July 2020 Book Club Discussion: Be So Good They Can’t Ignore You By Cal Newport
Welcome to the second of four book club discussions during the Agent Grad School Summer Book Club 2020 edition!
Just as a reminder or to catch up any newcomers…here at Agent Grad School, we have a summer book club (completely free to join) and you can find out all the details about how long it runs, what books we are reading this summer and how you can be a part of the discussions right here.
We also added a few extra books this summer, specifically to learn more about how our industry has been part of the systemic racism that continues to plaque our country. You can find more about those books here.
Now on to the book club discussion about our July book choice–So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love By Cal Newport.
This book is an EXCELLENT read not only for every real estate agent, but anyone who has a passion they want to turn into a career.
Why? Because it helps you continue to be great in your business even after the passion you had in the beginning runs out, which it WILL at some point if you are in any career for long enough.
Cal Newport says that the idea to “follow your passion” or “do what you love” is not only flawed, but tends to lead to disappointment and even changing careers unnecessarily.
Instead, Cal argues that we should focus on honing our skills and work we love will be created by being great at the career we’ve chosen.
So Good They Can’t Ignore You presents four “rules” for finding work you love, but before we dive into those, I think the story of how Cal Newport came up with the idea of writing this book is fascinating and shows that there are clues on the path to success everywhere.
He says that he was watching an episode of the Charlie Rose Show where Steve Martin was a being interviewed, here’s the clip of that interview that inspired this best-selling book and I hope inspires you too:
I love his advice Steve Martin gives whenever he’s asked how to be successful. He says, “you have to be undeniably good at something. You have to be so good they can’t ignore you.”
Which is how the title of this tremendous book came to be.
The Four Rules for Loving The Career You’ve Chosen:
- Don’t Follow Your Passion
- Be So Good They Can’t Ignore You
- Turn Down The Promotion
- Think Small, Act Big
Seems like counterintuitive advice, doesn’t it? But, it’s not.
Here’s why:
One of the concepts I love the most about this book is taking a “craftsman’s approach” to your work. Cal Newport recommends honing your skills and go into anything new knowing that you won’t be any good at it until you’ve spent 10,000 hours honing your skills.
He says once you do that, not only will you be a truly skilled craftsman at whatever career you’ve chosen, but that is when you will also fall in love with your chosen career.
Essentially, you have to get through 10,000 hours before you can even think about being good at your chosen career and only then can you expect to love your work!
He goes on to say that the natural byproduct of the 10,000 hours theory is that you build rare and valuable skills. Having rare and valuable skills makes you feel good about the work you are doing because you become an expert.
And, this is why if you take the craftsman’s mindset when building a career, you become so good they can’t ignore you and find yourself loving your work.
See how that all comes together full circle? π
The cofounder of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman, calls this book, βAn important guide to starting a remarkable career.”
I agree, especially when it comes to a remarkable real estate career. If you haven’t already, definitely read it!
To your success,
Jennifer
Episode Transcript
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 us to even opening my own brokerage full of agents helped me serve all the clients that were coming my way. I taught those agents. The same strategies I used in day two became the top producing agents. Now through this Podcast and agent, rod School dot com, I’m sharing those same modern marketing and business strategies with you. Most of which I learned from looking outside of 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 of your business, you’ve always wanted to let’s make it happen and dive into today’s episode. So let’s start this month. Book Club choice was called So Good They Can Ignore you Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for work. You love By Cal Newport on the cover of the Book the co-founder of LinkedIn cause this Book and important guy to starting a remarkable career. And I would add that. I think it’s a important guide to starting a real estate career.
I love this book. I think it’s an excellent read for every real estate agent out there, because it helps you continue to not only be great in your business, but it talks about this idea. I think a lot of real estate agents turn, you know, become real estate agents because they have a passion for real estate. And what this book is so great at explaining is what to do when that Passion runs out and how you can continue to have a business that you love when the passion’s gone, which happens for every single business owner. He’s in this book, he’s constantly repeating some core principles of how to be successful doing work you love.
But, but before we dive into these core principles, they’re kind of rules for different rules that he has for being successful, doing work. You love let’s first start with where Cal Newport got the title of this book. I love this story and I’ll link to this and the show notes to this in this video, it actually comes from Steve Martin of all people. And he was talking to Charlie Rose back in 20 2007, Steve Martin had written a memoir called born, standing up and Charlie Rose recount something he saw once where an audience member stood up and asked Steve Martin, how do you be successful? And in this interview, Steve recounts that he responded by saying, you have to be undeniably good at something.
