How to Persevere | Justin Stoddart

Show Notes

3 principles and 3 tactics for real estate agents to stay on top during challenging times.

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Justin Stoddart

What is Think Bigger Real Estate?

The road to success for real estate agents is well-marked. The road to significance is not. Here, we help you to Think Bigger than just your business. We inspire you to seek success AND significance, income AND impact. We do that by interviewing the biggest thinkers and highest achievers in the real estate industry, extracting the secrets to having it all.

Justin Stoddart 0:01
So the big question is this. How do we those of us in the real estate industry with crazy amounts of ambition? How do we think bigger than the building of our own empires? How do we simultaneously see success and significance, income and impact? My name is Justin Stoddart. And this is the Think bigger real estate show.

Justin Stoddart 0:25
How to persevere excited to be with you all today, really talking about what it takes to stay on top, even when the market is trying to get you down. I want to share some perspective, before I get there is that this is not the first time that the market has done this, in fact, for those that are new to real estate will know that this happens all the time, that there are shifts that happen in a shift, you've got sellers and buyers whose expectations have not readjusted to the new reality. And it takes a little bit of time for that. So just know, at a as an added kind of voice of perspective that this is not new, others have actually gone through times like this, and defined themselves and created some of the most magnificent businesses you could ever imagine during the downturn. So that's the good news. So today, we're going to be talking about a number of different things. So I'm going to be kind of bouncing back and forth here between a couple different cameras. So I'm going to share three principles that will help you to absolutely thrive in a changing market. And then I'm gonna give you three tactics are three categories of tactics, that will really help you to benefit. So number one that I want to share with you is perspective without giving it all away. Right? perspective, I want to give you some perspective, I've already done a little bit of that. But I want to go deeper on that. Is it not just is this not new for the real estate market. But this is not new, for anything. Let's be honest, the reality of life is that there is adversity, I would even go so far as to say that it was designed to be that way. Okay, now, you may or may not believe in the divine design, as far as this world in which we live. And even if you don't, that's okay. The reality is you still can't argue with the fact that there is always going to be adversity. I think about this one, I guess it's two weeks ago, I was in Orlando, Florida, visiting the beautiful beaches outside of Tampa Bay, Clearwater. And it had that name for reason the water was clear, it was warm was beautiful. Right now that exact same place is bracing for a category four, potentially category five hurricane, that place is going to get rocked. So at some point, we have to realize that play when we're in smooth, beautiful, clear waters, no pun intended, that there will come a time where there will be rocky, even rough, even very dangerous waters. And so it behooves us to just get used to the fact that things aren't always going to be rosy. And if we expect them to be we're going to have a life of disappointment, we're going to walk around saying that we've been robbed, when in actuality, we could look at it from a different perspective. And we could say, You know what, the reality is this is it, life is supposed to be hard, or it's going to be hard. And the more that I can wrap my head around a changing market around a changing world, then the more I can get comfortable with the fact that things are going to be uncomfortable. Now maybe you've heard that term before. If you're looking at growth, whether it be personal development or business development, you've heard it before that if you want to grow, you have to get comfortable being uncomfortable. So not only is it a coping mechanism, but it's more than that. It's an embrace growth mechanism. In fact, think of it this way, this perspective, number one, is that without adversity, without challenges, there would be no growth. Think of it when you walk into a weight room. And there's zero resistance, whether it be the resistance of the resistance of gravity, whether it be the resistance of bands, or whether it even be the resistance of weights, that adversity gives you the strength that you need. Now, here's some added perspective, is it the things that you have gone through in the past, have set you up to be able to go through what is in the present and what is in the future. And what you are going through in the present is going to set you up to be ready for the great things, and the challenging things that are coming in the future. So think of it as a beautiful tapestry. My mom used to say this is it.

Justin Stoddart 4:38
In life, we oftentimes have this experience where we're on the backside of a tapestry, right, you've seen kind of a knitted tapestry, where you've got snags, and you've got knowledge, you've got all kinds of things that are not very pretty. And you're thinking to yourself, Man, I've kind of made a mess of light. It's hard. It's this hasn't been gone, how I expected it to go.

