d like and they’re probably not as high quality as you’d like. Which brings me to an interesting question one of the ladies in my program asked recently. She wanted to know when she implements this strategy, how she’s supposed to ‘convert’ the leads into clients and that’s the brilliant thing about this strategy. You will have to do very little, if anything to convert these leads. When they come to you, they’ve already decided in advance, that they want to work with you.

    So you can register by clicking the link in the notes or you can go to womenrockingrealestate.com/masterclass.

    Now before you think I’ve been rambling and you just want to get to this episode, it’s all related.

    I have been coaching women in real estate for about 7 years now between my brokerage and my coaching program and I feel like I’ve been running an unintentional research project. It has been really interesting, fascinating actually, to watch some people grow and thrive and see incredible transformation in their business and then watch other people – who are going through the exact same program, they’re taught the same stuff, they’re given the same tools and systems, continue to struggle, stay stuck and not implementing what they’re learning.

    So I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out the common denominator, that can explain why some succeed and some struggle.

    Back at the end of august I posted a story on Instagram of me filming videos for my new lead generation program called the ATTRACT Accelerator

    Well one of my friends who works for a venture capital company reached out and recommended that I apply for a spot in an Accelerator being offered by this tech startup called Disco. They were looking for 20 thought leaders in various industries and were offering to help them overhaul their teaching methodology using the latest research on how people best learn. Well when I looked at who was teaching the program and the outline, I knew it was something I could really benefit from. My purpose has never been to just sell courses or coaching programs. I only feel fulfilled if I’m helping people get transformation and I will continue to keep challenging myself on that front.

    Ok long story longer, I got picked as one of the 20 businesses and have been immersed in a mastermind since the beginning of Sept with some of the most impressive, intelligent and amazing people across North America. Talk about imposter syndrome, I was definitely the dumbest person in the room and although that sounds self-deprecating, it was awesome. I loved being surrounded by such smart & successful people, it was incredibly up levelling.

    So when I looked at my own observations and research and combined it with what I gathered through this mastermind, I’ve learned that there is one common denominator between those that get the consistent success and results they’re hoping for and those that don’t and it’s this….

    Must of us don’t have a problem learning, we have a problem implementing. We have a problem doing. We have a problem taking action and we certainly have a problem doing anything consistently.

    When I’ve observed and interviewed and coached successful realtors they all used some or all of the 9 things I’m going to share with you today, that helped them stay consistent in taking action.

    So if you’re not getting the results you want, there’s these are the 9 things that you could try to try and break the pattern, break the cycle of doing the same thing on repeat.

    The one you should absolutely try first is to retrain your brain and learn how to develop an achievement mindset. This is not the first time I”ve talked about this, but humans need to hear things over and over again before it since in. So if you’re not getting results, you need to retrain your brain.

    1. RETRAIN YOUR BRAIN

    For those of you who have been with me on this podcast since the beginning when I started it 2 years ago or for those that have binged listened through all the episodes, you’ll have heard me talk about my frustrations with coaching and mentoring. I do this because it is my genuine desire to help women and I want to see each and every one of you reach your fullest potential, because I know that you have it within you. I really feel like it’s my purpose and calling in life.

    But back when I started this show, I said I didn’t want to coach people because I found it legitimately painful watching women get in their own way over and over and over again and I felt helpless to help them. I couldn’t get them to take the actions they needed to take, to get the results they desired. I’d give them everything they needed and then I’d just watch them go in circles doing the same thing they’d always done.

    Well then I discovered the science behind success and how our unconscious core beliefs dictate 80-90% of the decisions that we make and the actions that we take or don’t take and I thought I’d discovered the answer that was going to fix everyone’s problems. So I spent a year being trained by Dr. Shannon Irvine who has her PhD in NeuroPsychology and became certified as a Master Neurocoach. I then re-launched my ATTRACT coaching program and her methodology was incorporated into what’s called Foundations of Success, where I take every agent that joins my coaching through 67 days of mindset training first to help them uncover and remove those limiting beliefs, so that they can move forward with implementing new strategies and structure in their business.

    What I discovered, was about 60% of the agents wouldn’t even do the mindset training. They just wanted to jump to the strategies and structure. And I should have predicted this because before you think I’m judging them for it, I myself fell into that 60%.

    You see I had to go through the exact same training in my certification program. Only transformed people, can transform people. So I couldn’t possibly help other people get transformation, if I hadn’t got it myself. Now I won’t speak for any of the agents in my program, but I can speak for myself as to why I didn’t do the work. I didn’t think I needed it and I guess I also didn’t think it would work. I too just wanted to skip to the good stuff. Where’s the easy button, the fast track, the shortcut. I had convinced myself that I could get the same results on my own, because my mindset was fine!

    That thinking, was actually the very reason I needed to do the work. Our brain’s job is to keep us exactly where we are right now – safe & familiar. Any time we do anything new, it causes resistance and that resistance leads to overwhelm, distraction and procrastination. It’s human nature to switch and do something more comfortable whenever we feel that resistance. But herein lies the biggest problem and as Steve Harvey says “if you stay in your comfort zone, that’s where you will fail.” Success is not comfortable, if it were, everyone would have it. The only way to succeed is to get comfortable, being uncomfortable and that can only happen in your mind. It has to start with how you think, how you allow your thoughts to make you feel and the beliefs that you allow yourself to have (because you do have control over those beliefs, despite what you might believe). Only then can we start making the right decisions and taking the right actions.

    If you are struggling to get the results you want, your subconscious beliefs are probably the culprit, If what you believe and what you want are not aligned, you will keep doing the same things, repeating the same patterns and expecting a different outcome. And yes that is the definition of insanity.

    So once I discovered this along with the mechanism to move past it, I thought I had it all figured out. But like I also said, I discovered that for about 60% of people – that’s more than half, their beliefs stopped them from even trying to do the work to change their beliefs. I liken the whole process to dominos. If you picture each thing you need to do in your business to get the results you desire as a domino, well the whole thing only works, if you knock down the first domino. You can’t knock the other ones down, without knocking over that very first domino. Your beliefs are that first domino. What I’ve also discovered, is that it is very difficult to recognize your own subconscious beliefs, without help. We are too close to ourselves to see it.

    Alright so once you’ve done the work and have managed to knock down that first domino what are the other 9 things that get in our way of getting results?

    In my experience, the 2nd biggest issue is…..

    2. STRUCTURE

    If you don’t have structure, routines and habits, you will find it very difficult to get traction. The reason, is that results come from actions and actions only work when they’re done consistently and doing something consistently is near impossible without routines and structure. So if you’re not where you want to be, try adding some structure to your business.

    Let’s face it, it can be really hard to have structure in real estate. We don’t have set hours, we don’t have a boss looking over our shoulder keeping tabs on what we’re doing and we don’t really have deadlines. When it comes to our business, we’re not really accountable to anyone. We are accountable to our clients and that’s the main reason most agents don’t have a hard time completing tasks needed for buyers and sellers on time. But when it comes to working ON your business and completing tasks for your business, the vast majority of agents are not very structured.

    The biggest reason is that we usually don’t have a plan. We don’t have purpose every single day when we we wake up. We don’t know exactly what we’re supposed to be working on every day. So we start one project and as soon as we get bored or stuck, we move onto another one or we simply don’t start anything and end up staying in our pyjamas until 11am.

    So the first step in righting this ship, is to start treating your real estate career like a job. Like a real J.O.B. You wouldn’t dream of rolling into the office at 11am in your pjs if you had a corporate job would you? Of course not, so the easiest way to start being more consistent and structured is with a morning routine. I am not sharing some earth shattering new theory here folks. This has been proven time and time and time again to be a super effective way of being more productive. So if you want to actually achieve the financial freedom metric you’ve set, having a morning routine that you stick to, is the first step.

