The Habit and the Long Game

Welcome to The Real Estate Survival Guide, the show that teaches realtors how to create a thriving real estate business. What is up guys? Welcome back to The Real Estate Survival Guide. So happy to have you here. Cannot believe that it is already December. Can you guys believe it? We are in the last month of the year, which is absolutely wild. I hope that in your business, you've had a great year and are thinking about closing out December really well and get an excited for a really big 2026 in your business. And on today's episode, I want to talk about how you can have more success in your business by having good habits and by playing the long game. On Tuesday's YouTube video, if you haven't watched it, I would encourage you to. I talked about something incredibly simple. I talked about doing one small daily action. That's it. One small thing every single day. And I shared the story of how my business was built through organic social media, which you guys know by now, not through ads, not through funnels, not through a budget. Just one intentional action every single day. And now, of course, growing that into one intentional action every day on social media. Sometimes that could be sharing a story or posting a story that disappears after 24 hours. It could be updating your bio or banner, right? Sometimes that could be responding to a DM or sending a DM to someone I care about and I'm thinking about sometimes that could be a settlement, sometimes it could be a quick client win, whatever. And I told you in that video about how people reached out to me because recently I had two people that I have not seen in 20 or 30 years, all because of what me showing up. In fact, as I record this today, I took one of those people to a showing and we realized we had not seen each other since 2005. Isn't that wild? 20 years. All through a social media connection a week ago, right? And on today's YouTube video, it tied perfectly into what we talked about on Tuesday, right? Tuesday, we talked about one thing every single day and today's video talks about the long game and how the habits become action and the long game is the mindset, right? And you need both, right? If Tuesday's message was about what to do, right? You know, maybe it's make a post, share a story, send a DM, whatever. Friday's video was all about how social media is not a microwave. It's not instant. It's not a push of buttons and get clients, right? And so I said it on YouTube today, social media is like an oven or a crock pot. It's slow, it's steady, it's consistent, but here's the truth. When you let time do its job, you consistently have things going on and your consistency compounds into momentum and that my friend, that momentum becomes deals. I think back to those early days of my real estate career, nobody was paying attention, nobody was liking my post, nobody was DMing me, but I kept going. I showed up, even when I felt like no one was watching. And we've talked about it. It took nine months, my first deal a year, a year and a half till I really felt like I had it going on and figured it out. And it took years before I had people reaching out every week, years before past clients tagged me nonstop, years before I had over a hundred thousand views a month and I just had my biggest month on social media, right? People see the success now, but they didn't see all the days and the hard work. When I posted something and it felt like it was into the abyss. But the long game is where the magic happens. And I want you to understand that this is what I want you guys to encourage you to do. Do the things every single day consistently, but realize that it is a long game, right? You should be looking at your social media, like whatever you post now will lead to deals in the spring, summer or fall of 2026, right? It will. I was talking to a realtor today who's been kind of discouraged since they onboarded here at the XP. I mean, we've given them all the training and resources, but I think they are overthinking things and they'll listen to this and know who they are and that's okay. They are overthinking things. They are doing too much. They're spending too much money, right? They're not doing this stuff every single day to be consistent. And here's where most realtors get stuck, guys. They want microwave results. They want the clients now. They want the referrals now. They want the DMs now when it doesn't happen in seven days or 21 or a month, they quit. Not because social media doesn't work, but because they don't work and it did not work fast enough. The long game can be incredibly uncomfortable because it requires trust that your actions today will turn into results months from now. But my friends, that is the truth. That is how social media works. People are not hiring you because of that one post. They hire you because they've watched you for months. They've watched how you treat people. They've watched how you appear or disappear when life gets busy. You know, this person that I saw today and had not seen in, you know, 20 years, I want to read you their message because I think it'll help you, right? Last message, you know, I need you to understand this. Last message was a quick message in 2007 and a quick message in 2008, but not consistent communication since 2005, 2006. So I want to read the message from a few days ago. Hi, it's been a while. Love seeing the updates on your beautiful family. I've been up in the Scranton area. So if you're not local, that's about an hour and a half, two hours for me, but I'm looking to move back to the area