Be Good (and the rest falls into place)

"Be Goooooddddddd" - ET

Steven Spielberg's extra-terrestrial was onto something with his solid life advice. Before hopping on a spaceship and hightailing if out of California (he was a trend setter when it comes to that), ET made sure to give some solid advice to little Drew Barrymore. "Be Good". As sales people and real estate industry professionals, we could learn a little bit from ET. If we'd all work a little harder to be good, the rest would fall into place.

When you're good, content creation comes a little easier

You know your processes are cleaner, you know your programs, products, contracts, and can communicate those things clearly. You can come up with content, because you know a lot. You know that niche product. You know that part of the sales cycle that trips most people up that you've mastered, and you can share the info. You're confident in what you know, because you're good.

When you're good, your customer service (and experience) stand out

You don't need to tell people you're good. Your customers will. Your referral partners will. Your online reviews will. Vice versa, this also rings true when you're bad.

When you're good, your conversions are higher

You understand the importance (and reasoning behind) speed to contact. You're confident that when you call 6-8 times to follow up, you're not pestering someone, but truly trying to bring them a better experience - and by the way, that 6th to 8th time is where most of the magic happens. You know how to track leads, follow up, and implement systems so you don't miss anything, ever. When you're good, you start winning at the numbers game. It takes fewer calls to make more money. You can put in less effort and get more return, or put in more effort and dominate the game.

When you're good, you're still getting better

"Game recognize game". Iron sharpens iron. When you're good, you end up in the company of others working to get better and trying to be the best they can be. When you're good, your company is that of leaders and alphas. No one good is complacent.

When you're good, it's easier

If you're a good lender, all of the sudden real estate agents want to work with you. Clients shop and press you less - when they can see you're good, they let you do your job. They let you help them. When you're good, you're trusted to deliver rather than having your hand held along the way.

Bottom line, when you're consistently trying to be the best at what you do, and you reach a level of competency that sets you above the median in whatever you're doing, life gets easier. The average is the average for a reason - not a lot of people want to push beyond it. And those same people complain about getting shopped, about working with others that aren't doing well, that their company (or their spouse, or their circumstance, or one of a million other possible excuses) is the reason for their failure. When you're good, you stand out, because people are so used to the average. And all it takes is being good - when you're there, everything else falls into place.

And if you're not good? Own it. You don't have to walk around with your head drooping repeating "I suck" to yourself. But document your transformation. Use failures and screw ups as "Did you know" content. If I could go back and write a blog posts or do a video blog every time I learned something in my decade+ of experience, I'd own the internet right now. Everyone loves a come up - talk about how you learned, how you used failure to get better, and keep working to get better. No one starts at the top of the mountain. NO ONE. Whatever industry you're in (especially those of us in the real estate and mortgage industries), you need to go pop in a VHS (did you remember to rewind?), and take the advice of ET - in whatever you do - Be Good.