A difficult market does not just test your business. It tests your discipline, your resilience, and your ability to keep moving when the environment stops cooperating.
A strong market can hide a lot of weaknesses.
When deals are easier to find and opportunities seem to be everywhere, it is easier to feel confident. An agent can look successful without ever discovering how they respond when business gets harder.
A tougher market changes that.
It tests whether you can keep working when results take longer. It tests whether you can maintain your energy after rejection. It tests whether you will continue prospecting when you do not feel like prospecting.
Most importantly, it forces you to decide how much control you are willing to give the market over the way you think and work.
Steel sharpens steel. Hard times make great men and women. — CoachPipes
That is not necessarily a bad thing.
Some of the strongest real estate professionals are built during difficult periods because those periods force them to develop something an easier market may never require from them.
Mental toughness.
The question is whether you are using this market to build it.
The First Shift
Stop Waiting for the Market to Save You
One of the easiest traps in a challenging market is believing everything will improve once the market improves.
When rates change.
When buyers come back.
When inventory changes.
When sellers become more realistic.
When the next season starts.
Waiting can quietly become a strategy without you realizing it.
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The Problem With Waiting
The moment your plan depends on the market improving, you place your success in the hands of something you cannot control. The market affects real estate. Nobody is pretending otherwise. But recognizing market conditions is very different from allowing those conditions to determine your effort. |
You cannot personally decide what happens with interest rates tomorrow.
You cannot control inventory.
You cannot force buyers or sellers to behave differently.
But you can control what happens with your activity today.
You don’t even wait for the market to turn, because your success is not indicative of the market. Your success is indicative of the work that you do. — CoachPipes
Mental Weapon 01
Control Your State
Your outside environment does not get to decide your internal condition.
Your state is the physical and emotional condition you bring into what you are doing.
And you have more influence over it than you probably realize.
Most people operate in the opposite direction. Something happens outside of them, and they allow it to determine what happens inside of them.
A deal falls apart, so their energy drops
Someone rejects them, so their confidence changes.
The news is negative, so they become negative.
They have a difficult morning, so they carry that attitude into the rest of the day.
Eventually, the outside world is controlling the inside world.
That is dangerous in a business where your ability to communicate is directly connected to your results.
Your Physiology Is a Superpower
Your physical state affects your mental state.
When someone feels defeated, you can usually see it before they say a word.
Their head drops.
Their shoulders come forward.
Their breathing changes.
Their facial expression changes.
Their voice changes.
Now reverse it.
Head up.
Shoulders back.
Chest out.
Smile.
Move your body.
Change your breathing.
Your body starts sending a different message to your brain.
That matters before a prospecting call.
It matters before a listing appointment.
It matters before you talk to a seller.
It matters before you handle an objection.
You do not have to wait for something good to happen before you change your state.
You can change your state first.
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Use Your Body to Control Your Mind
Your body affects your tonality, your emotional state, and the thoughts you bring into the next conversation. Change the body. |
Mental Weapon 02
Stop Requiring Motivation Before You Act
Anyone can do the things they want to do.
That is easy.
The real test comes when you have to do something you do not want to do.
There will be days when you do not want to make another call.
There will be mornings when you do not feel energized.
There will be periods when you are doing the work and the immediate results do not seem to justify the effort.
That is exactly when agents start looking for motivation.
Motivation is not a requirement for action.
You can take action first.
That changes the way you approach difficult days because you stop making your emotions the gatekeeper for your behavior.
You can feel tired and still make the call.
You can feel disappointed and still follow up.
You can feel frustrated and still do the work.
Your feelings can exist without being given control over what happens next.
You do not need to feel motivated to take action. — CoachPipes
The Market Responds to Action
There is a simple reality every real estate professional eventually has to confront.
The market does not care about your feelings. It responds to your actions.
You can be frustrated with the market.
You can disagree with what is happening.
You can wish conditions were different.
None of those things creates a conversation.
None creates an appointment.
None creates a contract.
Action does.
When Business Gets Harder
Do not disappear.
Keep prospecting.
Keep following up.
Keep having conversations.
Keep creating opportunities.
Keep taking action.
Not because the market is easy.
Because that is what professionals do when it is hard.
Volume cures just about everything. — CoachPipes
Mental Weapon 03
Replace Motivation With Discipline
Motivation is powerful when it shows up.
Use it.
But do not build your business around it.
Because motivation eventually fails.
Discipline is what carries you when it does.
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Self Discipline
The ability to make yourself do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like doing it or not. |
That definition matters because it removes feelings from the decision.
You already know what needs to be done.
The question is whether you are willing to do it.
Eat the Frog
Brian Tracy calls it “eating the frog.”
Everyone has one.
It is the thing sitting on your schedule that you know you need to do but would rather avoid.
In real estate, that may be making your calls.
It may be having an uncomfortable conversation.
It may be completing the activity you have been postponing.
The longer you allow the frog to sit there, the more mental energy you give it.
Do the hard thing.
Get it out of the way.
Then move forward.
A Bigger Business Does Not Mean Fewer Problems
There is another mental trap that can appear as you grow.
