As he says:

There are seven disciplines you must develop if you want to achieve all that is possible for you. You can learn these disciplines through practice and repetition until they become automatic.

1. Goal Setting: Each morning, take about 5 minutes to write out your Top Goals. The act of writing them down programs them into your subconscious mind. It stimulates your mind, and helps you move towards these goals faster.
2. Planning & Organizing: Take a few minutes each evening to plan out your activities for the next day. Always work from a list and always think on paper.
3. Concentrate on your Highest-Value Activities: The ability to work single-mindedly on your most important task is as important to your success as any other skill you can develop. If necessary, outsource your less important tasks to a virtual assistant or onsite assistant in order to get your Highest-Value Activity done.
4. Exercise and Proper Nutrition: Your health is the most valuable things you have. Developing the discipline to eat right and workout will filter down into all the other areas of your life.
5. Learning and Growth: Your mind is like a muscle – if you don’t use it you lose it. You should always be learning and growing to become a better version of you.
6. Time for Important People in your life: Relationships are everthing. “Be sure that in climbing the ladder of success, you do not find it leaning against the wrong building. Build time for your relationships into every day, no matter how busy you get.”

This is such a great list of 6 things that will guarantee your success in life that I just had to share it. If you want more info like this, I strongly recommend you sign up for any one of his newsletters at www.briantracy.com.

Technorati Tags: Rich Rogala, real estate marketing coach, Brian Tracy personal growth schedule, how to become a successful real estate agent

Your goals should be big enough to feel challenging (if they don’t, I think you should really go back and write them again), but if, even as you’re writing them, you don’t feel that they’re achievable, you should take a good hard look at the mindset you have about your business.

Are you constantly griping about how the market is limiting you?

Do you secretly feel that your sales skills are lacking compared to others?

Do you believe there is a cap on the level of success you can achieve, or that you don’t deserve a successful, profitable business?

While there are always areas open for improvement, if you have trouble believing in yourself, and believing that you can achieve your goals, then you will have trouble achieving them. If the belief isn’t there that bigger and better things are possible for you in your business, then you won’t have that drive, that desire, to do what it takes to achieve your goals.

As the saying goes, “Whether you believe you can, or you believe you can’t, you’re right.”

Two books that are great for helping you set goals, and work on the mindset that will help you achieve them, are Maximum Achievement and Goals, both by Brian Tracy. If your mindset isn’t right, you’ll never see the results that are possible with a powerful mindset and a powerful marketing plan.

It’s an essential part of any business, but in an industry like real estate, which is so one on one and sometimes has the “sleazy” connotation, this has a huge impact on how you do business and how successful you’ll be.

My Recommended Reading for today is The Speed of Trust by Stephen M.R. Covey, the son of the legendary Stephen Covey.

Trust, says Stephen M.R. Covey, is the very basis of the new global economy, and he shows how trust—and the speed at which it is established with clients, employees and constituents—is the essential ingredient for any high–performance, successful organization.

Check out this great book, and see if you can implement some of his practical tips on how to establish trust immediately, so you can connect with your clients better, and build your business faster.

Technorati Tags: Rich Rogala, real estate marketing coach, trust in real estate, speed of trust

Marketing to the Social Web: How Digital Customer Communities Build Your Business helps marketers and their companies understand how to engage customers, build customer communities, and maximize profits in a time of marketing confusion. Author and social media guru Larry Weber describes newly available tools and platforms, and shows you how to apply them to see immediate results and growth.

This is a great book that really gives you some good insight on the right way to build your business through engaging your customers. Even if you don’t have a particularly tech-savvy clientele right now, a lot of the same mentalities are there in the form of new and different expectations they now have when dealing with you as a sales person and business owner. Check it out!

Technorati Tags: Rich Rogala, social media marketing for Realtors®, real estate marketing coach

It’s more of a call to action to step up, rather than a step-by-step system to learn to lead. For those that want to be better at being themselves as leaders, it really drives home the importance of building committed and loyal fans. He also stresses the importance of embracing change. As a real estate agent, if you’re pushing the same outdated information and impersonal follow-up techniques from ten years ago, you’re missing the opportunity connect with and develop those dedicated fans.

I really recommend this book to anyone that has decided to make 2009 the year they become more than just a run-of-the-mill agent, and step up to be their clients’ trusted advisor.

Technorati Tags: Rich Rogala, real estate marketing book review, Tribes book review, real estate marketing ideas

I’m a big fan of journaling, and of Jim Rohn, the internationally renown business speaker and leader. Jim was a big influence for me in beginning to journal, and I strongly recommend that this be a habit you start for 2009.

Journaling includes much of the goal setting that we’ve talked about in the last few months, but goes beyond that to include so much more. A journal lets you put in print your own personal story: your family and their challenges and victories, lessons learned, funny thoughts, your goals and dreams.

Here are some quotes from Jim Rohn on keeping a journal the past 40+ years:

“Be a collector of good ideas, but don’t trust your memory. The best collecting place for all of the ideas and information that comes your way is your journal.”

“The reason why I spend so much money for my journals is to press me to find something valuable to put in them.”

“Don’t use your mind for a filing cabinet. Use your mind to work out problems and find answers; file away good ideas in your journal.”

I especially like the last one – it’s a great reminder that by putting our thoughts, dreams, goals and anything else bouncing around in your head down on paper, you free that valuable real estate up for bigger and better things.

Why not add journaling to your list of resolutions? I believe that by journaling (and reading it) regularly, it actually helps you document your successes, and achieve your goals more easily.

Technorati Tags: Rich Rogala, real estate marketing coach, journaling tips for business and personal growth, Jim Rohn

1. Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth by T. Harv Eker

2. The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything by Stephen Covey

3. Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty: The Only Networking Book You’ll Ever Need by Harvey Mackay

4. Book Yourself Solid: The Fastest, Easiest, and Most Reliable System for Getting More Clients Than You Can Handle Even if You Hate Marketing and Selling by Michael Port

5. Goals! How To Get Everything You Want — Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible by Brian Tracy

6. Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing Out of Sync? by Seth Godin

7. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

8. Mastering the Art of Selling Real Estate: Fully Revised and Updated by Tom Hopkins

9. Blogwild!: A Guide for Small Business Blogging by Andy Wibbels

10. Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time by Brian Tracy

Technorati Tags: Rich Rogala, real estate marketing tips, recommended real estate business books, building a real estate business, Top 10 Business-Building Books

1. My Tech Opinion

2. The Real Estate Tomato

3. RSS Pieces

4. Duct Tape Marketing

5. Marketing Pilgrim

6. Real Estate Blog Lab

7. Future of Real Estate Marketing

8. Geek Estate Blog

9. Seth Godin’s blog

10.  Traffikd

• Set and achieve goals effectively
• Organize your life and manage your time for maximum productivity and performance
• Increase income, reduce expenses and achieve financial independence

There are also chapters on personal habits of successful people, and changing the way you think. This helps you grow as you achieve success, and become a more effective person in all areas of your life.

Technorati Tags: Rich Rogala, develop million dollar real estate habits, setting real estate goals, organization for real estate agents

There’s a good post over at Geek Estate Blog that talks about the importance of having a personal agent site. I totally agree. I am partial to using a blog site as your personal site, because of the opportunity for developing conversations, as well as the search engine benefits from updating your content frequently. But really, any personal site is better than none. You have the opportunity to give your readers a sense of you as an agent, and how you will help them.

And that’s really the answer to the age old question of how to get real estate clients on the web.

Technorati Tags: Rich Rogala, real estate marketing tips, how to get real estate clients, personal agent sites