Over the course of the last 3 years, I trimmed down the list the to a critical 7 areas that I find non-negotiable. The list was 15 just a few short years ago. You could use this list no matter what profession you are in. It would work for mortgage brokers, financial advisors, carpet cleaners or any other type of business.

So my question for you today is do you have your blinders on? Is your competition yourself or are you focused more on your surroundings? Are you surrounded by the right people?

Is it “You vs You?” or are you wallowing in what others are doing, wondering why you "didn’t get the same breaks"? Are you looking in the mirror every morning at your competition or are you unwilling to take yourself on?

The battle is not the “market”. The battle is with you and starts between your ears. Have you committing to a better, higher version of yourself. Once you commit to “You vs. You”, your business and life will start to change magically before your eyes. It’s not a question of “IF”, but “When”. Let me warn you, you are for the battle of your life. We’re talking years and decades, not days and weeks.

I am committed to providing “The How”. You need to commit to making YOU the competition. If you don’t, you will most likely be faced with your own real estate heart attack at some point. It happens to the best of us and, if we are not prepared to weather a storm, it will occur at some point in your life and career, maybe multiple times. I never thought it would happen to me but don’t we all think we are immune?

So Fall in Love with the process: Thoughts create feelings. Feelings create the action. Action creates the desired result. This is how you turn a tiny seed into a bumper crop.

So like I said, to grow your business, you have to know your numbers. The math will help you make much better decisions. When you can increase the percentage of good decisions, the happier and more productive you will be. My goal for you, which has been consistent from day 1, is I coach agents to live a happy, productive life. Happy agents sell more real estate. Now, I can teach you all of these proven mathematical concepts, but you need to go out and implement them. In the end, it is all math.

Sometimes you get into a rut and you just can’t find the motivation to get out of it. Maybe it's been a long time since you been in flow that you’ve forgotten what it feels like. If you are not currently in a rut, chances are you’ve been in one that still stings and you want to avoid another at all costs. You can still feel that time in your life and much of your motivation comes from creating a distance between that time and now. As I’ve said, people are motivated by desperation or inspiration. 80% are motivated by solving problems not reaching goals. It’s just how the human brain is wired. You need to dig deep and find what what motivates you.

Don't Make Simple Difficult by Jim Miller

Where did the last 3 weeks go since our last Monday Morning Pep Talk? I for one was craving for some downtime only to find myself, after a few days, falling into some bad habits with my routine and diet. In the moment, I wasn’t overly worried about it because I knew that I need to completely power down, recharge and reboot for the new year. The power down and recharge part of the process was easy and enjoyable but the rebooting and regaining my momentum has been anything but easy. My daily schedule was most impacted by the change of pace. Again, I knew it was necessary but have found myself paying the price over the last week as I knew I need to get back into “game shape”.........

Now, I am a master at making mistakes. Thankfully, I’ve gotten pretty good at learning from my mistake and modeling others. When I took over the role to be in leadership at Jameson Sotheby’s International Realty almost 7 years ago, my mission was to scale what I had learned during which was the debacle of 2007 to 2010. If I knew in 2005 what I know now, I would have made way different decisions, but “Hindsight is 20/20, right”. As I look back, that journey, as tough as it was at the time, ended up being a blessing and a competitive advantage for me.

So…….

Collectively, let’s take the experience we learned from our mistakes and the wisdom we collected from others this decade, clear the calculator on January 1, 2020 and set course for new levels the coming decade.

Let’s take that “Hindsight” and dominate in 2020.

An episode is defined as an "event or a group of events occurring as part of a larger sequence.”

We normally think of episodes as part of our favorite Netflix or streaming TV drama. We watch them in sequence starting with Season 1, Episode 1. We’d never go to the final season, last episode and work backwards, right?.

Meaning, in our example this morning, your business has to complete different levels of execution and performance before you move to the #nextlevel.

I’ve made transitioning an important part of my day and now it’s become somewhat of a habit that I do naturally. As I was driving from Chicago to Union Pier last Tuesday night, I was grateful for that hour and 1/2 drive that allowed me to decompress and transition to being “a different version” of me for a few days. I made a point to relax and not be on the same frequency that I am most of the time when I’m in Chicago which is high octane go, go, go. I’ve learned the importance of mentally “switching gears” to increase my effectiveness and it has made a huge difference in my energy level.