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This is the last week of the 30 Day Marketing You (From Home) Challenge and the most important part of whether or not the strategies you learned all month long will work for you.
There is no doubt that these marketing strategies work.
They’ve been proven to work, not just by me, but by the other agents who have implemented them as well.
So, how do you know whether they will work for you?
You keeping implementing, keep refining, keep improving until it works.
As Henry Ford famously said, “Think you can or think you can’t, either way you’re right.”
One of the best things you can tell yourself in order to succeed is to “embrace the suck” as Brene Brown calls it.
We get excited to start something new and then when we get halfway through it and only then do we realize how it will be 10 times harder and take twice as long than we ever imagined.
That’s the moment when we start telling ourselves things like, “This will never work for me.”
But, if we push through that uncomfortable part of being new at something, on the other side of that is where everything we want lives.
She has a strategy for how to “embrace the suck of new.” So when you hit that middle of the road part of being new at something, remind yourself of this:
Step 1: Name it.
When you are new at something and you hit that part where things feel hard, awkward and out of control, that’s called a FFT (effing first time). Simply tell yourself that’s what you are experiencing.
Remind yourself, “I’m in a FFT.”
And the fact that you are willing to feel those feelings of being new — how awkward and terrible sucking at being new at something feels — is actually you being brave.
Step 2: Normalize it
Tell yourself that this is normal, this is how being new at something is supposed to feel.
Change your perspective and change your expectations–tell yourself this will take twice as long and be 10 times harder than you originally thought.
And that’s normal.
“You must never, even for a second, let yourself think that you can fail.
Our first principal is that failure is impossible.
You may not get what you’re trying to do right the first time or the second time or the tenth time or the 100th time, but if you shut out of your mind the possibility of being licked, then you are bound to win.”
–Henry Ford
The most crucial part of any marketing campaign and whether it will work for you?
You pushing through “the suck of being new” and telling yourself it just isn’t working yet.
If you remove the possibility that it will fail and you push through the FFT. It will work. Especially if you are using a strategy that has been proven to work and those that have gone before you have succeeded using the same strategy.
Why wouldn’t it work for you?
You’re smart enough.
You’re good enough.
You deserve a business you love, full of clients you love helping.
You are worthy of a life outside your business you love too.
The exact business and life you want is possible for you.
Get to work and then keep telling yourself to keep going until it works, and it will.
Don’t stop until you’ve created the exact business and life YOU want.
Only you can make what you want a reality.
What are you waiting for?
Go make it happen.
To your success,
Jennifer
Resources mentioned in this episode
30 Day Marketing You (from home) Challenge
Lesson #1: Why Should Someone Choose YOU As Their Real Estate Agent
Lesson #2: How Real Estate Agents Can Choose a Niche To Get More Clients
Lesson #3: How The About Page On Your Website Can Get You More Clients
Lesson #4: How to Create Leads Online Using Your Own Website
Brené Brown’s FFT Podcast Episode on how to “embrace the suck of new”
Episode Transcript
On today’s episode, the most crucial part of any real estate marketing strategy that determines whether it will actually work or not. 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 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 use in day two became the top producing agents. Now through this Podcast and agent Grad 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 your business, you’ve always wanted to let’s make it happen and dive into today’s episode. It’s the last week of our 30 day marketing you from home challenge, first and foremost, congratulations for sticking with it, and also congratulate yourself for on how hard you’ve been working and how much progress you’ve made in your business over the last 30 days. And only in the last 30 days, chances are you, didn’t all of a sudden have a bunch of clients.
And so sometimes it can feel like there’s really no progress at all. If we don’t see the immediate results, but that actually wasn’t the point of the challenge you see, I don’t believe in silver bullets, I don’t believe in overnight success and I don’t teach get rich tactics because they never work, or they’re never sustainable over the long-term if they were, or if they did work so well, everyone would be doing them and we’d all have everything we’ve ever wanted in our life. And I would actually be super boring because believe it or not part of wanting more in your life or in your business, the part that we always forget actually makes something, what makes having something worthwhile is the app obstacles that we have to overcome on the way to getting what we want for ourselves.
