Welcome to Mike Ferry TV. It is the week of November 16th. Six weeks left, which I think all of us would agree has been a bit of an unusual year, not only in the U.S. and Canada, but worldwide.

I want to take a little bit of time today and next week … and for those that were not able to be part of our Superstar Retreat in September, which was a virtual retreat, I’m going to share a couple thoughts that I expressed during that first 30 to 40 minutes of the retreat itself. I think you might find them interesting as you look forward to 2021.

We had sold a little over 4,000 tickets to the retreat this year, and it was interesting because we had a live stream, as some of you know, and it was live streamed virtually all over the world. We anticipated that we would have live streaming in U.S., Canada, parts of Italy and Belgium and in Russia. About a week after the event was finished, we got a notice from the streaming company that said, “We had, on the last day of the retreat, 14,000 people watching the retreat itself,” which is extraordinary because I don’t know where they all came from. But what was interesting was the fact that it was watched in 33 different countries of the world.

We thought, you know, U.S. and Canada, Italy, Belgium, partially some in France, Albania, and, of course, in Russia … maybe five or six countries. Well, what that told me was the message that we are preaching, the message we are selling, the message we are continually trying to help you understand must be much more important than maybe I believe and maybe some of you believe.

So what I’m going to do is express with you some of the thoughts that I shared during the first part of that retreat. So I opened by saying … I’m not here to entertain you. We’re here to teach you and remind you so you can build a stronger business. I’m not here to wow you. I’m here to show you how to help the Sellers and the Buyers choose you 80% of the time versus your competition. I’m not here to show you the latest magic formulas that all of my competitors talk about because that’s what they talk about. I’m here to show you proven skills and techniques. And then I went on to say that since April 1^st … and now here we are in November … I’ve done some place over 400 webinars, and it’s been interesting because virtually 95 … maybe 98 … probably 99% of the webinars I’ve done, we’ve got very, very favorable responses. In fact, very positive responses.

But some of the times I get these kinds of responses … “Mike, you don’t understand today’s market,” which is an interesting thought because if anybody understands today’s market, this guy does because I have the feedback from all of our great clients all over North America. I’ve also been told I’m too old fashioned and I’m way out of touch. Well, let’s take the words “old fashioned.” I’m old, but I think knowing how to sell and how to produce is very fashionable. And then I was told, “You just don’t get it, do you Mike?” And I probably guess I don’t get what some of you are looking for, but I’ve always stated, just like you making a listing presentation to your Sellers, not every Seller is going to choose you and you’re not going to choose every Seller as a potential listing. But if we can get 70 to 80% of the people we talk to that are motivated and qualified to sign a contract, you definitely are on the track to huge production.

So, I said, “Let’s look at these thoughts for a minute.” Using all the magic formulas that social media brings to the table, our marketing team, which they did, sold 50 ticket to the retreat. And, you know, we are very involved in social media, not to the degree as some of you maybe and our competition, but, you know, we use the Facebook ads and Twitter and tweets and all the rest. However, with the webinars that I did, because I did 250 webinars in April, May, and June and July, preparing for the retreat, I sold over 2,500 tickets … talking to people. Listen carefully … talking to people … so, I guess you’re right. It’s old fashioned what I’m asking of you. It’s not as glamorous, obviously. It’s certainly not the kind of branding that people want you to use, but we sold about 50 tickets through our branding and social media and 2,500 tickets through me talking to people.

So let’s take a different approach. How do other professionals look at what I teach? In pro football, they work every single day on tackling, blocking, passing, catching, running plays to win a game. Pro baseball, they work every day at catching, throwing, stealing bases, hitting and bunting. Pro basketball, they work every day at dribbling, defending, free throws, rebounding and passing. All of these are what are called the foundation of succeeding in a job, a profession or a sport.

In Real Estate, the foundation is not, unfortunately, branding … doing videos every day, putting 20 postings a week on various social media sites, texting instead of talking, advertising campaigns, Facebook ads, or email campaigns. Real Estate is first and foremost laying a strong foundation of sales skills and techniques, emphasizing learning how to talk to people, and second, and most importantly, all of the rest of the things that we keep asking you to do.

