That you need to get honest first about your finances, right? So I always sit down with people and I say okay, what does it cost you to run your life per month and whatever number they give me I always add an extra thousand, sometimes two, right? Because they go. You know it cost me four grand a month and I'm like, okay, six like Dairy it out. Do you ever go on vacation? Did your car for a breakdown? You know life happens, right? Yeah, Everyone we speak to similar to that we say we need we need your survival goal, right? We need your good life goal. We need your jungle for your first 12 months, right? Because you ask for one number, it's never accurate.

Yes, for the three numbers you start to, there's usually reasoning that comes behind it too. So you should probably ask yourself that you know what's my survival goal. What's my good life goal, right? What's my dream goal for the next 12 months, right? And uh, you know you'll start to learn a lot about yourself when you put that number on paper? Yep, I'll give you one more and then give you some feedback on it. Are you struggling in this market to find your way to find your business? To find the income you, your family, the people you care about the most deserve from you.

Do not give up hope. instead take this as a calling. This is your action plan for the second half of the year or wherever you find yourself listening to this to help you get there. I've got my buddy Doug Edrington Uh the top team in all of Chattanooga Long time client, long time friend, Wildly successful I Literally just said to Doug Doug You're on a team.

You run a business. You are an agent. You've been doing this for a long time. You've seen the Cycles You've worked through the cycles.

What are the most important things someone that is struggling today in this market has to do to right the ship? Where do we start? Oh yes we do. so. Doug Uh, Chattanooga Berkshire Hathaway right on Pace this year, How many transactions will you guys do? Probably 500 transactions. Okay, so 500 transactions which anyway added up is just a lot of experience.

How long in the business total I Just turned 18 as a real estate agent the other day I had the Facebook memory that popped up 18 years of a license. Are you even 40 yet? Uh, 38 38. I Had a feeling all right. So so I was like literally almost half of your adult life.

So let's take this topic. Uh, the woman listens right now. the guy listens. Right now it's like finally, okay so just get to it.

Tell me what? I have to do What's the first thing that somebody has to do to write the ship? Well we got to figure out what the why is and and I think we should all stop. should stop comparing ourselves to the idols that we put locally. Yes, you know, because I will say 18 years in the business it was. It was easier to get started thin than it was today.

I Agree, You know back then it was like open house floor Duty right? And that was kind of it. Well, there was right. There was no simple Flex there was no, you know, market leader VIP there's no open. You didn't have all these Arbitrage companies.

So back then when just for the context is back then? uh, the early days of lead generation. just to to speak this was, we'd sell five million houses. There'd be about five million leads generated. today.

there's 200 million leads generated and we sell 4.2 million houses, right? So there's there's just a lot of I Don't want to say waste out there, but there's a lot of confusion. So to figure out what your why is right, because it's not. how do I do that? Well I think uh I I'm a big fan of surrounding myself with as many people as I possibly can that I can learn something from right? Um, you've said it many times. Don't compare yourself to others but I can't help it I still compare myself to others like from a from a competitive standpoint from a goal set point like I do want to be like them but at the same time I think I think you got to be really careful that you don't end up putting yourself in a position that that well I can't get like that person because they haven't used to feel bad.

You start to feel bad. Yeah, yeah, yeah, feelings are tough sometimes, right? right? Yeah. So let me give a little tactical, uh, insight to to you know, keep that conversation flowing. I would say to you that you need to get honest first about your finances, right? So I always sit down with people and I say okay, what does it cost you to run your life per month and whatever number they give me I always add an extra thousand, sometimes two right? Because they go.

You know it cost me four grand a month and I'm like, okay, six Like do you read out, do you ever go on vacation? did your car for breakdown? You know life happens right? Yeah, Everyone we speak to similar to that. We say we need it. We need your survival goal, right? We need your good life goal. We need your jungle for your first 12 months, right? Because you ask for one number, it's never accurate.

