Lessons from the Masters Golf Tournament
How to keep your real estate career on course and on par
By Bob Corcoran

Did you see the final round of the Masters Golf tournament in April? Rory McIlroy, a 21-year-old sensation from Ireland woke up that Sunday at 12 under par with a four-shot lead over his nearest challengers.

Up until then, he had made just three bogeys while stringing together 15 birdies. In those 54 holes, he never three-putted, not once.

Then, the wheels came off. He pulled a tee shot on the par-4 10th so badly it nearly hit a cabin that sits 50 yards from the fairway. He triple-bogeyed that hole, bogeyed the 11th, four-putted the par-3 12^th and ended the miserable day with an 8-over 80 and finished tied for 15th. His pay check shrunk from $1.44 million to $128,000.

Winner Charl Schwartzel sympathized. “One moment you’re on top of it, the next moment it bites you,” he said.

A brutal breakdown. And it brings me to this question: In the game of real estate, how do you stay successful and keep the profession from biting you?

I’ve been at this job of helping Realtors for about two decades now; and here are a few tips I hope will help you keep your paychecks big and your career on course:

1. Define success. Many Real Estate Agents never define what success really is to them. Is it selling 100 homes in a year? Is it working 40 hours a week so you can spend time with your family? You have to define it before you can reach it. Even though Rory had a bad day, he still knew what success would be at the end of that Sunday: the lowest score.
2. Have a mentor. Who do you admire in real estate? Someone you think epitomizes success? Get to know that person. Take her out to lunch, get to know her and how she works. I know you didn’t get into real estate being shy, so take the initiative and learn from those who’ve shown they can do the job well.
3. Get an accountability partner. Along the same lines of a mentor, get someone who can hold you accountable for what you say you’re going to do. Without one, it’s easy to not follow through with what you need to do to stay successful. Coaches keep their athletes on the straight and narrow. You should have the same. This is a role I often fill with my clients, and not to brag, but my clients increase their business on average by 47 percent after one year with me. Accountability works!
4. Measure your confidence. Any athlete will tell you confidence is vital. Without it, you’re dead in the water. After he lost, McIlroy said, “I lost a lot of confidence in my putting around the turn.” Regularly check your confidence levels, especially before important meetings, such as listing presentations.
5. Take lessons from your losses. Unfortunately, you will have bad days. Hopefully they won’t be as painful as McIlroy’s was. But even in the bitterest of defeats, you have to learn to take away lessons. After his loss, McIlory said this: “I’m very disappointed right now, and I’m sure I will be for the next few days, but I’ll get over it. I’ve got to take the positives, and the positives were I led this golf tournament for 63 holes.” When you have a bad day, look at it, analyze it and take away whatever good you can from it.

Let me hear from you. Have defined success for yourself? How are going to achieve success for the remainder of the 2011? Have you identified any obstacles you’ll need to deal with before you’re successful? Please send any comments or questions you have to Article@CorcoranCoaching.com or http://www.facebook.com/CorcoranCoaching.

Bob Corcoran is a nationally recognized speaker and author who is founder and president of Corcoran Consulting Inc. (CorcoranCoaching.com, 800-957-8353), an international consulting and coaching company that specializes in performance coaching and the implementation of sound business systems into the residential or commercial broker or agent’s existing practice.

We look forward to hearing from you.  Sign up TODAY for your complimentary business consultation. http://www.CorcoranCoaching.com/bpw.php

Attention Brokers: Shed the manager role and become a leader

By Bob Corcoran

YOUR NAME HERE … a leader in real estate.

Say that aloud a couple of times.

Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? Think it would sound good to prospective clients? Suppose it would add some credibility to your business? Think it might garner respect from fellow Realtors®?

So, are you a leader in the industry?

If you haven’t noticed, the field is getting crowded with folks looking to make a living in real estate. Being a leader can help you stand out. But not only that, it can transform you and your business. In my role as a real estate consultant and coach, I’ve seen brokers reinvent themselves into leaders. This has become a true and pivotal turning point in their careers, and taken their businesses to the next level.

