Mitch 's Blog

I have had a few Agents email me recently asking me about Internet leads.  They usually say that they don't feel like you could possibly take care of your customers when you capture so many leads.  They ask, "Aren't they just a lead to you instead of a customer?"  Absolutely not I say to them!  For some reason many Agents feel that an Internet lead is different than getting a floor call or a call on an ad you placed in the magazine or a sign call.  Every sale you have ever had was a lead prior to becoming your customer.  Yes, your husband or wife's friend that decided to use you as their Realtor after you contacted them was a lead.  Your sign calls are all leads.  Your floor calls....yup, they are all leads.  So why would you consider your Internet leads any different. 

I believe it's all in how you treat your leads to turn them into customers. At Tropical Realty of Suntree in Melbourne Florida, we treat every lead that comes into our office regardless of how it gets there, as a potential customer.  With our "over the top" customer service program, everyone who inquires on my site is treated with tremendous customer service.  Not only do our leads turn into customers, they come back and refer people to us all the time.  In fact, just about every sale that comes to my office has come from an Internet lead...even all our listings!  Check out my happy staff at www.melbournehomesearch.com and you can see how happy we are because we treat our leads/customers so great!

So when someone says to you that treating leads systematically is wrong.  Tell them that you probably give your customers better service and produce more volume than they could ever think of producing.  Our business is Real Estate sales.  Sales is all about lead generation and lead conversion.  How you get your leads has nothing to do with how good you do at converting them.  Either way, you are converting leads to customers.  Take care of your leads and they will turn into customers that take care of you!

I read an article today that Realtor.org put out talking about the 6 best practices of online leads.  The author is a great guy and knows his stuff.  However, he misses the boat on this one.  He spends a good amount of time discussing how important it is not to call your leads.  This is completely wrong.  As most of you know my Internet program through either 100MPH Marketing or my eHomes Realty Network, the reality is if you are not calling your leads which supply a phone number, you are letting buyers and sellers slip through your fingers.  The worst thing you can do is not make use of the information you are given to help your customers buy their home.  Of the over 20,000 people we have in our database, I can probably count on one hand the amount of times a person who supplied their phone number to us that was upset when we called.  In fact this is what we normally hear: "You are the first Realtor to actually follow up with us." They are very excited and happy to talk about their real estate needs!

When I first starting figuring out Internet leads back in 2002, I didn't make phone calls.  I only corresponded with people that contacted me.  My first year of Internet Marketing I sold over 50 homes, but more importantly I lost more than 50 sales by not making phone calls.  And these are only the ones that emailed me letting me know they bought a house.  With these stats in hand, I started on the phone.  What I found was awesome!  Everyone wanted to talk to me and they were very happy I had called.  Many became customers and in fact, we still get many of our customers from 2002 and 2003 who are currently buying homes with us because of our contact.

This brings me to something that is bothering me more and more.  I have been reading all these things from people that are supposed to be Internet experts in this business.  No offense to the author of this article on Realtor.org or any other writers, but I would like to know their stats.  I want to know what makes these people who are making millions of dollars off my fellow Realtors by talking about stuff that they are not really experts.  For instance, I went to an Internet Seminar last year put on by one of the biggies in the Real Estate Internet world.  I have to tell you, I know more in my pinky than this guy knows in total.  Not only was I very disappointed in what he taught with his panel of Internet experts (they knew less than him) but I was more upset about the amount of tapes, books and websites he was selling with information that was very basic and really a waste of money and time for any agent.  He sold a ton of stuff and all I could think was how tainted these Realtors will be when they read this stuff and get no results.  It's old school Real Estate trying to keep up incorrectly with the Internet.  Scary!

Why am I saying this?  I'm just getting aggravated with these people.  The next time someone wants to tell you or sell you on their expert abilities on the Internet ask them for their stats.  If they can't tell you how many homes they have sold or their team has sold by using their stuff, run!  I hear so many Agents on Active Rain complaining about how they were ripped off by this company or that guy.  The question to ask is very simple.  How many homes have you sold using your techniques.  Not stats, no deal!