So we have to really take a look at how we’re going to build a business in 2021. There’s no question that 2020 was unusual as we stated. There’s no question it was probably one of the most challenging, physically, mentally and emotionally and financially years that almost all of us have ever experienced. But yet, at the same time, the majority of the Mike Ferry trained agents have had their biggest years in production and income in their careers. Why? What’s the difference? Well, part of it is mental, which we know. Part of is physical, doing your job. But it goes back to that old axiom that I’ve talked about for years and years and years, and that axiom is … if I know what to say to people, I can do what I’m supposed to do, however, if I don’t know what to say, I can’t do what I’m supposed to do and then I try everything else but talking to people.

It would be great if we could just simply mail listing contracts to people or email them to them and they would open them up and look at them and say, “Oh, cool. Of course. I’m going to list with this person at this price and pay this commission and sign the contract and email it back.” Wouldn’t that be nice? However, that’s not our business today. Our business, no matter what anybody says to you, still revolves around talking to people.

So why do we do the rest so often? Because Real Estate people do not see themselves as salespeople. Great Real Estate people work daily on strengthening their foundation, and the choice is yours. Here in Las Vegas we have a pro hockey team and we have a professional football team, and they spend all their days practicing certain basic fundamentals. They’re not looking at Twitter for a new way to make a tackle. They’re not doing a posting on, “Anybody got a thought on how I can get a new score with the puck when I’m shooting at the net?” Every business requires building a foundation, and what we teach at The Mike Ferry Organization is that foundation. Yes, you can do business without it, and I’m the first to tell you you can do business without our foundation. The business will probably not be as sustainable, as duplicatable, as predictable, as productive, and as profitable.

And then I went on to say … yes, there are hundreds of magic formulas. I’m on so many of my competitor’s mailing lists and I have to tell you, I enjoy seeing what they keep sending all of us. I get probably four or five every day, and they put a smile on my face because it is so interesting that they are telling you that you can virtually get listings and make sales without working. Hundreds of magic formulas being presented throughout the industry today and they will all help you get business. However, having a strong foundation is the answer.

And then I said to them … what I’m going to do for the next 3 days through the retreat is help you build that foundation, strengthen it, and if you’re trying to take your busines to the next level … perfect the foundation.

So the first couple of points that I talked about … I said, number one, if you want to build a substantial Real Estate career, and I know that’s what all of you are trying to do … substantial meaning the money you earn far exceeds what you’ve earned in the past … your business should revolve around a) continually building and strengthening your mindset, especially during the course of the last 7 to 8 months and the months ahead of us; b) never stop perfecting your skills, which means you work on them every day, day in and day out; c) keeping your activities in line with your production goals. So make sure that what you’re doing each day is going to get you to that end result, which is critical. And then d) taking action every day, or as I keep saying, when you get a contract signed, remember, that’s the job that you signed up to do. It’s not a point where you do a lot of celebration. It’s not like going on vacation. It’s not like celebrating your birthday for 3 days. It’s your job.  So, building your mindset, perfecting your skills, staying involved in activities that lead to production, and taking action every day.

But then I went on to say to the audience, and if you did see the retreat, we had 50 great people in our studio, socially spaced with masks on, of course, to do the retreat to, and when I got the second point, I saw a lot of heads nodding very quickly. There’s two words we need to focus on and understand to build a substantial Real Estate career. Those two words are “predictable” and “duplicatable.”

Okay, by the word “predictable,” does the activity that you’re involved in today at this time … can you predict what the outcome is going to be? If you’re going on a listing presentation, are you scripted well? Are you prepared mentally? Do you really know what to say so you can predict the result of what happens with the Seller? Because if you can’t, your business is not predictable.

Is it duplicatable? Meaning, you got a listing, can you go out to the next Seller, do the same thing again, and get the same result? Because if you can, you’re going to build the kind of business that you want. If you have not downloaded the 2021 Business Plan from the Mike Ferry website, get it downloaded. It’s simple. It’s direct. It’s complete. I think it actually prints out in about 5 pages. You can certainly print it in about two and a half pages. Our competition often recommends 30- and 60-page business plans, which you’re never going to complete, and if you do, you won’t complete it until February, which is too late.

So if you’ve not got your business plan completed, get it completed. Thanks for your time today. We will see you next week.

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Mike Ferry is the global leader in real estate coaching and training. Watch Mike each week as he discusses a variety of topics to help real estate agents and brokers. Grow your real estate business by improving your mindset, developing your skills and creating a plan of action to increase your production!