How To Set and Achieve Extraordinary Goals

On today’s episode of Confessions of a Top-Producing Real Estate Agent, how to set and actually achieve Extraordinary goals with Agent Grad School Mindset Coach Nancy Anderson. Welcome to this episode of Confessions of a Top-Producing Real Estate Agent. I’m your host, Jennifer Myers. Listen in as I share exactly what I did to go from not being able to sell a house for years, to becoming one of the top 1% of agents in the S to even opening my own brokerage full of agents, help me serve all the clients that were coming my way. I taught those agents the same strategies I used, and day two became top reducing agents. Now through this podcast and agentGradschool.com, I’m sharing those same modern marketing and business strategies with you, most of which I learned from looking outside the real estate industry. No fluff, no theory, no outdated sales techniques or paying for leads. Just the exact steps to get you the real estate business you’ve always wanted and the life outside your business you’ve always wanted too. Let’s make it happen and dive into today’s episode. Hey Nancy, thank you so much for being here today. I’m excited to have this conversation with you. Well, thanks for having me. I’m excited to talk a little bit about some goals and different things. So one of the things that I love most, you teach lots of different concepts inside Agent Grad School to our students, but one of the my favorite concepts that I think you’re so gifted at is helping people reach their goals. And you have a process, it’s called the Smarter Goal Process, and we’re gonna walk people through. But before we get there, I wanna talk a little bit about why having goals are important. And also I think where people get stumped when they set goals is their, the first question seems to be like, is this realistic? So can we talk about those set, like the setting of the goals and why it’s important and how to know whether or not you’re limiting yourself if you’re hitting too small to goal, too big of a goal? Sure. How do we hit bet? Well, I think goals are important because they really help to focus your brain on what it is that you are going after. You know what it is that you really want. And then to give it some direction, some checkpoints, I have to say, I wasn’t always this supportive of goals back in my corporate career, it was whenever anybody, you know, we did strategic planning and goal setting and you know, my eyes just kind of glazed over. It was like, oh, not another goal thing. I Always felt like it was like so arbitrary, right? Yes. Like, are we gonna hit it And did it even matter? Like what, how is I really connected to that overall goal, which is part of my points here today. So I really was, have been kind of surprised at my own developing interest in goals and helping people set and achieve goals because of that background of myself. But what I’ve come to really understand, and some of that is through my own experiences and mindset work, you know, as a coach, is that your personal connection to any goal, whether it’s a corporate goal, a business goal, a personal goal, it’s that connection, that personal connection, which really gives you that intrinsic motivation to do the work. And it’s the people doing the work that determines whether a goal is going to be achieved, right? It’s not just the goal itself. We could define a goal, but it’s not going to achieve itself, if you will. So to really focus in and look at, well, why is it important? And then why don’t people achieve goals to really understand how to help more people achieve their goals. So first of all, that’s what I, you know, I really kind of understood is that, okay, a goal properly kind of defined and set up can really help focus, provide direction and a, a navigation system to really what it is, you know, that you’re trying to achieve. So that’s why I think goals are important. Once you learn the skill, it is a skill of setting and achieving goals, which I don’t think is, you know, typically taught in our normal kind of education path is the skill of setting and achieving. So that’s what kind of caught my interest the most. And so then why don’t people, I mean, I know everybody listening to this, probably you definitely me, I’ve set a million goals I haven’t reached, right? Why don’t we reach them if we, cause I would imagine we don’t set goals that we’re not somehow connected to, or that we don’t want. We want every goal that we’ve ever set. So why don’t we achieve them? Well, I think we, some goals we wish we could achieve, we want to achieve. But are we really connected enough to do what it takes to achieve the goal? And then is it really the goal that we want? Because I know, especially in business, it’s so easy to say, oh, I wanna create a hundred K business, or 200 k or a million dollar business. It’s whatever you kind of hear out in the world that signifies achievement sometimes. Okay. So I, you know, part of the process, I think is that people don’t pause and take time to think about that end vision of what is it that I really, really want? Is it, it’s not just a hundred K, right? It’s maybe, what is that a hundred K going to give me? Like if I created a business that generated a hundred K in revenue, what will that give me personally? What will I be able to do? What will be I be able to have, have, what will my everyday life look like