Discipline Shows Up When Motivation Doesn’t

Today, I'll make my case that being disciplined in your systems, processes, habits and routines is the key to all sustained success in every aspect of your life both professionally and personally. I will compare it to motivation, based in emotion, that comes and goes and does not create the needed consistency to play at a high level with the least amount of effort.

I talk to agents all day long. My role is that of a problem solver whether it be having to be a "deal doctor, " a business coach, and in many situations, a life coach. I hear it all. So, I come to you today with a lot of data points both from my personal experience and from being in a front row seat as I observe others go from struggle to a success. Here's what I have learned about the transformation process:

The initial stage of disciplined action creates sprouts of success. One repeats what works, so the actions that created the success are continued. The consistent repetition of the successful actions become an "addiction" out of fear of losing momentum. Once one is "addicted to the process" that creates the desired result, the body (bio rhythms) and the subconscious take over. At this point, one is naturally motivated and doesn't need the daily dopamine drips of the social feeds of thought leaders, podcasts and audiobooks to "get fired up" for the day. I don't mean that one should throw the self- development to the side, quite the opposite actually. In fact it's crucial to learn from the thought leaders, podcasts and audiobooks to improve your skills and gain insight so you can add more value.

You need to rely on discipline because motivation comes and goes. Motivation is based in emotion. If you don't "feel it" that day, you don't execute. One day becomes 2, 2 days becomes a week and before you know it, it's been six months since you created the necessary action to "plant seeds." Three to six months after that, there is no harvest because you didn't plant the seeds. At this point, you get nervous/anxious and you go plant a bunch of seeds hoping that some of them will be ready for harvest immediately. It doesn't work like that. To even out the peaks and valleys in your business, you need a disciplined approach.

Once you are disciplined, your days will find you planting 1 or 2, maybe 3 seeds a day which means that there is a constant harvest that in turn creates flow. In Take Flight, I call this "hitting cruising speed at 30,000 feet".

To get to 30,000 feet, you've got to put in the work up front. A plane uses 60% of its fuel to get to 30,000 feet . It's tough. It takes a daily drum beat of discipline to get to a point where your body (bio rhythms) and subconscious take over. The good news is that you can get to 30,000 feet in a matter of months. All you need is 90 days of consistent effort to get there.

There are 3 parts of your business that will create 85-90% of your success:

For Jameson agents, on June 23rd, I will be doing a full day "Take Flight" training for the first time since 2019. Look for the invite; I will take you through all 3 of these areas (engines) in detail giving you the "Flight Plan" on how to consistently execute in each of these 3 areas.

Are you developing daily practices to keep your mind productive? A proper mindset is needed to keep your frequency over 51% positive. You need to be 51% positive to attract that what you need and want. I will link my April 11 MMPT: Success Is A Mind Game to the weekly email I send out to tomorrow. On that episode, I go into great detail about the importance of having the right mindset. It's really where everything starts. You should listen to that episode again and again.  It’s the missing link for many of you.

Once your mind is right. Use these 4 areas to build that consistent drum beat of action I referred to earlier.

Do you have a Morning Routine that allows you to play on offense not defense?

Have you created an Ideal Day with a mixture of professional "non-negotiables" and personal care activities needed to stay on track?

Do you plan your week in advance? I use Sundays to review and plan.

Do you subscribe to a goal setting strategy? (I teach the "12 Week Year" strategy for quarterly goal setting instead of annualized goal setting.)

Do you have a fitness schedule time blocked into your calendar?

Do you have a self- development strategy? Do you listen to audiobooks or podcasts in your car instead of music or news?

Have you built out your processes for listings, buyers, referrals and lead generation or do you wing it? Are they documented?

Is your business "between your ears" or is it documented so that you can use your processes over and over and train it to a future team member if needed?

This sounds like a lot, right? It can be in the beginning but at some point you need to invest the time up front to save you time later. Rory Vaden in his book "Procrastinate on Purpose," calls this concept multiplication. For example, if you put 3 hours building out your buyer process, that 3 hours could get paid back over the first 2 transactions. After that, it will save you 1-2 hours per transaction making your business easier and easier to run. You can invest that saved time back into other parts of your business or save it for yourself. (2 hours x 30 transactions is 60 hours of saved time a year.)

