We want to invite you to attend an incredible real estate training opportunity on Jan. 27, 2011, which will help you speak better in public to attract bigger business.

Peter Mosca ­ president and founder of BAK Communications Inc. ­ is a public speaking professional and coach who has helped train hundreds of REALTOR® leaders each year get over their fears and delivering powerful messages to their distinct audiences.

Now it’s your turn!

This in-depth course will cover:

• Implementing the seven C¹s of successful communications
• Getting your ideas recognized, accepted and implemented
• Preparing, organizing and delivering your messages
• Overcoming your fear of public speaking
• Becoming a more engaging and persuasive spokesperson

Buyers and investors are drawn to outspoken real estate professionals. Those who can master online tutorials ­ or even infomercials ­ typically have to beat back the hoard of buyers knocking down their doors.

During the online training presentation, Peter will help you master your own communication skills, taking into consideration your level of comfort, as well as professional goals, which will in turn influence the rate at which your career grows.

To attend “How to Speak with Relevance to your Audience” on Jan. 27, 2011, at 4 p.m. ET click on “Register Today” below. Seats are limited! So take advantage of this special offer now before we open it to agents everywhere!

REGISTER TODAY!

A coaching client, a real estate agent, recently asked this question.  It is a common problem, and here is the solution.

The Question
I think I am missing the boat on some clients because I forget about them.  I lost contact with them and it is costing me thousands of dollars, maybe tens of thousands of dollars, every year.  I really need to improve my average in this category.  I need something to keep them in front of me.  I need some sort of physical chart to keep them in my mind.  I can probably make my own if I knew of three or four columns to use.  How should I keep track of these clients?

The Solution
I teach my clients to use their CRM (Contact Relationship Management) software to keep track of these clients.  This doesn’t work for some, in which case we pursue whatever system will work for them.  People are different from each other and need different solutions.  A good one is the whiteboard.  The board itself it is quite easy to put together; let’s go over how to do it.

Five columns
The five columns you should put on your whiteboard are:

1. Urgency, label this column with A or B, so you are aware of the urgency level at all times.  A, of course, is urgent while B is not. This will also prompt you to work on converting the B buyers to A’s.
2. The name of the buyer
3. The buyer’s price range
4. Location the buyer is interested in
5. Comments, anything specific they are looking for in a property
6. Optional information, such as phone numbers (before PDA’s agents would put contact information on their buyer whiteboard.  Now, the number may not be necessary, because you have it on your phone).

When you, your assistant, or anyone on your team hears about a new listing or you are pursuing a new listing, you can glance at the board.  Sell more, act more quickly for your buyers, and stop losing the leads that you already know are causing you to lose money.

During the last week, what did you postpone until tomorrow that would have been better handled today? Prospecting? Calling past clients? Saving for a rainy day? Going to the dentist? Paying your bills? Calling a loved one? A physical check up?

One of the great ways we create stress and struggle in our lives is through procrastination. When we say, “I just don’t have the time (or energy) to deal with it now,” we “pay the price” of our procrastination in several different ways. First, when we focus on a task and decide not to act on it, we’ve wasted time we could have used to complete the task or to work on something else. Second, the more we procrastinate, the more difficult it becomes to take action to complete the task. Third, delaying the task often increases the “cost” of completing it, much like paying a credit card late increases the cost of carrying the debt.

What can you do to reduce the procrastination in your life? Here are five simple strategies:

1. Increase your awareness of when you procrastinate. Note how often you decide to postpone tasks as well as how you feel when you make the decision not to act on it now. Notice which types of tasks you normally complete as well as those where you consistently procrastinate.

2. If there’s a consistent area where you procrastinate, it’s probably time to delegate it or dump it. Many times we’re trapped by our own belief system that tells us we “should” engage in a particular activity. For example, you may believe you have to bake a homemade cake for a special birthday when one from the market would be just as good and would be a lot less effort.