Oh, by the way, last year my staff of 14 sold 193 homes on the Internet.  This year we are projecting at around 225-235 homes and maybe higher.  All this in the worst Real Estate market this area has seen in years.  I'm not sure if that makes me an expert on Internet lead capture and conversion, but I will put my stats up against anyone else out there!  If you have questions, ask me.  I'll be glad to help you as much as I can.  Of course unless you sell homes in Brevard County Florida because that would take business away from my Agents! :)

I'm sorry for going off on all those Internet Experts out there as I know there are a few of you who like myself get it and understand the relationship between the Internet and Real Estate.  For those of you who do get it, understand it, and truly want to help others, this is not meant for you.  The others, you know who you are, please be understanding that taking advantage of people that don't know any better is not only unethical, its just down right now nice.  Realtors please be careful what you pay for out there.  There are a lot of people who prey on Realtors in this type of market.  Be the judge.  usually if it sounds to good to be true....you know the rest of the story!

Ok, so the market isn't the best it has been in a long time.  It's been very difficult to find buyers and sellers are still unreasonable.  I was talking to a Realtor the other day that just shocked me.  She said that she had only worked with 2 buyers all year and hasn't sold a home all year.  Firstly, I my curiosity was peaked to try to understand how someone who works full time could not have any sales this year.  Is this normal? 

I decided to probe a little deeper to see how this can be.  I asked her to tell me about her day.  She told me that since she didn't have any business happening, she was working part time in a doctors office for $9 per hour for 4-5 hours per day in the mornings.  Then when she got home she checked her email and had some lunch.  Around 2pm she would check her email once more then go into her Real Estate office and talk about how bad the market is for an hour or so.  They would also talk about how they need to really start figuring out how to make money in this market or they are going to have to quit.   I sat there with my mouth open the entire time. 

In reality, this is probably happening a lot more than I can imagine.  It poses the question I have been asking since I got into this business.  Do Realtors look at themselves as business people or employees of the Broker where they work?  Well the answer couldn't be anymore clearer since the market started this down turn.  While most Realtors have complained about the market, the Realtors and Brokers who had written business plans and sound business models are still making money and keeping alive.  Are they making a fortune like in the 2004 days of fun, probably not.  Are they still in business and preparing for when the market comes back?  Yes! 

The faults:

1.  They don't take their business as a business - This is my job that doesn't pay very well right now.

2.  Don't take responsibility for their failures - It's so easy to fall into the trap of blaming the market for how you are not making money or being busy.

3.  Not willing to invest in their company - It's up to you to decide if you want to grow your business.  There are multiple opportunities out there currently to create revenue streams for Realtors. 

4.  Time Management - As with the woman I talked to above, if you don't go to work every day and work, then you won't succeed.  Just think, the woman above is making about $1,000 a month.  If she actually put that many hours per day into building her business she would make much more than that!

The Fixes:

1.  Start looking at your business as a business.  If you don't have a business plan with goals and a means to obtain those goals, then wake up tomorrow and start.  You can't reach what you can't see!  If you don't write down your goals and visions, then there is no way to get there.

2.  Start making yourself accountable for your time management.  Wake up early and start working.  Committ yourself to working at least 8 hours per day and researching.  All the info you need is at your finger tips on the computer.  Find out what the people in your area that are making money are doing. 

3.  Invest the time and the money.  Starting and running a business costs money.  Once you figure out which avenue you want to pursue, figure out a budget you can afford to spend.  I take 20% of every sale I have and spend it on marketing.  The bigger I got, the more I spent. 

4.  Stop blaming the market.  If you think the market is at fault, you will never be able to win.  The only reason you are not successful right now or at least making a living, is because you are comforted by everyone else being in the same boat.  Stop the negative thoughts and start thinking positive.  The reality is, if you work hard and have a good plan, you will start making money again.

