As we head into the new year, I wanted to talk a little bit about motivation. Most folks with regular jobs have motivation built in. Either they do their job, or they get fired, and their bosses are there to remind them of that. But for those of us who are self-employed that motivation falls on us. We must motivate ourselves, and that is one of the top reasons why agents fail.
Both new agents and experienced agents fall into the trap of putting off what they don’t want to do. Yet, if they had bosses looking over their shoulders the tasks would get done. To be a successful agent, especially in today’s market, you must overcome that desire to avoid the tasks that you don’t like to do.
One of the main topics of my coaching is that planning and organization lead to freedom. Freedom is not free, in any sense, you must earn it. The way you earn freedom when you are self-employed is to motivate yourself to do all the tasks needed to be successful, even the ones that aren’t fun!
A lot of real estate agents hate planning and are unorganized, they prefer the fun part of the business, like socializing and branding themselves. It ‘s a very “look at me” industry and these agents typically do well as far as getting business. But they could do much better, and have the freedom they desire, if they embraced planning and organization in their business. Rather than always chasing their tail and complaining about how they don’t have enough time, they could do more than enough business AND have the time to do the things they love to do with the people they love to be with.
Now is the time to plan for 2023 and I would guess that 90% of agents do some type of plan for the next year, and then don’t look at it again until business slows and they’re wondering why. Do your plan now and review it monthly, but don’t stop there, make organizing your life part of your plan. Use a calendar to put all of your business tasks, goals, and ideas, AS WELL AS your personal tasks, goals, and YOU time. Use the same calendar for both, but don’t feel handcuffed to it. If something important comes up when you have a task scheduled, simply move the task to another day, but don’t erase it or it will be gone forever, and that opportunity will be lost.
This is just one example of how to organize your life to give you the freedom you want, without jeopardizing business. It typically takes 3-6 months for my 1:1 coaching clients to get their business, and life, organized. But once they start to feel the rewards, the freedom, they realize what they have been missing and start to thrive, both in their personal lives and business.
Look, I get it, for most folks organization and planning are not fun and it’s easy to just say that you could be doing more valuable things with your time, but the opposite is true, and deep down you know it. It all comes down to motivating yourself to do the things that are not necessarily enjoyable to you.
Some of you may be saying “I’ve tried this over and over, it’s like a diet, I just can’t get it to stick”. As with all of the other responsibilities that come with running your business, outsourcing something you’re not good at is an option. Coaches will not do the work for you, but they will be your accountability, and help you stay on track. Once you develop systems and start seeing the results you will be motivated to continue on that path, but you may just need help getting to that point. If this is you, you are an ideal candidate for 1:1 coaching, make the executive decision to hire a coach.
When you work for yourself, no one cares if you fail, in fact, some people may take pleasure in your failure. Start with mindset, ( a whole other aspect that we cover extensively in my programs), be positive and grateful for what you have. Then think about living the life you dreamed of when you started your business and use those thoughts to motivate you to go get that life!
Brad Staplin is a Real Estate Broker, Business-Life Coach, and a Certified Professional Coach. His coaching philosophy is to “Live Life Unbalanced!” The scales of life should always be tilted on the side of you, your family, and your friends. The freedom of living life unbalanced will attract “more than enough” business to live the life you dreamed of when you started your business. For more information visit www.bradstaplincoaching.com or you can email Brad directly at brad@bradstaplincoaching.com.