Tony Smith: Welcome back to Mike Ferry TV. My name is Tony Smith, and here we are on the week of January 10th, 2022. And it’s already cruising along. We’re just cruising along and here we are in a new year and we’re already 10 days into it. Can you believe it? So, I want to share with you some thoughts that Mike has been trying to get us to understand for a long, long time. And I think it’s really good timing for where we are right now in the early part of this great year that we have in front of us. It’s about changing your behavior, changing your behavior. And I made a little note changing your behavior is more a skill-oriented challenge than it is a mindset challenge. And most people think it’s a mindset challenge, but I am convinced that you have some behaviors that you would like to change in this calendar year. Have you got your business plan done? Has your business plan been turned into your Coach, your Broker, your manager, your family? Does everybody have that plan that needs it? You know, in our business plan, there’s a segment in there that is called challenges and solutions and very common in that set of challenges and solutions, you’ve identified some behaviors for you personally that need to change. In fact, if you don’t change some of your behaviors. Isn’t it hard to make more money or do more production in the upcoming year in this year? It really is, isn’t it? So, let’s look at this little series of thoughts of things you need to consider from a skill standpoint if you want to change some behaviors.

Tony Smith: The first thing I wrote down number one, the skill of taking time to break old unproductive habits. Now that’s a skill, the skill of taking the time to break old, unproductive habits. The challenge we face is many of the unproductive habits we have we’ve had for a long, long time. You know, if Mike’s in the room with us, he’d say, OK, so right now, how old are you physically? Now, let’s think about some habits you’ve had for a long time. Right, there’s some habits people have for 20, 30, 40 years and then we have to take the time required to break an unproductive habit. You know, we’ve heard some of these things, you know, takes twenty-one days to break a habit or whatever. I’ve tried to break some habits. I’ve actually broken some bad habits. I’ve created some new habits in my life. It hasn’t taken me twenty-one days, it’s taken a lot longer than that. So the skill of taking time. First, you have to understand it. How much time are you willing to give it to break an unproductive habit? Well, are you going to be in Real Estate this entire year? What else is there to do but break some of these habits? That’s a skill required.

Number two, I wrote down the skill of overcoming the fear of the unknown. Overcoming the fear of the unknown. I put the words, what if. You know, so many people will not change a behavior because of fears they have with the unknown. Well, what if I put this time and energy and I learned these skills for FSBO’s and I dedicate all this time and energy and do the research and have one of the resources get the numbers for me and I do all that. And what if it doesn’t work? So, I don’t change an unproductive habit, right? Or what if I do all of these things and suddenly all my office mates and my friends, they start to not like what I’m doing. What if I get embarrassed because I’m trying to improve a skill and I’m embarrassed because I don’t do it very well in the beginning? What if, what if, what if, what if. Dealing with the fears of the unknown? The truth is, if you’re going to face changing a behavior, right, I’m pretty sure that you have enough proof that changing that behavior would be a good thing. So, the question I wrote down is what if you don’t? What if you don’t change that unproductive behavior? What’s going to happen? You’re going to end up with what you’re already getting, and I know you want more. Number three, this is the hardest one the skill of not being concerned what others say as you change your behavior. This is a skill; this is a skill of you not being concerned.

Tony Smith: You know, you come into the office fired up. It’s not uncommon. Agents come back from one of our events, you know, they come back, they’re fired up, they’ve got some ideas. They’re making some changes. They create a prospecting station. They put on a headset. They start practicing a script or skill and then all the other people, hey, what are you doing right? What are you crazy? Oh, sure, you went to that Mike Ferry event. Oh yeah, you’re going to be a prospector now. I’ll bet, right? And you know, you have to really understand that you can’t be concerned with that, right? I certainly would not be concerned of anybody’s advice that’s not doing the production I’m trying to do right? Look up. Look at the people that are doing the production and take their advice. Believe me, they’re not going to chastise you for making changes. They’re going to applaud you for making those changes, aren’t they? Ok, the next one I wrote down number four the skill of developing blind faith, the skill of developing blind faith. Hey, you may not have personal proof of some of these things. Maybe you’ve only had proof of others you’ve seen or proof of people in the Mike Ferry system that are doing something different than you. Maybe you don’t have personal proof, but you have to understand blind faith. Right? If one salesperson can, another salesperson can. Honestly, would we ask you to do something that’s designed to hurt you? Like you really have to recognize the fact, would The Mike Ferry Sales System an organization be here if we had a secret underground… You know, kind of a real byproduct that we’re trying to hurt you with the things we ask you to do? Are we going to ask you to do things that are tough and challenging? Of course.