And then he goes on to say, this is Steve Martin talking. I’ve it. Every time I’ve asked. And I say it every single time I’ve asked, I’m asked, nobody seems to take note of it because it’s not the answer they want to hear. He says, how can I be successful? What they want to hear is how do you get an agent? Here’s how to write a script. Here’s how you get a show. But the truth is you must be so good. They can’t ignore you. And that is where Steve Martin saying that. And that’s his advice to any w you know, wanting to be or aspiring a comedian. That was his advice be So Good They Can Ignore You.
He goes on to say that if people would instead think about how can I be really good at my craft? People are going to come to you. And yeah, it’s much easier than figuring out how to be successful. I absolutely love this perspective from Steve Martin. I absolutely loved the fact that Cal, Newport saw this interview and created an entire book about what Steve Martin was saying there, Amy, I guess, pipe in here. What are you, what do you think real estate agency to keep in mind about Steve Martin’s advice and the name of this book be so good. They can’t ignore you instead of focusing on being successful. What are your thoughts?
Yeah. I love this book. I mean, as you know, we’ve talked a lot about Cal Newport in this book and, you know, I think that was a great place to start that title. You know, when he says I’m asked every single time and he says, you have to be undeniably good at something. He doesn’t say you have to be undeniably passionate about something, you know, because we all kind of have our own passions. I think if we want to call them that things that we just Love, you know, Love some people it’s sports or reading, clothes, decor, whatever, you know, things like that, looking at houses.
So we talked about this a lot of times, so many people will say to me often, Oh, what do you do? You’re in real estate. Oh my gosh. I love looking at how it says, you know, a lot about being a real estate agent, you know, or I, I did do that for a while. I mean, how many people do we know that used to be real estate agents? Or I did that when I was, you know, younger or whatever. And so I think it’s important because Passion peace. I think you say that, you know, if that’s, what’s driving you to be a realtor or to work in real estate, it’s not going to sustain. You probably it’ll get you so far. Your agents at least once a week. And you know, me, I probably hire one or two of them a year, but I am meeting with agents at least once a week.
And one of the reasons I asked them is Why do you want to be a real estate agent? And if I hear the words, ’cause, I love houses, or my passion is real estate. I worry that they’re going to end up like the yoga teacher in this book, which is broke confused as to why they’re Broke, because like, he does a pretty good job of talking about this. And in our group, we did a good job of talking about our parents. I think we’re probably, I know my parents were follow your dreams, follow your passion, and the money will come do what you love, you know? And everybody always sees kind of the way he uses these Steve jobs, you know, as they’re like the holding these people up as the pinnacle, like, Oh, he did what he loved.
When in fact, if you read the story about Steve jobs and that’s not necessarily true, he didn’t really even like computers, you know, he wasn’t very good at it. And so it, it flips this whole idea on its head and talks about how By constantly telling, you know, your kids or your family or friends do what you love. I mean, how many times have people told you that, just do what you love, you know? And you were like, okay, I will. And then, you know, and then people are running around, like he said, really miserable. I’m happy, you know, they’re unhappy. And the jobs that they have, they’re not fulfilled. They don’t understand why they’re not more successful. And it’s because they’ve, they’ve believed this idea or concept that they’re supposed to do what they love and then the money and everything comes and he’s flipping on its head saying, no, no, no, that’s the exact opposite of what you should do.
And so, Yeah, he sets for different rules for creating a career that you love, essentially discovering what it is. This book was all about discovering what it is that people who love, what they’re doing, how did they get there? And one of the very first rules, which I think you’re getting at here is don’t follow your passion. And to actually following your passion can be a dangerous endeavor, Right? Yeah. But it’s, you know, he says that, like, not that many people, you know, I mean, there are people who probably are passionate about singing and become like the best in their field, but there probably a lot of people who are passionate about singing, who don’t, you know, I mean, even if you watch American idol or the voice or something like that, you’re like, wow, there’s a lot of talented people in the world, you know, but there aren’t many who get to do their, do what they love and get paid for it their whole life.
Yeah. And that’s kind of rule number two in the book that he says, you know, the, the book is broken down in chapters that the chapters are based on these rules and rule number one is like, we just talked about, don’t follow your passion. That’s actually dangerous. But rule number two to your point is what you do for a living is far less important. How do you do it? Right. Yeah, totally. You know, and I think everyone focuses on that. What you do, you know, verses like the, how, and then like Steve Martin says, people say, well, how did you do it? And nobody wants to hear what, you know, the simple truth that you have to be undeniably good. You know, they’re kind of like, well, what does that mean? Well, and I think in count, Newport, We’re in this book that talks about understanding the importance of skill.
