Money Loves Happy

Indulge me for a moment.  After all, I’m probably a lot older than you — which means I might be wiser or maybe just senile.  In either case the proper thing to do is to cut me some slack, give me the benefit of the doubt, go easy on me.  I say all this because I’m about to become  less business-like and more personal and it makes me a little nervous.

I’ve spent a lot of time wandering this world and I have come to believe that abundance is pretty much all around us.  I picture it as a great river of money flowing just above our heads.  The trick is to find ways to reach up and pull some of it down.  That’s what we’re all trying to DO:  pull some of that money down and put in our pockets.  So we set goals and work long and hard, we practice, drill and rehearse, and constantly work to improve our performance . . . and so on.   

What I’ve noticed is that working to create abundance (jumping and grabbing at that river), while necessary and important, isn’t nearly as effective as attracting it.  And nothing attracts abundance better than Happiness.  Money loves Happy.  It longs to be with Happy and is constantly looking for a time and place where they can be together.  It’s a love story. 

Happy people have abundant lives; and it starts with getting Happy. 

In other words:   Abundance doesn’t create Happiness.   Happiness attracts Abundance. 

I call Help-U-Sell brokers every day and, as I’ve said, I’m always blown away by the Heroes I find out there.  This Happiness theme runs through those conversations and it comes out as optimism, determination, faith and confidence. 

But let’s also acknowledge reality:  it’s been a very difficult couple of years in this real estate business and the chaos of the recent past has left some wounded and bleeding.   I’ve talked with a few who are so down, so depressed, so defeated that getting anything started is . . . well, it’s probably not going to happen. 

If this is you, if you are one of the crawling wounded who has lost your faith and your hope, then I have something to tell you:

You don’t have a business problem.  You don’t have a sales problem or a market problem.  You don’t have a recruiting problem or a support problem or a cash flow problem.  What you have is a Happiness problem.  And if you can’t find a way to get Happy now, you’re probably not going to turn things around.

********************

How do you get Happy when you’ve forgotten what that feels like?  Well, once again, being positively ancient, I have some ideas.

1.  Move!  Really:  get moving!  If you want to change your emotion, change your motion.  Run.  Dance, Work out.  Walk. Bike. Climb.  I do yoga.  It keeps me from becoming a question mark shaped fossil and makes me sane.

2.  Revive Grattitude.  You want to nurture a spirit of continual gratitude for all of the wonderful blessings you have in your life.  What?  You can’t find any?!?  Then do volunteer work somewhere every week helping those who really have nothing:  orphans, victims of abuse, homeless, mentally ill, infirm, elderly and alone.  Opportunities to reconnect with just how lucky you are, are all around you. 

3.  Picture a positive outcome.  Spend a little time each morning quietly sitting and thinking about what you’re working on.  Picture things working out.  Picture successful results.  Picture these things in detail.  Taste it, feel it, smell it.  It’s unfortunate, but most of us spend much of our quiet time doing  exactly the opposite.  It’s called worry.

4.  Put your subconscious to work.  As you close out your day, take a few minutes to plan the next day.  What are you going to do, when will you do it and what are you trying to accomplish.  Do this within an hour of going to bed and do it in writing.  You may find a good Day Planner will help or you might do better with a yellow legal pad.  If you do this exercise, your brain is going to work on all of that stuff while you sleep through the night.  You’ll find it easier to get started the next day, easier to stay organized, easier to get to yes. 

5.  Get Connected.  Everywhere.  Plug in.  Connect with your family, your friends, your colleagues.  The natural tendency when times are tough is to withdraw and it’s probably the worst thing you can do.  This is especially true with Help-U-Sell family members who are scattered across the country.  You have to seek out ways to connect.  Join the teleconferences on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 11am Pacific Time.  Get a Facebook account and join the 100+ brokers who have become a friend of Help-U-Sell Real Estate.  Every day you’ll get an update of who’s doing what and what everyone is thinking . . . and  you’ll feel part of something bigger than yourself.  Above all:  next time you hear of a Help-U-Sell rally near your home, make reservations and get to it.  Really:  a day spent in a Help-U-Sell rally is better than a whole bottle of Valium! 

