Carla Cross, CRB, MA, International Speaker

Do you know the best motivators for YOU? Even though the market has improved in many areas, real estate professionals are still very challenged about getting their businesses back on track. Or, if you’re new, you’re probably experiencing some ‘negative vibes’ from those seasoned agents in your office. How are you going to motivate yourself to get into the swing of the market to meet your goals?

We’re Not Motivated by What We Think We Were…..

In his new book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Daniel Pink lays out a persuasive case, backed by extensive scientific studies, about why the traditional ‘carrot and stick’ motivational methods just don’t work for us today. It’s especially true with real estate professionals. Why? Because we in effect work for ourselves. We have to be self-starters, initiators, and tenacious in our pursuit of our goals. That means we have to be motivated by things other than promises of material things.

Why Money Doesn’t Work as a Motivator

First, as Pink points out, money and/or material things are good short-term motivators. (Read Herzberg’s studies on short and long-term motivation). In fact, just take a look at the number of real estate agents who are motivated to visit an open house when there’s food! But, as Herzberg and others have pointed out, money is a lousy long-term motivator. You know that if you’ve tried motivating your kids with money—or threats (the carrot and stick).

I know. You’re thinking, “If I just had more money, I would be fine.” So, let me ask you, what are you willing to do to get that money? Lead generate more regularly? Make more sales calls? We all know that lead generating is the answer to that money problem. Yet, the vast majority of agents avoid lead generating as if it gave us some chronic disease! So, money is just not an effective long-term motivator.

The Best, Deepest, Strongest Motivators We Can Use to Motivate Ourselves

Pink shows, via extensive studies, that there are three driving motivators which we should put to work today to fire ourselves up, keep those fires lit, and achieve what we want to achieve. They are:

Autonomy

Mastery

Purpose

Questions to Ask Yourself to Fire Yourself Up

About Your Autonomy

Are you in charge of your own business, or are you waiting for someone else to tell you what to do?

Do you expect your manager to make you go to work, or are you self-directed and self-starting?

Are you disciplined in your business, so you can enjoy that autonomy?

Seth Godin, author of Tribes, says about autonomy: The art of the art {of autonomy} is picking your limits. That’s the autonomy I must cherish. The freedom to pick my boundaries.

About your Mastery

Are you working just to get by, or are you consistently working to get better? What do you want to excel at? How does that translate into your business?

About your Purpose

What excites you so much you can’t sleep at night?

Is there a way to translate that to your real estate business?

The desire to do something because you find it deeply satisfying and personally challenging inspires the highest levels of creativity, whether it’s in the arts, sciences, or business. Teresa Amabile, Professor, Harvard University

What motivates you? Do you know? How do you know? What if you’re motivating yourself in the wrong way? (Many managers unwittingly de-motivate with their strategies!)

More about effective motivation today

How to Effectively Motivate

I’m doing a webinar on how to effective motivate yourself and others for the National Association of Realtors’ Learning Library on March 17, at 2 p.m. EST. Click here for more information.

Carla Cross, CRB, MA, is an international speaker, coach, and resource provider, specializing in real estate business management. More of her resources are tested and recommended by CRS and CRB than any other speaker today. Carla helps companies optimize their ‘people power’–creative, practical strategies to double production and profits to recruit and retain the best.

Many people prefer to either not think about the importance of real estate search engine optimization, or tinker with it on their own. If you are not going to higher a professional to do it for you (like you would encourage your FSBOs to hire you), then there are at least a few traps that you should know about.

These are the 7 deadly seo mistakes that you don’t want to make. To get the full video which is also our video/speaker’s page, you’ll get much more information by clicking there. Here is a short preview of what you’ll get.

Carla Cross, CRB, MA, International Speaker

Why waste your time filling in blanks to create goals? Doing that gives you no confidence in whether your plan will work. Instead, read how to make a business plan that gives you confidence in its ability to deliver to you the goals you want—and deserve.

