Mentor Mondays – No More Excuses

A few days ago, I walked into one of my local favorite restaurants, just to grab a bite to eat, a little sandwich, an iced tea or something. And off to my right were a couple of individuals, and they were talking kind of loud, you can kind of overhear them, what they were talking about. And they were either in the lending business or the real estate business because it was really interesting and the conversation, I picked up bits and pieces, hearing them talk about a deal that wasn’t going to close, and they’d counted on the money that they were going to make, and I think his wife had already spent half of it, or… you guys know the story, right? So, what was interesting about this particular couple, two men actually, not a couple-couple, but two men, is that it was nothing but excuses. All I kept hearing out of one of the gentlemen’s mouths was just excuse after excuse why something was going sideways, or why something wasn’t working out. And it just kind of reminded me to kind of maybe do a session on excuses, and how many of us are out there making excuses, why things aren’t going the way they should be going, instead of looking at the root of the problem as to why it’s not working.

Guys, girls, there’s things out in this business, in this world, we don’t have control over. We don’t have control over a low appraisal. We don’t have control over a buyer not qualifying to get a loan. We don’t have control over a seller’s lack of motivation to sell. We don’t have control over a lot of things that we do in this business. But yet we constantly beat ourselves up, or make excuses for things we don’t even have control over. And it just takes away our focus from the daily things we need to be doing. The new conversations we need to be having with new people out there to get new business, because we’re so focused on all of the negative. And we’re so focused on what’s happening to things in our business that we don’t have control over, so we start making excuses. So I ask you this. You could make excuses, or you could make adjustments to your business to get the results you want.

So which one is it going to be for you?

Are you going to be the agent out there that cries over spilt milk and sits and takes up valuable time maybe from another individual, this was interesting… I’m listening to two individuals have a conversation, one of which was doing nothing but complain. And yet the other person was sitting there, listening, probably being a great friend, being a support to that person, but the valuable time that was wasted in the 20-some minutes I was having a sandwich and an iced tea, listening to this person, just excuse after excuse after excuse. I have to tell you, it’s just, to me, that’s just a waste. Ok? It’s one thing to talk about a deal, it’s another thing to be constantly griping about it, and excuse after excuse why things aren’t working.

Both, myself probably included, could have been doing a lot more things that were more valuable, more productive than sitting, complaining about something.

So, again, I ask you, are you making excuses, or are you going to make adjustments? Here we are in July, I don’t know when this is actually going to be aired or put on to the site, but I’m videotaping this in July, so there’s five months left in the year, and this would be a great time for you to look at your business and see where you are. Are you happy with the results you’ve gotten? Are you not happy? And if you’re not happy, are you still doing the same things that got you here in July? If you are, you’re going to drive yourself crazy, because if you’re doing things that got you to a point in July that you don’t like and you’re not happy with, then you need to make some adjustments. Otherwise, statistically, it’s going to still continue. If you continue to do the same things over and over that got you to this point in July, and you don’t make any adjustments between now and December, then you can pretty much predict the same results are going to be happening.

So, you can sit back, make excuses if you want. I highly recommend that you don’t do that. If you’re watching this video, I don’t think you’re the type of person that’s going to do that, or you wouldn’t be taking time to sit down and watch a 4, 5, or 6 minute video on this particular topic. But, I encourage you to look at your plan right now, make the adjustments that are necessary . Like I said, we’ve got 5 months. There’s plenty of time to do more transactions. As an example, how many of you would like to just close one more deal in 5 months? Or 2 more deals? Or 5 more deals? Or whatever your number is. Then you need to have more, more conversations with people. Stop making excuses about the stuff that’s not happening, the appraisal that came in low, the short sale that the bank’s not negotiating with, and they’re about to foreclose on, and start having new conversations with people so you can get more generated business. Now’s the time to be reevaluating your calendar, if you will, and see if, in fact, you do have those leads out there to follow up. How many of you have leads on your desk right now that you haven’t followed up on?

Go look at your desk. Go look at your Rolodex, wherever you keep your leads, and find out what the last time you spoke to somebody, 6 months ago, that said they were ready to buy, and you haven’t followed up with that person.

Let’s focus on the positive stuff. Let’s focus on what’s going to generate us business, and not the stuff that we can’t control. So, you can make excuses or you can make adjustments. I hope you make the adjustments, and I hope you all get the results that you’re looking for. Hope you found this tip helpful.

Until next time, it’s your business, and what you do with it is totally up to you. See you soon!