Justin Stoddart 4:58
But then later, potentially even in the next slide

Justin Stoddart 5:00
If we'll walk around and we'll look at the front side of that tapestry, we'll say to ourselves, that was beautiful. Oh, my goodness, that was absolutely beautiful. Because right now all we see are the snags, all we see are the are the kind of the ugly parts of stuff, right? The kind of behind the scenes behind the curtain that we ever want to you're the most

Justin Stoddart 5:18
fantastic Broadway production, behind the scenes wouldn't look nearly as cool as out in front of the curtain. So every great thing requires some adversity, it requires some kind of backend stuff that sets us up for the front end stuff. So the first principle that I want to share again, is perspective. Just be okay with the fact that it's not going to be always perfectly okay. Okay. The second principle want to share with you is foundation. Okay? Now, when we talk about Foundation,

Justin Stoddart 5:47
we need to ask ourselves upon what am I built, right? Upon what specifically in my bill, because if I am, if all of my happiness is centered upon something that is going to go away, right, then we might just have to ask ourselves, like, maybe I'm on a sandy Foundation, or maybe the approval and our ability to upgrade to the fanciest car, and to beat every agent in our office. Maybe that is the foundation upon which we are built. And we might realize that that's a pretty shaky foundation, that if it were an earthquake, that thing would come tumbling down. Well guess what? A changing market can oftentimes be an earthquake. And so we have to ask ourselves, what is the foundation upon which I can rely? Now I'm a person of faith. And so my foundation is that it's my faith in a in a higher being and a god. And yours may not be that whatever it is, I've encouraged you to ask yourself is this foundation upon which I'm build is it going to be there, when times are good and when or when times are bad? If, for example, our happiness, and our success is contingent upon

Justin Stoddart 7:01
what other people think of us at all times, I'll tell you what that is, that is a shaky foundation, we need to go deeper than that, and find something that is our deeper purpose in life. Now, it may or may not be face centered, but I guarantee it will be something bigger than you and what other people think of you. More importantly, it's going to be centered on things that are more your deeper purpose in life, how you contribute to the world, the legacy that you create, the good that you do for other people. When that becomes your foundation, this deeper purpose of why are you here? What's your purpose? What's your why? And what what would what would outlast you? What would live far beyond you, when you can start to make that your foundation, you'll find that life gets a lot easier, you'll find that the things that when the storms blow upon you, they will not have the power to completely destroy you will see as this hurricane that early earlier, earlier, Lee, earlier referenced, you'll find out which structures were built upon a solid foundation, you'll find out which ones were not. And very similarly in this economy. And this real estate market, even though it's just an adjustment, folks, this is not 2008. Even though it's just an adjustment, we're going to find out who is solid in their career who's built upon true business principles, not just life principles, but business principles, there will be a thinning of the herd, I guarantee it. To give you some perspective in that on that in

Justin Stoddart 8:40
2014, no, sorry, 2012 was the valley of the real estate crash, like that's when the bottom really hit. At that point, there were less than 1 million agents, okay, 999,000 agents, now the agent count in the US has ballooned to 1.64 plus million people 640,000 additional agents have come in to the market. Okay. Now, we might argue that more homes have been sold now than then that's true, but not not consistent to actually create

Justin Stoddart 9:15
a decent or strong income for all those that are now in the market. So there will be an exodus no doubt, not only will there be an exodus of full time agents, but many people will just drop back to part time opening up the opportunity. For those of us that are serious about being in this business, there will be massive amounts of opportunity. Okay, we're going to talk specifically about what you can be doing tactically to take advantage of that. But just be sure that your foundation is built, right not just personally from a business standpoint. Now, what does that look like? How do you have a business built on a good foundation? Number one, it's it's not centered around all the trophies and awards and all of that stuff that can be very fleeting and needs to be built upon a foundation of profitability, right? On a foundation of key systems that have a

