Goal Getting

Hey all you future 4X’ers out there.  Thank you for joining us once again on 4X Radio.  The 4X Formula was invented by me, Kelly Johnston.  I have 22 years experience in the Real Estate Industry.  I have made a bunch of mistakes and was forced to figure it out on my own in a small town in British Columbia, Canada.

I work and live in an area a little over an hour from Vancouver, BC.  Our population is right around 90,000 people and there are about 320 Real Estate professionals working in my community.  I have owned companies.  I have owned real estate companies.  I have built up a large real estate business as the “team leader” and had a secretary, and a partner and 2 Buyers agents.  I have been on that side of it.  I understand the temptation to have a desire for a large-scale business.  Been there.  But I learned the truth.

I have made a lot of money and I have lost a lot of money.  I have been bankrupt twice in the last 25 years.  I have been brought to my knees many times.  BUT through it all.  I have always set goals.  Goal Setting and then Goal Getting.  Anyone can set goals.  Are you a “Goal Getter”?  Let’s talk about goal setting and then Goal Getting.

I now work with my wife every day and we have a business now that is more profitable than ever.  We make more money.  We keep more money than ever before.  I have set and re-set goals for so many years now that I have now, formulated and created, and fine tuned, a system for goal setting.  I know what I need to know.  I understand the parameters that need to be understood, for the Real Estate business in particular, which is really important.  I know what I need to know.  I understand why a lot of Real Estate Agents don’t set goals.  Its hard.  It is difficult to determine what needs to be achieved.

Our time lag between meeting someone, and then getting paid is a moving target, right?  The various variables that are interwoven into each transaction.  The different types of real estate transactions that can take place.  Each Seller and each Buyer has different needs.  Different lifestyle changes, and various reasons that Sellers are selling.  Each buyer that you meet has a different need, a different challenge and a ultimately a different timeline.

When you list a home for sale, is it guaranteed to sell?  Does the outcome of the sale effect what they will be purchasing?  Yes.  Does that effect the timeline?  When they make their next purchase?  Some transactions can complete from start to finish within 30 days….some can take 6 months.  So, there are a number of variables that effect the goal setting aspect of things.

I talk to other Real Estate Agents all the time.  I ask them about their goals.  I ask them how they set goals and, just about every time, the goal is usually about the number.  The end of the year number.  How much commissions they want to earn by the end of the year.  Or they kind of know what they did last year and are hoping they at least get that much, and maybe a little more.

Here’s the challenge with that type of goal setting.  Once in a while they will have a “good year” and then that becomes the new benchmark… But, if it isn’t a good year then they resolve themselves to accept whatever happens, if it doesn’t happen.  See the problem there.  They are giving up control- to outer circumstances.  It was a good year!  Or a Bad year, for whatever reason, or whatever –  Fill in the blank – influences, that are outside of their control.  The “Wave” of the market.  The Hot Markets or Cool Markets become what we talk about.  The economy.  The Bank Rates.  The Media.  The Government.  Jobs.  Immigration.  These, all influence our real estate markets in the areas that we work.  This is happening all the time.  Our world is ever-changing.

How do we insulate ourselves against all of that.  That’s the true challenge isn’t it.  Wouldn’t it be great if you were only affected in a positive way when the bumper years happen?  SO you meet your goal And the business from the HOT market is bonus, over and above your goals.  If you are positioned well with the right product and target market of clients that were responsible for the biggest amount of sales in your area, anyway, then that should hopefully happen.  Right?  What if that is your game plan all the time?

I admit, that there are some years that are hotter than others.  Its true.  It does happen.  But what if, that was just bonus.  Your Goals that you set out to achieve should be taking care of all aspects of “Why” you are setting the goals, in the first place.  Right.  That is how it should be.  In the “regular markets” or “slower market”, there is always business to be done.  This is the nature of the real estate business.  People are always buying and selling homes.  Let the other Agents struggle and succumb to “the Markets”.  Do you rely on “The Market” to dictate how your year will go?