But, what is a leader, really? Here are five characteristics you need to develop before you can be a true leader:

A visionary. While managers handle the day-to-day chores of a business, leaders have 20/20 vision and a birds-eye view on industry indicators and market trends to see where their businesses are going in the next six months to a year.

A planner. Leaders are able to take what they see from that birds-eye view and translate it into a business plan that reflects market conditions and gets results. By December of this year, they have all of 2008 on paper and are ready to attack.

A collaborator. Leaders know they need help, and they can’t do everything alone. And really good leaders are able to identify, recruit and collaborate with people and other organizations that can add balance and effectiveness to their business.

An enabler. Great leaders enable their employees to reach and achieve more by getting them what they need to do their jobs. Leaders will stop at nothing to make sure their employees have everything they need to achieve personal as well as business success.

 A motivator. Leaders instill a strong sense of ownership among employees. When your team members feel they own their job, they reach new heights of achievement and motivation. And leaders are able to get everyone to accept personal responsibility to get their jobs done, and done well.

I worked with a broker in Austin, Texas who was having trouble getting his team to feel that ownership. We made some adjustments and he went from selling 80 homes a year to more than 600.

I’ve included a link to an article I think you’ll find helpful in your transition to leadership called “Five steps to Leading a Team Effectively.” Take a quick look and enjoy! http://www.corcorancoaching.com/BrokerAgent.php

Let me end on this note: Leaders aren’t made or born. Leadership is a choice. You can choose to remain exactly where you are today. Not everyone is a leader.

Becoming a leader is more of a personal journey than anything, and it’s not an overnight transition. It takes time, so be patient. Start by being aware of where you are and what’s important to you, understanding what your values, ethics beliefs are, and then creating a picture of what your business would look like with you as a leader, and not just a manager.

I encourage you to look deep inside and ask yourself if you would be happier, wiser and wealthier if you were a leader in real estate.

You might just find a new you ready to surpass glorious goals and reach magnificent milestones you would have never thought possible. Believe me; I’ve seen it happen many times. And it can happen with you.

Best of luck to you!

 Bob Corcoran is a nationally recognized speaker who is founder and president of Corcoran Consulting Inc. (CorcoranCoaching.com, 800-957-8353), an international consulting and coaching company that specializes in performance coaching and the implementation of sound business systems into the broker’s or agent’s existing practice.

 We look forward to hearing from you.  Sign up TODAY for your first coaching call, it’s FREE. http://www.CorcoranCoaching.com/free_coaching.php

How a ‘can-do attitude’ can make 2012 a record year
By Bob Corcoran

On May 6, 1954 Roger Bannister did what practically everyone said couldn’t be done: that a human could run a mile in less than four minutes. His time: 3 minutes 59.4 seconds.

What’s interesting about this story is that since that date, more than a dozen men have gone on to run the sub-four-minute mile. In fact, just 46 days after Bannister broke the four-minute barrier, on 21 June in Finland, John Landy of Australia broke Bannister’s record by a second and a half. Today, the record stands at 3:43.13 minutes – nearly 18 seconds have been shaved off the record.

There two lessons I’d like you to take from Bannister’s story:

1. Bannister turned a deaf ear to the naysayers. It took him nine years of hard work with plenty of defeats and setbacks, but he kept putting one foot in front of the other until he did it. In fact, it was failure at the 1952 Olympics (where he finished a dismal fourth) that spurred Bannister to break the four-minute barrier. Are you giving too much credence to those around you who say you can’t do something? Think about it.
2. I want you to actually write down and keep this second lesson on or near your desk: Your whole life changes once you make a commitment. After that failure at the Olympics, Bannister did one simple thing that put him on the path to breaking the four-minute barrier: He made a commitment. He committed to what he needed to do reach his goal.

Is it easy? Bannister admitted it wasn’t for him. Here’s what he shared about the process: “Those who can drive themselves further once the effort gets painful are the people who will win.”

But he also added this after breaking the four-minute mile: “No longer conscious of my movement, I discovered a new unity with nature. I had found a new source of power and beauty, a source I never dreamt existed.”