Justin Stoddart 10:00
I have a track record of sending you business on a consistent basis. A lot of people have wasted a lot of time doing a lot of things in media and other places that don't really contribute to the business that don't lead to conversations. Okay? If your marketing is not leading to a conversation at some point, it's simply just branding. I'm telling you, it's not enough now is branding important, it's more than important, it's essential for you to know how you are unique and how you uniquely serve people and who your unique avatar is. However, if that's all you do, if that's the only thing you've done is just brand yourself, and you never actually get into real estate related conversations. That's not a good foundation. Right now, I'm not saying you need to go door to door and talk to people, like face to face, hand to hand combat, you can that's a that's a sure way to get into conversations. But just know that whatever you're doing from a branding and marketing standpoint had better be leading into a sales conversation at some point, it better be leading you to be in conversation with other people about what it is that you do for a living otherwise, it's not going to be a benefit to you. And it's a not a sure foundation. So your personal and your business foundation needs to be set on two principles. Number one, your revenue needs to always be growing, your expenses need to be in check, I think between a 40 to 50% margin, in other words, profitability in your business is healthy, some have more than that. But if you're well below that, and you're way over spending beyond 50% of your of your revenue, then you're not on a shared Foundation, okay, or if your taxes if you're not extracting your taxes, and some profit from the business,

Justin Stoddart 11:39
on a consistent basis, that is not a sure foundation. So just know that there are some principles in place. For those that work directly with us or as our private clients, you have or you will experience the five foundational pillars of freedom, which we teach, which we help you to implement. And one of those is within the accounting profitability standpoint to make sure that you are profitable, and that you are not just that, but you're leading your business and giving yourself the ability at some point to exit even if it's just for an extended vacation. Okay, so having a sure foundation is critical. Number three is vision, you need a vision for the future, people that can oftentimes get through some of the most challenging things are those who have the ability to see beyond today.

Justin Stoddart 12:27
There's a story of a of a gentleman who owned a lot of horses. Now, if you've owned horses, and you've written with horses, oftentimes you'll see that they have their blinders on. And you've heard this before, right? You got their blinders on? Why is it that they do that? Why do they put blinders on horses? Well, it's because they'll oftentimes get distracted by stuff and get fearful of what's around them. Now you can see the metaphor of how this might be beneficial. But if all you can see is straight ahead, and you don't pan out and see a bigger perspective, you're going to be very limited in what you can accomplish. Okay, so that metaphor kind of goes both ways. But the important thing to remember is that oftentimes, when we are in the forest, right, we can't see the trees, whereas when we pan out, we get up in an airplane, think about the last time you wrote in an airplane, you get out and you see the mountains, and you see how far how big planet Earth is. You see how vast it is? And how many people and how many houses and how many rooftops and oh, you're like, oh my goodness, there's so much opportunity. This world is so big, not just over one city, but over multiple cities over countries. So it's, it's it's a perspective. And so what I want you to think about is, is your vision big enough, are you looking past just this month.

Justin Stoddart 13:40
Now again, if you're having cashflow problems, then this month becomes pretty critical. But if you can see past that and realize like, okay, there's things that I needed to do to fix that. But by me staring at today and having my blinders on of the problems of today, I'm not going to catch a bigger vision to be able to actually go and have the desire to want to pursue those activities that will produce yesterday, my podcast with Ben Andrews, we talked about this concept of having today matters a lot, right? Today matters a whole lot. And as we think about today, we oftentimes will talk about how important it is to be on our game today. Because what we do today, influences not just today, but 90 days from now whether or not we have a paycheck, okay? So it's critical. However, oftentimes what we do is we go into the past and we pull, like our trials and troubles and all the weights of yesterday and we pile them on to today. And then we look into the future and we say, man, what if this happens, what if this would happen? What if the sky were to fall? What if this transaction go through and that transfers fell through and all my clients went somewhere else? Right? What if all of a sudden the worst case scenario of the past and the worst case scenario of the future get piled upon on us, like a mule. And we're wondering why we can't move very fast. Well, we don't actually have the energy and the stamina and the enthusiasm to go do what matters today to correct our situation 6090 days from now. So having this vision allows us to say, wait a minute, I know today is difficult, or this transaction just fell apart. Or people maybe don't want to buy or they want to sell right now. Right? But if that's the only thing we're looking at, then we're paralyzed, we're paralyzed, we're not gonna go any further. But I'm gonna say, wait a minute, Where am I headed? Why am I doing this? Where am I headed? What am I actually trying to build here? All of a sudden, you strip away the past, right that might be handicapping you, you strip away worst case scenarios of the future. And you start to think about what could go right in the future, right, you start to have this vision of this is what I actually want to build. And you start to have some anticipation, some excitement, some enthusiasm around that, which gives you the energy to focus on today, which is what matters, because today is what will give you an outcome in the near future. But if you don't take care of today, your future will not be taken care of either. So having a vision. So those are the three principles number one, right? Let me go back to him here.