Yes, for the three numbers you start to, there's usually reasoning that comes behind it too. So you should probably ask yourself that You know what's my survival goal. What's my good life goal, right? What's my dream goal for the next 12 months, right? And uh, you know you'll start start to learn a lot about yourself when you put that number on paper. Yep, I'll give you one more and then give you some feedback on it.

The second thing I think you need to ask yourself is who would I do it for it being whatever it takes to pull yourself out of this and make money I've just found Doug that I will do infinitely more for others than I will for myself and even in the early days of my career I found myself like in the beginning running my dance company I wanted to I wanted him to be happy I wanted him to be successful I wanted him to recognize me for the work that I was doing so. Sure, I was making you know some shackles and making some money, but it was far more about the significance that helping him then it was helping my wife, helping my family, helping my friends, helping my coaches, helping my clients. So I would challenge you to say who are you willing to put your ass on the line for to make a public declaration about what you're going to do because I just find we don't break those promises we might break the promise of when we say to ourselves in the mirror today. I'm going to make phone calls today I'm going to follow up today I'm going to do more today.

I'm going to book an appointment Oh I got busy. but if you have like your five-year-old your seven-year-old your 13 year old, your grandmother, your aunt that raised you and you say to them I'm gonna do this by that and when I do, here's the reward for us or here's the pain for us. They will hold you accountable on a rigorous way and you wouldn't even need it because you you put your butt on the line for people you care for. Thoughts: I agree wholeheartedly at the same time.

I'm just thinking of an agent that I was talking to the other day. That is, parents aren't around yeah, single right? And and and even though he doesn't have that necessarily that person, he was already future pacing. It's like you know what, My future wife, my future kids, my future Yes. and so whether you say that's for yourself or that's for your your future loved ones around you like like just get really clear on that.

So I couldn't agree more. Okay and the last one I would say just on this. why is I think we need to connect the dots emotionally like like why could be? It doesn't have to be this 30-year Vision right? It can be at a certain level, right to pull us forward. Uh man on the moon.

Bring him back in 10 years without anybody dying right? like this big monster. Audacious. You know, moonshot goal. Sometimes it's just what do I do on a daily basis to light the fire? So I I don't know about you.

but I find myself um when I when I open up YouTube in the morning as I'm as I'm searching for something you know, inspirational or motivational muck still shows up inside. there. you know? Oh, this political oh that or just nonsense, right? because it's just they're always trying to feed you stuff. But I find like you know.

Quick Search Motivation Quick search Inspiration Quick search. Light The fire. Quick search Arnold Schwarzenegger doing a talk which I was listening to this morning was hysterical, right? But although I got five rules for you right? like as funny as it sounds like, I'm losing this I sent it to Like both my boys send it to my wife and I know someone's going I don't like Arnold it doesn't matter, it's it's just I try every single day to light the fire because we know when we create a couple new synapses in our head, we know we hear something that gets us going. It's inspiration, right? It's it's I want to be imbued every day with a spirit to act.

So I'm not just doing it to like get fired up I'm doing it to give myself the energy. so I have to go do that thing that I'm not like on empty when I start. Does that make sense? Yeah, What about you I love that you share it too because like I've gotten clips from you Um Gina like randomly sends me these clips all the time, right? all the time, right? But then if you make it a point every single morning to get that inspiration or whatever routine you're on, get that inspiration. You share it with others.

That law of response City kicks in and you'll start to see them starting to share stuff with you and it's like, wait a minute. This might be my purpose. This is what I'm here for. So so for our listener.

just to be clear that you know, uh old Mentor Friend Tony Robbins would say it's 80 psychology, 20 tactics and and I could make the argument. Depending on who you are could be 50 psychology and 50 strategy and tactics, it could be 95.5 It doesn't make a difference. There is a big percentage of what we do every day that starts with getting your head on straight, getting fired up, acting as if moving forward, putting your shoulders back right and go. So you gotta do that right? that is.

Paramount Beyond that, Beyond that, let's go into the tactics. You wrote down a bunch of stuff that you know if you were in that slump. if you were in that. I don't mean to call your situation a slump, but you know what I'm talking about like you're You're not getting the results you want.

