I’m Convinced That This is One Big Reason Investors Don’t Succeed…

Let me share a conversation I had with myself this morning:

Me: “Oh cr**, it’s fund drive day at the station. I have to figure out what I’m going to do to raise some money”.

Me: “Well, you have wholesaling school coming up. I wonder if there’s some way to use that. It’s more money than we’ve asked for in the past, I don’t know if it’s something you can convey the value of in a 40-minute radio show with no visual aids. Maybe you can do a big write-up for the station’s web page. Or Drew can come with you and help pitch it. You should call him and see what he thinks. Wait, it’s 5:50 in the morning, he won’t even be up for another 4 hours. I wonder if the station is going to freak out when they hear I want to do a nearly $1,000 pledge item. I’d hate to go the whole hour and not make any money for them. Maybe you should just do Inner Circle subscriptions, that’s worked well in the past. But I hate to do the same thing again. Maybe if I offered a discount or a payment plan on wholesaling school? Ugh, it’s going to be so hard to get through to people how good it is on the radio. But I do want people to be aware of it. Maybe some sort of combination? Inner circle + wholesaling school at a discounted price?… ”

[This goes on, off and on, for another hour and 40 minutes]

Me, to Matt: “Hey, babe, do you think I could offer wholesale school on the fund drive show today and raise more money for the station?”

Matt: “Huh, I don’t know, that’s going to be hard to explain on the air…”

[conversation continues for 10 more minutes]

Me: “Wait a second. This isn’t that important. The station has 20 other segments to raise the money they need. Whether I raise $10 or $1,000, they’re not going out of business. I’ve just spent almost 2 hours worrying about something that won’t have a significant impact on the station, wholesale school registration, or me no matter how well or badly it goes. In a week, I’ll have completely forgotten the outcome no matter what it is. I just wasted a bunch of time fretting over a decision that Just. Doesn’t. Matter. Forget it, I’m doing Inner Circle, because they already have that on the site, we know what gets people to pledge for it, and I can move on to doing the 10 things on my to do list that will actually make me money.”

I’m Guessing that a Lot of Us
Have this Prioritizing Problem…

…and I don’t just mean new investors.

I spent a big chunk of last week in a ‘follow me’ with some of my more advanced coaching students. Most of the people in the room had done AT LEAST 5 deals, and several were in the 20-50 range, and I still heard a lot of angst expressed over things that had a lot of emotional charge, but not a lot of affect on their business. What happens in a Follow Me stays in a follow me, but some of the people were struggling with issues akin to picking the right time management software when their business was suffering from lack of a key staff person.
Newbies do the same thing, and with much more dire results.

At any given moment, there are dozens (if not hundreds) of things that we COULD be, or maybe even SHOULD be, doing in our real estate businesses. But the inability to give to proper weight to the items on that list is less of a problem if your real estate business is already up and running and generating a 6-figure income. It’s a BIG problem if you’re still trying to get to the first deal and the first check.

A good question to ask BEFORE tackling any item on your to-do list is,
“What crucial impact will this have on my business or life?”

       When you do, you might find that you’re about to spend hours doing something because it’s emotionally charged for you, rather than because it’s actually going to move the needle of your business at all.

I couldn’t get away from the whole “What do I [let me remind you] GIVE AWAY to the station this afternoon so they can raise some money” question because

1. I’ve been working with the guys at the station for 20 years, and I don’t want to let them down and I do want to impress them

2. I have a tendency to value the new/experimental over the tried and true

3. I feel a strong responsibility to ‘do my part’ for a broke public radio station that has to hold an extra fund drive this year because, well, running a public radio station costs money.

But had I spent that time working on a creative offer that I’ve needed to put together for 2 days, I would have given that seller a chance to say “Yes” and give me a house with $20,000 in equity, and then I could have just donated a thousand bucks to the station myself.

In other words, it SEEMED much more important than it actually WAS.

When you decide to spend your after-work hours trying to design a logo for your LLC instead of generating leads, that’s an emotional decision (probably based on a subconscious desire to avoid talking to sellers).

When you spend hours trying to decide whether to take classes to become a realtor (despite that fact that 10 different experienced investors and gurus have told you not to bother) instead of hanging bandit signs, that’s an emotion decision (possibly based on an emphasis you or your family put on degrees, licensing etc.).

When you choose to spend hours scrolling through the wholesaling questions on Bigger Pockets, or yet more wholesaling videos on YouTube, rather than just signing up for a complete class that will take you moments to register for and less time to complete than the time you’ve already spent thinking about it, that’s an emotional decision (probably based on fear of making a mistake and wasting money. So check on the refund policy, K?).

When you decide to clean your desk “because it’s driving you crazy” instead of returning that seller call…well, you get the picture.

You have limited time, and endless things you COULD do with that time.

But if your goal is really to make some money and build a real estate business, there are MAYBE 5 key activities that you should be engaged in to move that needle.

Being able to identify and implement that small number of things, and to ignore the impulses that try to carry you off because you’re anxious, or uncomfortable, or downright scared by what you need to do next is, I suspect, one of the key differences between people who get rich and people who don’t.

There are 2 steps to building this habit:

1. Understanding what the key needle movers in your business are; these can be gleaned from classes, colleagues, and setting goals

2. Really considering your To Do list before jumping into the thing that feels the best, or removes the biggest bad feeling, or can be scratched off the list the quickest.

This week, ask yourself the question each day, “What can I do that will get me a deal this week?”.

If you don’t know the answer, you’re not educated enough.

If you know the answer but aren’t focused on doing that thing, you’re not prioritizing your time like you should be.