Where Do You Want to Be?

This post is all about deciding what you want and making a plan for success. In other words, setting goals. I've been doing this for 14+ years now, and wanted to share a bit about what I do and how it helps me be successful.

#1: Formal Training Through My Brokerage. At Keller Williams we work big and then drill down to monthly, weekly and daily goals. I started with a course called Quantum Leap as a new agent and have taken it multiple times over the years. Gary Keller created this training course to help people set their five-year goals. His premise is that whatever big dream you have in your heart, you’re five years away from achieving it. It takes that amount of time to condition yourself, learn and hone new skills and make a plan--essentially build the foundation required to turn that dream into a reality.

The second formal goal-setting training I do is the Business Planning Clinic, in which I break down my five-year goal(s) down to three year goals and then from three year goals to one year. Once I've got my goals broken down to an annual schedule, I use KW's CGI calculator, a mathematical calculation that breaks that one-year financial goal down to monthly, weekly, and daily activity goals. I literally come out of it with to-do lists for each day. (The mathematical calculation is based on your target income goal for the year.)

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#2: Accountability Activities. Setting my goals is one thing, but I also need a formal accountability program to help me achieve them. If I never check in on my goals, I could get to the end of the year and be light years away from where I want to be financially. So...

Once per week my team reviews our goals vs. our actual numbers--i.e. where we planned on being and where we actually are. Ideally those two things match!

I also meet with my KW coach weekly to review those numbers and set my goals for the following week. You'll note that I still work with a coach fourteen years into my career. Anyone can benefit from a coaching relationship, from new agents to seasoned ones. Coaches remind you of your potential and hold you accountable when you aren't reaching it. Conversely, they often serve as a much-needed voice of encouragement, reminding you of your successes. Having to be accountable to another person for meeting or not meeting my weekly goals is powerful motivation.

On a monthly basis I participate in something called The 15th Protocol. All of the agents from our office meet on the 15th of the month to check-in to see whether they’re on track for meeting their goals for the month. The idea behind this is that if you aren't in good shape by the middle of the month and don't make any adjustments, you won't meet your goal by the end of the month.

And finally, I meet with the other agents in the top 20% (of transactions closed) in my office and we talk about our goals and any challenges we're facing. People allow themselves to be vulnerable in these conversations, because when you are honest and open about where things are difficult or not going well, other people can offer practical and emotional support. This is one of the things that makes Keller Williams different. In a profession that many people assume is hyper-competitive, we have a team-oriented mentality.  The profit sharing model helps in this regard because we all sink or swim as a group. So people are generous with their knowledge and advice.

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#3: I'm Clear About Why I'm Doing What I'm Doing. The goals I've been talking about are financial goals--I decide how much salary I want to generate each year and I work toward that goal. But the motivation behind my goals changes from year-to-year. Beyond what I need to earn in order to support myself, I am often motivated by a mission or charity I want to support. For example, I can't go on a mission trip with my church (I've got family and work obligations that keep me here), but I can devote some of my salary to sponsoring people who can go and do that mission work. So, I might set a goal of giving $10,000 to sponsor three people on a mission trip and then I'm working toward my financial goals with that motivation behind it. It's important to me to connect what I'm doing at work to whatever cause has spoken to me that year. I'm finding my "why," if you will.

What charities or experiences would be meaningful to you? Ask yourself how you could best support them or make them a reality through your work. Then you're starting to get closer to your "why."

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#4: Some of My Goals Are Not Financial. Sometimes my goals are relational. I might set goals related to how many new people I want to meet each week. Or sometimes it might be about serving a certain number of families. Other times my goals are related to the number of aspiring agents I can reach and coach. And sometimes I set goals for continuing education--trainings I want to attend or a specialized skill I want to learn that will help my business long-term.

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#5: I Follow the SMART Guidelines for Goal-Setting. In terms of the content of my goals, whether financial or action-oriented, I follow make sure they are: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-Bound.

Okay, that's it from me for now on my goal-setting process. If you have comments or questions, please share them in the Comments section below. I'm always happy to continue the conversation there, or one-on-one. You can contact me here if you want to talk more about this topic or about getting started with a career in real estate.

The One Question You Must Answer...

Hi there! Another quick video post for you today. As you think about starting and growing your career in real estate, it’s important to think about what sets you apart from other agents and why clients should/do choose to work with you. This is a topic I’ve thought a lot about, and this video reflects my thoughts on it.  Click here to watch! I thought it might be helpful for you to see what I identified as my value proposition and how I communicate that to prospective clients. As always, feel free to get in touch with questions, or share your thoughts in the Comments section below. Thanks!

New Agent Tips

This is a quick post with my thoughts on how to establish yourself as a new agent. The term "brand" is thrown around so much now, that it's become a buzzword and something that can be tempting to ignore. But you really do need to be able to communicate who you are and what sets you apart from other agents from the beginning. It's important. So, here are a few of my tips. Hope they help you! Know your strengths. This is a slightly simpler version of knowing your value proposition. I had no idea how to do this when I was starting out. Keller Williams' IGNITE Program does this in the first class session, so if you join us you'll go through our process for answering the questions that will clarify this for you. It's a pretty basic series of questions, really. What are you known for? What are your strengths? How would someone describe you in 3 words? Ask a former employer, co-worker and an employee (if you ever supervised people) how they would describe you in just a few words. This can be a great starting point.

