Selling Soulfully with Jennifer Allan

Last week I posted a blog revisiting the notion of starting a new real estate career part-time in order to hedge one's bets (and put food on the table). Got some fantastic, well-thunked-out comments, some agreeing with me, some not... which of course, makes the discussion interesting.

But one of the later comments got me thinking (thunking?)...

Steve Bachman left this comment: "What percentage of agents nationwide make their total family living in this business? My guess is less than 15%. What do you think? The nice part of the business is that you can make it what you want. My wife and I are full time, but most of the agents we know have other sources of income and do not work ‘full time'."

I have no idea what percentage of agents depend 100% on real estate for their income, but it was the second part of Steve's comment that got my wheels spinning.

"The nice part about this business is that you can make it what you want."

And here was my (slightly edited) comment-on-the-comment:  "If someone doesn't want to make much money selling real estate and won't be frustrated (or financially devastated) by not making much money, then sure, I guess it's fine for them to dabble....But it's scary to think that it's "okay" to dabble in a career that involves such huge sums of <other people's> money... "

Thoughts?

"Don't Be Dorky, Be YOU!" in the SWS Virtual Studio tomorrow (Saturday) morning!
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Whether or not one can succeed/survive in this industry doing it part-time is always a good topic for debate. Emotions run high, tempers flare, feelings get hurt. Bummer.

But it really is an important question, especially TO those considering entering the field.

I've been thinking about it a lot, so I'll take one for the team and open up that can of worms yet again.

For the record, I've always been of the seemingly obvious opinion that if you're going to do something, do it 100%. And in an industry where far more practitioners fail than succeed, it only makes sense that the ones who devote themselves wholeheartedly to their career have a better chance of being one of the ones who don't fail... right?

Well, in the last few years, our industry has changed (really, Jennifer, y'think?) and it's not uncommon for a new real estate agent (or any real estate agent, frankly) to go months and months without a paycheck. And that's a tough situation to volunteer for.

So, new real estate agents approach their careers a little more circumspectly. They keep their day job (or night job as the case may be) and only stick their toe in the water... okay, maybe they wade in up their knees or even their waist. But they don't jump in. They don't fully commit. And they tell themselves that they're being practical, logical and responsible.

I get that. I really do. In a business where new practitioners might go a year before seeing their first payday, it's a tough sell to convince them to leave their regular paycheck and benefits behind.

But... practicality and responsibility aside... it still doesn't work. I know a lot of first-year agents and they run the gamut from having zero business to having more business than they can handle... and without exception, it's the part-time agents who are at the zero end... and the full-time agents who are at the more-than-they-can-handle end. (Of course, there are plenty of full-timers who are failing, but I don't know any part-timers who are succeeding).

The thing is - to succeed in a new business, you have to immerse yourself in it. Every day. All day. With all your passion, all your energy, all your resources. Sorry, but that's a fact whether or not you want to or can afford to. New agents who are succeeding are giving this career their full attention... not just sticking their toe in the water.

What's the punch line? If you can't afford to immerse yourself in your new real estate career, maybe now is not the time to begin your new real estate career.

p.s. please note that I am speaking primarily to new agents and pre-licensees here. Experienced agents with established lead generation and administrative systems can often make it working part-time. But rookies?  Sorry...

RELATED BLOGS
Aspiring Agents - Can't Go Full Time? Consider this...
Can a New Agent Make it in Today's Market?

Last weekend, we had a free teleseminar show in the SWS Virtual Studio called "Getting UNStuck." It was co-hosted by me and my good friend Borino, and was about, among other things, regaining your mood and your mojo when this business threatens to get you down. Fun stuff (actually, it was).

During the show, Borino asked for a volunteer from the audience to help him demonstrate a little exercise to help you reset your mood when it's not what it needs to be. Basically, he put our lovely volunteer (thank you Camille!) into a funk by asking her to recall a recent event that got her down.

He then snapped her out of her funk by abruptly changing the subject and then asking her to recall a recent event that made her happy. She was instructed to take herself back to that moment when she was feeling the happiness - how it felt, sounded, smelled, looked, etc. When she was "there" he asked her to express her happiness in some physical way - for example... the soccer player's arms-in-the-air dance, Tiger Woods' fist pump - anything physical that felt natural to her.

Camille confirmed (and we in the audience could hear it in her voice) that her mood improved dramatically and immediately.

Borino explained that the point of the exercise was to help find a physical "anchor" that you can call upon when you're feeling down. As I understand it (and please correct me if I'm not getting this quite right), DOING that natural physical expression of happiness when you aren't happy and energized can actually reset your mood so that you ARE happy and energized again.

I, quite cleverly, referred to this physical expression of happiness as your Happy Dance.

