Luck, beliefs, and their impact on your results in commercial real estate.

Today, I have a challenge for you…don’t worry, this is not a physically arduous or never-ending one.

The challenge is to reflect on whether you truly embrace your luck, and the privilege that comes from working in commercial real estate, or if a victim mentality is holding you back.

This question comes from experience. My own mindset and beliefs around money and success have evolved from humble beginnings, but hindered my progress for many years.

I stubbornly held onto old beliefs about wealth and spending, in spite of what my payslip or bank account said. I am still working to expunge some sticky ideas that remain in my head.

So, I encourage you to do what I am still working on: shed outdated mindsets and eliminate behaviours that no longer align with your current circumstances and future goals.

And the way to do it is to engage in some self-reflection that identifies old beliefs that no longer serve your aspirations and then let them go so you can embrace a growth-oriented mindset.

To delve into the concept of luck, beliefs, and their impact on your results in commercial real estate, join me for episode 152 of CRE Success: The Podcast.

Episode transcript:

Do you consider yourself to be lucky?

Here in Australia, there's an expression called 'the lucky country'.

And it basically says that Australia has had a pretty good run. And if you live in Australia, you are lucky, you've hit the lottery.

And I think for the most part, that's pretty much true, although not everyone, of course, is lucky to get Australia but most people are.

And certainly, I think that if you are listening to me right now that you are lucky too, because there's a very high probability that you work in commercial real estate.

And in commercial real estate, that's a pretty great industry to work in.

But I want to ask you, do you actually act as if you are lucky?

Or do you kind of operate like a victim or someone who's perhaps underprivileged, and therefore not making decisions which reflect the luck that you have in life, the good fortune that you have for working in commercial real estate?

That's what I want to talk to you about on today's episode.

Hello, welcome to episode 152 of CRE Success: The Podcast. My name is Darren Krakowiak, and I work with commercial real estate agency leaders to accelerate growth in their business.

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So, I was talking last week on the show about the trip that I took to Hawaii as part of the program that I'm in for business coaches.

And one of the things that the leader of that program said really hit home, he was talking about how he does a lot of traveling with his family, in his business.

And he said to me and to everyone in the room, (well, it felt like it was talking to me) that this is the new normal for you.

And that is traveling with your family having a lifestyle business, that's normal for him. And now it's normal for you.

And I thought that's great. And I kind of thought, you know what, it's sort of this stone become normal. We've gone on a few trips now, which have been work related, but which I've had the opportunity, the privilege to bring my family with me.

And that is now starting to be normal. But it wouldn't have been normal in the past.

In fact, in the past, I probably would have been looking to spend as little as possible when it comes to travel that was related to business if I was going to be paying for it.

So, I wanted to share that with you and just share a few stories today just to see if you are acting and if you are spending and if you are making decision and if your beliefs reflect the clients that you serve, the people that you work with, the money that you earn, the wealth that you have built.

Because I think sometimes, and I've been guilty of it, and I was guilty of it, and I still am guilty of it to some degree, we hang on to beliefs, we act as if things haven't changed.

Could even be about the family that you have, the holidays that you take, the car that you drive, or maybe you're not taking the holidays and not driving the car that you could, because you haven't actually changed the way that you look at these things.

So, as I said on the top of the episode, I want to ask you, "Has your behavior changed to reflect the clients, the people that you work with the money that you earn the wealth that you have?"

Or, "Are you still acting as if you didn't have any of these things as if nothing has changed in the past?"

And I remember when I was in Korea, and I was making high six figures, so I was definitely in the very privileged, top 1% in commercial real estate.

And I was remarking because I still had a bit of an old mindset about money and the way I looked at things. 

We were talking about going to a restaurant. And I said, "Oh no, it's too expensive that place." 

And somebody had said, "You could afford it. What are you talking about?"

I guess that person was right. But I hadn't actually I was still thinking about things in a way that I didn't have any money because I didn't come from a family that had much money. 

So, this I see impacting people in commercial real estate a lot.

Because this is an industry where I guess it doesn't really matter where you started, where you came from, you can make something of yourself based on how you are willing to contribute the value that you're willing to create and also how are you willing to work.

And I do believe that you start with hard work, and then you start working smart.

