3 THINGS THAT MAKE YOU AND YOUR BUSINESS MAGNETIC!

One of the most important things a business owner can do before starting a business is to get very clear on what the vision for the business is, what the real mission of that business will be, and what the guiding principles of that business are. You’ve probably heard it all before from business coaches and business training, but how many of you have spent the time to really clarify your vision, your mission, and what your guiding principles and values are? 

I say that, not to shame you for not having done it yet, but as an encouragement for you, regardless of how long you’ve been in business or where you are at this point, to take some time to work on getting more clear on what’s important to you in your life and business, and why you really do what you do. This week’s episode is not about mission, vision, and values, but it is about focusing on some core principles I see winning time and time again, and those who are ignorant of these principles struggling.

Welcome back to the show, my friends, my name is Blaine Feyen, and I am your host for this, and every episode of the always sponsor free Real Value Podcast. If 2023 is going to be the year you get real clarity on what you’re doing in business and why you’re doing it, I’d love to help you get there so I’ve created a bunch of tools, as well as some private communities of people all driven to be the best version of themselves. One of those tools is something I call the Value Ladder and I want to give it to you just for being a follower of this show. Just got to www.coachblaine.com/valueladder and download your free copy of the exercise, along with a video showing you how to use it. It’s specifically designed to help you get extreme clarity on why you do what you do so that you can do it even better. 

Once you get more clarity around the real values behind why you do what you do, the natural end result is that, not only will you do what you do better, you will also start making better decisions about who you do business with, how much you charge, how much you work, what markets you serve and why, and a whole bunch of other key decisions that will be more in alignment with who you really are at your core, and it will help even further distinguish you in the market. As I say all the time, if you’re not differentiating yourself somehow in 2023, you are simply part of the commoditized masses of people all competing for the same dollars. Download the Value Ladder exercise and take the first steps to differentiating yourself. 

And, If you want to go further, if you’re ready to be part of a community of motivated and driven real estate appraisers and business owners building their businesses to greater heights daily, maybe you want to check out our Appraiser Increase Academy. It’s the first level of coaching we offer, it’s extremely low cost, and it literally comes with a no questions asked, one full year guarantee. If you don’t think the program is for you and you didn’t receive any value from the 50+ hours of video training, the 15 coaching exercises, the private Facebook community, the live monthly coaching calls, the guest coaching videos, and the special events, we simply give you all of your investment back and you keep whatever you’ve downloaded as my gift for investing your valuable time. So, if that’s something that sounds interesting and worth checking out, just go to www.coachblaine.com/level1 and learn a little more about that.

Alright, my friends, let’s get into the 3 principles that have led to the most growth for me personally, and the ones I’d like you to go deep on in 2023 if you want to experience real increase, with a bonus benefit of following this advice being some real differentiation for you in the market. If you want to be the best, command the highest fees, and be best in class in your business and your market, these are the things I think you should be doing, with the first 3 things being what we might call principles. The first three things aren’t necessarily things you need to do, but they are things you need consider in all the things you do! 

The first of those principles is the principle of generosity. Sometime back in 2019, I did an episode where I talked about the 3 most important words in business, which were gratitude, graciousness, and generosity. I used the acronym, 3G, to remind myself of those three words: gratitude, graciousness, and generosity. When it comes to principles for both business and life, the principle of generosity is magnetic, which means its attractive. Generosity attracts to you good things and opportunities, most of which you haven’t thought of or imagined yet. The more you give, the more you grow, and expansion becomes the natural result. 

I talk often about how one of my company’s strategic activities is to give free talks, classes, and seminars in our market on a variety of topics. We do this for two primary reasons: it’s good for our market of professionals because they’re learning and growing, and it gives me the opportunity to give to my market freely without any expectation of return. I don’t bring business cards, I don’t give a business pitch, I don’t promote myself or my company, and I don’t ask for anything. It’s just me being in proximity and relationship with the people in my market offering my knowledge and experience. Does it come back to us? Of course! It comes back to us in ways I never imagined. 

Jolene and I have been out to dinner several times and found when it was time to pay the bill that it had already been paid by somebody else. On those occasions where the bill was paid by somebody else, we got a handwritten note on a napkin thanking me for the things I do in my market. Of course, it leads to lots of both the non-lender appraisal type business, but it has also led to some of the prosperous relationships with good lenders in my market. It has led to relationships with investors and owners of title agencies, owners of large real estate firms, and invites to speak and teach from people all around the country, many of whom have become good friends today.