It really comes down to running your business as a business.  We have about 4000 Realtors in my county and I would guess that there are probably 100 actually making money.  It is true, our price per sale is really low ($160k) but that doesn't stop my Agents from working hard to get and retain business.  Most of my Agents have less than 4 years experience and some have only a year of experience.  One thing they all have in common is that they are all selling houses.  That doesn't mean they wouldn't want to sell more, but my worst agent this year has sold 4 or 5 houses.  One of my Agents has 8 closings this month! 

Why are my agents successful and so many other Agents are not?  It really comes down to a good business model, Agents that work very hard, Agents that set goals and plans each year, and they all have a great attitude.  They know if they come in the office with negativity, I'm going to ask them to leave.  My motto this year is "if it aint fun, I aint doing it!".  If you walked into my office on any given day you would see we are all having fun. 

You can too!  If you stopped worrying so much and buying into the negativity, you would be selling houses.  Wake up tomorrow with a smile on your face and start writing down your plan!

Well it's getting closer and coming along quicker than I had thought.  Starting on Monday, The eHomes Realty Network will be available for Brokers to join.  I am very excited about offering Independent Brokers the ability to finally have access to the tools that the Franchises have (actually most of what we have is better!) and to start teaching my member Brokers how to succeed by using the Internet and more.  If you are a Broker or work for a Broker that needs Marketing, Internet, and Business help as well as great training programs for it's agents and so much more,  then drop me a note and let me explain to you how the program works. 

My site won't be finished until the end of the weekend, but you can check it out at www.eHomesRealty.com. 

If you are reading this and can think of anything that you would like to be trained in to further your Real Estate career, drop me a note at mitch@mitchrealty.com.  I'm interested in hearing what you feel are your weakest areas of expertise in Real Estate.

Thanks for taking the time to check out the eHomes Realty Network.  The time has come for us Independent Brokers to come together as one!   

I'm just curious on how people become featured on this site?  Is it based on the points you earn or your ranking in your area?  If you have a second and know, drop me a quick note.  Thanks!

I woke up today...I guess that's really all the matters!  As I looked around my office today I couldn't help notice how hard my agents are working.  My heart goes out to them knowing that they are trying to take on the worst Real Estate Market we have seen in so long.  Yet for as hard as they are all working, and as frustrating as it is for all of them at one point or another, they still haven't lost site.  They know what is important in our business and I'm proud to have all of them as my Agents.

Sometimes I look over them as a proud parent.  Yes it's true that I give them leads every single day, but they still have to make it happen.  It's sort of like a football team.  You can have all the plays, but sometimes you just don't have what it takes to beat the other team who has better plays than you.  They have the plays and I know they are the best.  Even though the average Realtor on my staff has 2.5 years of experience and all with us, they act as seasoned vets!

It's amazing to me all the Agents I read about on here and especially in my market, Brevard County Florida, that just look so negative.  Don't they realize that this business is all about attitude.  Many people have asked me why I got so big in such a short time (I was number one in my office after my second year). The answer is simple.  I smile, I help, I care.  That's it.  Those three tools are the best tools you can have to be successful in this business.  You see, everything you should do revolves around these three things. 

I smile and spend every moment I can thinking about how lucky I am that I am alive today and how lucky my customer is to have the opportunity for the American Dream of Home Ownership.

I help my customers with all I have.  They know this and this is why I never had to worry to about losing a customer to another Agent.  When you do your best to help your customer, you will certainly get paid in the end.  Never think about the money, think about the joy of knowing you did the best job you could to help your customers.

I care so much about all my customers.  I will do anything for them and go out of my way to make sure they have the best possible Real Estate experience I can share.  They know I care.  They know that when they call me 5 times in a day I really don't get upset, I really care about their feelings during this almost always stressful time.  I care about my customers before the sale, and I care about my customers long after the sale.  I don't have to tell my customers I care, they know.

