Hello again. Welcome back to Mike Ferry TV. My name is Tony Smith, speaker and coach for the Mike Ferry organization and happy to have you here. Thanks for joining me. Today we’re going to talk about something that from the brush view seems like it’s pretty automatic. Pretty of course, that type of thing. But you’ll be surprised of how often agents don’t understand the value of starting every day at zero. Now, if you’ve been around Mike Ferry at all, you know that we try to teach you, try to have you understand all of the benefits of you being able to get your mind started at zero every day, and the agents that somehow seem to do that are the agents that produce at the highest levels possible. So, I want you to think about this. We want you to get in a frame of mind every day that I have no listings, I have no sales, I have no pendings, I have no income. And the only way this thing works is if I go out and earn the job today, starting at zero. All right, now, in the Real Estate industry, we know that over half of the agents in North America have not sold one house this year so far. So, it’s pretty easy for some people to start at zero, isn’t it? But the reality is we have to train ourselves to do this. And what we’ve noticed is that when it comes to starting at zero, agents tend to fall in one of two camps.

Okay, the first camp you have to consider, do I tend to not start at zero because I get knocked down or I get discouraged, or I get frustrated and I stay frustrated for way too long? Or am I the type that doesn’t start at zero every day because I have something great happen. I get a commission check, I take a listing, and I celebrate that listing too long. So, it’s usually one way or the other. Either I stay down too long, or I stay up too long. Which one are you? Okay, and I’d ask you to really consider what that means. Now, there are a few agents out there that stay down too long and stay up too long. Now that’s a nightmare, isn’t it? Okay, but you have to really measure this. I coach an agent. I’ve coached him for a long time. His name is Patrick Southern. Many of you know who he is. And I have to tell you, he is probably one of the best agents I’ve ever met that has figured out mentally how to start every day at zero. Like, I honestly believe he literally comes to work every day and feels like he has to be rehired today. Like he has to be. He’s not employed until he does his job, and it’s no wonder that he does 175 deals a year. And it’s no wonder that he has the net worth that he has, because he has this magical ability to start at zero. So right out of the gate, I would ask you to just give yourself a quick measure here. How good are you at starting every day at zero? Yourself personally? Do you stay down too long? Do you stay too excited, too long or somewhere in between? So, I want to have us think about specifically more on how you can pull this off. There are some techniques that you can use to train yourself to start at zero.

1) Don’t hoard stuff

The first thing I wrote down is we don’t hoard stuff. You’ve heard Mike Ferry say it. Go through your closet. Throw out all of the clothes you don’t wear anymore. I mean, all of them. If you don’t wear them, throw them out. There’s probably 80% of people’s closets that could be thrown out, gotten rid of. Okay, that means we’re not living in the past. We have the clothes that we wear, and we don’t have a lot of excess. When’s the last time you went through and cleaned your closet out?

2) Clean out all the junk out of your office 

How about number two? I wrote down, let’s clean out all the junk out of your office. How big are the piles on your desk? How big is the paperwork? How much stuff is piled up in your office? How often do you need to completely clean your office out to keep it clean and neat? When’s the last time you did it? Clean out the office.

3) Clean all of the leads and all of the junk out of your computer 

How about three? Clean all of the leads and all of the junk out of your computer. Man, I tell you, the stuff that piles up in our computers these days, we get leads and apps that we load that we never use. Right? Probably 3 or 4 times a year. You need to just clean up all the stuff technology wise, that’s piled up, it keeps you fresh and clean.

4) Avoid spending a lot of time hanging out with people that are stuck in the past

How about this.. Avoid spending a lot of time hanging out with people that are just flat, stuck in the past. All right. It’s hard to start at zero if you’re hanging around people all the time that are stuck in their high school days or their college days, or back when they had this incredible year. Or worse yet, people that are stuck back in some setback they had. Don’t spend a lot of time hanging out with people stuck in the past.

5) Set aggressive goals for today

Look at five on this each morning. Set aggressive goals for today. At the end of the day, critique your performance and then move on. Right? I mean, this is straight from Napoleon Hill. Decide your goals, what you want to achieve. You start your day with those goals. You give it your best shot. And then at the end of the day, you critique your performance, and you go back to your goals. Do you often spend time hanging on to a bad or a good day yesterday? Let it go. Critique your performance and move on.