Your job is to find a way to get Happy, then stay Happy, then turn Happy into a habit.  It’s step one to an abundant life.

Heroes

Since coming back to Help-U-Sell in June, I’ve talked with a lot of brokers.  What I’ve found is a bunch of heroes.  I mean:  here in the most difficult real estate market in history, we have people working harder than they ever have, managing to survive and even thrive, all the while maintaining an infectious, positive attitude.  There are so many I’d just like to give a medal to.  What they’re doing is no small feat, either.  They are, against great odds, preserving the dream of home ownership for all of us.  I’m always proud to be an American.  Today I’m proud to be a REALTOR.  And I’m even prouder to be part of Help-U-Sell, where courage, commitment and passion for a job well done reign. 

In this challenging real estate universe where only the strong survive, I’ve noticed a few common themes in the attitudes and conversations of  the Help-U-Sell brokers who are making it happen.  First is optimism.  They acknowledge that the market is complex and demanding, but they are up to the challenge and know — really, know — they’re going to make it no matter what.  They seem hungry and open to new ideas and soak up new information as if it were a rare commodity.   Then I see them installing the best ideas into their own businesses.  That says a lot about  flexibility and adaptability. 

I see remarkable confidence and self-reliance.  These are the folks who regard everything at their disposal — even their Help-U-Sell franchise — as a tool for increasing their productivity in the field.  More than a few have said something like:  ‘I love Help-U-Sell.  I can’t imagine working without the brand, the set fee, and the system.  I appreciate corporate and I’m excited about what’s happening but, frankly, I’m going to make this thing work no matter what anybody else does.’  You can see in that statement the heart of the American Entrepreneur.  It’s that dogged determination to take a business on your own shoulders and make it work.

These are the ones who are not looking for a handout, not looking to be rescued or protected.  They’re not looking for some magical new idea to somehow save them.  They don’t have time for that.  They’re too busy finding ways to save themselves, and having a darn good time doing it. 

It takes a lot of heart to dig down deep in the midst of chaos and collapse, and find the optimism, enthusiasm and energy to pull yourself up and out.  And I assure you:  this team of Help-U-Sell brokers we have out in the field today — they have that kind of heart in spades.   Thank you all for being here and for doing what you do.  You are heroes to me.

Science to Sales

Fresh out of college, I became a teacher.  I worked with emotionally disturbed adolescents in a psychiatric hospital.  Needless to say, it was an easy transition when I started a traditional real estate company and took to recruiting agents!  My teaching skills became important again after I sold that office and went to work for Century 21 Corporate.  I started as a business consultant but soon was in the classroom, first teaching management courses and then, sales programs.  A few years later I found myself at headquarters as VP of Training, responsible for creating every bit of training the  company produced and developing a team of trainers spread across the country.

I say all of this to make a point:  I know training.  I know how to discover the need for it, how to design it for maximum effectiveness, how to coach trainers  and how to improve performance with it.  That’s why I was floored in 2003 when I encountered Science to Sales.  It is the best buyer agent training program I’ve ever seen.

Science-to-SalesScience to Sales was created in the early ’90s by Help-U-Sell founder, Don Taylor.    It is an activity driven, spaced learning program designed to be coached, not taught.   It gets new agents busy immediately and productive quickly, while preserving the broker/trainer’s most precious commodity:  time.

Consider this:  the first chapter of Science to Sales has the agent writing 18 sample offers to purchase.  18!  By the end of their first week in the business, a Science to Sales trained agent has more experience writing offers than most ordinary agents have in a couple of years! 

There is a misconception about Science to Sales.  Some think it is a video training program.  It’s not.  There is a video component, but it was added several years after the original workbook-driven program was created.  The six, hour-long videos were created as content for the Help-U-Sell television network and became a valued addition to Science to Sales.  Today, the agent meets with their coach at the beginning of the module, then watches the video, completes the activities outlined in the manual, and then meets with the coach again to debrief and prepare for the next module. 

