After studying dozens of successful people, you will hear talk about this phenom called “mindset”. Frankly, I have heard it so much I get sick of it. Then just when I think I have had enough of it, a little voice will pop up in my head when I am being unproductive and say change your “mindset”. If you are unfamiliar, mindset is simply an attitude or belief about something. I won’t pretend to be a “Guru” at shifting people or changing mindsets so I am not going to dive deeply in this topic. As resource, I have suggested some incredible speakers that do a great job at explaining mindset if you are unfamiliar with this topic. I am addressing mindset because it influences how we conduct business and the choices we make. From a practical standpoint, I am sharing key fundamental mindset tips I applied to my life to help me make 6 figures as a real estate agent. If it worked for me it will work for you. Again, this article is a guide for self-starters! I have personally done everything listed in this article no theory, all work put into practice.
Here’s how I changed my mindset:
1.Understand That Work Is Required
When I got into real estate, I thought it was going to be easy! Believe me, I really did. Since, I knew how to write a real estate sales contract, had previously worked as a real estate assistant, knew a little about houses because my dad was a carpenter, and I knew how to talk to people because I had some telemarketing experience. I thought I was going to be the thebomb.com at real estate. Excuse me, while I catch myself from choking on laughter! It still tickles me to this day that this was my reality! I seriously thought it. I can tell you that’s not it. Sure, your life experience prepares you in some way. However, there is much more work required than writing contracts, putting a listing in the MLS, and talking to people. It is not easy being in real estate despite what you may believe, what you may be reading or even seeing. The people that are highly successful have put in some hard work. Even if the work appears easy, keep in mind just solidifying a win/win relationship, or getting the right connection takes guts, persistence and sometimes years of experience. Let me paint you a better a picture, you may see an agent that lists homes for Builders or they may list every house in a subdivision behind that success was countless hours or prospecting, lead generation and marketing dollars spent to solidify that position. However, that does not mean that real estate will not work for you or that you cannot reach that level of success because you can. I am only saying thatWork is Required. Don’t be naive like I was, prepare to buckle down and grind. Adjust your mindset and attitude to one of “I can do this and I will get it done”!
2. Connect and Establish Relationships
Re-establish relationships with people that may support you includes past employers, co-workers, colleagues, civic club members, professional associations, sororities, fraternities etc. Where ever you have built up a network of people that know you, like you and trust you it’s time to reconnect and get reacquainted. You will need to build or re-establish relationships with these people. This is your sphere of influence or your warm prospects. This is a starting point for building your business. Start to make a list of names of people in these connections. An important thing to keep in mind is that you need to “play nice”, you never know what relationships or people you may cross in the future. Keep in mind everyone needs a place to live, your nemesis today may be a buyer or seller in 5-7 years. If you don’t have a network, it’s time to build one. We will discuss this more in the next articles.
3. Seek Mentorship
For me, mentorship was key. I didn’t understand the value of membership for many years later after being a licensed agent. My mindset initially was truly individualistic, I thought I didn’t need anyone. The only thing that saved me from being a total disaster was that I was smart enough to keep seeking extremely successful people. So, it was as if I was on a deserted island fending for myself and hurricane is brewing in the ocean headed for landfall. I could see the sky darkening, the wind picking up, and the waves crashing ashore I didn’t know what to do but my instinct kicked in and told me to seek higher ground so I followed my instinct. As I started to climb higher and higher, I found essentials like food, drink, and armor along the way that would make survival possible once I got to the top. This is how I view the “mentorship” experience. I didn’t have any person take me under their wing and say, “I am going to mentor you and make you the best real estate agent ever”. Instead, I sought after and followed Top Producing Agents, leaders in industry and eventually it rubbed off and business started to improve because I had picked up such much knowledge along the way. Of course, I suggest you do the same. Mentorship doesn’t have to be formal where you are paying a fee for coaching or training you can simply follow someone on Social Media, subscribe to their YouTube channel or podcast, read their books, or even work with high producing team or in the office of high producing team. There are many ways to get mentorship, choose the one that works best for you. Seek a Mentor that you aspire to be.
4. Visualize Your Business
Like mindset, this is a topic that can be widely discussed. To make this meaningful to you, write down your vision for your business. Do you see yourself selling 100+ homes, a 1,000+ homes a year, or maybe you just want to sell one home per month? What’s your vision for your business? My vision has always been big. I have hundreds of notes on lined paper, copy paper, post-its and to-do list and in my phone. I even record visions or thoughts on my voice recorder on my phone. My vision of my business gets clearer and clearer over time. Your vision may or may not be crystal clear at the start. Your most important work you can do is to simply make sure you have some sort of vision for your real estate business. When you think of yourself as a real estate agent, what picture do you see? How are you dressed? Who are you working with? What are you driving? What does your office look like? These are the types of questions you want to ask to help guide your business direction.
Above all, make sure that you understand that success is about action. Many agents do not achieve success because they refuse to act. Believe you can do it, then actually go do it!
Key actions you should take after reading this article are:
(1) Find someone on a high level to mimic their success.
(2) Study successful people in and outside of real estate.
(3) Listen daily to Coaches about mindset, wealth, and habits.
(4) Write out your vision for your business.
