|
Brevity Count: 970 words (5 minutes)
|
|
The key to success is a losing mindset.
Hear me out:
I hate losing. And yet, my job puts me in a position where I will inevitably experience loss every single day. The reality is that no matter how much I live to win, I’ll always be losing a deal, a client, money, or time.
Some days I lose one, and some days I lose all four over and over. And I hate it.
As much as I hate losing, I know it’s part of the deal I made with myself when I decided I wanted to eat what I kill. Like the lion who doesn’t get every prey, I’m a deal hunter who doesn’t get every deal.
Knowing how to overcome loss is a large part of what separates successful entrepreneurs from those who have failed (and quit). I became much happier once I decided to be OK with losing. In fact, I decided to be more than OK with it - I decided to welcome it.
I realized that if I wasn’t losing, it meant I wasn’t trying hard enough. And if I wasn’t trying, then there’s no way I could ever win.
A big part of Sell It Like Serhant – both the book and the course – is about getting to a mindset where you can weather loss. Yes, there is a lot of skill and strategy in Sell It Like Serhant, but also without the right mindset, your skills and plans are useless.
You’re going to get wins just by living - you're going to find a way to survive with food, shelter, and clothing. Thank evolution for that.
But learning how to LOSE with the right mindset, and how to welcome the failures, is what separates you from the next person.
|
|
TOP OF MIND
Losing Mindset
|
|
BIG MONEY ENERGY
Bert Jacobs
|
|
The story of Bert Jacobs is the story of how to create a $100 million lifestyle brand off of a simple philosophy: “Life is Good.”
It’s also a story of a theme I cover often in this newsletter: The power of perseverance.
You may know the “Life is Good” brand from their popular clothing line. Bert Jacobs and his brother John Jacobs started their company in 1988 while road tripping from California to Boston. Along the way, they sold their T-shirts to college kids, at street fairs, and even on the side of the road. They slept in their van, showered when they could, and lived on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for nearly every meal (If you read my profile of Steve Harvey two weeks ago, you’ll see he did the same thing. My version of peanut butter and jelly when I was starting out was tofu and yogurt).
The clothing didn’t sell well, but they kept pushing. For five years.
Finally, in 1994, with just $78 left in their bank account and probably with more than a little desperation, they decided to try one more T-shirt design: Life is Good.
The simple message stuck, and since then they’ve been spreading their message of optimism through their positive and humorous clothing line.
Of course, as their company grew, the business moved beyond the Jacobs brothers’ expertise of clothing design. Bert and John started running a mid-sized company, and they had to manage finance, HR, supply chain, legal, and everything else that makes a larger corporation work.
|
|
|
In 2013, after four years of slipping sales, Bert created a task force to evaluate the brothers’ leadership. It turned out employees were confused by a lack of clarity over strategy. The brothers were giving slightly different messages to their employees, and no one knew what to do!
So, the brothers stepped down as the day-to-day leaders of their own company to focus on their core skillset in the creative part of the business. This is probably one of the hardest decisions a founder would ever have to make.
By making that decision, the company's financial performance turned around. Today, it generates roughly $100 million a year in revenue.
The lesson here: Sometimes as entrepreneurs, we can’t do it all ourselves. We need to surround ourselves with a team of people who are better than us in some aspects of our own business.
I wouldn’t be where I am today without my team. How could I personally be at every single showing my team of 60 agents does every day? How would I film myself for my own vlog? Could I also do all my own digital marketing, graphic design, and sales strategy?
As you grow your business, you have to acknowledge your own strengths (and weaknesses). Do what only you can do, and delegate everything else. In the Jacobs’ brothers case, this decision saved their company. If you’re not in a place where you need to delegate to save the business, at least delegate to save your sanity.
|
|
A LITTLE BIT FROM ME
Last night on the vlog
Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable because the only constant is change.
|
|
We’re Hiring:
Digital Marketing Manager
I’m hiring a digital marketing manager to help me grow my digital businesses!
The ideal marketing manager has a passion for developing campaigns and strategies to reach the right person at the right time with the right message on the right platform. Comfort with and experience using marketing data to make decisions is a must. You should be energetic and driven with an eye for growth and a penchant for getting things done.
Skillset:
Paid social advertising
Email marketing
SEO and SEM
Set and measure KPIs and ROI
If this sounds like you, email Kyle Scott, my head of product and production: kyle@ryanserhant.com
|
|
We’re Hiring:
Editors and Videographers
I’m looking for more video production talent. If you shoot/edit and think you have what it takes to work on the #1 media team in real estate, email us your reel/samples of your work.
hiring@ryanserhant.com
|
|
Parenting
Being a good father and husband is my most important job.
Thrive Global profiled how Emilia and I make time to be great parents despite our hectic schedules. One secret: Being present.
|
|
1 Fun Thing
Yup, I dressed up as Ryan the Lion to sell a listing in TriBeCa.
|
|
|
Know of someone who would like Big Money Energy? Forward this email and have them subscribe here.
|
|
|
|
|
