7 THINGS I WISH I'D KNOWN AS A NEW REAL ESTATE AGENT - KEVIN WARD

Seven things that I wish I had understood. I wish I had known as a new real estate agent. Hi there, it's Kevin Ward, the founder of yes Masters Real Estate Success Training, helping you get more yeses and more successes in your business and in your life. And today I'm making a video that I promised you on the things that I wish I had known as a new real estate agent. Things I didn't know, that I have learned since then. And so today I'm going to share with you seven things that I wish I had understood, I wish I had known as a new real estate agent. And these are big things. These are like big things that would have made a big difference in my trajectory and in my career and in my success if I had known them sooner. There's a lot of little things I wish I had known, like how to do a CMA better and stuff like that, but I'm talking about big picture stuff that if I had realized this would have made the biggest impact in my business and in my life. And I also want to invite you today to join me at Agent Mastery Live 2020, our new three day training where literally what I'm going to do is spend three days training you on, in detail on all this, the most important training that will make the biggest impact in your success. Which means I'm designing Agent Mastery life that if I was a brand new agent or if I was a seasoned agent that was not having all the success that I wanted, that if I'm like, what would make the biggest difference in my business? These are the things that I wish I had known over 20 years of learning, training thousands of real estate agents, helping real estate agents make millions and millions and millions of dollars all over the country. That's going to be the best of it. So agentmasterylive.com get your ticket, come join me. I'm going to give you today seven things that I wish I had known as a new real estate agent. And that will give you three days of everything that would be the best of what I know today that if I had known then would have made the biggest difference for me and I believe will make the biggest difference for you. So today, the seven things that are the big things I wish I had known as a new real estate agent. I don't think these are in a specific order, but they may be so number one, I wish I had known to focus on sellers. I wish I had known to focus on sellers. Now I'm going to, there's two parts to this one. I did Know, my broker told me and my trainer told me from the beginning that listings were the name of the game. So I understood that buyers were the wrong place to focus. So I was fortunate in that because way too many real estate agents get into real estate and they're taught to go get buyers because it's easier. That's the easiest place to start, is it's easy to focus on getting buyers. If they're easier to connect with, they're less likely to reject you. They're happier to waste your time. And so way too many agents get in and they go. They kind of automatically gravitate toward working with buyers. You go open houses, set floor time. All of which I did, but I was told listings are the name of the game. So at least I had that advantage. But here's where I missed it. And this is what I wish I had known. I wish I had focused on getting sellers and winning sellers rather than just getting listings. And the reason is because I was very. I was relatively aggressive at going after expireds and for sale by owners. I knew that to get listings go where the best opportunities are to get them today. So that's where they were. The problem was I was focused on what I wanted, which was a listing. I wanted a listing and a sale and get it. And so you would hear sellers say things. And you probably heard this too, if you've been around a while. And if you. If you prospect it and you hear sellers, I know what you want. You just want a listing. You just want to stick my. Stick a sign in my yard, put me on the MLS and forget about me. Let all the other agents do the other. Do the real work. Let them bring the buyer. And when they said that, it always like, no, no, no, that's not what I'm. And yet the reality was I was focused on getting the listing. That was what I wanted. When I finally, one day, and it was after years of doing real estate and doing hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of transactions of listings and sales, I realized I am. I'm focused on getting what I want, which is a listing. And that's why I kept getting resistance. And I was nice, I was good, I was friendly, I was helpful, and I still could get resistance. And it dawned on me. It was because subconsciously, I was still going in there. And my goal was what I wanted rather than what they wanted. What they wanted was to move. What I wanted was a listing. Well, when you go into anywhere to get something from somebody, you're automatically going to get resisted. And when I Made that shift. And I realized if I just go in there and focus on what they want and be the one to help them get that, be the best to help them get that result that they want. If I focused on sellers winning the relationship and focusing on what they want rather than what I want, not only was I going to get the things that would give me leverage and consistent income and control of the market, but I also was focused on what would eliminate resistance from them because I was focusing on what they wanted, not what I wanted. So if I could go all the way back and