Hey welcome back to the podcast doing a little solo time here, so i want to talk to you guys about uh, something that i think is going to resonate for a lot of people. You know you're listening to me and you know whether you've been in my world. For you know, this is your first podcast. Thank you very much uh or this is you know, episode like 700 for you or you've been listening and going to my stuff forever.

One of the things i talk about is just being competitive, and my question for you is: are you competitive so what you're listening like if you're driving in your car right now, i want you to say yes or no like? Are you competitive and i acknowledge like there's two kinds of competitive natures: there's internal competition and there's external competition? You think about uh, some of the most iconic people. When you think about the word competitive you think of like the michael jordans of the world. They would say, like you know, he would like want to compete like even playing cards playing golf like everything, for him was a competition. That's very external competition.

It was always him versus someone else right him versus whatever team they were playing. Then there's that internal competition, which is like me versus me, and i don't think, there's a there's a right or wrong formula. I think it's important for you to understand which one drives you and and if you say to me, you're not competitive at all um. I i would argue that you're, probably suppressing uh, some emotions, some demons - that maybe something happened to your past - that you're like a little upset about um, because i think to survive on this planet.

You got to be competitive right just to be human. In these times. Right, i'm looking at you know ian my producer, like you just got to be competitive right i mean i could be like competitively like who's more in love me or my wife, like there's a lot of ways that we can compete, but i bring it up to You because there's in the real estate space, there's a lot happening right now being in this industry. As long as i have it, it becomes apparent when you take a step back from the last 19 months, 20 months, dealing with the pandemic depending upon where you are in the world.

You know, i think, about our clients. You know in italy - and you know all over the world that were dealing with it long before many of us in north america were when you, when you take a step back and you look at what's happened. Um not only the convergence of new technology, new innovation, zoom became like every day. Like you know, your grandparents are on it everybody's on it.

We've had we've had this like, we were forced if you will, into the digital transformation of our home life and our work. Life right, like people just became because they had to right, like they became more competitive in that space, more understanding of that space, more compassion in that space, more leaning into that space. But i want to talk about the impact of the real estate industry. I think there's two phrases that, if you're taking notes, you should really connect with this write it down and understand, i'm going to talk to you about a deep dive of the mls, the multi-listing service.

When i was talking with a very good friend, pat vealing, he runs a company called real data solutions, they're like the go-to for aggregating, like hyper local mls data and then looking nationally at what's happening with real estate agents and teams. To the point that i could call pat and say: hey, could you give me you know client x agent x, and he can tell me, is that person's business ascending or going down right and where do they rank in their mls? All this is important because if you, if you look back over the history of real estate, certainly as long as i've been in it, we hear these phrases like the 80 20 principle, prieto's principle uh that you know, 20 percent of the age is doing 80 of The business and you know for as long as i've been in this industry that actually wasn't true. Does that shock you as you're listening to this, that for as long as i've been in it, it actually wasn't true, it was more like 80 percent of the agents did like 20 of the of the business like they all did one two three four five and You know, of course, there was new agents, there's people, they were fading out of the business and yes, there's always been top producers, but we never had um like that. True 80 20 principle in our industry.

I've just never seen it. The data never showed it right, but now today i'm going to reveal for you some some data points that i think you're going to find interesting. I think you're going to you're going to probably do a little like me versus me like how am i doing and then maybe how am i doing in comparison to the other agents in my marketplace in terms of ranking for volume and gci and transactions? But i want to take you back to sort of the bigger point. If you look at the sort of data around transactions, it would be hard for us to argue that the consumers didn't go for what i call the flight to quality that maybe it's the convergence of so much information available.

Now, on our iphone that, like you know before i make the bus the biggest you know financial decision of my life to buy this house or to select an agent to work with me that i might like go online and google that person and see if they Have a google my business page see how many reviews they have look at their track record, look at their listings and sales, maybe go to zillow, maybe go to yelp, i'm going to do all these things today, because that's normal today. So when you look at the data that i'm going to share with you, there was a massive flight to quality. Consumers were choosing to not just go with sally or ted their neighbor, their friend. Instead, they were choosing people that were more successful, had done more transactions and the data just reveals it.

