My fears as an Estate and Letting Agent
Estate agents .. Prospective Vendors and Prospective House sellers are concealing themselves… gone into deep undercover
Fellow letting agents … your prospective landlords are concealing themselves as well.
Nobody put themselves on the mailings lists anymore… nobody signs up or gives their email address for anything nowadays
Everyone comes to your website, but doesn’t fill in the contact us box.
You, my estate agency or letting agency friend are concealing yourself.
In fact, all of us are.
Concealing ourselves from responsibility and change. Concealing ourselves from the prospect of feeling foolish. ..looking like a tw*t
All of us (including myself) try to dodge and evade things that will change us.
Like the 7 year child … we are constantly seeking reassurance. None of us put our hands up and speak for ourselves, letting somebody else put their head over the parapet, let them say something .. because we don’t want to look a prat
We fear what other people will think, we fear we aren’t good enough to be a Branch Manager, we fear we aren’t good enough to be an Area Manager, we fear about starting our own Estate or Lettings Agency .. taking the leap .. because what if we fail? We will look a tw*t.
So we crawl under the stone and conceal ourselves… hide in our safe place. Doing exactly what we did last week or the week before or the year before that … sleep walking to retirement
.. but let me tell you my story .. I have been fighting that battle of fear over the last couple of years. Its gets slightly easier with time…. You can do it on your own but its so much easier with a wingman (or winglady) … someone to make yourself accountable to yourself, someone who wont be fobbed off with excuses.
Look around you, not necessarily your mates – because they will just want a pint and laugh … look around, is there a friend of the family, an old boss or in my case, a superb exceptional Business Coach … he is called John and he is a man who has helped me to kill my demons (and continues to do so), focus my mind and keep raising the bar in my work (and life). My wife tells me just about everything he says, she has been telling me for years … but you can’t be a prophet in your own country (look the phrase up – dead interesting)
Each of you who have made that first step out of the hiding place , be promotion or setting up your own agency, or what ever in life, will know the reality is nowhere near as bad as the fear you had before you started.
Fear in the Stone Age was being killed by the Sabre Toothed Tiger, Fear 150 years ago was starving to death … Is what you are hiding from going to kill you, put you on the streets? Life and Death fears don’t happen as much anymore, so now we fear feelings.
It’s easy to say don’t fear the feelings .. but its just your silly voice in your head, not wanting to appear as prat .. and as my wife (aka Senior Management) will quite rightly tell you … I am a prat most of the time .. so why fear that?
If want to move from the shadows to the light .. get help, ask for help .. people loved to be asked for help .. it makes them feel wanted and loved… and if you are a letting or estate agency owner and want to talk to me about your issues ..pick up the phone … and if not me, a mentor, someone you look up to – why not speak to my business coach, John Cottrell .. he helps lots of estate and letting agents and will kill me if he knew I was mentioning his name.. anyway, he doesn’t read my posts .. he is too busy helping others to notice this! PS Don’t tell him though .. I would want him to think ill of me … bloody hell there I go again, worrying about my feelings …
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