3. Tackle the simple items first. If you try to stop procrastinating all at once or tackle the hardest items first, you’ll only create more struggle and stress. Instead, start with what you can easily handle and then move to the more difficult items.

4. Put a “time limit” on what’s not handled. For example, if you don’t read this month’s magazines, put them in next month’s stack. If they are not read by the end of the month,  discard them. Allowing them to pile up is a constant reminder of your procrastination and only makes you feel worse as the pile continues to grow.

5. Prioritize what’s most important and focus on completing those items. The 80-20 rule says 80% of the benefit comes from the top 20% of our activities. Conversely, the bottom 20% produces less than 1% of benefit. For the next week, eliminate the bottom 20% of your activities that produce the least benefit. Reducing how much you have to do frees you up to deal with the important items you’ve been procrastinating about doing.

Reducing procrastination requires a series of small steps over a long period of time. If you’re ready to stop procrastinating, how about completing one item right now that you’ve been putting off?

Honesty is often interesting.  One of my coaching clients, an agent, Herb (name changed to protect the guilty) is having a mediocre year.  I thought I knew the problem so I asked him this, “Herb, what percentage of your leads do you simply not follow up on, or call once and not follow through on?”

He was honest, he said, “Sixty.”

“Sixty percent that you do follow through on or sixty percent that you don’t?” I asked.

“Sixty percent that I don’t,” he said.

Herb would double his production simply by following through on the leads that are already coming to him.  Honesty is interesting.

Another client, agent, Laurie (name changed), who hit a very slow period in the middle of the year answered the question this way.  “Well, I started out strong and then I got pretty sloppy, but now I am following up on nearly everything again.”

Considering that the period in which she “got pretty sloppy” following through on her leads was the spring and summer, she would have doubled her production as well, simply by following through on the leads already coming to her.

There are a many agents like Herb and Laurie, who have the skills and the knowledge, but they lack the motivation, focus, and commitment to follow up and follow through.

To what extent does this describe you?  What percentage of the leads that came to you this year didn’t get followed up on or followed through?

It is the perfect time of year to recognize this, and correct it with a four step process that I call “Breakdown Leads to Breakthrough.”

Breakdown Leads to Breakthrough
Step One: Acknowledge the error.  Simply admit it honestly to yourself.
Step Two: Forgive yourself.  This can be quite easy, just say to yourself, “I forgive myself.”  Can it be that easy?  Absolutely, as long as you do Step One honestly.
Step Three: Recommit.  Decide if you want to recommit to follow through on your leads more conscientiously for the rest of the year and through next year.
Step Four: Get into action immediately on your renewed commitment.  This is the critical step.

Honesty is interesting.  Self-honesty is even more interesting, because  it is the key to your personal and professional breakthrough.

Today, everyone seems to beam about their ability to multi-task.  With the revolution of technology and communication going from simultaneous exchange (phones) to non-simultaneous exchange (texting) we continue to handle multiple activities in what appears to be one increment of time.

But is this a good thing or a bad thing?   A recent study from the American Psychological Association released in August suggests that not only do we get less done by multi-tasking, but it can be hazardous to our productivity!

Even though we think we are multi-tasking, according to reports by Vanderbilt University, we are still only able to process one activity at a time, but since we can do it fairly quickly, we have the illusion that we are in fact doing it concurrently.

Our “executive control center” is our decision making center, which takes significant amounts of time and, according to the report, several tenths of a second, which adds up when people switch back and forth repeatedly between tasks.  Where multi-tasking may seem more efficient, it may actually take more time at the end.  In this report, Dr. David Meyer pointed out that a mere half second of time lost to task switching can result in life or death of a driver operating a car using a cell phone.

Another survey done for small businesses revealed that 56% of the responders indicated that they often handle three or more tasks at a time, and reported that one in four business owners stated that multi-tasking does, in some ways, hinder their working ability.  The results from obsessive multi-tasking shows decreased quality of work, actually taking longer to complete a simple task, and eventual burn out.

