The Magic Formula Doesn't Exist: You Have to Do the Work

What does it truly mean to "be the solution" in your professional and personal life? Drawing from 31 years of experience in real estate sales, I share powerful insights about accountability and the unwavering commitment required for success.

The journey starts with a simple personal challenge - 28 days without wine. But this experiment represents something far more profound than temporarily changing a habit. It's about proving we have the power to honor our commitments and lead by example. If we can't follow through on small personal pledges, how can we expect to achieve ambitious professional goals?

Success isn't accidental or magical - it's methodical. After conducting thousands of listing appointments and transactions throughout my career, I've discovered that making success look easy only happens after years of consistent hard work. The market doesn't care about our excuses. This past month, I closed 16 transactions not because I found some secret formula, but because I upheld my non-negotiable standards even when it meant missing social events three nights in a row to complete essential work.

The most valuable lesson? You alone control your outcomes. No one can make calls for you, memorize dialogues for you, or develop your listening skills - arguably the most crucial ability in sales. We must take complete ownership of our results without blaming external circumstances. As I've said for 18 years: work works. There's no substitute for putting in the effort day after day.

Are you ready to be the solution in your own life? What standards will you set and maintain, regardless of the temporary discomfort? Your choices today create your reality tomorrow.

Connect with Maria Quattrone:
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LinkedIn: Maria Quattrone
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Instagram: @maria_quattrone
TikTok: mariaquattronerealestate
Website: MQrealesate.com
Office number: 215- 607-3535

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Be the solution.
This is the journey, day 28,and we can do it for you.
Yesterday we had our salesmeeting.
We always have our salesmeetings on Friday at 2 o'clock
and we talked about why you aredoing what you're doing, why you

(00:25):
are selling real estate, andwhat is getting in your way of
meeting the goals that you wantfor yourself professionally.
That will change you and yourfamily's life, and we discussed
what could get in the way, whathas gotten away, why we haven't

(00:46):
reached the commitments that wewanted to, that we did commit to
, and I brought up me notdrinking wine.
I said if I can't not drinkwine, then how the heck am I
going to lead you Meaning thewhole experiment that I'm doing

(01:09):
is greater than just not havingwine.
There's a bigger reason behindit.
We all have the power to be thesolution and to change our life
.
We talked about the real estateindustry.
We talked about the real estateindustry.
We talked about the market.
We talked after.
We talked all about ourpersonal things.

(01:29):
We talked about what's going on, and this time is not for the
faint of heart.
We got to do the work andsomebody had said yeah, she
makes it look so easy.
You know why I make it lookeasy?
Because it's not been threeyears, it's been 31 years of
being in professional sales,three decades.

(01:54):
How many conversations have Ihad?
How many times have I met withpeople, whether I worked with
them or not?
You meet with a lot of peoplethat you don't even work with,
but I said I can't do the workfor you, I can't make the calls

(02:15):
for you, I can't memorize thewords for you to say the only
way to get better is to do thework.
There's no way around it.
There's no magic pill, there'sno magic formula.

(02:36):
It's doing the work, havinggrit, a strong work, ethic,
integrity, humility, beinghumble, being kind and just

(02:56):
getting up and doing it nomatter what.
So a lot of times what I see isokay, well, I came in to do X,
but it's like 5 or 6 o'clock andI've got to get going, you know
.
Or you've got to pick, get upearlier to start your day, work
later at the end of the day toget the work done that is needed

(03:18):
.
The excuses I ran out of timeis bullshit.
It's bullshit Because last weekI stayed in the office.
I had things to do.
Tuesday night I was supposed togo to singing.
Didn't do it because I didn'tfinish my work, so I stayed
until 730.
Wednesday night I was supposedto go.

(03:39):
Where was I supposed to goWednesday night?
Somewhere that I did not makeit to.
Oh, I know Entrepreneur's Clubtable at the Union League, which
I love going to.
You know we sit around, peoplehave drinks or not, and you have
food and you talk about it'sfor anybody that's on payroll.
So we talk about solutions asan entrepreneur.

(04:02):
But what I needed to do wasmore pressing and it trumped
that because that's fun.
It's easy to say let me go at5.30.
I couldn't.
I stayed till 7.30.
Thursday same thing.
I had something to go to.
Again, did not go to it, Istayed at the office.
That's right.

(04:24):
We have dinner Thursday nightand I know I'm going to make a
good reservation for us.
Peter, celebrate, celebrate thatgreat deal that just closed for
you and Ann and Mama.
Ty and I sold you that parcel,I don't know, 12 years ago and
then next year, in a year, itcame available and you bought

(04:46):
that and now you probably madefive times your money and that's
oh man.
We're not going to be able toget that, peter, by Thursday.
That will have to be adifferent time Because it takes
longer to get that resi, but wewill do it this summer for sure.
I want to get a better placeactually that we'll go to.
I'll talk about that later.

(05:09):
We go back to doing the workBecause there's nothing that
replaces.
Can't make the calls for you,can't learn a dialogue.
I can't actually, you know, sitthere and have the conversation
for you.
You have to learn how to talkto people and, more importantly,
that you have to learn how tolisten.
And since I've done thousandsof videos, thousands of

(05:30):
listening, thousands, I meanwhen I say thousands of listing
appointments, thousands andthousands and thousands, and you
get really good because you'vedone the work.
There's nothing that replacesit, so can't do it for you.
I wish I could, you know, Iwish I could do it for you, but

(05:55):
that was not going to doanything for you.
Actually, it's only going tohurt you.
So what I talk about is beingthe solution.
You are the solution.
You have the power to changeyour life.
It's all about you and yourchoices that you make.
I could have chose to go tothose three events this week.
No-transcript, peter.

(06:23):
I have done thousands oflisting appointments, 100%
thousands.
Over the last 20 years, I'vewalked through probably 20,000
houses too many.
Anyway, the point of this is isthat we have to take
responsibility andaccountability for what we want

(06:46):
to achieve in our life andthere's no excuse not to do it.
I get up early and if you can'tget up early and start your day
, then you finish later.
The market is requiring itright now.
This isn't Maria saying oh, youhave to do this, you have to do
that.
No, the market's requiring it.
I personally closed 16transactions in the month of May

(07:06):
.
I had a good month, I made anice living in the month of May
and I will continue to continuethat on, because I've set a
minimum standard for myself andI will not go below what that
minimum standard is and in fact,next year I'm going to times
that one and a half Because Ihave things that I want to do, I

(07:30):
have people that I want to help, and the more that I can do,
the more than I can lead mypeople to the highest level as
people come for you know you cango anywhere and work and you
can go anywhere and make moremoney than where you are now,
but the culture that we havewithin our organization and
being a family.

(07:50):
It took years and years andyears for me to get to this,
because before I was likeambition, crazy ambition.
I'm excited.
So let's do the work, everybody, because you know what Work
works, work works.
I've been saying that for 18years.

(08:11):
Work works.
Do the work Be the solution.
You are the solution.
Today is day 28.
That will be four weeks no wine.
I'm getting ready, we'releaving to go to a concert and
it will be wine-free,alcohol-free, so I'm continuing
the dry spell for a bit longer.
I'm not sure I haven't decidedyet.
Feeling good, having a goodtime.