It just becomes obvious so the flight to quality. How do we get you in the way of that? How do we get you more business, but the other one is. When i look at the agent population and and i'm you know, i'm pretty blessed - i get to talk to a lot of people online offline. I was doing live events over the summer.

I do a lot of you know just q and a with people and and what i'm seeing also is like this flight for certainty like the flight to certainty like people are they want to know if i do x, can i count on y like there's just Not a lot of room for error right now and when you look at the data that i'm going to share with you, it's pretty apparent um. The winners are winning at a really high level and they're taking massive market share, and one could argue it's because they're running plays that work, they're doing what they know, works and, and i'm going to share with you a whole bunch of that stuff. But i just want to set the tone for you like: have you seen it? Have you seen a flight to quality um in everything that happened over the last 19? You know 19 months i was chatting with a friend of mine, i'm a part of a spirits company wine, tequila, bourbon, etc with a legendary guy. I'm just happy to be a part of the deal and you know he's just a genius and i was happy to invest in him and i asked him i said you know in the early days of pandemic.

What can we expect as an emerging brand like an emerging branded real estate agent or real estate company going through this market? He said you know the tendency when things get a little sour or strange or uncertain is people flight. They go towards the name brands right. The people that haven't always been out there, the brands that have always been out there and we certainly saw the same thing in real estate based on the data. But the other one is the flight to certainty.

And i want to just stress to you like, as we sit here, whether it's you know when you're listening to this we're under 100 days left before the end of the year 100 days left, we said: we've had 265 days 265 days for you to look back And say: how did i do this year did? Did i run plays that worked? Did i make my phone calls? Did i do my marketing? Did i generate enough leads? Did i go on enough appointments? Like did i put enough energy into my business? Was i being competitive in my marketplace or not, and then you can look forward and say: okay for the next 100 days. What do i want to do right? What i'm seeing more and more of is people are looking for certainty. People want to know hey. If i do x, can i generate y? Does that make sense so stop for a second, and just like again, i'm asking you: did you see the flight to quality? If you look inside your mls, do you see the way i describe? It? Is the rich getting richer? The people that are successful are doing even more business right and then for you personally, are you in that same situation where you're, like i don't have time to mess around man like tell me what works right, tell me what works online.

Tell me what works offline. Give me the best scripts. Give me the best hacks give me the best approaches. Give me the best direct mail and i'll just do that.

That's a flight towards certainty. So let's talk about the data uh big shout out to again pat feeling over rds um. I went to him a couple months ago and said i'd like to know. My hypothesis was again that i'm watching my clients just explode our coaching members doing so much more business and brokerages that that i consult with doing so much more business during this time and of course you know, you could argue that a lot of agents, certainly in The you know, early stages of covet last year, took a an unpaid vacation like they just checked out.

They were in a complete state of uncertainty and absolute fear, and i said to people look the people that are winning right now are the ones that, like looked into the fear and said, i'm going to make the phone calls anyway, i'm going to do the right Thing anyway, i'm going to reach out to more customers, i'm going to make more phone calls i'm going to be of service, not always in a sales mode. In many cases, not at all in a sales mode, just purely uh ian, i told you and your wife, a house i just want to check in and see how you guys are doing right like those kind of calls - and it was the people that, like you Know from cove to cold calls got over their fear and moved forward. Those those guys and gals are killing it right now. So let's talk about the data, i asked him for it.

Here's what he gave me ready so as of right now, if you go trailing 12 months - and you should do this in your own mls right to look at your numbers because i'm taking an aggregate of a bunch of the top mls's in the country. You know controlling a large swath of of the us. Here's what we're seeing the top 1 of agents right now are doing 17 of all the volume and gci. So if you say, there's 1.6 million ish agents in the us.