Tony Smith: Are we going to ask you to do things that you might have failures in? You might get rejected, of course, but the truth is, you cannot really, really move away from the idea that Mike Ferry has been here, and he’s been doing this job for forty eight years at a really high level of success. So you have to really overcome this blind faith issue. Basically, put blinders on and do what you know to do. Number five, the skill of developing patience. The skill of developing patience. You know, I know the coaches, all the coaches watching and many of you in coaching. We have seen you give up right before the success starts. You know, you pick up a new source of business. You make a few calls. You start calling, the first week you don’t get that stellar result that you were hoping for. You know, you make 50 calls, and you don’t get a listing and I give up, right? You start working on a new skill, a new habit that you have and you’re not seeing the results. I mean, how many people give up on the health and energy plan when after week one, they step on the scale and they haven’t lost a pound or they’ve lost five pounds and then something happens and they gain two back, so they quit, right? It requires patience.

Tony Smith: Like I said earlier, you’ve got some big, lofty things that you’d like to achieve this year. What else do you have to do, right? Are you going to be in the business the next three to five years? Then what else do you have to do but try to make some of these changes? Patience. It requires something that is really important in changing behaviors. Please don’t give up right before you’re about to have the breakthrough, right? Look back in your past performances. What are some of the behaviors you’ve tried to change that you didn’t, and you can now recognize you didn’t change the behavior because you gave up too soon? I want you to stick into it this time. Stick with it. Right. Number six the skill of controlling your emotions. Oh, this is a big one. Many people don’t change behaviors because their emotions run away with them. You know, you’ve got this really great. You want to have this new habit that you want to apply with your schedule, for example, and you want to change your behavior and start getting up a lot earlier and get to the office earlier and then your emotions start kicking in. Oh, I’m tired and gosh, my spouse is at home and she gets to sleep in and I’m getting up.

Tony Smith: And you know, it’s lonely out there and nobody else is in the office, right? Well, the truth is, it’s all emotional. You have to recognize that you have to control your emotions. What triggers your emotion the fastest? Like, what triggers your emotions, is it fear, is it frustration? Is it lack of results in a short window of time? What triggers those emotions the fastest? If you can recognize what triggers it, then you just look for the trigger and move it out of the way. Ok, how about number seven, the skill of asking for help when you’re having a difficult time. That’s what we’re here for. The Mike Ferry organization has been designed to help agents. That’s what we do, right? You know, you think about this. Many coaching clients don’t ask for as much help from their coach that they should, right? I would challenge you that are in coaching watching this. What is one place that you need to ask your coach for more help? Ask for more help. That’s what we’re here for, right? You know, so often, what’s the old joke? You know, the husband and wife are in the car and the man drives around in circles around the block in his car for an hour because he will not ask for directions, right? I’m not asking anybody. I’m going to find my way. Two hours later, right? Why not just ask, where do you need to ask for more help to change a behavior? Ok. That’s an ego thing, by the way I put down,

Tony Smith: the problem is, your ego gets in the way. Right, you have to recognize that’s just ego. Let’s move that ego out of the way. Remember the oldest cliche about ego. Take ego, remove the E and what do you have left? Go! And that’s what we want you to do. And then the last point I wrote down the skill of accepting the fact that you can win in a big way. This is a skill. Ok? It is a skill to accept the fact that you can take your production from here to here. You can raise your income from here to here. You can have that new house. You can have that first-class vacation, you can buy those rental properties, you can have the money in the bank and you need to be able to accept that fact, right? Have you seen other Mike Ferry agents that have achieved what you’re trying to achieve this year? Have you seen other Mike Ferry agents that have won in a big way? Well, you can, too. You just need to really work on accepting the fact. Right. So here we are we’re in that space and time. I want to have you think about one other little thought this early in the year, Mike has suggested this little tip forever I think right. At the beginning of the year, we really need to lock down our goals. And he’s always challenged us, hey, take a 3X5 card. Take a 3X5 card.

Tony Smith: And on that, 3X5 card. Write three very specific numbers on it. Ok, write down the number of listings you’re going to take in this calendar year. How many listings are you going to take in 2022? Big letters, big numbers underneath that write down, how many closed transactions will you have in the calendar year, 2022 write the number down big and bold. And then underneath that, write down how much income will you earn in the calendar year of 2022? I want you to put and I want you to see it. I want it to show up. I want every time you, you know, maybe it’s on the mirror, in your bathroom. Maybe it’s in your car, or maybe you carry it with you every day and you put it in your jacket pocket or your purse. And our whole goal for you to do that is to lock in and basically put into your brain in a big, heavy way exactly what you’re trying to accomplish. You need to be reminded of those three numbers over and over and over again. It’s certainly going to help you get there. Ok, so thanks for your time today. I really appreciate the opportunity to spend a few minutes with you on Mike Ferry TV. I know we’re going to see many of you at a Production Retreat coming up here in Las Vegas here and not too long, so we will talk to you soon. Thanks.