"Golden Nuggets for Success" Tips for Real Estate agents-- PART 3

7) Build a network of support, encouragement and accountability.

• Real estate, especially during your first few years, can be an extremely difficult endeavor. Locate friends, family members, and other real estate agents that can be your “cheerleaders”, celebrating your successes with you, and helping you to hold the course and stay diligent during the dry spells.
• Accountability is important. Consider finding another agent to be accountable with. This could include meeting prospecting goals, following through with your business plan, staying consistent with your code of ethics, and NOT giving up!
• If you are not finding this encouragement and/or accountability in your current office, consider joining Prudential. (That’s a joke, we have many great companies in Santa Barbara). But truly, if you are not getting that encouragement and team environment at the office, the answer may not be to switch offices. Instead, take the initiative to go to networking meetings, meet other agents while caravanning, and surround yourself with the type and caliber of agents that you want to emulate. They will rub off on you. Be honest with them. Ask how you can add value to them, and offer some ways (if they express interest) of how they could help you.

8) Ask people how you can add value to them

• Part of my business and life philosophy is to go out of my way to add value to every person in my life. I have asked most of the people I know this direct question, and after initial surprise, many of them will communicate ways I can help them. This may be keeping them updated on the market, sending them properties, or other services tied to real estate. Or, it may be lending a hand to move furniture, or supporting the cause they believe in, or celebrating their children’s successes with them.
• If you are asking for them to help you with your business, ask how you can help them with theirs. Do they need/want referrals? If so, who are their best or target customers?
• One of the ways I stay connected and add value to my SOI and clients is to pray for them. Depending on your religious beliefs, this may be a different way to stay connected with people on a more personal level, spending time wishing and praying for the best for them and their real estate transactions.

9) Maintain a Balanced Life

• Due to the nature of the real estate business, it is very easy to be overwhelmed and let the “business” become all-consuming. You’ll be a more successful and happy real estate professional if you structure your life so it is well-balanced.
• Areas of your life to keep in balance: Friends, family and relationships, attending social events (good for business too!), vacations or at least short weekend trips to rejuvenate (consider combining this with a day of business planning), cultivating your Faith or spiritual life, exercising regularly (this can be combined with interacting with your SOI by going on walks, runs, or bike rides together, playing volleyball, etc), eating healthy, and GIVING BACK.

10) Be sure to GIVE BACK

• o We are extremely blessed to live in America, and to live in beautiful Santa Barbara. If your household makes $50,000 a year, you are within the top 1% of the WORLD’s wealthiest people. 2/3 of the world’s population lives on less than $2/day. No matter how you slice it, our perspective should be one of immense gratitude, and giving back. Consider ways you can give back to your association, to your community, and even to those less fortunate outside of our immediate local lens. There are hundreds of great international aid and development organizations that are making a tremendous impact around the world. How exciting is it that we can partner with these organizations, as our small donations go so much farther in a developing country!
• My wife and I try to take a 2-4 week trip every year or two to a developing country. Part of each trip is a chance to get away and vacation, while the other part is an opportunity for us to give back, partner with existing non-profit organizations, volunteer at orphanages, and pursue our goals of economic development. This may not fit your lifestyle or your passions, but be creative, and make a plan to consistently give back during the course of your life. This one activity and lifestyle change will pay significant dividends, above and beyond the balance in your bank account.

I hope these “Golden Nuggets for Success” were helpful. I look forward to getting to know all of you, and please feel free to call/email any time, as I want to see you succeed not only in this business, but also in life.