5 Ways to Thrive in a Shifting Real Estate Market w/ Wayne Salmans

Welcome to Real Estate Business Builders. I'm your host, Lars Hedenborg, the founder of Real Estate B School. Bottom line, the real estate industry has failed to create a clear path to financial freedom. Traditional brokerages and coaching are designed to keep you running on the transaction treadmill with no exit strategy. While I didn't have any sales, marketing or business building experience when I got into real estate, I was willing to bet on myself and figure it out because my family was depending. Having served over 5,000 families with their real estate needs, I've made every mistake you could possibly make in this business. Through Real Estate B School, I've helped hundreds of agents and team leaders realize their goal of true time and money, freedom and living a life without regrets. If you know there's another level of growth inside of you and you want to learn how to build a highly lucrative lifestyle business, then you're in the right place. You won't find any fluff or hype here on this show. Just real world tools, systems and strategies that work. Let's grow together.

What's up, Real Estate Business Builders? We've got a special edition of the podcast or if you're watching on YouTube, we've got Wayne Salomons joining us. And I had the honor of. I guess you were on one of our production masterminds. Or maybe it was. Yeah, one of our production masterminds where, dude, you were just on fire. I think I took seven pages of notes when you came and spoke to us. And we just have a mutual respect for each other. We're in similar spaces in terms of serving the industry. But I will say, dude, what you're doing for the industry is awesome. I want to give you about no more than 60 seconds to tell us who you are, why we should listen. And then as we're recording, we're looking at a new year. But whenever you go through this podcast or YouTube or it's going to hit you right square in between the eyes in terms of what you need to hear because I know you're going to bring the heat today. So give us 60 seconds, then we'll get into it.

60 seconds was I look like I had it all right? Years ago I was a top performing agent. While it's successful, third and third, everything looked great on the inside. I had a bunch of turmoil which led me to basically hitting rock bottom. And at the bottom of that hole, I recognized nobody was coming to save me and I either had to step up for myself or I was going to take my life. And at that moment, I that I was going to do my. See if I could step up for myself. I tried to be the hero that I was waiting on and just be that person. And that led me on a mission that if I could figure out how to kind of take care of myself, I was going to figure out how to help other people, you know, get, get more tooled and equipped and have systems actually take care of their lives and have freedom and fulfillment that we're all actually after. So it's led me on this amazing journey of coaching over over 6,000 agents and business owners and, and helping people, you know, not, not. I don't sell people on anything except for themselves. Right. And giving them the mindset skill set to tap into it. So that's what we do.

Awesome. I love it. And so let's, let's get into it. So entering a new year or if, if you're listening to this mid year and your year is just sucking, you can do everything Wayne's going to tell you to do but unpack. What you would have us. How would you have us think about next year or contemplate next year? Let's have a conversation around that today.