if I achieve that? And that’s where you really make the connection, the personal connection. And once you envision that, then I don’t know about you. Have you ever thought about something and you thought, oh, wow, I’ve never done that before, but I think I could. And then you just get this little feeling of energy or that just that little flutter, even a physical feeling. Yeah. That’s when you know you are really kind of connected personally to, okay, that’s what I want. Now let’s figure out how we’re gonna get it. So I think a lot of people fail at their, you know, achieving their goal because they haven’t really thought about, is that my goal? Is that the goal for me? Maybe it’s not financial, maybe it’s more lifestyle, maybe it’s something else. You know, it’s any goal. And if it’s not their goal, the goal that they want, the first sign of resistance or something doesn’t go as you thought it might go, you know, they’re out. Which Will happen. Which will happen. It’ll, I think so awesome. When we set a goal, we think it’s just gonna be smooth sailing, You know? Right. Just set out my 90 day plan with my weekly checkpoints and here we go. Yeah. But little do we know, it’s always like an emotional rollercoaster to achieve our goals. Yeah. Do you ever see people, I see people sometimes make a goal that’s almost conflicting. Like they’ll say something like, I want, and I’m just making something up. But one thing I see a lot that I’m not saying it can’t be achieved, but there’s a conflict that needs to be resolved in this goal that I’m about to say, I want to make 250, $300,000 a year and I wanna be home with my kids more. Right? And I believe that that’s an achievable goal, but I believe that there are things that need to happen to set you up that you’re not doing right now. And I don’t know if you’re willing to do to make that goal a reality. So how do we know whether or not we’re having a conflicting goal? And I think you kind of talked about it when you were like, are you willing to do what it takes to reach that goal? Right? Which that is another piece of the framework is asking yourself that question, like, am I willing to do what it takes? And it doesn’t mean in terms of always hustle or doing things you don’t wanna do right now, that’s not the point. We wanna stay in alignment with our values and our priorities. And that’s part of the process of knowing what you really want. Okay. Do you really want to be home more if this truly is a conflicting thought? Doesn’t necessarily have to, And I don’t know. Yeah, I don’t know. That’s say that is, yeah. But there are things in that that you’d have to maybe hire some daycare for some parts of the day or something. Yes. So it appears to be perhaps conflicting. So then you just have to dig into, okay, well is there a way? Yeah. And maybe the way is different than what you initially thought. And so every point along the path, right to this end goal is, okay, am I willing, okay, it looks like I’m gonna have to take this path, make this decision consciously, intentionally make the decision. Do I wanna do this or do I wanna turn here? And so as long, I think as we continue to check back with our foundation, which is our priorities, our values, what is it that we really want? As long as we’re continuing to kind of ground ourself there, then you continually just redecide and Yourself along The way, am I gonna do it this way or this way? Is there another way that still allows me to get both things? I want For your example of stay-at-home work and you know, have a revenue business. So Yeah. So you, your fame, which I love, is you can help people reach any goal, and you have developed a process called the smarter goal process. And you call it a process for setting and achieving Extraordinary goals. Yes. So I first wanna ask you, can you define why is it that sometimes people don’t set Extraordinary goals and should we be setting Extraordinary goals? And then I would love for you to dive into this process of how we reach Extraordinary goals. I love that adjective. Not just a goal, an Extraordinary goal. Extraordinary goal, right. Well, I kind of evolved to that term because I started out with impossible goals, like how to achieve impossible goals. And so much of that was like, well, if it’s impossible, why would I even try? Yeah, yeah. So the word that’s left out is how to achieve seemingly impossible goals. I think it’s impossible, but at that’s based on my thinking, my limited thinking, my history, my personal experience, it doesn’t mean that it’s impossible because probably someone has done the goal that you think is impossible. Yeah. Okay. So that’s just a little bit of a distinction there. But so I then evolve it from impossible to Extraordinary when we start breaking it down and realizing, huh, it may not be impossible after all. It actually might be possible, but it’s maybe so big or such a bigger vision than I have ever considered. It’s Extraordinary for me. Like if I would achieve that, it would be Extraordinary in however I define it. It doesn’t have to be monetary, it doesn’t have to be, you know, it’s however I define it, that it could be Extraordinary for me if I achieved that goal and maybe the ripple effect it would have in my life. Yes. And so we should be setting Extraordinary goals that push us to feel surprised by our own ability to achieve that goal. That the idea, Yes. But I’m not