And he specifically says you have to create rare and valuable skills. And, you know, I love that because I’m always asking estate agents, why should somebody choose you? What makes you different? You know, and that to me is all about creating rare and valuable skills. That is the how, so in other words, in the quest for doing, for having a career that you love, it’s about first finding what your rare and valuable skills are. So that therefore you can answer that question. Why should somebody choose you? So what are your thoughts on that Amy for real estate agents and how they can create rare and valuable skills for their business, which is essentially step one in how to create work.
You love it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean it, well, one of the ways they can do it is by doing it over, doing what they’re really good at over and over and getting good at it. You know, he talks about that, that, you know, in order to build a career capital, you have to it time think he says that somewhere, you know, it comes in phases. So first acknowledging that like, you’re probably not going to hit it out of the park for the very first year, a year, an agent, you know, and maybe setting up the contingency plan for that, you know, having some side work on the side or something like that, then it’s going to take a little bit of time and maybe put that in the horizon of like, wanting to be the best in wanting to be undeniably good. Okay. We want to be that, but we also have to be a realistic and again, that’s something people don’t want to hear it.
Right. They want to hear like, you’re going to take like two months of vacation and make $200,000 right away. You guys are Mercedes. Yeah. The markets are just going to like cloud through it and you don’t have to really work that hard and yeah. To drive a Mercedes and like go visit your friends and exotic places and stuff in the reality is, and what he’s saying is that, you know, it, it takes time to build these skills that you have to really spend your time focusing on doing the things that will set you apart from other agents. And like, we always talk about some of those things are very simple, but people don’t do them because they’re so simple. I think we should write a book about like the So symbol that, you know, you’d beat everybody else.
I mean, I can’t tell you how many people say to me. Oh my gosh, thank you for calling me back. Like, it’s a rare thing to call people back. Your rare and valuable skill is returning phone calls. You know, like I’m like, you know, and he talks about that. Like that craftsmanship has a set of, and I think that sometimes agents do this, like, well, I’m not going to call that person back. They probably, they sounded uninteresting or they want to look at the area that’s not expensive or something like that. Right. They, they make this idea as opposed to I’m a craftsmen. And so I do every step along the way, the same, and this is what I, this is, you know, my work and my integrity is my value. It doesn’t matter. What’s on the other end of the phone. It doesn’t matter whether we’re going to go, you know, and that does make you a rare and valuable because you can make each person feel special and paid attention to.
That’s another thing I think is like a rare, valuable skill agents tend to not make people feel rare and valuable. They tend to, Oh, well, you know, they tend to be pretty quick with people and trying to get again to that outcome, as opposed to developing a Process, you know, like the craftsmen does, you know, he doesn’t like build the cabinet and throw it up. You know what I mean? You can get those at home Depot, but if you want a gorgeous cabinet, you’re going to go to somebody whose spent hours and hours in the cabinet. And I love this, this concept. And I think of every real estate agent could really think of they’re real estate business. And it takes this craftsman approach to their business and understanding that only then can you create those rare and valuable skills that will not only lead you to having real estate be work you love, but also attract clients that you love to me.
One of the things there’s so many different pieces of the real estate business that people don’t realize is really a craftsman approach, or even, you know, I think a lot of it real estate agents think like clients are going to come to you automatically, and then you’re going to show them houses, and then you’re going to easily. The, they’re going to pick one and then you’re going to close. And as you and I both know Amy and hopefully many real estate agents listening to this, even showing houses, you know, I know that we talk a lot about it in our trainings, even showing houses, taking a craftsman approach to that. It’s not about opening the door and letting them choose. It’s not what we see on HDTV about like here’s three houses and I don’t like the carpet, but actually showing houses.
There is a craftsman approach that I teach an age in grad school and age in grad school by edition, specifically on how, how to really read between the lines and guide clients and really taking a craftsman approach. Even to that one step, not even talking about craftsman approach to marketing and getting clients that you love working with and choosing your ideal client, all of these, every single step of the way, right. You can apply those craftsman approach. And that’s really where the juice is, right? That is where you differentiate yourself. I think if you’re not showing up and showing houses, I mean, that’s kind of, what’s expected, right. Opening the door that is not craftsman approach.
Yeah. And a lot of agents think that like, well, I’ve driven here and I’m meeting you or I’m, you know, like this, you know, there’s just, like you said, there was a whole part of agent Grad School, that’s the during process, which was when we’re with a client in front of them and how we handle ourselves in how we are the leaders with them and help them make decisions. There’s a whole process that, you know, you teach about that. So there’s craftsmen within craftsmen, within craftsmen, you know, there’s so many pieces of the pie, not just a simple line. Okay. We’ve pulled these calls, you know, pulled these houses. We’re going to go look, Oh, okay.
