Conditions are improving! Can you feel it?
Superstars…
As we close in on the end of May, I am extremely encouraged by the level of activity and closings that you have posted this month, and even more encouraged by the closings that are already scheduled for June! This past week, HUD improved the $8,000 tax credit for first time home buyers by allowing the credit to be used towards the down payment of home purchases for first time buyers, which will surely provide an uncontestable motivation for wannabe homeowners. This is an unprecedented “stimulus package,” and everyone you know should be prompted to help you contact anyone who wants to own a home for the first time. As a professional, this new opportunity presented by HUD should be presented in practically every e-mail, every note, every call and every conversation you have for quite some time!
Based on the amount of activity that is occurring in the market right now, all buyers who have been dragging their feet, hoping that economic conditions might even worsen and improve their ability to strike a “Guinness Book” deal on a home should be very concerned that they may have, indeed, missed their best opportunity. It is imperative that you study the statistics in the market and immediately feed them to your database and your farm. While there is a lot of biased, agenda-focused reporting on our industry, our data is unbiased, unfiltered and exactly what consumers need to be using when making critical decisions for buying and selling real estate. Additionally, make sure you come to team meetings on Tuesdays because these meetings are the best indicators of the market’s direction. When our people come together for Tuesday team meetings, everyone has a sense of the energy and the demands of the market, and that’s precisely the ingredient that could make or break your ability to properly guide your clients through the week ahead.
In February, Gary Keller said that the next 180 days may be the toughest days in our careers. If we keep leaning into this dip, we may find that it was only 90 days of extraordinary pain, rather than 180. May and June feel like a welcomed rain at the end of a long drought. Perhaps our greatest responsibility is going to be doing everything we possibly can to keep this momentum going and make every month a rainmaking month. Let’s dig in and make sure that this big, ugly thing we’ve been pushing continues to move. Bit by bit, we are gaining speed.
I am so proud of our collective efforts. As tough as this market has been on everyone everywhere, I have to say that I feel that our market centers feel more like a team than ever. What a testament to the culture of this company and the unshakable entrepreneurial spirit of our people.
For years we have said that “money doesn’t change people – it exposes them for who they are.” While I wholeheartedly agree with that, I have to say that a lack of money exposes people even more. Each of you has proven your mettle just by outlasting the shift in the market. I’m proud to say that our market centers have been “hurricane ready” in our construction and our commitment to protecting the jobs of our staff, the businesses of our associates and the value that we strive to provide in the market place.
I hope this message finds you – or makes you – more determined and more optimistic than you’ve been in a long, long time.
Your #1 Fan…
Better your inputs, better your life!
At our monthly agent mastermind lunch, I urged those in attendance to take inventory of their inputs. “Inputs” are simply the people/tasks/things that have your time and attention, and therefore have an impact on your perspective, your attitude, your energy level, your intelligence and frankly, your future. Now more than ever, who you spend time with matters. Where – and how – you spend your time matters. So, ask yourself… Who and what are you plugged into? What value are they adding to (or taking away from) the quality of your life? How does your environment support your needs, reduce your fears and arm you with strength, knowledge and confidence? The quality of the next 10 years of your life will be determined by your answers to these questions today.
How much time are you giving to the people who contribute the most to the quality of your life? How much time are you giving to the people who take away from it? If you don’t like the answers to these two questions, then you have to ask yourself, “Why?” “Why am I giving too much time to the wrong people and too little time to the right ones?”
Recently, an agent joined us after she told her broker that she wanted to make $100,000 in the next year, and her broker told her that $100,000 was too lofty a goal for her and that she should set her sights on something more realistic in this market! As a leader, I cannot imagine having such a limiting view of someone’s potential – particularly if that someone is in our company! The biggest frustration I have always dealt with is seeing more in people than they see in themselves. As challenging as this market is, making a six figure income is something everyone CAN do. Not earning a six figure income in any market has nothing to do with “can” or “can’t” and everything to do with “will” and “won’t.” My suspicion is that everyone who won’t make six figures is being told they can’t. They’re telling themselves they can’t; their friends say they can’t; their spouse says they can’t; even their broker says they can’t! Those who will are those who believe they can, and most likely, their inputs help shape their thoughts and their successful realities.
