One of my greatest mentors is a guy by the name of Russell Brunson, founder of Clickfunnels. Russell tells the following story that has powerful implications for all of us.
When he was in high school he was a state champion wrestler. Each day at practice he would wrestle and beat a guy on his own team by the name of Matt. Well, at one point Russell was at a wrestling meet and he was losing to a guy from another school. In his mind, Russell believed that this guy that he was wrestling was really good, even better than Russell.
At the end of the first period his coach pulled him aside and said, “Russell, what are you doing?”
Russell responded, “This guy is really good.” To which his coach replied, “No he’s not! Matt just beat him.”
Yes, the same Matt that Russell beat up on every day had beat this guy that Russell thought was so good. Something switched in Russell’s head at that moment. He instantly believed that he truly was was better than his opponent and proved this by going out and winning the match.
What really changed in this scenario? The wrestlers were the same, the environment was the same, the coaches were the same. The only thing that changed was the way that Russell saw himself with relation to his opponent. That simple switch in his mind caused him to perform entirely differently.
In my line of business I have the good fortune to sit with real estate agents every day of the week and help them to work on their business. Although most of my time is with higher producing agents, occasionally I get the opportunity to sit with brand new agents. It’s interesting to me just how accurate are my instincts about who is going to succeed and who is not.
The interesting thing is that it has very little to do with their background, their looks, or their previous knowledge of real estate and it has almost everything to do with the confidence that they have in themselves. Granted, that confidence is often derived by their background, etc., but not entirely.
At a very foundational level, if they believe that they are going to build a great real estate business, I can sense it, see it, feel it and then predict that their belief will bring about said success. Why is that? Well, when you’re choosing to hire a real estate agent that is going to help you with potentially the largest purchase of your life, with all kinds of wealth determining ramifications, don’t you also want someone from whom you can sense, see, feel and predict confidence and success.
Very similar to Russell the wrestler, if you haven’t yet flipped the switch, the one that is telling you that you can move beyond being like the average sales agent that is easily replaced by a multitude of other agents to that of being a trusted advisor that is worth the wait… what are you waiting for?