The right coach can light the path to success
Since you read this column, you already know that it just isn’t
that difficult to get a real estate license. Whoa, doggies! You can
even take all the required coursework on-line from the comfort of
your home.
The trick is to make a living as a real estate agent. It is a
well-known saw in the industry that 20 percent of the agents make
80 percent of the money. Many agents only do one or two
transactions per year. It seems like it would be more, doesn’t it?
After all, you have friends and relatives and co-workers who know
you and like you and undoubtedly they would use your services as an
agent.
The right coach can light the path to success
Since you read this column, you already know that it just isn’t that difficult to get a real estate license. Whoa, doggies! You can even take all the required coursework on-line from the comfort of your home.
The trick is to make a living as a real estate agent. It is a well-known saw in the industry that 20 percent of the agents make 80 percent of the money. Many agents only do one or two transactions per year. It seems like it would be more, doesn’t it? After all, you have friends and relatives and co-workers who know you and like you and undoubtedly they would use your services as an agent.
Well, think again. One of your best friends is married to someone whose boss has an agent spouse. Or your friends are uncomfortable with having you know their home is mortgaged to the hilt and their credit rating is low. The person in the cubicle next to yours at your former workplace has a sister-in-law in the business. Your uncle has an agent he has used forever, and doesn’t want to put his investment properties in your inexperienced hands.
If you do manage to get established, many agents drop out of the game at about the five-year mark. They get tired of the continual ego-bruising inherent in the job. They realize their kids barely recognize them. The money isn’t as good as they thought, what with the cost of ads, dues, supplies, health insurance, errors and omissions coverage, etc. Basically, they get burned out and throw in the towel.
So how do active, long-term agents remain sane? (What do you mean, they’re not?) Each must find his or her own way.
Many agents look to their brokerages for support. Most large offices have good professional training. Some, like Intero, add support for the agent’s personal life as well. For instance, we have a marvelous masseuse (Hello, Angela) who comes in once a week. And lately we’ve added a personal trainer and nutritionist (Mary Margaret, I’m talking to you) to help us create and maintain a healthy lifestyle. A dry cleaner (Yoo-hoo, Claude) picks up and delivers. We have a mail service (Hi, Ron). We have a mentor program (Here’s looking at you, Dana) and a weekly on-going professional education (Millard, you are such a bully) and motivational time (Now I’m talking to myself).
But isn’t there more to life? After all, it’s a journey, not a destination. For many agents, the solution lies in getting a real estate coach. After all, top athletes have trainers. Successful business leaders have mentors. It just makes sense to grow all you can, and be the best you can be in the brief time we have on earth.
But what does a real estate coach do, anyway? Coaching teaches Realtors to create the career and life follow individual passions, priorities, and talents in order to become more successful and productive real estate agents.
I signed up for coaching a few years ago. The coaching company I use is Buffini and Company, the largest real estate and coaching company. Its founder, Brian Buffini, came from Ireland in 1986 and became a successful real estate agent in San Diego. People kept asking him how he did it, and he would share his insights with them. He discovered this was his true passion, his transcendent purpose in life. So he started an organization to coach others in order to spread “the good life,” as he calls it.
His program takes coaching to a new level and has five circles: Spiritual, Family, Business, Financial, and Personal. Brian believes it is only in maintaining a healthy balance in all of these that we flourish as human beings. What good is it to make money if you are morally bankrupt, fighting with family, spending every dime you make, and not taking time for health concerns and personal enjoyment?
Members create budgets, write goals with careful analysis of what might block achievement, and are held accountable by a coach. In addition, Turning Point Retreats educate and motivate agents, a Master Mind event for the entire family introduces the same principals to the lives of spouses and children, and a Peak Performer yearly intensive seminar cuts to the essence of each person as it is only in facing our fears and understanding our deepest values that we become who we were made to be.
Tim and I are attending this year’s Peak Performers in Bermuda. Before you turn green with envy, let me tell you each day starts with an hour-long exercise session at 6:15 (yes, that’s a.m.) and ends after a working dinner at 8:30 p.m. I am blessed my family has joined me in this exciting adventure of growth. We seek to be the best we can, always, whether it be in the role of mother, father, daughter, Realtor, superintendent of schools, student, volunteer.
Brian’s company has expanded to include lenders, financial planners, escrow officers, insurance professionals, and other businesses which rely on referrals and word-of-mouth to grow. If you want to find out more about coaching, check out www.BrianBuffiniandCompany.com.
And be kind to your Realtor!
