THE NEXT 5 COMMANDMENTS!

If you’re struggling in business, it doesn’t really matter what the business is, it can always be boiled down to something you’re not doing, or not doing correctly. It’s really that simple. One of my real estate sales coaches, a brilliant man named Floyd Wickman, was fond of saying that if your home isn’t selling, there is only one reason, the price! Everything sells at the right price relative to the market, the value offering, the needs and wants in the market, etcetera. And he was right! Even if the underlying issue was that the yard wasn’t big enough for most buyers in that market, the real issue is that the price relative to the size of the yard was a mismatch. If it was that the house was dirty, great! We’ve found the problem! They could either lower the price to match the cleanliness or clean up the house to match the price.

 When I heard that lesson from Floyd, I realized that it was a much bigger lesson than just one that applies to selling real estate, it applies to almost everything, most certainly business building. You see, everything has a price. The question, however, is does the price match the value for those who might buy that thing, in that market, at that time. A restaurant owner might be frustrated that customers complain about the prices of the food on the menu. What they’re really saying is that, given the quality of your food in this market, in this area, at this time, and given what else we have available to us, you’re too expensive.

 Everything has a price, and every business has rules that will determine whether or not it lives, dies, or wallows in mediocrity over a long, potentially miserable life. The rules of business, like the rules of life, are fairly simple and straightforward. If followed, some level of success is almost assuredly guaranteed. If ignored, well, we see it all around is in the form of failed and struggling businesses. The reasons given for struggle and failure are numerous and typically external reasons, like the cost of goods increasing, rents increasing, buyers not buying, the markets shifting, and so on. And, while all of those reasons might be valid, at the core, the problem can almost always be boiled down to the failure to follow the commandments of successful business building.

 Good morning my friends and welcome back to show! My name is Blaine Feyen, and I am your host for this, and every episode of this always sponsor free Real Value Podcast. We got lots of really great feedback from last week’s show highlighting what I called the 5 Commandments of Successful Business Building. Many of you also took me up on my offer to let you in to our appraiser increase academy for a full month for free and have already been sending us messages of how much information and value is in there. As I mentioned on last week’s show, and will reiterate this week, there is value in being part of some of the free Facebook groups and forums; but if you’re ready to grow, increase your income, decrease your time earning that income, add additional streams of income, or simply be around people potentially doing more than you’re doing, you’re simply not going to get all of that from those places. When you’re ready to level up, you always have to make some kind of investment.

 The Appraiser Increase Academy and Community is, by far, the lowest cost, highest return community you’re going to find, and we opened it up on the last show to appraisers to try completely risk free for 30 days. Not to mention, it’s also the only coaching community for appraisers on the planet that comes with a 366-day guarantee. If you can’t 5X your investment after a full year and a day, I’ll give you all of your money back without question and you get to keep everything you’ve received over that year. If you want to check it out free for 30 days, just go to www.coachblaine.com/freemonth and give it a try. There’s something like 20 business building downloadable coaching exercises, 50+ hours of videos, monthly live Zoom calls, great discussions in the private Facebook group, one on one time with me if you choose, access to dozens of our Black Belt elite coaching members who’ve built some of the best appraisal businesses in the country, some with pretty large non-lender appraisal businesses, not to mention that many of those same people have also built multiple streams of income in other areas. It’s literally less than a dollar per day to be part of community that could help add $50,000 or more to your personal income with just one idea. Check it out and see if it’s for you, you literally have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

What we also heard from those of you who reached out after last week’s show was that you loved the 5 commandments, but that you wanted more. Some of you actually said, “Blaine, there has to be more than 5 commandments!”, and you’re right, there are. I’ve been teaching and coaching on 20 commandments for many years now, although I didn’t always refer to them as commandments. But that’s essentially what they are because they are battle tested rules that, if followed, all but guarantee some kind of success in a variety of areas. Can you break some of the commandments? Sure, many do, and there is usually some kind of price for doing so, even if the price isn’t failure of the business.