start over day number one, I wish that somebody had told me, focus on finding what sellers want and helping them get that, becoming the best in the world at getting them the best result, that would be the probably the biggest, most critical impact difference maker for me and I believe it will be for you. Number two, if I wish I had known the power of relationships and it goes back again, do I think part of the training that I got that helped me, it was good, but it was focused strictly on getting business. Today was I was so busy trying to chase listings and get a listing, get a listing that I didn't think focus on building relationships and getting what I call repeat getting repeat and referral business and building what I call your personal circle and realizing that if you want to win in real estate long term, you get people to trust you and you build those relationships and create top of mind awareness and you ask them for business and expect them to give it to you and expect that they're going to want to help you because they do. And I didn't do that. I was so busy chasing, I just wanted to talk to people who wanted to list their house today, today, today, today. And I was t start over at zero every day like start over like you had no business. And if I had understood the value of relationships and understood principles of successful business and that is that there's no successful business that starts over at zero every day. They start over. They start every day looking at where do we get the most leverage in building our business and growing it. And it's from repeat and referral business. That's what Amazon knows, that's what Sam's club knows, that's what Costco knows, that's what Apple knows. They all know that you build relationships and you do things to get people to come back to you and refer people to you over and over and over again. It's what Starbucks knows. It's what the big businesses understand. Auto manufacturers, they all understand that the power of relationships. A happy client and a repeat customer is magic. I wish I had known to go right away and I would not have waited. Go right away to the people that you know and ask for business and expect them to be excited about helping you and they will be excited about helping you. And I actually realized my first closing actually came from a personal circle referral. It was like I never, I didn't even register in my brain. And that couple that they were my parents, friends referred to me. That young couple became the number one source of relation of real estate transactions, passive real estate transactions, which means repeat referral business in my entire business. And wow, I missed it. I wish I had understood the power of relationships. The third thing I wish I had understood was the importance of lead follow up. I wish I'd known the importance of lead follow up and that was that your first conversation with somebody, no matter how good you are, your first conversation is very unlikely to result in an appointment. Most of the time you got to have multiple conversations with people. And it was so. I was so nervous, I was so scared to talk to people and I was so scared of rejection that if I worked up the curve to prospect you one time, man, I was like, that was good and I was good and they'll like me and they'll call me back. And I was inconsistent to say the least. I was really inconsistent when it came to lead follow up. I didn't have a good system and I was inconsistent. I didn't have it in my schedule every day or if I did, I didn't follow it every day. There's no telling how many deals that I missed because I was not consistent with lead follow up. And if you want to convert at maximum efficiency, understand that 70% or more of your deals of your listings of your transactions are going to come of your appointments will come after the first conversation. So if you suck and lead follow up, you're going to lose a lot of business. And I did and I learned. And today lead follow up is one of the most important things I teach agents a foolproof system of you do this as in lead follow up and you will never ever again miss an opportunity for failure to follow up with somebody at the right time or because they fell through the cracks. And that happens countless times to real estate agents all over the country. And it is so painful to realize after the fact that deal could have been yours. So number three is the importance of lead follow. Number four. I wish I had understood the importance of self image. I am going to tell you I have studied for 20 years the best, trying to understand what it takes to be successful in real estate, not only as an agent, but now as a real estate coach. And I look at people that come in and they crush it. And people that come in and they struggle and some work hard, hard, hard, and they still struggle. Some come in and they work not even that hard and they seem to succeed. And I'm just like, what is it that makes the best? Those that are successful tend to succeed. And at some level, your belief about yourself is indispensable. And it wasn't when I came in. I was kind of. I had a very low self image. I believed I was good, but I also believed I was not. I believed I was good, but I always wondered. I just didn't. I didn't have that confidence. And I wish I had known how important self image was and that I would have sought out the help and done the work to increase, to build my confidence, to build my self image and