I mean, think about it. Anything that’s been easy to obtain, we don’t really value, but anything that we worked really hard for, we cherish even more, we feel proud of. And so it’s important to remember, as you continue to implement the marketing strategies that you’ve learned, and you’ve started to implement over the last four weeks. The point of this challenge was to do just that, to actually challenge you, to get you thinking about a new way of clients and start thinking of untraditional and frankly, a way more modern way of marketing yourself as a real estate agent, the strategies that you learned during this 30 day marketing, a new challenge to attract clients to you, which I’m going to actually recap in a second, make sure this all comes full circle for you, and you understand how they all work together.
Everything that you’ve learned over the last 30 days is connected and work together are the strategies that you learned are so much more effective in today’s online world than driving around, dropping things off at clients’ houses, knocking on doors, going to all sorts of meetings and networking events, hoping to get clients. And there’s so much better than calling everybody, you know, bothering your sphere, just pretending like you’re checking in, but really you’re doing it because you want to get clients and a whole lot less expensive and less frustrating than buying online leads the lessons in the 30 day, marketing you from home challenge are, are probably unlike what you’re hearing elsewhere, or maybe you are hearing them elsewhere.
And maybe this is the first time that you’ve went through the motions of actually implementing in them in your business. I recently listened to a Bernay Brown podcast and it was all about this concept called FFTs. And I’ll actually link to the Podcast in the show notes on the Podcast page of agent Grad School dot com. So you can listen to it too. I highly recommend it because for any of you and for me, whenever I start something new, I kind of forget how terrible and awful it is. And she talks through to how to do there’s a strategy for how you actually embrace what she calls The because of new.
And so if a kid you have kids around, or you are offended by certain type types of adult language, I’m going to tell you what FFT stands for. So if you don’t want to hear what the first F stands for in FFT, then put your earmuffs on now or push mute, or take it off speaker. If the kids are around because the first F and FFT is, and I’ll spell it F U C K I N G. So F U C K I N G. First time. That’s what FFT stands for. Or she talks about, if you want to apply this concept to your kids, you can call it a terrible first time. And she has a whole Podcast, but I’m going to kind of recap what it is now.
And I think it’s so perfect when it comes to anything you do, especially new, like a way of marketing yourself, and as a way of changing your business. And let’s not forget when you are trying to change your business in any way, we’re going to be learning new concepts. And so she talks about how, whenever we’re trying something new, how terrible and awkward and uncomfortable it feels, and she calls it the sec of being new. She says, especially for us middle-aged people, what she qualifies as being anyone in their thirties until dead. It’s especially hard for us to embrace the sock of new, because for most of us, we’re good.
We’re, we’re used to being good at things. There are things in our life that we’re good at. And so it’s even harder for us to be bad at things and try new things. She says that doing new things and being willing to push through that middle period of when, when you’re bad at something is actually the juice of life. And it’s actually the secret sauce of living a well lived life. She explains that anytime we try something new at first, we’re excited and we’re motivated. We’re think it’s going to be great. But then when we actually get into it, that middle part, it’s actually, we realize that it’s actually 10 times harder than we ever imagined, and it feels wobbly and it feels terrible. And there’s a lot of discomfort.
And most people can’t push through that middle part. If you can get through that middle part, that feeling of discomfort, that feeling of awkwardness in that suck of being new that’s when life gets good, she says, she says, when you give up on being new at things, cause so many of us avoid trying new things or seeing new things through, we avoid kind of pushing through that newness and to start to become good at something new. Again, she says, when you give up on, on that discomfort, that means you stop trying new things, things, and you want to know, not have that discomfort in your life.