    What you do in your morning routine is up to you, but whatever it is, do the exact same thing ever single weekday morning. Weekends are your cheat days, but Monday to Friday, same thing. My morning routine uses the word BEGIN as an acronym to remember.

    The B stands for Brain priming. This is the foundational tool I use to retrain your brain and turn your success switch on. It’s how we change belief patterns that aren’t serving us.

    Next up is the E and it stands for Exercise. I don’t think I need to elaborate too much on the exercise thing, other than to say if we want to be healthy – physically, emotionally, and mentally healthy, we gotta move our bodies at least 30 minutes a day. It makes such a massive difference in our overall well-being. If you can combine getting exercise with learning, even better. So if you’re going for a walk or run – listen to a book or podcast while you’re doing it. If you’re on a treadmill, bike or elliptical – watch videos. That way you’re not just getting in 30 min of exercise everyday, you’re getting 30 min of learning in too at the same time. Super productive right?

    Next up is G which stands for Gratitude. When people are grateful, they acknowledge the goodness in their lives. In the process, they usually recognize that the source of that goodness lies at least partially outside themselves. As a result, gratitude can help us connect to something larger than ourselves— whether to other people, nature, or a higher power. In psychology research, gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships. So beginning each day with gratitude should become part of your morning routine.

    Next up is I for Intention. This is about being intentional around your purpose. If you know what you want to achieve, how can you be more intentional about your days to make sure you’re taking the actions you need to take, to get the results you’re looking for.

    Lastly, begin each day with Nurture. That’s going to mean different things to different people, but what are some ways that you can nurture yourself in your morning routine? That may mean brewing a delicious cup of coffee and taking 10 minutes to enjoy it in peace. It may mean meditating, it may mean praying, it may mean cooking a nutritious breakfast, it may mean having a steam shower with aromatherapy after your workout. Whatever your morning routine looks like, try to nurture yourself for a more productive and structured day.

    So that is how I recommend you Begin each morning. I then recommend you block off time in your calendar every single day in the mornings to work ON your business. Because here’s the beautiful thing about real estate….it’s not typically a morning business. Buyers and sellers are not usually requesting morning appointments, but even if they wanted to, you need to honour your hours and have some boundaries around your time. Otherwise you become a pop-tart agent and you have no control over your own life. When you get really busy, I can’t tell you how quickly you will resent this business and burn out. Not only that, but your family will really resent you too. There’s a really easy fix here. Block your mornings off and protect that time. I have done this on and off throughout my entire real estate career and I can’t tell you how much happier I was when I was doing it and how much more miserable I was when I wasn’t doing it.

    How much time you block off, depends on how structured you naturally are. If you really struggle with any form of structure day to day, I recommend you start with 25 minutes. Pick a time and an amount of time that you will be able to stick to consistently every single day. You have to make this a habit and it will only become a habit if you do it consistently for 67 days. 25 minutes every day is more than reasonable. If you can’t find 25 minutes everyday to work ON your business, there’s a bigger problem at play.

    Now remember that working ON your business is different than In. This time should be used to for things that move your business forward – things like lead get or your website or your social media or your video marketing. Working IN your business is all the stuff you need to do with buyers and sellers – paperwork, offers, appointments, etc.

    When you have to take action on something, it should be scheduled in your calendar. You’ve heard it before, if it’s not scheduled in the calendar it doesn’t exist and won’t happen.

    3. STRATEGY

    Alright if you’ve got your mindset working for you and you’ve got consistent structure to your day, the next reason you may not be getting the results you want, is because you’d don’t have a strategy. I see this so often….agents will have a to do list a mile long of all the things they want to accomplish or things they think they need in their business and they’ll do a little of this and little of that and then see a different shiny object over here and another one over there. One minute they’re working on ways to generate leads and the next they’re building out workflows in a CRM and the next they’re spending 3 hours recording a 30 second instagram reel.

    In order to get results you need a strategy. Depending on what season your business is in, you need an attraction or lead gen strategy, you need a strategy to convert business, you need a strategy to serve clients and retain business and your need a strategy to scale your business.

    You also need a strategy that gets implemented consistently regardless of how busy you are. A strategy is not doing things when you’re slow but then abandoning them all together when you’re busy. A strategy is not trying this a couple times and then abandoning it when you think it’s not working and then trying something else. A strategy is a plan, with the systems and tools to help you implement it consistently, day in day out for at least a year.

    4. SKILLS

    Now unfortunately having a strategy alone, is not enough to guarantee you results. Part of that strategy may require that you acquire new skills to be proficient at the strategy. For example my ATTRACT Accelerator program which is a lead generation strategy, is based on video content marketing. Well you might suck on video, we all do when we start. Having a strategy that works isn’t the only thing needed to get incredible results. Many people would have to work on their video marketing skills. That could be learning how to create better video content, it could be learning how to present yourself on camera more confidently, it could be learning how to edit your videos, etc.

    Alright so even if you have the right mindset, structure, strategy and skills you may still not get the results you’re hoping for, if you don’t have systems to support your strategy.

    5. SYSTEMS

    Systems help you execute your strategy. They keep you organized, they make sure your process is efficient and they help keep you consistent. I’ll use this podcast as an example. I manage the entire production process with a project management system that has workflows and checklists and calendars to manage due dates and templates for all my graphics. The amount of extra time it would take me every month would be undoable without the systems that I use. Systems can be paper systems like planners and agendas, they can be software systems, they can be project management systems or they can be training systems.

    If you’re struggling to get results and you’re finding that one of the problems is that you’re not taking action consistently on your strategy, well implementing some systems into your business could be the answer.

    Alright just to recap, so far we have got mindset, structure, strategy, skills and systems as levers you could pull to start getting better results in your business. The next one I’m going to talk about is HUGE and it probably should have come after mindset in terms of importance, but whatever here we are. This one is especially important when it comes to taking action and implementing and it is accountability.

    6. ACCOUNTABILITY

    Why does being accountable to someone else help? The idea is that, once someone other than yourself knows what you need to do or what you want to achieve, there is a greater incentive to go out and do it to avoid having to explain why you didn’t to another person.

    There’s a million reasons not to do something. Whenever you have to do something that’s either not so fun, or feels challenging or overwhelming, you can probably convince yourself of any excuse not to do it. You’re busy, being the most common. However there is a psychological phenomenon that happens when you think someone else will notice if you don’t do what you say you’ll do. It feels a bit embarrassing and us humans don’t like feeling that way. Which is why most agents don’t have a problem of not doing what they said they’d do, if someone else is paying attention or even more importantly is relying on you. We often put higher value on showing up for other people, than we do for ourselves. Which s why we usually meet deadlines and take the actions we need to take for our clients. We value them more than we do ourselves, so this is a perfect example of a subconscious core belief, that is probably dictating your actions or inaction…..and one that needs to be removed!

    Alright, an extension of the benefits accountability provides is community. If you’re finding yourself not implementing what you’re learning for example, and that is resulting in your not getting results, try introducing community.

    7. LEVEL UP WITH COMMUNITY

    All of the latest research demonstrates that people learn and perform best with other people, especially like-minded people. Surrounding yourself with other people who are motivated and who are taking action, will inadvertently rub off on you and help you take more consistent action. Try to surround yourself with people who are going to empower you to become better and who are going to push you towards greatness. When you’re around people like this they act as your personal cheerleading squad and can help pick you up when you’re not motivated or feeling overwhelmed.

    Alright these next two levers can be used when you’ve got a strategy, you’ve got skills and you’ve got systems, but you’re still really struggling to take the actions you need to take to get the results you’re looking for and they kind of using negative consequences as the motivator of change.