Let me find out how to say, like, you know, the listening, we talked about the listening aspect, that’s a part of being a craftsman in real estate. What I find so fascinating is that being the craftsmen in choosing to do it at this level, choosing to take the craftsman approach. I want agents to realize that that choice is what creates Work. They love Amy. You and I had talked about offline before we started that there is approximately 80% of new real estate licensees will be out of the business after two years. And in my opinion, it’s this one piece of the puzzle. The fact that they aren’t falling in love with the work.
And they don’t have probably the income that they thought is because they don’t realize that there’s actually a craftsman piece to every part, even showing how this even meeting clients, if they realized that there is a craftsman approach, that there’s actually more than meets the eye to add true, rare, and valuable skills to their client’s lives, that they actually would do two things. Number one, they would create a real estate business. They love, which is the whole point of this book. Well, not real estate, but work they love. And in this case, it happens to be a real estate, but number two, clients will be able to see that you actually created a different approach to their housing search.
And then you show that you are rare and valuable and They not only becomes a loyal and use you again and again and again, but they see that difference in our able to refer your clients. I think if, if more real estate agents realized that’s craftsmen in the approach to loving the real estate business, it would really save 80% of the licensees that leave the business in two years. I think it would save a lot of those people. I really do. I do too. I think, you know, 80%, I mean, if you sat down when you were in real estate school and someone said, okay, I just want to let you know, for some of you in this classroom will not be here in a year. You know, people would be like, Oh, that’s not me. You know?
I mean, nobody thinks that they’re gonna, you know, but it’s, it’s statistically true P you know, that’s a really high, you know, and I think part of it, like you said, is this build-up of expectation that it is going to be all of these things, you know, that it, that it isn’t, you know, and, and they’re not taught, I mean, in all fairness, I wasn’t taught this, you know, I wasn’t taught across men point of view. I was taught like the, and I, you know, I don’t think most people are in most of their careers, which is why you wrote this book, you know, That’s true. Yeah. Another concept that I love about scattered throughout this book is that concept of not worrying so much about your quote unquote, true calling in life, but instead being passionate about wherever it is that you have chosen to do with your life.
I really love how this concept can help real estate agents with some of the things that we talk about in age in grad school, like why somebody should choose you and adding more you into your brand, into your business. So a perfect example is let’s just pretend you’ve chosen to be in real estate. So, you know, ADP percent of the licensees that are getting out of the business, I’d love to just talk to directly to them and say, you’ve made a choice. You’ve decided to become real estate agents. So the question is, how do you add your passions into your real estate business? And I think it’s more real estate agents did that, that that would speak to again, why somebody should choose you among all other options.
I love more than anything. When I see real estate agents really add part of their personality or things that they Love. So for example, there was a couple real estate agent’s that, you know, really talk about mid-century modern homes or how to renovate a home. Or I know Amy, you talk about, you know, staging because you love like staging houses and making houses look great. So I want people to realize that you’ve chosen the career of real estate, but really ask yourself, how can I put my passion into my business to differentiate myself? Yeah. I think you definitely, you know, I think, you know, this is where in real estate, you do have the opportunity to shine and make it unique, which is why I think another reason people come to real estate, right?
They don’t want the confinements of maybe a corporate culture and, you know, in real estate you can really make your brand yourself, which is where people sometimes run into problems, I think. But also this is your opportunity, you know, the same side there, usually the same coin, different sides, right? Yes. Yeah. And so owning that opportunity, knowing what that passion is, and then, you know, really focusing on it and, and then repeating it, you know, he talks about this, he says in here, like, you know, it’s a lifetime accumulation of deliberate, practice that again. And again, ends up explaining excellence. It’s not excellence first. Yes. You bring your passion to it, but it’s your, you know, your lifetime experience.
I mean, for me, it was a staging, you know, I look at like years ago, like eight, nine years ago versus now, you know, some of the pink colors I used, some of the choices I’ve made, you know, maybe I’m making it a little bit differently or maybe the way that I’m handling agents with the staging is a little bit different or my approach, you know, I’m growing every year. And I, and I think, you know, if you’re growing and you’re changing and you’re, you know, you’re working, then you are, you know, becoming excellent over and over and over that you have to keep doing it. And I think that like, most people just kind of fall off the wagon after a year, I guess, because they, the expectation is I don’t have to put, I mean, it’s hard work. I can tell you like lugging around furniture and like letting the DAS and like, you know, when I’m lugging it around, I mean, you know, there’s a lot of like, and I always laugh in my friends I’ll make, here is the glamorous part of real estate.