So, what can we do?  Many of us will continue to perform master multi-tasking activities, and sometimes that can be done appropriately.

But here’s an interesting fact, did you know that by cutting back on multi-tasking for only 20% of your day, you have the potential to free up about 237 hours, or almost six weeks each year?

Chris Crouch, President of DME Training & Consulting and developer of the GO System Training course is a productivity expert and coach.  In his program, he asks his students to perform a simple exercise that takes less than 30 seconds for most people to complete, but found that on the first exercise, the multi-taskers took 61 seconds!

The bottom line is that multi-tasking is really an illusion.  Science Daily claims we can improve our multi-tasking timing, but in reality, we still can only process one rule or command at a time, maybe faster or slower, but our brains still process one at a time.

The bottom line is this, be aware that multi-tasking is okay in moderation, but know that you might not be getting as much done in less time as you thought.  But, by making a few small changes you can get more done and free up real time.  Crouch suggests that we perform “deliberate” practice of focus and block out 96 minutes per day.  To achieve and maintain this focused state of mind he suggests we use a behavioral ritual, or an anchor to help us stay focused on completing a task.  He tells us to practice blocking out 96 minutes every day for deliberate practice (20% of your workday) to stay totally focused on a high-priority, high-impact task and watch your productivity increase.

It’s all about mindful productive tasking versus unproductive multi-tasking driven by habitual behavior.  You don’t have to give up multi-tasking, just give it up for 20% of the day, and be aware of the fact that when you do multi-task, it may be costing you!

Practice your “right now” technique and become a master at mindful multi-tasking, and then figure out what you want to do with all that extra time!

It was session three of seven of our S.P.A.R.K. Course, and one agent after another approached me at each break. Each comment or question had the same theme. It was weird.

Each agent said something along the lines of, “I can see how this is really going to work for me, but here is the problem.” Or, “This is great stuff and it would really work for me, except, here is what I face.”

There are over a hundred people in the class and over a dozen of them expressed this type of sentiment. The problems included other jobs that took their time, taking care of children, not enough experience, and more. It was clear that the problem had nothing to do with the issues that they were bringing up. Something else was going on.

While driving away from the conference center, I realized what it was. As these agents began seeing and feeling that they were capable of achieving and exceeding their business goals, when they were sincerely confronted by the prospect of their own success, then the psychological barriers that have prevented their success began to come to their consciousness. Their mind perceived their most desired future for their business and their psyche was finding the reasons that it was not likely or possible to achieve it.

This is the definition of a limiting belief: a thought that is perceived as the absolute truth by the person having it, when in reality it is a false barrier. So, at the next session I led them through an exercise to identify and eliminate limiting beliefs. The response was overwhelming. One person after another was experiencing a breakthrough they knew was possible, but couldn’t previously quite reach. Now it was happening. The skills were there and the barriers were not.

It’s 2010. Chances are you made some New Year’s Resolutions [last January]. A good question to ask is, “Are you paying attention to what really matters?” To determine what matters most in your life, answer the three following questions:

1. Name the three most memorable events in your life.
2. Name the five most important people in your life.
3. Name three things you wish you had more time to do.
4. Name three people you would like to spend more time with (and include the activity where you would be together.)

Did any of these include work? If you’re like most people, probably not. Unfortunately, our society often portrays being a “workaholic” as something noble—”The market is really tough. I have to 16 hours a day if we’re going to succeed!” “We both have to work—the kids would be stuck in a lousy apartment and a lousy school if we don’t!” “My clients need me—I have to be available when they call.”

If you look back on your past, chances are pretty good that your most precious memories are not of work—they’re of times spent doing special things with those you love or times you’ve taken time for you. So the next time you’re considering missing time with loved ones to stay at work or putting off caring for yourself because work is more important, remember what matters.