Episode Transcript
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Sumina (00:15):
Hello and welcome to the
Rested Real Estate Agent, a
podcast that helps you navigatelife as a real estate
professional, while finding somerest and balance along the way
and finding the way to your richlife.
I'm your host, Sumina, an agentwith 18 years of experience in
(00:35):
the Austin, Texas metro area,and I believe there's a better
way to do our business serve ourclients and not get burnt out.
I help agents get from chaos toclarity.
As you may have noticed, thisepisode is called your Brain is
an Asshole Sometimes.
What do I mean by that?
(00:55):
So sometimes your brain can bean asshole.
This is like when your braintells you that you'll never sell
another house, or that clientshate you when they don't show up
to your open house, or when alisting has been lingering on
the market for 183 days and theseller is upset with you because
, of course, you control theentire market.
(01:15):
Or when you see a colleague onsocial media who's just won yet
another top producer award andyou're struggling to make your
first closing of the year.
Sometimes our brain gets reallycaught in these thought spirals
of convincing us that we suckat our jobs, and this episode is
to help you break free of that.
(01:37):
So, in this episode let's talkabout why our brains do this and
some practical strategies forbreaking free of these thought
spirals, which actually might beeasier than you think, because
not only can it be incrediblydemoralizing to beat ourselves
up, it also hurts us in the longrun because it takes the focus
off of people we may be able tohelp out there who currently
(02:00):
need our services, and alsobecause it puts us in a negative
mindset.
So sometimes when we encounterpeople potential clients at an
open house, if we're in a kindof negative thought spiral like
I'm stuck at this job, I'mterrible in real estate, I'm
never going to sell anotherhouse.
That is going to come across toa potential client.
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It's like if you ever dated andyou could smell the desperation
off of someone who just reallywanted to meet a partner and
it's an immediate turnoff ratherthan someone who's confident in
how they feel when theyapproach you and that gives you
more of a sense of wanting to bewith them than someone who is
trying to cling on and grab ontoyou
.
(02:44):
?
Let's first talk about why doour brains do this.
Why do our brains like to sendus on these journeys of torture
and convincing us and giving usruminating thoughts about our
business, about failing in ourbusiness and what we could be
doing any moment of the day tohelp boost our business up.
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Mainly, our brain is alwaystrying to keep us safe right.
So our brain thinks that byreminding us that we haven't
sold another house, that we'reneeding another closing this
year, we're not going to hit ournumbers, that it is going to
keep us safe.
By continually reminding usthat we are deficient, it's
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trying to motivate us.
Our brain, especially our lizardbrain or our more primitive
part of our brain, thinks invery black and white, binary
ways.
Unless your brain has learned adifferent way to be motivated,
which many of us haven't learnedor were never taught.
Brain's job is to try to keepus alive, and our brain cannot
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differentiate between a clientbeing mad at you because the
listing's on the market and youbeing in danger by being eaten
by a wild animal right To yourbrain.
It is trying to keep you alivein both these situations.
Both these situations aredangerous for your brain,
because your brain is thinkingif we don't get this client, if
we don't make the sale, if wedon't get to this closing, we're
not going to be able to makeour house payment, we're not
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going to be able to take care ofour kids or feed our family.
And if you follow this threaddown, eventually you will end up
somewhere like alone, dyingunderneath the bridge by
yourself, right?
The very extreme example ofwhere this thought process goes
if you don't keep it in check.
Now, one (04:32):
for most of us, we
don't often hopefully don't
often end up at that very endstage of it for fun, following
that thread along to like.
So what does happen if I don'tget this client?
What does happen if I can'tmake my next payment?
What is the end result of it?
So your brain actually,rightfully, has a right to be
worried, right?
If your brain thinks that isthe end result of you not being
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able to close another deal, itis right to keep you on high
alert and to make you feelanxious and worried constantly
about the fact that business maybe slow right now.
And the other part of it isthat we haven't learned other
ways to motivate ourselves.
We haven't learned, many of us,to use our higher functioning
brain to try to help the lower,primitive part of our brain feel
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safer.
So that's a little basicpsychology lesson and I am not a
psychologist, I just read a lotabout how our brains work, what
motivates us and what doesn't.
