Crush Your Sales Goal by Changing This One Daily Habit

A Peak Performance Playbook for Mortgage Coach Leaders by Dave Savage and Jonathan Roche.

Every day, your team’s success depends on their being able to function at both their professional and personal best. But we all know how difficult it can be to do that consistently day after day. Even one loss can interfere with a person’s confidence and self-worth.

That’s why people like Jonathan Roche exist. Founder and CEO of Breakthrough Health, Jonathan is a peak performance coach for both personal and professional athletes, as well as CEOs, leadership teams, and other top producers. His job is to bring out the best in people. An award-winning fitness expert, best-selling author, 12-time Ironman triathlete and 25-time Boston Marathon finisher, no one knows better how to help you and your team achieve their personal and professional best than Jonathan.?

In a recent interview, Jonathan explains how one habit can have a profound effect on thought patterns, which in turn will lead to improvement actions. These improved actions, or habits, then lead to improved results.

CONSIDER THIS: How confident do you feel your lenders are when they sit down with a new customer to quickly shift the conversation from a rate discussion to a value discussion? Confidence is based to a degree on the level of preparation. But it also is based to a degree on self-worth.

Results—or lack of results—can directly impact self-worth. Think about that for a moment. If someone’s self-worth (i.e. confidence) is weak, perhaps because results are down, how do you think that’s going to affect your team’s overall success level? So the key to success is to change a person’s thought patterns. And the key to changing our thought patterns is our voice choice!

Voice Choice?>> Thought Patterns >> Actions (habits) >>?Results >> Self-worth

HERE’S THE SECRET TO SUCCESS: NAIL YOUR VOICE CHOICE

Everyone has two voices in their heads: One is positive, the other is negative. “Each morning and every hour of the day we get to decide, are we going to listen to our positive voice or our negative voice?” asks Jonathan. “If we do not ACTIVELY CHOOSE our positive voice, then more than likely by default, we pick our negative voice. But world-class people are intentional about listening to their positive voice.”

Your negative voice focuses on problems rather than solutions. If you mistakenly, or by default, choose your negative voice, it then creates the lens through which you view and experience the day.?

EXAMPLES OF NEGATIVE VOICE:

• We don’t have any time.?
• We can’t do it.
• We can’t make things efficient.
• We’re too busy.
• We just need more time.?
• It’s their fault.?
• I wish they had a better attitude.

THREE VERSIONS OF A NEGATIVE VOICE:

• #1 The Bully. This is the voice that puts you down.
• #2 The Distractor. It constantly distracts you and encourages you to think or do something later (i.e. I'll start the diet tomorrow).
• #3 The Buddy who sounds positive but is really throwing you off your game. It only comes out in two situations—when you’re crushing it, or when you’re in a challenging situation.

FIRST EXAMPLE OF THE NEGATIVE BUDDY VOICE (WHEN YOU’RE CRUSHING IT):

You dropped two pounds last week and you nailed six workouts. You feel like a million bucks. You’re on top of the world. Your spouse asks you, are you in for dessert? You’ve already had your one dessert for the week. Your buddy's voice says, lighten up, you’re killing it. Who cares, let’s have a little dessert, it’s not a big deal.?

SECOND EXAMPLE OF THE NEGATIVE BUDDY VOICE (WHEN YOU’RE IN A CHALLENGING SITUATION):

Just stay focused. When things get normal again, we'll get back to our self-care, we'll get back to our health. I don't need my A-game. I have my B game right now and that’s good enough.?

REMEMBER: When you’re fending off the bully, the distractor, or the buddy, you’re not executing. You’re not nailing the meeting. You’re not getting your team fired up. You’re not making things more efficient.?

Here’s the same scenario presented two different ways:

NEGATIVE VOICE:

We have three meetings with families today and two closings. The traffic is crazy because it’s a holiday weekend. And you’re thinking about what’s wrong with your spouse, your house, and your weekend plans. Your negative voice is focusing on what’s wrong.

POSITIVE VOICE:

Your positive voice, on the other hand, is fired up. It’s focusing on what's right. It’s Friday morning, Memorial Day weekend. This is awesome. It’s the artificial launch to summer. We are meeting with three families today that we are definitely going to be blessed to serve. We’ve got two closings this afternoon. We’re getting people into their dream home. My wife is in a great mood and we’re going to have an awesome weekend.?

Those two people are in the exact same situation. Nothing externally has changed, but you can imagine what type of experience the one who’s listening to the negative voice is going to have versus the one who is listening to their positive voice. It is such a simple thing, but when you get super intentional about your VOICE CHOICE and you commit to this, it’s life-altering.?