For example, we talked about one of the commandments just a few episodes ago called Amor Fati, which is Latin for the love of one’s fate. I didn’t refer to it as a commandment, but the actual commandment that I teach on this is thou shalt never complain. Complaining is giving attention and energy to that which we don’t like, doesn’t make us feel good, and is a waste of time that solves nothing. Since time is our most valuable resource and currency, attention is means by which we spend that currency and, when you’re giving your attention to things that don’t make you feel good and don’t actually solve any real problems, you’re literally throwing away your most valuable asset. We see lots of complaining in those free social media forums these days about something that happens naturally as a part of life and evolution, and that’s change. Why complain about it, just do something about it. 

Some are choosing to raise their pitchforks and their torches, writing letters to the powers that be, and focusing on trying to change something that has a low probability of being changed. I commend all those who choose that route, even if I wouldn’t choose that path or use of my time myself. There are no certainties in anything, only probabilities. Using the principle of substitution that we, as appraisers, use every day, you can burn your precious time doing activity A, activity B, activity C and so on. Each one of those activities carries with it a probability of success, as well as a net benefit or a net loss to the person doing that activity. If you don’t want to spend your life spinning your wheels in place, the quicker you learn to discern the avenue with the greatest probability of success, the shorter the path. When you complain, you’re spinning your wheels in place and slowing progress toward success.

Before we go into some of the other commandments, let’s quickly recap the 5 commandments I talked about in last week’s show. The first commandment is the commandment of need, as in, thou shalt never start or go into business just to make money, thou shalt only start a business that serves some kind of need or solves some kind of problem in the market.

The second commandment was the commandment of entry, as in, thou shalt only ever start or go into business where there is a relatively high barrier to entry. If the barrier to entry is relatively low, there is too great of a chance of massive competition and where the barrier to entry is low, the competition is going to be relatively low quality, which means the standards will be low, the expectations will be low, and the industry will eventually become commoditized. Where you are undifferentiated from your competition, you are replaceable.

The third commandment is, thou shalt control the inputs. That means that you must be able to have some control over what you do, how you do it, who you do it for, what you charge, and so on. It also means that, to a large degree, you have to be in control of the variables that control your business. The appraisal industry is fairly dependent on the interest rates, the economy, the housing inventory, and a bunch of other factors. Not that the appraisal industry isn’t a fairly recession proof business, it just needs to be done the right way to get yourself out of the commoditized lower 80% or 90% of those in the business.

The fourth commandment was the commandment of scale, which said, thou shalt never start a business that cannot scale, both in size and an impact. If you’re in a business that does not have the ability to grow, it’s dead before it started. If you’re in a business that can only have an impact on a relatively few people, it will be a struggle to scale. Your business, or at least the way you do business, should be having a positive impact on the greatest number of people possible if you want to make the most money possible. Keeping in mind, of course, if that’s not what you want to do then these commandments don’t apply to you. You might say, “but Blaine, I just want to do a couple files a week or sell one house a month and I’m good!” Cool, then these commandments aren’t for you. These are for people who want to move out of the hobby category and into the real business and big income category. You don’t really need commandments to do a hobby and play at something. Doing a few appraisal files or selling one house a month is not a business, that’s a hobby or a side gig.

The fifth commandment was the commandment of time. This one says, thou shalt never start a business that requires all of my time for its success. We talk about the value and importance of time in some way on almost every show, so we won’t expound on this one. If your business requires all of your time for its success, eventually it will die. There is only so much of you to give, and what if you are incapacitated in some way? What if you want to go on an extended vacation? What if you want to pursue another income opportunity? And so on.

I like to consider those the 5 big commandments because they cover the big stuff. If you just follow the big 5 in some way, you’re heading in the right direction. If you break any of the big 5, you can still survive and make a living. Don’t take any of these commandments to be saying that, if broken, the business is dead in the water. No, the commandments are lessons learned from the collective mistakes of many businesses over a long period of time in scaling, giving the owner the gift of time and wealth, having the greatest impact for the greatest number of people, and so on. As we see from lots of solopreneurs all around us, you can start a business, make lots of money, and do things as you wish. I can hear a bunch of appraisers already screaming at me: “ahhhhhh, I have a real business and make $200,000 a year!!!! Don’t tell me this is just a hobby! I work 80 hours a week at this damn hobby!!”, and that would be exactly the point of the commandments. I don’t care if you make $500,000 per year. If you’re working 80 hours per week, I can absolutely guarantee you that you’re wasting your life, ruining your health, ignoring your family, and missing opportunities all around you to make a million dollars per year.