    8. DEADLINES

    The first one to try is introducing deadlines. Give yourself either a deadline to meet or some sort of consequence if you miss it or don’t do what you committed to doing. This strategy can work for people who like to stay true to their word and who also have an accountability partner that knows about it. So as an example, I have one client who decided that if she didn’t implement her lead gen strategy consistently for 6 months, that she was going to donate $1000 to a politician she couldn’t stand. That was enough to keep her implementing her lead gen strategy consistently.

    9. SKIN IN THE GAME

    If that doesn’t work for you, putting some skin in the game often will. There’s a saying that any transformation begins with a transaction and I have seen this first-hand over and over and over again. Almost every time I have ever given my courses or coaching programs away for free to people, they have not even finished it, let alone implemented it. When I ran my brokerage, I would give all of the agents my stuff and eventually I started asking myself, why am I doing this? It’s not actually helping them at all? There is a psychological phenomenon that when we pay for something, we pay attention and often the more we pay, the more attention we pay. We’ve got skin in the game, we’ve invested in this so now we HAVE to do something. When your back is up against a wall, that’s often what’s needed to light the fire under your hiney. The 3 years I did the best in real estate, are the years when I really stretched myself. I purchased a house I couldn’t afford, I signed an expensive 5 year lease for my brokerage and then I purchased a cottage I couldn’t afford. The years I did that, were my best years ever. I didn’t have a choice, I had to get’er done, so when I decided to pivot my business into coaching, I took that lesson and I invested $26,000 for a coach. For starters I knew it was just smart, but there was a part of me that did it just so I’d have some skin in the game to keep me moving forward.

    So just to recap, if you’re struggling to get the results you’re looking for and you’re finding yourself in a pattern where you’re learning, like listening to this podcast, but you’re not implementing what you’re learning, the 9 levers you can pull are:

    1. Mindset
    2. Structure
    3. Strategy
    4. Skills
    5. Systems
    6. Accountability
    7. Community
    8. Deadlines
    9. Skin in the Game

    So I want you to write these 9 levers down and put them up on your office wall. The next time you’re feeling like you’re not where you want to be, examine the list and look for ways you could potentially incorporate some or all of these into your business.

    Also, if you’re looking for a lead generation strategy that doesn’t rely on using old school tactics and that attracts high quality leads on autopilot, don’t forget to sign up for my ATTRACT Accelerator masterclass.

    With that remember the more you learn the more you’ll earn, but only if you’re implementing what you’re learning.

    Until next time.

  • Reality Check

    Staying Safe Selling Real Estate

    EPISODE 18

    Staying Safe Working In Real Estate

    In this week’s episode, Jennifer shares tips and strategies for women working in real estate to stay safe in their daily activities.

    Listen Now:

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    Show Notes:

    • Learn more about my ATTRACT™ coaching program for women in real estate here.

    • Learn more about EXP Realty here.

    • Purchase my Planned with Purpose™ real estate planner here.

    Episode Transcript:

    Well hey there, welcome back to the women rocking real estate podcast, I’m your host Jen Percival and I’m so genuinely grateful that you have taken some time out of your day to tune in to listen here today.

    Before I jump into today’s very important episode, I need to send a shout out to realtors Lainie and Debbie who have 9 kids between the two of them…yep you heard that right. 9 kids. Anyway, they sent me just the most heartfelt message last week on a day when I really needed it so thank you ladies, it was so appreciated! I also want to thank Leah, Natalia and Butterfly girl for your amazing reviews of the podcast. I so dig that you ladies took the time to write them and I want you to know that I gobble every word up.

    Ok today we’re going to be chatting about something really important and to segue into it I’m going to start with a story. Let’s rewind 11 years ago to the very first open house I ever hosted of an estate sale. It was a few months after I got my license and of course there was a massive snowstorm. Well I sat there twiddling my thumbs for for the entire open house with not a single visitor. Just when I’d given up hope of anyone coming, a big group showed up just before I was about to close up. It was a small home and so they were all kind of crammed in the entryway taking off their winter boots. I asked if one of them could sign in and this woman was like no problem and off the rest of them went to tour the house. Well about 10 min later they all left and I was starting to gather up my stuff to leave when I noticed there was still a pair of men’s boots at the front door. As I said it was a small bungalow and I knew there wasn’t anyone on the main floor, so I went to the top of the basement stairs and yelled hello? Nothing. At this point my heart started racing a little faster. So I yell louder hello? Making sure anyone would hear me. Nothing. So I’m now starting to full blown panic, like what are you supposed to do? I’m alone and I’m pretty sure there is a man in the basement that is not responding. Is he hurt? Is he unconscious or is he waiting in a corner to attack me? So I yell down that the open house is over and I’m leaving now and he finally responds and says that he’s looking for the electrical panel and can I come down and show him where it is. I didn’t even respond, I quietly grabbed my jacket and my purse and left the house and got into my car, locked it and called the police. A minute or so later this man came out of the house with a big parka and hoodie on and quickly walked down the street. I couldn’t see anything about him to give a description, but to be honest the police weren’t very helpful anyway and were in no rush to come to my rescue.

    So that was my first open house experience. Before that day, I hadn’t really spent too much time thinking about my safety, but that experience sure put me on high alert and that is what today’s episode is all about.

    You may have already had a meeting about safety at your brokerage or been given information as a reminder, but this is one of those things that you need to constantly keep top of mind. It’s so easy to get busy or distracted and forget that we are always putting ourselves in situations that have the potential to be dangerous. So I don’t care if you’ve heard this a few times already. I want you to hear it again and who knows, I might share a tip today that you hadn’t heard of and it could save your life. How’s that for dramatic? Well I’m actually very serious. So stay with me ok?

    Sadly that open house experience wasn’t the only time my instinct told me something wasn’t right. I’ve had a number of concerning things happen over the years, so you always need to keep this stuff top of mind.

    Tip #1 – Vet people before any appointments

    So tip number 1 is about prevention and that is to always vet people before booking any appointments:

    Always check the email address of anyone that contacts you and google them to find a LinkedIn or Facebook Profile or website that corroborates who they are
    Be wary of blocked phone numbers. I like to actually have people leave a message with their phone number so that I can call them back to verify the number.
    Always ask them to send you a picture of their driver’s license for your records
    Whenever possible, meet with them at the office or a coffee shop first before going to a property and ask for a pre-approval.
    For listing appointments, always Verify the home ownership before going to a listing presentation and google the address and the owners name to see if anything comes up

    Tip # 2 – Conduct Appointments as though your life depended on it

    Tip number 2 is to conduct listing and showing appointments with people you don’t know, as though your life depended on it.

    • Buddy up and try to go to appointments in pairs if possible
    • Always tell someone where you’re going
    • Never drive with or offer to pick up a client you don’t know
    • Be on very high alert anytime you’re at a vacant property and never advertise that a property is vacant in your listing materials.
    • For showings, arrive early and scope out the property, turn on all the lights and open blinds
      Meet them outside and let them know you were informed that another showing will be going on at the same time
    • Don’t let people see the lockbox code
    • Always leave the front door unlocked and open if possible.
    • Another important tip is to always Let the client take the lead on tours. You may be inclined to lead people through the property, but it’s safer to follow them so you always have them in your full view.
    • Avoid going into the basement of a property and know your exits

    I’d say the most important tip here, is to trust your instincts. If you start feeling uncomfortable trust that feeling and don’t let embarrassment or awkwardness or worrying that you’re being paranoid, make you continue.

    So another situation that happened to me probably 5 years ago or so. I had a client who was kind of a celebrity….not like an A-lister, but like a c-status. Anyway she owned a townhouse that she stayed in when she was in Toronto and she decided to sell it because she was never here. She wanted to unload it and I was feeling pressured to sell it quickly. Well one day this guy calls me and says “Hey I just drove by that townhouse you’ve got listed and was wondering if I could see it now? I’m from Hamilton and I’m only in town for a few hours, so small window to see it.”