and I may need a real estate agent. I figure I would reach out to the real estate guru himself. My boyfriend and I just decided the Potstown area about an hour for me is going to be best for us long term. Of course I pulled up to listings just to see what's there and there's one that's perfect for us. Would you represent us in that area or is that too far? Are you familiar with there? Are you for see home prices coming down in the area, right? You know, are the rates as bad as they say, et cetera, right? So what did you guys hear in that? Well, first of all, I am the expert, right? And I'm not saying that to be cocky. They see me as the expert. She literally called me the real estate guru. You know, she later said, it seems like you have a lot of fun with what you're doing, right? It's a good time to buy a house, you know, all these different things. And so it is wild to me because I need you guys to understand. If you made post right now, first week of December, consistently, these are the messages you'll be getting in six to nine months a year from now, especially two years, three years from now you will not be able to keep up, but you are not putting in the work. This person saw me as the real estate guru. Do you imagine, right? It's so cool. And it was so awesome. And I'm excited. You know, we saw how today it wasn't a fit, but they're going to buy a home with me over the next few months, right? They watched me be consistent. They watched me share stories. They watched my content buckets and they feel like they know and trust me, right? When I saw them today, they talked about things they saw on social media, right? And that's the thing, guys, you don't win on social media by being flashy. You win by being consistent, right? You don't have to worry about all of this stuff, vanity metrics, right? Whatever. You just have to show up every single day. And months after that, you will get the clients. I promise you that momentum finally activates. And this is the same thing that could happen to anyone who sticks with it. Social media is not magic. It is math plus patience equals results. We should write that down, guys, math plus patience equals results. Because I know the math means if you consistently post consistently, right? Seven posts a week, right? If you post every day, that's seven posts a week. That's 30 posts a month, right? So think about it in 90 days, that's 90 posts in a quarter, right? So that math 90 plus being patient will lead to deals. It will. So I want to give you a simple framework here in December, right? And we talked about this a little bit on the YouTube channel Tuesday. Tuesday, we talked about doing one thing, one freaking thing, guys, that's it. Every single day this month. And this is the easiest month to do it. Every single realtor, guys, is slowing down. They're coasting. They're taking the foot off the gas. Guess what, guys? I'm not. I had to miss a couple of meetings actually, you know, recently because I've been so busy, right? So I had to kind of step away from a few things at church for a couple of weeks because I'm swamped with clients, right? And I want to, you know, gear up, have everything ready to go for family time around the holidays, right? I'm busy. Why? Because I'm not slowing down. I'm doing the things consistently, right? So here is your framework. We talked about this Tuesday, one small action every single day. And then we talked about this on the YouTube channel today. And then the long game mindset where you again, remember math, so consistent posting, plus being patient right, crockpot, oven, whatever you want to say equals results. It's unstoppable, guys. If you can do 30 small actions this month and wait and be patient and post good content, you will hit the ground running in January. I promise you. You will. You don't need to be perfect. You need to be what consistent. So if you have not seen the YouTube videos this week, please go check them out Tuesday's video about, you know, one simple habit a day. Please video about the long game and why things take time. Watch them both. They work together and if today's episode here on the podcast helped you feel free to message me on Facebook, Instagram and tell me what your one daily action is going to be because I love hearing those winds and I want to help you be consistent this month. I want to see you do it. So this is a month to choose consistency. It's a month to choose consistency while everyone is slowing down. You know, I brought up the math on Tuesday, right? But let's just do the math right now. I'm going to look at my calendar, right? We have about 25 days, 26 days, whatever it is, till the end of December. What can you do consistently for those 25 or 26 days, right? Three weeks from today is the last Friday and December. It's the day after Christmas. What can you do for three plus weeks to put the work in? What can you do, right? Four weeks from today, guys, is January 2nd. You'll already be into 2026. What can you do for that month to be consistent? You have to choose it though. I cannot do it for you, right? No more stopping and starting, no more waiting until January start today. And if you do, your future self will thank you love you guys so much. Thanks for listening. Go take action this month in December and I'll see you guys on our next episode. Talk to you guys soon. Thanks for listening to the real estate survival guide. If you enjoyed this episode, we would appreciate it if you'd leave us a review on iTunes. It helps others discover the show. Thank you so much and we will see you on the next episode.