Disagree with me? Let’s go over the reasons to be in business again. If one of the reasons to be in business is freedom, then how is working 70 or 80 hours per week freedom? If one of your goals of being in business is to not have a boss, you now work for a lunatic, congrats! If one of your goals is to make lots of money, then the best way is to make it in the least amount of time possible and that entails using leverage. Leverage means using other people’s time, talent, and treasure, not just your own. If you can make $200,000 or $500,000 working 80 hours per week, then the goal should be to figure out how to do that in 40 hours per week with leverage. Then the goal is to figure out how to do that in 20 hours per week with multiple streams. Then the goal is to figure out how to do that in 10 hours with multiple streams, investment income, and other people’s time. Then the goal is to figure out how to double that number. Then the goal is to figure out how to make your annual income your monthly income, and so on. That, my friends, is the progression of true entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurs solve problems in the market and get paid for solving that problem. The bigger the problem solved, the more money in less time. Your income is always tied to your time in some way and the goal should always be to divorce your income from your time as much as humanly possible so that you can work on the next stream of income. That’s why the first commandment is thou shalt never go into business just to make money. You go into business to solve a problem and alleviate some problem for the world. The one who adds the most value to the process, solves the biggest problems, and in the most innovative way wins. If you look at your own business and ask, “am I solving big problems in a unique way and having an impact on the greatest number of people?” The answers you get, if you’re being honest with yourself, should correlate perfectly to your income, your lifestyle, your time spent in that business, and the opportunity in front of you.

So, those are the big 5 commandments I think you should become very familiar with and become almost a mantra for you. Especially if you’re new in the real estate or appraisal side of things. If your driving instinct is to become an appraiser because you heard your buddy makes a really good living, you’re breaking commandment number one right out of the gate and will become just another basic provider of commoditized products and services that 75,000 other people also provide. I would encourage you to think differently so as to avoid become just another one of anything. Then I would recommend thinking deeply on these other commandments, the next of which is, thou shalt investeth in thy growth. How you choose to interpret this commandment will determine what kind of growth you experience. For example, as appraisers we should always be investing in our growth, our understanding, and our knowledge in the appraisal field. That means taking classes, pushing ourselves outside of our comfort zones in the valuation space, not taking the typical con-ed classes, and so on. This should be a given, in my opinion, although I know that it’s not necessarily a shared opinion by all. I’ve seen many, many appraisers who stopped growing after year 3 or 5 and still operate at that level even though they’ve been in the business for 20 or 30 years or more. If you’re not growing, you’re simply not keeping up. 

However, what I talk about when I teach on this commandment is that you need to invest in your growth in other areas as well. Especially in the times we’re living in, things are moving extremely fast. Things are evolving and changing quite rapidly and, if you’re not adding new skillsets to your repertoire, you’re most definitely losing ground. Again, we see lots of people wailing on social media because of change. When you stomp your feet about change, you’re essentially saying that you haven’t done anything to change and so you need things to stay the same for you to keep up.

Friends, if you’re not adding new and updated skillsets to your toolbox, you’re going the way of the buckboard and buggy whip. If you’re not keeping up with technology, AI, and advancements in the world, those things will eventually mean the end of you. If you aren’t shoring up areas of weakness in your game, sorry folks, there is somebody coming to eat your lunch. The days of having one solid skill that carries you throughout your whole working career are quickly dissolving. I mentioned in a prior episode that the spoils in business are moving from a producer economy to that of the knowledge worker and creator economy. If you don’t know how to create things, find areas of need and add more value, utilize technology to create something that never existed before, and create content and products that people want to consume and that adds value to their lives, you will work for those who do. That’s what ‘thou shalt investeth in thy growth’ really means. It doesn’t mean get another designation to add to your business card.