Don’t do things just because they might lead to some revenue, do some things that just feel good to do because they’re generous. Generosity is a muscle that needs to be flexed, by the way, if you want it to remain strong. Generosity is a personal reminder of just how much you have to give, which tells your subconscious mind that you’re wealthy already, that you’re a good steward of your resources, and to be on the lookout to attract more. The more you give freely of your resources, the more you will have to give. That’s just the way it works. 

There is a little caveat to this one and it’s that you must feel good about the giving when you do it. If you feel like you’re losing something whenever you give, you’re activating the wrong muscle and you will shut down that magical part of your brain called the reticular activating system that is always on the lookout for more of the same. In essence, if giving makes you feel poor, you’ll continuously be on the lookout for more opportunities to feel poor. But, if giving ignites something in you that feels good, then your brain starts to be on the lookout for more opportunities to feel that feeling and opportunities are what you get. 

The second principle I’d like you to go deeper on in 2023 is the principle of being genuine. Another word for genuineness is authentic. When you are being your authentic self, assuming that your authentic self isn’t abrasive, abusive, rude, and ridiculous, people are more naturally drawn to you. We all have sensors built into our brains that trigger warning signals when we don’t sense authenticity. It’s our survival instinct that kicks in that says, ‘something about this person is not right and I’m not going to fully trust them’. Authenticity builds trust, trust is one of the most important things to have in a relationship, and relationship is what we should be going for in business. 

To touch again on going out in your market to speak, teach, and lead, this is one of the greatest ways to show your authenticity. In addition to showing how generous you are with your time and your knowledge, when you’re authentic, people can sense it and they want to get to know you more. Authenticity, like generosity, is magnetic and attractive. And, by the way, when I use those words, magnetic and attractive, I’m using them to indicate that you will attract more people like you. We’re all magnetic in a sense. If you’re a jerk, you will attract other people that are jerks, and you will also attract opportunities to show how much of a jerk you really are. You can be magnetic even when you are repellant. It’s just that you repel all those who aren’t like you, and you attract those who are more on the same frequency as you. 

If you want to attract and be around more people and opportunities that are genuine and authentic, be more authentic. If you want to experience more generosity in the world, be more generous. If you want to experience more trust in your life, be more trustworthy and authentic. By the way, just like with generosity, there is a caveat and I said it when I introduced this one. If your form of authenticity is to be abrasive, abusive, rude, ridiculous, a know it all, a jerk, or whatever negative personality trait you may have, being authentic is not the advice I would give. After all, one of the definitions of authentic is ‘true to one’s own personality, spirit, and character’. If what you’re taking from this is that Blaine is endorsing my personality disorders and telling me I should go out and be a jerk, that’s not the way I’m using the word ‘authentic’. 

When I tell you that genuineness and authenticity lead to trust, I’m referring more to the advice that you shouldn’t be putting on airs or playing characters that you think will impress people. You don’t need to lie or fool people to build a good business. You don’t need to impress people with your designations to build a good business. You need to be a good person and be authentic in order to build real trust. When your authenticity and genuineness comes across, you will attract more people like yourself, which makes being in business that much more fun and rewarding. 

If you’ve been listening to this show for any period of time, or you’re one of our coaching members, you’ll know that I am big on using video for communication when and where it’s appropriate. I use services like BombBomb and Loom to send video communications all day long, and I do that because I want to convey sincerity and authenticity in my communications. One of the quickest ways to show your authenticity is by showing yourself on camera and by being yourself.

Years ago, 3M did a study and found that the human brain can process images 60,000 times faster than plain text on a screen or a page. They found that our brains can decipher image elements simultaneously, while text and language is decoded in a linear, sequential fashion, which means it takes more time to process text and language than it does images. Since video is just a bunch of images placed right next to each other in rapid succession, and the brain processes images so much faster, video is what you should be using to convey authenticity, meaning, and trust faster. 

Here's the thing with real authenticity; you may not be able to win everyone over with your authenticity or your opinions. Everyone may not agree with your point of view simply because you’re being authentic. But, when you’re being real and authentic, you’re more likely to have people that may disagree with a particular viewpoint continue to follow and stay engaged because they trust you. That’s the power of authenticity. 