Walk us through, just rip through the entire list and then we'll unpack them. Go. Okay, so I just wrote down a couple things here: open mind having open minds, and stop choosing to be ignorant I Feel like many of us choose to be ignorant because we're not willing to to recognize that. Hey, someone can help us, you know AI can help us now.

I mean how often are you brainstorming right right before? So I'm gonna slow down I'm gonna slow down. But all right. so have an open mindset I'm trying something new. But I think like, stop choosing to be ignorant, right? Yes, um, the next one.

I Put down here: repeating the wrong is a waste of time and actually damaging. Oh, so keep doing. don't do, don't keep doing the same stuff If you found yourself saying I've made 150 calls in the past two days and have gotten no appointments like don't go for 151 doing the same thing right. Like go for 150.

Try a totally different presentation. Try a totally different script right indoors, right? You need to get help. Okay, go to the next one. Um, first your first attempt at doing first.

Tip that I've ever done at doing anything right usually is a lesson, right? We could say it's a failure. It's a screw up, but like it's a lesson, right? Um, I think that also includes who you partnered with. Yes, most people I speak to in this business. They got in the business because of a friend or a convenience of location or something of that nature.

And so if you fell off the bike for the first time, why is it any different that you might have chosen the wrong location for the first time? right? right? So I think we could dive deep into that? Um Master one thing at a time. one thing at a time I think new agent, struggling agent trying to chase 47 rabbits catches nothing right? Absolutely, but true. Absolutely All right. I have I have a whole thought around that I'm sure you do.

I'm sure you do. Um, understand. you have choices. Uh, it's easy to make change.

It's also easy not to make change. Yes, yeah, so a lot of your stuff is psychological. but I know there's a lot to unpack. I I'm going to go a different direction for a second and let's talk about each one of these.

So um, case study, client of mine Bob Kuiper Shout out to Bob Uh, Bob became a coach with me I knew him back in the days at my dad's I was his coach. then when I transitioned and started this new business 20 years ago, you know he followed over eventually and then we started doing more stuff together. Um, but Bob was an office manager who transitioned to becoming a real estate agent right up in Minnesota he was with Re Max at the time and when he transitioned from manager to agent, he thought I've been helping agents like sell houses forever I Got this. No problem.

This will be easy right? This will be easy. So he does like 28 deals his first year which was really darn good. Right past clients and sphere and relationships and back then there was none of the ways you could Arbitrage leads today Sweat Equity right. Doing the work the next year goes from 28 to 61 right? and this is when I started really working with them.

We made that big jump and it was like him and Debbie Holloway and all these people I was coaching at the time that were just all remarkable and everybody was at about 60 transactions trying to go to 120. we start the new year. Bob puts together his last escrow of the year and for him at the time it's like a 1.2 million dollar transaction which was like four times the size of his average sales price. Big deal.

So he is starting the year and his mind with like four deals and on like January 7th the deal falls apart. He has no listings, he has no escrows. He's got a lot of leads in the pipeline because he's doing the work but literally calls me in a panic and says I'm starting over and I'm like perfect I have the Bob Kuiper plan. he's like what's that In Fairness I think I pulled it out of my booty in the moment and said this is what we should do and now understand Bob is married, he's got kids, he's got responsibilities going back to the you know sort of why behind this I said here's what I want you to do I want you to be at your office by X time you decide on the time I think he said like 8 30.

and I said okay when you get there I want you to do a quick search on the MLS because those that know the market are the most intelligent agents so you got to just scan really fast. What? Selling what's not selling what you know price per square foot. you know, just just get an understanding of the market then I want you to role play for just five or six minutes and I don't care if you stand in the corner and look in the mirror and go me, me, me, me just warm up before you call anybody because the people I'm gonna have you call first are the ones that are most likely going to do something and he's like okay, like who and I go then I want want you to go for 30 to 45 minutes on every new expired and every expired you haven't talked to in the last 30 days he goes I don't call expireds I said well you do now because you have no escrows, nothing going on, and even in today's environment I've had multiple people in this room today and they're like Carolyn young hey I'll get you know 35 or 40 listings this year from expireds. Yes, even in this crazy Market they're happening so he starts calling expireds, give them a couple scripts and dialogues, tell them to just come from a sense of contribution.