In 2004, the program was revamped.  Actually, we considered recreating it from the bottom up — and I was given the task of exploring that idea.  I struggled.  How do you improve on something that’s already this good?  I decided that a few minor content tweaks were necessary (the business had changed a little), and that could be easily accomplished in the manuals.  But then there were the videos.  Oh, they sounded fine.  But the clothes and the hairstyles went out of don taylorstyle a decade ago.  I stewed.  Would these clunky old videos be an embarrassment?  Would the dated look trivialize the program and cause brokers and agents to disregard it?  After talking with a dozen great Help-U-Sell brokers I decided to leave them alone.  It was clear these guys adored the program just the way it was and considered the opportunity to hear Don Taylor himself on tape to be priceless.

Here’s the Good News:

Yesterday, Robert Stevens and I finished uploading the entire program to the Help-U-Sell Download Library.  The videos have been digitized and are available for streaming over the internet.  The six student chapters have been PDF’d and can be downloaded and printed.  Even the coaches guide is there.  And it’s all free. 

As usual, I see this as an opportunity.  Here is your chance to go out this week and recruit an absolute green bean, someone who’s just gotten his or her license and hasn’t got a clue what to do.  Then, put them into Science to Sales and see how quickly they become confident, competent and productive!  I’d love to hear the results.

(You know how to get to the Download Library, don’t you?  Go to helpusell.com, scroll to the bottom of the page and select ‘Help-U-Sell OMS’.  If you don’t remember your Log-in and Password, send an email to support@helpusell.com.  Go to ‘Marketing and Content’ and you’ll see the Download Library in the drop-down.  Expand the item, ‘Help-U-Sell Real Estate,’ and find ‘Science to Sales’ in the list of folders.  By the way, you don’t have to stream the videos over the internet.  If you’d prefer, they can be downloaded and stored on your computer.  Just right click on the individual video link and select ‘Save Target As’.  You can use the same procedure to download and save the student and instructor guides. )

How Ordinary Brokers Mistake Cash Flow For Profit

It’s darn hard for a broker to make a profit in the ordinary (traditional) real estate business.  I know this because I spent years working for one of the large national franchisors specifically to help their franchisees find ways to become profitable.  I worked with hundreds of brokers and learned to dissect their financial statements and make recommendations that might help increase the bottom line.  It was a futile effort.  Once brokers started averaging less than 30% in Company Dollar, there was little hope there would be much left after expenses.

Many of the offices I saw made no money at all.  Most bumped along at between 1% and 3% profit.  And a few — just a few– approached 5%.  They’d usually protest when I gave them the bad news.  ‘What do you mean, I’m not profitable?  I got money in the bank!  I pay my bills!’  What they had was cash flow — not profit — and there’s a big difference.  Cash flow is just the money a business kicks out from a variety of sources.  Profit is a measure of a business’s success.  Successful businesses are profitable.  Failing businesses are not.  And the problem with traditional brokers was their business model:  it was broken.

Time and again, I’d ask for financials and receive these fairy tale statements that had seemingly  been created in never-never land.  Filled with magical thinking, they usually showed piles of cash at the bottom line . . . until I started straightening them out.  As a refresher, here is how a real estate office looks at profit:

  • Gross Commission Income
  • Less Cost of Sale (which includes Agent Commission Expense and Franchise Fees)
  • Equals Company Dollar (Net Operating Income)
  • Less Expenses (Rent, Marketing, Utilities, etc)
  • Equals Profit/Loss

And here are a handful of the most common things traditional brokers do to their P&Ls to hide the fact that they make no money:

Basing profit on Company Dollar, not Gross Commission Income.  Doing so can make a 1% profit look 5-10 percentage points higher.  Just a reminder:  Profit(%) = the bottom line divided by Gross Revenue, not by Net Operating Income. 

