THE PROVERBS OF PERFORMANCE

Results! That’s the standard the world uses to judge almost everything. In business, especially, the only thing that really matters is how much money ends up in the coffers after all the bills are paid. Of course, you and I know that's not ALL that matters, but the results of our activities are the reason we do what we do. After all, why would you continue day in and day out to do something if it wasn't producing a positive result.

Another way to say this is that we're judged on our performance, not on our intentions. How we perform day to day in our pursuits will determine our results to a large degree, so it makes sense to have a set of maxims, or proverbs, with which to remind ourselves on the regular what actually matters.

What is a proverb? Quite simply, a proverb is typically a short little bit of truth based on common sense, experience, and/or results. In today's show we’re talking about some of the proverbs that I've gathered over the years from a variety of sources, as well as my own experiences in what has led to some of my failure and what has led to some success.

If you've been listening to this show for at least 3 months or more, then hopefully you've listened to the episode I did about becoming a Person of Influence, where I shared the top 5 things you need to be doing to build your business based on your influence, instead of waiting around for people to find you based solely on what you sell. For any of the appraisers listening to this show whose brains just shut down because they heard the word ‘sell', yes, you sell too even though most of you have no idea how to or why it's even relevant to you.

As an appraiser, you are selling every time you write up an appraisal report. You're selling your specific opinions, your research, your methodology, your ideas, your rationale, your support for your rationale, and so on. Prior to the business you have now (for those of you who still have a viable appraisal business), you had to sell someone on why to use you over someone else. You had to sell them on how quickly you could perform the job they'd be hiring you for with each order. You have to sell your clients on why to continue using you week after week.

I get it, you don't think of that as selling and, in fact, some of you are so horrifically bad at it that your business likely reflects it today, but I can assure you that it is selling. Every day in a variety of ways we are selling our thoughts, our ideas, our rationale, our choices, and our reasons to either do something or not do something with, and for, a variety of stakeholders in our lives.

Every time you are deciding to go out to a restaurant with your significant other, one of you has to sell the other in some small or big way on why we should go to the Mexican restaurant over the pizza joint, or why we should go to this specific Mexican restaurant over another one.

Friends, whether you hate the word, the idea, or the job of selling, all of life is sales in some way, shape, or form. Even when no other human beings are involved, we're selling ourselves all day long on a variety of different things like why we shouldn't eat or drink a particular thing, why we need to exercise, why to choose one thing over another. Get comfortable with the idea and the word so that you can get comfortable with the practice of the art and science of selling and strive to get better at it. Your business and bank account will thank you.

With all of that in mind, the first proverb of business is this:

1. You get what you believe in and constantly speak into reality, both the good and the bad.

Without going too deep on the science of belief, since I've done many episodes on this topic already, you'll have to just trust me on this concept that our lives, to a large degree, are based on what we believe, not necessarily what we want. Since the vast majority of our belief systems are subconscious, most people have no real idea what they believe on a variety of topics because most of our beliefs are given to us when we're young and impressionable. Very few people take the time and energy to dig into those beliefs as they age and decide for themselves if those beliefs are empowering ones or limiting ones for them at this point in their life.

As a result, and since our language skills develop commensurate with our belief systems, we have a constant loop of beliefs playing in our heads all day long that guide and direct our thoughts and actions and, as a result, our results as well. What we also do on an almost moment to moment basis is speak into reality the very things we often say we don’t want.

Why, if we say we don’t want a particular thing, would be possibly speak it into reality? Because what we give our attention and energy to on a moment-to-moment basis has almost no choice but to show up in some form in our lives.

If you hate selling, what do you imagine your internal dialogue is like moment to moment? What do you imagine your external dialogue is like? If you can’t stand the Appraisal Management Companies and frequently express this hatred to the world, what would you expect the outcome on your business to be. What you give your attention and energy to on a regular basis, whether conscious or subconscious, is what you will experience in your daily life.

If you want something good to happen, you have to think and speak it into reality regularly. If you want better clients to know you exist and consider using you and your company, you have to talk about it on a regular basis and get in front of more people with the power to make that happen.