Anyway, we in the audience were instructed to do the Happy Dance exercise along with Camille. I, being a co-host and all, declined to participate since obviously I have it all together and don't need such (as Borino calls it) "airy-fairy" techniques ;-]

FADE OUT

Well, Sunday morning I was feelin' kinda down. My stomach hurt, my fun plans for the day were threatened and I was behind on a project I really needed to have finished already. BLAH. So, while in the shower deciding whether or not to shave my legs (I didn't), I decided to give this airy-fairy stuff a try. I did my own little Happy Dance right there in the shower.

Wow. Wow. Holy Moly.

I got a rush of energy I didn't imagine I had in me. Got out of the shower, turned up the stereo full blast, continued dancing around the house getting ready for my wonderful, fabulous and productive day, scribbled down some ideas for articles and blogs, hugged the dogs, noticed my stomach didn't hurt anymore and headed out the door to begin my wonderful, fabulous and productive day.

And a wonderful, fabulous, productive day it was.

Do you have a Happy Dance? Okay... 1, 2, 3, GO!

How do you feel now?

RELATED BLOGS
Don't Let Your Bad Mood Lead You to a Bad Decision

I'm Cheap. You can call me frugal if you want to, but I don't see the need to euphemize. I'm cheap. When I go to DSW Shoe Warehouse, I head straight to the Clearance rack. I can't remember the last time I bought a new appliance (Beckers Used Appliances in Denver ROCKS!). My favorite clothes come from the consignment shop. I have a little jean skirt I paid $1.75 for at the Christian Mission in Daleville, Alabama. And I love it. Ditto a hardback suitcase I got on sale there for $3.00.

If it's not at Wal-Mart, I probably don't need it.

You get my point. I'm cheap.

If you're the same way... and you like the SWS message, you might want to visit the Scratch & Dent section of my bookstore. There are four items in stock there right now - two digital CD products and some roughed-up copies of my two books. I've been traveling a lot lately, and since I always travel with my books, they tend to get a little scuffed in transit. I think there are 5 or 6 of each available. The digital CDs are older versions of my Dorky Announcement Letters - DEDorked and my Seriously Cool Bonus Toolkit. The CDs are $10 each and the books are $12.95 each.

Just thought I'd let my like-minded soulsisters and brothers know...

SWS SCRATCH & DENTS HERE!

Two Saturdays ago, we finished up the Winter of Soul (a 12-session teleseminar program about topics of interest to the Sell with Soul crowd) with a show about Getting UNStuck* - that is - how to regain your mojo when this business threatens to take you down. My favorite segment of the show was when we talked about how if you're in a Bad Mood... you're pretty much toast until you can snap out of it.

What do I mean by that? Well, if you're feeling down in the dumps about your business, have you noticed that it only seems to get worse? You and your bad mood seem to attract more to be in a bad mood about. It's an ugly, frustrating, discouraging death spiral. BAH!

But the good news is that the opposite is also true. If you can somehow resuscitate your mood so that you're feeling chipper again, you and your good mood will attract even more to be in a good mood about!

And more good news, in our business at least, is that it really doesn't take all that much to turn our day, our week or even our month around. One or two sweet referrals. A great open house. A call from a buyer who found you from your blog. And BAM! You're feeling sexy, sassy and smart again. 

So what's my point here?  

My point is that a lot of us (myself included) get all hysterical when things are going wrong and think we have to make a Big Change in order to turn things around. And that Big Change is, well, Big! And maybe scary. Maybe expensive. So, we either do nothing (and sink further into despair) or we make some not-too-well-thought-out Big Change that may be unnecessary and probably won't work anyway.

Slow down. Don't make any Big Change decisions out of fear, frustration or desperation. Don't make any Big Change decisions until you're ... yes... in a good mood.

Does this sound ridiculously simple? Yeah, I know, it is. But think about it - how was your mood the last time you made a crummy decision? I don't know about you, but I can name a dozen really dumb moves I've made in the last few years, all of which were decided upon when I was under stress. Conversely, my best decisions were made when I was feeling sassy, sexy and smart!

So, how do you go about finding your good mood? What will it take to get YOU feeling sassy, sexy and smart?

I dunno.

It's different for everyone. I know what works for ME and if I can remember to do it when I'm feeling low, I can almost always turn my mood around. And once I'm feeling better, everything else seems to fall into place, which of course improves my mood even more!

Now, I'm not talking about some monumental shift in attitude. Just enough of a shift so that you can smile, laugh and be pleasant to those around you.

Just think about it. What TRULY cheers you up? Think outside the box - go beyond the obvious things like working out or eating chocolate. What REALLY works for you?

Share?

* Because the reviews of the Getting UNStuck show were so freakin' overwhelmingly positive, we're going to do a repeat of it for the public Saturday morning, April 10th.
Join us?
Here are the details