This morning, I logged into my Facebook account and saw this post in my feed:
Brian, I officially left the mortgage industry in November of 2009. Looking back, it was probably one of the worst decisions I've made in my life. I've read many of your posts about trusting in God, putting God and family first, never backing down from what you know is right, and doing what's right no matter what. I dropped the ball … I let my God, my family, myself, my business partners and clients down. You taught me how to be a professional, how to brand myself and how to have people chasing me instead of vice-versa. I learned a lot … I was hungry and made a name for myself and a lot of money in the process. But I walked away from it all, including God and my family. And in the past year or so, have begun restoring those relationships. I do want to thank you for your gift. I know times must have been difficult for you as well, but you found the necessary strength to carry on. Here's wishing you well my friend.
It bothered me on a very deep level
I believe that most of the success or failures in our business and in life are based on mental attitude. Heaven knows we have major highs and major lows in our business. As I travel the country, I have heard this story numerous times. In fact, I have lived it myself when I left the business and came back.
One of the lessons I learned is that the manner in which you handle your failures is what determines your success. You can drink, take drugs, go into major depression, or you can continue walking and eventually reach your destination.
Now as long as you are walking, why not take a long walk and think big. After major setbacks, it’s hard to think big, but you must.
If you want to do $1 million in volume a month, why not start targeting $3 million a month? You will attain what you focus on, so why not focus on the big things rather than just the attainable goals? You can, but only if you think you can.
I recently released two new systems, and of these systems deals with boomerang buyers and the other deals with turning renters into homeowners. In both of these systems and courses, the content is much less important than the attitude of the student. I have sent my students a special book called Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz.
This book is not about thinking good things
Psycho-Cybernetics is about your self-image and how it controls your destiny. As an example, one of my coaching members had the talent to be a $50 million producer. She was smart, hard-working and knew her guidelines and was a great communicator.
But she couldn’t ever break the $2 million a month mark. It had nothing to do with her skills, it was truly all in her head. I showed her what a $50 million producer looks like, acts like and speaks like and had her visualize it.
The problem with most “gurus”
I had taught her how to better market herself, spread her influence and better target prospects and position herself so that people were chasing her. But she did not succeed and could not succeed until we fixed her way of “thinking.”
Think of this as a rubber band … when you pull it apart far enough, it snaps back. That’s exactly what she was doing. Every time she cracked her production ceiling, she would self-sabotage it. She simply did not see herself as a $50 million producer and that’s what we needed to fix.
Please take a minute and really look inside yourself. This is more important than any marketing advice, since nothing will work until you fix your way of thinking and improve upon your self-image.
Brian Sacks is a nationally-renowned mortgage expert who has career closing of more than 5,924 transactions for in excess of $1 billion. He may be reached by phone at (443) 324-8424 or e-mail [email protected].
This article originallly appeared in the September 2015 print edition of National Mortgage Professional Magazine.