That means basically 16 000 agents. Funny enough, that's about the same size as the america america's best list, uh with my partners over at housing, wire right tracking, the top you know, call it 15. 16. 000 agents.

The top one percent are doing 17 right. If you take the top 5, including the top one they're at 37, of all the volume, all the transactions and all the gci, so on a national level, you're talking about 80 000 agents, essentially doing 37 percent, like that's a lot of business amongst a very small Group of individuals and teams out there dominating so then i went out as high as 25 and said, if you're, just in the top 25 ranking of your mls, there's 10 000 agents and you're in the top 2 500.. That group today. That group today ready controls 73 on average all the volume all the transactions.

All the gci now remember how i started this podcast when i said, are you competitive? So as you're listening to me, there's probably one or two things that are going through your head: you're either like man, i got ta pull over right now and i got ta go into the mls and see where i rank like how? Where am i, in this mix and and many of my top clients like it's funny when i, when i bring this up to people, not funny it's fascinating, they just go. Oh yeah, i'm number 16 out of 4 000 agents like they know it. They know it because it matters to them right, it's because they recognize the same thing you and i recognize, which is there's very little - competition at the top there's very little competition at the bottom, but there are some competing factors which are all these other companies that Are marketing better than you to your own customer base, but i'm getting ahead of myself so top one percent 17 of all the volume top five percent 37.. These are all like 17.2 37.9 right, but i'm just giving you the the basic number 73 of all the transactions in volume, 73 of all the volume in all the transactions in all the gci by the top 25 and the top 50 percent right are doing 91 Of the volume, so i started talking with pat about this and and we're going through the numbers and pat's been doing this for a long time.

He's very well respected, as sort of the the aggregator of all things, mls data based on agents and as we were going through this he's, like you know, tom what's interesting, is today a consumer that was thinking about buying a house, maybe a first-time buyer, maybe a A person who's selling their house for the first time in 15 years and and they've completely lost track with their agent and that person right. The question is: are they more inclined today to do research to go to google, my business page or go to somebodyzilla profile or or realtor.com or whatever it may be? Are they more inclined to do that? The data certainly says they are and here's what pat said to me. He said think about it like this. If you just look at the math and say consumer today, looking to buy a house looking to sell their house, they have a 68 chance of going after an agent and saying hi.

I'd like you to help us and that 68 chance is a 68 chance of working with some of this done, zero to maybe one or two transactions, one or two, two max in the last 12 months. Now, if you're listening to this and you're a brand new agent you're like oh, that's me, okay, i i get it right. You're getting started we're going to talk about that today, i'm going to give you some insights on things. I want you to do, but i want you to understand as a brand new agent like there's, not a lot of competition, it's not in the bottom 50.

One could even argue it's not even in the bottom 75. The real competition begins when you get into that top 25 percent. So as a brand new agent, you want to know, as a veteran agent who's been doing this for a long long time. Thank you for listening.

I love you right. Thank you for your service and all that you've done for the industry. I challenge you to say at this point in your career. Is that where you should be, is that where you should rank really, or should you be doing more right with the size of your database, the size of your reach, how much time and energy? Yes, i'm priding you? Yes, i'm i'm i'm challenging you here.

I want more from you. The consumer wants more from you, so here's what i wrote down if you hear those numbers that the obvious question is like. Where do i rank that's first and foremost, but the second question that i'm asking people is: do you see this trend continuing or do you think that we'll go back to a more normalized everybody does a couple deals and a few people do well? What do you think, like my argument, is since 2015, i said: total team domination is one of the most important trends happening in real estate. I was talking about in 2015, my dad and i were talking about it back in the late 90s in the early 2000s.

We were teaching it talking about teen concepts, but by 2015 it just became apparent that good agents would say, wait a minute, i'm really good with clients, i'm a really good listing agent. You know i need to surround myself with a marketer someone that can manage transactions beautifully, maybe a showing agent or two and they just exploded. And when you look at the numbers right, the top one percent top five percent top 25 percent. It's hard to argue that any one of them doesn't have an assistant, maybe two buyers agents, maybe 30 buyers.