With all of this in mind, I have this visual.  This visual of a leaf floating in a creek.  Have you ever watched a leaf floating in a creek?  Where the water is flowing well, the leaf moves along with the current of the water.  Sometimes it’s a little slower.  Sometimes it moves really fast depending on the direction of the current.  Depending on how deep the water is.  Depending on how steep the water is flowing.  The angle.

But the littlest thing will affect its travels.  A little twig, that has fallen down into the water and lodged against a rock will actually stop the leaf.  If the little current brings the leaf out of the flow and it sets up against a rock or a bunch of other leafs then its fate is sealed.  There is nothing the leaf can do.  Unless a big rainfall occurs, or an animal comes along and disturbs the area, creating an opportunity to dislodge the leaf, it then, may have a chance of flowing along again.  There is zero control.  Its fate is in the hands of the creek and the outer influences around the creek.

Does this sound familiar?  We were just talking about the things that influence the real estate market in our areas, right?  This is the visual that I conger up in my mind.  Then I ask myself,  “AM I acting like a leaf floating in a creek?”  I don’t want to be a leaf floating in a creek.  I don’t want that.  I can’t really think of a parallel analogy that creates an opposite visual using the subject matter of, things in a creek, but I know, I don’t want to be that.  I don’t want to be a leaf floating in a creek with absolutely no control over being stuck or getting caught up.

Does that make sense?  So, what can we focus on?  What can we set goals for?  What can we do to affect the eventual outcome that we want?  Are we even setting goals correctly to activate our minds to keep us in tune, to the opportunities, that will help us achieve those goals?  Once we set the goals correctly then we begin to distill down the activities that are most fruitful that will cause us to achieve the end result, that we set out to achieve.  We then begin to design systems in order to help us achieve those goals faster, and, with more certainty.  That is the missing part right?  The certainty.

Would you like to be certain that you will achieve those end results if you do the actions, that get to those results.  How do you make a plan, to bring certainty into your overall game plan?  These are the questions that you need to be asking.  This is how you get to the place where setting goals is actually effective to your daily work ethic.  Your weekly goals, your monthly goals and ultimately your annual goals.  What do you need to do today?  What needs to be achieved today?  What are the most effective activities that you can do today?  Feel the power of that?  Do you feel the sense of control that brings?

The real estate business is not rocket science.  But there is a type of science involved with achieving the goals that you set out to achieve in the real estate business.  There is no business, like the real estate business.  We cannot use the strategies of other business without tweeking them a bit to fit our unique business.  Do you agree with that?  But it takes trial and error.  IT takes screwing things up and then figuring things out.  IT takes a lot of work and intention to get to the point of understanding this business to the point of being able to teach people to be successful.  This is what I have spent 22 years doing!!  I am still doing it!

It’s a formula.  A secret formula if you will.  Once you know the formula, then you can just apply the formula.  In our 4X Formula Real Estate training course we go over all aspects of real estate business and in the beginning we do a whole module on Goal Setting.  Setting Goals for the Real Estate business.  But even more so, I have designed the goal setting so that it is a system that works in concert with what we teach in the 4X Formula Real Estate training course.  It all works together to create that Certainty that we all want.

This is the missing link in our business isn’t it?  This is what we all want.  Some sort of Certainty.  The Lag Measures and the Lead measures and how to measure them to literally plan your success.  This is what we teach.  Go to 4XFormula.com and learn more about how we can literally 4X your business and help you create a fantastic lifestyle operating as a Real Estate professional.

Any one of you listening right now can have it.  You can literally design your business and your life with more certainty applying the strategies and tactics that we teach.  I have done it in a little town that you probably have never heard of with a population that has now grown to around 90,000 people.  I am nothing special.  I am a normal guy.  If I can do it, you can do it.  I want that for you.

We are very, very close to releasing the course.  Just a little bit more fine tuning on the back end and we are good to go.  I am really, really excited to finally get this to you.  Go to 4X Formula.com and get on the waiting list and we will see you on the other side.  Otherwise keep coming back for more tidbits and applying the principals and you will have a great business.

That’s it for today.  Take care and Make a great Day!