    I normally would want to vet someone more, but asked what his name was, where he worked, what his address was and agreed to meet him at the property before I had a chance to check out what he’d told me. The parking at this townhouse complex had spots right on the other side of the street and there was loads of them available, so I parked and waited for him outside on the porch. When he arrived, he parked way down the street where I couldn’t see his car, which I thought was odd. What was even more odd though, was that when he got out of his car, he was on crutches and had one of those boot casts. So right away my spidey senses went off and I decided I wasn’t going in the house with him. So I unlocked the door and told him to have a look around and that I’d be waiting outside. So I’m standing on the porch and he calls to me and says that he’d really like me to follow him up the stairs because he was worried he might fall with his crutches. I was honest and said sorry, I won’t be able to catch you anyway and I don’t go into properties with people I don’t know. Was it a little awkward refusing to go inside the house with a potential client, well yah, but the alternative is not exactly ideal either. And by telling him straight up that I was uncomfortable, it eliminated his leverage if he was up to no good. Criminals count on catching their victim by surprise.

    Long story short he left about 5 minutes later and peeled out of the parking lot before I could check his license plate. When I called him back on the phone to follow up, the number he’d called me from was not in service and the name and address he gave me was fake. Once again, I reported the incident to the police, but without anything tangible, there wasn’t much they could do. The reality is they don’t have the resources to investigate things that are suspicious, but where nothing actually happened.

    Tip #3 – Open Houses

    Moving along, tip number 3 is to keep your guard up at open houses as well and don’t assume there will be lots of people around and no need to be as cautious.

    • Always know your exits, leave the front door unlocked and open if possible
    • make people take off their shoes and pay attention to how many are at the door
    • be wary of anyone that shows up to the open house right at the end
    • When the open house is over and you’re confident everyone has left, lock the door before you go and turn off lights and make sure any other doors are locked.

    Tip # 4 – Use technology to your advantage

    Tip 4 is to use technology to your advantage.

    • There’s a few apps you can download to your phone that will help colleagues and family keep tabs on where you are and some have emergency features. The three I recommend you check out are called Safe Showings, ProTect and Lifeline. I will link to them in the show notes
    • You should also make sure you’ve got the find my location feature turned on if you have an iPhone.
    • Lastly know how to use the emergency SOS feature if you’ve got an iPhone and update your emergency contacts. When you press the side button 5 times quickly, your iPhone automatically calls emergency services and alerts your emergency contacts with a text message. You iPhone then sends them your current location, and, for a period of time after you enter SOS mode, it sends updates to your emergency contacts when your location changes. 

    You know all of this might seem like we’re being overly paranoid, but we are more vulnerable than the average person to be targeted and it can be targeted for a variety of reasons. When realtors get murdered or violently attacked, it makes the news…but there are tons of things that happen that the real estate community as a whole, doesn’t hear a thing about.

    I had a guy that actually tried to extort money out of me. My phone rang one morning and when I answered this guy was like Hey Jen are you at home still or are you at the office? He was totally acting like I knew him, so I assumed it was a client, but I didn’t recognize his voice, after some chit chat I asked who it was. And he said “what you don’t recognize my voice? You should you ‘beeped me enough times a few years ago and I’ve got it all on video. He then went on to say if I didn’t pay him money that he was going to post it online and tag me. To be honest I laughed at him and the absurdity of it and just hung up, but he called me repeatedly for months, he had stalked me online and knew things about me. It was extremely unsettling and there wasn’t much I could do about it. He used proxy lines every time he called me and in Canada we don’t have the same tracing options available. It stopped just over a year ago, but ironically I got another call a few weeks ago which prompted this podcast. Anyway it was not a good experience to go through and my husband genuinely wanted me to quit working real estate.

    So I’ll leave you with two final thoughts on this…number one Don’t ever let your guard down just because it’s a couple. In two cases where realtors were murdered, a woman was involved as part of the luring process and number 2 always always always trust your gut. We have a built in mechanism to protect us and we need to learn to tune into it and trust it. Don’t ever stay in a situation that is making you feel uncomfortable because you’re worried you could be being paranoid. Trust yourself and don’t take unnecessary risks.

    Alright ladies that brings us to the end of this week’s quick episode. I hope that these tips will remind you to make your safety a priority in 2020.

    Also, if you’re ever lacking motivation, make sure you check out my IGTV channel where I post daily quick videos to get your motivation pilot light fired up.

    That’s it, Remember the more you learn, the more you’ll earn.

    Until next time!

  • Reality Check

    The Key to a Fulfilling Real Estate Career

    EPISODE 15

    The Key To A Fulfilling Long-Term Real Estate Career

    In this episode, Jennifer talks about the keys to having a fulfilling, long-term career in real estate and how to manage the naysayers when you’re just starting out.

    Listen Now:

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    Show Notes:

    • Zone of Genius Worksheet
    • Learn more about my ATTRACT™ coaching program for women in real estate here.
    • Learn more about EXP Realty here.
    • Purchase my Planned with Purpose™ real estate planner here.

    Episode Transcript:

    Welcome to a new year and the potential of a new you. I love new years, because it brings us new opportunities to grow or start over and conquer new success. My 2019 word of the year was give. I believe wholeheartedly in giving. Not just in the traditional senses, but in the everyday sense. Giving people your time, attention, care, thought and help. I made it my mission in 2019 to give and give freely without any expectations of return and I feel really good about keeping true to my promise throughout the year.

    Although I will continue to give in 2020, my new word for this year is transform. I am on a mission this year to help you transform your business and your life and I’m going to transform mine.

    A lot of people have been asking me what I’m doing with my business, am I still selling real estate and why have I started this women rocking real estate thing? There’s rumours spreading around that my real estate career isn’t doing well and that’s why I’m pivoting my business and it’s simply not true. 2019 was actually my second best year ever in my entire real estate career, so I can put that rumour to rest. The truth of the matter is, if I’m being completely honest, I had a bit of mid-life crisis about a year and a half ago. At first I thought I was just burnt out, but after some serious soul searching, I realized I wasn’t being fulfilled anymore and I just wasn’t happy. If you’ve ever read the book The Big Leap, highly recommend it by the way, the author talks about this concept that all of our work activities occur in four main zones.

    The first one is the zone of incompetence and it’s made up of all the actives we’re not good at. Others can do them way better than we can, but surprisingly many people, even successful ones, persist in wasting time and energy doing things for which they have no talent.

    The next zone, is the zone of competence. In this zone you’re competent at the activities, but others can do them just as well. If you ever hear yourself saying ‘oh it’s just easier and quicker for me to do it myself than to teach it, delegate it and follow up on it….that’s your zone of competence. I personally get stuck here all the time. I’m a control freak and I find it really hard to delegate. Bookkeeping is a perfect example of this for me. I can do it, but I certainly don’t enjoy it and there’s others that can easily do it better instead.

    Next up you’ve got your zone of excellence. These are the activities you do extremely well and you can make a really good living in your zone of excellence. For successful people, this zone is a seductive and even dangerous trap. The temptation is strong to remain in the zone of excellence – it’s safe, it’s secure and it’s often where your family wants you to stay, because you’re reliable there. The problem, is that a deep sacred part of you will wither and die if you stay inside your zone of excellence. There is only one place where you will ultimately thrive and feel satisfied and that’s the 4th zone, your zone of genius.

    Your zone of genius is the set of activities you are uniquely suited to do. They draw upon your special gifts and strengths. Your zone of genius tends to beckon you with increasingly strong calls as you go through your life. Especially after age 40. Many of you have gotten into real estate because IT is your zone of genius. Maybe you’ve taken the big leap and left a stable career to get into real estate because you feel a calling to it or maybe you’ve been home with kids for awhile and you just can’t see yourself going back to your old career. Or maybe you’re still in a job that’s your zone of excellence but you are trying to make the leap and transition full time into real estate.

