Here’s an important but very simple question for you to answer before we jump into this training (be really honest with yourself with your answer):
Do you know how to become a successful real estate agent?
Think about it for a minute, and then just answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
How you answer this question will have a huge impact on whether 2024 is on track to be a boom year for you, perhaps yet another bust year – or maybe it’ll be the year you make the breakthrough you’ve been waiting for and level up.
If you answered “yes”, then that means you currently have all the leads, listings, clients, sales and income you want, right?
So, if that’s the case, you are a ROCKSTAR and you don’t need this training! Go take yourself out for a REALLY nice dinner (or treat yourself to a Rolex or something) because you obviously deserve it!
But if you DON’T have all the leads, listings, clients that you need right now in order to feel happy with your real estate career, then you need to go forward with this lesson.
If you are a real estate agent, then I’m sure you’ve heard (at least I would HOPE you’ve heard) that MINDSET is a critically important key to your success as a realtor.
EVERY truly successful real estate agent has mastered the power of mindset.
Frankly, every truly successful person in any field has mastered the power of mindset.
Because the truth is, it is virtually impossible to become a standout success at anything if you don’t have a powerful grasp on mindset – and how to put it to work for you consistently every day of your life.
Now its important to be clear: some people hear the term “mindset” and they think we’re talking about the law of attraction or some other hood-doo voodoo, and so they are immediately dismissive of the importance of it.
Mindset is rooted in science backed psychology – neural science to be exact. It is not the same at all as new age hoo-doo voodoo or fads like the law of attraction.
While the folks selling the law of attraction hype may have swiped some basic psychological principles, they incorporate far too much “magical thinking” to be taken seriously.
When WE talk about mindset we are talking about science-backed principles that psychologists have identified for helping people bust through psychological barriers and blockades in their lives which are keeping them stuck and limiting their success. We all have pyschological programming incorporated into our thinking which helps determine whether or not we are able to do the things we would like to be able.
Mindset is all about psychology – its about understanding how to change your own psychology and metal patterns so that you aren’t unknowingly working against your success (because often, that’s what our minds are naturally inclined to do). We can actually, to some extent, re-wire the way our brains work, and condition ourselves for more success. To get scientific, it has to do with neural plasticity and is part of neuroscience, but that’s well beyond the scope of this lesson or what you need to know to make this work for you.
For every individual who has really MADE it as a real estate agent, somewhere along the way someone taught them the power of MINDSET. They PAID ATTENTION and then put in the time and effort to learn and understand how to develop and maintain the correct mindset for getting more listings, leads, clients, and sales. THEN they routinely and consistently put in the ongoing effort on a daily basis to MAINTAIN the right mindset that supports their business growth, goals and success.
As we kick off a new year, to set yourself on track to really start to see the results you want in your real estate business, its fair to say that the single most important thing you can do for yourself RIGHT NOW…this month, starting today – RIGHT THIS VERY MINUTE – is to understand the important and the POWER of mindset, and to work (really WORK), on developing the right MINDSET to propel your real estate business forward in the year ahead.
Any person who has achieved a really high level of success in anything in life (not just real estate) will tell you that a huge key to their success came down to their understanding the importance of maintaining the right mindset, and harnessing its power.
In order to become successful at anything, you need to develop a growth mindset.
So in this training we’re going to show you how to develop the science-backed mindset that will propel you beyond modest success – without having to work so hard that you burnout completely.
Every year, Real Trends examines real estate industry data and publishes a Top 1000 list of the most successful agents, teams, and brokerages in the USA.
Do you think any of the agents on the list thought ever predicted that they would end up on that list back in the days when they were door-knocking and cold calling and getting hung up on 20 times a day?
Do you think that while they were doing those things they were thinking they would officially be ranked as being among the best agents in the country in a few years?
In the vast majority of cases, they did not. They felt just like you did.
In fact, many of them worked and hustled for YEARS before they made it to the top. And in that time they failed over and over again. Failed to find good leads after working endless hours at lead-gen. Failed to get a listing appointment they desperately wanted. Failed to win the listing after they got a listing appointment they desperately wanted. Failed to hit their earning targets in the early years, and maybe there were times it meant that they missed their mortgage payment, or they fell into deep credit card debit. Yes, these very agents who are CRUSHING it now, went through all of THAT and more, on the road to getting to where they are now.
