Dave Eller is a successful Real Estate Coach, Auctioneer, Author, and Fight MC on Fox Sports and it doesn’t get much cooler than that! Here are his top tips for getting (and staying!) ahead of your competition.
As many working people have found, your ‘day-job’ can consume all your time; so much so that you can get into a rut. You end up doing (and achieving) the same things as everyone else. So, I’ve identified the top 13 things (why stop at 10?) you can do which will set you apart from the competition.
1. Pimp your ride
What do you listen to while you are driving around? Music is great: I love screaming out the lyrics to Khe Sahn as much as anyone, but think how much time you spend in the car. This is a fantastic opportunity to learn. There is a plethora of educational, motivational, and spiritual CDs available to turn your ride into a university on the go.
2. Read real estate books
Educating yourself is essential in this day and age: it doesn’t need to be formal face-to-face education. Understand more about how successful agents thought and the strategies they used by reading books. Learn what others have done to become successful to give yourself a great platform to build upon. Besides specific real estate books, you can find books that outline tips for you to model success from other industries. The book The Eight Habits of Highly Successful People by Jean-Marie Stine is a good one to add to your collection.
3. Dress like the person you want to be
There is an old saying, ‘clothes maketh the man’ (and woman!) What you wear and how you wear it says a lot about you. Some real estate agents look like they got dressed in the dark, or in their car. Be a professional and dress like one. The way you dress does not stop at your ankles. Women know the importance of good shoes. Men need to catch up in this regard. Clean, shiny shoes say you take pride in yourself and what you do.
4. Lose the mobile phone
When it’s time to hit the sack, leave your phone out of the bedroom. Firstly, the effect of the radio waves on our brain is now becoming apparent, and it’s not good. Our phones are close to us all day; I like to put a bit of distance between it for my time of rest. Secondly, many people use the alarm clock on their phone to wake them. From personal experience, when I have to get up at 5am in the winter to go to training, I’m less likely to hit the snooze button if I physically have to walk to the kitchen to turn the alarm off.
5. Keep your word
Real estate agents have a bad reputation for not doing what they said, not following up, not calling back and so on. Don’t make casual promises. Be the agent who is known for keeping their word. Your reputation will lead to repeat business.
6. Allocate some thinking time
Think about ways to do things better, how to provide a better service, how to make yourself stand out. Whether it works best for you in the morning or at night when the madness of the day has subsided, take ome time to yourself to ponder. You never know what you might come up with.
7. Take a moment of nothingness
It is equally important to take a few moments every day to enjoy absolutely nothing. Just like an episode of Seinfeld, it’s the moments of nothing that make it special. Our lives can be very busy, and enjoying some nothing time makes it really something. But it does need to be scheduled into your day, otherwise it will become another thing you didn’t do. Mark it down as an appointment with yourself. It could be the most important appointment you make.
8. Understand the power of visualisation
Top athletes swear by the power of visualisation: seeing themselves winning. This is available to each and every one of us. Dare to dream and see yourself where you want to be. This doesn’t need to take hours: a few minutes each day is sufficient. Make it a morning ritual. Set yourself up for a good day. Set yourself up to win.
9. Sweat a little
A sad fact of our times is the increasing number of people who are becoming obese. Exercise has more benefits than just keeping you looking great: exercise releases endorphins in the body that help you feel great too. Exercise reduces stress, reduces the chance of cardiovascular disease, and increases your ability to lead a sickness-free life so you can have energy to play with your kids, your mates or sell more property. A little is better than none, so just do it!
10. Mind your mind
Studies show that keeping your mind active reduces the risk of it deteriorating as you age. Learning new things is beneficial to maintaining the health of what’s between your ears. Instruments, languages and new concepts challenge your brain to be on top of its game. Speaking of games, Scrabble and chess are sure winners for mental fitness. Write poetry, create songs, read books: keep your brain in mint condition!
11. Practise meditation
An extension of exercising your mind is to meditate. Meditation has been around for thousands of years and is much more than a technique for relaxing. It’s a great way to overcome stress, increase your capacity to think clearly and keep you healthy. Meditation doesn’t require sitting for hours with your eyes closed. It can simply be a few moments a day: done almost anywhere.I recommend the book Teach Yourself to Meditate by Australian meditation teacher Eric Harrison.
12. Become a master of self-management
How much TV are you watching? How much time are you spending on Facebook keeping your friends updated, or trying to beat your highest score on X-Box? There is so much more you can do with your time (all the things mentioned above!) I am not trying to sound like your mother, but if you want to be more successful selling real estate, or anything else for that matter, you have to master self-management. If you want to be the best you can be on X-Box then so be it. If you want to propel yourself to new heights in real estate and become a top performer, then your X-Box will have to suffer. Game over.
13. Wake up!
The other piece to the puzzle of trying to find more time is to wake up earlier. I know…who would have thought? Just half an hour earlier will let you get a few more things done: a morning meditation for ten minutes, followed by ten minutes of nothing time and five minutes of visualisation. That leaves five minutes to practise that new song on your guitar. What a great start to the day! I’m feeling good already.