Agents right like it's very obvious, that's the direction it's gone, but do you see a change like? Do you see a change now someone will say tom. What about eye buyers? You know, i keep hearing all these high buyers and you know in some marketplaces, they're doing phenomenal. Look from what i can tell if you go back to the interview i did with mike del pretty big shout out to mike. At that point, it was like point: five percent of all the transactions uh had been done via ibuyer, and if you, if you pay attention to what we talked about there and a lot of a lot of this, is just his his you know, years of analyzing, This that risk aversion is a major factor.

That's going to stop the vast majority of people from doing that. I know i'm bouncing a little bit here, but i want to address it that risk aversion is what's stopping people from from selling their home on their like phone. If, essentially, like sure, amazon buy a book, no problem book, an airline ticket yeah, some people will some people won't vast majority will but like selling my 400 000 house yeah, i think i want to get an agent right and most of the data says that's going To happen 90 of the time so so take that out just the 90. Do you think the trend is consumers will continue to flock towards people with great track records? Excellent branding position themselves well have clear and obvious degrees of separation know how to market themselves great.

At following up running a business like a business or do you think they're going to go to susie or ted or maria or one and say hey man? I know you haven't done any deals this year and you're driving an uber most of the time but sell my house. I i'm just arguing that i think that the trend is going to continue. What do you think so then? If the first question is, where do you rank, and the second question is what trend you know, what trend are you sort of betting on? Where do you think the market's going, then the obvious question is: what should you do? What should you do see? I think it's going to become even more competitive at the top and again it's going to be competitive because ian's, a great agent and sally's a great agent and swapnil who was in my office a couple days ago here in dallas, is an amazing agent and i'm A great agent right like we're all going to compete right, but the bigger, also competition that we need to factor in that you need to be thinking about, especially under 100 days left this year. Thinking about next year is the 30 plus companies that are out marketing.

You building bigger brands, positioning themselves differently, maybe offering discounts or something else to get those consumers the people in your database to call you like, i think, that's the real next big competitive play for you. So it's one thing to say: where do i rank hey? I'm 15: i want to be in the top one percent or top seven percent awesome on the flip side. There's a dragon out there that i need you to start thinking about like how might you want to slay it, and i i don't mean that you're gon na take out rocket or zillow or open door or any one of these major players. My point is they're.

Going to do a lot to get as many people as they can to go to their website to send them over to their real estate agents, bettors, guide agents, redfin's got agents, zillow's got agents, they're all playing this game. Now. What are you going to do to be competitive, so so the thing that i keep writing down with my clients and it's kind of giving you just kind of a high level here, just in a short podcast, the stuff that i'm thinking about like when i, when I think about maxine gellens in la jolla and marty. Her daughter, who are you know two of my longest personal coaching clients.

22 years we've worked together, maxine's 83 years old and like she like, every time, i'm on the phone there's like phone or zoom she's, just a breath of fresh air like she's, so innovative and and and marty's such a smart business person they're such great negotiators they're. So consistent with their marketing, they continue to win. I think it's because of three things and it's the same three things that when i look broadly across the most successful men and women, we work with around the world, michael polzler in europe or john in sydney or maxine gellens in la jolla. It's three things: it's ambition, right ambition drives them like.

They truly believe they can do more right that they wake up every day saying you know i did good yesterday, but i can do even more like they're ambitious, like like they see the 90 billion commission play in real estate. They look around they're like wait. A minute that person on tv did how much i can beat that person right such and such in our group got over 400 million dollars, or they did 800 million dollars in sales. I could beat that person like they just fundamentally believe that they don't always know how they're going to do it, but there's this competitive, ambitious motor in them.

