Lately it’s hit me how few people live in their passion, and it makes me sad. To live in your passion means to actually LIVE life. When you live in your passion, you perform at a level so much higher, it sometimes seems unreal. Trust me, it’s real.

So how do you live in your passion? The first step is to identify your passion. What is your passion? The thing that, when you are doing it, you feel like a 5 year old kid again, playing without a care in the world. I think that is a question that many people can’t answer. I don’t know why people have a hard time identifying their passion – perhaps they have been conditioned by parents, society or some other external force, to put it aside. I certainly meet a lot of people who cannot say what their true passion is – we don’t stay connected for very long, because I’ve found that those people often live the victim life, and I just don’t get along well with victim’s.

If you have already figured out your passion, I congratulate you. If you haven’t, when do you plan on doing so?

I had an email conversation with a friend recently, just catching up with what is going on in our lives over the 18 months since we last saw each other. We both work as coaches to real estate agents, and have been fortunate to have each taught the other some pretty amazing things. After our conversation, though, I noticed one big difference between us, a difference in how we work. My contention is that the vast majority of people who have a coach do not have one for the right reasons. In fact, I believe that many who have a coach love to be able to say they have a coach, as if that autonomically makes them better at their work, yet they are not willing to make the changes and do the work necessary for success.

I mentioned to my friend that I play a game of baseball with my clients – 3 strikes and you’re out of the coaching program. A strike means not doing the required work, not showing up for a call, that sort of thing. I do that for a couple of reasons:

• If they do not show up for calls or do not do the work, they will just think the coaching doesn’t work. They’ll blame everything and everyone except themselves. That does neither them or me any good, so best to end the relationship.
• I cannot, in good conscience, just take their money if they are not achieving the results they desire, or anything close to it. History has proven that those who follow my programs and actually do the work find the success they are looking for, so it’s not the programs. Sure, I’d like the money, but more importantly, I do not want to be one of those coaches I hear agents talking about all the time, saying how they spent thousands of dollars and got no results.

I know I am in the great minority of coaches by choosing to adopt this philosophy, and that’s okay with me. You see, I’ve found my passion and I live it every day.

I’d love to hear what you passion is, and how you live it every day. If you need help figuring it out, word has it that there are lots of books out there on the subject.

What’s your plan for the next 4 months? Do you have one? Have you had one for the past 8 months?

If you started the year with a plan, did you follow it? Every day?

Did you meet

your targets? Surpass them? Fail to meet them? What happens now?

There’s the real question – what happens now?

I read recently of an agent in Washington whose team has closed 302 transactions YTD; he raised his annual goal to 600. Think he’ll get there? I do.

Why do I think he’ll get there? Because success is built on systems, scaleable systems, and once the system is set, it’s a fairly simple step to turn the dial up just a bit. How are your systems doing?

Do you lead generate every day? For how long? How many contacts do you make? How many past clients do you ask for referrals every day? What do you do if you don’t have an appointment on any day? Golf, or lead generate?

What questions do you ask yourself every day about your business?

There’s a reason for the saying ‘Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail’.

Want to talk about where you are at and how to get where you want to go? Email me. No charge for a conversation – we both learn from it.

You might well have heard me say that teaching is my passion – it’s what I was put on this earth to do. Well, I’m getting to thinking that I’ve been wrong about that for so very long.

My passion is learning.

When I write my daily gratitudes, one of the things I am always grateful for is having the eyes and ears to absorb the lessons around me, the brain to filter and process them, the moral compass to investigate them, and the heart to feel the duty to share them.

Last night, at the auction we go to on Wednesdays, I learned a ton of things. I learned about cultural differences. I learned about values of items. I learned about basic human kindness. I learned the effect of asking a question the right way. I learned a whole new (to me) way to generate customers. And that was just in the first 30 minutes of our 7 h

ours there!

Do you walk through your day, blinders on, head down, racing from one place to the next, thinking that you might have just run a stop sign without even knowing it? Or do you observe the world just a little bit more?

Observing the world around you doesn’t mean getting any less done, not at all. What it does mean is enjoying life a whole lot more, feeling more rewarded at the end of the day. Seeing the good in things. The list of benefits is endless.

Oh yeah, back to my starting point – my passion is learning. Well, it is, and my passion is fueled by my other passion – teaching. Nobody ever learns more than the teacher (if they are a good teacher).

What does it communicate to people? A part of my business has me in email contact with thousands of Realtors® every week, looking at their online profiles and presence, experiencing their auto-responders, listening to their voicemails, etc. It’s an experience that leaves me saddened at all of the lost opportunities that some (most) of these will never even know they lost.

Auto-responders – from one company of 98 people, I have seen 75 of them using the same, company-provided auto-responder. How tough it must be to change the verbiage that so many don’t bother to do so. How tough it must be for the franchise to come up with something a little more human; it looks bad on individuals, brokerages, and franchises when these things are neglected.

Voicemails – pretty bad overall. For a great lesson on leaving an awesome voicemail visit my pal Scott (while you’re there, check out this article).

However, the saddest thing I see, every day, is people’s pictures. I recently looked at over 5,000 agent pictures and after a short while I noticed that I was having a physical reaction to them, as well as a mental reaction. Some of the pictures made me smile and feel all warm and fuzzy; some of them made me feel ‘this person’s a pro – I’d hire them!. Again, unfortunately, so many of the pictures made me frown and think ‘YUK! – I would not hire you!!’. Call me shallow if you wish, however, it doesn’t have anything to do with beauty / handsomeness; it has to do with reality and professionalism.

You would be shocked at how many agents are still using those old ‘silk-stocking-filter’ photo’s that were popular in the ’80′s and ’90′s – still using that style of picture, and, I’d bet many are still using the same picture.

Why? What does that say to the public? How is that hurting your business?

I’ve had agents tell me that photographers cost too much, that business cards cost too much. HORSEPUCKY! My professional picture was taken by my wife using a $50 digital camera – the background was red brick, so I got someone to replace it with a blue background.

You can get high-quality business cards for less than $150 for 5,000 full-colour.

It’s not about the cost though, is it? What IS holding you back from putting a professional image out there? Think about it. Spend some time inside your own head, honestly answering those questions. Ask past clients and your sphere what they think of your image.

I think it is the norm that we are our own worst enemy. I think that because I see it every day, everywhere. I think it’s sad when we don’t recognize it; I think it’s way sadder when we let our ego stop us from accepting this basic truth.

Think about a situation I recently encountered, talking with an agent who has been banging his head against a wall for the best part of a decade, promoting himself as something, and wondering why he is not getting the results

he wants from all of his efforts.

From what I could tell, this guy is smart, dedicated, and obviously serious about his work. He’s also frustrated, out a whole lot of promotional dollars, and dumbfounded as to why he’s just not getting results.

Not even 5 minutes into our conversation, and I felt the incredible power of what was blocking him. I’m getting better at spotting this triat, to the point that my second question to people will now be “So, what are YOU doing to screw up your success?”

So, what was blocking this guy? He could not do ‘this’ and he cannot do ‘that’ and ‘x’ won’t work, nor will ‘y’, because people won’t listen – they’ll just see him as a pushy salesperson out to do nothing other than make a buck off them. I see this in every industry, everywhere I go, salespeople with this ingrained belief that this is how they are perceived. No wonder 90% of salespeople do not have the life and the income they say they want!

I Challenge YOU! Look for where this shows up in your daily life. Be honest with yourself. Look for places where YOU are indeed your own worst enemy. Let me know what you discover. The first 3 people to take on this challenge will get FREE help from me to get past this monumental road block!