But it's all about the value and the contribution that you make that reflects how much you can earn, it's less about where you came from.

And I can remember, just recently, in fact, one person who joined our program, who their employer paid for them to be in the program.

And then the person who is boss left the company, and then when the boss left the company, he canceled the payments for the program.

And that meant that this person had half of the program left to go.

And he emailed me and said, "Can I still have the program?"

I said, "We'll yeah, you can, but you've got to pay. It's $100 a month, you've already paid $300. So, there's another $300 left. And if you pay for that, you can continue through the program." 

And he said, "Oh, well, okay, I'll need to check with my employee to see if they'll cover it." 

And he indicated that he was watching the modules, and that he was getting a lot out of it. And I could see that from our system that he was.

But he wasn't actually willing to invest the $300 in order to complete the program.

And that reminded me of the old version of myself, because I probably would have been the same.

And it made me think, well, if you're not willing to invest in yourself, then why should anyone else invest in you.

So, if you still have that older mindset from the past, where you don't want to invest in yourself, where you're looking to save and scrounge every single dollar that you can, even if your circumstances has changed, then this episode is really for you.

And if you have made changes, then I want you to recognize the progress that you've made, but also see, is there more progress that you can achieve?

Because I think I've made some progress in this area.

In fact, one of the trips that we took recently to Singapore and Malaysia, the last flight that we were taking back from Malaysia, was actually they said it was going to be delayed.

Then they said, it's likely it would be canceled.

And at that point, I could hear everyone in the gate lounge, groaning and mumbling and complaining.

And I just sort of turned to my wife and said, "Okay, doesn't matter. Either, they'll put us at a hotel, or they'll get us on the next flight. Or we'll have to go to a hotel, and our travel insurance from the credit card company will cover it, or we'll just have to pay for it ourselves. It's okay."

But the old me would have been that person at the front of the queue yelling and screaming and complaining and trying to make sure that, you know, I wasn't in any way disadvantage.

So that was, I guess, a real bit of progress.

When we were in Hawaii recently, the resort that we stayed at was expensive.

And I think this is probably related to when I was a kid.

I remember, we took a holiday. And because breakfast was expensive, we would buy the breakfast cereal from a supermarket, I'd have had breakfast in the hotel room rather than pay for hotel breakfast. 

But one morning, I think we did actually go for breakfast was I think it's in the kids wanted to.

But even though it was expensive at this resort, but we stayed there.

It was that's where the event, that's where the conference was, rather than, you know, the old me probably would have stayed at a cheaper resort and tried to save and script on every single dollar that I could. 

And also, one thing that you're going to see soon is that we are really launching CRE Success. And that involves spending money.

Because I think the circumstances of this brand have changed. The logo that we have was created before I launched the brand in 2020 on Canva.

It's served us well up to this point, but maybe it's time for a new one.

The episode tiles that we create for each episode, again, just created by my Virtual Assistant on Canva. Look great, fine, but maybe it's time for a change.

Because what got us here, as into this point, won't get us to the ambitions that I have for the company in the future.

So, the question I think I have for you is, "What is it that you should change, even if you have made progress? Or if you haven't made progress, then what can you do to start changing?"

What can you do to firstly, identify the beliefs that are driving your behavior that is no longer relevant based on where you are now but also no longer relevant and no longer serving you in terms of taking you to where you want to go.

Because like I said, what got you to this point? That's great. You got to where you are now. Well done.

But if you hang on to some of those old beliefs that may not actually get you to the destination, that is your ultimate goal.

So, the opportunity, I think, is to let go of some of those old beliefs.

I hope that makes sense. That's really what I wanted to share in today's episode.

Before we go, I do want to invite you, if you haven't yet registered your interest in our program for commercial real estate agency leaders.

If you'd like to work closely with me to help you become a better leader, who's capable of attracting and retaining really high-quality people that can help you build your business and grow the revenue, so that the business actually performs not just based on your own contributions, but on the contributions of the people that work with you. 

Then I invite you to go to cresuccess.co/leadership

Leave your details and we'll be in touch about the next steps.

That is our episode for today. Make sure you do keep your eyes open because the brand relaunch is coming. I'll have more to say about that soon.

Thank you so much for listening, and I will speak to you soon.