I’ve seen this time and time again with my clients after they truly commit to their real estate goals. Good things start happening, “a new source of power” appears.

For 2012, I invite you to define your own sub-four-minute-mile – the goal that might seem impossible but that if you reached it, could change your life. Is it to sell 100 homes? 200? More? Less? You choose. Make it a good one. But don’t forget the most important part – make the commitment to put all – and I mean all – of your energy into achieving the goal.

I have an article I’m happy to send you free of charge called, “Changing breakdowns into breakthroughs” that gets to the heart of achieving more success in real estate sales. Just shoot me an e-mail at article@CorcoranCoaching.com and I’ll send it along to you.

I’ll leave you with a quote from Bannister: “Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a lion or a gazelle–when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.”

Let me hear from you. Have you defined your own four-minute mile – that goal that people might snicker at if they heard you talk about it? What hurdle is keeping you from reaching your sub-four-minute mile? Is it your own beliefs? Is it what others say? What actions (or inactions) have been keeping you from achieving your potential? What actions might you start taking today that will put you closer to your goals in real estate?  Please send any comments or questions you have to Article@CorcoranCoaching.com or http://www.facebook.com/CorcoranCoaching.

Bob Corcoran is a nationally recognized speaker and author who is founder and president of Corcoran Consulting Inc. (CorcoranCoaching.com, 800-957-8353), an international consulting and coaching company that specializes in performance coaching and the implementation of sound business systems into the residential or commercial broker or agent’s existing practice.

We look forward to hearing from you. Sign up TODAY for your complimentary business consultation. http://www.CorcoranCoaching.com/bpw.php.

 Benefits of Managed Time – Controlling Your Destiny

 Are you in control?

1. Where are you now?  Where you will be in 5 years depends on what you do today, tomorrow, or next week.
   1. a.       Do you have a balance?  Do you understand the importance of honoring your own time?
   2. b.      Do you manage your business or does your business manage you?  It’s not about time management it’s about personal management.
   3. c.       Understand the source of poorly managed time.
   4. d.      It’s about choices – are you acting like where you aspire to be?
   5. e.       Bob will discuss with the group how to assess actions within their current life (both personal and business) and actions to take to move forward so they “act like where they aspire to be.”
2. What is your vision for your life?
   1. a.       Bob will discuss with the group why vision is important, approved how to write your vision and the benefits of having a vision in your business/life.
   2. b.      He will review such things as
      1. 1.      Reasons to write down your vision for your life today!
      2. 2.      10 Reason’s your future can be great.
      3. 3.      Fear or Confidence:  Which Are You Choosing?
      4. 4.      Three Types of People – Which are you?
3. Set your goals:  Planning your way to success
   1. a.       Why set Goals?
   2. b.      How do I get started?  Be proactive not reactive.
   3. c.       What is realistic?
   4. d.      Transferring your goals into action.
   5. e.       Bob will focus on the art of goal setting and the science of time management as they apply to your business.  He will focus on strategic thinking, action planning and the concept of Dollar Productive Activities.
4. Work your plan.
   1. a.       Tools of the Trade
      1. 1.      Data Base System
      2. 2.      Daily Activity Report
      3. 3.      Ideal Weekly Schedule
   2. b.      Bob will review with the group current tools of the trade that are available to help you achieve that balance when used consistently.
5. Benefits of Managed Time  – Live in The Present
   1. a.       Bob will review with group the benefits not only to personal, physical, spiritual lives, but your business life and clients as well!

Bob Corcoran is a nationally recognized speaker and author who is founder and president of Corcoran Consulting Inc. (CorcoranCoaching.com, 800-957-8353), an international consulting and coaching company that specializes in performance coaching and the implementation of sound business systems into the residential or commercial broker or agent’s existing practice.

We look forward to hearing from you. Sign up TODAY for your complimentary business consultation. http://www.CorcoranCoaching.com/bpw.php.

9 Steps to Adding Consistency to Your Business
By Bob Corcoran

Consistency is the oil for the engine of business. Peek under the hood of the great businesses and you’ll see consistency causing a smooth purring sound:

– McDonalds: No matter where in the country you are – those cheeseburgers all taste exactly the same.