So I think it's a couple of things. The first thing that I would do, first couple of insights. One is this is not going to be the easiest year of your life. I don't care what industry. You're right, it's not going to be the easiest year of your life and you better come to terms with that. And also you probably don't need to be somewhere else, right? Like it's easy to start looking around to go, maybe I should do this. Like you're probably in the right place. You need to nail it where you are. I mean most of us are unhirable anyway, right? So like you're not going to go get a job, right? Like, like it's not going to be easy and you're, you're in the right place. You better learn how to lean in and nail this. And the third thing is that we all know, but sometimes we forget is like you get to create the experience you're going to have. I'm not saying it's going to be easy, but you get to create the experience you're going to over the next 12 months and you got to remind yourself like you didn't come this far to just come this far. Think about all you've come through in the last two years and you didn't get here just, just, just to set, just to settle where you're at. And then we look at it, you know, especially I think, you know, looking at, you know, goal setting and also stuff, I believe that there's a couple of decisions you got. You got to make in order for this to be the best year of your life. And we'll approach it from the other side of what's the best way to screw up this year? And I think, you know, if I was going to give you a handful of ways if you really wanted to screw up this year, we'll see if you and I agree. We probably will, at least on a couple of them, right? One of the best ways to screw up this year is avoid tough conversations. And I think those tough conversations probably come in three levels for most of people that are watching, right? So tough conversations come with. With our clients, and we're all getting good at that, right? Like, the tough conversations are first with our clients. The second level is we got to get great, tough conversation with our team members. And a lot of us, you know, I spoke with the CEO of a great company I work with in part of the conversation that we're having with our team members are like, here's the mountain we're taking. It's not going to be easy. It's not going to be like it was two years ago, but here's the mountain we're taking, and here's what it's going to take. And if you're on board with that, awesome. Heck, yeah. Here's your backpack. Let's go. If you're not on board with that, that's okay. I get it. It's different, right? It's different than maybe we thought it would be. It's going to be hard. We have to do things we didn't think we were going to have to do. Whatever it is, right? If you choose not to come in the hike, that's okay. But if you choose to come on the hike, here's what's going to be required. It's going to be worth it, but it's not for everybody. And then I think the third level of conversation, tough conversation, is like, you with you, right? And that's the hardest one. Like, most of us are afraid to be alone with our thoughts, right? Most people have the most brilliant thoughts of their life when they're in the shower, because it's like the eight minutes we shut up a day and actually listen. So it's like, what's. What are the tough conversations you need to have with you? And not having those is one of the best ways to screw up this year. So you got to ask yourself, what am I pretending not to know? Am I pretending not to know that my schedule needs to adjust? Am I pretending not to know that it's going to take twice as many you know of this to get the same result? Am I pretending not to know that we got to make some adjustments in the finance? Like, am I pretending not to know that I better skill up in this thing or it's going to cost me? What are you pretending not to know? What's the conversation you're avoiding with yourself right now as you go into this next year to make sure it's, it's a phenomenal hell yeah kind of year because, because too many of us are having average year after average year after average year after average year because we're not having the tough conversation with ourselves. We know we need to be happy, right? The second thing, if you really want to mess up the year is stay in confusion. And you see this as much as I do, right? So many people are staying in confusion to avoid making tough decisions or avoiding taking responsibility. But so many people are staying in confusion on, man, I can do this, I can do this. All these things. It's like their unconscious is pretending to be confused about what they need to do to win this next year. And yet they probably know or they know they need to have a conversation with you to figure out what it is that they don't know, right? But like, staying in confusion will really mess people up. And along those lines, it's like, it's like a should list, right? How many people you and I are talking to people all day long that these huge should list. I should, I should, I should, I should, I should. And it's like, it's just they're getting up, having a shitty year, right? Because, because they're living with all these should. So it's like get out of the shoulds and give yourself permission and dictate that you get into some certainty and some clarity, right? There's a hundred things I should do. Here's the hand that I will do, do, do, do really, really well, right? So, so I think, I think those, those are the top ones, you know, Another one is, you know, pretending to, to be content. I'm hearing this a lot right now, especially at the end of your period. Oh, well, I had a great year. You know what I mean? Right? Or, or, or, you know, it's not that bad. Like they're if, if you are content and you knocked your goals out of the park, cool. But most people that we're encountering are pretending to be more content than they really are, and it's not really serving them. Right. So, so, and then the last two would be, I believe, not dictating your focus is huge. I think more dreams are, are crushed by distraction than they are by failure. And there's so many people right now that are unclear, and that's what's messing them up, right? They're not being focused. They're being all over the place. Right? Is huge. So, so those, those are, those are the big ones.

Awesome. What was them? So, number one, avoid tough conversations if you really want to screw up this year. Number two, stay in confusion. Number three, pretending to be content. Number four, not dictating your focus. What was number five?

And the number five would, would be distractions, right? I, I allow yourself, like, being unfocused, being on, like, that's going to be the biggest thing. And I think so many people, when they're focused, they can do anything. But when they're unfocused, they're all over the place. And it causes depression, it causes anxiety, causes all, all these things.

All right, so let's talk about the, the flip side, right? That, that was like, in your face, like, five ways if you for sure want to mess up the next 12 months. But what's the flip side of it? What are the antidote to these five things?