    For me, the problem was that working in real estate is my zone of excellence, not my zone of genius. I’ve done really well and I can do it with my eyes closed, but it just wasn’t lighting me up anymore and I had this moment where I realized if I continued to just sell real estate, that I’d only be doing it for the money and as far as I’m concerned, that’s selling your soul for money and I’m just not willing to do that.

    So I spent some time really digging around what my zone of genius is and I realized that helping people was one part of it and that’s why I did get a lot of fulfillment out of real estate for many years, but the other part of it was building the business. I love building businesses and I love the challenge, but what I really love is teaching other people how to build their business. I love strategy, I love branding, I love marketing, I love sales, I love mindset and I love success. That is the shit that lights me up and I’m so passionate about it, I want to inspire and teach and watch other people reach their goals.

    So that’s what I’m doing, I’m living my truth. I’m taking the leap and re-inventing myself so that I can live and work in my zone of genius and live a happy and fulfilled life.

    But man is it throwing people around me for a loop. I can’t tell you how many people have said to me, well you can always go back to real estate if it doesn’t work right?

    So How often have people said that to you, about your real estate career? How many people have cast doubt on your venture? What you have to remember is that when you are making the big leap to work in your genius zone, you will trigger other people who are afraid to make that leap themselves. So they will react by telling you the things that they actually tell themselves. It will feel like they’re trying to talk you out of it, but it’s because they’re actually trying to talk themselves out of it. The vast majority of people are too terrified to take risks like this, so they never will, but when you do, it reminds them that they’re too scared, so it threatens them and they react negatively.

    Recognize it for what it is and don’t take it personally. Whatever you do, don’t let it derail you and don’t for a second allow it to invade your confidence or commitment to this career. The second you invest any mental energy around a back-up plan, you’ve told yourself you’re planning to fail. There is no back-up plan, you don’t need one because 2020 is going to be the year you’re going to transform your business.

    But getting back to the 4 zones, What’s interesting about the concept of these 4 zones, is that even within real estate, there will be activities required to run your business, that will fall in different zones for you. One of the keys to a successful and fulfilling real estate career, is to spend as much time as possible doing activities that fall in your zone of genius. So start paying attention to all of the activities that you do in your day to day business and figure out which activities fall into which zones for you.

    I’m a big believer in learning how to run your business from the ground up. In my opinion it’s really important to get at least somewhat capable in everything. At least understand and know enough about all areas of your business that you’re dangerous. What do I mean by that? When you can get to a place where you can afford to hire people to do the parts of your job that fall in your zone of incompetence or your zone of competence, you need to know enough about those areas of your business, to know whether someone is managing it for you properly or not. It’s also really important that you know how to do it yourself if you need to. A recession could hit or you have to fire someone, and you need to know how to keep things running status quo until you can find or afford to hire someone again. When you don’ know how to do things yourself, you can get into a dangerous spiral where you stop doing things that are driving leads to your business or where you stop doing things that are keeping you out of trouble with systems and processes.

    So make sure you learn all of the basics. You may not be good at everything, but know how to do it should you need to. Learning everything will also give you exposure to activities that you might discover you love. As I mentioned in a previous podcast, my first corporate job was in graphic design. I didn’t have an iota of experience, but discovered I absolutely loved it as a creative outlet and I learned that I had a talent for it. I never would have known that unless I’d been forced to learn how to do it.

    Now for some of you graphic design is actually going to fall into your zone of incompetence. Programs like Canva and PicMonkey have given realtors all over the world access to create all their own graphics and let’s be real – but just because you can do it, doesn’t mean you should. We all have things that for whatever reason, our brains just don’t connect with. For me, languages, reading music and anything to do with photography are like greek to me. I am a super techie person, but give me a dslr camera and I cannot for the life of me figure out how they work. But that doesn’t mean I’ll ever give up trying.

    So one of the first things I want you to do to set yourself up for success this year and for years to come, is to go through all the activities required in your day to day real estate career and put each of them into one of the 4 zones. Do they fall in your zone of incompetence, your zone of competence, your zone of excellence or your zone of genius.

    To help you with this super important exercise, I’ve created a worksheet for you to use. It includes a bunch of activities we all need to do in our day to day jobs as realtors, but I want you to add your own as well. You can download this worksheet by clicking below:

    As soon as you’ve learned how to do it yourself and you’re able to afford to do so, I want you outsourcing everything in your zone of incompetence first. After that, start outsourcing the activities in your zone of competence. If you want to have a long-term, fulfilling real estate career, the goal is to spend as much of your time as possible, on activities that are in your zone of genius. Success will come so much easier and naturally to you when you’re operating in your zone of genius.

    Alright, Throughout 2020 I’m going to be providing lots of free real estate training – you can tune in weekly to this podcast and I’ll also be posting daily videos on quick topics to get you in the habit of making learning a part of your morning routine. You’ll be able to find these videos on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, so whatever platform you prefer, you’ll be able to find me there.

    I will also be running my free online marketing masterclass a few times this year. In this 60 minute webinar you’ll learn my 5 step formula for generating consistent leads online without the crippling tech overwhelm or breaking the bank. I’ll show you what I personally did to build a multi-million real estate business and I’ll teach you what you need to do and why, so that you can run with it .

    However If you need more support and help learning how to implement the program step by step, I will be opening the doors a few times to my Online Marketing Made Simple course. This course is specifically for Realtors and is the only implementation program of its kind, that not only shows you exactly how to implement the 5 step formula into your business, but how to do it properly and consistently.

    This online course will seriously take you from zero to online marketing hero. We are just about to wrap up the beta launch and the feedback from my students has been amazing. So if you’re looking to grow your business this year and generate leads without door knocking and cold calling, online marketing is the way to go. Make sure you’re signed up to be notified the next time registration for the free masterclass opens.

    So that brings us to the end of this week’s episode. I am so excited to see what 2020 brings for you and your business and I hope I can help you transform it.

    Don’t forget to download this week’s worksheet from my website and Remember the more you learn the more you’ll earn.

    Until next time.

  • Reality Check

    The Secret to Lead Generation in Real Estate

    EPISODE 12

    The Secret To Lead Generation In Real Estate

    In this week’s episode, Jennifer talks about what all Realtors search for….the secret to generating leads in real estate.

    Listen Now:

    LISTEN ON ITUNES
    LISTEN ON STITCHER
    LISTEN ON SPOTIFY

    Show Notes:

    • Learn more about my ATTRACT™ coaching program for women in real estate here.

    • Learn more about EXP Realty here.

    • Purchase my Planned with Purpose™ real estate planner here.

    Episode Transcript:

    Hello hello and welcome back to the women rocking real estate podcast. I’m your host Jen Percival and this week I bit off more than I could chew, which means today’s podcast is unfortunately a day late. I normally launch them every Monday, but last week there were just not enough hours in the day to get everything done.

    But better late than never right?

    Ok today we are going to chat about The Secret to Lead Generation in Real Estate. Now I know some you might be sitting on the edge of your seat, with baited breath waiting to hear about some underground secret that you’ve never heard before. We all wish there was some sort of secret method out there that by chance we didn’t know about, that is the answer to all of our lead generation problems.

    Here’s the secret….agents have already been taught every lead generation strategy that exists, they just don’t like what they’ve been taught. That is the real issue. Everyone wants to find the magic way that doesn’t take time, effort or money. I’m here to tell you folks that it doesn’t exist. You are trying to find a unicorn and you are wasting precious time.

    So in this week’s episode I am going to review all the ways you can generate leads and then I’m going to let you in on the secret to lead generation, which is to stop dicking around and actually pick one and just do it and do it well.

