My professional purpose is to help you, the broker, optimize your productivity and help you become the best version of yourself. Why? Because happy brokers sell more real estate. I do that by helping you handle challenges and opportunities that you face every day. If you can effectively manage certain situations that arise on a daily basis in your business, you'll be more productive and live a life that is the best version of you.
Today, to wrap up my 2021 MMPTs, I want to give you the "Top 10 Guiding Principles" that I have identified over the last decade that can help guide you to become an Elite Level Producer. "Guiding Principles" are defined by the BUSINESS DICTIONARY as any principles or precepts that guide an organization or business owner throughout its life in all circumstances, regardless of changes in its goals, strategies, or type of work. (If "Guiding Principles" is too serious of a phrase, you can also look at they as your "Guard Rails" that "keep the wheels on the road”).
Last week, I gave you the 10 steps/episodes to build your business out over 3-5 years. As you build out your business, you will be faced with many decision-making moments. The guiding principles I will discuss today, if adopted and internalized, will help you make the informed decisions that will keep your business and life headed in the right direction.
Here are my 10 Guiding Principles that I have adopted and live by and that you can use to become and Elite Level Producer:
"Play on offense, not defense." Morning Ritual: Change your sleep schedule so you can get up and be prepared for your day prior to game time. You will need at least 2 hours to get up, freshen up, wake up, straighten up, meditate, work out, journal, plan, get caught up on email, shower and get ready prior to 9:00 a.m.! By 9:00 a.m., you need to be ready to execute on your day and handle the immediate items that get thrown your way in the course of your day. With a morning ritual, you will be ahead of the rampage of emails, call, immediate needs for help. If you wake up and try to start your day once “game time” starts, your clients will notice your average level of execution.
"Daily, weekly, quarterly, annual and 3-year planning is the key to high achievement." We all know that you be successful you need to execute consistently. How can you execute consistently if you do not plan accordingly?
"You need to believe it before you see it instead of believe it when you see it." First, decide how you want to live and who you want to become. Own it and execute towards it every day. This is called "visioneering". Don't worry about how you are going to get there, let your subconscious do the heavy lifting. Use these feelings created by visioneering as your fuel.
"Monitor your frequency" - Start with an abundant mindset. Why is having an abundant mindset so important for your professional and personal success? Because it has a massive impact on your frequency, your energy and in turn, what you attract into your life. If you are feeling negative about your current situation and your future, you will attract more negativity in your life and business. If you are feeling positive about your future and feeling abundant, despite even your current situation, you will start to attract a more positive outcome. This is fact. This is a law, just like gravity. We all emit a frequency and we attract what is on that frequency. You'll hear me say "you attract whatever radio station you are tuned into." It's the same science. It's so important to constantly be taking stock in the "frequency you are emitting."
"High performance starts with elimination" - Distractions that don't serve you become “anchors” that slow you down. The positive things in your life and business should be considered the “sails on a boat.” They power you forward. I’ve realized though that I have made some of my biggest strides by eliminating the “anchors” as much or more than when I add new “sails.” Let me explain, a boat with no anchors and only 3 sails is going to move quicker and faster towards its destination than a boat with 20 sails but has 5 anchors.
Don't get caught up in needed to do more. Focus on less.
"Your database is your most important financial asset" - I am going to create a quick visual for those of you that are not sold or committed. So, let's say, over the course of a 20-year career of doing an average of $10,000,000 in sales a database/relationship management strategy, my best estimate is that you are leaving at least double if not triple the production and revenue on the table. Now, I want you to take a minute and just contemplate that number in your head and then I want you to imagine those dollars in a big stack and I want you to take a lighter and light those millions of dollars of opportunity on fire. Watch it burn. That's what your scarcity mindset around this topic means to your long-term financial success and lifestyle. By not taking the initial action, making small a financial investment, committing to daily action, that is basically what you are doing. Your business starts and stops with the quality and strength of your database. The best database for you is the database you will use. A database is designed to remind you to be thoughtful. Thoughtfulness cannot be automated.
"When at capacity, hire below your income per hour to give you your time back". It can be within your business and at your home. To better understand this, take your annualized income and divide by the hours worked in that year (2600) = income per hour. Use this number as a guide when you hit capacity. Find the areas in your life where you can immediately pay someone below that hourly rate to take tasks off your plate. "Multiplication" - build the process out once and, execute on the same process consistently and pay yourself back the original time invested with the time the process saves you. Get it out of your head, document it and train to the process, not a concept in your head.
"Consumers hire who they know, like and trust" - they will identify the broker who truly knows the market that they want to reside. They will hire the broker who they like personally. They need to know that you've had success providing the service they want to hire you for (evidence of success). Build your brand in thirds based on these concepts. Go narrow and deep to build your brand.
"If it's not a hell yes, it's a hell no" - Build out a filtering and decision making process in advance to build the necessary boundaries needed to protect you and your business. Always look at the "DOWNSIDE" when making solid decisions. If there is too much downside, it's a "HELL NO."
BONUS: "What Did I Learn from this?" - you should review every transaction and every momentous situation by asking yourself: "What did I learn from this? What is this situation teaching me?" This is how you learn while avoiding a victim's complex.
As you wrap up your 2021, as a reminder, your current reality is the sum of your thinking, your effort and the decisions you've made up to this point. Use this call and last week's call to go to the next level. Bookmark, save the audio and keep them in front you and you'll have the equivalent in "Cliff's Notes" format of the last 14 years of my career boiled down into less than 1 hour of content.
I want to wish all of you just the most amazing end to your 2021. I look forward to leading you forward in 2022 as many of us start our 3-Year Vision cycle together. I'll see you back here for my next call on January 3. Thank you, team. You can subscribe to my channel on Apple Podcast searchable under Ask Jim Miller, and the best place to follow all of my content is on my Instagram @askjimmiller.