So, and, and I'll put it back on you as well. It's like, what's the antidote to avoiding tough conversations? So the reality is, I think for most of us, when we have a frustration, we take a medication instead of doing an investigation. So my challenge to my clients is when you have a frustration, let's do an investigation. Let's figure out what's really going on. Because so many of us, especially people that are watching this, right? They're wonderful high achievers. The problem is for most high achievers, we're beating ourselves up all the time, right? We think we're doing. We think we're having tough conversations. What we're really doing is beating the crap up out of ourselves for not doing more. We should be saying, I can't believe I didn't follow my schedule or I should have done this. Those are not effective conversations. Those are surface level conversations. Those are conversations that don't actually invoke change. They just invoke you beating yourself up. And if we beat ourselves up enough, we almost feel like we're doing something about it, right? So a tough conversation is going to the root of this, right? What's causing me to be late, what's causing me to not get more things done? What do I need to learn? What's the skill? What do I need to do? So I think tough conversations are addressing what am I pretending not to know and than taking micro steps in order to repair those things in going through, I think in a more systematic way to figure out what those questions are. So, you know, I have a list of questions. I'm sure you have a list of questions.

Right.

It's forcing people to go into a moment of isolation, retreat and really do an investigation, really do some soul searching before they just jump into this next year so they don't have the same year over and over and over. What's your thought on tough conversations? So if we're on the same page.

Yeah, I mean, I think it's you versus you. That's the, that's the thing that I wrote down, you know, and it kind of feeds into point number two in terms, in terms of like, you know, agents wonder why they're not successful, but they're, they're completely, you know, into social or news or Netflix or like, you know, they, they think they're focused during the day, but they're not actually looking at where they're spending their time. They're liking complete, complete. Like, you know, I like the way you put it. You know, if you want to have a crappy year, stay in confusion, you know, like, are you really confused? If you slow down and look at yourself from, like, from, like you're looking down on yourself and the way you're, you're showing up in your business, are you really confused why you're not successful? You know, like, is it, is it that confusing? You know, because you're, you're not taking care of your physical body, you're not hydrating, you're not getting good sleep, you're, you know, over caffeinated, eating too much sugar. Like there's all these things feed in. But what for someone that's like off track, off the rails, what are the first two or three things you would have them do on a regular basis to get back on the rails?

Amen. And having a process for that.

Yeah. So that's my question to you. What advice? Like two or three things you would tell someone if, if they're, if they're off the rails and they're not, they're not doing the right things, what are a couple of things you would have them start doing regularly? Like a weekly planning session or a daily walk or like what, what are some tactical, practical things they can do.