    I’ve done a lot of one on one coaching over the years and the number one question I get asked, is how do I generate leads? So I go through the options that they have and it essentially comes down to three ways. The first way is using the old school methods like door knocking and cold calling and the response I almost always get is:

    “Oh that makes me uncomfortable I can’t do that.” Hey I get it, I couldn’t do it either, so I get the resistance completely.

    So then I would move along to their next option which is networking and online marketing and the response I would often get is, “oh that seems like a lot of work, I really don’t have time to do all that.”

    Ok. So I would then say if that’s the case your only other real option is to buy leads and to invest pretty heavily in advertising.

    To which they would shake their head and say “Oh that’s too expensive. I don’t have money to spend on advertising.”

    I so wish you could see the expression I would have on my face when this happens.

    Those are your only options to generate leads ladies. It’s either going to take time & effort or it’s going to take money. Those are your only options.

    I wish I could tell you there was another way, but there’s not. So What are you willing to sacrifice to build your business – your time or your money? Pick your poison and then move forward and go all in. Stop wasting your time trying to find another way. It doesn’t exist and the sooner you accept that, the sooner you can start focusing and building your business.

    Ok I want to give you my three mountain analogy to help explain this more. When you get started in real estate, there are three mountain’s ahead of you, each one bigger than the last. The only way to make a living in this business, is to at least reach the summit of the first mountain.

    So when you get started, you’re at the bottom of it and in order to reach the summit, you’ve got a ball that you need to push up the mountain. We’re going to pretend that ball is your real estate business and you can either fill it with your time or your money. So as you’re trying to build your business you’re pushing this ball up the hill and it’s like a snowball collecting leads on it making it bigger and harder to push. Everything feels like a challenge and sometimes you’ll lose grip and the ball will start rolling down the hill backwards and you have go running after it to try and stop the reverse momentum. Like anyone who has ever tried to reach a mountain summit, it takes work. You will never get to the top if you’re just doing nothing and you’ll never get to the top if you don’t know what you’re doing and you’re pushing the ball around in circles.

    Throughout your journey up the hill, You might have times when you consider giving up and you might need to take some rests along the way…..but here’s the thing, if you learn how to do it properly and you keep doing the work and pushing that ball up the hill, you will reach the summit eventually – which is what I call the tipping point, and when you do, momentum takes over and that big ball of your business rolls down the other side of the mountain with no effort whatsoever. And it keeps getting bigger all on its own, as it collects more leads on it.

    Now eventually it will come to a stop and that’s what I call the plateau. Your business won’t keep growing, but as long as you’re doing a great job, it will sustain itself with repeat clients and referrals for awhile. However eventually it will start to deteriorate again if you don’t keep rolling it around to collect more leads on it.

    Some agents decide to stay in this valley indefinitely and others decide they want to grow again – they’ve got their sights on reaching that third summit, so up they go again.

    But this time your ball is too big to move it alone and in order to get to the top, you need help. This is when you need to start leveraging people and hire an administrator or licensed assistant to help you push that ball up the 2nd mountain. So this time you need to fill it with time AND money. This mountain is just as hard as the last one, but it’s even more stressful because now you’ve got money invested with someone helping you. But once again, when you reach that tipping point, that ball takes on a life of its own and generates more business with momentum alone.

    By this stage the momentum is usually so strong, that you have too much business to handle with just one team member and you start feeling burnt out. The decision to transverse the third mountain is usually driven out of a need to find more balance in your life. So you decide to push that boulder up the third mountain, but this time you need a whole team to do it with you. Once you reach the third tipping point, you usually take on a role as more of a leader and are less involved in the day to day of selling real estate. In other words, you get your life back a bit.

    So where am I going with this long winded analogy? Every time you have to climb the mountain to get to the next summit, you need to find ways to generate more leads to get you there and the only way you can generate more leads is to invest time or money or both.

    So let’s talk about time first. To generate enough leads to get you to the first summit, you can invest your time in one of two ways – the old school ways or new school ways. The old school way is door knocking, cold calling etc. OR you can invest your time the new ways with networking and online marketing. But you have to pick one. There are no other options.

    Here’s the thing agents need to understand and accept, both options are extremely time consuming. I mean how many doors can you possibly knock on in a day and what are the odds that one of those houses are looking to sell?

    Networking and online marketing is also really time consuming, but at least it doesn’t make agents feel uncomfortable. And from my perspective it’s much more efficient because you get what I call the compound effect. Your online marketing creates evergreen content that automates leads for years to come. Not so with the old school ways. You have to keep going out and knocking on new doors. Online marketing is like sending a little army of people to go knock on doors for you, for free.

    If you don’t want to invest your time to generate leads or you’re not willing to, you only have one other option and that is to invest money.

    Lead generation is literally that simple – invest your time either through old school or new school ways or invest your money.

    So the next excuse I often hear, is “I don’t have time, I’m so busy already.” Well that’s great then, because if you’re so busy you must have money and it’s time to scale your business! You can either invest in hiring someone to help generate leads for you or you can invest in advertising. Again pick your poison.

    Now if you say I’m so busy, but I don’t have the money. You either have a time management or a productivity issue. According to Inman, the average realtor should be able to do about 40 transactions a year on their own, before their production is capped. So if you’re doing a lot less than that and you’re feeling like you’re too busy and don’t have time to invest in growing your business, there’s a problem. Something is not computing. You’re either spending too much time on things that are not helping you grow your business or the reality could be that you’re not working enough.

    One of the number one reasons new agents fail, is that that they had unrealistic expectations of what it was going to take to succeed. They underestimated just how hard they’d have to work to get to the top of that first summit. On average it takes realtors 1-3 years to get there and start seeing momentum. If you’ve been in the business that long and you haven’t reached the first summit yet, it’s time to re-evaluate your business to see where you’re going wrong. One of three things is likely happening.

    You’re not working hard enough or smart enough with your lead generation
    You don’t know enough people and you need to Grow who you know
    You haven’t inspired know, like and trust feelings with people that you do know.

    Sometimes it can be a combination of those three things, but that’s what it comes down to.

    To dive into the first reason a little more, which was you’re not working hard enough or smart enough with your lead generation. It could be as simple as you’re literally not investing enough hours into your business. The general population puts in 8 hours a day, but ask anyone who’s built a successful business what their early years were like and I can promise you it was more than 8 hours. I’m not suggesting you have to do that, but if you do have to recognize the choices that you make and the implications of them. If you’re only actually working 4 or 5 hours a day, it’s likely going to take you twice as long to reach that first summit. It’s your choice, but you can’t have it all.

    So what if you are putting in regular 8 hour days, but you’re still not getting the traction you’d like? Well you might not be working smart enough with your lead generation. I see this a lot too. An agent is randomly trying things with no real strategy or plan and they don’t really know what they’re doing. This is especially true with online marketing, If you can’t afford to hire someone to do it for you, you need to learn how to do it properly yourself. There’s a lot more to it than just posting on social media and boosting your listings on Facebook.

    To better understand how you spend your time, The first thing I would recommend you do, is to spend the next two weeks paying very close attention to what you’re working on and how many hours you’re spending working in a day.

    Ok moving along, reason number 2 that you haven’t reached the first summit could also be that you don’t know enough people.

    Here’s my quick litmus test….if you don’t know at least 5 people who bought or sold this year, you don’t know enough people and you need to focus on networking to grow who you know. I think I say this in every single podcast episode, but it’s an important message so it bears repeating. Don’t meet new people with the intention of trying to get business from them. Meet new people for the sake of meeting new people and that’s it. Focus only on giving them value every chance you can. If you do that well, sales will be a side effect. If you want to learn more about this, I go into more details in Episode 2.

    The last reason you may not have reached the first summit yet is this…If you do know at least 5 people that bought or sold this year, and none of them used you, you’re not building know, like and trust feelings. Now that can feel a bit harsh depending on how you take it.