So as I sat there today looking over my Agents and this awesome Brokerage I have built over the past 3 years, my heart raced with excitment.  It won't be long until these great Agents of mine get to experience a normal market and then their sales will go through the roof.  They have done a great job of hanging on during a time when most of the newer Agents in our market are now working full time jobs some where else.  I thank God every day that I have been blessed by so many wonderful people representing me and my philosophies. 

I just thought I woud share just a day in my life. 

Hi Everyone!

As many of you know, I am opening The eHomes Realty Network in a few weeks.  Things are going great and we are set up to offer Independent Brokers and Teams the ability to have all the franchise tools you would get when buying a franchise without the franchise fees. 

As I move forward toward my opening, I would like your help in making sure I am covering all the bases and needs for my fellow Realtors.  On the site I offer a ton of benefits of membership, but I'm looking to you to help me know if I am missing anything.  Is there anything else, besides what I have listed in the following link, that you would like to see if you were a member of a company like mine. 

Below is my current list of benefits of membership.  Please read them when you have time and let me know if you would like to see additional tools.  The whole idea of this site is to offer Brokers and Teams the ability to compete with the big boys without having to change their name that they have worked so hard to promote as well as spending the thousands of dollars per month in fees. 

Thank you in advance for your help.  I appreciate it!

Member Benefits

·        Internet Consulting - I have been considered one of the true Internet experts in the Real Estate world.  Before you throw your money away on useless programs, talk to me.  This service alone can save you thousands of dollars and its all part of your membership. 

·        Website Design and Consulting - We work with our exceptional website design team who will design your site to your specs.  You will get the best in website content and lead capture.  Already have a site?  That's great!  We will work with you to help make your site the best it can be!

·        Business Consulting - This is the 15^th company that I have started and operated.  I have a wealth of business knowledge in operations, systems, purchasing, hiring, conventional marketing and Internet Marketing.  I can answer most any business question you might have.  If I don't know the answer, I will find it for you.

·        Referral Network - As we grow eHomes Realty Network nationally, so will your referral network grow.  We will only be accepting a few Brokerages from each County as we don't want to share all our information with everyone.  You will know when you refer someone to a member of our network that they were a Brokerage we felt would be an asset to our members.  I believe we all can help each other.

·        Online Sales Training - All of our training has been broken out into 10-15 minute training modules available both in video (coming in July 2008) and in a downloadable manual to give your Agents.

·        Discounted In-House Training - Currently we are offering our membership a 25% discount on in-house training.  One of our trainers will come to your office and train your staff.  This usually takes two days.
 

·        Marketing Forum - Through the eHomes Realty Network website, you will have the opportunity to post questions and answers on a variety of marketing needs.

·        Business Forum - As with the Marketing Forum, you will be able to post your questions and answers on any business scenario you might have.

·        Volume Buying - One advantage of being a member is the ability for us to establish volume buying deals with many national vendors for office supplies, computers, marketing and more.

·        Product Testing Ground - Since we have tested many products, we will have an on going list of products that either we have tested or one of our members has tested.  We will add the product and allow our members to write reviews.  If we haven't yet tested a product, there is a good chance that one of our members might have tested the product. We are all here to help each other!
 

·        National Brand Recognition - We are branding our name, marketing and advertising nationally for increased recognition of your company with buyers and sellers.

·        Recruiting Programs - We will provide you with training and programs for successfully recruiting more high producing agents to your company.

·        Mergers & Acquisitions - We provide an M&A service to help you acquire or merge other companies into yours.  That means more agents and an immediate increase in revenue and profits.  We provide training programs as well as full services to guide you through this process.  We find the companies for you!  We can also assist you, if and when you decide to sell your company.

·        Continued Growth - We are not stopping with these great opportunities.  At eHomes Realty Network, we are committed to making this the one stop shop for all your Real Estate needs.  There is no longer any reason to join a franchise when you will have all the franchise benefits and more from The eHomes Realty Network

Thanks again for your help.  I really appreciate it.  Please feel free to check out our site, it's not done yet, at www.ehomesrealty.com.