"If you see consistency, look for a system, process, habit or routine."

This is the part of your business that requires "non-negotiable" systems, processes and routines. If you want to create a predictable and enjoyable business, you have to have a database and relationship management strategy. It's not an option. ELPs focus deeply on creating an elite level experience for their clients before, during a transaction and follow it up with a career long focus on "touches" and "meaningful conversations." Most agents are not successful because surveys show 90-92% of agents don't ever follow up with their clients' after the closing of a transaction. They put themselves on a daily treadmill looking for new business.

Have you created a "Top 100"?

Do you have a warm list?

Do you have a hot list?

Do you have your Top 100 in a database or spreadsheet with touches scheduled throughout the year?

Do you have an email marketing strategy?

Do you have a social media strategy?

Do you have a birthday and anniversary strategy?

Do you have an annual holiday gifting strategy?

Do you create and host a client event each year?

When you are a newer agent, you will spend 10% of your time on database and relationship management and 90% on lead generation. After about the first 5 years, if your business is built right, it will flip gradually to 90% database and relationship management and 10% lead generation. Wouldn't it be nice to have 100 clients that know you, like you and trust you as their real estate agent? Here's the math: 100 clients if managed properly should net you a 20% return (20 introductions).

After this call, you will either love me or may not like me very much. Either way, I just laid out the basics needed to build a highly productive, highly predictable and enjoyable business but a business like this take daily discipline. Motivation won’t cut it. Your business becomes so much more enjoyable when you don't have to worry about where the business is coming from when the phone just rings, the texts come in, the DM's hit your social feeds.  Nobody is going to do this for you. A highly productive, predictable and enjoyable business will not just magically appear. From my experience in studying high performance over the last 14+ years, building 3 successful businesses and observing the best of the best, THERE IS NO OTHER WAY.

The agents that struggle the most are those that go to all of the conferences, all of the training courses, get all of the designations and do nothing with it. You cannot rely on motivation to get you there. I remember Tony Robbins saying in one of his recordings I listened to back in 2009, he said "I don't want you to get all hyped up, motivated, buy my CD's, take them home and never take the plastic covering off. I want to create strategies that will change your life. Commit, put leverage on yourself, create the disciplines needed to change your life and business. I can't do it for you." That really stuck with me. I asked myself: Am I "taking the plastic off " and executing or am I going to fall back into my old habits and routines? I had no choice. I was desperate back in 2009 and would try anything. It worked. It was hard, I pulled a lot of “all nighters” but it worked and in 2013 after my business had doubled 4 times in 5 years, I was working less at $40M than I was at $7M in 2009. The rest is history.

Each one of these 150 podcasts take 3-5 hours per week to write and create but I’ve made them non-negotiable because of the impact. The time is built into my calendar and I use disciplined execution every week to make sure they happen. The results?  That’s for you to decide.  For me it’s a passion project.

Team, it's no secret that this market is pivoting from an intense seller’s market to a market that will require a different approach. Your strategies need to change. My intuition tells me that this summer can make or break the careers of many of you. For the buyers and sellers in the market, there will be a "flight to quality." They will reward those that don't have "commission breath." The top agents with systems, processes, habits and routines will take more and more of the market share. If a buyer or seller is going to pay your fee, they will want a high level of service in return. End of story.

Jameson, you've got Take Flight on June 23rd and a Ninja Installation in late October, register for both, improve your skills and build out the disciplines used by ELPs. It's truly in your court. If your business is not where you want it, the next 3 months is your time to pull your “all nighters,” build out your business from a hobby and go into the fall and 2023 on a torrid pace. If you are newer to the business, start now and don't wait until the "right time." Build it now and drop new clients in on top of what you built. Start your good habits now.  Many of those listening to this call would give you exactly the same advice.

Have a great week and look out for my weekly email with the podcast recording and my notes with links off my notes to other MMPTs. If you are not getting my email, you can email me at [email protected] and my team will add you.