The last thing I think is important to think about in 2023 is something we’ve been learning from sages and teachers for eons now and that is that simplicity almost always trumps complexity. It’s been said before that simplicity is the new sophistication. James Clear, the author of the great book, Atomic Habits, says about simplicity, “Simple is nearly always better. But if it’s going to be complicated, then make sure the problem is worth the complexity. A great deal of time is wasted creating complex solutions to relatively unimportant problems.”

I talk with appraisers from around the country on a daily basis trying to solve for problems that either don’t really exist, one’s that really aren’t that important to be solving for, and things that shouldn’t be done at all. In essence, people spending an awful lot of time focused on the wrong things. When you’re focused on the wrong things, you’re not able to spend time on the right things and part of the challenge of any businessperson is discerning the right problems to focus on. In fact, it’s been said many times before that the problem you to choose to solve will determine, not only the reward, but the size of the reward you’ll receive. 

Stop trying to make more complex that which doesn’t need to be complex. There are many of you who may eventually hear this that are doing things in your business that shouldn’t be done, or be done by you, and you deliberately try to make some things more complex than they are in reality.

Peter Drucker, the great management and efficiency guru is famous for saying, “nothing is less productive than to make efficient what shouldn’t be done at all.” What he’s speaking about is discernment and having the ability to decide what is important and what’s not important so that you can work on the important stuff. Simplicity trumps complexity and there are likely 3 or 4 things you do in your day, in your processes, in your workflow that either shouldn’t be done at all or shouldn’t be so complex. If you work by yourself, well then you have nobody to blame but yourself for making more complex that which could have been kept simple. If you work in a larger organization then you know that there are always people and departments that are rewarded for making things more complex. The larger you get, you more you attract people who make it their job to create complexity because complexity means job security. When things are made complex, then you need people who can interpret the complexity for us dummies in the room and they can be there to constantly solve the problems that are created with the complexity. 

The other aspect of this adage, simplicity trumps complexity, is that complexity rarely scales. When something simple is made too complex, mission and scope creep enter the picture and valuable time gets eaten up trying to keep up with the complexity. Taking the simple and making it too complex also makes it difficult to explain and teach to others. If you can’t write it on a napkin and have the person across from you exclaim, “ahhhh! I get it!”, then you’ve made it too complex. Keeping in mind, of course, that sometimes people are incentivized to make something more complex than it needs to be because then they sound more intelligent than they are and, once again, job security. People would much rather create a problem to solve and focus on more complex things than do the really simple, yet boring things that lead to results.

Simplicity trumps complexity, my friends, and I can guarantee that, if you look around your business, you have made complex that which could’ve been kept or made simple and it’s costing you valuable time, energy, brain power, and resources. The most intelligent people are not necessarily the one’s making everything more complex. Oftentimes the most intelligent are the ones who can peer into complexity and find the simplicity. Focus on the right things, get the simple things right, make it so that you can explain it simply to somebody who knows nothing about your business and they understand it, and catch yourself whenever your brain tells you that it should be more complex, it most likely does not.

There it is, friends, three ideas for you to ponder going into this year of change and challenge for so many. Generosity is magnetic and the more you give, the more you attract. Authenticity is also magnetic and will help you build trust faster than almost anything, and simplicity trumps complexity. Whenever you feel the pull to come up with a more complex solution to a problem that could be solved simply, slap yourself back into reality and stick with the most simple solution so that you can more quickly uncover bigger problems to solve. 

If you want to get more clarity going into 2023 about your core values and what really drives you to do what you do, just head to www.coachblaine.com/valueladder and download my free gift to you for being a listener. Download the pdf exercise and then follow the video prompts for getting the most out of the value ladder tool. If you’re ready to take the next step in your appraisal business and want to add tens of thousands of dollars to your income this year, then it's time to join one of our income increasing coaching communities. If you want to start off slow and small to take a little taste of growth with almost no commitment, check out our level 1 Appraiser Increase Academy and Community. I can guarantee you spend more each month on Starbucks and donuts than what it will cost you to add $20,000 or $30,000 in additional income to your pocket in our level 1 Appraiser Increase Academy. You can check it out at www.coachblaine.com/level1 and see if it’s for you. Guaranteed, one idea from just one of the over 50 hours of coaching videos, the live monthly calls, the guest coaching calls, or one of the dozen coaching exercises will put tens of thousands of dollars in your pocket, save you hundreds of hours per year in time we bought back for you, and maybe even give you that one million dollar idea for your next business.

 Until then or until next week my friends, I’m out…