But look where they are now. Life is a journey. Its a progression, its all about growth. Where you are this moment is no indicator of where you can be one year from now.
Those agents got back up every time they fell down; they looked at what they could learn from the experience; they examined what the opportunity for growth was; they dedicated themselves to learning, and invested in ongoing training and coaching to overcome their weak spots. They pushed through with determination. They did not let the individual failures and disappointments keep them down – to the contrary, they found the way to flip it around mentally and find the lesson and the opportunity to grow from the experience.
What Is a Growth Mindset?
A growth mindset is a scientifically proven method of viewing setbacks or challenges as learning opportunities, otherwise known as growth opportunities. Instead of believing that your natural abilities or skills are set in stone, a success or growth mindset trains you not to be mentally and emotionally knocked down by a set-back (because if you are, then you automatically and instantly LIMIT yourself); instead you need to focus on the fact that there is something you can learn from every set back and experience, and if you put in the effort to look for the lesson, you will come away stronger and smarter, which will make you better at what you do the next time.
The power of this way of responding to set backs, failuires, challenges and struggles been proven in clinical settings,
Why It Works: The Science Behind a Growth Mindset
The term growth mindset was coined at Stanford University in the psychology research department. Based on new developments in neuroscience that showed our brains are far more malleable than scientests previously thought, a study was done to see how growth mindsets affected the grades of math students.
The results were fairly conclusive. The students who were taught the growth mindset showed an improvement in math grades over time. Meanwhile, the scores of the participants in the control group (who didn’t have knowledge of growth mindset) actually declined.
How to Use a Growth Mindset to Grow Your Real Estate Career
Now that you have a better idea of the science behind growth mindsets, let’s take a look at a few ways you can develop a growth mindset starting RIGHT NOW to increase sales.
1. Look at Failure as an Opportunity for Growth
Based on all the studies and actionable growth mindset strategies you could be using, treating your failure as an opportunity for learning (growth) rather than a setback is the single most important “mental hack” you can use to improve your chances of hitting your goals within your real estate career. It’s not always easy, but if there’s one mindset skill you work on in this year, this should be it.
“Failure is has been my specialty.” – Barbara Corcoran
If you want a role model for becoming a more successful real estate agent print this picture and keep it where you see it everyday on your desk. Barbara speaks very openly of her repeated pattern of failures, and of the mindset she has used throughout her career to look at every failure as an opportunity for growth. She has said “I’m very good at failing” and “Failure is my specialty”. Look where it has gotten her!
Barbara literally came from nothing, and grew her real estate business into $70 million worth of wealth.
Barbara did not grow up with any advantages on her side. Quite the contrary, in fact, she grew up poor and dyslexic.
Yet because of her voracious growth mindset, she not only became a successful realtor, she became a top performing realtor. And then she not only started a very successful luxury real estate brokerage in Manhatten, she grew it into a world-class firm that she was subsequently able to sell for $70 million. Since then she has gone on to star of the hit TV show Shark Tank and has become a household name synonymous with grit, success and entrepreneurial spirit. Today she provides backing and leadership in steering other entrepreneurs to success, and has be responsible for the growth and success of many new brands and companies.
As Barbara has said many times, she attributes most of her success to not only bouncing back from failure, but embracing it as a growth opportunity from the earliest days of her career right through to the present.
Her TEDx talk “Rethinking Failure” is required viewing for any new agent, or any agent who wants to improve. If you have a few minutes, watch it. If you’ve already seen it, watch it again.
For some people, experiencing a failure feels like the end of the world, but for others, it the beginning of becoming better.
“For some people, failing at something feels like the end of the world—but for others, it’s the beginning of becoming better, making themselves stronger” – The Real Estate Marketing College
2. “Go to Bed Smarter Than When You Woke Up”
That’s a quote from Charlie Munger, Warren Buffet’s partner, at Berkshire Hathaway, one of the most successful investment companies in history.
They came up with this rule for success decades before more recent scientific research supporting the power of mindset was done. Experts across the board agree that continually focusing on learning is a crucial part of building a growth mindset.
Both Buffet and Munger were voracious readers, reading for extended lengths of time every day with the express purpose of expanding their knowledge and abilities.
