(Photo by hapal)

How hard would it be to catch one of these fish?

Probably not too hard!

What would you say if I told you that you could sell homes as easily as you could catch these fish?

Would you believe me?

Wikipedia defines “shooting fish in a barrel” as:  an idiom, describing an effortless or simple action, with guaranteed success.

Is it possible to sell homes in an effortless or simple action, with guaranteed success? If asked, most real estate agents would answer NO to this question.

Well, I would disagree with most agents. I learned how to sell homes with guaranteed success in a  a closed door mastermind meeting with Dan Kennedy, Bill Glazer, Yanik Silver, and several other top marketers. Here’s what I learned, in this meeting, that helped me sell homes with guaranteed success:

“You can shoot fish in a barrel in your business, if you focus on solving your CUSTOMER’S biggest problem.”

We have a tendency to focus on our problems, don’t we? Right now, we all have various personal and business problems. Our time and attention is focused on solving these problems. This means our time and attention is focused on us – not our clients.

Zig Ziglar has a powerful saying which highlights the shooting fish in a barrel strategy. Here it is:

“You can have everything you want in life, IF you help enough other people get what they want.”

Amazing things happen when you focus on your customer’s biggest problem.

In my business, we helped beginning real estate investors find, acquire and manage single family home investments. We spent a lot of time teaching our clients how to become landlords. We held special classes for our clients to teach them how to:

• Advertise their rental properties
• Handle renter calls
• Group rental showings
• What to say during showings
• How to get rental applications
• How to screen prospective tenants
• How to handle the lease and other related paperwork

Even though we did all of things to help our clients, some of them still struggled getting their homes rented to quality tenants. This was their biggest problem. After hearing this little lesson in the closed-door mastermind meeting, I began to focus on solving this big problem and what I ended up doing had dramatic results in my business. In fact, we began to sell multiple homes to the same clients and created an entirely new revenue stream for the business.

I shared exactly how I solved our client’s biggest problem in last week’s Automated Short Sale Machine Teleseminar. You can listen to this teleseminar right now at:

Automated Short Sale Machine Teleseminar

HINT: You might want to listen to this teleseminar recording to hear exactly what I did, because it may help you in your business. I’ve never shared this story in public before and I can assure you, it’s very powerful. You’ll be blown away by what I did. Check it out!

1. People cannot keep secrets.

2. Unfortunately in business, nice guys usually do finish last.

3. Time IS more valuable than money. (I used to think time was money. It’s not!)

4. It’s a lot easier to get into partnerships than it is to get out of them.

5. The old saying – “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade” might actually be the secret to success.

6. The ONLY way to get and stay rich is to consistently live below your means.

7. It’s usually best to do the opposite of what everyone else is doing. This applies to almost every area in life.

8. You can’t accomplish anything in your business, if your employees don’t fear you at some level.

9. Less really is more.

10. Golf is a waste of time.

Plus two bonus lessons…

11.  A good business book can and should turn into money in your bank account.

12. You only get half of what you deserve in live. Adjust your output accordingly.

Can you add to this list? I’m sure you can! Please add your life lessons in the comments to this post.

So far this year, the best presentation has been Jamie Olivers.  It’s very powerful and what he reveals may shock you. It definitely shocked me and we are making some changes with our kids because of his presentation.

I’ve included his presentation for you here:

One of the silliest of all ‘reasons’ people have for un-plugging themselves from different sources of information and ideas is that what they’re reading or hearing is repetitive.

And one of the greatest lies of all time, taught as success gospel, is that “knowledge is power.”   It most certainly is not.  Some of the smartest, most educated, most academically credentialed people I’ve ever met are poor as church mouses, miserable, even bitter and resentful of the greater success of those “less qualified.”  Why doesn’t their superior knowledge actually equate to power or wealth?  Because rewards aren’t paid out for what you know. Rewards are earned by what you do. And it is common for people who know a lot less but do a lot more with what they do know to employ a lot of people who know a lot more but do a lot less.

Actually, most people know a lot. If you’ve ever met a fat doctor who smokes, it’s not because he never got the memo, or missed class the day they revealed that obesity and smoking kill you. He knows.  He just doesn’t act in accordance with his knowledge.

When you consider your continuing association with a person, an organization, a coaching program, a mastermind group, or a publication, or even a radio or TV program, you should evaluate it by many factors – not just one. You should consider  the inspirational value, not just the educational value. Does it prod you to do?  It is true that motivation without the foundations of knowledge, information and competence leads only to frustration. A highly motivated fellow with a golf swing absent good mechanics, that resembles a rusty barn door in a tornado, will never be pleased with his golf score, and getting more motivated won’t help. But all the knowledge in the world without sufficient motivation to boldly act on it, to implement it, to insist on its application, is valueless as well. The goal is not just knowledge; it is applied knowledge.  People very often fail despite making themselves huge repositories of knowledge. People rarely fail due to the habit of taking action on knowledge.

