It’s time for you to show up more

Have you heard the saying that 90% of life is just showing up?

I believe it’s mostly true, but also that you should do more than just be there.

Now more than ever, it’s time to not only front up, but to bring your A-game when you do.

I’m sharing what I’ve learned about showing up during good and bad times in commercial real estate – along with a tip to deal with being stood up!

For some extra motivation to be at your best, take a listen to episode 108 of CRE Success: The Podcast 

By the way…

I’m currently working on a new FREE workshop called 10 more ways to kill it in commercial real estate.

If you would like to show up for this session, click here to save your spot.

When you register, we’ll also send you the original list of 10 ways to kill it in commercial real estate.

Episode transcript:

There's a good quote that you've probably heard before, which says that '80% of success is all about showing up.'

And sometimes it's said ,'90% of life is about showing up.'

The quote is often attributed to Woody Allen.

Now, I don't know if he actually said it. And I don't know if it's precisely 80 or 90%.

But I do know that the sentiment behind it or I believe that the sentiment behind this statement is true.

And I just wanted to share in today's episode, some ways that you can apply that statement in a way which is relevant not only in living with COVID world, but also in a world where we are dealing with some of the impacts of economic uncertainty.

Hello, welcome to episode 108 of CRE Success: The Podcast. My name is Darren Krakowiak. And I help commercial real estate leaders to develop their people and to grow their business.

Really appreciate you choosing to spend the next 10 or so minutes with us.

We'd love these bite sized episodes, so it doesn't take too long to consume. And hopefully it means that you keep on coming back for more.

Now, last time, we talked about expanding while others are contracting.

And we were talking about it more from the perspective of the business owner.

But I did receive a message from somebody who's not a business owner, who's not in a leadership position, but would like to continue expanding, while it seems like the market is contracting, or at least while there is evidence of some decrease in market activity. 

And they said, "Well, how can I continue to expand when there are less opportunities in the market? 

And the answer to that question is to create more opportunities.

So when the market is providing you with less opportunities, when there is less coming to you, in the normal practice of the way things are being done, then I think the thing that you can do to address that is to create more opportunities through more outbound prospecting.

So to be more consistent, persistent and proactive with your outbound prospecting is the thing to do.

And therefore, when you do that, you'll hopefully have the same or even more opportunities coming into your business, which means that you'll be able to maintain the same level of activity. Simple as that.

If you want some help with it, the A to Z of commercial real estate prospecting is a really great free resource that we've put together to give you 26 bright ideas on how you can improve your prospecting activity, and try new things.

If you're looking for some new ways to go about finding leads, identifying new potential customers, this document will help you.

Go to cresuccess.co/abc to grab your free copy of the A to Z of CRE prospecting.

So, today's episode is really a big prospecting tip. And that tip is to show up.

And I think the reason why the statement that "90% of life is just about showing up" is because most people don't show up.

People don't show up physically and that some people just don't get out there and put themselves forward and go after opportunities.

And then there are some people who don't metaphorically show up. So they're the people who perhaps they're physically there, but they're mentally not quite there.

And I don't mean not quite there as in, you know, a couple of bottles shorter for six pack. But I mean, they're not quite there, and that they're not bringing their best selves to the game.

They're not the heads nor in the game. They're not really there to win.

So, there are these two elements of showing up. And I want to share with you how I've been showing up a bit more particularly in 2022, in a living with COVID world and how the borders are coming down and how more ease of international and interstate travel has allowed me to do that.

In fact, I'll share that with you right now.

And then I'll talk about how we can show up more, even when there is economic uncertainty, even when we may believe that people don't want us to show up or we don't feel like showing up.

So what I found in my business this year in 2022, is that the more that I've shown up, the more that I've been willing to get in front of people, the more the business has grown.

And I've traveled interstate many times this year and more trips coming up, being overseas once we'll go overseas later this year.

And getting in front of people just creates so much more momentum to make things happen.

There is nothing like an in person meeting versus a zoom meeting or when it comes to showing up on social media, for example.

And people seeing who you are and having some presents, understanding of what you are. That's good.

Zoom meetings are good as well. Phone calls are great.

But being able to get in the same room as somebody to shake their hands, to look them in the eye is going to do so much more for the relationship.

And I think, since we have been able to rely less on in person meetings during the time when people were more focused on physical distancing, some people haven't gone back to the why things work quite yet.

And perhaps because we've been in a period of a market upturn until recently, people have felt like, "Well, I don't need to go back to the old ways",

Or they've decided that turning up on zoom meetings with people virtually, doing things on social media is just as good and or better than physical presence. 

Well, I would argue that when we are now approaching a period of a slowdown, whether we believe that we're going to be entering a period of an economic downturn or a recession (as we talked about last week), we're going to need to be able to show up more to create the same amount of activity.

And one way that you're able to do that is by getting in the same room, showing up for face to face meetings more with people.

And it certainly helped me in my business.

And I know perhaps, if you're operating as a commercial real estate agent, you might not be traveling interstate or overseas, to meet prospects in most cases, but you can certainly get in front of people more just in your local market.