One of the very first steps on the path to mastery of this particular proverb is getting super clear on the value you provide, exactly who you want to provide that value to (hint: it’s not everyone!), and then talk about it all the time to people who have the ability to see your value and utilize it, or connect you with those who do.

I can’t emphasize this particular proverb enough because everything begins and ends with mindset, and until you address this issue, you’ll almost always struggle with growth in your life and business. You may see some random spikes in your numbers every now and then and think it’s because you’re so super special, but if it’s not based on your intentional focus on what you want, and not on what you don’t want, it will be fleeting and will eventually move away from you.

The second proverb of performance is:

2. Real influence comes from your production, not from your personality.

What this proverb is referring to is where real influence comes from. We live in a world today where the word ‘influencer' is a common one. There are people making their living solely by being an influencer of some sort in some genre or industry. And then there are people who are prolific producers of results who have influence naturally simply because of what they produce.

While I am not making a qualitative judgment about one being better than the other, the reality is that most of the people listening to this show will never become ‘influencers’, per se, but that doesn’t mean you don't have influence.

The type of influence that matters in business and will matter to your bank account is the type of influence that comes from your production. Producers are influencers because what really matters is output. When you create something of value, you've created the power to influence others. If you want to have some influence with others, create something of value. The more production you are responsible for, the more influence you have, whether you want it or not and choose to leverage it or not.

I've talked in prior episodes about becoming a person of influence and why you want to start working on your personal brand in 2024 and one of the reasons is because we live in an era that values people who have influence with others. One of the best ways to gain influence with others is to be very clear about the problem you solve and then solve that problem at scale.

I work with a lot of people who don’t necessarily have the kind of personality that will propel them in their business as a person of influence. They don’t have the natural gift of gab, a great speaking voice, a persona made for public appearances, and so on. However, when you realize that real influence comes from production; from output, and not necessarily from personality, then the focus gets put back on what matters: producing something of value and doing it a lot.

The third proverb of performance is:

3. Income follows assets, not effort.

This one comes straight from Daniel Priestly's teachings, and his book, 24 Assets, and has been one of the more eye-opening reflections, if you will, over the last 10 years or so for me.

Most of the listeners will understand this implicitly because of the type of work we do. Many of the listeners of this show are involved in real estate in some way. Real estate is almost always considered to be an asset. An asset is anything that would still have value even if you disappeared.

Your house will still be valuable after you move out. It will still have value after you die. It will still have value 100 years from now, assuming it's been cared for, has been updated, and still has utility.

Those of you who say that your business is an asset, I would suggest you ask the question: can your business continue on without you? Maybe it could for a while, but most of you have 1 or 2 person businesses that would likely decline fairly rapidly if you disappeared for 30 days or more. That means you don't have an asset, you have a paid sales or production job.

What this proverb says is that income follows assets, not effort. If you work for someone else, yes, you probably get paid for your effort to some degree, but you'll also likely be paid more if you create some kind of value-added business practice, new line of business, a new marketing campaign, or proprietary business process, all of which are considered assets. Income follows assets, not effort.

For those of you wondering what I mean by ‘assets' in this context; again, it's anything that would still be valuable without you. This podcast is an asset in that there are over 300 episodes that will continue to be available in the ether for as long as the ether exists.

Even if I stop making these episodes, the catalog of past episodes are considered an asset. A new way of doing things that make a business more efficient, and therefore more profitable, is an asset. The culture you create that keeps good people working with you for a long time is an asset. Intellectual property created within a business is an asset. Developing a killer brand is an asset. Systems and processes are assets, and income follows assets not effort.

The fourth proverb of performance, and one of my favorites, is:

4. Become known and recognized by the success of your clients.

In essence, when your clients succeed, even if it’s in some small way because of your work and affiliation with them, they're more likely to become an excited referral source and a walking billboard for your company.

If you're familiar with the power of 5 Star Google reviews, then you understand how businesses grow based on what others say about it, not what you say about it. The world knows you're biased about your own company and are only going to say good things about it. However, when somebody else in the market says something good about you and your company, that's real influence and power and that's exactly what you want.

If we take this from the philosophical to the tactical and practical, one of the best ways to become known by the success of your clients is to do the same for them, meaning rather than beating the drum for yourself and your business, become known for shouting the praises of your clients. When you do this, not only are you helping them potentially become more successful, but you're also activating the law of reciprocity. When you do something good for somebody else, they want to do the same for you.