And if you, if you avoid trying new things or you kind of back away, when you start feeling that discomfort, that you actually stopped growing, and if you start growing stop growing, you actually start truly living. And so if you felt awkward or discomfort or frustration, or any of those uncomfortable feelings, things that we all feel when we start something new during this 30 day marketing you fromhome challenge, guess what? You actually are doing it, right? Those feelings of discomfort, when we’re trying something new means that we’re doing it right. And Bernay has this really cool strategy for how to get through an FFT, how to embrace the suck of, of being new as she calls it, she says, step one, to get through the sec of being new, you first have to name it.
You actually have to feel those feelings and you have to feel the terrible. You have to feel the awful. You have to feel feeling out of control and like you’re in a downward spiral. And then you just need to stop yourself and say, Oh, this is supposed to happen. I’m in an E I’m in an FFT. And naming it saying that it’s an, an FFT and being willing to feel that feeling. It’s actually giving us the power. We need to effect change in our life and achieve purpose, whatever purpose that we’ve set out to achieve. Being willing to say, this is an FFT. That feels terrible is actually how we go about doing it.
And she just, by Naming It by, by the fact that you admit to yourself, you’re in an FFT actually gives you power and it gives you enough power to then do step two, which is to normalize It. And she says, in order to Normalize an FFT, there’s actually three steps to normalizing it. Step one is to tell yourself that this is how it’s supposed to feel. This is normal. This is part of the process. I’m doing something new and it sucks. And I’m in an FFT and tell yourself that the fact that you’re willing to be uncomfortable is actually you being brave. That normalizing, It just means you’re telling yourself this is normal.
This is part of the process I am in it. I’m an NF, I’m an I’m in an FFT, and this is part of the process. So normalizing it, telling yourself that’s supposed to be it. A step one step two is to normalizing the FFT is to actually put it in perspective to remind yourself that this is temporary. It’s not forever. And yes, it’s going to suck. And that I don’t suck at everything, But I only suck at this thing. I’m not a terrible person that my life is not falling apart. That I’m just, just really bad at this Thing. And So making sure that you have the perspective to know that it’s temporary, and it’s just this one thing that you’re sucking at right now, and then step three to normalize it is to do a reality, check on your expectations to tell yourself this is going to suck for a while, and I’m not going to be good at this right away.
And it’s going to be 10 times harder than I ever imagined. And it’s going to take twice as long as I thought, and to adjust the expectations that you set up when you were in the beginning of the process before you were in the thick of it and with the port before you were in the middle of it. So if you’re feeling that uncomfortable feeling, if you’re feeling frustrated, vulnerable, awkward, just know that you’re in an FFT and you’re doing it right. One of the Things I often think about is why do some of our students who are not just listening to this podcast, but like actually paid thousands of dollars to be one of our students. Why do some Of them succeed?
And why do some of them fail? That’s something I think a lot about, especially when the circumstances are generally the same, they were giving the same exact information, the same exact opportunity, the same exact conditions, You know, and, and why to a lot of people think like, will this actually work for me? And my answer’s always the same. If you implement the system that I’m teaching you insight agent Grad School, it works. It’s proven by me. And it’s proven by the agents. Who’ve implemented it and are seeing the exact success That they want. But if you, You don’t believe it will work for you. It won’t, you know, it’s cliche, but it’s the truth.
Henry Ford said, if you can, if you think of it, Ken, or if you think you can’t either way, you’ll be right. But there’s something else that Henry Ford said during the day, I think the same conversation where he was talking about that quote, and he says, you must never, even for a second, let yourself think you can fail. He says, our first principle is that failure is impossible. You may not get what you’re trying to do right. The first time or the second time or the 10th time or the hundredth time. But if you shut out, you’re mind the possibility of being licked or essentially failing, then you are bound to win.
And so when I see some of our students succeed and others fail, when they have the access to the same exact tools, the same exact information, the same exact scripts, the same exact plan, everything they get insight. Agent Grad School is exactly the same. And everybody who’s listening to this podcast and part of this marketing, a new challenge gets the same. So why will some implement them? Why will some success see some success and change in their life and their business while others don’t? And it’s one thing is the most, the crucial piece of any strategy. The only thing that differentiates the people who succeed and the people who fail at this marketing strategy that you’ve learned throughout the last four weeks or anything else that we talk about here at agent Grad School, it’s one thing.