Not paying themselves for performing the management function.  Most brokers run around all day long, cleaning up their agents’ messes, solving their problems, deal doctoring, training and recruiting, recruiting, recruiting.  Few ever budget compensation for that massive task.  I insisted they build in a salary for themselves equal to what they’d have to pay someone else to do this job– even if they never write the check.

Not paying themselves as an investor.  Most brokers sink thousands into their businesses getting them open and to the break even point.  That’s money they could have invested anywhere else . . . and gotten a return.  I insisted they build at least 8% Return on Investment into their income statements.  When they’d protest I’d challenge them to go out and find someone else who would loan them an equal amount for that kind of return. 

Not paying themselves for personal production.  Over and over they’d say, ‘Oh, I just leave my own commissions in the company.’  Wrong.  You pay yourself on the same basis you pay your top agent.  If, after doing so, there is not enough money left to pay the electric bill, you invest more money into the business. 

Attributing ancillary sources of income to the real estate business.  Title, escrow, mortgage, insurance, termite and on and on.  I actually had a group of California brokers tell me they never intended to make any money in their real estate operations.  They just used the real estate office to generate business for their ancillary services!  Anybody who would intentionally take on the risk and liability of a real estate company with no intention of making a profit is . . . well:  there’s a new definition of insanity for you. 

Not too many years ago I was doing a project for another one of the large nationals.  I was in a meeting with some of the execs when someone came into the room, fresh from a meeting with a group of their top brokers. 

“How’d it go?’ she was asked. 

‘Not too good,’ she replied, ‘They’re all struggling with profitability.’ 

‘Well, did you show them how to charge a transaction fee?’ 

I had to bite my tongue.  If your business model is so messed up that you have to charge your customers a fee for handling their transaction in addition to the commission you charge them to handle their transaction . . .  

These are just a few of the many reasons I fell in love with Help-U-Sell.  Here I found brokers who were making a reasonable profit and delighting customers at the same time.  They were controlling the biggest drain on income most real estate offices face, Cost of Sale (which includes agent commission expense).  Company Dollar was greater and so more cash fell to the bottom line.  In Help-U-Sell, brokers had a way to charge less  .  .  . and make more.

Chicken Little

We all know the story of Chicken Little:  how a seed fell from a tree and landed on his tail and he therefore assumed the clsky was falling! the sky was falling! 

He ran and told Henny Penny, ‘The Sky is falling, the Sky is falling!’

And Henny Penny cried, ‘We must run!  We must run and tell the king!’ 

They ran into Turkey Lurkey and when he asked how they knew the Sky was falling, Chicken Little said, ‘I saw it with my eyes, I heard it with my ears, some of it fell on my tail!’ 

To which Turkey Lurkey gobbled, ‘We must run!  We must run and tell the king!’ 

Of course you know the story, they ran into Ducky Lucky and Goosey Loosey and soon the entire barnyard was in a panic. 

And that’s where our memory of the story usually ends.  We get the lesson:  don’t panic, and that’s great, but the story gooseyactually goes on from there. 

Eventually this hoard of feathered fowl encounters Foxy Loxy.  They tell him their story and when he asks how they know the Sky is falling, they all chime in, ‘Chicken Little saw it with his eyes!  He heard it with his ears!  Some of it FELL ON HIS TAIL!!” 

To which Foxy Loxy said, ‘We will run!  We will run into my den and I will tell the king!’ 

And they all ran into Foxy Loxy’s den . . . and never came out again.  The End.

I’m rehashing this wonderfully instructional tale for obvious reasons:  it has great implications for our recent and foxycurrent real estate markets.  Of course, you can’t listen to the ney sayers that surround you.  You have to tune them out.  But understand that in times like these, when there is a cacophony of negativity and fear, there is also opportunity.  These are the times when smart companies grow and gain.  These are the times that bring out the Fox in those of us who still have one lurking beneath the surface.  My hope is that the Help-U-Sell team gets foxy and we come through this winter with enough fried chicken to last decades!

Accessibility Toolbar