The second-best way to become known by the success of your clients is to publish your own success stories. For the appraisers out there, you likely see agents and lenders publishing their own success stories on social media in the form of closing day pictures with happy new homeowners. Rarely, if ever, do they say, ‘shout out to Nancy Smith Appraisal company for getting a high-quality appraisal back in record time!’

More often than not, we have to be our own greatest cheerleaders. Don't be afraid to publish your own success stories in a similar fashion to let the world know that you’re a person and company of influence, you’re out in the market doing good work, and you’re the go to authority and trusted guide in the market. But remember the real value of this proverb: you ultimately want to become known by the success of your clients.

The fifth proverb of performance is:

5. You are in partnership with anyone and everyone who touches your business in some way.

I've talked in past shows about all the ‘stakeholders' in your business and how to see everyone who touches your business in some way as somebody who has invested in you. From your parents and siblings, to your clients and customers. All of the people who have invested in your growth in some way are hoping for some kind of return on that investment, even if the return is simply in the form of pride.

Obviously, your parents don’t expect you to pay them back for feeding you for 20 years, maybe putting you through college, or for giving you the foundation that has led you to where you are today, but they are some of the very first investors in the company of ‘You, Inc.’ You've got teachers, authority figures, mentors, referral sources, and, of course, customers and clients who have and are investing in you regularly.

Start to see yourself, not as a delivery system of a particular set of products and services, but instead as a valuable set of relationships that must prosper, grow, and last for everyone to be successful.

I would say this is one of the biggest failings in the appraisal industry over the last 20 years or so. Appraisers tend to have a very self-righteous attitude, and an attitude of entitlement. They tend to act as if whatever business they do have coming their way is theirs and they are owed that business. What often follows that is an industry that hates the very people wanting to do business with them and give them a good living.

Let's put this to rest right now: you are entitled to absolutely nothing in any business or industry. Whatever you have, you are lucky to have it and you should treat it that way because it could very easily be gone tomorrow. You are in partnership with anyone and everyone who touches your business and the benefit of choice is on their side. They can just as easily choose somebody else who is less angry, ornery, self-righteous, and entitled to do business with. Treat them like they could be gone tomorrow because, for many of you, they will be.

The sixth proverb of performance is:

6. The value is not in the idea, it’s in the implementation.

Let's be honest, ideas are everywhere. They're a dime a dozen. Everyone has ideas about things that could be, things that should be, things that don't exist yet they think could be the next big thing, and ways of doing things that might revolutionize a product, a service, or even a whole industry. But, unless there is action taking on bringing ideas out of the ether and into the world of real things, ideas are worthless.

I, like you, have had innumerable ideas over my 50+ years on this earth, the vast majority of which were never acted upon. I, like you, have even had what I thought were great ideas that I eventually saw somebody else implement and have some success with. Ideas are everywhere, but they're worthless without implementation.

Having been a business and personal coach for almost 30 years now, you can probably imagine how many ideas people have shared with me over that time. I've worked with lots of people who use the next great idea as the reason to stop focusing on what they probably should be focused on to focus on this new, shiny object called an idea.

The problem for almost everybody when it comes to ideas is that ideas are easy, they're fun, they're new, they're exciting, they're often energizing and alluring; it's the implementation that is difficult.

Taking an idea from idea stage to implementation stage is where most people stop and burn out because implementation is hard, ideas are easy.

Have you ever thought about working out, but didn't? Have you even thought about changing your diet to eat more healthily, but didn't? Have you ever thought about changing careers or starting a new business, but didn't? Have you ever had a great idea that you were sure was going to be a million-dollar idea, but you never took action on it and then saw somebody else already did it? Yeah, me too! Ideas are great when it comes to getting and keeping the mental juices flowing, but without implementation they mean almost nothing. Ideas are easy, implementation is hard. That's why the real value and the real payoff is in the implementation, not the idea.

The last point I’ll make on this proverb is that it’s important to understand the difference between creativity and imagination. Being creative, by definition, entails the act of creation, which means actually bringing something into the world. Having a strong imagination, on the other hand, means being able to imagine something, but it does not entail actually creating something. You might have a really great imagination, but the market doesn’t really care about your imagination, it cares more about your creativity. When you create something, you’re bringing something into the world that can be tested and receive feedback on.