So maybe one question for you is you think about the last. You know whatever 265 days and staring down the next 100 is. What can you do to amplify your ambition? What can you do to unlock some of that competitive juice that fire that energy, some people need an enemy? Some people need a dragon to slay. I have plenty of clients.

I have to be mindful of saying names because two, like the two people, i'm thinking of, are actually very successful and very well known in the la marketplace. But i'll just say one of my clients. He was the number three agent in his marketplace and he comes to me and he's like okay coach, like i am so tired of losing tahamahama and na na nana, and i'm like okay cool. You want a dragon to slay, let's get after it, man and we made it our mission for like 18 months to basically go from three and then we got to two and then we finally eked out one.

It took us three years but like he, he was driving himself to be number one. It was so important and be clear he's a beautiful relationship. Obviously it's a guy he's beautiful relationship. He's got a great relationship with his kids he's in great shape.

He plays a lot of golf he's a lot of fun, but when it came to business it was game on ambition. I want to be number one: where do you want to be, even just in the simple uh thought of ranking in your mls? Are you? Okay? Being number 997 like? Are you good with that, like all the money's at the top right now, one of you is going to check out like someone's just going to go god. I don't want to hear this look. This is just stupid.

I don't. I don't want to be on that level and my response to you is: you are probably suppressing again something that happened to you when you were a kid like. I can't wait by the way i'm looking at ian and i'm going to interview. I would argue top 10 greatest therapists alive today will be in this studio in november right.

So i'm not going to say his name, but i'm going to tell you that he did he's done 40 years of therapy. He did 15 years of four hour day. Seven day a week call in radio show therapy in four minutes or less like he is a genius right, so he and i were chatting today he's one of my mentors right, so i'm i'm saving it so just be ready when it comes and you're gon na Be like oh, my he's yoda like that's the best way to describe it like of why human beings do what they do and, and we talk about all the time like. Oh i want to go for that, but i'm not, and it's always like.

Oh, when i was four i wanted a pony, i didn't get it that's why i'm not gon na make my phone calls today like it's. Always these like completely bombastic stories. You've got a story about ambition. You've got a story about competition.

I would ask you to search your feelings, luke and, and maybe just maybe allow yourself to go for it a little bit like just to go for a little bit like you're gon na die. Do you get that like this? Is this? Is such a random thought, but like do you get that, like you're gon na die so on your deathbed name, a person you've that you love and i think about my father-in-law, who passed away just a few years ago. I think about my grandfather right, my dad's dad, like you, know two very my mentor bill mitchell. I could cried just thinking about it like these, these men, that you impacted me and my my grandmother liz right like one of the big, by the way, one of the greatest real estate agents in huntington beach, california, from like 1955 to like 1970, she retired.

She got a trans, am a black smokey in the bandit trans. Am she was single, she would come over, the t-tops were off and i'd be like grandma. Could i go for a ride in the trans am like it was. It was awesome right these these men and women, like i think of just those four in particular, they lived like they lived, they weren't waiting right.

None of them were on their deathbed, saying gosh darn it. You know i wish i would have they all wanted. More time make no bones without every one of them wanted more time, but all of them were like. I gave it.

My all like i went after it. This is a strange time in this world. There's two kinds of people right now: people that are going for it and people that are just afraid. I'm asking you to like allow yourself allow yourself to think big again.

Allow yourself to dream, like think about like when you were a kid, and you were like anything, is possible. Maybe it was like coming out of college. Anything is possible right, like when you first got into real estate. Anything is possible, like i did uh coaching sessions on monday, and i was i i did a post if you saw it in my instagram stories of like the dollar volume of, like the eight calls that i had that day.

With these eight different clients, i the the median like the average, was like 300 million dollars in sales times that by 2.5 in gross commission income, some of them have teams. Some of them are just luxury agents like these men and women are making more money than they ever thought possible. Are they more special than you listening to this right now, like really like? Do you think they they were raised with a silver spoon in their mouth? Do you think they went to ivy league schools? I can't even think of like did any of them go to college, like you know what i mean like they're, all batshit crazy, just like you just like me right, but they allow themselves to be ambitious to dream, but there's a second part of that. The second part of this obviously is in inside of ambition.