It’s what you tell yourself. What you tell yourself is the most important part of any business strategy of any marketing campaign or any undertaking that you commit to and are hoping to see a result or a change. So if you’re a man multitasking, come back to me right now. And if you, if you could, if I could be in front of you right now, I would look you straight in the eyes. And I would say you and you alone have complete control of the outcome of your life. You have complete control of what your business looks like. I don’t care what market you’re in. I don’t care about anything other than you are the one who’s whose finger is on the lever.
And when it comes to your 30 day marketing you from home challenge, you and you alone have complete control over the outcomes because of one, what you tell yourself, you can have the business you’ve always wanted. And I can tell you exactly how to have it. I can show you step by baby step. But if you don’t believe that you can do it. If there is even a sliver of doubt in your mind somewhere, then you need to address that your mindset before any strategy, including what you’ve learned all month long in this 30 day challenge will work for you.
You see one thing I always say, especially to the students inside Asian Grad schools, I am not your cheerleader on your coach. And so this is not some raw thing that I’m trying to tell you. You can do it. This is not me blowing smoke and trying to get you inspired and motivated and telling you, you know, think good thoughts or any of that stuff. This is the honest truth about whether or not you’re going to get what you want out of your business and out of your life. You’ve got to believe that it will work. You’ve got to believe that you matter, you’ve got to believe that your clients and your ideal clients need you, and you’ve got to believe somebody should choose you.
You’ve got to believe you are unique and special and not in an arrogant way, but in a way that is the truth of life. There is not one other person or one other real estate agent like you. And if you don’t believe that you are the best choice for the clients that you want to work with, if you don’t believe that they will never believe that either. And so before you start beating your head against the wall about implementing any kind of strategy, whether it’s what you’re learning here or some other strategy, if you, you’ve got to find a place deep down inside of you and realize that you matter, that you can actually make a difference in your client’s lives and it’s your job to find them, and it’s your job to help them make their dreams come true.
And it’s not just about helping them buy or sell a home. That real estate is such an internal part of how we all dream and how we all think about how our life is going to turn out. That helping people buy and sell homes actually changes their life. And it is an honor and a privilege and almost a fever with which you’ve got to find the people who need your help, that it’s important in life in their life. And that you are that per, that missing piece, that they need to make their own dreams come true. If I can give you every strategy, I’ve used to built a multimillion dollar real estate business, and I can tell you with absolute certainty that they will work.
I can show you example. After example of our students, who’ve made them work. Everything that you learned in this 30 day challenge, I can show you examples of, of students who implemented exactly what I’ve told you. And I can talk to you every single day and tell you exactly how to implement them for yourself in your business. But if you don’t believe that it will work for you, it won’t. And so in order for it to work, you’ve got to believe that you deserve to have a business full of clients that actually want to work with you. And that you’re the best agent to help them. You’ve got to take what you tell yourself even more seriously and more, and implement how you talk to yourself Even more seriously, Then any strategy that you could learn, or I could teach you, you’ve got to start with your mindset and how you talk to yourself and what you tell yourself and know that whatever you’re telling yourself is the outcome you will receive.
The outcome you will experience is exactly what you’re telling yourself. That a proven marketing strategy would you have now will only work. If you remove doubt in yourself. First, I want You to start telling yourself over and over again, that what you say matters, what you think matters, what, who you are matters, and that your clients need you because you bring something that nobody else can bring to their lives. No other agent can do what you do. And once you get into that mindset of you mattering and you being different, and you being worthy of clients coming to you and whatever it takes for you to feel that you deserve the exact business you want full of clients you want.