“If you want to truly attain greatness, you have to nail your voice choice.”—Jonathan Roche

There are three phases of controlling your voice choice:

• #1 Acceptance that you actually have a negative voice
• #2 Awareness of what’s going on with your inner dialogue
• #3 Tools and strategies for winning mentally

A POSITIVE VOICE MAXIMIZES YOUR CONFIDENCE LEVEL

When you’re confident, you know going into a meeting with a new customer that you’re going to get the sale. It’s not an arrogance play—it’s preparation and confidence in yourself. If you tie it all back, it comes down to your decision to listen to either your positive voice or your negative voice.

Voice Choice -> Thought Patterns -> Actions (Habits)-> Results -> Self-worth - Confidence Level

TIPS TO SHARE WITH YOUR TEAM:?

• Nail your voice choice each morning and check in periodically throughout the day (ideally 4-5 times) to make sure you are still listening to your positive voice.
• Be positive and confident. It has the potential to change your life.?
• Your energy announces you in a room before you speak. Have an “oomph” when you walk into a room. Believe you have the sale before you sit down.
• Your team will take their cues from you. If you are positive, they will be positive. If you are negative, they will be negative.?
• It’s about more than just how you start your day. You have to carry that attitude with you all day long.?
• It’s OK to be negative sometimes, but do your best to resist the temptation. If you are feeling negative, be aware of how it will affect your team and your results and have a strategy for turning it around.
• Don’t watch the news, or if you do, limit the amount of time you dedicate to it and don’t dwell on it. Focus only on the things you need to know to get your job done.?

A NEGATIVE VOICE DETRACTS FROM YOUR SUCCESS

How much time do you spend with your negative voice? Let’s say it’s two months a year. That means that you’re operating on a 10-month schedule because you’re not as successful when you’re in your negative voice. But that two months is an opportunity. All that time you lose being negative can be taken back. So imagine what you could do if you could get those two months back by switching to your positive voice. You could spend them on personal development…on becoming a Mortgage Coach ninja…on family time.?

TIP: Consider Dr. Prochaska’s six stages of behavioral change (e.g., readiness to change, readiness to beat a disempowering habit or to establish an empowering habit, etc.). Dr Prochaska says, “After 42 years of studying people and their attempts to beat disempowering habits and establish empowering habits, behavioral change comes down to one thing—belief from their coach.” But here’s the secret, he says: “You are your own head coach.”

“Winners know they can win.”—Todd Bookspan

REMEMBER (SHARE THESE WITH YOUR TEAM):?

• Whatever emotion you’re in, if you can name it, you can tame it.
• Most people learn their voices from their parents. But you can change that.?
• Today doesn’t define you. Today is just a day. Tomorrow’s a new day. In fact, the next hour from now is a new hour that we can all come at with a new level of energy, a new level of focus, and a new level of control over our negative voice.?
• Practice self-care (e.g., getting enough sleep).?

A POSITIVE VOICE IN ACTION:

Here’s how world-class leaders, who use their positive voice, handled the quarantine:

“They said, let everyone else play Xbox; let everyone else figure out when the world is going to come back; we’re going to grow; we’re going to act as if homes are still selling and homebuyers are still borrowing. When your competitors are asleep, is the time to pounce. And you want to be getting better when others are asleep at the wheel.”

TIP: Start getting back into a competitive state. You’re here to win and be as remarkable and world-class as you can be.?

TEAM HOMEWORK—HAVE THEM DO THIS ONCE A MONTH:

Write down the amount of time you spend each day with your negative voice. Then take that number (in hours) and multiply it by 365. If you put in two hours a day, that’s 730 hours a year that you’re stuck. Then take 24 hours and subtract the amount of time you sleep. So if you sleep seven hours a night, you’re awake 17 hours a day. Then divide your total by the number of hours you’re awake (730/17=43). This is the number of days you spend a year with your negative voice. Forty-three days is almost six weeks a year that have been lost. Change your voice, then use that time for personal development, family time, whatever.?

If everyone starts tracking this number monthly, you should see their negativity numbers start to come down. But don’t have them change anything else. Keep their strategies and processes the same. Just have them change their mindset and watch the difference. When you start equipping yourself and your team with the tools and strategies to pull that back, it is game over for the negative voice.

RECAP ON HOW TO CHANGE YOUR VOICE CHOICE:

• Avoid the news.
• Nail your voice choice.
• Do periodic check-ins with yourself throughout the day (when you wake up and before you serve your home team and your customers).
• Celebrate your wins. Your wins fuel your self-worth and your vibe.
• If you lose, cut off the conversation. Don’t dwell on it. Move on.

NOTE: Not everything’s up for debate. Everyone runs into traffic, for example. Encourage your team not to give the podium to their negative voice and to just accept it or find another route.?

Start changing your team members’ voice choices today.

WATCH AND SHARE THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH JONATHAN ROCHE BELOW