6) Get involved with fun, exciting short-term contests for production

How about number six on this? Get involved with fun, exciting short-term contests for production. Short term. Hey, let’s see if we can’t. If I can’t set three listing appointments this week, let me set up a challenge with another agent and have a little short term mini goal. Let’s throw down a challenge. It causes you to start back at zero. You’re not hanging on to the past.

7) Report your numbers every day

I wrote this down. If you want to start at zero, report your numbers every day. One of the fastest ways to get yourself clear on things is to report the truth. Which are your numbers? Are you one of those agents that can’t wait to get into the analyzer and report the numbers for this day’s productivity? Or are you one of those agents that likes to wait a week or so and then throw all the numbers in right before your coaching call? Okay, so we want you to report your numbers daily because then you can look at it, address the reality of the numbers and then move on. Right. Report your numbers every day.

8) Study the market regularly

How about this. Study the market stats regularly. One way to bring yourself back to zero is have a really close connection to what’s going on. How many listings are happening every day. How many sales are taking place every day? How what’s going on with the market conditions? If you’ll look at that regularly, it generally causes more urgency and you want to get back in the game.

9) Meet new people every day and stop hanging out with the same old ones

I wrote this down. Meet new people every day and stop hanging out with the same old ones. We encourage this at the events you guys know. Don’t sit by the same old people that you sit by every time you’re at an event. Don’t go to lunch with the same friends at the office every day. Find new people to hang out with, right? Get out of the cliques. If you’re out meeting new people and you’re doing new things, you stay fresh and excited.

10) Make decisions fasters

How about this one? Make decisions faster. One way to start at zero. For those of you that are analytical, I would ask you to consider. Write down what is one decision that I need to make by 5:00 today? If you can think more like Mike Ferry and make decisions fast and decide, decide, decide, decide. You start at zero. What decisions are you harboring right now? Are there any decisions that you should have made a couple of days ago? It’s not starting at zero.

11) Take 15 minutes with a blank piece of paper and brainstorm ideas

How about this one? Take 15 minutes with a blank piece of paper and just brainstorm ideas. What if in your morning routine you just had a blank piece of paper and you just brainstormed ideas? It keeps the ball rolling. You’re constantly moving on. New ideas don’t get stuck in the old ones.

12) Make a specific financial plan that accommodates all the money you plan on making this year

I wrote this down. Make a specific financial plan that accommodates for all the money you plan on making this year. Boy, if you want to start at zero, have a rock-solid financial plan that covers it. All right. How much am I going to fund in my investments? How much do I need for my business expenses? My personal expenses? Am I looking to pay off any debt? Am I really looking to buy some more investment property, save more money? It causes you to get motivated and back to zero. Commit to the first commission check of each month. Going to savings okay, if you want to remove complacency and want to start at zero, what if the first commission check you made every month was not yours? What if it had to go straight into your investment account, straight into your retirement account, straight into your savings account? You talk about getting back to zero fast.

13) Use your business plan as a working document

Use your business plan as a working document. If you want to learn and train yourself to start at zero, start reviewing that business plan and make it a working document. Not a static document. What changes need to be made in your business plan right now? What changes do you need to make? If you’re constantly evolving your business plan, it keeps you out of the old habits.

14) Critique every listing appointment after you go on a presentation

I wrote down critique every listing appointment after you go on a presentation. Critique the appointment. How is my energy? How is my enthusiasm? Did I send the pre-listing package? Did I pre-qualify 100%? Did I call back and confirm? How did I do on the actual presentation and then let it go? Okay, there’s no use in harboring a presentation for ten days, good or bad.

15) Door knock after every listing appointment, whether you get the listing or not

I wrote down, door knock after every listing appointment, whether you get the listing or not. If you want to train yourself to start at zero, you have a listing appointment today. You walk in there, you get that listing signed, go out on the spot and knock on a few doors around that listing. It trains you to go back to work. Okay, if you go on a listing appointment this afternoon and you don’t get the listing, go knock on some doors. It trains you to go back to work and not settle in on the fact that you didn’t get the listing back to zero.

16) Set new accountabilities with new accountability partners often

And then the last thing I wrote down. We have to set new accountabilities with new accountability partners often. Okay, if you’re not constantly being a little bit on edge about the accountabilities you have, do you have any accountabilities that are just flat not working anymore? Have you been with an accountability partner too long? It’s time to make changes. Okay, so the moral of the story is, if you can learn to start at zero pretty much every day you work, your income goes up and I know you all want more income. Think about these thoughts, see how they apply in your business. Thanks for your time.