Repeated exposure to important ideas, information, inspirational examples and many applications of it all is pretty much necessary. The conscious mind stands as sentry to the much more powerful subconscious, turning away all input contrary to the already stored beliefs. It takes repeated exposure to the new, different or challenging to wear down the guards’ resistance. You may very well recognize that you’ve heard ‘it’ before. You may even technically know ‘it’.  But if you aren’t yet acting on ‘it’, then you need to keep having ‘it’ placed in front of you again and again and again. 

The lust for the “new” is not our most productive attribute. We are all easily bored with the familiar, easily seduced by the new – but successful people focus on implementation of the best. Gaining ever-deeper and more certain knowledge of what works is more useful than broad, superficial knowledge of many things or, worse, of flitting about endlessly and never building anything solid.

The WHY PEOPLE FAIL articles are provided by Dan S. Kennedy, serial entrepreneur, from-scratch multi-millionaire, speaker, consultant, coach, author of 13 books including the No B.S. series (www.NoBSBooks.com), and editor of The No B.S. Marketing Letter. WE HAVE ARRANGED A SPECIAL FREE GIFT FROM DAN FOR YOU including a 2-Month Free Membership in Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s Circle, newsletters, audio CD’s and more: for information and to register, visit: http://www.freegiftfrom.com/robminton

Post by Rob Minton
Follow Me on Twitter

When I first got my real estate license, I went to work for a very small real estate brokerage. Our office consisted of my broker, who was an awesome salesman, an administrative assistant and some mysterious agent who I never saw. I heard about him, but he never seemed to stop into the office or sell any homes.

My broker also owned a printing business. His real estate company shared office space in his printing business. There was no sign on the door for the real estate company. In addition, he didn't have his real estate business listed in the phone book. In addition, my broker wasn't a fan of marketing. His entire business was built around referrals.

During my years with him, he never once ran a lead generation advertisement. He never sent a customer newsletter. In fact, he never promoted himself in the public. He simply waited for referrals to come in from past clients, friends and his large network of business owners. I believe he would meet the definition of "old" school.

His setup was similar to most agents because he handled the listings and gave his buyer referrals to me. I improved my skills and became very good at helping buyers find and buy their homes.

Everything was going fine until…

One morning he stopped in the office and said, "Cancel any meetings you have today and grab your golf clubs!" We left the office and played 18 holes of golf. As always, we had a few beers as we played. My broker was an excellent golfer and he always beat me by a wide margin. I didn't really care because golf was never that important to me.

It was still early after we finished, so we headed to a bar that had an outdoor boccie court. We continued drinking and began to aggressively play boccie. I couldn't believe it, but I was actually beating him. I won the first game. So he challenged me to a second and I won again. He became very irritated because he never liked to lose, especially to me.

I started to trash talk a little bit because I was finally beating him at something. This must have been when the alcohol kicked in because he said the following to me:

"Who changes your kitty litter?"

This one sentence changed my life forever. It was one of my life defining moments. He basically was saying that he was responsible for all of my home sales and commissions because he gave me his buyer referrals. To be 100% honest, he was right. I was completely dependent upon him.

I was pissed to say the least. I vowed to start my own company and show him that I didn't need to have my kitty litter changed by anyone.

I immediately started looking for my own office. I found an ugly old office and rented it at $425 a month. I had a meeting with him and re-negotiated my commissions to a higher commission split because I would no longer accept his referrals and I would no longer use his office, supplies or administrative assistant. I was going to change my own kitty litter!

I began to study marketing and slowly but surely began selling homes on my own. Within a few short months, I finished the required classes to obtain my brokers license and started my own real estate brokerage.

Fast forward…

When I sold my real estate business, we were selling an average of 30 homes a month. This was the same number of homes my broker would sell in a year. My company had been ranked 4th on the fastest growing companies in Northeastern, Ohio. I proved that I didn't need his referrals and that I could build a business on my own.

Looking back, I now realize how important this "Kitty Litter" comment was for my personal development. It forced me to go out on my own and make things happen all by myself. Had he not said this to me, I probably would have continued working his buyer referrals. Who knows where I would be today. I'd probably still be working in a spare desk somewhere in his printing office.
Or more than likely, I would be out of business because his business model wasn't sustainable.