sure that I would say setting impossible and or Extraordinary goals is for everyone. Okay. Because I do think that you have to check in with yourself and see how you feel about that. If right off the bat I’m gonna set what I would define as an Extraordinary goal, and I feel heavy and stressed and pressure before I even get started, perhaps that’s not where I should start. If I define an Extraordinary goal and I get kind of excited about the possibility of it, yes, let’s go for it, break it down. And you know, then as we go through and work towards that Extraordinary goal, many times you get farther along the path to that goal than if you just set more of a realistic goal. You see what I mean? Yes. So let’s talk about the process. Whether we set realistic, Extraordinary, impossible, whatever you wanna call it. Let’s talk through your smarter process. So, okay, I guess, tell us what smarter stands for, however you wanna attack this. Right. Well, you know, we, most of us know the smart goal process specific, measurable, you know, the whole analogy there. And to me that was just the goal. Okay, that’s taking a goal and setting it here. And it wasn’t talking about, but how do I actually do what it takes to achieve that goal? Well, it’s the people part, right? The only way that goal is gonna get achieved, if you will, is the people doing the actions, taking the actions to actually get closer to the goal. And so I focus more on, okay, let’s look at what it takes to actually connect people, inspire people that are actually taking the actions for that particular goal. So that’s where I went back and I just kind of, you know, did a spin off of the smart goal process and called it smarter. Because actually now we’re gonna take that framework and we’re gonna go through some of the pieces, and I’ll just do it at a high level here for us today. But it really does focus more on the person taking the action, being inspired and motivated, and then taking the actions that are needed. And then, you know, kind of getting the support and the resources along the way. So the S for Smarter is self leadership. I am a big proponent of the self leadership skills, which just really starts with me as a person. So what are my values? What are my priorities? We talk a little bit about taking responsibility for the things that you do or don’t do just in your daily life. And empowering the person who wants to achieve this Extraordinary goal. So that’s the foundation. And then secondly would be the meaningful vision. Okay, so what is it to you as the goal seeker that is meaningful and very specific and very detailed, and really drawing the picture in your mind of what does that future look like once I’ve achieved it? And really digging down into what will I have? What will my everyday life look like? Who will I be, what will I think, what will I feel? What will I have? Why do I even want to achieve this goal? And really make the connection of my values and my priorities and where I’m going with, where I wanna end up in this particular goal. Then the next one, SMA aligned goals. This is where we take that vision and we then identify that Extraordinary goal. Okay, if I have this big vision of where I want my path that I’m on, what is one big Extraordinary goal that if I were to pursue that would have a big impact on getting me closer to that vision? And then we, you know, it has to be also aligned with kind of your values and priorities and you know, all the things that are you personally. So we don’t meet up against resistance as you go along the path in terms of your own personal, you know, choices and things. It’s kinda like a gps. So the goals themselves are more like a GPS checkpoints, am I on the right path? Am I lined up to where I wanna end up? And then we’re gonna go through and actually, you know, pursue them. So can I ask an example? Like, so are you saying the aligned goals is goals stepping stones along the way to the big goal that we set? Yes. Is that what you’re saying? Yeah. Okay. Well, aligned with the vision and with that first step, the Self-Leadership Foundation. So we still, everything has to just still be aligned, right? Who I am as a person, my values, my priorities, what I want for this vision, why is it so meaningful to me that I want it, even in business, even in corporate, corporate has a big goal. Why is that goal meaningful to me? I want to be successful at my career. I want to, you know, maybe put myself in position for a promotion, whatever it is, bring it back personally to why is it important for me? And then you identify those goals that are all lined up with who I am, my vision, now, what’s that goal gonna be? And then once we get kind of to the tactical plan, we’ll break it down into further, you know, sub goals to actually ah, actions to it, if that makes sense. So we’re just kinda building the path, the framework for the path to the goal. Got it. Okay. So we’ve got s self leadership, M meaningful vision, a aligned goal, and now we’re on R. What does the R of S.M.A.R.T.E.R. goals stand for? Yes, the R is for rewire Your brain. I feel like these are all critical parts of the framework, but rewiring your brain to do something new can be very challenging, as we all know, right? So working on your mindset, on your beliefs, identifying those obstacles that might come up. Figuring out, how am I going to handle when I get overwhelmed, when I’m