And that once you, Once you have that, that you can have the life outside your business, that you’ve always wanted to. You see it all starts with what you tell yourself, your mindset. And so I want you to close your eyes unless you’re driving. And if you’re driving, just push, pause, and find a safe place to pull over. And then, and then close your eyes. Because I want you to imagine that you’re in a row, you’re in a room full of your ideal clients. They are all so happy. Yeah. They, they chose you as your real estate age, as they’re real estate agent, maybe your at a five-year or 10-year anniversary of your business.
Maybe you’ve opened your own brokerage, or you’re just having a client party. And so you have a room full of clients That you are, You are so happy to be in front of me. And they each come to you and tell you what you did to make a difference in their lives and how they could not have had the outcome without you being involved. One is coming up to you right now and there’s, and they see you and you see them, and you’re so happy to see them. You hug them and you say hello. And they tell you what their life is like. Now they’re telling you how happy they are that they got in the school district that you helped them get into.
They tell you about how their life changed after they were brave enough to buy a house. And what that meant in all sorts of other parts of their life as well, how they dreamed of the exact home, you helped them achieve for themselves and for their family. And they’re telling you about how scared they were and how you helped them overcome obstacles that were in their way and how you changed their life because of the house you helped them buy. What Else are they saying to you about how you help them and how happy they are now because of the obstacles that you helped them remove and get to where they wanted to go, but something was in their way.
And look here comes another one of your favorite clients. You’re so happy to see them too. And after, cause it’s been a couple of maybe a couple of years since you’ve seen them and you’re both are so happy to see each other. And they’re starting to tell you also how their life has changed for the better. Since moving into the home, that you helped them find where maybe that investment property that you help them buy and how great it’s going. This continues one client after another, walking up to you and you’re listening to what they’re saying, What are they saying Continues for an hour. And when you leave the party with your heart full, because of all your clients telling you how instrumental you were, and not only just helping them buy or sell the house, but actually achieving dreams and changing direction of their life and their family’s life and how it all started with working with you on your way, home from the party.
You think back to how you created all this. You remember there was a day when you were in your FFT and it was uncomfortable and it sucked and you were new and you push through that terrible part of the process. And you found an answer to that question. Why should somebody choose you among all other options? And why should they buy or sell a home at all? You think back to how hard it was at first to answer that question and how you just kept at it and you kept at it, and you kind of chuckled out thinking back about how long it took and how many versions of that answer you took to finally find the right answer.
And you think back, and you remember it all started with you having this website, changing what your about page look like, changing what your homepage looked like and having a weekly client newsletter and how insignificant at first it seemed, but how you applied your answer to that question, to your website and to your newsletter each and every week. You first started talking to people who already knew you. And then you think about all of the ways that our original list of people that was so small grew by one, as you started putting yourself out there, starting putting yourself in front of your ideal audience over and over again.
And you started telling them what slice of the real estate pie you specialize in and why and how you are the best agent To help them. You remember redoing your about page and how many hours that took and how it finally got to the point where it perfectly spoke to that ideal client and how that then led to you creating a new homepage for your website, with an opt-in that spoke directly to your ideal client. And you think back, and you remember your favorite client who maybe now is one of your best friends or plays with your kids, or, you know, somehow you keep in touch with you, remember how somehow they found you and you think back to that first meeting with them, you remember how much fun it was to help them find a home and how they told all their friends about you and how different you were from every other real estate agent and how you really care about finding them just the right home and how hard you worked for them to make sure that they achieved that.
And you think back, do you remember helping everyone in their friend group, just one, right after the other, coming to you, helping each one of them find the perfect homes. And a few years later, when life changed, for whatever reason, they came back to you needing to move on to a bigger home or downsize to a smaller one or whatever life brought them. They always reached out to you to be part of those life changes. And you always made the real estate. Part of those changes Is easier for them. Yeah. Notes from clients all the time. Like thank you so much for your enthusiasm, your problem solving and your help.
