Real Estate Happens

Unlocking Real Estate Success: Accountability, Strategy, and Personal Growth

• Aweigh Real Estate-Kenny Letner • Episode 55

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The episode focuses on the transformative concept of positive accountability in the real estate industry, emphasizing the importance of internal motivation and supportive peer relationships. Listeners learn how shifting from a focus on production to daily activities can significantly enhance performance and foster a positive mindset about accountability. 

• Discussion on the shifts in accountability in real estate 
• Craig Jones shares his professional journey and insights 
• The struggle agents face in maintaining discipline as independent contractors 
• Importance of building habits and focusing on daily activities 
• Positive accountability versus negative accountability 
• Utilizing peer support to enhance motivation 
• Celebrating successes to foster continued growth 
• Announcement of Kenny's (our host) upcoming book and speaking events

Kenny Letner:

Hey guys, Welcome back to the Real Estate Happens podcast. We have a great guest with us here today. I'm going to introduce him here in just a minute, but I want to take this time at the beginning of the year to talk a little bit about accountability. As most of you know, I follow Larry Kendall and the Ninja Selling with Ninja Nation. So does Craig. We've both been out to Fort Collins, Colorado, but let's welcome Craig Jones to the podcast today. Hey, Craig, how are you? Hey, I'm doing fine. How's it you doing? You know I'm doing good. I mean, you know, as I always say, if I was any better, I'd be twins. Tell us a little bit about what you've been had going on. We haven't had you on the show in a while. Tell us a little about your life what you?

Craig Jones:

I wasn't a broker yet, so now of course, I'm a principal broker of Away Real Estate, managing broker of Away Real Estate, the realtor side of the house. So I've taken a lot of broker responsibilities on.

Kenny Letner:

Yeah, that was a big undertaking. We did this last year, so it's turning out pretty well.

Craig Jones:

Yeah, I've been very happy with it. It's one of those things I always wanted to start managing agents and now I'm finally at a point in my career where I can do that.

Kenny Letner:

That's amazing. Well, as your career has gone prior commander in the Navy executive officer of Beach Masters I know it was out there You've just fell into that leadership role very, very well, so I think it's working out quite spindly. What else?

Craig Jones:

is going on with you? Not much, you know, hobby-wise, still fishing. We've been golfing. We've been golfing Kenny and I have been golfing as much as we can out at first tee to here in Hampton roads. Yeah, we golf at it.

Kenny Letner:

I'm not sure if it's, if you consider it golfing we. We hit the little white ball and chase it around.

Craig Jones:

Yeah, and then of course, my fishing, my golfing, and you've got me hooked on smoking meats now, so I got my Traeger and I started doing that.

Kenny Letner:

Yeah, I saw you. How did those ribs turn?

Craig Jones:

out. They turned out pretty good, so I got to feed all the visiting families, so I had to prepare food for 11 people. It's the biggest meal I've prepared and it went over really well.

Kenny Letner:

Oh, that's awesome. You know, as we move into the beginning of the year, as you know, we've started an accountability coaching program based on the ninja system and if you've never heard of the ninja system, please take a moment, look up Larry Kendall, ninja Selling and start solving. And you know, we just we tend to ask questions and let people answer them and then you know, you start to realize, you know pain and pleasure, points that they have in their life or problems that they have that you possibly are in a unique position as a real estate professional to solve, and then helping them with that solution, not being tied to outcome, has been an amazing transformation for me and a lot of the agents here at the office, so, and I think that's really wonderful. However, nothing works unless you do it, and I have found that real estate agents are very reluctant when it comes to accountability. Have you kind of seen that also?

Craig Jones:

Yeah, it's. You know I can't remember what the agent count is right now here in Hampton Roads, like 8,600 or something like that, or is it higher? I can't remember.

Kenny Letner:

I think that's probably close. I guess so.

Craig Jones:

Reasonable approximation and if you look at the ones who actually do the business, it's a very small percentage of that number. And when you talk to these people, regardless of what systems they're working there, they have something they do on a regular basis that lets them be successful. Some of them have accountability coaches that help them along, but someone's holding them accountable, even if it's themselves looking at themselves in the mirror and chewing themselves out in the morning for not doing something. There's someone holding them accountable and you can tell really quick, at least from you know. When you're in the middle of a real estate deal, you can tell really quick who are the professionals who have a system and who do stuff and do a lot of work and how motivated they are. So yeah, sadly, most of the people you can tell they don't hold themselves accountable.

Kenny Letner:

Well, you know it's funny, I talk about this all the time.

Kenny Letner:

It doesn't matter what type of lead generation you're doing, it's just irrelevant.

Kenny Letner:

They all work. The problem is that we're not consistent and we don't have a system or we're not systematic about how we do those systems, and the only way that we come to that is we become accountable to ourselves or help someone else who's holding us accountable to do the things that we say we're going to do, and I think that's a major problem. So I think this year, at our company in particular, we're going to do, and I think that's a major problem. So I think this year at our company in particular, we're going to focus on accountability and not to what I think the agents should do, but what they themselves have said they want to do. I mean, every year we do goal setting and goal planning, and so we've done our goal setting this year and I have the agents that have decided to be in the accountability coaching program, have given me all their goals and I have those and I want to just help hold them accountable to reaching their own goals, and I think that's going to make a huge difference in that. Does that make sense?