I was just sweating and I look terrible and I’m exhausted. My arms are like walking up stairs, you know, a beautiful, old homes are great, but a lot of times they have a lot of stairs or, you know, a beautiful old condos. Buildings are beautiful, but there’s no elevator, you know? So I’m carrying everything up on my side. You know, there’s all kinds of challenges you face all the time. And I think, you know, I ran into a girl when I was shopping one day and she was checking out, she was a checker at, I think like TJ Maxine and was buying something for staging or home goods. And she’s like, Oh, you’re a realtor. She said, yeah, I took the class and I did all of you. And I, and I started it and she was like, I just have to get out of it.
She’s like it was too much work. You know? I mean, she didn’t last a year. Yeah. You know, being excellent is bringing your vision, but knowing your vision is going to require a lot from you. And I think, you know, to be across many of you, you know, they don’t work nine to five craftsmen all the time at perfecting what they do. So that’s no different in real estate, you know, it’s real estate, whether it’s real estate or it, or anything that you do, if you want to be so much better, especially in this industry where there are so many real estate options, no, you really have to know what you’re bringing to people to make them choose you. And I think, again, adding that passion for whatever it is that you have outside of real estate, you’ve chosen this career in putting that in can also lead you to having more control.
It says, that’s rule number three in this book, a So Good, you can ignore, You finding Why Skills Trump past Passion in the Quest for work. You love is creating control in your business. And I think more than anything, I want real estate agents, especially the ones that are new or struggling that you want to a hundred percent, you have control over the destiny of your business. And you’re 100% have control about what your business looks like, what it feels like and what you can bring, you know, things like your passions outside of real estate, how you can actually make that, turn that into part of your branding and part of your business to those fuel.
You’re a business that you’re a part and create a business that you love, any thought, any addition or anything you want to add to that before we start on rule, number of For anything about control in this rule, number three, he says, turn down a promotion and the importance of control. Yeah. And I think that’s knowing your value, going back to what your, what your rare and valuable at, right. And once you do that, you have more control because you can say things that you can say no to opportunities. I think that’s the other thing with the agents. We, we stretched ourselves a little thin to say yes to everything, right. You know, how many times have you heard that get as many people as you can where, you know, and all of a sudden you’re all over the place.
And at least for me, that’s happened in the beginning of my career. And, you know, I think the more that you can hone in on what you’re good at and repeatedly doing what you’re good at and what your passions are and being a craftsman. And then you can say, you can say no with confidence because you know, you’re saying, you know, in this book are another book we talk about, you know, your time is limited, you know? And so we have to learn what to say no to, and in part of that, no process you’re in control. But I think a lot of people are afraid to say now, I think that’s a great point, Amy, actually, I hadn’t thought about it until You, you brought it up. But I think part of, you know, we don’t have quote unquote promotions when it comes to our real estate business. But I think that could be, I would say he says, turn down the promotion.
I think that could be for real estate agents turn down the client that doesn’t work for you. And what I mean by that. And, and, and then that’s how you have control over your business. So a perfect example, and I’m not suggesting, but never, well, I was suggesting any violation of fair housing laws or anything like that, but I, I get probably a call a week from a new investor client or a new developer in town who wants my help on identifying properties for them. I think I get at least one a week and every single time I, you know, answered their call. And I explained to them that, no, unfortunately that’s not the work that I can. I turn it down. I turn down the work for two reasons. Number one, I’ve been doing this for so long that I have, if I was going to have a good property, I would give it to my loyal developer clients that I’ve met 15 years ago.
And number two, it takes me away from the business that I really actually enjoy and love and has been my choice, the control, which is helping first time home buyers. Right? So for every client that maybe isn’t in the niche that you’ve chosen, or isn’t what your best to ask for me, it’s first time home buyers move up buyers. And my repeat clients, I have to say no to every other quote, unquote promotion, every other type of business that comes my way because I literally can’t fit it in. And that gives me control over my business because that was, that does, is allow me to service people that I love helping, which is part of this, you know, instead of finding you’re, you know, finding work you love and adding your passion to it.
I’ve Passion is helping people who need me, who really have doubts about being able to be a first-time home buyer and me being able to help them make that dream. A reality is so much more rewarding and is work that I love versus running around like a crazy person, trying to get developers to be loyal to me. Right. You know, so I never thought about it until you said it. Cause I kept thinking like, number three, doesn’t apply. It turns out in the promotion, importance of control. But I think what I think I get it now and how it can apply it to real estate agents turning down clients that don’t fit your niche, but don’t make, you have to work. You love. Yeah. It’s not work that you love. It’s, it’s pulling you away.
