Welcome and good morning to Mike Ferry TV. It is the week of August the 5th. If you had the chance or the good fortune, I should say, to attend the retreat in mid-July. One of the things I did not have a time to cover was what I’m going to cover this week and next week on Mike Ferry TV, and it’s titled The 10 Challenges of Selling Real Estate in High Volume. So we’re going to go through five this week and five next week because we didn’t get to them during the Retreat. And then I’ll be notifying all of our coaching clients to watch carefully as we would ask you to do the same, because each one of these could mean an extra 5 to 10 transactions a year if applied.

Hardest part of Real Estate, somebody said to me recently, is the fact that we have all this good information available to us, but it’s hard to apply it all. And I always suggest you pick one or two thoughts and go with those to start. And then once you perfect them or get them in motion, then you go to thoughts three and four. So let’s go through the first five together on August the 5th.

1) Accept that change in inevitable and constant

Number one accepting the fact that change is inevitable and constant. During the Retreat, I brought up the word change quite often because we were asking the attendees to consider changing their thoughts, their behaviors, what goes on in their day-to-day life, etc. and I recommended to them a book that I wrote, excuse me, a book that I read in 1970, and the book was was called Future Shock, and it was written by a guy named Alvin Toffler, and it was probably one of the best books I’ve ever read in my career. And I’ve read quite a few books. But Alvin Toffler talked about the fact that the only thing constant in our business or personal life is the changes that take place. And if we’re not living with those changes, we’re getting behind all the time. There’s a great quote in the book where he says, “You can’t stop change, so accept it and move on.” So number one, if I want to sell Real Estate in a higher volume, I have to accept the fact that I’m going to have to change some of the things that I say, some of the things that I do, some of the activities I’m involved in to accelerate my career.

2) Failure is part of succeeding

Number two, and this is nothing new in terms of a thought, but learning that failure is part of succeeding. Failure is part of succeeding. Number one cause of turnover among Real Estate licenses is they cannot accept the fact that failure is part of succeeding. I wrote a quote, “Failure is the stepping stone from where you are today and where you want to be.” Understand that the word “no” only counts the last time before you quit. So there is always going to be a lot of no’s in a business. You know you’re going to call a prospect who says, “I want to buy or sell a home.” And you ask for an appointment and they say, “No, not at this time.” And of course, you’re naturally disappointed. It’s understandable because you had anticipated that you would be getting a listing or making a sale. So learning that failure is part of succeeding. Failure is a stepping stone from where you are today to where you want to be.

3) You can’t find perfection in an imperfect world

Number three on our list of five out of ten, except for accept the fact that none of us are perfect. “You can’t find perfection in an imperfect world.” And that quote comes from Earl Nightingale. But you know, the sad part about it is, you know, most people that are new to Real Estate or are doing 5 to 10 to 15 deals a year have perfected the art of perfection. Every single dot on the above the eye is there. Every T is crossed perfectly. Their files are in perfect order. And then you talk to the guy or gal doing 40-50 deals a year, and they’re rushing through the office in a mad flurry, and they’re throwing files on the desk of their assistant. They’re talking to the mortgage company with one phone, and they’re talking to the title company with the other. And nothing is perfect, but they’re doing a lot of business. So question do you want to do 5 or 10 perfect transactions, or do you want to do 30 or 40, where there’s going to be some eyes that have to be checked and some teas that have to be checked? You can’t find perfection in an imperfect world, per Earl Nightingale.

4) Real estate selling is not always fair

Number four, one that all of us deal with through our business and Real Estate life is the following. Real Estate selling is not always fair. Real Estate selling is not always fair. It’s not fair because “Mike, I met the client first at an open house, and then they went to another open house. And that person stole my client.” Did they really steal your client? Was it your client because you met them before somebody else? Somebody else maybe had a better view of what they were looking for than what you had. Maybe somebody else asked a few more questions. Probably life is not fair, but you got to participate and play the game every day, all day long. And when you do that, you will find that you’ll get your fair share of the market that we’re involved in. I wrote down the following. “Hard work does not always lead to high levels of success. There are bumps in the road and there are people that we can never move to our side. So move on to the next prospect or the next client.”

5) We cannot control everything

And number five for today, we cannot control everything, and I know that most Real Estate people want to control every aspect of every transaction. I wrote down, “We have to stop trying to control everything that goes on in the world we live in, as it just leads to frustration and poor productivity.” We can not control everything. Mike, I want to do more deals. I want my business to be more effective. I want it to be more productive. I want it to be more profitable. Are these going to work for me? Ideas only work when you put ideas into action. If the ideas are sitting on a piece of paper in your office, those ideas are not going to work.

Günther Klaus. My mentor used to say all the time, you know, a Real Estate agent goes to a seminar, takes four-five pages of copious notes, really feels excited about the opportunity, comes back to the office and puts all the notes in their desk drawer, and then locks the desk drawer so nobody can steal the notes that they’re not going to use. So put these ideas into action points one through five. And next week on August 12th, we’ll talk about points six through ten. Thanks for being part of Mike Ferry TV today.