Hey, your home didn't sell. if I brought you an offer yesterday, what would you have accepted? If you were to move, you know what? Would you? just you know all the things that we know right. Does that? Then go for sale by owners now already this person's watching going. what? I don't want to do either one of those to which my response is the path that you've taken has gotten you here.

choose another path. He does Fsbos there was three or four in the market right? So every day he's you know and you know this like this, this has been a bread and butter for you. He does that. Then I say then I want you to do a set of follow-up sessions where you're just you're following up on anybody you miss a day before any promises you made.

Any follow-ups you know you need to do every day, every day, every day. then I want you to spend the last 90 minutes just calling your past clients and sphere and checking in how you doing. it's been forever. What's going on? What Shake and bacon blah blah blah.

whatever the script the time was but it was three hours, three hours. He finished that year at over 120 transactions closed and pending starting with basically zero and and what he got from that is you. You know the person you know what he got was not that I was playing small or playing safe. it's that he'd always basically ran his business doing just enough.

He had never really pushed it. You know what I mean like he never really said what would going for gold look like. You know that that millimeter difference between first place and second place in the middle of like talking to a buddyman Apollo Ono right speed skater right? Like talking to him and he's like I would win by like that much by that much he said to win by that much was I just did more than everybody else right? The great, uh, you know Muhammad Ali line when Arnold Schwarzenegger asked him how did you get such amazing abs and Muhammad Ali says you know I've just I just do a lot of crunches he's like well how many do you do and he goes I don't know because I don't count until it starts to hurt So I have no idea how many sit-ups I'm actually doing what if just one time in your life in your life in my life we went for it that hard. You know, like you hear about these workout routines 75 hard or back in the day it was like Fit for Life or any other one of those programs.

They all basically say the same thing: We're going to do something every single day. every single day, every single day, every single day until you get into momentum. And that is where the power is. So when I say all that you're a coach, you're a mentor to somebody.

I'm thinking I think I'm thinking as you're talking here every single example you used including the first one his name is Bob Bob Bob Yeah, Bob Okay, I haven't had a pleasure to meet him yet. Yes, but someone pushed him, someone challenged them right and and and so if you're if you're doing it alone, who's gonna push you? It's not like you wake up one morning and say I'm going to be a sprinter no like that Today I'm going to be a marathon runner. That never happens. It absolutely never happens.

So I think it's it's a lot of it has to do with who. Whether it be a coach, a mentor, a broker, a team leader, an accountability partner, right? a buddy. Sometimes it's your spouse, right that says why are you still in bed? Yes, Get your ass out. And so so I think it's it's making sure that you have someone there with you along with your journey.

Yeah, to get just literally that much closer. which is the one percent game every single day, right? So the other side of that is for this person listening and you know you have a lot of insight. So I'll say something. you unpack, it is.

um, you have to get honest about your schedule right, and what you fill in it. So so we believe that you know if it's in my schedule, it exists. If it's not in my schedule, it doesn't exist And I've got to do it by memory. So I always think through.

Okay, so what is the highest and best use of your time? What are the activities state? So here you are in a hole trying to get out right? So to your point, Stop digging right? Like get rid of the shovel, climb out of the hole, and let's start doing the activities that would help us. So Studying the market, looking at property premium property, talking to other agents about pocket listings and opportunities, calling your database every single day, taking the Zillow text example that I've used so many times. where I say just just take a hundred people in your phone, type in their name, go to their address right, and type it in in Zillow or Realtor.ca or Realtor.com.au wherever you are in the world, right? Like and literally just go and say oh hey Doug I was thinking about you this morning screenshot of their property and send it to them. hey Doug I was thinking about this morning I was on Zillow What do you think about this price? Send: What do you think about this price Send see if you shake if you shake the tree enough an Apple's gonna fall and that's a very non-threatening question by the way.