realize you want to win, you got to get fearless And a lot of building self image. Just to give you the short answer of how you build self image, this is the short answer is taking more action and taking. And whenever you're afraid of something, force yourself to do stuff that you're afraid of so that you get over the fear of doing it. Because the more times you push yourself out of your comfort zone, the faster you grow, the more you realize your comfort zone or your fears, your fears are really not real. They're just a false expectation appearing real. F E a R fear, false expectations appearing real. And as you do that, your action conquers the fear and your self image, your self confidence will grow and you are way better than you think you are right now. I'm telling you as you're watching this video, you're better than you think you are. And you can be better than you think you can be if you're willing to just get out there and take the action because everybody else afraid to. The fifth thing that I wish I had known in real estate was I wish I had known to think beyond survival. I wish I'd known to think beyond just paying the bills, just getting enough money to not be digging deeper into credit card debt. I wish I had fought bigger and I didn't know. I didn't. I was, I was raised in a scare, in a world where we had a scarcity mindset, where money making a lot of money was wrong. We're having a lot of money, we're having a lot of abundance. It was just something we didn't experience. We didn't do that. It was just like, just have enough to get by. And that was basically how we were taught, how I was taught. And that was how I thought, just as long as I get enough to get by, I'm good. And so what would happen was, is I set goals that were too small. My goals were to just have enough business to make the money I needed. And I figured out this is how much I need to pay bills, take care of me, and have a little extra. If I had been trained, if I had been exposed to bigger thinking sooner, I would have set higher goals. I could have pushed myself so much harder. I could have done so much more. But I would go, and then I would get just enough to get comfortable, and then complacency would take over. I was comfortable. And I'm telling you, complacency is deadly to your future and to your dreams. Comfort is it. Your comfort zone is a killer because you get. When you get comfortable, you stop. And then when you get. When you stop, then you're going to get uncomfortable again. And you're always in this cycle of just getting comfortable and then stopping and going down. And if you want to succeed as a real estate agent, anything, you got to think big and you got to play big, and you got to push yourself to just get way ahead of the game. I mean, I'm looking for. When it's me against complacency, I'm looking for a blowout. If I get a few points ahead, I'm not stopping. I want to crush the competition. And the biggest competition is yourself. Just crush that competition of, okay, I got enough money now. And we tend to just settle back and take it easy to think bigger, to think beyond survival. And I wish I'd just thought epic. And I'm telling you, if you want to succeed, you got to think bigger, dream bigger, get bigger goals. Set goals that they're so big and they're so exciting, they stretch you every single day. And they seem. I think you should set dreams that are impossible. Something Ted Turner, and I'm not a fan of Ted Turner, the founder of Turner Broadcasting Network, and I think he's a founder of CNN and whatever else. But he said something that I really is really powerful. He said one thing his father taught him was to set goals so big they could not be accomplished in your lifetime. I wish I hadn't had that kind of thinking. To think beyond survival, to think how, of building something so big I could not accomplish it in my Lifetime. That is powerful. So I wish I had known that. Number six, the sixth thing that I wish that I had known as a real estate agent, and this one's very, this is not real estate. But I wish I'd known this. I wished I had known how easy it is use work as an escape from my problems in my personal life. I wish I'd known how easy it is to use selling real estate as an escape from my personal life. My marriage was not good. It was dysfunctional. We had problems and it was easier to work more hours in real estate than go home and deal with it. And it destroyed my marriage and it, my ego was stroked at work, it wasn't stroked at home. And at work I was in control at home. I wasn't in control at work. People made me feel good and they made me feel successful at home. I didn't get that affirmation. And so instead of going home and dealing with that and fixing it, I avoided it. And it led to a lot of damage in my life and destroyed my family. And I allowed real estate to be an escape. And I'm going to tell you, if you're a real estate agent, especially if you're watching this, you've been a real estate agent for a while, you know what I'm talking about. In that real estate, you set your own schedule and you can work any hours you want. And I could always use that as excuse that I needed to get this done. I needed this done. And I had, there was always plenty to do. If I, if I wanted to stay away from home, I could always find a reason to be at the office or a reason to be on an appointment early, follow up or learning something or going to some social, real estate, social function and all