Another one of those 20 commandments is, thou shalt never forget to market thyself. Businesses don’t fail from a lack of great ideas, they fail because their product or service costs more than the value it delivers, and because of a lack of promotion. There are very few businesses in the world that can survive without any kind of marketing. Many can survive without doing any advertising, but not without actively engaging in marketing of some kind. Word of mouth is a form of marketing. Google reviews are a form of marketing. Getting testimonials from happy clients is marketing. Giving office talks and doing webinars is a form of marketing. Following up with both happy and unhappy clients is marketing. Not being a jerk to agents and lenders is a form of marketing. Graciously answering people’s questions is a form of marketing.

Far too many people in business, especially appraisers, think their product or service doubles as their marketing. Sorry friends, that is simply a sad and ignorant pipe dream, not to mention a lazy excuse for not doing actual marketing. There are a bunch of you out there, by the way, thinking your appraisal work is your best marketing that absolutely should not be thinking that way. There are definitely some good appraisers out there, but there are hoards of really bad ones who seem to be completely ignorant to how bad they really are. If that is what you’re relying on for your marketing, keep it up because it makes it much easier for the good ones. I don’t want to encourage any of the bad ones, but there are lots of examples in the world of companies who don’t even have the best product or service, but they have the best marketing, and they win. The computer I make this podcast on is a perfect example. It’s an Apple computer and they’ve been tested time and again and have been shown to be inferior products to similarly priced PCs. Better marketing. Thou shalt never forget to market thyself.

Another one of the 20 commandments we teach on is, thou shalt surround thyself with those doing more than I. Gosh, how many times do we need to talk about this one, friends? One of the massive problems with being a solopreneur is that you’re typically working by yourself in an environment that is isolating. When you are not regularly around big thinkers helping you elevate your thinking, you tend to start thinking you’re the biggest, baddest thing around. You start giving yourself virtual awards for hours worked, numbers hit, income earned, and you have a virtual awards banquet of one at the end of the year where you’re the MC, the host, the speaker, and the recipient of all the awards plaques.

Being part of an industry Facebook group or forum does not fulfill this commandment, by the way, unless that group is specifically for the purpose of masterminding with people doing more than you’re doing. Arguing and debating about ANSI standards is not inspiring you to do business in a different way. If you’re not part of an encouraging community of people doing more than you, it’s really tough to grow.

The great Jim Rohn taught us that we are the average of the 5 people we spend the most time with. Look around at your 5 and give some deep thought to how they influence your behavior, your growth, your income, the risks you take or don’t take, and the choices you make. By the way, those of you with families of 4 or more, you get to count your spouse, but not your kids. Your spouse is number one, the other 4 have to be friends, colleagues, co-workers, partners, etcetera. The bottom line is that you should always be chasing excellence and trying to become the best version of yourself possible, and that rarely happens unless some of those around you are pushing and inspiring you to be more than you’re being right now.

It is the reason we created the Appraiser Increase Academy and Community that I talk about all the time on this show. One of the goals I had since I was 16 or so was to always be around people who were better than me in some way. It’s the reason I sold all my stuff at 20 and moved to Chicago to study Zen and Aikido. The greatest teacher one could ever have in those two pursuits was located there and I wanted to be around him and the kind of people who he attracted into his circle, which were all high achievers and relentless pursuers of the next level, whatever that entailed for them. It’s the reason I travelled around the world meeting people doing huge things in life and business for almost 20 years. If you’re not making an effort to put yourself in the company of those doing more than you, you simply can’t grow as much as you could if you did put yourself in those circles of people.

If you’re ready to be part of a community of doers, drivers, pushers, and people likely doing more than you’re doing, www.coachblaine.com/freemonth , come see what happens when you’re around inspiring people that won’t tear you down but will, instead, lift you up, share their great ideas, share their wins, and do whatever they can to help you go to the next level. Until then, or until next week, I’m out…