In this community coaching session led by Chris Prefontaine, participants discuss the critical role of timing in navigating industry disruption and personal growth. Chris introduces Mustafa Suleyman’s book The Coming Wave as a lens for understanding rapid technological change that can leave professionals, such as a 25‑year veteran photographer, feeling phased out. The conversation pivots to how real‑estate skills provide a durable foundation, while the current market (store closures, interest‑rate fluctuations) underscores the need for proactive year‑end planning. Participants share concrete tactics—daily 5‑8 outbound dials, leveraging bootcamps, and seeking mentorship—to accelerate personal development, noting that income cannot outpace personal growth. Chris emphasizes coaching as a two‑way “sword‑sharpening” practice that keeps the community sharp, and warns of early signs (drop in calls, event attendance) that predict member disengagement or “casualties.” The session blends anecdotal evidence, actionable metrics, and motivational framing to encourage members to prioritize upskilling, networking, and consistent engagement before the new year.
Chapters
It's gotta be by far the biggest question I get, and we might want to banter around with this one a little bit, but the timing matters. If you look at— I got a book for you if you want to write this down, and please understand I did not finish it. I just started it. It got my attention for the reason I'm talking about now. It's called The Coming Wave. Has anyone read that? Nope. By Mustafa, and I'm going to spell the last name because I'm going to butcher it, but Suleyman, S-U-L-E-Y-Man. S-U-L-E-Y-M-A-N, The Coming Wave. It's mostly— he started 2 AI companies, so I picked it up because of that, because it's going so fast. I'm like, I want to hear this guy's brain is on. He's brilliant. And so I don't know how good the book is yet. I'm on like chapter 3 or 4. But, but so write— that's a writer down if you want to take a peek at it. Um, so what I mean by timing is if you read the beginning of his book, the technology and the industries and the general change sometimes leaves people behind, does it not?
Yep.
Yes. Big time. It's happening now. And I spoke to a prospect, uh, over the weekend for the community. On occasion, the sales team will text and go, hey, Chris, this guy would love to chat with you. He's really cool. He wants to— he, he could be a great ad. So I call him, uh, he's in Minneapolis. I'm sorry, he's in Minnes— yeah, he's in Minnesota. And he said, Chris, I'm getting phased out. I said, what do you do? 25 years photography, like standard old school, go in there, get photos taken, right? He said, I can make a living now, but it's no longer the money that gets my attention. And then big boxes. I don't know about you guys. Big boxes right near Kim and I. Banana Republic history, at least near us. Walgreens announced they're closing. Bed Bath and Beyond. I guess they're making a comeback after bankruptcies and Container Store bottom. But my point is, if you were there, you kind of got displaced, right? And what's cool is when you talk about the creative stuff and real estate in your terms, it's built. Like way before me. It's built to survive always, right? And it's a skill set we all have for life. Like you could run into a sail on a boat or a camper and you can now structure it because you've been in this community. So pre-COVID, during COVID you know, post-COVID, interest rates up, interest rates down, but it's all great. So, so think about that when you're going into year-end planning and trying to prioritize where you're putting your time. That's where my brain went this weekend. Does the timing piece of this make sense, guys? I'll take a breath here and see. Yeah. Thoughts on this?
Yeah, I think it totally makes sense going into the end of the year when we're kind of doing our— starting to think about our goal setting for 2025. You know, Chris, like having the experience of the boot camp, having the experience of even the calls, doing dials last week with a few of us, I just think it is priceless. Because you're in there with, with like minds and you're just, you're moving the business forward. No matter what you do, you're moving it forward. Like, I'll give you an example. This morning, you and I were going back and forth on voice text and you said, you know what, just try to squeeze in 5 to 8 a day.
A day.
You know, because I told you my manager's coming out to ride with me this week, not to ride with me, but to meet with me. I have a new manager. What you just said, there's going to be a whole new structure announced for January 1st at my company. And there's going to be a lot of people losing their jobs and stuff. And here I am begging, pick me, pick me, and they don't. So I just, I'm like, just give me a package, just give me a package so I can have that runway. But it's the whole time thing, like you were talking about Rick and his ROI and what he was figuring out. Never mind the freedom it gave him to choose what, what and when he spends his time.
All right, well, this is huge. You just Nailed something. Sadly, Rick's mom is not well. He texts me each night, so they don't even know if it's gonna continue. So you just nailed something because he up and left Friday and said, I gotta be with my mom. The weekend before, he did that too. And guess what? It's not affecting his business, right?
Right.
This is going on. His job may be eating up time and all the crap that goes with it. So very good point. I didn't even think of that, that tie. Judy, for context, you guys heard us say 5 to 8. Uh, Judy came in last week and she came in the visit before that too. No exaggeration, a stack about yay big, Judy. At least bigger than that. On lead slips with mostly, I'd say 90%, super good motivation. She just can't get to them. So I grabbed like, I don't know, 8, 10. She took a bunch and I dialed them all that day and we're just trying to barrel through them. Good problem to have, but that's the 5 or 8, not new calls. She's done so many new calls in her VA stuff that she's got all these leads. So just so you guys know what the heck we were talking about there. And those call sessions, I'm doing them as we, as the, as the dates roll out here in November, December here at the office. Okay. Other thoughts on timing, you guys? Because I want you to, the point of that piece was I want you to feel super hopeful, encouraged to use an earlier word, and confident that you, you're in the right spot. Now it's how fast can you uplevel you? Because remember now, this will be a scary thought for some, but your income— let's say this is your income— your income can't outpace your growth personally. Just can't. If it on accident goes above it, the kind of the thermostat, it'll come back down. So you gotta challenge yourself, we all do, to constantly push the growth side of things, to learn the personal development, the mind space. It's important. It's that important because your income won't outpace you. That makes sense. So it's how fast you can do it. That's all it is. So now, so there's another little prompt from now to the end of the year. What else can you look at for training or exposure to people? I said this at the event. Is there 1 or 2 people you should meet? Should you get to a bootcamp? There's another one in December. So what should you do to make sure you keep upleveling that ever so slightly? The coaches have the luxury, and you guys can comment if you want, but this is my take on coaching. Everybody says, why do you coach? They— we have the luxury of constantly sharpening our sword because we have to be there for you. So it's really cool, like, oh, new deal or new twist, and it's constantly sharpening our sword. It keeps us sharp. So that's one way to develop. But, uh, Rusty, Mike, does that make sense? Like, I never— I don't know if people ask you that. They ask me that all the time. Oh, 100%. That's why I first started doing— or that's why I got into coaching years back, is to, you know, not only help others, but also to be able to keep sharpening my sword and stay on top of everything, right? And continue to be the expert in the industry. So— Oh yeah. Yeah, my confidence skyrocketed as soon as I started coaching. And I just wanted to make a point that John and John made on our call. You know, what other franchises have a community like this where you can lean on, right? And do stuff like what you're talking about, which is lean on coaches or lean on people within the community, um, that's going to help you, um, attain your goals faster, right? Yeah. Good stuff. Well, Rusty just brought something up because this is— I'll, I'll— you guys know I usually don't hold back my thoughts. I just got one. So we have casualties in the community, even high 6, which blows my mind. When When I, when I see someone disappearing, like they're not calling us as much, and Rusty, Mike, I know you know this well, they're not calling us as well all of a sudden, or the calls drop down, or the critiques drop down, or they don't go to an event, and they start, they start stacking, the stacking is going in the wrong direction, I know they're gonna be a casualty.
