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The best plan is only good intentions unless it degenerates into work.
- Peter Drucker
Every year we start at zero. Sure, some of us have a couple of clients that spill into the new year, but mostly we start at zero.
Look back at 2023 (you won’t really be able to do this exercise, but I think you’ll get the point), and think back to exactly this time of year. What clients were you working with? Who was in your “pipeline”?
Now, look at the transactions you actually closed in 2023. How many of those people were on your mind, or on a list, at the beginning of the year?
Not very many.
The only thing that is consistent about real estate is that we consistently do not know who we are going to help this year. Which is crazy, because in essence, this is a repeat and referral business, based on people we already know!
Back to this year: how confident are you that this year will be a great year? Typically, realtors are highly optimistic this time of year. It’s a new year, and any-thing can happen. Right, any-thing can happen, including NOTHING!
If you don’t change, what are the odds that your experience of life - and your business - changes? Really I don’t mean change, I mean “grow”, or “expand”, or “develop.” The nature of real estate is NOT changing. However, who you have to be, the skills you must have to be successful (including being paid a full fee) continue to increase.
For this year's goals - whether you set aside specific time to outline your goals and develop a plan - or you simply wrote a couple of numbers down on a piece of paper - none of that coming into existence is guaranteed or automatic. Henry Ford said, “You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do.” The year has started, and it is time to go to work. Ya’ know, the things you almost certainly do not feel like doing!
Real estate is blue sky. There are very few, if any, limits to what you can do - and earn - in this business. Realtors love to dream about what’s possible - and it’s usually something that involves working fewer hours and making gobs of money: big vacations, donating money to charity, setting themselves up for retirement, new cars and new houses, etc. Yet very, very few actually fulfill their dreams.
I am not here to kill your dreams. Quite the opposite: I would LOVE for you to fulfill on whatever you create for your life and business! I am here though to gently remind you - and myself - that there is a process to fulfilling our dreams. No time here to get into the technical part of how to set goals, plans, accountability, and the like - instead, we could all use a friendly reminder that our dreams a) require work, and b) things almost never go as planned.
Ben Horowitz, investor and serial entrepreneur said: “The hard thing isn’t setting a big, hairy, audacious goal. The hard thing is laying people off when you miss the big goal...The hard thing isn’t dreaming big. The hard thing is waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat when the dream turns into a nightmare.”
You could read that last paragraph and think that doesn’t quite apply to you because you are a realtor with little to no overhead. But consider that’s not true - you do have overhead... it’s called your life!
I wish you all the best this year, and: I also know that most of us need help! We need help to be reminded of our goals and the effort required to reach them - especially when it seems like we are off course, behind, or...waking up in that cold sweat. Most of the year we will feel like things aren’t working. That’s when people give up and settle back into what they have always had because they do what they always have done. May this year be different and exciting because you are different and exciting.
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