This is a post I put on my blog for my customers.  I received a ton of emails from our customers with many of them changing their minds on looking for shortsales.  They appreciated that I saved them a ton of time and frustration.  My guess is your customers may already have had the misfortune of not getting a short sale they waited months to hear about.  Hopefully they learned and are now looking for homes that are not short sales!

Short Sales - Are they worth the wait?

It's Sunday night and I should be sleeping, but there is so much happening in the Real Estate world right now it's hard to go to sleep. As most of you have seen, Short Sales have now become very popular. Currently about 25% of all our listings are Short Sales.

First, let's spend a minute and explain exactly what is a Short Sale? Let's say you bought your home in 2005 for $300k. Three years later the market has crashed and the home you went out on the limb to buy is now worth $200k. To make matters worse, you may have bought your home with zero money down and an adjustable rate mortgage to boot. Your rate has gone up and that hope of your home going up in value $100k like your friends did only a couple of years ago is gone. You now qualify as so many do these days, to ask the bank to let you sell the home for the current market value of $200k. Once approved by the bank, you can now list your property to sell. So, a short sale is selling a home for less than what you owe on it. The seller has to prove to the bank they are a hardship case.

The benefit as a seller is they have the opportunity to get themselves out of their bad investment. It will still hurt their credit, but not quite as much as a foreclosure. In many cases the bank will not let you out of the home unless you sign a note saying you will pay the difference back to the bank. Most of the people put in this situation will choose to foreclose because they don't have the money to pay the bank. However, most banks are not asking for a note and they realize, in hind sight of course, that they should have been a little more conservative when deciding who they should or shouldn't give loans.

The benefit to the buyer, or at least the perceived benefit, is they will get a great deal on a property. Granted, there are some great deals to be had through Short Sales. However, most of the banks are not going to take much of a hit below current market values. Many times the bank will receive offers, then do an appraisal on the property to determine if they will accept any offers.

The Problem

It all sounds so simple doesn't it? Well it isn't! Short Sales have proven to cause a lot of heart break and distress. Let me tell you about a couple that we have dealt with recently.

The first couple put an offer of the home of their dreams. They fell in love with this home from the moment they walked through the front door. Their offer was full price based on the advertised listing price. They were very excited. The offer was submitted to the bank the following day. At this point we hadn't done many Short Sales and when we had, they were handled within a few days at most. So we waited for the banks answer....and waitied....and waited. Six months later we finally heard that the bank would not accept the offer. Yes, you read correctly, six months later. After some quick thinking from my Agent, she was able to convince the bank to take the offer. Our customers were full of emotions going from depressed to very excited again. Everything from there until closing went great. Our customers had their home inspection ($300), Termite Inspection ($75), appraisal ($300) and survey ($350). The got to closing and the seller found out she was going to have to sign a note for the difference in the short sale...around $57k. She refused and walked out of the closing room leaving our customers with their mouths hanging down and the tears flowing. They were devastated. To make things even a little worse, the next day the seller said she would sign. Our customers emotions were doing what you would expect by now. The got to closing and the seller again refused to sign. They were destroyed. Don't worry, there was a very happy ending to the story. We found them another house they loved even more and they closed in 10 days through our mortgage company. Everyone was happy in the end.

The second story won't be as long. It's basically the same as the first story in the beginning. They fell in love with the home and put an offer $3k above the asking price. We thought for sure they would get this home. After waiting for about three weeks, the bank came back and said they wanted $265k. This is $8,000 higher than our customers offer and $11,000 that the other Realtor had it listed in the MLS. Our customer was extremely upset and thought it was a bait and switch by the listing Realtor. The reality is the banks will not give us the dollar figure that they will take until we bring them an offer. Realtors can only do their best at guessing what the bank will take and list it around that price. It's really a mess.

