Determine Your Own Value: Episode  #35

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Dan Stewart (00:12): Hi everyone. Can you hear me? Am I live? I don't even know if I'm live yet, but I feel alive because today is a freaking amazing, awesome day. I can't even tell you how good I feel about today. And yet I'm going to. So at 2:00 PM Eastern Time today, I'm going live with my good friend, Tristan Ahumada, we're going to break down the mindset of a champion.

Dan Stewart (00:36): This session is going to be fantastic. I strongly encourage you to attend. It's going to be really, really, really, really good. And as if that's not enough, have I got a great session for you today on What To Say Now. So if you're here for the first time, welcome. My name's Dan Stewart. I'm the Founder of Happy Grasshopper. And if you've ever asked yourself, gosh, what is my value? How do I set my rate? What should I do? What shouldn't I do? You're going to love this session. There's some good stuff in here.

Dan Stewart (01:07): I mean, it's kind of fun. Because as an entrepreneur, it's easy sometimes to pride ourselves on being willing to do anything it takes. Like, oh, whatever it is, I'll do it. I will scrub the floors. I will wash the toilets. I will paint the walls. I will vacuum the... I'll do it all. Whatever it takes to be successful, I will do. There's pride in that. It feels good to say that. And yet, with those kind of caps, those kinds of internal caps, you're creating a growth plateau that you just can't bust through, and it doesn't feel like it.

Dan Stewart (01:45): That's the worst part of the whole thing, is it feels like you're doing everything right. You're working so hard. You're give, give, give, give, giving to your clients. And yet you're not getting past that growth plateau. You keep knocking into it. You run out of time. You run out of energy. You run out a year. You can't bust through. So I think the way that we get through this, the way we take those slight little cracks and we break through into new growth is by first really recognizing what the terrain is that we're actually existing in here. So follow me on this. And as I say, follow me on this.

Dan Stewart (02:22): I want to say hi to some people who are watching. Thank you for joining me. Love to see some friendly faces here today. Thank you for joining. So, there's a myth that we've got to address right up front. We've got to get past this, because if we don't get past this myth, we're going to constantly run into this growth plateau. And we want to say this to the growth plateaus. We don't want to keep bumping into them, we want to say this, and get through that growth plateau.

Dan Stewart (02:49): So the way that we do that is by being really super crystal clear what our value actually is. And that's where debate exists. Because, I mean, gosh, for those of you who are in real estate, people come to you all the time and they have an unrealistic expectation of the value of real property. And your job sometime is to realign that, and you get so accustomed to doing it through phrases like, well, the market determines the value. And yes, that is absolutely true. So here's something you need to recognize. The market has determined the value of a real estate professional.

Dan Stewart (03:34): There may be some slight negotiations. Maybe you'll change your percentage of commission here and there. You'll certainly pay referrals. You'll certainly have opportunities at different level of splits with the brokerage that you choose to work with. So there is some wiggle room there. And yet, if we look at the market, people generally expect how much a real estate transaction is going to cost. That's a known accepted fact going in.

Dan Stewart (04:03): So whatever decisions you make with yourself, it's not likely to make an appreciable change on what the market has decided a real estate professional is worth. Does that make sense? It should make sense. You're not going to go into a market and say, well, I think instead of 6%, the value of real estate agents in this transaction is 12%. That's not going to fly. It's not. So you've got a market defined zone of commission that's generally accepted as to what people work within. Don't waste your time messing with that.

Dan Stewart (04:40): Instead, spend your time focusing on the value of your hourly wage. And I want to give a shout out to my friend, Ben Kinney, because, I heard him first say that probably close to 10 years now. He said, "I care about my hourly wage." So think about that. At the highest peak of your value, how much are you worth? What are you really earning? And the idea is not to push everything out of your life. You want to be available, to be helpful to people when they need you.

Dan Stewart (05:20): There will be an exception, we're sure. You'll vacuum the floor. You'll do what you need to do to get the house ready to show in the moment. And yet you recognize, ah, that's a moment where I'm not living at my highest value. That's an area where I've taken what my wage should be and I've greatly reduced it. Because now, now I'm doing the services of a housekeeper rather than the services of a real estate professional.

Dan Stewart (05:46): So I want you to become protective of your time. Understand that your time is truly your only asset. That's your value. So you want to defend and protect your time from it being used for things that are significantly lower than your highest and best value. And speaking personally, I get how hard this is. It's hard. I can't tell you how many years it took me to actually feel comfortable assigning tasks to other people. Give me a high five if you know what that feels like. It's not that you consider yourself a control freak. It's just, you don't want to impose on other people by asking them to do things.

Dan Stewart (06:34): Well guess what guys, the world is full of people who would love to have the opportunity to do those things. People for whom contributing in that way feels like they're serving their own highest and best value. So, what you really need is a framework for yourself so that you've got a model you can follow throughout the day, the week, the month, the quarter, the year, the decade. These are the ways you bust through that growth plateau. You must have a framework over time.

Dan Stewart (07:08): And it starts very simply by knowing and determining your mindset. Not letting that get pushed around by anyone else. And it's relatively easy to do once you have a vision that you believe in. If you don't, then it becomes much more of a challenge. And this is a pretty good segue for me to invite you to attend this webinar this afternoon, 2:00 PM Eastern, 11:00 AM Pacific. Tristan and I are going live. If you want to get in on this, you need to go to facebook.com/groups/labcoatagents. That's where you join the group. The information will be there, and we will be streaming live into that group at 2:00 PM.

Dan Stewart (07:55): So, here's the challenge that we've got to acknowledge here. As you try to insert this sense of protecting your time, of defending your highest, best use of your time against all these other things, you're going to feel moments of distraction. There will be moments when binging those last few episodes of Cobra Kai are going to seem like the most important thing that you can possibly do. And yet, if you're really living your visions, you can see where, hey, it's okay, you need some downtime. You're on a path. You don't have to live every moment of every single day at this highest peak energy and feel like you're failing all the time.

Dan Stewart (08:44): None of us can do that. So there will be moments where you have to unplug. You have to unwind. So stop beating yourself up if you're doing that because it's not a realistic way to live. Instead, focus on that big vision. Really know for sure that it's your vision and not anyone else's. And you'll find how much easier it is to choose to do the things that allow you to break through that growth plateau.

Dan Stewart (09:12): So I hope you've enjoyed today's episode of What To Say Now. If you're watching this replay on YouTube, here's what you do. Just like and subscribe. We post these every week, typically live at 2:00 PM Eastern every Tuesday. Today we're live at 1:00 PM Eastern because I'm doing this webinar with Lab Coat Agents. So super excited to have you here. Please find us on Facebook at facebook.com/groups/whattosaynow.

Dan Stewart (09:42): Join that group and enter your communication issues. Whatever it is, wherever you're struggling in how to communicate something to a client. How to generate traction in the market. How to recruit and attract the right people to your teams or your brokerages. How to get old cold leads to respond. We can help you with all of those things. And we do it as a free service inside the Facebook Group. So thanks for watching everybody. Let's go make today matter. All right. I'll see you next week. Bye now.