And welcome to Mike Ferry TV the week of August 9th. Boy, I tell you what, this year has flown by. I think for most of us, I think we’re hoping and praying and assuming that this terrible pandemic we’ve all experienced is finally ending for us. And I know that a lot of the states and provinces and borders have been opened and we’re glad that participation is at a higher level. But I want you to also understand that I started saying back in May that we’re seeing a slight decline in the market, and we’ll see that from May, June, July, right through the end of this year. And everybody says, well, why? Well, for those involved in Real Estate in 2008 to 2012, which many people call it the Great Recession of Real Estate, the truth is that was the Great Recession of business in all economies. Some of you may recall that after that 2012, you know, terrible times started to end. There was a big, large, almost an abundance of buyers in the market. And these were people that would have normally bought 10 eight, nine, 10, 11 and early 12 that waited for a variety of economic reasons to buy and purchase a home. So we had this big surge in 2012, 13, 14, early 15. And the reason for the surge is if you normally just take an example, if you normally have three million buyers over the course of a year in the marketplace, because the backlog, we probably had six million buyers hitting 2012 and they came in in our rush.

And boy, did sales pick up quickly. But, you know, after about a year and a half, that additional three million had pretty much purchased. So we were back to a normal market again. Well, this pandemic we’ve been involved in stopped the business. March, April, May of two thousand twenty, almost brought it to a halt. And many of the brokers that I talked to said they stayed up at night wondering if they were going to survive. Well, the market had come back in May and June of last year and, of course, got very strong. But you’ll notice if you’re watching carefully, the days on market has extended in the last thirty to forty-five days in most parts of North America and not in every market. I know that. But in most parts, the day’s market has extended with second, prices in most markets have started to level off. But third, and a real sign of a cooling market is if you took a listing before and in, say, 48 hours, you had 40 showings and 20 offers. Probably today you’re getting seven showings and maybe one or two offers. The market is changing and when the market changes plus minus flat, it affects agent’s mindset. So I’m going to spend a little time today talking about some of the thoughts I covered during the retreat on the topic of mind set, because I still believe that if we take mindset, skills, activities and action, the first of the four words is the word mindset.

So again, Mike Ferry goes to Webster’s Dictionary all the time. So here’s what the dictionary says the definition of mindset is. A particular way of thinking, a person’s attitude or sets of opinions about something. Or what I always say is this, if I say to you, learn to pre-qualify a buyer and seller. Your mindset will determine whether you’re going to accept it or reject it. That’s how you see what I say. If I say to you, we’ve got to take and learn certain sales skills, your mindset is either going to say, great, what can I learn to improve? Or I don’t need this information. In some cases, simply saying Mike Ferry is doing an event. I’ll never watch that guy, he’s terrible to wow, this guy really knows what he’s talking about. Mindset, I wrote is going is what’s going on in your head at a particular moment about a situation, a person or some outcome that you’re looking to experience. So the mindset changes day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute. The question is, can we keep it positive? Gunther Closs, one of my mentors, said, quote, No one is positive one hundred percent of the time. But the further you’re away from the 50 plus toward 60 plus 70 plus, the stronger you’ll become in terms of your business and your life. What is your mindset regarding the economy? What is your mindset regarding interest rates going up and down? What is your mindset regarding the market that you work in? What is your mindset about the inventory shortage which we’ve all experienced? What is your mindset about multiple offers? What is your mindset about buyers often paying way overpriced for a property? What’s your mindset about showing property to a buyer? What’s your mindset about using scripts and dialogs? What is your mindset about your Listing Presentation skills?

What is your mindset about delegation or running a team? Everybody has one about every topic. The question is, can we keep that mindset in a positive manner? Earl Nightingale again, one of my mentors built his entire career on one word, the word attitude. He called it the magic word. I looked Webster’s Dictionary for the word attitude, a feeling or a way of thinking that affects a person’s behavior and outcome. So, I want to just share a couple of thoughts that I shared at the retreat regarding strengthening the mindset. And let’s see if any of these can help you become a little better as we approach the month of September, October, November and December. Because remember, what we do in September, October, November, December is going to reflect directly on the type of holiday season that we enjoy or cannot enjoy. And it certainly affects what kind of paychecks we’re going to have in the first quarter of next year. So I wrote first, we must keep focus in our minds that it is never too late to start a production cycle.

Real Estate generally runs on a 90-day production cycle, if we make the decision today that we’re going to call our past clients and look for some referrals and we call five or 10 a day for the next five, say, five, 10, 15 days, and we get a leader, too, by the time that would actually resonate to a transaction generally takes about 90 days. But what we have to understand is every day we can start a production cycle, so we don’t have to have bad days this week, next week or in 30, 60 days. And it’s never too late to start a production cycle. We let events and we let people disrupt our production cycles all the time. So understand that a production cycle can start every day as soon as you choose to do your job, which is, of course, a mindset. I also wrote down maintaining a strong sense of humor throughout the day to all the various exciting and crazy responses you’ll get in your production cycle will take place. My father always taught me that laughter is the best medicine and quite honestly, laughter is the best medicine. A good old fashioned belly laugh. If you want a great laugh, just think about some of the transactions you have and think about some of the crazy, exciting buyers and sellers you’ve dealt with. Or as I will commonly say, if you really want a good laugh, think about how many listings you have taken this year, because in some cases it’s a joke.

Well, you have to learn to enjoy the experience, whatever that experience is and that, of course, is mindset. But the third point, our mind set was one of the, I think, vitally important. A good producing agent is not controlled by the size of the market, not controlled by the market conditions, not controlled by the economy or the competition. Their mind set on a day to day basis is how do I achieve the production standards that I’ve set? I want to talk to five people a day from my database. I want to talk to a combination of five FSBO’s and Expired Listing’s I want to talk to 15 per day Just Listed Just Sold neighbors around my transactions. I want to make sure that I’m following up every day when I finish my lead generation on my lead follow-up. I want to make sure that I strongly pre-qualify every appointment I get. These are the day to day activities that affect productivity. And the stronger the mindset, the more positive we are. The better results will be. The fourth thought I wrote down. The top producers that have a very strong mindset are often fanatical to the point that they don’t look friendly regarding their schedule. The number one problem for almost all agents in Real Estate is the inability to control day to day activities. Therefore, they cannot follow a schedule. And that’s just simply the fact we don’t write one down as to what we’re going to be doing through the course of the day to letting everybody interrupt it, which then upsets us, which screws up our mindset, which means we don’t get on to the next activity.

Then all of a sudden, it’s four o’clock and we haven’t done anything. It’s a mindset problem. And then the last thought I want to share with you, which probably is the one that would challenge most people most often. Top producing agents understand fully and maintain the mindset it’s OK to walk away from a transaction. Some transactions are not worth the commission check, you would receive. Top producers focused on the fact there’s always another deal waiting for them if they’re willing to work and willing to look. So, if we say to ourselves, I need to do something on a daily basis to strengthen my mindset, I should have a couple of good books that I can read a couple of pages of. I could go to Mike Ferry TV and watch five or 10 minutes every day. I could go on YouTube and see some of the great motivational speakers. I could have good accountability partners, role play partners, a Mastermind Group that I participate in. You know, I could think about the goals I’m trying to achieve and the benefits to myself and my family. If I achieve, it’s all there for us. If we maintain the mindset, working the mindset every day and from now until December, you’re going to be a more productive real estate agent. Thanks for today. Talk to you next week.