I now believe that we all have "life defining moments" like the one I shared within this article. In fact, I believe the recent real estate market crash has been a major life defining moment for many in our industry. Life defining moments are critical for our success because they force us to do things we wouldn't have done otherwise. I desperately wanted to beat my broker in the number of homes sold. I wanted to prove myself.This desire forced me to get out of my comfort zone and do things that I had never done before.

Many experts are now reporting that we have probably hit our market bottom. This is where you get to decide how you are going to deal with your life defining moment. You have a clean slate with your business right now. The market is at the bottom and will slowly but surely improve month after month going forward.

Will you come out of your comfort zone do whatever it takes?

Will you prove to the world that you can build an amazing business?

I certainly hope you answered YES!

Take the 80/20 rule for example. You’ve heard it before, right?

20% of the real estate agents capture 80% of the sales.

Why is this the case? What is going on with the 80%? I coach and consult with hundreds of agents and am baffled as to why some implement what I teach and others don’t. As an example, I could give 100 real estate agents a fantastic new lead generation advertisement and I know in advance that only around 15 to 20 of them will actually run the advertisement.The other 80 or 85 won’t do anything with it…

Why?

I honestly don’t know…. Or how about an agent who sees other agents succeed using a specific strategy and then don’t copy it in their businesses.

Why?

Again, I don’t know the answer, but I can make a few educated guesses. Here are the 3 reasons I believe people stay in the 80% and have limited success in their lives:

1. Ignorance: For many, they simply don’t know what to do. Maybe they aren’t studying marketing or investing in programs that help them generate and convert leads for their businesses. If you don’t lead a horse to water, it can’t drink. Yes, we can all argue that the horse should be searching and hunting for water each and every day on it’s own.

2. Laziness: I guess a certain percentage of people are lazy. They would simply rather screw around than accomplish something. They have no inner drive whatsoever. Zero hunger to learn or grow in life.

3. Fear: Believe it or not, most people are afraid. They live their lives in fear and won’t work to overcome their fears. I believe people are afraid of many things, including:

• Losing money
• Making a mistake
• Looking foolish in front of others
• Success
• Failure
• And more…

If you’re in the 80% group and aren’t experiencing success in your business right now, you have to figure out where you stand on these three reasons. Is there information you need, but don’t have? If so, go find it. Are you lazy? If so, figure out how to create urgency in your day-to-day routine. If you’re fearful, you’ve got to conquer this fear once and for all. What specifically are you afraid of? Go out and do what you’re afraid of everyday and sooner or later you’re fears will be history.

Let’s face it, if you won’t address your problem(s), you’ll never have any significant growth in your business. Your business is really a reflection of who you are as a person. For it to grow, you must grow.

Last week I was working away at my home office when a fax came through from my assistant. All incoming faxes go to the office first and she sorts out the faxes that need to get to me directly. Here is the fax I received that passed the sorting test by my assistant…

(Click on the image to enlarge)

This fax came from Andrei Crudu from Romania. It is awesome for several reasons. Here are the reasons why this fax is so good:

 1. It is a fax, not an email. A significant number of emails do not get delivered. 100% of faxes get delivered. If you want to get to someone, send a fax – not an email!

2. It got passed my gate keeper.

3. It is really a form letter. Note the top where he wrote my name by hand. This means he probably sent this same fax to dozens of other entrepreneurs. I'll bet many of them will respond with answers to his questions. He could have taken the time to type my name at the top, but his fax still worked and got my attention.

4. In the first paragraph, he bonds with me by explaining he is just getting started. I can certainly understand his situation, because I was once in his shoes. He includes details about my work which shows that he has paid his dues at the library and he asks me to help him so that he can help others in the future.

5. He realizes that I have had mentors in my life and these mentors have helped me enormously. He uses this to his advantage by asking me to help him simply by answering a few questions. He didn't ask for a phone call. He didn't ask for a meeting.

6. At the bottom in the "P.S.", he offers to give something back to me by expanding overseas.

Well guess what?

His faxed worked because I'm going to answer his questions. I figured that his fax might be helpful to others who need help from experienced mentors. You might want to copy his idea and send a similar fax to people you would like to be mentored by. Here are his questions along with my answers:

What are the business lessons that changed your business and increased your profits through the roof?