Craig Jones:

No, that makes perfect sense when you're starting to build. I mean, this is all about building the habits that build success, and Ninja in particular has a very systematic way of building achieving that success, and it's broken and done a very good job of breaking things down to the core activities that you really need to do to work your sphere of which work your database of people who might you know friends, family, people you know like and trust you might want to do real estate business in the next year. It's very hard. I mean anyone who's ever tried to get in the habit of starting a workout routine or trying to lose weight or quitting smoking, quitting drinking. It's hard to break a habit, it's hard to form a habit, and when people are having problems with that, they go to coaches and that's what makes a difference for a lot of people.

Kenny Letner:

Yeah, I mean it could be argued that your doctor is a form of a coach, right?

Craig Jones:

He certainly is.

Kenny Letner:

He's telling you the things that you need to do and holding, you know, holding you accountable to getting lab results back and, you know, testing you with those. So I think that goes a long ways. You know, I was talking to a group of agents this morning, about 12 agents we were talking to and I started this conversation off with if you had a regular nine five job. It's easy You're a cog in a big machine and your cog is supposed to be at work at nine and get off at 12 to one for lunch, and then you're off the rest of the day at five and you have one specific job, your cog, your wheel to make the overall big wheel run, and so accountability becomes a lot easier in that position because it's a very defined set of things.

Kenny Letner:

But as a 1099 independent contractor, as a real estate professional who owns their own business and every agent let's be honest, every agent runs a small business having every job there is you're CFO, ceo, you're the janitor, you're the supply guy, you're the marketing person, you're all of those things. So you're not just a cog anymore. You're the janitor, you're the supply guy, you're the marketing person, you're all of those things. So you're not just a cog anymore. You are the machine and figuring out what you need to do on a daily basis and holding yourself accountable to get those things done. I find to be the thing that agents struggle with the most, because a lot of these agents come from very successful careers where they were cogged in a wheel and now they're the machine and they're having a hard time making that transition. But I think it's still all about systems, commitment and accountability.

Craig Jones:

Yeah, it is that that nine to five job. You're now your own boss. And you know, I was kind of half joking when I said you have to look at be able to look yourself in the mirror and chew yourself out in the morning when you didn't form the day before. You have to have that mentality about no one else is going to hold you accountable if you don't do it and ultimately you are the one who has to hold you accountable. But if you get a coach or even a fellow real estate agent, someone where you guys can get together and just say hey, I had my 10 conversations yesterday. How did you do? At least, if you don't have?

Kenny Letner:

that it's hard for some people to get in the habit of doing it. No, I agree, having that is amazing, and I like your analogy about looking in the mirror and cheering yourself out. I do it a little bit different. I look in the mirror and I go today, would I give this person in the mirror a raise or would I fire them? Right? And so I always wanted to be. Oh, you know, I think we should give that person a raise. You know, I think that's an amazing way to look at it.

Kenny Letner:

But I think the other thing too is when people I think the reason they're so reluctant about accountability is because they focus on the negative. They focus on what didn't get done and, as you and I both know from Larry Kendall and the Go-Giver and a bunch of other books that you and I both read, what you focus on expands right. So we know this. So whatever you're focusing on, you're going to get more of that. So when you're out there and you're talking about accountability and you're trying to get that done, don't focus on what you didn't do. Put more emphasis and more focus on what you did accomplish, and then that will expand and become better and bigger and you'll start to enjoy accountability in a much different light when you're not focusing on what you didn't accomplish, but focusing on what you did and then improving on that.

Craig Jones:

Yeah, you know people I think a lot of that comes from people try to. You know we're both you and I are both type A type of people, and you know we see a goal, we go. But let's say there's an activity people struggle with In the New York Horse Ninja. We got our Ninja 9 weekly habits right and you got your daily five. And let's say, for whatever reason, you're having a hard time doing your 50 live conversations a week. You do 10, you do 20.

Craig Jones:

I had a conversation with an agent who just couldn't see how they were going to get to 50. I said, well, how many do you think you can do a day? Can you do 10 a day? No, that's too many. Can you do five a day? I think I could do five a day. Well, let's do five a day for a week. And, son of a gun, they were able to get five a day. Okay, let's try six, let's try seven, and you work your way, because sometimes you know, not everything comes naturally to everybody. But don't dwell on the fact that, oh God, I didn't do my 50. Well, no, but you did 25.

Kenny Letner:

Yeah, I was just reading a book called called Eat the Frog, and Eat the Frog's pretty amazing, but if I boil the whole book down, it comes down to simply this Do the thing that you least want to do first, get it out of the way, get it done, focus on it and make it happen. And that's a lot like that. And I think that when there are tasks in our lives or things that we're intimidated by or bored with, that we don't want to do, we tend to push them off and procrastinate and don't get those things done, when if we would just do them, they would be done and out of our way. My wife read me a meme the other day and I thought it was pretty funny. You'll appreciate this, greg. It said I just finished a 20-minute task that I've been putting off for three months and I will learn nothing from this, right. So we tend to we tend to repeat those failures over and over Yep, same same thing.