People sometimes imagine there is a future version of their business where everything finally becomes easy.
You hit the income goal.
You build the team.
You reach a certain production level.
Then the problems disappear.
That place does not exist.
The Problems Change. They Do Not Disappear.
$50,000 business: Problems.
$500,000 business: Problems.
Million dollar business: Problems.
The level changes.
The responsibility changes.
The problems change.
Growth is not about reaching a point where nothing is difficult.
Growth is about becoming someone capable of handling greater difficulty.
That is why the challenges you are facing now can be valuable.
They are giving you the opportunity to build the capacity you will need at the next level.
Mental Weapon 04
Train Your Mind Like a Muscle
We understand this principle physically.
If you want a muscle to become stronger, you apply resistance.
You stress it.
You recover.
Then you repeat.
The mind works in a similar way.
Your mind is a muscle. Train it like one. — CoachPipes
The 40% Rule
David Goggins talks about the 40% rule.
The idea is that when your mind starts telling you that you are finished, exhausted, and cannot take another step, you may be nowhere near your actual capacity.
Whether you interpret the number literally is less important than the lesson behind it.
Your mind often tries to stop you before your actual ability has been exhausted.
That happens in business too.
Listen for the Negotiation
“I’ve made enough calls.”
“I’ve followed up enough.”
“I’ve had enough rejection today.”
“I’ll finish tomorrow.”
That is your mind beginning to negotiate.
That moment is an opportunity.
Not because you should operate recklessly or ignore legitimate limits.
But because occasionally pushing beyond the point where you simply want to stop teaches you something important.
You are capable of more than the first signal of discomfort suggests.
Callousing the Mind
Think about how a physical callus forms.
Repeated friction hurts at first.
Continue exposing the skin to that friction and it adapts.
The area becomes tougher.
Mental toughness can develop through the same basic principle.
Every time you push past a point where you wanted to quit, you create another repetition.
Every time you face something difficult instead of immediately avoiding it, you create another repetition.
Every time you experience rejection and still make the next call, you create another repetition.
Stop Asking
“Why is this happening to me?”
Start Asking
“What is this building in me?”
Some of the things you think are designed to break you down may actually be building you back up stronger.
That does not mean you have to enjoy every difficult experience.
It means you learn to use it.
Mental Weapon 05
Do One More
This may be the simplest idea in the entire conversation.
And one of the most useful.
When you believe you are done, do one more.
The One More Rule
Made 50 outbound dials?
Make 51.
Finished your required follow ups?
Do one more.
Reached the point where stopping would be completely acceptable?
Do one more anyway.
The power of that extra action is not only that it might produce an opportunity.
It changes the standard you are building for yourself.
You said you were tired.
You did one more.
You said you had completed the requirement.
You did one more.
You reached the point where stopping would have been completely acceptable.
You did one more anyway.
That is how mental toughness becomes practical.
It is not an inspirational quote hanging on an office wall.
It is an action.
What “One More” Can Look Like
- One more outbound dial.
- One more follow up.
- One more conversation.
- One more difficult task.
- One more minute of focused effort.
- The specific activity is less important than the standard behind it.
Do not constantly train yourself to stop the second you have done enough.
Occasionally train yourself to give more.
Because the extra matters.
The Competitive Advantage
Hard Markets Can Build Dangerous Competitors
There is another way to look at the market you are in right now.
Instead of asking when it will become easier, ask what it is forcing you to become better at.
A strong market can hide weaknesses.
A difficult market exposes them.
That exposure can be painful.
It can also be valuable.
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A Tough Market Can Force You to Build
Stronger habits. |
That is what being battle tested looks like.
When the market eventually changes, the agent who developed those abilities does not suddenly lose them.
The market becomes easier.
The agent stays tougher.
That is an advantage.
The Reminder
You May Not Need More Information
Real estate professionals consume an enormous amount of information.
Books.
Podcasts.
Training.
Coaching.
Videos.
Seminars.
Sometimes the breakthrough is another strategy.
Sometimes it is not.
Sometimes you already know what needs to happen.
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You Already Know the Work
Control your state. Take action. Use discipline when motivation disappears. Train your mind. When you think you are done, find one more. |
You showed up today not to learn anything, to be reminded of who you are. — CoachPipes
That may be the most important point.
You already know how to work.
You already know difficult markets do not last forever.
You already know that waiting for everything to become easier will not build the business you want.
Sometimes you simply need the reminder.
Use the Market. Do Not Let the Market Use You.
A difficult market is going to expose something.
Let it expose where your discipline needs work.
Let it expose where your emotions are controlling your behavior.
Let it expose where you stop too early.
Then go to work on those areas.
Control your state.
Act before motivation arrives.
Build discipline.
Train your mind.
Do one more.
When conditions eventually improve, the goal is not to be the same agent operating in a better market.
The goal is to be a stronger agent operating in a better market.
You only get today once. You better make it count. — CoachPipes
To Your Success,
Coach Pipes
Carpe Diem.
Build the Mental Toughness to Win in Any Market
Develop the discipline, skills, and standards that keep your business moving when conditions get difficult.