So now that we have a loosegrasp on why our brain does this
from my very rudimentaryexamples, here are the seven
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thoughts or notes I have abouthow to work through this.
Number two (05:43):
notice Notice when
your brain is telling you.
You suck If you don't know whenit's happening.
You don't even know that yourbrain is telling you that story.
It's hard to catch yourself toeven know that.
Oh right, there I can hear thestory that my brain is telling
myself.
Great, now that I have thatawareness, it allows me to move
on to the next step.
So for some of us who are notvery practiced in paying
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attention to our mind, it maytake a little bit of practice to
figure out when your brain iseven being mean to you, right,
and there are a couple ofdifferent ways to try to sort
for this.
Would you say the types ofthings that your brain is
telling you to another agent inyour office?
If you would say no, that wouldbe incredibly rude and horrible
(06:28):
.
Well then, that may be a clue,if you're saying that to
yourself, that it's a way tocatch yourself inside of this
thought spiral, of noticing thatyour brain is falling back into
this pattern again.
So number one is notice whenyour brain is telling you you
suck and that you'll never makeit in this business.
Your brain is telling you yousuck and that you'll never make
it in this business.
Your brain is lying to you andwe are going to prove it wrong.
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So stick with me.
Number three (06:51):
ask yourself this
question Do I think I'll never
sell another house again?
Do I think I'll never sellanother house again?
If you've been in this businessthree, four, five years or more
, you know the answer to that isprobably no.
You know that you are going tosell another house at some point
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in time.
It may not be as fast as youwant, but it's.
The last sale you had isprobably not the last one you're
ever going to have.
So reminding yourself that, asobvious as it may sound, do I
think I'll never sell anotherhouse again?
No, I do think I will sellanother home.
That's one way to work throughthat as well.
Number three four (07:29):
way to work
through this thought spiral of
feeling like you're a terribleagent is to read through your
past client testimonials.
Remind yourself and remind yourbrain that you've helped many
people in the past who arereally delighted to work with
you, who really valued yourservices and who were better off
because they worked with youversus a less experienced agent.
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If there's a place you collectthese, or your brokerage does,
on your website I even encourageclients to screenshot these and
just keep them in a folder thaton my phone that I just call
like my feel good folder andanytime I feel like I could use
a boost, I have messages frompast clients and people in there
that I can look toward and belike oh man, you know it was
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great working with those peopleand they appreciated working
with me.
That's the third thing you cando to help your brain break out
of that thought pattern.
So number four is to think aboutsomeone you know or a story you
heard of of someone who had abad experience with a real
estate agent.
A bad experience with a realestate agent.
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Why do I want you to thinkabout this?
Because would that client havebeen better served if they've
worked with you?
Someone who has care andconcern for their needs, someone
who is going to be well-skilledat helping them negotiate.
And we hear about these storieswhere someone says I had this
agent, we went on our contractand then they just disappeared.
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They went on vacation.
I never heard from them.
I really don't know what theydid, and they collected a
commission check Me.
And most agents I know, who arevery skilled, work really,
really hard for our clients.
So when you hear of thesestories of people who had bad
interactions with agents, remindyourself that your services are
needed.
If you are listening to thispodcast, I assume you're
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competent at your job and soyour services are needed.
That client would have beenbetter served by working with
you than with some dummy agentwho's out there, of which,
unfortunately, there tend to bea lot of, because the barrier to
entry for our profession isquite low.
But that is a soapbox foranother time, so I won't get
into that here.
So number four is to thinkabout someone who had a bad real
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estate experience and how muchbetter they would be if they had
worked with you, and why yourservices are valuable and
necessary in the market.
Number five five is a fun one,which is to go out to coffee or
tea with some of your favoriteclients to catch up.
Pay for the coffee or tea ifyou must, not too expensive.
But what this is going to do isgive you a morale booster.
(10:01):
You're going to work withpeople who the thing that you
have in common with them is thatyou help them buy or sell a
home and hopefully, if you'regoing out with them to grab
coffee, you have some rapport.
And being with these clientswho are excited, who had a great
experience with you, chattingwith them about what's happening
in their lives at home, cansometimes give you a much needed
(10:21):
morale boost to realize thatagain your services are
necessary.
You will sell another home.