Justin Stoddart 16:14
Number one, is perspective. Number two is Foundation. And number three, is a vision. Okay? Those things will help you to persevere, can the promise of this episode is to help you to persevere. By the way, if you're listening to this summer that's not inside the successful real estate agents Facebook group, I would encourage you to join and be a member. Not only do we give great trainings like this, but we give assets and resources to help you apply the things that we're talking about. So if you're not yet a member that please join us there.

Justin Stoddart 16:48
Now, let me go to the three tactics. Okay, we've covered the three principles, I want to cover the three tactics that will help you to actually implement, okay, and put them in the categories of mind, mouth and feet. Okay, number one is your mind. The mind has such a powerful ability to influence the world in which you live, two people can be standing right next to each other, side by side.

Justin Stoddart 17:18
And yet, they're seen two entirely different things. One person is seeing a vacant lot. That's kind of got trash written in and it's like, man, what an eyesore. And the other person is not only thinking about what could be, but they're thinking about like, mentally, this is place of a building spot, I could I could build a skyscraper here, and how many businesses and people would this serve and the views from here, same people looking at the same piece of dirt, see, and two very different things. Now, of course, I'm talking to my friends in real estate. So that metaphor maybe rings true when it comes to your actual business. But another important thing to think about is it. Our mind works the same way about every situation, we're either seeing a landfill in a dirty lot, or we're seeing potential skyscrapers. So at any given point, here's the tactic is audit your thinking when you feel yourself like I'm just frustrated or I'm scared or fearful I'm demotivated, ask yourself, What am I thinking about right now? What am I seeing? Am I seeing the dirty, empty lot? Or am I seeing a skyscraper? Okay? That's just the question like, What am I? What am I seeing in my mind? Is my life right now? The dirty lot? Dirty, empty, vacant, lot filled with trash? Or am I looking at the skyscraper that I'm going to build just that one simple question, What am I seeing in my mind that's causing me to feel this way? If you're seeing the empty lot? That's dirty. start imagining having that vision, right? You're reconnecting with the vision we just talked about? Number one, audit your mind? Why are you feeling the way you're feeling? What's going through? What are the thoughts that are going through your mind that are triggering those feelings? Okay, tactic number two is your mouth. What are you saying? Okay, first and foremost, what are you saying to yourself, which ties in with what we just discussed, which is mine. But what are you speaking to other people? Are you simply repeating the words that you read out of a media soundbite? Or are you actually looking at real data and grounding yourself and what that is? Some of you have heard me say this before, but our world today does a really good job of selling us the news.

Justin Stoddart 19:37
Okay, so news outlets don't necessarily inform they're really in the business of selling news. They simply want to validate what you already believe so that they can sell you advertising that they know you already want. The products you already want. Let's be honest. You watch CNN, you watch MSNBC, you watch Fox News, you watch whatever, they know the demographic, they're already they're speaking the news through a perspective that that you already believe there's some

Justin Stoddart 20:00
Believe validating what you already believe about the world.

Justin Stoddart 20:04
And when they do that, oftentimes, the sound bites become very one sided and very jaded. And they're sensationalized to where they don't necessarily speak the entirety of the perspective or more than one perspective. It's one perspective and, and the sound bites are designed to be sensationalized to get your attention.