So. So I'll give you some really sexy answers. No, I'm joking. I'll give you some really unsexy answers that everybody already knows. So. So here's the analogy I want to think about, right? If you take your little kid bowling and they're about to throw the ball down, down the lane and you put up those guardrails before you throw the ball. Yes. Right. And yet too many of us, like the ball is headed head down thing, right? It's already in the gutter that we want to throw up the rails, get back in. So. So the thing that we consider is most you've got to put up the guardrails before you throw the ball, right? You've got to take care. You got to have a self maintenance plan since you got to take care of yourself like you would give yourself. So to back this up, I would say, what advice would you give your best friend? What advice would you give a friend in the exact same position? So you know what to do, right? You know, to. My challenge is for you to take you serious enough and treat yourself like a phenomenal athlete that you actually are. You know, that you should in the morning write down the three things you're grateful for. You know, every morning you should Write down your 3 must for the day. You know, you should prioritize by putting things that, here's what I could do, here's what I should do, here's my three must for the day. Like you know what to do. You know that you should pre plan your food. You know that you should have have a calendar that actually matches your goals, right. You know, so my question for you is really what's causing you not to take you serious enough? What's causing you to not take and do some of the actions you would tell everybody else to do? So if it was me, I would start with the first step is getting pissed off. You got to get ticked off that you're not living the life you know you can be living, right? Right. If you're watching this, you know, there's a whole nother level, right. I don't know where the end is, right? But like, you know, this is another level. So the first step is you got to get ticked off. Like I am better than this. Just the fact that the desire to be better proves to me that deserv. There's people that are not as smart as me, there are people that have less hours than me, there are people that are doing better with less. And I'm not okay with that. Right, right. So the first step is you got to get ticked off. The second step is you've got to take a micro, a micro action. What's a small thing that I could do? And build on that over time. Too many of the people that we coach have superhero syndrome where they think Tomorrow they got 15 habits and it's going to get done. Start with like one or two a month. It's interesting. If you go to a room, you go, how many of you would be thrilled if you adopted, you know, 12 habits this year? All right? But if it took you 12 years, most people are like, that's stupid. I can do way more than that. Right? Then you go, how many of you actually adopted more than 12 habits? Nobody raised their hand, right? How many of you adopted more than five? Right? Nobody raised their hand. You go, how many of you adopted one, maybe one or two hands. Adopt one a month and build from there. Stop having the superhero syndrome. Start building one at a time and then be proud of the person you are. You know what to do. And I would dive a step deeper. Stop giving yourself high minded answers. High minded answers are work harder, be more proactive, focus more. Like there are all these high mind answers that I can't actually do anything with. Right. So be more clear on. I'm going to get a calendar, I'm going to get a schedule, I'm going to hire somebody to hold me to so I can get more clear on the action that, you know, you need to do and then get some accountability around.

Yeah, that's awesome. I a really good book and I'm sure you've read James Clear Atomic Habits and, and I can relate to this where in the book he says, you know, the goal shouldn't be to run a marathon. The goal should be to become a runner, you know, so, so firsthand in 2015, I'm all, I'm less so today. But back then I was all about the grand gesture. I'm like, I'm gonna run a marathon. You know, it's going to be the D.C. yeah. What was it? D.C. marine Corps Marathon. So really like high profile, like just so I, I wasn't even running anything at that point. So I trained, you know, we did it. I gave up running for 18 months after, you know, and, and so, so lately for me, like the little things, you know, it's taking the TV out of my bedroom, you know, I, I got, I went into a rabbit hole. As much as I know not to do it. I went into a rabbit Hole that I couldn't control a bunch of news or whatever crap I was watching, who I was following was not leading me closer to my goals, meaningful goals that I wanted to achieve and God's best for my life, none of that stuff. So it's clear to me when I ask myself the question and, and you probably have a version of this question but like, is this God's best for me? You know, so that's what led me to stop drinking. Not that, I mean, my father was an alcoholic. My sister has challenges. Not that it was something that I thought really was getting in my way, but I know it's ultimately, it could be something that trips me up in a major way and something I couldn't even foresee, you know, coming. Same thing with watching the news or Netflix or, you know, so now I run every morning. You know, there's, there's nothing in the way of me in the treadmill at 4:45. I have no appointments on my calendar. So. And it's just an excuse, you know, I'm going to bed earlier than everybody else. I'm telling the kids like good night when you know, they're, they're not wanting to go to bed.

But.

So what advice do you have along those sort of little micro atomic habits that you've seen for you personally, man.