A few of the general business lessons I've learned, in no particular order, are as follows…

• To niche your business around a segment of the market and then dominate the segment.
• To focus 100% on generating and converting leads for your business. Too many people get distracted from this within their businesses.The only shiny object you should chase are new leads for your business.
• Surround yourself with great people. Great people do not come from "help wanted" advertisements. They are found working somewhere else and must be recruited to join your team. If they are looking for work, you instantly know they were replaceable in their previous position(s). 
• Work your ass off to create systems that consistently convert prospects into clients or customers. Once the first lead conversion system is working, begin work on a second conversion system. Build lead conversion back up plans throughout your business. If you can't consistently convert leads, you don't have a business. You're simply a sales person.
• Focus on creating recurring income to increase the value of your business.
• Make testing a critical aspect of your business. Constantly test new advertisements, new sales letters, new lead conversion ideas. Track and compare results of each test. Over time you'll generate more clients for less money.
• DO NOT INCREASE YOUR LIVING EXPENSES AS YOUR BUSINESS SUCCEEDS. Live below your means. Save as much money as you possibly can because things can change very quickly. Live in a small, lower priced home. Buy used cars and drive them forever.
• Do your best to keep your overhead low.
• Learn to delegate so that you can stay focused on lead generation and lead conversion.
• Use compelling sales letters to automatically deliver sales presentations to each prospect.
• Don't be afraid to invest into a good mentor.
• Participate in mastermind groups of like minded individuals.
• Work hard to eliminate dependency in your life and in your business.

What are the books that inspired you and gave you the biggest boost in your life?

To be honest, I learn something from every book. The trick is taking the time to ask yourself the following question when reading:

"How can I use this idea in my business?"

This one question allows you to turn every book you read into money.

Looking back, I've gone through stages in my reading. I tend to concentrate my reading around one topic and read everything I can get my hands on until I completely master the topic. In the late 1990s I focused entirely on investing and building wealth. I read everything I could get my hands on and implemented what I learned. I tried every investing strategy I read about. I made a ton of mistakes and learned a great deal. I'm a better investor today because of these mistakes. I now know which investments work for me and which ones don't. I can now concentrate my time, energy and $$$ into the highest yielding investments. For example, the single best investment I can make right now is buying more clients for my business.

From 2000 to 2004, I focused on leadership. I read every book I could on how to become a better leader. This was because I started my own real estate brokerage in 2000 and needed to learn how to motivate people. I listened to John Maxwell, I attended seminars and I implemented what I learned. Slowly but surely I learned how to lead people. Many entrepreneurs don't take the time to study leadership. I think this is a critical mistake.

In 2004, I began reading books on marketing. I read and devoured everything Dan Kennedy wrote. I also purchased, studied and read everything Dan recommended. I have books on marketing from every top marketer throughout history. I attended seminars. I networked with other marketers. Most importantly, I applied what I learned to my business.

In 2006, I began reading books on how to sell your business. I didn't read just one book, I read many books. I then used what I learned to sell my real estate business.

Now I'm focusing on books about the economy, the value of the dollar, inflation, and government spending. How will all of this impact us going forward? What can I do to protect myself from loss and profit from the various opportunities available?

The goal when reading shouldn't be to read what sounds interesting or fun. The goal should be to select a topic that will have the biggest impact on your business/life and then focus entirely on this topic until you've mastered it. Then you repeat this process with a new topic. For example, don't read a book on investing today and a book on marketing tomorrow and then a book on selling your business next week. There is no focus in this process. You'll get distracted and won't make any major improvements in your life or business. Focus your reading around your biggest challenges.

As you read multiple books around the same topic, you'll be able to see trends or commonalities. Pay attention to these commonalities. They are shortcuts to your success. Don't make the mistake of saying, "I already know that…" Instead say, "Ok, I've now seen this idea or strategy 8 times in the last 10 books. I must focus on this because it is a common theme running through every book." For example, you might read biographies of the richest people throughout history. Look for commonalities from person to person. Leverage these commonalities by copying or applying them in your life.

Andrei even though I don't know you and haven't talked with you, I can easily see that you will be successful in life. This is evident simply from the fax I received from you.  I wish you the best and I hope that my comments will prove helpful for you!

Rob Minton

In this post, I thought I would share a few of my favorite tools, gadgets or resources with you. I have written about a few of these previously, but you'll be able to find some new ones in this post! I use each tool, gadget or resource listed every single day and have found them to be extremely helpful and cost effective. Here we go:

1. 5 Clicks: 5 Clicks is a little print screen software program that you can use to easily capture any part of your computer screen and paste it into a document or turn it into a jpg or gif picture. I use this software a lot. In fact, it is always open on my computer. I've even used it in this blog post by including a screen shot below. It is immensely helpful when writing newsletters, reports, and in marketing materials. It is very easy to use. I simply love it and couldn't work without it. You can see how the software works and give it a test drive on their website.

