During my first couple of years in business, I learned not only that I had to make my own success by cold-calling persistently and following up consistently; I also learned that when the phone rings, there’s money to be made. I’ve seen lots of agents just waiting for the phone to ring so that they could get new business. Even worse, when the phone does ring, I’ve seen lots of agents squander leads because they felt those leads weren’t “good enough.”

I’m sure you’ve seen this, too. In every industry, there are people who wait for the business to come to them, and then there are people who continually go out and find new customers.

Which will you be? You might be able to make some money waiting for the “good leads” but you will make a lot more if you work with what you’ve got. Here are excuses not to use or accept if you really want to succeed.

• This caller just didn’t seem like a serious buyer
• This caller probably wouldn’t qualify for a mortgage
• That caller seemed to be working with another agent so they probably wouldn’t work with us
• That caller just started looking and probably isn’t ready to buy yet
• That one was “just curious”
• They were just a “nosy neighbor”
• They said they were looking for a friend.

Don’t assume anything and don’t give up so early!

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Here are three great ways to figure out what your non-dollar-productive activities are:

1. Take a day to stay at home and delegate to someone else (e.g. an assistant, if you have one) . Give this person anything that you would normally do, as you would if you were on vacation or sick in the hospital. By doing that, you’ll find that your assistant is so much more capable than you thought, and that he or she can do a lot fo the tasks you typically do. Many people simply need an opportunity to rise to the occasion, and you have to give them that opportunity.

2. Write down your activities every fifteen minutes. Get an egg timer, set it for fifteen minutes, and when it goes off, write down what you did. At the end of the day, you’ll see immediately how much time you wasted: you’ll realize you were on Facebook, or sending e-mails, or talking to friends about nonwork activities–none of which have helped you make any money.

3. Turn off your cell phone and don’t answer your e-mail until noon. This enables you to at least work from 9:00 to 12:00 doing things that are critically important to your business, whatever they are in your work. Never check your e-mail in the morning, instead YOU should decide which work is most important, and do that first.

I was fortunate enough to get the chance to talk about my book with Gary Keller at the always amazing Keller Williams Mega Camp about my new book. I was really excited to be able to explain why I wrote the book and then explain how it can help all of you. Here’s pat 1 of our conversation.

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Active Rain did some research to find out some of the things that are separating the successful agents from the average or worse.  One of the biggest things that stuck out was the agents use of online marketing and more specifically social media. Check out some of the stats below to get an idea of where you might want to dedicate some more of your time.

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I’ve seen people close to me lose their life savings in real estate development deals, in stocks, and in restaurants. In all of these cases, they thought they could make money but didn’t actually know anything about what they were investing in. it always amazes me that someone could spend his or her whole life saving and earning money and then give it to someone who says, “How would you like to own one-third of a restaurant? All you have to do is give me half a million dollars!” For many people, that money was all they had to live on for the rest of their lives, yet they wanted to be restaurant owners and they thought they could triple their money.

One of my coaches, Dr. Fred Grosse, said, “In everybody’s soul, there is a need to take risks.” This is true even of people who are especially conservative and are good savers, not spendthrifts: part of their soul yearns to take risks as well. Instead of taking risks in extreme sports, adventure vacations, or another activity that’s a bit out of their comfort zone–all of which are less expensive than investing one’s entire fortune in something unfamiliar–some people simply scratch that itch by making risky investments. And they often lose everything. Don’t let that happen to you: be careful where you invest. You’ve worked too hard to lose it suddenly.

It’s getting colder and the days are getting shorter. It’s hard to stay focussed and harder to stay motivated. That’s why I went back to dig up this video as a quick way to brighten up your day.

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Over the years, I’ve found that some items work better than others in terms of keeping our business’s name in front of clients. Here are my tip five items of value that should be mailed out to people (other than postcards, which is a different type of marketing):

1. Magnetic business cards. There are the best things you can mail out. They’re inexpensive, and they don’t cost much to send though the post office. People use them on refrigerators, and they stay up there for years., holding up their kids’ report cards, memos, pictures, etc.

2. Calendars. We mail out calendars every year because people love them; They’re a great advertisement for your business all year round.

3. Cookies. We used to send out gift certificates for giant cookies on a client’s birthday, now we send them out on the first anniversary of their settlements. A great unexpected treat to get your name back in their minds.

4. A list of recommended vendors. We have gotten a great response from sending out a list of trustworthy vendors, including plumbers, handymen, and other home maintenance professionals.

5. A reminder that we offer notary services. Most of my agents are also notaries and we offer this service for free. It’s one more way to make sure we can stay that person’s Realtor for life.

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What are your goals for the next year? Whatever they are, I truly believe you should not only set goals but look at them as often as possible. Many people set goals on January 1 but then don’t really even think about them during the rest of the year. That’s obviously not effective! Instead, you should place reminders in as many places as possible, both at home and at work. Your list of goals could be the screensaver on your computer, or you could laminate them and hang them in the shower, or put them on your car visor–these are all places I’ve had mine over the years. In fact, during the year I had my goal list on the visor of my car, one of my goals was to make $40,000 a month. And when I took my car to get it inspected, the person who serviced it saw this goal and said, “Man, I want your job!” He was also impressed that I kept my list of objectives where I would see it every day.

Keep your list wherever you think you will see it most often, because those constant reminders will help you achieve what you want to achieve.

This infographic was just published in September which means it’s still a good time to buy. You do however, need to think about a few things before going on a rabid house hunt. This infographic is really nice in that it breaks down six very important steps anyone has to go through when buying or thinking about buying a home. This is a great resource for agents and buyers. Let me know what you think in the comment box below.

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Here’s how having an accountability partner works: whether your goal is to lose fifteen pounds in two months or to make cold calls every day between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m., five days a week, you put it in writing and send it to your partner. Then, at the end of every day,  you e-mail your partner with an update. For example, if your goal is to do four hours of dollar-productive activity on a particular day, then at the end of the day, you would e-mail your partner with something like this: “Here’s everything I did today, and here’s how many hours were dollar-productive.” (“Dollar-productive” activities are any that directly bring money into your business, as opposed to the ancillary activities that many people waste too much time on.)

I also learned the value of creating both a reward if you do meet your goal and a negative consequence if you don’t For example, your reward could be that if you call your past clients from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. every day for the next three months, then at the end of that time, you give yourself a weekend in the Bahamas with your husband or wife. On the other hand, if you don’t do what you set out to do, then the negative consequence might be to send a check for $5,000 to a political party you don’t really want to support. To make sure you follow through, you could give your check to your peer partner as soon as you set the goal, and have him or her mail it if you fail to meet it.

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