Today, companies are touting that they will “make a business plan” for you. All you have to do is to put some numbers into the software, and, voila, your business comes out the ‘other end’. Sounds so easy. We love to get something for no effort! It reminds me of the story my sister told about one of her jobs in college. She worked for a cardiologist. She put electrodes on patients to prepare for the cardiogram. One day, she was putting electrodes on an elderly gentleman. She had him remove all jewelry, hearing aids, etc. To reduce his anxiety, she said, “Just relax. I’ll do all the rest.” He replied, “Honey, I’ve been waiting all my life for a woman to tell me that!”

Surprise…..he was going to have to wait a little longer. Similarly, expecting software to make you a business plan is an over-simplification of what that it can do for you. Also, it’s a mis-representation of what a business plan is. In this article, I’ll give you one concept that will change the way you think about your business plan. Applying this concept will help you create and execute your business plan with confidence. Following this concept will assure you’ll get the outcomes you want. (You’ll never say again, “Will this work for me?”).

Getting Past the Numbers to a True Executable Business Plan

Why would you want to create a business plan that’s not useful to you as you go about your business every day? I’ve coached hundreds of agents and leadership in creating what I call ‘executable’ business plans. Executable business plans are those that you can

use every day in creating the actions that lead to the results the client wants.

That means your business plan has to go way past just the numbers (goals), and get to ‘where the rubber meets the road’—the daily and weekly actions you will take that directly relate to the results or goals you intend to reach. Too many times, real estate professionals separate the action plans from the bigger picture of the business plan. However, they are all a part of the same busines plan!

A Stunning Concept: Your Systems Make Up Your Business Plan

This concept is from Michael Gerber, the small business guru and author of the famous books, The E-Myth and The E-Myth Revisited. (I highly recommend you read both of these). He says,

“the integration of your systems is your business plan”

What he means by that statement: As you think through how you’re going to act each day, you’re going to create systems and processes, including your operational checklists—so you can follow the plan. These systems put down in black and white how you’ll lead generate, how you’ll work with buyers, how you’ll market to people after the sale, etc.

Creating the systems. Now, you are actually creating the actions you’re prepared to take each day that lead you to your goals. You are going to relate those systems to your goals. For example: Your goal is twenty-four homes sold this year. Your lead generation plan includes contacting three ‘target’ or segregated markets. To contact, you have a system, consisting of a certain number of calls, mailings, etc. over a certain period of time. You have checklists to back these actions, and you have delegated part of this action plan to others.

Armed with these concrete actions—in order—you have created your ‘replicable’ business. You now can either

1. Carry out the systems yourself, or

2. Delegate them to grow your business

Carla Cross, CRB, MA, is a real estate leadership coach and speaker, and is president of Carla Cross Seminars, Inc. and Carla Cross Coaching. She’s author of six internationally published books on real estate sales and management, including The Business Planning System for the Real Estate Professional. Carla’s management and sales systems are used by thousands of real estate professionals, and many are endorsed by CRS and CRB. Reach Carla at 425-392-6914 or www.carlacross.com.

Randy Eagar

Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr . . . which social media or social media sharing is best? The answer is “Yes”! With the advancements in these services, you can now post a video in your YouTube account and have it automatically post to your Facebook wall, Twitter account, etc. In marketing, you need to be everywhere.  Here’s a short video trailer showing this exciting session that you can get via 45 minute video or from BASB personal training showing some great social media marketing ideas.

Randy Eagar, CRS
President, WebsTarget SEO
www.WebsTarget.com

Carla Cross, CRB, MA International Speaker

Are you a ‘don’t have time to plan’ broker? Having been a manager and regional manager for two decades (yes, I really am getting that old….), I know how difficult it is to sit down and slog through writing a business plan. So, I’ve been working hard for you to make it fast easy—but accurate as a blueprint for 2010.

The ‘Spring Ahead’ Approach to Get it Done

 For my business planning webinar for NAR’s Learning Library (you can look at it at the Library, where it will be archived), I created four steps to think through a business plan. What’s great about analyzing with these four steps is that you are making immediate decisions for your action plan for 2010. So, as you draw conclusions from your analysis, use a template to get those action plan ideas in place. You’re virtually done, then, with your plan.