– UPS: When was the last time you had a problem with “big brown” getting your package either to you or to your client?

– Starbucks: That same exact aura and taste is in every single store.

And ask any of the leaders of those companies why they’re successful and I guarantee you’ll hear the word consistency uttered sooner rather than later.

So how do you achieve consistency in your real estate business? Here are 9 ingredients of consistency:

1. Review your business. Take an inventory of your current situation to see if your business is set up to accomplish what you truly want to achieve. Are you selling the number of homes you expected to? Are you selling homes in the price range that will lead you to your financial goals?

2. Clarify your vision. Write a vision statement that spells out clearly what you see your business providing for the customer. Then write a mission statement that explains how you intend to achieve your objective or vision. Set achievable sales goals and monitor them weekly.

3. Analyze the market regularly. Keep an eye out for any upcoming changes in the market. And reevaluate your target market and understand how that market will evaluate your services and make decisions.

4. Examine the competition. Know exactly who your competition is and how you compare. Look at how they’re different from you and why you believe you can get a client to choose you over them. Look for any opportunities that put you in a better light and determine what risks your competitors pose.

5. Develop a sound business strategy. Know what your strengths and weaknesses are and describe them in detail. Then outline how you plan to capitalize on both. Spell out who will implement the strategy and how because you must have accountability from a coach or peer.

6. Outline your services. Rank your services by how much money each brings in and how you can improve each one. Also, look at how you’re positioning those services to the buying public. And analyze how you list homes and work with buyers or sellers.

7. Energize your sales and marketing. Outline specifically all the ways potential clients know you exist and why they should choose you when they do learn about you. Examine your marketing and advertising strategies to ensure they’re potent.

8. Add efficiency to your operations. I regularly help clients set up systems so their businesses run on autopilot. I also help them determine if they’re spending their time on dollar productive activities versus wasting time. Do you have job descriptions, an ideal weekly schedule and a daily activity record? These items will help keep you on track.

9. Get a handle on your numbers and finances. Do you know your average price per sale? Do you know your average time on market for your listings? Do you know your profit and loss numbers? Budget projections? You must have a firm grasp of all your numbers and track them regularly.

And finally, wrap all these items up into a single solid business plan and you’ll be well on your way to a business that gives off that sweet purring sound – smooth, fast, efficient and profitable.

Make a commitment to do it today. And to help you get started, I’ve outlined all of this for you in a worksheet free of charge on my website at http://www.corcorancoaching.com/BrokerAgent.php.

Best of luck to you!

BOB CORCORAN

CORCORAN CONSULTING & COACHING

Bob Corcoran is founder and president of, Corcoran Consulting & Coaching, an international consulting and coaching company that specializes in performance coaching, and the implementation of sound business systems into brokers’ and agents’ existing practice.

Since forming his business in 1989, Corcoran has worked with hundreds of top producing agents worldwide in developing and implementing customized, growth oriented business systems that are proven to increase your bottom line. Corcoran’s implementation has empowered agents to run efficient offices while harnessing the latest technology to increase their businesses. Corcoran’s clients consistently earn prestigious awards, including 25 achievements earned in the top 100 of the Wall Street Journal and Real Trends Top 400 Realtors for 2009.

Corcoran is a nationally recognized speaker, author, and consultant.  He authored the book “Make a Commitment-Soar to Success in Real Estate” and has spoken on  such topics as “Teaching the Real Estate Broker the Art of Coaching,” “Managing & Converting Your Leads,” “Keeping An Eye on Your Bottom Line,”  “Business Planning for Your Real Estate Brokerage” and “Building and Running A Real Estate Team.”

Bob Corcoran is a nationally recognized speaker and author who is founder and president of Corcoran Consulting Inc. (CorcoranCoaching.com, 800-957-8353), an international consulting and coaching company that specializes in performance coaching and the implementation of sound business systems into the residential or commercial broker or agent’s existing practice.

 We look forward to hearing from you.  Sign up TODAY for your complimentary business consultation. http://www.CorcoranCoaching.com/bpw.php