The point I"m trying to make here is that Short Sales sound good on the outside but you have to be prepared to wait a very long time and possibly not get the home or pay more than you had offered. The banks are understaffed trying to handle an ever growing number of homes coming to them for Short Sales.

Now let's go back to the beginning of the conversation when we talked about the situation inwhich one can try to sell as a Short Sale. The reality is that the bank is not going to take less than market value in most cases. You are going to pay the same price for this home as you might with a regular resale with no issues.

My Advice

So what happens if you fall for a Short Sale home? Keep looking is what I've told most of our customers. You can put an offer on the Short Sale home, but you should keep looking for your perfect home while waiting for the answer from the bank. Chances are, with the amount of homes on the market, you will find another home with not so much baggage as the Short Sale home. In the end you will pay approximately the same amount of money for either home.

I know that everyone wants to get the best deal they can get. That is human nature and the American way! However, there are better ways to get good deals then doing a Short Sale. For instance, there are so many builders who have homes for sales less expensively than most resale homes. Also, look at homes where the owner has bought their home before 2002. Chances are they didn't pay much for their home and even wtih the market crash, they still have plenty of equity. The more equity they have, the better chance you have of buying the home at a better price. Of course if they don't have to move, they won't be going down to much either. But if the do have to sell, they have the flexibility to lower than price.

Hopefully that will clear up any thoughts and or questions that you may have had on Short Sales. I know it can get quite confusing out there. Believe me, when this first started happening we were all confused and we sell houses for a living. Now that we have done so many of them, we can help you though with ease. However that doesn't make the bank go any faster. We can just prepare you better for the possible heartache you might feel. So take my advice...Make your Short Sale offer if you want, but keep looking for your ferfect home. I know we have one available for you right now.

If you are like me, you are sick and tired of working your butt off to help your buyers who insist on buying a short sale.  You and I both know that 65% of these offers never come through for our buyers yet when one falls apart, they are quite willing to try to get the next great deal!

Below is something that my Agents give all our customers.  It has helped us tremendously.  I am also going to write another post in a minute that will also give you tools to help your customers understand that they are setting theselves up for disappointment in most cases.  Also, I know there are a few of you out there that are very successful with short sales.  Personally, I would never list a property without a deliverable price.  Just think, you market your properties and spend money on your listings only to bring a full price offer and have it rejected by the bank.  I would rather help people buy or sell their homes that have control of their homes.  I guess that's just my personal feelings!

Are you sure you want to buy a short sale home?

 Well the short sale market is in session and there are a lot of buyers getting very frustrated. It seems no matter what I say; people are still listening to the media telling them to buy foreclosures or short sales.

My goal is not to tell you to avoid short sales like the plague, but to make sure you understand the negatives to the short sale.

First, based on last month sales, short sales are only about 3%-5% lower than regular sales. They are not really much of a bargain. Basically they are selling at market rate. Based on the amount of time involved and the frustration, that savings can quickly be lost.

So why am I so down on Short Sales? The biggest issue is that they are an unknown. I will point a few of the issues below:

1. In most cases, the soonest you will hear if your offer was accepted is 45 days or more.

2. The listing price has nothing to do with the actual price that the bank will accept. The bank does not give Realtors a deliverable price at the time of the listing.  The Bank will not give out a price until they have received offers.  (Many Agents are using short sales as a means to capture buyers.  They list the homes at a price that there is no way the bank will accept the offer, but the listing agent captures many emails and phone calls about that very low priced home.  Ethical?  I don't think so!)

3. Many buyers are offering the bank much lower than the listed price. The reality is, the bank will be selling that home at very close to market rate. They will do an appraisal on the property prior to accepting any offer.

4. While you are waiting for an answer on your offer, the listing remains active and the bank is usually receiving multiple offers.  (This is against MLS rules but since most Real Estate Boards around the country are not sure what to do with short sales, they simply let this rule slide.  According to our MLS Rules, they are supposed to be marked contingent while the sale is contingent on bank approval.)