It’s pulling your time, your energy, you know, I mean, our energy is, is again, like we have a finite amount of that. You know, I remember in the early in my career, many nights going home with like utter exhaustion, you know, haven’t you used the bathroom in 10 hours, I’m exhausted, you know, because I’m like, you know, I’ve got it. I’ve got to help everybody. I’ve got to say yes. And I’ve got to like, you know, reach my financial goals. You know? So for me at the time it was like, you take everything, you never say no, you know, and I have learned that, you know, that’s not what a crap, you know, a craftsman doesn’t know how to think about these cabinets that, you know, they don’t, they don’t make cabinets for everybody.
They don’t make them for hotels and four, you know, for like, the one person client they can’t do that. You know? And this was a, really is a business where a lot of what we do his face to face business, there’s only one of us, you know, I mean, we can have help and we definitely have our helpers, but at the end of the day, we really have to make choices that, that are going to help our clients and help us and create that page are talking about. I love it. So don’t be afraid in order to have work. You love you’ve chosen real estate. Don’t be afraid. So during a turn down the quote unquote promotion, which in this case is the wrong type of clients. Yeah. Let’s move on to rule number four, which is a little cerebral.
So let me explain it and then we’ll talk about it. Real. Number four in this book is, think, think small act big, which in my opinion, sends up the core idea of this book, which is in order to create work. You love, you must first build a career. You must first build a career capital, which we’ll talk about in a second, which is essentially those rare and valuable skills. And only then can you create a mission? Because creating a mission is how you create work. You love, you have to get to the cutting edge, which then turns into expertise. And only then can you create a mission or a movement that mission or movement is the key to creating work you love, but then you have the final step.
And that has to take baby steps and implement tiny things along the way, receive feedback from there and figure out what to do next. From there, you can be remarkable. You can create remarkability in order to be remarkable. There are two laws of remarkability. Number one is you literally have to compel people to remark about it. And number two, it must be launched in a venue conducive to such remarking. What I usually say is I call this the vehicle for your communication, for example, this podcast or your website or your newsletters or your social media posts, Instagram, that would be the venue conducive for such remarking.
Essentially you need to, to decide on the correct platform to be remarkable with it. So I know that was a lot, a lot, right? There were a number four there, we touched on several topics, but essentially it’s wrapping in everything, all the steps, all the rules into creating work. You love, it’s almost like a formula. And if you can kind of get them all right at the right time, you create work, you love, which then automatically creates this remarkability. So I have a lot to say on this topic, but Amy, I want you to go first. Yeah.
I mean, it is, it is the, you know, think small act big, but I think about for example, and I’m not going to repeat it correctly, but my mom is a entrepreneur. She owns the business for 30 years and she has a very simple mission statement. It’s essentially to provide like, you know, wholesome, good food, you know, and to pay her employees the very best she can pay them and to create an environment that people want to keep coming to enjoy her food. I mean, it’s, it’s a couple of sentences really. Right. But this is like, whenever we talk about her success, it’s always going back to the core missions. Whenever we look in and you know, a certain, she’s got tons of, I don’t know, 300 reviews, five star reviews on TripAdvisor.
And you know, when I look at them, it’s like, but every, everybody is answering that core mission statement, right? Like all the things that they love about her, her restaurant, her business. And I think that’s that as a small part, right? It’s not a big idea. She’s not created food. She is not created a re you know, she’s like created nothing new, but she has a mission that is a very specific and very, you know, important to her. And this is what she’s focused in her venue in of course, is a restaurant, you know, and then getting that word out is through, you know, a lot of different ways. And so I think it is good to have a mission that you feel passionate about, you know, at one of her things is she feels passionate about paying people who work for her really well better than her competitors.
And she’s always done that regardless of her, you know, how much money she’s making it at the time, because it’s one of her missions and core principle And maybe one of her rare and valuable skills. Yes. And I agree. Yes. I think it’s rare in your capital. Yes. Because she’s not being forced to, there’s no, like, okay, The, you know, the minimum wages this, you ha you know, she does it because this is her belief system. You know, he talks about one of the women in here, I think in this role and you know, why they do that, this professor. And because it’s just this mission that she has, but it can be simple. And I think that’s a key, right? You don’t have to get caught up in, Oh, I have to be Jeff Bezos or, you know, create Amazon, or, you know, I have to be Steve jobs.
I mean, my mother owns a restaurant in a small town in Virginia, and she’s very successful and very happy and very good at what she does, you know? And I would say that she’s created remarkability and that’s what I want real estate agents to understand. I think so many times, I think people skip over this career capital career capital career capital, like rule number four, think small and act big. Really what it’s talking about is first creating the career capital, the rare and valuable skills that we talked about a few minutes ago, and only then do you have essentially permission to a mission and only when you create this mission, can you actually expect to be remarkable?