    Let’s start with the trust factor which is usually the culprit. It doesn’t mean they don’t trust you because they think you’re a slimeball, it usually just means they don’t trust that you’re experienced enough or assertive enough or something like that. If that is the case, there are lots of strategies you can use to influence people’s perception of you in this regard. There’s a bunch of stuff you can start doing and a bunch of stuff you need to stop doing.

    The bottom line is that it’s time to do some real soul searching and solicit some candid, honest feedback from those that know you well. If you want to grow, you need to be willing to take an honest look at yourself and the roles you may be playing that are holding you back.

    Alright to recap the secret to lead generation in real estate. The only way you can generate more leads is to invest time or money or both.

    You can invest your time in one of two ways – the old school ways or new school ways. The old school way is door knocking, cold calling etc. OR you can invest your time the new ways with networking and online marketing. But you have to pick one. There are no other options.

    If you don’t want to invest your time to generate leads or you’re not willing to, you only have one other option and that is to invest money.
    You will have to buy leads or invest heavily in advertising or both.

    So decide what you’re willing to sacrifice and then commit to yourself today that you are going to stop looking for the magic pill and instead you’re going to focus solely on reaching your next mountain summit using whatever lead generation strategy you’ve chosen. Time or money. Put your head down and go all in. Do this and I have no doubt you’ll reach whatever summit you’re going for, in 2020.

    Alright that brings us to the end of this episode, thanks so much for tuning in and I will see you next week. Remember the more you learn the more you’ll earn.

    Until next time!

  • Reality Check

    The 7 Mindset Habits that will Make or Break your Career

    EPISODE 6

    The 7 Mindset Habits That Will Make or Break Your Career

    In this week’s episode, we’re going to look at the top 7 mindset habits that can make or break your real estate career….and they’re not what you might think! Tune in to learn how to shift your thinking to reach your full potential as a real estate agent.

    Listen Now:

    LISTEN ON ITUNES
    LISTEN ON STITCHER
    LISTEN ON SPOTIFY

    Show Notes:

    • Learn more about my ATTRACT™ coaching program for women in real estate here.

    • Learn more about EXP Realty here.

    • Purchase my Planned with Purpose™ real estate planner here.

    Episode Transcript:

    Ok today we are going to be talking about all about how to think like a multiple 6 figure female realtor. I’m going to be talking about the habits that can make or break your career, but I’m specifically talking about mindset habits. There’s lots of other types of habits that I’ll talk about in future episodes, but for today we’re going to be focusing just on mindset habits.

    Whether you’ve been in this business for 20 seconds or 20 years or frankly any entrepreneurial business, I find that so many women I talk to, have not completed the foundational steps of mastering their mindset. And As a result, one of two things happens – they are either struggling to get any kind of traction in their market. Or if they are experiencing success, they’re feeling exhausted and burned out. Struggling, exhausted and burned out are 3 things I don’t want you to become in this business.

    So let’s set the foundations together now in the right way and as a result, be able to build your business faster, gain traction quicker and become more profitable in the long run. There are some incredible roadblocks that hold so many women in real estate back from building the business that they originally set out to create. If you don’t get your head sorted out, if you don’t start thinking like a multi 6-figure realtor, everything else you try to do to build your business will lose power.

    Unknowingly and unwillingly, you’ll limit the impact of everything you do.

    Having removed most of these roadblocks myself, not all of them, but many of them. I’m now so aware when I see other female realtors hitting them. So in this episode, we’re also going to take some audits on where you’re at, to help you really identify any roadblocks that you may not actually be aware of. And then we’re going to smash them to get you confidently on your way to building your business the right way. But I do want to warn you. I’m also going to be giving you some tough love in this episode, building a business is not always sunshine and roses and sometimes you need someone to lovingly give you a shake.

    Ok so let’s have a look at these mindset habits that may be stopping you from being everything you were meant to be.

    Mindset Habit #1 – The Long Game

    The first one that I want to talk about is something that I talk to agents about ALL THE TIME. When you are building a real estate business, the things you are doing today, are actually to build your business in the future. You can’t expect them to work tomorrow. So the first mindset habit you need to have is that you’re playing the long game. If you’re only in this thinking you can make a quick buck, it’s not going to happen. But if you’re in this for the long game and this is a CAREER for you, I have no doubt you’re gonna get there.

    So if you want a successful business in 2 years for example, you need to be doing stuff today to get there in 2 years. The longer you wait to do stuff, the longer it’s going to take to get where you want to go.

    Your first few years in real estate, are all about building your future business. If you get some early sales, that’s amazing, but you need to think of everything you’re doing, as building your future business. You can’t expect to write one blog post and to get a listing out of it. Not realistic. But you can expect to write a blog post every week for a year, and generate a buyer….next year. Do that for a few years and suddenly buyers are calling you all the time….even though you haven’t blogged for a year. Do you see how that works?

    What that means, is that Every second that you’re not busy actively buying and selling homes, you should be busy working to build your future business. Not sitting around twiddling your thumbs hoping for a lead to fall in your lap. Not sitting around stressing where your next pay check is coming from. I want you busy building your future business.

    So if I were to tell you that you’re not going to make consistent money for a few years and the only way you’re going to make that in a few years, is if you start taking consistent steps every day, starting today to build that….wouldn’t that make you wish you started yesterday? If you’ve been in the business for three years and it’s not starting to see consistency, you haven’t been building your business properly. The longer you wait to start, the longer it’s going to take you to get there.

    In traditional sales training, they often use an analogy of fishing for clients, catching with hooks and laying out a lot of lines, but I see it more like farming.

    You prepare the soil, you plant the seeds, you water, weed, nurture and cultivate. Not every seed will take root, it may be only 1 in 10 or 1 in 20.

    Which connections you’ve made will bear fruit and when? It depends – different relationships and situations take different amounts of time.

    The timing is not up to you…

    But if you prepare the soil well and are careful in your cultivation, you will reap a harvest.

    So your first mindset habit to adopt, is to start farming today. If you want your business to be bigger than it is today, even if you’ve already got a good business, if you want it to be bigger in a few years, you need to start farming today.

    Mindset Habit #2 – Exercise Your Resilience Muscle

    Alright, let’s move along to Mindset habit number 2 and this one’s a doozy. If you have any hope of making it in this business, you need to be resilient.

    Building a successful business is not easy. It takes dedication and it takes work. This business will knock you down more times than you can imagine and you’ve got to keep getting back up. You’ve got to be prepared to get knocked down. I always joke “Don’t let this business sucker punch you! At least see it coming. Expect it and then it won’t knock you out at least. It’ll just knock you down. And you will get back up. If it knocks you down 5 times, you’re gonna get up 6 times.

    And when that happens, sure give yourself permission to have a pity party for a day. But that’s it. Don’t isolate yourself for any longer than that. Get back out there and force yourself to exercise and socialize. Those two things are the best medication out there for building your resiliency.

    Another thing that will make you more immune, more resilient is how you view failure. I have often said that I’ve never failed and that might sound ridiculously cocky to some. But I genuinely feel that way. I’ve tried a million things that didn’t work, but that’s not the same as failing….it’s just gathering information. Failure is a mindset, not and end-result. I’ll repeat that again. Failure is a mindset, not an end result. To be successful, you’re going to have to try a lot of different things. I call it throwing spaghetti at a wall to see what sticks. Lots won’t stick, but that’s not failure, that’s just creative exploration.

    Ok what else falls under the resiliency mindset… oh being stress resistant. I had a post on instagram awhile ago that said if you can’t handle stress, you can’t handle success and it’s so true. This business is going to be super stressful. It just comes with the territory. Again, expect turbulence, don’t be surprised by it, because it will happen.