Develop your network. When I started I didn’t know anyone in this area. My family were all up in Canada and my only circle of acquaintances were a handful of co-workers from the airline I'd worked for and the people at my church.  So, I asked myself how I could expand my circle to hundreds of people. I started small with my own neighborhood and held a food drive there to meet my neighbors. Then I thought about all of the places I did business as a customer--my hair dresser, my local coffee shop, mechanic, etc.--and I networked with the people who owned those establishments or worked there. My advice is talk to everyone you know and if you don't know that many people, find ways to meet some. I also offered to work other agents' open houses. I did tons of those as a way to meet people who were looking to buy a home.

Get a coach. I've had a coach since I started at Keller Williams and meet with one weekly. A good coach will help you remember the basics and focus on your goals, which is especially important when you're starting out and everything feels new and overwhelming. Have them coach you on building a brand, on networking and communication skills. These things are important components of reaching your financial goals.

Develop an Authentic and Positive Online Presence. In many ways, being a real estate agent (or any business where you're front and center) is like running for political office. You must be clear and consistent in your messaging and you must be careful with your online image. You are building your tribe of prospective clients with the things you post on your blog, website, Facebook page and Twitter account. Don’t post anything you wrote after a stressful or frustrating day. Don't vent publicly about a bad experience with a client or colleague. Everything you write/tweet/post can influence a prospective client, so be thoughtful about the impression your online communications make. I teach a class for new agents and I tell them that I'm happy to read anything they're thinking about posting and give them my thoughts.

Know Your Story. This is in the same family as knowing your value proposition and is also covered in the IGNITE class I mentioned earlier. But I think of this as the more personal version of your elevator pitch. Know why you're an agent; what it means to you personally to do this work; and the kind of experience you want your clients to have. Know it and be able to articulate it in 30 seconds or less.

Lead with revenue. Inspect what you’re expecting out of the things you pay for. Meaning, I'm not going to invest in advertising or marketing without knowing how it will translate to more money in my pocket. In the first year especially, you need money in the bank and there are loads of free and nearly free ways to network and market. My first year I spent almost nothing and today I don't spend any more than $50 on any one marketing activity. My first year as an agent I paid $20 to join a breakfast networking group. That was really useful, actually. I'm still in touch with some of the professionals I met there and we refer clients to one another. When you do start investing in marketing, think about partnering with someone else (loan officer, insurance agent) and split the cost, if it's more than a $50 investment.

As always, feel free to leave your questions or comments in the Comments section below!

The Value of a Coach

While I work for Keller Williams, for all intents and purposes I have had my own business for more than 14 years. I set my own goals and no one is going to knock on my door tomorrow if I don’t show up to work and complete the tasks on my to-do list today. That is one of the things I love about my career—I wake up every day and create my own job. There is so much responsibility inherent in that, but also a ton of freedom and joy.

I doubled my business in 2016. No one told me to do that. I decided I wanted to set that as a goal for the year and I did it. I could decide to double it again in 2017 if I want to, and if I did, I would reap the rewards of that achievement.

But being an entrepreneur can be a lonely place sometimes, and often we can’t see ways we could be improving or pushing ourselves because we’re too close to have any perspective or objectivity.

That is the beauty of a coach. They can help us with those things and much more. So here are a few benefits of a coaching relationship.

You learn from someone who knows more than you or has a different area of expertise. This is the most obvious benefit of a coach—you have access to information that you wouldn’t have otherwise. Knowledge it took that person years, or decades to gain can be yours in minutes or hours. It can be a super-efficient means of learning, which should appeal to the busy entrepreneur you are!

You get honest feedback on your own performance. This is something that we have ready access to when we work for someone else in the typical boss-employee paradigm. But once you’re working for yourself, or in an autonomous job (like real estate), opportunities for external feedback can be non-existent. As much dread as an annual performance review has conjured up for me in previous jobs, there can be great value in hearing where there is room for us to improve, grow or change professionally. Coaches can serve that function for you.

You have a sounding board and cheering section. Again, these are often lacking in the world of the entrepreneur. It can be lonely being a one-person shop, or being the boss. Even the most introverted among us needs to bounce ideas off of other people from time to time. And even the most confident of entrepreneurs sometimes need to hear some words of encouragement or a pep talk. Just as a coach can see places where you can grow and improve, so can they see places where you are rocking this whole business-thing! We can be hard on ourselves and sometimes we don’t see just how far we’ve come or just how great our successes have been. When you’re feeling discouraged or overwhelmed, hearing words of support and encouragement from someone you respect is invaluable.

You expand your network. Networking is a word we hear repeatedly as entrepreneurs. I think it often gets conflated with “schmoozing” which we all have differing levels of comfort in doing. But really, networking is just about interacting with other people to exchange information and develop contacts. Building a relationship with a coach is a form of networking. They are learning about you and what you do—you are exchanging information. They might then refer other people they know to you for your services, or they might know people who can help you in some other area of your business.

You get inspired. Think about it. You saw the value in coaching and after the needs analysis, you were assigned a coach. And then they chose to coach you because they saw something in you worth the investment of their time and energy. Wow! How do you not find the motivation to get up, get going on that project and succeed when someone like that believes in you? That has been hugely motivating for me over the years.

Have you had a coach before? If so, what did you appreciate most about them? Where did you find them?

Have you been a coach to someone before? What tips do you have for prospective protégés for approaching a prospective mentor and making the most out of the relationship?

Please share your answers in the Comments section below.

Keller Williams matches new agents up with an experienced coach right out of the gate. This coach helps the new agent to decide on their goals for the year, and to develop strategies for achieving them. It’s one of the reasons why I love Keller Williams so much, and why 4 out of every 5 agents to start with us are still in business after the first year. Mentoring and coaching is an incredible gift to give and to receive.

Okay, that’s it from me this time! I’ll see you back here again soon.