2. Google Calendar: Last year, I tried Google's free online calendar and haven't looked back. The best part of the calendar is that you can allow other people to schedule and change your calendar. Before Google Calendar, I struggled because I was maintaining two different calendars. One for work and another for family. My assistant at the office controlled the work calendar and my wife controlled the family calendar. Scheduling conflicts occurred frequently and it was very frustrating. Now I operate with just one calendar and both my wife and my assistant schedule everything together. This way they are able to see potential scheduling conflicts and avoid them all together. For example, let's say my wife is trying to schedule a dentist appointment for me. She can check out the Google Calendar and look for an opening and make the appointment. Google's Calendar is free and it is very easy to use. I also sync this calendar with my Iphone using an Iphone application.

3. The Week: The Week is a "weekly" magazine/newsletter delivered to your door. It summarizes the top news stories throughout the U.S. and the world. It is concise, fun and entertaining. I stopped watching the news and reading the newspapers because of all of the doom and gloom. The Week allows me to stay current on what is happening without spending countless hours reading newspapers or watching TV. In addition to news, each issue includes consumer reviews of cars, television shows, movies and more. I usually find interesting ideas to use in Twitter or in client newsletters. In fact, if you send a client newsletter to your database, you can probably learn a great deal about how to format your newsletter and what to include by studying The Week. I found a special offer on their website noting that you can sign up for The Week for just 79 cents an issue. It's a steal at this price.

4.Roboform: This software is amazing. It will save your username and password for every website you visit on a regular basis. You might not realize it, but you probably have to login into dozens of different websites. I currently have over 50 different usernames and passwords setup in Roboform. Previously I would have to maintain a hardcopy summary of each website with my user name and password. Every time I went to the website, I would have to look it up and type it in. This was very time consuming. With two clicks of your mouse, Roboform automatically goes to the website and logs you in using your username and passord. It is awesome and I use it every single day.

5. UnlimitedSqueezePages.com: This company provides software allowing you to create unlimited simple, one page marketing websites. In minutes, you can setup a new website and begin capturing a prospects name, email address and phone number. Below, I have included a screen shot of one of these web pages that I copied and pasted using 5 Clicks (see number 1 above):

Tomorrow I'm hosting a special Webinar for real estate agents on how to sell their listings in one week at market value. I setup this simple website for the Webinar registrations. When someone signs up for the webinar at this site, it will automatically email them the details of how to join the webinar. If you would like to attend this webinar, go to this website and register at: http://www.CommissionBeforeSale.com.

Right now, I probably have over 50 of these little websites setup. I can create a simple one page website for every single marketing campaign I run including: free report offers, free book offers, free webinar/teleseminar offers, and more. You can easily add audio or video to these websites. One of the best features is that you can split test headlines. The software allows you to add multiple headlines to each website you create. It will then rotate these headlines and find the best one with the highest conversion rate. This is extremely powerful because it allows you to improve the results of your marketing from week to week. All of this for around $30 a month. You can test drive this software for $1.00.

In a future post, I plan to share a few additional tools, gadgets and resources. Check these out and see if they'll save you time!

If you follow me on Twitter, you probably already heard that I attended the Ted 2009 conference last week in California. I can honestly say that it was the best conference I've ever been to and I've been to a lot of conferences.

This conference was different because it wasn't about business. It wasn't about marketing. It wasn't even about sales or entrepreneurship. It was about sharing ideas that can change the world. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design. It started in 1984 and has evolved into a large group of people who want to add value to our world. From the TED website:

"We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. So we're building a clearing house that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world's most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other."

They invite 50 though provoking speakers and challenge them to make the speech of their lives. The speakers ranged from Bill Gates discussing his charitable foundation to Lina Maria Klingwall, who was born with no arms and only one full leg.

Bill Gates shares some of the challenges they face in reducing the number of life threatening illnesses and in improving the educational system throughout the United States. His presentation was so good that I've included it for you here:

I still think about the one question he asked in this presentation every single day:

"How do you make a teacher great?"

I've reformatted this question several times as follows:

• How do you make a parent great?
• How do you make a family great?
• How do you make a make a school great?
• How do you make a country great?
• How do you make a business great?
• How do you make a team great?

Notice that these questions have nothing to do with money? They have everything to do with seeing the world differently and challenging yourself to make it better. This was life changing for me. 

Or think about Lina Maria Klingvall and imagine what life would be without arms or as she calls says living "Hands-Free." She is an amazing person and I was so inspired by her. Through fierce determination she became a gold medal swimmer, a singing star, a painter and a writer. She has accomplished more with her challenges than most people with two arms and both legs have in their entire life times. Think about what really is possible in life after considering her story.

I encourage you to take some time out of your busy schedule and watch some of the fantastic presentations at Ted.com. They are free and might just change your life, too!