 Four Steps: Two Down, Two to Go

 You “got cracking” on those first two steps to business planning that I gave you in my October 29th blog. Now, let’s tackle the last two steps. Admittedly, you won’t have an in-depth plan with these steps, but, you will have thought through the most important aspects for you to get ready to tackle.

 Step three: Evaluating YOU. Rate yourself in the various management areas: recruiting, selection, coaching, training, retention, staff management, etc.

 Email me at Carla@carlacross.com  and ask for my Management Evaluation—a detailed rating document to assess your strengths and your challenges (great, too, if you’re hiring or managing managers).

 What have you mastered? What do you want to improve? This becomes your personal/professional training/coaching program for next year.

 Step Four: What if: Complete this sentence: ”If I did these three things next year, I would increase my productivity and profitability”:

 1.

2.

3.

  Now, you have your ‘big rocks’ for your business plan for next year done.

 Business plans: Active and Breathing, or Stuck on a Shelf?

 You’re not making a business plan as a financial plan to get money from a bank. You’re not creating this wonderful, mushy visionary plan. You’re thinking about your specific situation, and then creating an action plan. You will actually put these actions into your monthly and weekly schedule, and act on them! This is the plan you will revisit at least monthly, to measure your actions and results against what you planned.

                         Make it an action plan and you will get into action.

 For a comprehensive business planning system, with fill-in forms for each part of your plan, see The Business Planning System for the Owner, Manager, and Team Builder at www.carlacross.com.

 P. S. Use this same approach with your agents. Provide them a format and template to analyze their last year’s business. That gives them the answers to the next year’s action plan (that spring ahead approach I mentioned).

Carla Cross, CRB, MA, is an international speaker, coach, and resource provider to the real estate industry. She specializes in management. Cross wrote the only internationally published book for real estate agents on business planning. She also authored the CRB course for brokers to coach agents on planning. Providing business planning resources to brokers and agents, Cross creates customized business planning webinars, workshops, and presentations to real estate companies and associations.

Driving Prospects to Your Website TrailerDriving Prospects to Your Website: The Fundamentals

This 2-minute video introduction of the session of the same name will give you an overview of the things you’ll learn in order to push your website rankings to the top of the search engines.

Are you a ‘don’t have time to plan’ broker? Having been a manager and regional manager for two decades (yes, I really am getting that old….), I know how difficult it is to sit down and slog through writing a business plan. So, I’ve been working hard for you to make it fast easy—but accurate as a blueprint for 2010.

 The ‘Spring Ahead’ Approach to Get it Done

 For my business planning webinar (see below), I created four steps to think through a business plan. What’s great about analyzing with these four steps is that you are making immediate decisions for your action plan for 2010. So, as you draw conclusions from your analysis, use a template to get those action plan ideas in place. You’re virtually done, then, with your plan.

 Four Steps: Two Down, Two to Go

 You’ve got cracking on those first two steps to business planning that I gave you in my October 29th blog. Now, let’s tackle the last two steps. Admittedly, you won’t have an in-depth plan with these steps, but, you will have thought through the most important aspects for you to get ready to tackle.

 Step three: Evaluating YOU. Rate yourself in the various management areas: recruiting, selection, coaching, training, retention, staff management, etc.

 Email me at Carla@carlacross.com  and ask for my Management Evaluation—a detailed rating document to assess your strengths and your challenges (great, too, if you’re hiring or managing managers).

 What have you mastered? What do you want to improve? This becomes your personal/professional training/coaching program for next year.

 Step Four: What if: Complete this sentence :”If I did these three things next year, I would increase my productivity and profitability”:

Now, you have your ‘big rocks’ for your business plan for next year done.

 Business plans: Active and Breathing, or Stuck on a Shelf?

 You’re not making a business plan as a financial plan to get money from a bank. You’re not creating this wonderful, mushy visionary plan. You’re thinking about your specific situation, and then creating an action plan. You will actually put these actions into your monthly and weekly schedule, and act on them! This is the plan you will revisit at least monthly, to measure your actions and results against what you planned.