Craig Jones:

You know I'll put off my two notes. You know I do two notes every day and I always tell myself I'm going to do it every morning. You know, here comes lunchtime. I haven't done it and then I started telling myself I'm not going home until I do my two notes. And then I get the end day and I write my two notes and took, and then I get to the end of the day and I write my two notes.

Craig Jones:

It takes me like 10 minutes 15 minutes and it's like, why didn't I just do it?

Kenny Letner:

Yeah, you're going to eat that frog, right? You're going to eat that frog, right? I mean, you know nobody wants to eat a frog, but you've got to eat that frog. Get it out of the way. You know you eat the vegetables first because you know you've got to clean your place. You eat the vegetables first, then you can enjoy the rest.

Kenny Letner:

So I thought that was a fairly good analogy, although it's unfortunate, I don't talk with it much anymore. So, craig, I just wanted to take a few minutes. I thought it would be a good idea to get out and just kind of get this information out to everybody, to talk to everybody in 2025. Let's make the theme accountability, but positive accountability. I want people to focus on the positive things they're doing every month and expand those positive things so that your whole life is filled with positive accountability. I don't think I've ever heard that word, positive accountability but that's really what it should be. It should be positive accountability. It should not be negative accountability, because if it's positive accountability, then people want that in their lives, and if it's negative accountability, I mean God, who wants that? Who wants somebody going? Hey, jackass, look what you didn't do, you know.

Craig Jones:

Yeah, and I would just add this Focus on accountability for the things that you can control, which are the things you do every day to generate your business or to improve your life. There are lots of things that happen outside of our control, but focus on the stuff you can control.

Kenny Letner:

Well, you and I had a great conversation, and that's a really good point. You and I had a great conversation about what do we focus on? And you know, I've never, in all the coaching that I've done as long as I've owned this company, the age of this company, I've never, ever focused on production. I don't put up production boards. I don't put up, you know, who's the best, most productive age. I don't do that.

Kenny Letner:

What I do focus on is activities, right? So I will say that I'll put up a board that says who's done the most activities this week, who's had the most, excuse me, who's had the most forward conversations this week, who's had the most um, you know um, follow-ups this week? You know those activities will lead to production, right? So I think we focus on in our industries too much sometimes on production and not on the things that actually drives production, which is the activities that we do in our daily lives. The five daily habits, the four weekly habits, those are the activities. And, guys, if I can say nothing else, if you focus on habits daily and weekly that drive business and can focus on those activities, the business will take care of itself, guaranteed.

Craig Jones:

Yep, it's key to focus on activities, not the end product. The end product is some measure you look at once a year, the activities. That's what you work on every day.

Kenny Letner:

Yeah. So I'll leave everybody with this thought. And here it is Again positive accountability. Find somebody to help you with that Right. Make sure you're focusing on the right things. Stop focusing on production, start focusing on the activities. And Stop focusing on production, start focusing on the activities and the positive aspect of those activities and have a system to work within and be consistent about it. That's the key to this whole thing.

Craig Jones:

Amen.

Kenny Letner:

I have one more announcement. As you know, I have a book coming out it should be out middle of February. I think it goes on pre-sale sometime here in January called Accidental Real Estate. I'm excited for everybody to get their hands on that. It's a book about focusing from chaos to clarity, really kind of getting systems and being systematic about things, gotcha. And where's that going to be available? It's going to be available on Amazon, on Kindle, and I will have some author signed copies at some of the speaking events that we're going to this year. I'm speaking, I think in March, three different times San Antonio, I'll be in real estate distilled in Kentucky, and King of Collaboration and King of Prussia up in Pennsylvania. That's all in March. March is going to be a busy month with a lot of traveling.

Craig Jones:

Yeah, it is hey and I can't emphasize it If you're a real estate agent and you're anywhere near Louisville in the March timeframe and you can get away to that real estate distill. Last year we went was really productive. Learned a lot of things.

Kenny Letner:

Yeah, that's a great conference. That's the week of March 3rd through the 7th. It's actually a two-day conference. Well, there's the 4th. 5th and 6th is the conference days. The 4th is an independent broker group, but the 5th and 6th are the two main days of that conference and he's got some great speakers lined up this year and, as always, some good bourbon there in Kentucky.

Craig Jones:

Oh yeah, I forgot about the bourbon. Oh, sure you did, Craig.

Kenny Letner:

We went last year the VIP dinner, which was really great. They had a local distillery and so the drinks there were pretty amazing. Actually, I was very impressed by that. And if you're a bourbon fan and most people know that I am and you go to Louisville, the liquor stores there are a whole different experience than they are here. They really, really are, so it's pretty amazing. All right, guys, Real Estate Distilled it's coming up in March. Like Craig said, get your tickets. It's a great time. Realestatedistilledcom. I think you can get it. Scott Hack is the one that runs that. He's an amazing guy. So, if nothing else, guys, enjoy it, as always. Get out there and sell a house, and we'll talk to you all soon.