It's about getting exposure to people that have been there done that remember. The flight to certainty is hey. Just tell me what to do. I want to just do that.

Like we're. Seeing that non-stop, i see it when i look at the the heat map of my own website like people like give me the scripts. Give me the checklist. Give me the tactics right like tell me exactly what to do so.

Maybe just maybe you'd seen another role model. Maybe you need to go into your mls and look around and see who's the most successful agent or five or ten and look you're not going to be bffs with all of them. Who cares? I think you should. I think age and aging relationships really matter, especially when you're in negotiations and just because we're all you know in this together.

But if you just start observing what they're doing or you call us and say hey, can i observe somebody outside of my marketplace. I want to find out what the best person in you know: manhattan kansas is doing versus new york city like we can make those introductions and you can go, observe these men and women. You know what you're going to see they run very similar plays over and over and over and over their schedule, their systems their marketing, their branding. It's all like it's all, basically, the same.

They figured out their way in their market for their type of client. They want more sellers, they want less buyers whatever it is, and they run those plays you you get that and then you start realizing like hey. If that guy can do it and that guy can do it and that guy can do it, i can do it too ambition. Here's the second thing, branding marketing and lead generation.

When you look at the top 25 percent, especially because of our work with so so ian, if you know we um, i partnered a long time ago with a guy named steve, murray, who's created a company called real trends and they would publish every year. And then i became part of this like half owner of it, the top 1 000 agent and teams right across the us, based on transactions and volume right. So four different lists of 250, the volume side right and then the transaction side, individuals and teams, and and when you get to know as i do so many of these men and women. They are all brilliant and consistent at putting out their message branding themselves.

And i don't care if it's billboards, direct mail, bus benches, grocery store shopping, cart, you know things. You know full page ads. Google facebook buying leads off zillow, truly a realtor. They do it all right because they recognize it's a noisy, noisy, noisy environment and you can't be a secret agent and expect to be one of the very best you've got to put yourself out there.

So maybe as you're again thinking about 2022, ask yourself: what can you do to amplify your brand? What can you do to get on the largest consideration set of buyers and sellers and potential renters or investors or whoever you want to attract in your marketplace in 2022? I mean the amount of content we put out on this. You could just literally just stay here on my youtube channel or wherever you're listening to this. If you're listening go just go right in just type in like marketing type in jasonpantana and jason, and i've had infinite numbers of content. Conversations around everything from youtube youtube ads to youtube, b-roll ads to creating your own show and then maybe doing it live on facebook.

Doing it live on instagram, the power of reels and on and on and on and on and on the point is this: it's only going to get more competitive, you're going to compete in the top 25 percent and then you're going to compete against all these other Companies that are running television, radio, making sexier offers more provocative offers discounted rates, blah blah blah. How are you going to compete you're competitive? How are you going to compete so branding right and ultimately, that really comes down to like not only getting the word out, but then, of course, managing the funnel right top of the final middle? The final bottom of the funnel and again we can talk for days on all this, but i'm just i'm just trying to set the tone. What are the top 25 percent of the agents in the mls? Do that maybe you're not one is they're, definitely ambitious. They decided to be there right, they didn't, they didn't just wake up magic, go in and go.

How did i become number one in my office? No, they were like i'm gon na go out and i'm gon na kick ass and i'm gon na make it happen. Every single day and bam, you know three years, five years, seven years later it happens right, but they set the intention. The other one is marketing, branding and lead generation and make no bones about it. Whether i think about andy c started when he was a brand new agent and like he was brand new agent, there was like it was like cold call.

