Entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart.

You've made a sacrifice, and decided to put in the time, energy and money required to follow your dream.

But it's the hard times when the customers aren't calling.

When you're doubting yourself.

When you want to push pause when business is hard.

When you feel like giving up when things seem impossible.

When you want to quit, that's usually when greatness is in front of you. You just don't see it clearly in that moment because everything looks gloomy and desolate and just one big dark cloud.

There are a few things you need to be aware of when you're trying to build a business: the first is that most people who set out to start businesses don't succeed.

The second is that building a business takes time and effort and that there are things you can do right now to put yourself in the best possible position to succeed - even if things don't seem to be going well at the moment.

My advice here would be to focus on the small successes and...

You’ve been working hard, but business isn’t picking up.

Panic sets in - is this permanent?

Or will it pick back up soon?

What if you’re in a sales slump without knowing it, and don’t know how to get out? 

It may be tempting to stick with the same routine and hope for the best. But the more you try to resist changes, the more frustrated you'll become. Instead, break free of the routine and resist the temptation to return to it later. This will help you stay motivated when times get tough and it's hard to get motivated.

We all know It's easy to get stuck in a rut.

You know the type of problem you have and you know that "if only you could change one thing, things would be different".

But instead of taking action and making changes to get out of this slump, you stay where you are and wait for a new problem to hit. This keeps you from getting the work done that would help your business grow. 

You cannot fight the reality of the sales cycle. 

You...

Building your real estate business is always going to be about Pivoting, Optimizing, and Adjusting your business for sustainability.

Agents that are starting to get some momentum in their business understand they must adjust their marketing, lead generation and conversions in order to maintain a certain level of revenue. 

Successful agents learn to optimize systems and tools in order to leverage their time and begin to create a life style in real estate they eventually learn to enjoy and capitalize on. 

When an agent with some momentum begin to experience success they begin to think like a broker. They learn to pivot their businesses as market trends begin to shift. 

You're feeling the shift now, aren't you? 

In a tight market like this scrappy agents start looking at their bottom line. 

Glancing at your P&L what's your biggest expense? 

Are you ready to PIVOT your business from an independent agent to a boutique brokerage and call your own shots?

I  hear this all the time.

...If you want to build your real estate business that you've got to work really hard and super long hours.

There's a belief in our industry that if you're a real estate agent and you want to earn a six figure income that you have to work longer and harder to do it. At the expense of everything else in your life. 

I'm here to tell  you, working longer hours and so much "harder" is NOT necessary to grow a successful real estate business.

How many people do you know that are working hard but they are not successful?

Maybe that's you, right?

Well, that's proof that working longer and harder is not the answer, isn't it? 

For the first several years of our business we thought the same thing. I remember, in 2005 we assumed we would be practically "living" a good portion of our time in our new office building we had just went 500K into debt for, that we actually planned our family dinners to be eaten at the office building.  

It...

"Content is King, but Engagement is Queen and she rules the house"

- Mari Smith

The question was asked: "Anyone else feeling extremely frustrated with Facebook? I feel like I get no engagement unless I pay to boost, or create an ad" 

Engagement on your business page is vital because organic traffic and increased engagement can greatly reduce your marketing costs and increase your brand. But oftentimes agents miss the mark when it comes to creating engagement on their business pages, and here's three reasons why:

The number one reason why agents don't get the engagement on their business page they want is because they themselves do not engage. If you want the conversation to start, you've got to start it. You have to post content that triggers a response. Then be the first to  respond to your own post with your personal response.(start the conversation). 

The second reason they don't get engagement is because they simply don't post enough content. You can't get...

When my cousin was born, my uncle (who has a Ph.D from MIT) built a buzzer box. It was a heavy metal contraption, with a thick black cord that plugged into the wall. It looked like something from a nuclear power plant, not a kid's toy, but that didn't dissuade him from tossing it into the crib.

The box had a two switches, some lights, and a few other controls on it. Flip one switch and a light goes on. Flip both switches and a buzzer sounds. All terrifying, of course, unless you are a kid.

A kid sees the buzzer box and starts poking it. If I do this, that happens! 

Mathematicians call this a function. Put in one variable, get a result. Call and response.

Life is a buzzer box. Poke it.

-Seth Godin

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I don't know about you, but every time I get a computer error I am reminded of this paragraph from this book. My "GO TO" technology fix is to POKE THE BOX . 

I click on something and see what it does.

I click on...

The man who sequenced the human genome has figured out how to use a computer to completely design the genetic code of an organism. He and his team can mess with the genes almost as easily as you can edit an essay in Word.

And yet.

And yet once the strand of code is generated and turned into organic matter in a petri dish, it just lies there. It's not alive.

The motive force---the spark that brings it to life---is missing. Ventner still needs to insert some organic tissue, something living, something alive, to transform the project into more than an inert mass of genes.

Surprisingly, that's precisely your opportunity. 

Not to buy a petri dish and a bunch of organic materials. No, the opportunity is bigger than that---it's to see that all around you are platforms, opportunities, and entire organizations that will come to life once you are driven enough and brave enough to contribute the initiative they are missing.

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...

The simple thing that separates successful individuals from those who languish is the very thing that separates exciting and growing organizations from those that stagnate and die.

The winners have turned initiative into a passion and a practice. Go ahead, make a list. Make a list of the people and organizations you admire. My guess is the seventh imperative is what sets them apart. 

The challenge, it turns out, isn't in perfecting your ability to know when to start and when to stand by. The challenge is getting into the habit of starting.

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Are you ready to Start? 

Starting something new is thrilling isn't it? Almost a little scary even.

If you're not starting something NEW, then what are you doing? 

Sometimes you just little a little nudge to get started don't you?  I get you. 

Here's my hand. Grab it. 

I'm here to pull you up on the balcony and start something new, if you'll just...

• The first imperative is to be aware --- aware of the market, of opportunities, of who you are.
• The second imperative is to be educated, so you can understand what's around you.
• The third imperative is to be connected, so you can be trusted as you engage.
• The fourth imperative is to be consistent, so the system knows what to expect.
• The fifth imperative is to build an asset, so you have something to sell.
• The sixth imperative is to be productive, so you can be well-priced.

But you can do all of these things and still fail. A job is not enough. A factory is not enough. A trade is not enough. It used to be, but no longer.

The world is changing too fast. Without the spark or initiative, you have no choice but to simply react to the world. Without the ability to instigate and experiment, you are stuck, adrift, waiting to be shoved.

I can find a thousand books and a million memos about the first six imperatives. They were drilled into you in countless moments in school, and plenty of...

"Starting a project, making a ruckus, taking what feels like a risk.

Not just, "I'm starting to think about it," or "We're going to meet on this," or even "I filed a patent application...."

No, starting.

Going beyond the point of no return. 

Leaping. 

Committing. 

Making something happen."

-Seth Godin

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I'm going to ask you, what's holding you back from STARTING?

What's holding you back from stepping forward with something new or different on faith?

When was the last time you did that? When was the last time you made something happen?

Think about that for a while. 

If you're looking for something that can keep you moving forward and on task, then plug in. 

Join us every Friday at 11:00 am (EST) in the Simple Coaching For Real Estate Agents

I'll see you there. Let me know what you'd like to make happen.

Julie