5. When the bank finally does come back with an answer, there usually is no chance for a counter offer; they usually accept the best offer. (That is if any are acceptable at all)

6. The bank will usually turn down most offers that are asking them to pay anything toward closing costs.

7. The bank will usually not do any repairs on the property...they are mostly "as is" contracts.  Many of these homes may need a substantial amount of work.

8. The bank still may require the seller to sign a promissory note to pay the difference. So after all this time and potentially at the closing table, the seller may walk away from the deal.   At that point you are right where right back to the beginning of your home search.

9.  Based on my office stats, less than 35% of our Short Sale offers are approved by the bank.  Many of our offers are at full or over the listed price.   

Have you ever wondered how some people in this business seem to get ALL the business while most of the Realtors are struggling to get by?  Have you ever wanted to be one of the 20% that actually earn a great living even when the market is slow? 

As with most everything, only 20% of the Agents out there to 80% of the business.  Real Estate is no difference.  In fact, it may be as low as 10% of the Agents are doing 90% of the business, but I think I'll stay with my 20% comment!

I did a test about two years ago with both myself and my agents.  Keep in mind, at the time I was averaging about 14-16 hour days 6 days a week.  Sunday's is my wife's day since I am a workaholic.  I pased an hourly day planner to all of my Agents and for 7 days we all agreed to keep track of our hours and what we did, not only per hour, but broken down by the minutes.  We all documented our complete work day for 7 days.  What we found out was very scary, sad, enlightening and possibly one of the most important discoveries for our entire office.  We found out we don't really work as much as we think we do.  In fact, we work about half as much as we thought we did. 

Ok,  so this really bugged the heck out of me as I was feeling like quite the slacker.  After all, I preach work ethic all the time to my Agents and here I am as guilty as all of my Agents.  The reality was, all of us were at about 50% and some were even worse.  We learned that we spend way to much time being busy with not enough time actually getting business done.  My suggestion to you is to try this.  If you are not getting the results you desire, take a week and write down eveything you do during your work hours.  If you normally work 8 hours, fill in the minutes or 10 hours, fill in the blanks.  It really doesn't matter how many hours you think you work, you will find out, most likely, that you are not working as hard as you think you are!

My average of 15 hour days turned out to be right around 8 hours.  In other words, I wasted 6-8 hours per day.  Leanring this changed my work day and work week.  I realized that I could get the same amount of work done in less hours if I spent my work hours....working!  I immediately went to work changing my ways as did many of my Agents.  Some of my Agents managed to stay on track and they have excelled in their business.  Others were on track for a bit and then went back to their old ways. Because of what I learned, along with a couple of life changing experiences, I now accomplish more in a week working just 10 hour days 5 or 6 days per week.  Just as important, I actually have a life!  What a concept.  Ok now those of you who know me well know that I am spending a lot more hours working right now to launch my two new companies.  Once that happens, I will go back to my 50 - 60 hour productive work week!

So what am I trying to teach you here today?  Why am I trying to get you to do this anyway?  It's really because I care about your success.  One of my biggest fullfillments in my life is the ability to help others succeed.  It really is what drives me on a day to day basis...not to mention that it's wicked fun!  Can you tell I'm from Boston with that statement?  The reality is, if you can't get control of your hours then how can you get control of your productivity.  If you truly work 50 hours a week in this business, you can be successful.  Work ethic, true work ethic, not being busy work ethic, goes so far in accomplishing your goals.  If you look in the mirror and can say you work 10 hours per day 5 or 6 days per week, then you should be seeing the fruits of your labor.  You have it in you to be one of the top 20%.  What's the difference between the top 20% and the rest of the 80%?  Work ethic.  They put the time in that it takes to be successful in this business.  You can too!  Next time I'll talk about time management which will help you become better at....managing your time!