Man like that's all, you got, you cold call, fsbo's, expireds and let's see what you can do and he you know, sold a couple houses and he did okay. Then we kind of realized he's probably more of a face-to-face guy, like he's just like. If you understand your own dna like if people are coming to him, he's good, i'm like well, let's do open houses, we can do open houses seven days a week and he becomes wildly successful, doing open houses and it was about 10 years ago he's like okay, Coach by the way, this is andy c tsc uh in terra, real estate in silicon valley right, so you can google him and you can see his success and he actually just got named for 2020. The number one team in all of silicon valley and uh, like 598 million dollars in sales, like he's just he's an absolute rock star, he's massively competitive he's, got a ton of ambition.

He's got four kids right, like he's got a lot of life going on. So you know he wants to be successful. He wants to win. He wants his kids to win in soccer and, like you know, it's the whole nine yards marketing and branding 10 years ago.

He calls me he's like okay, coach, open houses are really working. My past clients in sphere are working, but i need another source and i'm like look direct mail and he's like ugh like it's always funny when i say direct mail, because people are like. Oh imagine, 10 years ago in silicon valley, direct mail, oh man, the internet. That's where it's all going.

Okay, i understand, but but check this out. Direct mail is one of those plays that we know just works and when i look across every person that i talk to, that does a massive amount of business. Direct mail is always in there. Geographic farming, specifically, we pick a couple thousand houses.

I forget where it was. You know probably um saratoga. You know something like that in silicon valley and he nails this area and he starts. You know doing two direct mail pieces every month and it's not working and it's not working and it's not working and you finally say i'm gon na quit and that's immediately when someone calls and says hi, let's list my two million dollar house and been getting your Direct mail forever and it's only been like three months: you're like yes, thank you i'll, be right over and and then you know fast forward.

I don't know, maybe two to three years later, that um every door, direct mail, eddm the u.s post office - launches that we're like wait a minute. I can now mail massive numbers right and get it out, because it's not going to be like that bulk mail stuff that they used to just throw away, but instead this is the us post office. This is their solution and we literally we just start amplifying. The number why? Because it worked, why? Because we sent stuff out and we got phone calls - and you know you started doing open houses plus the direct mail and your database and these other things and all of a sudden he's a celebrity in his town.

Well now he's doing like 125 000 direct mail pieces a month right, so marketing branding lead generation. Here's the point no wrong way to do it. You have a balance of online and offline because all those companies that i'm referring to that are coming after your database. Most of them are going to be television and online television and online they're not going to have the boots on the ground.

They may not do direct mail yet, but they probably will start. Are you competitive, you're going to get after it? The last thing is the word: discipline, discipline, discipline, discipline, so in my producer, you're hearing me say: yo too and we'll have to get ian on camera. You know soon we were talking about earlier. He's like hey you, tired airplanes.

Just then i'm like man, it does, it doesn't matter. I just get up, and i do my thing and i get up to kind of the same time every single day, no matter what - and we talked about sort of 4 45 in the morning for like 20 straight years before, one of my buddies was like. You need to sleep more and that's a whole other podcast, but it's about it's about setting your your life up to be a little more disciplined, so execution follow-through, making promises and fulfilling on them becomes the norm. So i don't know, i don't know a wildly successful person, that's unreliable! Do you how many, how many wildly successful people do? You know they're, like oh man, she's amazing, but you can't really count on her.

No like that, wouldn't even make sense right. So so, when you think of discipline, what comes to your mind like you, listening right now, what do you think when i say discipline um? Does it mean i got ta get up at 4 45 in the morning and, like you know, go to the gym and maybe that's it like, maybe for some people, this one's just getting up at six and walking their dog right, you get to decide what the Rules are you can decide what discipline means to you um. I, though, i'm a fan of like when i find myself in that. I don't want to say rut but like that plateau is a better way to describe it right.

So it's the j curve that uh my buddy dr jerry jealous. I would always talk about that. You start out here if you're kind of watching visually, if you're just hearing me just imagine like i'm on this cliff right and and i'm standing on that cliff and i'm dreaming about what's possible next year, but what's possible next year, is way up there right. I'm i'm here at level x of performance life, business finance, whatever it is, and i'm looking up there and i want to just go from here to there.

