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

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.