so they're probably gonna have a conversation with you for sure. So schedule and behaviors, What are your thoughts? Well I it takes me back to I don't know Six years ago Brian Eliel called me yeah, says hey, you should be a coach yeah yeah and I said and my first reaction was like anybody yeah like hey, I'm honored I'm flattered but I there's no way I have no time. there's absolutely no way and conversations continued and continued and next thing you know I realized I was like man I actually have a lot of time I don't know how much time I have right? and and then when I started committing to something new I I it became so important that like right if I don't live by a schedule I'm going to fail somebody yes and so continuing to live by that schedule as Elementary that it sounds it's I mean everything you said so far even talking to Bob it was all fairly Elementary stuff it wasn't like. that's the point.

Here's a new shiny tool and you need to figure out how to drive this new Lamborghini right? right? If anything it's you know for the for my friend listing and thank you thank you for being honest with yourself and clicking on this and saying yeah, you know what this is Colin Timmy Because how many? how many people have we watched this year as we as we filmed this today that are had a unbelievable run. 19, 10, 20 you know all those years and then into 20 into 21 into 22 and then for many. The wheels came off the second half of last year and certainly the fourth quarter was really challenging. Seven percent interest rates, massively low inventory, lots of concern in the market, prices going down in many markets.

A lot of concern. So I get where you're at, you got to do something. And my thing is if not now, then when, and if not this, then what like just make a decision, just make a decision to say enough is enough. How long does it take when you say I'm going to lose some weight, How long does it take before you start actually losing weight I think it depends your why your motivation like I no but I mean in general, how else in general you can you can start losing I mean you could if you made a decision today, you can wake up the next morning two pounds later right? And And how long does it take to to have your spouse feel more in love with you today than they did the day before? That's could be one simple text.

It could be one statement. It could be something easy. It's just a decision, right you have to make. And how fast could you find a piece of business if you absolutely had to.

It's the same thing. It's the same thing it's it's watch the YouTube channel and say oh wait, there's a bazillion ideas I just need to choose one, right? right? You could send an email to your database today. Now this may freak you out, but just play along. You could literally send an email to your entire database today and say if I could sell your home for eight to ten percent above the Zillow's estimate, would you sell this summer Bang someone's gonna raise their hand Well I remember in sales I when I had a tough day I said I someone probably gave me this advice but I thought who are all the people that have given to me I'm not talking about coaches I'm not talking about real estate agents I'm just talking about as I've as I've grown right.

Who are people that have given me advice right? Who have people that had picked me up when I needed it? whatever it may be and uh, why would they stop So it's like hey, let's just call them Yes hey, sometimes you can be very vulnerable second grade teacher. Yeah, thinking about you. Well no, something, you're very vulnerable if it's those people. Hey I'm in a rut.

Yeah! and I've made a decision not to be in a rut and I thought hey, I can help you, you can help me so you know what do we need to do in real estate Or who do you know that we need to do something in real estate and people generally want to help others? Oh yes, especially the people you're talking about. The people that have always been there for you and you've always been there for them. What did Thomas say about it? Uh, was it him that talked about, uh, happiness, consistent happiness Sean Acre Was that Sean speaker at the Summit this year? Yes. Oh okay.

All right. Yes. Three Three gratitudes and text one person, text, email, or call one person in the past who had an impact on your life and remind them why they're so special to you. I Remember authentically Tom Billy You had a different version of that.

Yeah, and it was. It was. uh, the common denominator of all those people is they're always giving and they're always learning something new. Yes.

and so so call the happy people in your life because they're likely going to give you something right and they're going to teach you something and and hopefully you can return the favor through service of real estate. Yeah, so I'm gonna give you one last one and then we'll wrap it up. So I'm gonna give one last one you you got you gotta punch it at the end. Okay, you get a finish.

I'm gonna say to you because we went, we kind of went through the list right? Master One thing right morning. routine schedule. So the thing I would say to you is you just have to make a decision right? We talked about it. it was in your notes like you got to decide that it's over right having to make these calls.