You have to compel, you’ve got to be something above and beyond rare and valuable in order to be remarkable. And the only way that you’re going to create a real estate business that you love, and that is sustainable over the long term, is if that you create something that clients find remarkable, truly remarkable. And the Only way to do that is if you’re a rare and valuable. So the question I want every single real estate agent to hear loud and clear is number one, please read this book. It is such a fascinating way to think about your work because Passion, even if you Passion fades, right? And so if you can really just get to work and understand that you’ve got to be able to be a craftsman, you’ve got to be able to create those rare and valuable skills to build a sustainable business that you love, which then turns into a movement, which then turns into remarkability.
That is actually when you start loving your business, in my opinion. So, you know, from my story, I sold two houses in my first four years because I was not remarkable. I was not rare and valuable, and I sat down and I said to myself, okay, how can I be different? How can I be rare and valuable? How can I make somebody choose me among all other options? And I had to get to work. I took the craftsmen approach. I didn’t realize that was what I was doing it at the time, but it really is relevant in the stages of building a business that you love. I had to get to work and become a craftsman. I had to learn about every first time home buyer program in the city.
I had to learn about all the down payment assistance programs. I had to get to know all the players. I had to understand how it worked. I had to make a, in my first house myself, because I want it to go through the process and understand how it worked. I didn’t think I could help people be passionate about buying their first home if I had never done it before. So I had to, you know, dive deep. And from that, I created this mission, this mission about being the only brokerage in Washington, DC, that specialize in first time, home buyers and creating a company that sells $80 million worth of real estate and growing every single year by helping first time home buyers.
I couldn’t of done that. If I didn’t start with that Korea creative capital at career capital, I don’t know why I’m having such a hard time with that one. And then from there to be able to create the mission. And then now today, after all that time effort, energy craftsmen approach, rare and valuable skills only then am I now able to be something remarkable or create a business that’s remarkable. And I do think that people see it as being different. And I do think people remark about it. Like there’s something different here, right? And that is, we have created a brand through taking the approach is in this busy, in this book that compels people to remark about it because it is so different.
And then the, the venue could do so for such remarking is I think a couple of things. Number one, it’s evident from our website. And then number two, it’s evident from every single interaction that every single one of our agents have with our clients. I don’t know. I know I just went on a tangent and I’m not trying to toot my own horn or that wasn’t the point of it. But the point I’m trying to make is you don’t go from zero to remarkability without all the steps in between. And I think that’s what this rule, number four, think small act big it’s what is the next step, right? What is the next best action and not thinking, you know, how do I get to $80 million with the real estate 15 years later?
No, no, no, no. It was thinking small at the moment. What do I need to do right now to be the best at helping first time home buyers become a homeowner that was thinking small. Yeah. I think two that can apply throughout a craftsmen, a career in real estate, right. There are times when we’ve talked about this. And if people do go to age in grad school, that there are steps that I know many agents, you know, agents sort of be like, Oh, I’ll just skip that. It’s not really that important, you know, like that, step’s not important that certain email, that letter, you know, again, these venues, the way we’re reaching our clients, the way we’re servicing them constantly, you know? And that’s, I think that differentiates us from so many agents, you know, we’re not just, Hey, you know, and you know, we’re not just, here’s your house.
Great. And call me when you want to sell it. We have a whole process. And again, this is about this craftsmanship approach. And I think that that’s part of that thinking small on a day, you know, a lot of our activities on a daily basis might be small. You know, how much is a quote, right? So we’re thinking big, always, you know, our, our process might be maybe writing a letter or an email, but it’s all a part of a larger strategy. We’re thinking big, always, but we’re acting or we’re acting big, but we’re thinking small. Sometimes, you know, sometimes our daily, our daily sheet is very, it’s a small thing to do or not going out and spending thousands of dollars in marketing that would be maybe, you know, As a boy. And I think one big example is, but I always tell them the agents think of baby steps, right?
Not how do I sell this house? How do I get this buyer to buy a house? To me that would be an example of thinking big, right? How do I get this client to buy this house? No, that’s not how you should be thinking. You should be thinking small. You should be thinking, how do I help this buyer today? Decide if this house that I’m showing them is the right choice for them right. In this moment, right here, right now in this house, you know, in, in keeping a very, you know, keeping in it, like we said, you know, very on this one on the, yeah. On, in that moment, because once you start going off into the, you know, the future casting and, or, you know, maybe you’ve taken a client out five times and they still haven’t bought a house and you start thinking, what are they going to buy this house?
