The first step, which is ultimately essential, is to be you. Be your values, what's important to you.

One of the biggest mistakes that estate agents make is they go outside of their authenticity to be someone else when they're in the field. When they're in someone's home, they're trying hard to be an estate agent, to fit that person's needs, to try and, I suppose, almost create an image of who they think they need to be to suit the person that they're with.

That's totally wrong. Stop doing that now. You need to be you. Focus on the things that:

- you value,

- you feel are important,

- you're passionate about.

That's what being you is all about. Authenticity connects.

How many people do you feel are trying to pitch to you, trying to sell to you? That approach just turns your stomach and turns you straight off, right?

You don't go and meet your friends down the pub or go and socialise with people and try to be someone that you're not. You've made those connections, made those friendships because of who you truly are.

It’s like what I've taught for years and years:

You can make a sale and you'll earn a commission, or you can make friends and earn a fortune.

Think about it – who wants to be friends with an estate agent? Who really wants to sit there and connect with an estate agent? No one. But they do want to connect with you.

It's you they buy, the real version of you. That’s why you matter. Be you. Be your values.

For me, my values are all about leadership. It's all about inspiration, learning, and achieving. They are the ultimate values that I need to take with me out there into the field.

So if I’m in an appointment and I'm helping to inspire the client to see how they're going to meet their goals, it's in line with my values. I'm more authentic.

If I'm super detailed in that appointment and that's just not me, how the hell will I come across in a way that's going to connect me with that client? I'm not saying you should ignore detail, but it's important for me to be myself.

When you call the client, when you go around there and you spend time with them, be yourself. That's so important right now, guys. Be yourself with every customer, every interaction, every message. Everything you do, stick to being you.

I'm telling you now, you'll be perfect.

Step two is to visualise your success. One of the mistakes I think we've made over recent years is we don't actually focus on where we want to be in a year's time. We don't put our mind into that place. We don't visualise where we need to be.

This is easy to fix. You can do this with very, very simple tools and exercises. One's a vision board: cut out pictures and draw examples of the things that you want to have and and how you want to look or how you want to feel. Find visual representations of these things and get them into your mind's eye so you can see who you are in the future.

When we talk about stuff like that you know you're talking about that law of attraction and manifestation. For me seeing is believing.

If you can see your future self and you can almost feel where you're going to be in 12 months’ time, what you're doing is setting yourself a goal. You're setting yourself a vision of who you want to be in 12 months’ time.

Sit there and think,

Where I am right now is not where I want to be in 12 months’ time. What do I want to feel like? What do I want to look like? What do I want to be like so in a year's time I can feel those connections to the things that are important to me. What do I need to do to actually start to create those images, turn those images into reality throughout the course of this year?

In the past when I’ve created vision boards, I’ve put my goals on the board:

- my house

- my car

- my financials

- my friendship circles

- concerts, gigs and other things I was passionate about

- a picture of how I wanted to look

When I started this process 10 years ago, I was 17 stone. I didn’t feel well, and I couldn’t do the things I wanted to do. What happened to me is I started to think differently and see myself differently over a sustained period of time – no fads, no diets, a complete lifestyle and mindset shift. That's the hack you've got to go for when you create your vision of success.

For more help visualising your success, have a look at ‘5 steps to success: Your 1-year plan’.

Step three is to be that person now. Don't wait 12 months, and then go, ‘Right, I'm here now. I'm going to be that person, live that role, live that leader, live that agent, husband, wife, whatever.’ No. You live like that person now.

Write down who you need to be in order to become the person you want to be in the future. Take a minute to do that right now.

When people who have worked with me over the years have gained promotion, I've always said to them before they've reached that goal, that next step in their career path, that they need to be in that role now, before they get there. That's what I'm asking you to think about here.

If you're going to turn over an extra half a million pounds this year, or £100,000, or you're going to move through your career in your current estate agency, who do you need to be now to achieve that goal in the future? How do you need to show up every day?