And I just wanted you to know how much I appreciate you. You get emails like that all the time. You think back to all the things that came from the first decision you made that decision to not give up on answering that question. Why you and believing in yourself enough to come up with the answer and communicate that answer to your ideal clients over and over and over again, You sit back and remember how hard it was in the beginning, but how rewarding it is now, because you have the business you’ve always wanted and the life outside your business, you’ve always wanted To, at This point, you created this machine that really works for you, bringing clients to you like a magnet.
And you aren’t really at this point doing anything to get clients anymore. They just keep coming to you automatically one right after the other, after the other. And it doesn’t really feel like you’re doing anything to have that happen anymore. But you know that how hard you worked to put everything in place that has turned on that automation for you at this point, your business feels easy and fulfilling and life providing rather than soul-sucking and hard. You can plan for a future. And it’s not all about finding your next client or wondering whether next year you’ll make the same amount of money or be able to commit to that trip or that investment that you want to make.
Your focus is really on helping clients that come to you. And you know, that you’ll have enough every single month, every single. And because, because of all of this, your life outside your business has never been better. Either. You support your family financially, and the ways that you’ve always wanted to, and you have the home you’ve always wanted, and you have time to enjoy it with your family too. You are so happy to often receive awards, like being the best agent in your city, or be featured in local magazines or voted favorite realtor in your community, by your clients. You’re able to support causes that are important to you and have, and do things you’ve always wanted like a month off in the summer to spend with your kids or head out to the beach house that you just bought while they’re on summer break.
I want you to know and feel like deep inside of yourself, that a business and a life like that is possible or whatever your version of that is. But you will have to go through many, many FFTs to get there. And you will have to believe so strongly in what you want and that you are worthy of it, that you are willing to push through any of the suck of being new. That as Bernay, as Bernay Brown says, and you constantly are removing the possibility of failure as Henry Henry Ford says, you jump on every opportunity that presents itself and not, and do not question will this work for me instead, you just get to work.
You do the work and you weren’t fearless. You actually feel the fear every step of the way. And you keep moving forward. You are brave enough to believe in making what you want a reality. And so maybe you’re at the point where you’re finding that answer to that question. Why should somebody choose you? And you’re courageous enough right now today to niche down and pick one slice of the real estate pie and find people who need your help, who you’re willing to be seen. You are willing to be chosen and you focus on helping people, not just sell people, houses.
You find ways to help your clients overcome all the reasons they haven’t already bought or sold a home. And you’re a brave enough and courageous enough to have a website and a weekly client newsletter that talks about how they can overcome their, their obstacles and how they can make their own come true. You find even more ways to reach more of your ideal clients and continue to build your email list and continue to build your business. And you focus on consistency, not perfection. You focus on putting what you want out in the world, because you know, that’s the only way you’re going to get what you want back to you. You focus on your clients, not on you.
You focus on their needs, not on your fears. You focus on helping them make their dreams come true. And you’re not focused on how scared you are or whether or not this would work are all the things that are going on in your head. You think about all of the people that you can help and how, because you were brave. They can be brave too, and how you’re willing to do hard things. And so you can help them do hard things, too. You think about how you both being brave can actually not just change your own lives, but change each other’s lives too. And so you’ve got a strategy. You got the beginnings of a strategy, you learned it. And the last 30 days, and this marketing new challenge, and now it’s time for you to implement it and continue doing so until you have achieved the business that you want, like Henry Ford says it might take 10 times or a hundred times, but you have to remove the possibility of failure for you to win.
And so take what’s in your head and in your heart, and be brave enough to put it out into the world, know that you will go through many FFTs and then we’ll take twice as long as you think it will, and be 10 times harder and do it anyway. Know that the crucial piece of any strategy, business strategy, marketing strategy, and everything that you learned over the last 30 days is telling yourself, you can do it believing that you are worthy of having the business that you are working so hard for. And you do not give up on that. It has been such an honor and a privilege to be with you over the last 30 days during this marketing you from home challenge.
And I want to thank you so much for being here, keep going, and I’ll see you next week. On another episode of Confessions of a Top Producing Real Estate Agent see them. 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 have the life you want outside of your business to head over to agent Grad School dot 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.