A notable CEO in the real estate industry received a message from an agent that makes a million dollars a year.
“I’m really scared about what is going on in the industry right now. And I’m having doubts on how to move my business forward. Things are harder than they have ever been, and I know I need to make adjustments to stay competitive. But I liked the way things were, and I’m not clear on my next steps.”
This is someone who’s having success, who’s climbed the mountaintop—and they’re experiencing the type of fear and uncertainty you can bet other people, at all levels of experience and income, are feeling right now.
Things are changing, and people—agents and consumers alike—don’t know what to do.
People are scared
There are a couple lessons to take from this. Number one, people are scared right now. And the fear needs to be addressed. Someone—their coach, their mentor, their leader—needs to help them find solutions.
Because if the people they lean on don’t help them, someone else will.
That agent isn’t the only one feeling that fear. Other agents in the market, across the country, are scared, too. And it’s not enough to simply acknowledge that agents are scared. They’re looking for someone with more experience and more insight to help them see the way forward, so that rather than being paralyzed or tormented, they can take the steps they need to address those fears and become an empowering resource for others.
That fear isn’t felt only by agents, either. Consumers are afraid, too. And if agents aren’t able to address their own fears, they won’t be able to address those of consumers, either.
Hoping no one notices your fear is not a solution. There’s an opportunity to step in and be the resource to someone who needs help. That goes for everyone in the real estate business right now. The best agents and the best leaders find a way to get past the surface-level resistance and address the real fears that most people are experiencing.
Here are a few ways to do that.
#1—Emotional self-monitoring and self-control
Start with awareness of your own feelings and cultivate your ability to control the influence you have on others.
Emotional self-awareness is a skill that can be learned. It involves becoming aware of the emotions that people put out there and anticipate your impact on their thoughts.
Are you picking up on the emotional cues people are giving out?
#2—Problem-solving
This includes taking those cues and using your intuition as a potent source of information.
Research demonstrates that tactical knowledge and gut instinct together lead to rapid and effective decision-making. And those instincts are often associated with feelings rather than specific thoughts.
Those feelings of fear are driven by concerns about whatever is happening.
#3—Learning
Fear can push us all to work harder, to take more care in what we’re doing, and to educate ourselves—to seek the knowledge and cultivate the skills we need to better serve our clients.
After all, one of the best ways to overcome that feeling of fear is through learning and information seeking—being the knowledge broker to your clients and to the people that work with you that lean on you. That’s going to be a powerful antidote for the fear in the marketplace, to mitigate the doubts everyone is feeling.
#4—Seeking support
Reach out to your peer group. Reach out to your mentors. Reach out to your coach. Whoever you lean on when the shit hits the fan, that’s who you need to talk to. Because fear is everywhere right now—about the economy, about the market—along with anxiety about results.
And the people who know how to address their own fears—as well as the fears of those around them— will come out on the other side as winners.
