Who is the perfect customer?  On this episode, Eric Forney and Michael Bounds talk about how they approach finding their perfect customer.  They discuss the value of fishing in the deepest part of the pond instead of going after multi-million dollar deals.  They also talk about how important it is to craft a message that speaks directly to the customer you are trying to attract.  They explain the importance of bringing value to every relationship and how to bring that to your clients.  They sum it up explaining how consistency beats intensity every time when you are farming leads.

What does it really mean to be your best self?  In this episode, Eric Forney and Michael Bounds drill down on what it means to show up as your best self in life.  They talk about how in striving to do what you love, you don't want to fall into a victim mentality when you have to do something you don't love, because there are always things you will have to do in life that you aren't excited to do.  They also discuss the importance of growing in all areas of life: physically, emotionally and spiritually, not just growing at work.  Michael shares how taking care of his family in the morning helps him put the most important things first, and how that even helps the rest of his day go well.  Eric dives into how the entrepreneurial spirit can have him obsessed with always wanting better outcomes or more outcomes, and how it can feel like no amount of achievement is ever enough.  They ultimately agree that becoming your best self is just the infinite game of you vs you.

Goals feel like things that are absolutely necessary to get what you want out of life, but what happens when unforeseen circumstances make them difficult to achieve?

On this episode, Eric Forney and Michael Bounds talk about that dirty four letter word: goal.  They talk about how they are both motivated by their goals but also know that sometimes, it's not possible to accomplish every single one.  They discuss how if having a goal is making your more anxious while you work on something, it may not actually be helping, and what they do when they realize they aren't hitting a goal.  They agree that goals can be treated like signals; if you aren't getting to where you want to be, perhaps not hitting that goal is a red flag to examine what else is happening in your life that is keeping you from that goal.

If we don't monitor our energy, we can switch into auto-pilot and run out of it when we need it the most.  On this episode, Eric Forney and Michael Bounds talk about how important our energy levels are, how easy it is to lose track of them, and ways to keep yourself from running on empty.  They discuss how being overly busy can put you in a mindset of getting stuff done and moving on to the next actionable item, while not becoming aware of building anxiety that is exponentially depleting your energy.  They talk about how taxing our expectations of ourselves are, as well as expectations of others we take on, and how it is important to evaluate those expectations to be sure they are realistic.  They share how difficult it is as a business owner to let go of control of some parts of your business, but that if you don't let go, you won't be able to get your time back while still moving your business forward.

While the US is technically in a recession with high rates of unemployment, the real estate market doesn't feel like it is, but historically, unemployment can take 6-18 months to catch up to real estate, so it's incredibly important to start preparing for a shift.  On this episode, Eric Forney and Michael Bounds discuss what is important to pay attention to in your business as a way to safeguard yourself in the future.  They discuss auditing your finances, making sure you have the right people in the right seats on the bus, being aware of dollars invested and their returns, and being able to pivot to a more digital and online approach to real estate.

71% of people working from home right now report being burned out, and the average American worker has roughly $16k a year in lost productivity due to it.  What can you do to make sure you aren’t a part of that statistic?  In this episode, Eric Forney and Michael Bounds discuss how easy it is to get burned out and the tactics they employ to keep burnout from seeping into their lives.  Michael shares how having a powerful why is what can get him out of bed and work in the mornings when it’s the last thing he wants to do, and how a strong routine helps him stay on track without even realizing he’s getting stuff done sometimes.  Eric explains preventable steps for him to avoid burnout, most importantly focusing on not always being a yes man and knowing that he has to say no to some things by auditing his time for what is actually important.

On this episode, Eric Forney talks to Michael Bounds about how you can turn rejection into fuel.  They discuss social identity and it's three stages: social categorization, social identification and social comparison, and how having a strong sense of your own social identity can make rejection not feel like a loss.  They explain how they view rejection with a potential client as a rejection of the story they have told the client, not a direct rejection of them themselves.  Michael tells a story of a client who rejected him early on that he came to realize was a blessing, because he won his time back and didn't have to work with a difficult person.  They also discuss how to encourage their teams to see rejection as something that is just a part of the process, and to celebrate a rejection because it means you were still out there working on generating leads.

On this episode, Eric Forney and Michael Bounds talk about using social media to find your ideal clients.  They discuss how to establish your audience, discover their pain point, create that gap for them, and show how you can fill that gap.

On this episode, Eric Forney explores his belief with Michael Bounds that relationships don't matter as much in sales as everyone thinks they do.  Eric gives examples of times people used him as their Realtor but not their friend, because they didn't trust their friend to be able to handle the transaction, and argues that value comes first and the relationship second.  They discuss how if being friends with someone makes it hard for you to challenge them, then the relationship has done a disservice to the sales job.  Eric references a Harvard Business Review article on the categories of salespeople and how effective each type is, and he and Michael discuss the real world application of those categories.

On this episode, Eric Forney and Michael Bounds discuss how powerful finding good talent can be, and the difficulties involved in finding those people.  Eric talks about how there can be ego involved in thinking that you can train someone and essentially change them to fit the mold you need them to fit in, and how to attract talent, you need to have a method of dispersing who you are so that the right people can discover you.  Michael shares how he started a job at a car dealership changing oil, but his boss immediately recognized he would be better as a salesperson, which leads to a discussion about how sometimes hiring talented people is more important than hiring someone to fill one job opening you have.  They also explain the importance of not over promising things you can give someone when they come on board with you, because you want to find people who are a culture fit that want to give something to the company instead of just getting something from it.