But beyond that you gotta understand that when you're in a rut when you're down, you have an aura about you right? You have a like you walk into a room and kind of like all the living plants go right and then the second you leave it's springtime again now sometimes I call those people energy sucking vampires I'm not calling you one, but you know what I'm saying because you know when you are down, when a deal falls apart when you feel like it's Against All Odds and you're pushing this giant rock you know called work up a hill and you feel like you just keep falling backwards. That has an impact on your physiology. It has an impact on the look on your face. It has an impact on just the way you operate every single day.

So you really really really got to get the tools and the mechanics of real estate are everywhere. You've got to get your head right. You got to say Against All Odds I'm gonna be the greatest story. This is going to be the greatest comeback I'm literally talking to myself into it right now.

Like you have to say. you know, like here: I Am this gal divorced? You know, ex-husband's a douchebag. You know, no no one likes me and I'm gonna become the best age in my office. Like you've got to will yourself into it every single day because if you don't this Market will eat you up and no one cares.

If you never sell a house again, no one cares. The market will find someone else to serve them. So you got to put your big boy and big girl pants on and you got to get out and you gotta hustle your face off. But most importantly, you've got to get yourself in the right emotional state because you can do all the right activities but you can come across wrong.

If up here is off you with me on this. So that's my final thought. What's your final thought? His final thought? You know. I I think I Think it really comes down to like as you're saying.

so you got to surround yourself the right people and you gotta will yourself every morning. But I think there's magic when those two come together Because if you are, if you are doing this alone, which I would argue, the majority of real estate agents in our industry are doing this alone. Yeah, yes, they're part of a brokerage. Yes, they may be part of a team.

Yes, they may be a part of a coaching network. But if you don't will yourself to lean into it, you're alone. Yes, you're alone and loneliness is not fun for anybody. No.

uh I think I think I Heard someone say it one time like that's the worst form of punishment that the the government gives you is the uh, isolation? Yeah, yeah, consult, uh, confinement right? Yeah and so so just go ahead and choose to be as far from that as you possibly can. and start with just literally that accountability buddy that that leader that Mentor whoever text group of all your buddies that you just constantly like maybe give us thumbs to but you don't actually talk in like maybe you should just chime in right now and say hey guys I haven't been there Byron Byron Where is Byron been exactly exactly Yeah yeah Bam Bam they had me on the other day. yeah they made me feel old. Okay, don't even go there so your your advice is so good Doug because you know together we go further, we go farther, we go faster right? So there's you.

Know this, there's no ion team. it's all about we and even if the Wii is you know Chris Heller and I were talking there today. Big shout out to Chris Heller you know former CEO of you know Keller Williams I knew him when he was just getting started in the business. We did affirmations together.

He told so my son is interviewing with him for a job my older son and he said uh how long you know my dad he says well I can tell you that before your dad married your mom at 5 45 in the morning we would do affirmations and I was he was one of my affirmation partners and I know he had others and I had others and we did that every single day because we were trying to become the men that we were dreaming of and that we knew if we did this every day together. And of course I did that for years and years and years. The man is so intentional. He is so intentional.

But but for our friend here, it's the same thing. it's having that group, it's having those friends. It's we're all in this together. We're all fighting the good fight.

We're gonna pick each other up, We're going to celebrate with high fives. It's all about more. So leave a comment, let us know what you're thinking and you know you can always DM me on Instagram and say I need to vary this or can you give me that like I get a million You know those things on you know DMS all the time and and by the way it's always me answering because I misspell almost everything and I do some heart emojis and uh, right so that's me. But if you hit me up on Instagram if you hit dug on Instagram same exact thing ham in this kind of Market this is what I'm working on.

This is what I'm thinking about. You got questions? We got answers we are here to serve. Does that make sense? Dude, thank you for just Hamming up with me on this show. This is a very important topic.

We shared a lot of value here. Thanks for having me appreciate you brother always. Ah Aura ranks Yes! All right let us know what you think, Leave a comment and we'll see you soon. Get your ass to work.

Go Thank you.