Or you, or you’re thinking about, I’m not going to reach my goal. And you’re thinking about yourself and you bring it back to that. Or you were thinking about the big, you know, the big quote unquote in my, in this it’s like, let’s get this house, let’s get them a house that’s thinking big. Right? You want me to think small? What is today? How can I help this person today make the right decision today. Right? And then act big. Bye, bye. I think acting big is actually realizing that you’re not there to sell them in a house. You’re there to help them make the right decision and have that conversation. Even if they don’t understand at first, you know, that’s a perfect example of thinking small acting big. Yeah. And they think we’re in a lot of people think we’re there to sell them to the house.
They’re always, we’ve talked about this before. They’re always surprised when we say, I think you can do, you know, I’ve heard you say this. And I said it, I think you can do better. You know, you know, and they’ll say, well, what do you mean? Like, I think you can get a better house for what you’re looking for. I mean, they’re almost shocked. They’re like, you’re not supposed to say that you were like the only real estate agent who tells me not to buy houses. I’m like, Oh yeah, yeah. Right. Cause that’s, you know, and I say, you know, I I’ve said to clients before too, I’m like, no, I want you to love your house. I mean, I want you to fall in love. I want you to be so excited. You can stand it. You know, I don’t want you to know. I love that. Well, we’ll take this.
This is fine. This works or whatever, you know, I want you to be like, so like excited, you know, so happy are like the day they, you know, when you, when you know, you found the right mate, the right person in your life, you’re so excited. You know, it’s the same thing with the house. You don’t want to just kind of buy a house because it fits a few criteria. And it, you know, I mean, you want to do it because you’re really excited. And, and you know, it’s a part it’s a part of you’re, you know, making a big decision, all of that stuff. So I think they’re always surprised by that. Cause they look at me like you just want to sell me a house. And that’s, I think, I think that’s a perfect illustration of rural number four, think small act big. And then creating that remarkability and creating this mission of like, no, we’re on a mission to find you the right house.
And then that’s what creates that. Remarkability I’m going to wrap this up. Amy. Anything else that you want to touch on that we haven’t talked about that you want other real estate agents to know when it comes to this Book So Good They Can Ignore You Why Skills Trump Passion and the Quest for work. You love By Cal Newport no, my only thoughts are to read the book and because it’s wonderful and there’s so many, there’s so many things that apply and that can be helpful to your, your career. And even if you read it, maybe if you’re, if you’re contemplating real estate, you’re not even in real estate yet. I love that idea. That’s a great advice. Yeah, Amy. Yeah. And because once you, you know, I mean, it’s not, It’s not an expensive to do all the Work you have to do to get licensed, you know, and it’s a lot of money just spend and then find out, well, maybe this wasn’t what I thought it was going to be.
You know, we’re trying to help with some truth telling in the real estate so that people are doing what they love, building a business. They love that. Exactly. I don’t want that. I want that number to go down. I don’t want 80% of the new licensees to be out of business in two years. I don’t, because two, one of two things happens either. They weren’t able to create the business that they Love, which essentially speaks to the how to do that in this Book or they didn’t know what it was like. It wasn’t what they thought it was. And, or they weren’t making enough money, which was probably, at least half of those 80% were not making the money they thought they would make. So I just want everybody to, you know, I want to be any real estate agent who believes that they can be good at this job.
And just don’t know how I want those agents to stick around Agent grad school.com because more than anything, having a real estate business that you love, essentially, you know what this whole book is about. You’ve, you’ve chosen real estate to create work you love. And this book will help you with that. I hope to help them with that. Anybody hear listening to create a real estate business that you love, but start by reading this book and understanding that Passion is not the way to do it. And if you haven’t already definitely read this book, apply the concepts to your business. So your real estate business really can forever be work that you love. That’s how I feel about my business, Amy.
I hope that’s how you feel about your business nowadays. And don’t forget to sign up for the entrepreneurial real estate agents. Book Club on agent Grad school.com. That way you get all this stuff automatically next month Book will be announced to you as well. That’s a good one. Really good one. And thank you for listening. Thank you for being here. Thank you for wanting to set your real estate business up for success and be different than your typical real estate agent. Thanks Amy. Thanks. Jennifer to talk to you next month. Bye.
Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode. Remember change happens when you take action. So apply what you learned today to your own real estate business. If this episode has helped you subscribe, leave a review and share it with all your real estate agent friends, and as always, if you want even more great resources to create the real estate business you’ve always wanted and to have the life that you want outside of your business, too, head over to agent grad school.com and sign up for the free weekly trainings. You’ll get free classes, discounts, and other goodies that only go out to real estate agents on that email list. See you next week right here on Confessions of a Top Producing Real Estate Agent the Agent Grad School Podcast.