    You need to find strategies that work for you to manage the stress. I drink wine, probably too much of it. I also play tennis, take steams, have a big network of amazing friends, I have a beach house that I escape to, I have a dog – he really helps. I’m pretty tuned in to when my stress levels are starting to exceed my capacity to handle them and I have a shopping list of things I know will help bring them back down to a more manageable level.

    If you’re finding yourself super stressed, all the time, about every deal you’re working on. It’s time to set up some emotional boundaries around this business and compartmentalize it. It’s time to exercise your resilience muscle.

    Oh my god there’s so much else I could talk about under this mindset of resilience, but before I babble on for another 20 minutes, let me pick one last quick thing…

    Oh this one’s good – focus on yourself and not your competition. One of the surest ways to feel like a failure, is to keep tabs on on all the houses other realtors in your market are selling. That’s just torture. Seriously. Stop following them on Instagram, stop paying attention to who bought or sold what listing on MLS. Just keep your head down and focus on building your future business. Trust me, you’ll be so much happier.

    Mindset Habit #3 – Become a Lifelong Learner

    Ok moving along, Mindset Habit #3 is that you’re never done learning. Even if you’ve been in the business for 20 years, there’s still something for you to learn and by having that mindset, it can actually help prevent burnout or maybe it’s more boredom that it prevents. But either way, always be looking to improve yourself and learn things you don’t know. A friend of mine who passed away very unexpectedly a few years ago, used to give me advice whenever I felt like I had a fixed mindset about my abilities or my talents. She’d say you need to stretch and grow, now every time she said it my mind would immediately go to the gutter, but now that just brings a smile to me face. It’s such good advice. So every time you catch yourself thinking you can’t do something or it’s just not your strength, or you’ll never be good at that, tell yourself to stretch and grow. Having a growth mindset is a huge factor in being successful. As is, knowing your shit. So commit to yourself today that you are never going to stop learning. Make it a part of the work that you do everyday to build your future business.

    Mindset Habit #4 – Make a Plan and Work the Plan

    Alright, mindset habit #4 is all about making a plan and working the plan. For the love of God, please don’t talk about how you want to make $250,000 in a few years, but then not do anything to actually build that business. If you’ve set a target for yourself, which you should absolutely be doing by the way, then you need to set a plan in place of exactly how you’re going to get there. I just love when realtors tell me they want to make that kind if income in a few years, but have either no idea how to do it or simply aren’t actually willing to do the work required to get you there.

    Don’t get me wrong, I am ALL about manifesting the reality you desire, but you can’t expect to just visualize it and put it out to the universe and it’s going to happen. It doesn’t work that way. You definitely do need to visualize it, but on it’s own that will never work. You have to set your desire and then take massive, consistent and dedicated action to make it happen.

    When setting goals at the beginning of every year, one of the things that I always like to tell agents is to set a target and then put it aside and focus on what you’re going to do to get there. Lay out all of the steps you’re going to take and the things you’re going to do, to achieve that target. Whether you actually hit that target or not, is somewhat out of your control. But you do have control on whether you did the things you said you were going to do. If at the end of the year, you didn’t hit your targets, did you do what you said you were going to? If you didn’t, we’ll there’s the main reason you didn’t succeed. You have control over what you do and how you spend your time. If you chose to not follow through on what you planned, that’s your choice, but you cannot expect to reach the success you were hoping to…..which is the perfect segue into Mindset Habit #5, which is to

    Mindset Habit #5 – Get Out of Your Own F@cking Way

    People are their own worst enemies. The vast, vast majority of people in this world will not succeed to the extent they wish, because they can’t get out of their own fucking way. They are filled with every excuse under the sun, they lack focus, they aren’t self aware, many have a victim mentality, they allow themselves to ruminate with negative thinking and they have money blocks coming out of their ying yangs that they refuse to acknowledge and release.

    There’s a reason I don’t do one on one coaching with people, nor am I interested in growing my brokerage with new agents – I love the ones I’ve got btw and don’t want more, but I find it so personally frustrating, agonizing actually, working with people one on one and I can see clear as day that the only thing standing between them and the success they desire, is themselves. It’s so frustrating for me to watch, so I don’t do it. I’ve learned that I have to structure my coaching in a way that keeps me arms length from people.

    So if you don’t want to be one of those people, if you want to be one of the ones that breaks through all that crap, then get out of your own way. Take a good, long hard look at yourself and be ready to take responsibility. Open yourself up to see the ugly and decide today that you’re going to make room and you’re going to get out of your own way.

    Ok I can tell I’m becoming really preachy in this episode, right? Sorry. It’s just so frustrating. Ok I’m going to stop. This is also by the way another reason I don’t do one on one coaching. There’s this thing called the Karpman drama triangle which has a rescuer, a victim and a persercuter on each side. and I am a rescuer by nature, but if you’re a victim and you don’t do what I tell you to do, I turn into a persecuter, which is so not what you need. So trust me, I’m protecting people from me, by not coaching one on one.

    Mindset Habit #6 – Take Massive Imperfect Action

    Ok mindset habit #6 that I want you to really consider and watch out for, which is another big pitfall, is perfectionism. Full disclosure, I am the queen of this one and I have yet to master it. Who else is with me here? I see this mindset block a lot more with females than males and it basically boils down to overthinking things and having to get everything absolutely perfect before you do it.
    Getting bogged down in details that don’t really actually matter, trying to understand every single part before taking any form of action, getting all of your ducks perfectly lined up before you actually take a step forward. You know what I’m talking about right?

    People love to talk about the business that they want to build, but the vast majority don’t actually take any action to build it. Some of them get stuck in this state that I call the perfection inertia and before they know it months have gone by and they haven’t made any progress. They have the best intentions, it’s not because they’re not willing to do the work – far from it, it’s because they need it to be perfect, before they’re able to move forward.

    So I need you to bring an awareness to this mindset habit that you need to break. The antidote to perfectionism is to remind yourself to continually take massive imperfect action. Money and success loves speed, so take action and make stuff happen. If you’re launching your website, just get it up, it doesn’t have to be perfect. If you’re writing blogs, just get them done. You don’t need to reread them 15,000 times before you hit publish. If you’re ……

    Mindset Habit #7 – Hustle

    Ok last but not least, the final mindset habit you need to have is that you’re going to need to hustle.

    If you’re in this business to make part-time money, then feel free to work part time hours. But if you have expectations to make anything more than $80k a year, you need to be willing to work full-time and in your first few years in the business, that means working a minimum of 8 hour days.

    Here’s the other trap I see new realtors fall into all the time. They spend a lot of time ‘networking’ and justify that as hours spent working. Nope, that’s socializing. That’s making new friends and deepening connections with others. That’s not working. Is it necessary to grow who you know to succeed in this business? Absolutely, but those hours don’t contribute to your work day.

    The most successful realtors also always never take their foot off the pedal. I see this all the time, an agent will have a good few months making a few sales and they’re feeling all confident and that they’ve got this real estate thing figured out, so they take a little time to just relax and reward themselves – which often is conveniently timed in the summer. All of the sudden it’s fall and their pipeline has dried up and their money has run out and they’re back to where they started.

    Real estate is momentum driven and it takes about 3 years of consistent business for that momentum to start carrying itself. Even then it can dry up. I’ve seen agents that had over 10 years of successful business who decided to take a breather and slow down one year….only to have to rebuild their business almost from scratch the next. So habit # 7 is to Never take your foot off the pedal.

    Alright ladies that wraps up this preachy preachy episode. Anyways I hope you got something out of it, I know I did, I got a lot off my chest, so thank you.

    So next week’s episode….actually you know what, I don’t know what next week’s episode is about yet. I kind of got behind in my podcast schedule because I’ve been busy creating this free online marketing masterclass, but I’m sure I’ll come up with something worth listening to!

    Remember the more you learn, the more you’ll earn.

    Until next time!