But the bummer is the the the j curve tells us that i must first jump off the cliff. Go down into the valley of despair and then start working my way up to success mountain like that's, how it works. So when i find myself in that plateau and by the way the way he describes a fulfilling life, the same way he would describe, i was an adjunct, professor at usc. That's where i actually met him and just a brilliant guy.

We should get him on the podcast too, when he described it to me. He had it visually like almost like a like a good stock, just constantly going high and right, but there was always a dip before it went up and then it plateaued and then there was another dip and then it went up and then it plateaued. So when i said you in a rut, really really what i was saying is when you find yourself in that plateau right when i find myself at the edge looking up at a new goal, it's the recognition that what got me here is not going to get Me there so what's the new discipline i need to take on so 2022 becomes magical, so 2022 becomes. Oh, my goodness.

I was able to achieve all that i wanted to achieve and the reason why i like the pit of despair is that's like the first 35 days of your new discipline right. So, let's just say today you said i'm going to try a physical discipline. I live in the northeast, we're going into the winter months. It's going to be cold, so maybe going for a run every day is probably not the highest and best or not, not my thing, but you know what i'm going to do.

I'm going to ride the peloton bike for 30 minutes every day or i'm going to do a hundred push-ups every day right, like 100 push-ups 100 sets. I have a buddy of mine that does that he's like 65 and he's ripped and he's been doing it for like 10 years right, so you say: okay, i'm gon na. Do it well, the first day you do it, you don't get any healthier right, you're, not suddenly like yolked or feeling great like it's like the first. You go, i'm going to make my calls every day to my database.

Five to my database. Five new people, four lead follow-up, i'm gon na do it every day between now and the end of the year, no matter what the first day you do it you're like ah - and you just feel like. Why am i doing this okay? I did it a second day. Why am i i'm not getting any results, i'm doing the push-ups, i'm making my phone calls whatever the display? It's not working.

This is not working. Why am i doing this and then, by the way, as you're going down you look up at your goal and you're like it looks like it's getting farther and farther away as you go down into the disciplined despair before you slowly start to pull out and you're 15 18 days in and also you're like hitting this little stage of momentum and you're like my back, doesn't hurt anymore and i'm doing these push-ups or hey, i'm finding myself on the peloton bike and i'm riding faster and i'm riding harder and i'm breaking a sweat Quicker and i'm like wow i'm really getting into this - is great. You know or hey i'm making my phone calls and i'm getting all these leads and appointments, and this is really starting to work right. That's what i'm talking about when i say discipline, that's what the best people do right.

They don't try and change everything on a thursday. They don't go. You know i'm a free spirit and i don't ever follow a schedule, but tomorrow i'm going to give it five. Then at 505 i'm doing this in 5 10.

I'm doing that in 5, 15. I'm doing this and 5 27. I'm doing that and then i'm going to the bathroom and you're like no i'm going to have a morning routine. That works for me and i'm going to do like these four things and i'm just going to see if i can do that, if i can do that for like a month, that's awesome then they're going to add to it.

Now you might be saying wow. You started this podcast by saying you're just going to have a quick little conversation with us about being competitive. What i want you to understand is this: there's a massive flight to quality right now, and i want you to be that agent. I want you to be that team leader i want to have you be in a position where more and more of those customers are finding you online offline because of the reputation of the brand that you built, because the marketing? Because of your ambition and your desire to go out and serve more customers to make a bigger difference for people and ultimately that you're willing to be be disciplined and follow through and execute, because that's what consumers expect today.

So that's my message all right as i wrap it up, because my wife is out there, so i do have a bounce that is by the way my next appointment. How good is that, like that's the best appointment ever? Thank you so much for listening. Give me some comments, give me some feedback. I know i was bouncing all over the place here, but remember competition, ambition, branding and marketing and discipline.

That's how you win see you guys soon. You.