Looking back
I’ve been journaling for years.
In my previous life as an engineer, I journaled my day to keep track of what I’d done, what needed to be done, and what I needed to help others do. As I moved to real estate I found value in processing the difficulties I encountered as a new agent by journaling.
Journaling was taught at one of the first coaching seminars I went to. The ‘coach’ explained that he had 2 journals because the human brain is not good at remembering things. It’s made for processing ideas, executing tasks, and getting things done but it’s terrible at remembering things. It will remind you of things at the wrong time (get milk when you’re at the hardware store) or in the middle of the night on the last day of due diligence.
His first journal was similar to my old engineering journal. The second was for capturing ideas to be processed later. He got the idea from David Allen and I’d encourage you to check out Getting things done by Allen but that is not the point of this article.
I was looking back at old journals a few years into the transition from engineer to a real estate agent and noticed something disturbing. My focus was on quitting. I wrote things like “don’t quit’ or ‘hang in there, it will get better”. It’s like telling someone to not think of a pink elephant. It makes you do exactly what you don’t want to do and I didn’t want to quit but I was struggling.
Are you struggling? Is it hard right now? Let me help.
I’m sure I’ve written posts like this before but as we live and process events, our perspective changes, and the cool thing about that, perspective can change everything without changing any of the facts. As we change our perspective we change our thinking and when we change our thinking we change what we do and changing what we do can change our lives.
Focus on what you can do, look forward.
I began to focus on my day ahead and what action I could take that would make a difference.
Who could I call?
My goal was to work by referral so cold calling was not on my list. I had a database of 300 people at the time and calling them was harder than I wanted it to be. It took me a while to understand it was about relationships. The better the relationship, the easier it was to call.
How is your list? Do you have a few really good relationships? The best ones we call A’s or even A+’s. These are the folks who would be happy to see your name pop up on their phone, smile at the interruption, and answer with joy. We might not have a lot of those but they are the most valuable ones on the list.
Start by calling them.
Don’t ask about referrals or the infamous “Who do you know?” question. Instead, ask how they are and really listen. Build the relationship by offering help if they need something (even if it’s not about real estate) and you’re off to a good start for the day.
Follow up with a handwritten note to thank them for their time and go on to the next person. That is how a referral business is built. Do that 3-5 times a day and I promise, the business will come. They will ask you about the ‘market’ and you will be prepared with an answer. It builds as you do this consistently and you’ll find you can have a great year with 20-30 transactions from a solid database of just 100 quality relationships.
I know this might sound too good to be true but it’s not, and I can prove it. If you want to talk more about this in person, I’m here.
I mean it.
If you want to schedule a call you can click on this link. It will take you to a calendar where you can request a 30-minute time block. I’ll accept and we’ll get on Google Meet to talk face to face. We can go longer than 30 minutes too but we might need to schedule another time.
It’s free and it might just help if you’re stuck. No strings, no pitch, just someone to listen and maybe get you unstuck.
I’m here if you want to reach out.
I hope you will.
Thanks for listening,
Jerry Robertson