And you can do that.

When I go to another city, for example, my calling card basically says, "Hey, I'm going to be in Sydney on these dates. And I'd love to meet you."

And that's the way that I can try and create a reason for the meeting.

And I think the same thing is true when you're in a specific address, and there's somebody who you've been wanting to meet at a nearby address, you can just say, "I'm going to be here at this time, I'm wondering, would you be available at this or that time."

And if they're not, okay, but if they are, then you've got the opportunity to get in front of them.

And that can be the reason for the meeting, as opposed to inventing some other reason. 

And we're trying to just get into conversations with people, get that FaceTime, because that FaceTime is what grows relationships.

So that's the important thing, I think, of showing up physically.

And then there's this idea of showing up metaphorically.

Or the idea that we don't want to show up as much, or we believe that people don't expect or want us to show up because people are worried about other things if there is a downturn in economic activity, I think. 

And the challenge I would put to you is that it becomes even more important to show up because people need experts during periods of uncertainty. 

Also, you'll be remembered as the person who was showing up when other people were battening down the hatches.

So showing up more, making the calls, asking for the meeting, making the effort with people as opposed to just assuming that people don't want to hear from you, that it's not the right time.

Because people are focused on other things, if you're willing to do that, you're going to be showing up more than most people.

And that again, proves the point that showing up in life is that 80 or 90% of what you need to do in order to succeed.

Now, the more that you show up, the more likely it is that you perhaps might be ghosted or stood up for a meeting.

And the other thing I wanted to just tell you about today was what happened to me recently.

In fact, it was an interstate trip where I had a few meetings lined up and one of the meetings just was a no show.

So, I went into their office, and I asked to speak to the person who I was there to meet.

And I could see there was some confusion because they obviously weren't around.

And then somebody else came out to see me and what this person said to me was, (Let's call this person who I was going to meet - Mark, for argument's sake) "Well, I can assure you that whatever Mark is doing, it's more important than speaking to you."

So, that was the way that I tried to tell myself that I shouldn't take it personally because Mark was a very important person.

And therefore, whatever he was doing was more important than the meeting we had scheduled.

And this was a real opportunity for me to act with magnanimity, as I've talked about on this podcast before.

To ever wait somebody is giving me pretty good calls to get a little bit grumpy to maintain my composure and to still act with kindness and to be polite.

So you know, I didn't carry on. I didn't take it personally. It wasn't really anything for me to take personally.

It's more reflection on them than it is on me.

But I saw it was an opportunity to demonstrate magnanimity.

The person who was standing for Mark who I was supposed to meet told me that I'm sure that Mark will get back to me very, very soon. And he'll want to reschedule.

I never heard from him, no apology for not turning up to the meeting.

And I guess that shows me that they are probably not the type of organization that I want to do business with anyway.

Even though based on my limited dealings with them, they probably do need some help.

But I also, at that moment, thought about a few things, which is, the more meetings you do, the more likely it's going to be that occasionally someone won't show up.

It's just the odds. Occasionally, it's going to happen, and that's okay.

But also, what could I have done to prevent that from happening.

And one thing that I could have done was to have a longer runway to build the relationship with the person so called Mark.

So Mark would have been less likely to stand up in the meeting with me if he had more awareness around who I was. 

I guess, if I had built up a better relationship with him from a distance, from Melbourne, before I'd gone up to see him, I think, he would have been less likely to.

Maybe he still would have had to take this other meeting or wherever he was, but perhaps he would have at least remembered to let me know that he wasn't going to be able to be there. 

So, that was something I could have done. 

I also think that I could have done something which I've advised people to do, which is to send a text message every morning before your meetings just to confirm that the meeting is on.

Just to say, "Hey, Mark, just confirming our meeting today at 11 o'clock, I look forward to seeing you then." 

Now that's something I've told other people to do. And I didn't do it myself.

So I've got a list of borders with my own advice, it could have saved me some time.

If you want, by the way, the list of the 10 text messages that commercial real estate agents can and should be sending in order to accelerate deal flow and elevate relationships, you can grab those two free resources for today at cresuccess.co/text. 

And in fact, another one of the texts from that list of top 10 texts is the 'I'll be in the area' text, which I kind of used when I go into state to try and get meetings with people to accelerate, deal flow and elevate relationships.

So I guess what I wanted to get across today is that showing up means not phoning it in, literally.

So not just relying on the phone or relying on zooms. It means making the effort to try and get in front of people and to move relationships forward, but also means not metaphorically phoning it in.

And we have to show up. We've got to bring our  A-game. 

And even when we wrongly assume that because the economic activity is down and people are worried about other things, meaning that's just we're putting on what is going on to try and give ourselves an excuse from being consistent with our prospecting.

We need to continue to show up and we need to continue to move forward to have those relationships and to create opportunities for ourselves if we want to continue to grow and if we want to continue to be at our best.

I hope that all makes sense. I really appreciate you being there. Thanks so much for listening, and I will speak to you soon.