confused, when I do something that I thought was gonna work, that didn’t work. I mean, all of that is thinking and mindset and brain work. And so, you know, we coach within my clients and in my group, we coach a lot on how to handle some of those things that come up in your thoughts and your brain, because that’s what drives your actions. And you know, that’s what we talk about in your, you know, the mindset coaching that we do in your membership is so helpful, I think, to really go through and talk about the self doubt, the, you know, all the things that come along when you start to do something you’ve never done before. Yeah. Cause it’s gonna come Absolutely either to get started, you know, take that action or what happens, you know, right after something doesn’t work out. I kind of call that the moment of truth. It’s like, yeah, it’s all decision points, right? As you go along, you think something’s gonna happen, you try, it didn’t go exactly as you thought. That’s a moment of truth for you. That’s a decision point. Okay, I get to choose what I’m gonna do about this, how I’m gonna think, how I’m gonna feel, how am I gonna respond? That’s my choice. And that will make a difference on whether I keep going, whether I course correct or whether, you know, I opt out. So rewire very important. I think so many people skip that step. I think people think like they set a goal, they kind of figure out the how. So often people are focused on the how, but then they don’t do this rewiring of the brain process to understand how to handle all the things that are unexpected and all, all the emotions that up Right Along the, so I love this part, as you well know, this is my favorite. Okay, so that’s the R. What happens in the T? Well, the tactical plan is probably what most people are more familiar with. That is, you know, really laying out, maybe it’s a 90 day goal process, execution process. It’s your tools that you use along the way. It’s all the resources that you use to solve problems. So for instance, like your membership and all the resources and things and the help that you provide in there, a lot of that falls under the tactical plan. How do we do things? How do I, you know, get this particular result? And so that’s the work, the problem part of it, where you start actually doing things, taking action. Awesome. Okay. And then E. Okay, E is energy. And I always have used the word energized to describe how do I wanna feel when I am going after a goal? And I know that in my experience, whenever I feel energized about something, I take action, I move forward, I have fun, I’m more excited about it. So that’s the piece of it that every person can kind of identify what gets them energized. And sometimes it’s just taking action. You know, it’s kind of which one comes first. Well, action can also create energy because you’ve done something, you get a result, you see the result. Maybe it was successful and that energizes you. And maybe it’s just your connection back to the initial vision and reminding yourself every point along the way, why am I doing this? What is it that I’m working towards? Remind yourself again, what you’re fighting for as you go along the path. And that also can create that internal energy. I know I don’t recall at the right off the top of my head who said it, but talking just in psychology, where if you lack motivation, a lot of times it’s because you’ve lost sight of what it is that you wanted in the beginning. Like, what is it that you’re actually going for? And if you lose that connection or you lose sight of that, or forget it, then your motivation dips. And so that’s why I always encourage people to keep that initial meaningful vision, that detail specific everyday life as a reminder. Okay, that’s what I’m doing. That’s why I’m doing what I’m doing. Because you need that reminder as you go through all of the emotions of everything, right? Because it’s not gonna be smooth. And so you need that energy to kind of keep you going. Yes. Okay. And then what does R, what does the R stand for? So R is kind of the final, just piece of the puzzle, and it’s resolve. Okay, I’m gonna resolve to resolve means a firm determination, a commitment. Okay. I’ve gone through all of this, I know what I want. I have kind of a, an initial path mapped out. I have my tools and resources. Am I in? Am I committed to taking action? Now, it doesn’t mean I’m committed to doing things I don’t wanna do. No, doesn’t mean I’m committed to, you know, having to do things maybe time. How you handle your time is one of your important priorities. And so working 24 7, no, that’s not the goal, right? That’s not part of your values and priorities. So it’s just a resolve or a firm determination to take action in alignment with your goals, to your vision when you hit some unexpected obstacles. Yeah. Am I all in? So mainly it’s a commitment to action. Keep taking action. Yeah, I love that. Because you have to be all in to hit the goal. You really do any goal, you have to be all in and you have to keep taking action. I love that. Well, a couple things. One is we have a free download. So Nancy has put together kind a visual aid, which I think is so stunning that you could print out and help yourself. But how do we then put this smarter goals process in action? Like, do we set a timer for an hour? Is this something we do every month, every year? Like how do we use this in our