Justin Stoddart 20:26
So knowing that about the news media, it behooves us to maybe question it a little bit, to question our sources to say, is this really what's happening? Or what if I were to dig in and get real data and the whole picture and make an analysis, and then be speaking that not just regurgitating recycled sound bites, but actually having puts putting some some, some critical thinking into that? What's happened in the past what's happening now what could happen in the future, from real data? From your perspective, that's where you go from being a simply a puppet of the media and being an average agent that simply regurgitates what they hear from others, to be in a pearl to be in a thought leader that other people respect and want to hear from because you've actually thought the difference in today's economy, between those people who are separating themselves is critical thinking. They're not just doing and saying what everyone else is doing are saying, they're actually putting some unique thought to it and saying, How can I solve other people's problems now? And they're speaking those things? So again, the three tactics revolve around your mind. Right audit with that one question. What am I seeing this makes me this make me feel this way? The second one here is going to ask ourselves, What am I speaking? Am I speaking, grounded real data from from true articles and good sources? Are I simply regurgitating news media? sound bites that are sensationalized? get people's attention, if it's the latter, and it's time to switch. Okay. The third principle that I want to share with you today, the third tactic, right is this tactic, which is your feet. So getting your mind your mouth and your feet.

Justin Stoddart 22:19
We are COVID is behind us, folks. Now, are there some people that are maybe still susceptible? Yes. But I would encourage you to move your feet and go lead people get face to face with people, I get the value of zoom, I do it all day long. But the more I get out need and deal with people, the deeper that connections are. And I know it's convenient to work from wherever. But I'm telling you as often as you can move your feet to go be with humans, and lead them. Okay, once we have because we have our mind, right, because we have our words right? Now go share those words with other people. Now, one way to move your feet is to actually be active with the platforms that we've been given like you're seeing right now. Okay, it's actually move your feet in the sense that you're doing something, you're not just holding this good information in. But you're you're leading other people with it. And I would say in addition to that, add that as often as you can, I would encourage you to go be with people. Because when you can connect with people at a human level, and lead them with grounded thinking,

Justin Stoddart 23:23
and with words that are not just grounded in real data, but they're personalized to that person. They'll feel that and they want to follow you. There are people in the marketplace right now who need and want to move, but they don't have leaders. They're following the news media soundbites that we're in a bubble, it's gonna pop, it's all coming down. Like why would you do it right now? Right? And so people are scared, and they're they don't have good leadership. You know, the reason why these big platforms came about became so popular, in part because it's convenient. We all, you know, find it easy to hop on Zillow and Redfin and find our house number. But the reason why those have actually monetized into legitimate real estate platforms, is because the people that are looking at them don't have a real estate agent that they can trust somebody who's moving their feet with real data personalized to them and helping lead them. Right. Those platforms would be for entertainment for entertainment purposes only, and would not have billion dollar valuations if it weren't for agents who were not doing what we're talking about today. So rest assured, there's tons of opportunity, I mean, tons of opportunity for us to stand up and lead and help people in this market right now. Okay, but in order for you to do that, right, let me go back and revisit Number one, you've got to have the right perspective. That it's it's designed to be hard, it's okay. That's how you're gonna get stronger. Be prepared for what's coming. Number two, you need to be sure that your foundation both personally, as well as business is solid. You're built on something that will last Okay, number three, you

Justin Stoddart 25:00
Vision you need to have a vision for where you're going, it will help you to get through every challenging thing that you're going through is when you can pan out and look at where you're headed not just have the blinders on looking today.

Justin Stoddart 25:11
And then the three tactics, right audit your thoughts.

Justin Stoddart 25:16
What am I thinking right now that's causing me to feel this way, see sysc skyscrapers, not empty dirty laws. Alright, number two, your mouth, actually read the full article, get real data, full data.

Justin Stoddart 25:30
And then use your mouth to speak that. And third, use your feet to go lead people that information that you have very appreciative of the opportunity to be with you all today and have this privilege to to give some insights of training about how to persevere in this market. Those that learn this skill set are going to build again, just like many others did in the last downturn, some of the most amazing businesses that are going to take care of you and your posterity for the rest of your life and potentially their life. I'm seeing that happen right now for those that did these things didn't last downturn. So appreciate very much for being a part of this. My final request of everybody listening to this are three simple words and they are go think bigger. Thanks for joining us today, folks.

Justin Stoddart 26:14
If you enjoyed this episode that I have a very special invitation for you. I have created a private Facebook community called successful real estate agents, where the focus is going beyond success having both a successful business and a significant life. If you're not yet a member. Go sign up now.