If the market doesn’t like it, they’ll let you know right away. You get almost immediate feedback. Nobody cares about your imagination, they care about what you create in the real world that solves a problem for them or makes their life easier, more enjoyable, and more profitable in some way.

The seventh proverb of performance is:

7. The market decides what’s valuable and it always tells the truth.

The market doesn’t lie. It gives you raw and ruthless feedback in real time. The market doesn’t care how much time you’ve spent, how difficult it was for you, how much you bled during the process, how long it took you to get your special degree, how extra you are, it only cares if it can get the result it wants at the price it wants to pay.

If you take nothing else away from this episode, my friends, please take this one and keep it in your back pocket the next time you’re tempted to go vent on social media about how someone, some company, some process, or some idea is ruining the business you’re in.

We see this all the time in the appraisal business about how AMCs, government regulations, big appraisal companies, Black Rock, and the shitty competitors with the low-quality appraisals are ruining the industry. These are all just time wasters and excuses they’re using to waste time instead of building a better business model or developing an additional stream of income. I’m not saying, by the way, that all of those things aren’t actually ruining the industry or killing the business for a lot of people, I just know that the market decides what is valuable and it always tells the truth.

You can complain all you want, but it’s not going to do any good when it comes to your bank account and paying your bills. The only thing complaining does is dog whistle to all the other people who are sitting around wasting time instead of figuring out how to differentiate their business, position themselves as the go-to expert, diversify their business into other areas that aren’t affected by those same influences, and create something of value or solve some kind of problem for a market that is willing to pay.

This one is super simple! The market decides what is valuable, not you as the provider of products and services. When you shift out of your appraiser role and into the role of a consumer, it becomes much easier to comprehend because your consumer brain is the brain of the market. As a consumer, you too are only willing to pay what you think a product or service is worth based on the type of problem it solves for you, and not a dollar more.

You, the market, decides what is valuable to you and you always tell the truth by and when you make a purchase. And, as the saying goes, ‘when somebody shows you who they are, believe them the first time’.

The greater market of buyers of your products and services is telling you in real time what is valuable to them in that moment based on what they're willing to pay and not pay. For the most part, they don't care about how many degrees you have, how long it took you to complete an appraisal, how much time and effort you had to put into it, how many letters you have after your name, nor how much of your blood, sweat, and tears you've lost as a result. It only cares whether or not the product will solve the immediate problem for the price they want to pay.

There it is friends, the seven proverbs of performance. Listen to this one over and over, even if it makes you angry. Once you’ve calmed down, you’ll start to move into the next stage, which is acceptance and hopefully action. Take some action today to make your business better, bulletproof, and beneficial to as many people as possible willing to pay for what you offer. Waste no time complaining about things you cannot and will not change, just get to the business of making the changes you need to make to be successful.

A brief recap of all seven proverbs:

1. You get what you believe in and constantly speak into reality, both the good and the bad.
2. Real influence comes from your production, not from your personality.
3. Income follows assets, not effort.
4. Become known and recognized by the success of your clients.
5. You are in partnership with anyone and everyone who touches your business in some way.
6. The value is not in the idea, it’s in the implementation.
7. The market decides what’s valuable and it always tells the truth.

Know them, live them, and commit them to memory as quickly as possible for the greatest success in the shortest amount of time.

If you’re interested in seeing the video version of this episodes, with slides and additional commentary, the place to be is the Appraiser Increase Academy. It’s free to try out for a full 30 days and a mere $29 per month after that. There’s over 70 hours of video training and live coaching calls, 15 coaching exercises with worksheets, a private Facebook group for members only where we talk about these kinds of things on a regular basis and have a live monthly call we call our ‘Profit Sharing’ call, and a bunch of other value added things.

If you’re not ready to take your business to the next level and make more money, do NOT check out the Increase Academy, it will be a waste of your time. The Increase Academy is only for people who actually want to grow and be better tomorrow than they were yesterday and make more money in less time. If that’s you, just go to www.coachblaine.com/freemonth and start growing today.