I’ve lost 50 pounds this year. Yay, me!
I know what you’re thinking — what does this have to do with your real estate business?
The two might not seem related, but here’s what they share: good habits. That’s it.
So as some of you might be struggling to keep your New Year’s resolutions to lose weight and grow your business, follow these habits for success and bolster your real estate career throughout 2016.
1. Commit to a plan and put yourself first.
For many of us, it’s difficult to put ourselves first. With kids, a spouse, work and household responsibilities (who has time for fun?), everything else seemed to come before me.
But, that method got me 70 pounds overweight.
I had to learn to put me first, which meant making time to plan food. That was always very low on my list. I used to pick up dinner on the way home and made poor choices based on what was convenient.
Well, real estate is very much the same. You have to put your business first. Plan your day around growing your business first by prospecting.
That delay turns into weeks, which turns into months. Failure to prospect daily leads to failure to grow your business. At john greene Realtor, we don’t hang around the coffee pot in the morning.
Instead, we dedicate our first hours to growing our real estate business. Agents come in and spend time writing notes, adding to their sphere and making contact with their database.
2. What you put in is what you get out.
If I take in too many calories and not the right combination of protein, fats and carbs, I gain weight.
Real estate is much the same way. If you want part-time income, then put in part-time hours. If you want to grow your income, then put in the time!
I am not going to sugarcoat this for you. If you’re a new agent, it takes 60 hours per week your first few years to get a successful business going. But, there is light at the end of that tunnel.
As soon as you grow a great referral business, that time will decrease, and your income per hour will grow.
Our new-to-the-industry agents outperform our closest competitors by six times. Why? Because we share a fundamental belief that real estate is a career, not a hobby. If you want a successful real estate business, treat it like a business.
3. Focus on one day at a time and the results will follow.
When setting out to lose weight, focusing on 50 pounds sounded like a daunting task. How do I get there? The secret to accomplishing ambitious goals is to focus on the daily tasks.
Every day, I calculated breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Every day.
I made sure I was staying on track at each meal by planning for it the day before. Do I need to pack a lunch to meet my goals? How do I avoid being sidetracked at the next lunch meeting when I have to eat out?
At the end of the first week, I lost seven pounds just by paying attention to those meals.
Real estate is the same way. What are the daily things I need to do to be successful? Who do I need to call? What follow-up do I need to do? Who in my sphere is buying or selling? What training do I need to attend? Who closed last year that I need to call and ask for referrals?
To be successful, you need to plan every day. If you focus on the everyday tasks, the results — in the form of closings and income — will come all by themselves.
Jenn Huls / Shutterstock.com
4. Track your progress
Just about every diet program asks that you track what you eat by writing it down. Yep, that works! Calories add up on paper, and you can see those numbers speak the truth.
Write down all your hard work and see where you’ve had the most success and where you need to focus more attention.
We have a system for tracking all of our prospecting, which requires agents to submit a weekly report. It’s a simple Excel form that we update every day. It’s part of our culture and part of our agents’ work habits.
Good habits are contagious.
When I lost the first 30 pounds, people started to notice and were asking how I did it. I shared my plan, and they started doing it, too. One of my fellow agents lost 60 pounds and got off all of her medication for diabetes. Another lost 50 and has kept it off. I have even shared what I was doing with agents from other firms, and they are now on their journey.
If you want to outperform your local competitors by six times, then work as a group with your fellow agents establishing these good habits. Encourage each other, and keep each other accountable.
You can do it! You will share great success and have a more profitable business together.
Whether dieting or growing your business significantly, the collective morale booster will make everyone in your office want to be a part of the success journey.
Tigi Tasso is a broker and training and development director at john greene Realtor, one of the largest brokerage firms in Chicago’s western suburbs. Tasso holds 15 years of industry experience, is a licensed instructor and is member of the Professional Standards Committee for the Mainstreet Organization of Realtors.