To me, the word “can’t” means “impossible.” And since very few things in life are impossible, then “can’t” should be replaced with “not willing to put forth the effort.” There’s no such thing as “I can’t.” There is only “I won’t.” “Can’t” sounds better to most people because it implies that something is outside of your control, which means one is merely a victim of circumstance. “Won’t” is tougher to say because it more accurately says that things are within your control and you are not willing to put forth the effort necessary to accomplish it.
Jennifer Barnes recently said that her favorite word is “Yes” and her least favorite word is “No.” Who’s telling you “Yes, you can!”? Who’s telling you “No, you can’t!”?
All of us need a cheering section of people shouting, “You can do it!” as we run our races. We have a responsibility to choose our cheering section well and to make sure that we are properly cheering others on, too. What we expect and need from others we should provide to them as well. To get good input we have to give good input. Ultimately, it’s the demonstration of the right thoughts and behaviors that will influence us the most.
Thinking bigger than ourselves and bigger than our current situations rarely comes from within without the consistent exposure to others who demonstrate how to do it. For nearly 10 years now, I have enjoyed the pride that comes with being a tiny part of building a company that matters to every agent who wants to make a difference and who wants to succeed in a positive, caring, learning based and productive environment. Our sources of input are unrivaled. Culture, productivity, profitability and personal and professional growth are demonstrated every single day in our market centers.
If you are reading this and thinking that you need to upgrade the inputs in your life right now, I can think of no better place to start to do that than our offices. I doubt that there is any company, in any industry, that is equipping its associates to succeed in any market like we are. Abundance lives here.
Better your inputs, better your life.
Carpe Diem
For years now, I have tried to remind our agents to stop looking at the year as a twelve month count-down that begins on January 1st and ends on December 31st. A reason that this traditional view of the calendar can be dangerous is because it causes us to buy into the stereotypical cycles of behavior and outcomes, and it causes agents to start up, then stop, then start up their businesses again, year after year. It’s true. Many agents buy their Halloween costumes and give up lead generation until the ball drops on January 1st, which is why their business doesn’t really start putting points on the board until spring has sprung.
Personally, I’ve always mentally found myself sandwiched between the last 12 months and the next 12 months, regardless of what month I’m in. I think I do that because it makes every day feel like New Year’s Day in some way. I’m always hopeful of what I can accomplish over the next 12 months. It also helps me think of “today” as something more important than a day; it makes today the first day of my next year, and I can treat tomorrow the same way.
What if someone told you that what you do today will determine what you make this year? What if what you do today will determine the quality of your marriage this year? What if what you do today will determine the quality of your spiritual life this year? What if what you do today will determine the quality of your health this year?
The fact is that what we do today will determine our outcomes tomorrow. This is particularly true when you treat tomorrow with the same amount of intensity as you treat today, and you treat the next day with the same amount of intensity as you treat tomorrow, and so on.
Seriously, how much effort and energy and action and focus would you put into today if you were guaranteed to have a yearly reward proportional to your activity? Little effort, little reward. Mediocre effort, mediocre reward. Huge effort, huge reward. The choice is yours. The fact is that thinking that way is exhausting for most people, yet invigorating for others.
While we can plan for tomorrow, we can only “do” today. It seems that successful agents tend to “do” more. They “do” more good things; they “do” more mistakes; they “do” more calls, more e-mails, more open houses, more mailers, etc. They “do” more and plan less.
If you’re not careful, your competition may be creating their future while you are planning yours. I challenge you to ask yourself this question all day long: “Is what I’m doing right now going to have a positive outcome or not?” The author Matthew Kelly might say, “Is what I’m doing helping me to become the very best version of myself, or some lesser version?” It’s an easy question to ask. Unfortunately, it’s even easier not to ask it.
Now is the time to get into action, the right action. The next 12 months, for most, should be better than the last 12 months. Is the rumbling surge of activity in our industry a natural occurrence in some annual real estate cycle, or is it the sign that the bottom has just passed us by? The power is in the question, not in the answer to it. More importantly, the power is in the number of people that you can get to ask that question themselves.
I recently attended a morning Bible study, and the speaker said something powerful that has stuck with me ever since. He said, “The wisest thing a person can do is to treat things according to their true value.” What’s more valuable than today?
The next 12 months could be your best ever, but only if you treat each “today” with that kind of value. Keller Williams has more tools and is doing more than any other company to insure you have everything you need to make every day a day that makes a difference. So, seize the day. “Carpe Diem.” And “Happy New Year!”
Your #1 Fan,
