Your mindset is the beliefs, attitudes, and assumptions that shape how you perceive and approach situations, challenges, and opportunities.
Thousands of opinions define what your mindset can do for you, how to cultivate the right mindset, and what mindset characteristics will further your purpose.
I like to reduce ideas and concepts to their simplest form. Nurturing a specific mindset is simply choosing the thoughts passing through or residing in your mind and the emotions they give rise to.
So, what aspects of mindset does an aspiring real estate superstar need to cultivate?
After many years of working with successful agents, I have found that self-esteem and empathy top the list. Self-esteem will empower you to choose the right thoughts and manage your emotions, while empathy will allow you to understand and manage your clients’ emotions.
Self-esteem is a multi-layered trickster. You may think you have solid self-esteem; in some areas of life, you probably do. You may have great self-esteem around your golf game, social graces, and your ability to connect with others face-to-face. But do you possess self-esteem in those areas that impact your sales performance? How do you feel about yourself when cold calling? Or when your social graces must be used for goal-oriented networking? Or when the initial connection you thought you made so successfully requires continued, consistent, and persistent contact?
The challenge is obvious: how can you control the thoughts in your mind to build self-esteem in your sales career? The best way I know is to select the beliefs you want to adopt and say them out loud several times daily. Going one step further and using Louise Hay’s brilliant Mirror Works technique, repeating those thoughts aloud in front of the mirror –the sane version of speaking to yourself— can work like magic. And if you want to cultivate the mindset of a superstar, then you must visualize. See yourself succeeding, getting the listing, enjoying a cold phone call with a well-rehearsed script and a receptive call recipient, or coming up with a brilliant win-win solution to negotiate a tough deal.
To ensure you either have or are developing self-esteem in the areas that will positively impact your real estate sales performance, follow this process:
- Decide which actions, thoughts, and words you want to entertain.
- Write a “screenplay” combining those thoughts, activities, and words.
- Rehearse your play in your mind’s eye, visualize, and hear it all in your head.
- Rehearse your play in front of a mirror, imagining the other actors and their positive response to you.
- Do this five times, three times daily for five consecutive days –or more if possible.
Your screenplay might look like this:
Thought: I am great at cold calling.
Action 1: Log on to my CRM.
Action 2: Print today’s call list.
Action 2: Put my headset on.
Action 3: Dial.
Words: “Hello, Mr. Jones, my name is Fab Agent from Great Realty. This is a cold call, so you may want to hang up, but if you have a couple of minutes, I have some information to share with you.”
Action 3: Imagine Mr. Jones smiling and saying, “Well, since you are so honest about it, I guess I can spare a couple of minutes.”
I chose cold calling for my example because it is one of the sales activities that almost always give rise to negative thoughts and emotions in the budding real estate agent. If you do not cold call yet, use one of the other sales activities you perform to create your “screenplays,” such as working an open house or pitching a CMA. Test yourself. Stretch your envelope. Step outside your comfort zone and practice doing things you are uncomfortable doing or want to do more successfully. The ROI from effort, practice, and repetition is an increase in competency, which, in turn, always comes with a surge in self-esteem in performance areas that count.
If I can help strengthen your self-esteem, please call or text 239-220-1018 or email coco@cocoamar.com.
Happy Selling! ∞
Look for Part 2 of “Qualities of a Winner’s Mindset,” Empathy