Do you need to show up talking about the external influences in the market, or do you need to focus on what you can control?

Do you need to show up with a positive mindset and attitude, or do you just want to make excuses like the 99% do?

That's your choice, but I'm telling you if you want to be over here in a year's time, you’ve got to be changing that mindset, that narrative in your head today.

When you kind of go through these steps they sound really simple, and they are. It's what you do after reading this post that's going to make the difference. That's why step four is to be clear on what you need to do.

Of course you also need to be clear on who you are, who you need to be, and all of those things. Write them down, get a vision, look at mentors and inspirations for all of that. You 100% need to look forward. But that's just half of this step four – the other half is making sure you do it.

That's the bit lots of people get lost on, making sure they do it. So be clear on what you need to do, and make sure you're going to be doing it.

One of the things that I've been talking about with my clients recently is the fact that we don't need new ideas right now, we just need to make the old ideas work. We need to get better at those, right?

We all know what we need to do, but do we do it? Doing it will get you further than not doing it, right?

What's getting in the way of doing the stuff that you need to do? Distractions – probably your phone. I've had no end of people tell me in the last couple of years: “I haven't found the time to do that thing.” And when I ask about their screen time, they go, “Um four hours.”

So, you haven't had time. What have you been doing for four hours on your phone? We all do it, right? Don’t tell me you can't find an hour to claw back to do the thing you need to do in order to get to where you want to go.

You've got to be willing to do the things today that others won't do in order to have tomorrow the things others won't have. That's a saying that I've heard time and time again, and that's the commitment piece. Be clear on what you need to do. Be committed to doing it.

To be a successful real estate agent, you’ve got to have great conversations so you can provide solutions for your clients.

In the last 12 months I have seen people suffer in this economy. I've seen businesses go under, businesses being challenged left, right, and centre. And I'm telling you we've all felt it.

But there have been shining lights, the 1% out there in the industry, in the marketplace. What is it that they do that makes them super successful in real estate agency? Conversations.

I'm telling you now, 10 times your conversations – don't 10 times your messages, your Whatsapps, your emails. Don't be negotiating deals over email or sending little notes. Get yourself in conversation.

How many conversations, realistically, did you have every single day last year with prospects where you wanted to understand their needs and provide solutions?

How many conversations did you really have?

Now what you're going to be alarmed at is when I've done this exercise with people, they've found it really difficult to recall the conversations that they've had just the previous day or previous week. I'll tell you why that is, it's because they don't have memorable conversations.

For me memorable conversations are 100% all about understanding your clients’ needs and giving them solutions. It's not about going out there trying to get the listing or trying to get the deal agreed.

You know some of the best deals we've had agreed is when we've said to the client, “You shouldn't be accepting any offer that you don't believe fits your needs.” When you go through the process of explaining things and asking the right questions, more often than not, if it's the best offer in the current market, from the best buyer, they’ll see that their needs are going to be met.

I'm saying to you right now, if all you did in the next 12 months is 10 times your conversations, you will find yourself extremely successful this year. You'll smash it out the park, and I'll be right behind you.

So there you have it, the five steps to become a successful real estate agent. But why listen to me? For over 28, now probably coming up to 29, years I've sold over a billion pounds worth of property for clients with my teams. I've built teams in the corporate and the independent world. I have been successful in this industry.

That's not to brag. What I'm saying is that I've achieved market leader goals. I've achieved turnover goals, profit goals. I've helped people to build their own businesses and scale their careers without the typical estate agency sleaze.

For me, what it's all about is helping you to achieve your goals, your ambitions, your dreams by going through the simple process and staying aligned with your values.

So hopefully you've enjoyed this post. Make sure you bookmark the blog so you can come back for new content. Also, head over to my YouTube channel and subscribe to it so you can be a part of the community I’m building there. Thank you for coming on this journey with me. I'm here to support you going forward in your career.