For the OCD Sufferers Among Us

by Jim Gainer

What small thing can you do today, not next Monday, to put you in front of someone and talk about Real Estate? If you’re drawing a blank try this…
I love it when a new year starts on a Monday. It means all my planners and activity trackers will line up perfectly. And I can go to sleep Sunday night with a sense of hope and promise of tomorrow…oops, went right over the edge there, didn’t I?

Anyway for a lot of us, a fresh start is easier when the calendar on the wall lines up with the calendar in our head. That’s why most of us start a new job on a Monday. But if this theory feels a bit empty and lame, there is some hope for us yet.

My philosophy has been “if it needs done do it now.” Now that doesn’t always work; I’m not always perfect. But it does give me something to strive for. If I need more business, pick up the phone right now, go out and canvas a neighborhood right now, schedule an Open House right now. I’m as guilty of this as anyone out there; I’ll plan and prepare until the moment has passed and my opportunity is gone.

So what do I do to overcome this problem of procrastination? I take one step at a time. Don’t make things harder by trying to get it all done at once. When I used to feel the most frustrated with this paralysis, I would print out 50 flyers of any listing I had and walk the nearest neighborhood and see if I could get rid of them all in under an hour. And what usually happened was someone wanted to talk to me about their house. That would get me pumped up to do some more activities, and that would usually lead to more, and so on until I was too busy to remember where it all started.

The lesson is to just start at the beginning with one small step. I knew a girl who used to go to the mall and see how many cards she could give out; people would talk to her too. Do whatever you’re comfortable doing…except sitting around the office. Go preview a couple houses around the office and then call a friend and tell them what you saw, and ask them who would be a good fit for these homes.

What small thing can you do today, not next Monday, to put you in front of someone and talk about Real Estate? If you’re drawing a blank try this, put on your biggest flashiest name badge and walk right up to the clerk you get your coffee from every day, look them in the eye and with a great big smile (like you know something they don’t), say “Hi (insert their name here), man is it a great day to be in Real Estate!”

I know most of you won’t do that, but one or two of you might. And it might start a conversation, or it might not. But I can guarantee one thing it will do is start your day off like never before. You will have taken that one small starting step away from waiting and hoping for business, to going after the business you want. One small step away from mediocrity toward exceptional success. What do the super stars of this business do that you don’t? They go after business; they don’t wait for the phone to ring.

Well, I’m done for now, so get up and go do something and make it a great day!