that. And if you want to win in your life, you got to take care of your life. You want to win in real estate, you better be taking care of all the different areas of your life. Because if you're winning in one area of your life and another area of your life gets destroyed and that area will destroy everything else. And by that what I mean is if you're succeeding and killing it in real estate, you're doing awesome. And your marriage falls apart, my friend, your real estate business is going down. It is impossible for one area of your life to remain unaffected by a catastrophe in another area of your life, whether it's your finances, your health, your emotions, your personal family, relationships, whatever it is. If you don't take care of all of that and you think just making more money in real estate is going to be the solution, my friend, you got another thing coming. I wish I had known that burying myself in real estate was not going to solve my life's problems. And I wish I'd known to take care of that. Protect your family, protect your relationships. And you got problems in other areas of your life, you got to deal with them okay, You've got to take care of that because it's will affect your whole life. And it affected not only my peace of mind and my just my own personal life, it also came back and dramatically affected my real estate business because I was so busy taking care of a divorce. And that's not fun. And it was just, it was devastating to my whole family, my children and everything. Everybody loses. So you want to win in one area of your life, you got to win and all, you got to take care of all the other areas. And that's, that's hard. But we tend to escape into the things that we're having the most fun doing. And for me, I was having the most fun selling real estate. And for you it may be just the opposite. But you got to take care of it, right? So I wish I'd known that. And number seven, the seventh thing that I wish I had known as a new real estate agent is I wish I had understood going pro. I wish I'd understood how to play at the highest level. When I started real estate, it was back in the day, I was big Michael Jordan fan. He was the greatest of all time. I love basketball and so I would always watch him and that motivated me. But I understood how good he was. What I didn't understood was the work and the work ethic and the training and the mindset of him that he had and other greats had that made them that good, that it wasn't just raw talent, that it was the way they trained, that they were, they were the ultimate in pros. And so I trained. Today I talk about work with pros only. And that is if you want to succeed in real estate, you got to treat real estate the same way that a professional athlete treats their sport. And there is a difference between going pro and being full time. I was full time, I was full time, but I wasn't. I didn't train like a professional athlete would train. I didn't train like the best in the world trained. If I had it to do over again, I would have gone pro immediately. And I look back on what are some of the things that I wish I'd known, I wish I'd Done. I wish I'd have got a coach sooner. I wish I'd trained harder. Like professional athletes train every day. I would role play a little bit every day, but I wish I'd trained. I wish I'd role play two or three hours a day. I wish I had mastered my listening presentation and perfected it years before I did. I was full time, but I still trained like an amateur. And I would take days off and I would, would just, I would get complacent and if I didn't feel like it, I wouldn't do it. I would do that different today. I would have pushed myself harder, I would train harder, I would have played a bigger game. And I'm telling you, if you want to succeed in real estate, I think there's no, you just have to play big. You really do. Because there's too many things that can happen that can knock you down. And if you, if you don't have a big goal, it's going to, it's too hard to get back up. So I wish that I'd done all of that. And if you want to succeed in real estate at the highest level, up your game, go pro. Make the commitment to go pro. Go commit to training, commit to coaching, commit to all of that and then go make it happen. In fact, if you want to up your game right now, I recommend you come train with me. Go to agentmastery.agentmasterylive.com which is our next event, Agent Mastery Live. Come spend three days with me training to become the best in the world at what you do. And my commitment is in that three days, you're going to learn the most critical things that I have Learned in over 20 years of real estate. Plus what's happening right now, today, in today's market to accelerate your business and elevate your success, it is the right choice. It's worth it to invest in yourselves just like a pro does. Invest in yourself and your success and the payback will be awesome. I hope this video has been helpful for you. I hope this has helped you as an agent, wherever you are, whether you're new or not. If you have something that you're like, I wish I had known this, please post it down in the comments below. I'd like to see your feedback. I know you've got. There's a lot of things that you may have experienced that I didn't experience. And so I'd like to hear from you in that. Any questions you've got. If you like the video, give it a thumbs up. Subscribe to the channel, and I look forward to talking to you soon.