You will find clients likethese, clients who are fun and
easy and delightful to work with, and giving your brain a face
to face interaction experiencewith that can go a long way to
breaking out of these thoughtspirals and thought patterns.
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We end up in Plus, it's fun.
Number six this is to thinkabout how you feel you are as an
agent.
Do you think there are areas ofweakness that you have that you
could strengthen?
For example, do you think thatmaybe your knowledge of
contracts could use somefreshening up, or your awareness
(11:02):
of what's happening in yourcity and new developments and
projects that might be happening?
Is there a class you can takeat a title company.
In my area, title companiesoffer classes all the time.
Some are for CE credits, someare not.
They're just informationalclasses.
Not only do they put you kindof back in real estate mode,
you're getting dressed up,you're going to the title
company, you're meeting otherfellow agents out there and
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you're learning something.
Especially if you feel like youhave a gap in knowledge,
identify what that gap inknowledge is and then seek to
fill that, because again itgives you autonomy and agency
over your own mind, over yourskill set and over your business
.
I recently I think it was lastyear took a tree class from an
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arborist here in Austin.
It was extremely insightful andI gained some knowledge and I
learned fun things about thetrees in the area and of course
I learned you know, from thereal estate perspective the
value it adds or doesn't add tohomes.
What happens if a clientpurchases a home with a
beautiful tree on it but thetree has a disease and the tree
dies?
What?
What do you do in thatsituation?
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Provided for some really greatjust conversation and kind of
pulled me out of a little bit ofa rut that I had felt myself
falling into around that time.
These classes are usually freeor are really low costs in my
area, like $10 if you want tosee e-credit.
So that is another tip I havefor working through these
thought spirals when your braintells you your brain is being a
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jerk.
And here is my seventh tip,which I may not resonate with
everyone, but as I was thinkingthrough it I'm like I'm going to
throw it out there.
For the people that itresonates with, use it.
For the people that doesn't,don't use it, which is to ask
your manager, your bestie inreal estate, maybe some of the
(12:48):
best clients who are friends ofyours for three reasons why they
think you're awesome at yourjob or traits that make you good
.
You could text them or saysomething like hey, I just had a
really rough transaction.
Would you humor me and sharethree words that come to mind
when you think of me as a realestate agent?
Or, hey, I feel a little sillyasking this, but I could use a
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boost right now and you'resomeone I trust.
Would you mind sharing a coupleof things that worked well when
I helped you buy your house?
Obviously, only ask peopleyou've built up good rapport
with, but I think you'd besurprised at the feedback you
get when you are one, able to bea little bit vulnerable about
where you're at, to reach out topeople that you trust.
And three, let them give youfeedback.
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So you're not, you're not theone giving your brain feedback,
other people from the outsideare, which is even harder for
your brain to deny than youtelling yourself something.
That was a lot of information.
Let's recap a little bit aboutwhat we learned today.
Information let's recap alittle bit about what we learned
today.
So we one talked about what itis that makes our brain be a
jerk sometimes.
Mainly that's trying to keep ussafe, and the reason that our
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brain has resorted to thisstrategy is because it doesn't
really have the tools to useother kinds of strategies.
Then I talked through seventips and thoughts that I have,
questions you can ask yourselfand practices you can do to help
break your brain out of thesethought spirals, or thought
knots, as I call them, and tryto loosen them up a little bit
it's not like they will go away100% but to sort of start
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feeding it additionalinformation so that it's harder
and harder for your brain tostick to that original story
that it's been caught up in thattells you that you suck at your
job.
I hope that these tips have beenhelpful.
So thank you for joining me forthis episode of the Rested and
Rich Real Estate Agent.
If you found this episodeuseful, it would mean a lot to
me if you would share it with acolleague in your office, and if
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you're interested in one-on-onesessions to dive deeper into
this work, send me a message andwe can chat.
All my information is in theshow notes below.
I should also have some groupworkshops and coaching
opportunities coming up herelater in the year, so I'm really
excited about rolling those out.
Stay tuned for more information.
I'll also be posting about itin my newsletter and on my
social media, and also, if youroffice or local board of
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realtors is looking for speakerswho believe that mindfulness
can help us lead richer lives, Iam available for speaking
engagements and group workshopsas well.
Thank you.