While this may sound daunting to you, stop and consider what you are doing this very moment – you’re actually doing it right now. You’re taking some time out of your day to read this lesson in the hope of improving yourself. All you need to do now is slowly pick up the pace and devote more time every day to learning.
It is guaranteed that things will start to change noticeably for the better in your real estate career when you dedicate yourself to learning as much as you can on a daily basis.
3. Set Your Goals Higher
Another crucial element to using a growth mindset to get more leads, listings, clients and sales, and to close more deals is to set your goals higher. Yes, this will mean more effort, more time, and likely even more failure (because failure simply comes with the territory when you are doing more) —and failure is exactly what you should be looking for. Why? If you were paying attention you’ll know the answer – because some of the most valuable lessons are learned through the process of failing first. Failing makes you stronger, if you control your reaction to the failure.
“Some of the most valuable lessons are learned through the process of failing first. Failing makes you stronger, if you are smart in your reaction to the failure.”some of the most valuable lessons are learned through the process of failing first. Failing makes you stronger, if you control your reaction to the failure.”
– The Real Estate Marketing College
Here’s Peter Bregman, CEO of Bregman Partners, from the Harvard Business Review:
“Want to increase your own performance? Set high goals where you have a 50-70% chance of success. According to psychologist and Harvard researcher, the late David McClelland, that’s the sweet spot for high achievers. Then, when you fail half the time, figure out what you should do differently and try again. That’s practice.” – Peter Bregman
After all, what good is a goal if you already know you can reach without breaking a sweat? The goals that move us forward in life are the one’s that really incorporate something challenging. And that means, we risk failing every time we set a goal. And that’s not just okay, that’s GOOD.
Remember, failure—not success—is what will help you grow your business. Because it is through our failures that we learn the most.
4. Reward Yourself for the Hustle, Not the Results
“To get to where you want to be, you have to be dedicated, determined, willing to do the work, and committed. You have to hold yourself accountable and make sure you are following through on the things you need to be doing. We can talk about having accountability partners or mentors who help hold us accountable, but the real fact is that YOU need to take ownership for yourself of holding yourself accountable, because relying on someone else to do this for you is NEVER going to enable you to truly be able to be successful and to stand on your own two feet”. – The Real Estate Marketing College
You can not control the results of the effort you put in. You can stack the deck in your favour by doing what you have been taught, learning from previous experience, etc and then really applying it all – but none of us really have the ability to control anything beyond that. The only thing you can control is how committed you are, how hard you are working, how dedicated you are to learning and improving, and how closely you are focused on applying what you are learning. If you are doing that, then you need to feel good about what you are doing – do not beat yourself up if the outcome wasn’t the one you were hoping for. As long as you gave it your all, and you have done the work, THAT is reason to feel good. Reward yourself for the hustle, not the result. Because the hustle is so key to your success. Keep hustling, and the success will come. Just be sure that your focus is always on worker smarter, not just harder. So that means always be learning, and then practice what you’ve learned
For example, even if you didn’t win the listing, but you worked your butt off to get that lead, to get the listing appointment and make your presentation; you gave it everything you’ve got in making your pitch – feel good about yourself, and certainly don’t punish yourself or beat yourself up for not bringing it to the finish line. Look back over the situation and see if there is anything you can learn from it, anything you think could might have done differently – then apply it next time. You’ve grown stronger through the process. Well done.
Bring It All Together: Now Its Time to Work on YOUR Growth Mindset to Succeed
By now, you should be SOLD on growth mindset strategy and excited to identify ways to implement it into your daily routine. If you’d like more training on this, let us know so we can develop more Mindset training for you to benefit from.
If you’re ready to start applying growth mindset to get more listings, leads, clients, sales AND to close more deals, here are a few ways you can start putting it to work for you beginning right now:
- Carve out at least one hour per day to devote to learning something that can help you in your real estate business
- Invest in yourself through ongoing training and coaching
- Make it real by writing down your goals at the start of everyday
- Reward yourself for the hustle – don’t punish yourself for the results
- Challenge yourself to find a lesson that can be learned to make you stronger out of every disappointment or failed attempt
Wishing you an incredible year ahead. Let us know your big goals for the year, and if we can create resources to help you grow in 2024.