The Top 3 Self-Imposed Business Pressures
And how they can keep you from taking the action you need!
I work with different clients with different personalities every day. Although there are sometimes personal challenges that cause them to lose their mojo, what I find more often is that agents get paralyzed by themselves. They get in their own heads and so overwhelmed that they find themselves unable to take any action that propels them forward.
Here are the top three challenges that I see agents struggle with:
#1: Getting Ready to Get Ready
I'm all for being organized, having your materials ready to go and having everything in its place. I'm a self-confessed control freak and color-coding organizational junkie. So I understand the tendency to want to “get ready to get ready” – but too many agents waste valuable money-making time doing just that, while avoiding the most important parts of their business.
It's like the person who goes to the beach and spends hours setting up their umbrella, their chair, putting on sunscreen, adjusting and re-adjusting their towel, getting their cooler packed and positioned for their next snack. But they never actually make it into the beautiful water because they are too busy getting their surroundings ready.
Your surroundings do not make you successful in real estate: your client connections do! So stop spending hours creating the perfect client connection document only to find at the end of the day that you haven't connected with anybody. I know very successful agents who are disorganized nightmares and they are makings lots of money. It's because they are CONNECTING with their clients. There has to be a balance between getting ready to get ready and getting the job done.
#2: Lack of Focus
By nature, many agents are impatient. They want results and they want them now. This leads to a severe lack of focus and a tendency to not give something enough time to become fruitful. This could be the agent who jumps from geographical farming to open houses to direct mail campaigns to social media marketing to event marketing to online lead generation, etc. Any one of these things could be extremely successful, but if you don't give anything enough time you will find yourself wandering from one unsuccessful venture to another. Be patient, give it time, do what you do well – and you will have success.
#3: Perfectionitis
I can't tell you how many times an agent has said to me that they have a newsletter that never went out because by the time they got it the way they wanted it, it was out of date. What should have been their fall newsletter is now nothing more than spring garbage.
I understand the need to want things to be perfect, but I can emphatically tell you that my clients who make the most money and are the most successful are the ones who replace the need to be perfect with the ability to take action. If you keep looking at something with a critical eye, you can always find something to pick apart. Instead, keep one eye on perfection – and the other eye on the clock. Because one without the other will never bring you success.
If you have identified with any of our procrastination personalities it is time to get out of your own way and take action. Make a plan, stay on target, give yourself a deadline, and connect!
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