                         Make it an action plan and you will get into action.

 For a comprehensive business planning system, with fill-in forms for each part of your plan, see The Business Planning System for the Owner, Manager, and Team Builder at www.carlacross.com.

 P. S. Use this same approach with your agents. Provide them a format and template to analyze their last year’s business. That gives them the answers to the next year’s action plan (that spring ahead approach I mentioned).

 (Forms for analyzing and planning available for agents, too. See The Business Planning System for the Real Estate Professional.

 Want help with getting your agents to plan: Join me Dec. 8 when I do a webinar for NAR’s Learning Library: Not Your Grammy’s Business Plan.

 Carla Cross, CRB, MA, is an international speaker on productivity and profitability through ‘people development’. Her book on business planning has been published internationally. A course writer and presenter for CRB on business planning, Cross’s business planning workshops, presentations, and resources provide customized systems for real estate professionals. 

Since when did marketing have to be hard?

I’m having a webinar this week on Thursday with 3 of my “Web Warriors” who have relied on their websites for the majority of their marketing income through real estate SEO. Everyone wants to know, “How do you make $100,000 just from your website?”. The average income just from their websites is a little over $75,000. And that is just so far this year in what many call a “down” market. Each of these agents loves a “down” market as it seems that their competition stops investing in their marketing tools.

While there is no getting around having an expert optimize your website for you for marketing purposes, there are many things that you can do yourself to help your website to be seen by your prospects. In the following video I mention the 3 major components of getting found by the major search engines and beating out your competition.

Search Engine Optimization Part 1 by Randy Eagar

More and more agents are now figuring out that with 87% of the buying public using the Internet as their home purchasing tool (NAR Statistics), it just doesn’t make sense to not have an Internet marketing strategy that includes their website. They are realizing that an “optimized” website (one that is made search engine friendly) will draw buyers to them like bees to honey. That is why the label of “passive-active” has stuck.

Having your website “optimized” makes it work for you.

 Read those last three words . . . “work for you”. Thus, while you’re doing nothing at all, your website is actively working for you. Pretty soon you’re getting lead generating phone calls just like my 3 Web Warriors this week: Pat Wattam, Barbara Reeves and Liz Warren. Try these few tips and I think you see a jump in your rankings.

Randy Eagar, CRS
President, WebsTarget SEO
www.WebsTarget.com
Randy@WebsTarget.com
(800) 277-1316

Chunking is good.  Both kinds of chunking work for me.

One kind is a time management tool that I learned from Tony Robbins and I taught it today on the planning webinar that I recorded for NAR’s Learning Library (Put Power and Purpose into Your Business Plan). 

That kind of chunking is managing your time by types of activity instead of individual activities.

So, I coach and teach that Monday and Tuesday are Prospecting chunked.  Wednesday is marketing, all kinds.  Thursday is Service to contact all listed Sellers and Pending Clients.  Friday is Leadership to think and strategize.  And Saturday is chunked for luxury, as much time off as possible. 

Not the whole day is dedicated to the chunk, although it may be a whole day mindset.  At 9 am you schedule an hour dedicated to the chunk for the day.  And you may do some of those things on other days but the goal is to limit that other day stuff.

On our daily webinars (www.1stFifteen.com, try it, it’s free… for now) we remind people of the chunk for the day. 

The other kind of chunking is breaking down a topic into small pieces.  Since our daily webinars are only fifteen minutes and I cover three or four topics each day, I have to chunk a topic into a few minutes. 

It is having a really interesting and valuable effect on my work.  This week’s main topic is Presentations.  So, I have to choose five ideas on the topic of presentations that can be taught in three or four minutes each.  I want each topic to be soooo interesting that it makes the 1st Fifteen participants think about it all day and ideally incorporate it into their business.

It is a really interesting challenge for me and it’s valuable because I find myself thinking about topics in a type of detail that I hadn’t previously.  

Chunking a topic may be more of a Coach/Speaker thing.  Chunking your time is really the best time management advice and methodology I have ever learned.  Try it, become a chunker.  Oooh, I think I just invented a word.  Become a chunker, today.