real estate business and life? Yeah. Well, I think first of all is to pause and start with step one in, okay, why am I doing this? What do I want from this? What am I going to get from doing this business? You know, whatever it is that you’re working on, just pause. I think so many people don’t, they just hit the ground running. They, okay, I want a hundred K business, I have my real estate license. I joined this membership, or whatever it is. Okay, let’s go. And to just pause and frame it and remind yourself what’s important to me? What are my boundaries? Now let’s go. So I think that’s the first thing, is to really think about that and then create that vision. So spending a few minutes, hour, whatever it takes for you to really get quiet with free of distractions and really put some meaning to why am I even doing this? Because that’s the framework to really then start building out your first goal. And then let’s decide what that Extraordinary goal is gonna be. That’ll be fun. One thing I, one thing I noticed, I mean, smarter is so much different than smart. And I think one thing that trips people up about making goals, especially using the SMART acronym, is that time piece. So I noticed that none of your process involves setting a date or time, which I think we learned. So everywhere else, it’s like, you’re gonna do this thing by this time. Yeah. Right? And I personally love that yours not include that. Can you talk about why that is? Yeah. Well, I think sometimes I do understand putting time commitments along the way. Okay. So as you break down, let’s say, you know, we follow kind of a traditional 90 day goal execution process. You have your big goal, you break it down into monthly, weekly, what are my action steps today? So I’m good with adding time at that point to your action steps. But as far as the goal itself, I feel like once we put a time, an end point for that time, and then it doesn’t happen, what do we make that mean? And that’s Not going fast enough. I failed. I mean, what does that mean? When actually you just need to keep going Look more at the daily actions, the weekly, you know, goals that you have. And as long as you’re continuing on the journey and you’re making progress, then it’s not so critical that it’s a specific random date in the future. Yeah, I love that so much. Cause so often real estate agents will come to me and they’ll say, I just wanna make, you know, 50,000 a year, a hundred thousand dollars a year, whatever. Its, and I always tell them first, make it once, no matter how long it takes, you make it once. Even if it takes you like me, me, like five years to make my first, but then make, like you talk about decision points along the way, once you hit that goal, no matter how long it takes, then ask yourself, do I wanna do this again? Because once you’re able to do it, you can do it faster. You can do it faster and faster. Pretty soon you’re making a month. Yeah. But I think people quit too, because they’re like, but I didn’t make, I didn’t my houses in a year this year. It’s like, well just sell 12 houses and then how to do it faster. Yes. I love that. Yes, very true. Because once you do it once, then you can see, okay, I did it once. Did I like the process? Did I like the path I took? Do I wanna try a different way to do it again the second time? How do I wanna tweak it, revise it, do it differently, and I don’t make it mean anything other than I did it, and I’m gonna keep going if I choose to. Right? Yeah, you get to choose. Yeah. Well, I love this process. Thank you for sharing it with us. The download for this will be at agent Grad school.com/coach Nancy and Coach Nancy, tell us how people can find you. And I also think you have another free resource you wanted to tell people about to really start this process of what do they really want. I think you have like a, yeah, a worksheet for that. Sure. You can jump on my website, which is just coaching with Nancy dot com. And there’s a free resources menu on my website. And there is also another download besides the one we talked about today that’s called, what do I Really Want? And it’s a self-assessment, several page activity where you just go through and spend some time just really reflecting what is important to me? What are my priorities, my values, you know, what are my strengths? What do I love to do? What is fun for me? I mean, just several kind of questions that we don’t take time to just sit and think about, but what is it that I really want here? And that that helps to build the foundation for then creating that Extraordinary goal. Love it. I’ll link to all this in the show notes. So you can go to agent Grad school.com for Coach Nancy or coaching with Nancy dot com. And I know how much, I just wanna say thank you publicly, how much our students enjoy every one of your classes, how much I’ve enjoyed learning from you. Even though I don’t come live to the mindset classes, I listen to every single one. They help me immensely. I know that they help our students immensely. So thank you so much for what you add to our community for our students. Truly thank you. Of course. Thank you for having me. I, it’s fun. I love doing it and love interacting, and I just really appreciate the opportunity. So thank you. Thank you for listening to this episode of Confessions of a Top, Producing Real. Estate Agent. 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