It'S funny, I stopped drinking too. I don't know if I will forever, but I've done it for six, seven months and it's been great. So here's what really messed me up. Years ago, I was reading my son a book about all these great heroes, Martin Luther King and all these others, right? And I'm laying in bed reading this book and what hits my mind is what? I want him to read my story. What I want my son to read my story. Would it be like, oh, he tried and he gave up. Or like he had lived really average, like, would it be a heroic story? Everybody wants to be a hero until they have to do the hero stuff, right? But, but, but I read this book and I'm going, but I want him to read my story. And what I realized was I'm going to start doing things that I'm going to be proud of at the end of the day. I just want to be proud of me, right? I want my kids to be proud of me. I want to lay my head on the pillow going, I did. I was the best me today that I could be. So I started making decisions just like you' saying, what would Wayne, a year from now, what would do like the awesome way that I'm going to be a year from now. What would he, what would actions would he take today? Because every day I'm making a boat. Every day you run, you're voting for that person. Every day you don't run, you're voting for the other person. Right. Every day I'm adding in these votes and who do I want to be year round? That, that's kind of my center point. Right. My center point is who do I want to be a year from now. My center point is what advice would I give my son and am I following that? And then on the other side of that, it's begin to take these micro steps that you're proud of. Right. I don't need to do 75 actions tomorrow. I need to do one or two things because if I get 1 or 2% better every day, I know it sounds cliche, but if I get one or two better every single day. Right? Right. The compound of that is huge. So me, it's like I'm not going to do anything that I'm not proud of. And I know that sounds a little maybe hairy fairy, but I'm proud of me when I get up on time, I'm proud of me. When I say no to the drink, I'm proud of me. When I say yes to my schedule and I say no to something else. I, I'm just going to do things that make me proud of me. That when my kid reads my book it's going to go, that's phenomenal. So I think that on the other side of that is we've convinced ourselves we're not as amazing as we are. And then if you're watching this, I want you to think about that just for one second. You are way more powerful than you give yourself credit for. When you've got one day left before vacation, it's amazing what you get done. You're a time management ninja. You get up on time like you are a phenomenal person. Right? Right. If one of your kids are in trouble, like you're stop discounting you and realize you're way more powerful than you be giving yourself credit credit for. And begin to tap into that. I think that's it.

Awesome. Final word, I want to hear from you on distractions. Right. I think our personality types, we're probably similar. We're definitely less susceptible to being distraction. What do you do to guard yourself from that?

Oh my goodness. So I like, I literally have to put baby in a corner. Like I gotta turn off notifications. I Gotta like I close the windows. I like I literally have to treat myself like a six year old. Right. And so in free. But here's what helped me. I got ticked off. But I realized a quote years ago was you know attention is the currency of today. So when my phone dings and I pay attention to it somebody else is getting paid. Right. Like you know. Right. All these other companies are spending billions of dollars to get my attention. Screw them. I'm going to give myself attention and get paid. Like I'm not paying. I'm going to get paid. Right. So that was, that was the first piece of it. And then just realizing what I had to put around me to protect myself from me. Right. Other people are going to waste my time. But I didn't start with protecting myself from me. And that's the first place. So that's realizing that like when I am focused it's amazing when I'm distracted. It's crazy. Most people waste 24% of their work week just in switching back and forth between stuff because they're all place right doing this. It's killing your dreams. Distractions are killing more dreams than failure. My perception. So you've got to get ticked off about being distracted it and start doing little things one by one to pull that energy back.

Yeah. And the last thing I'll say on that and stacking those things like. Like you said don't go after 12 things at once. You'll fail and you'll. You'll. It's this self fulfilling I suck prophecy. No. Versus like I can. I can walk for a mile every day this week. Like I get a used treadmill. You know if it's super cold outside. There's no excuse for walking a mile. And then you can.

Right.

Miles, three miles, four miles, five miles. And then you stack that on top of drinking water.

Amen.

It's the basic things that when I.

Started doing the miracle morning I did one minute per thing. One minute per. I can find six minutes. You know what I mean? It was like. And I felt like a loser at the moment. But you know what? My one minute per day was way better than the guy that did zero minutes per thing. Right. And you build over time.

Awesome. Wayne, what's the easiest way to get in touch with you?

Reach out to you. No. Go find me on social if you want. Wayne Salmons is all the social handles so. Yeah. Thank you.

Yeah. I appreciate you the work you do. Keep doing it. My prayers for God to give you strength to keep doing this every day. Our industry needs it and I just appreciate you. We'll talk soon, okay?

Sounds good my brother. Appreciate you man.

Thanks for listening. Would you please take a minute to share the show with other agents who may be struggling? And if you love the podcast, please like please leave us a five star review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast platform. And make sure you visit ScaleOrDiebook.com to get a free copy of my book. It's a nuts and bolts guide to building a real estate business that gives you true time and money freedom so that you can live your life without regrets. Thanks again and see you on the next episode.