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“When things slow down, you go fast. When things speed up, you go slower,” Ryan Serhant tells me as we sat on opposite ends of the country connected by Zoom.
I’m starstruck in an Arizona Airbnb and honored by the opportunity to interview someone who’s inspired me and made me laugh on TV, YouTube, on stage and through his book, Sell It Like Serhant.
Serhant is sitting calmly on the other end of the screen, not nervous at all to meet me, while he elaborates on what he’s done to stay mentally strong throughout the past year. “It’s like in movies set in the future that show roses growing out of concrete,” he says. “The unlikely begins to occur when the human race moves out of the way.”
I tell him he’s kind of like a rose growing out of the concrete. He laughs. Serhant has written a new book, started his own brokerage and resumed filming Million Dollar Listing New York so far this year.
That’s far more productive than many people have been this year. So I ask him: How do you get motivated every day? Here’s what he taught me:
Control what you can control
“Having a routine is very important to me,” he says. “I develop a routine and make it a habit, because in my experience healthy habits end up producing success. Routines that became habitual helped keep me going, even when I could have taken time off. A routine provides a discipline for the day, and I think that is what has set me apart from other real estate agents and business owners who don’t keep a routine. When everything around you is out of order, you can always fall into your routine to help you stay on track for success.”
Related: Why Throwing Out the “Old Bananas” is Imperative to Your Success
Get an “and”
“When something happens in the market where we are at a halt, we tell our sales force to use the extra time to find what we call your ‘and,'” Serhant says. “Having an ‘and’ is having something to say ‘I’m a real estate agent, and I play the guitar’ or ‘I’m a real estate agent, and I write books.’ For example, Talia, one of our agents, trains blind people to run marathons. That is her ‘and’ that she can tell people when she meets them. It’s something to set her apart from just being another agent in the field. It helps people remember you. Right now, I am a real estate broker and an author. Extra time is a gift, and what we choose to do with it can either make our lives more exciting or keep things exactly how they are.”
Related: 4 Simple Steps to Overcoming Your Fears
Invoke “big money energy”
“When I first came to New York City, I was nervous about money every month, but in this city, you meet people who aren’t,” Serhant says. “I coined those people with the phrase ‘big money energy.’ When a successful person is not nervous about money every month, I decided they had big money energy. On the day I got my real estate license, I knew I needed two things to be successful. First, I needed to know how to sell. That includes knowing the right terms and saying the right things. Second, I needed to cultivate big money energy. There are tons of real estate agents who are overly confident, but they’re not the most successful. An agent with big money energy still has great confidence, but they walk into the room with a certain mojo. They’re very humble with positive energy, the kind of energy that lights up a room and makes people feel good.”
In his new book, aptly named Big Money Energy, Serhant will share the tools you can use to fake humble confidence until it’s real. “The minute you have confidence in yourself and what you want to do is the minute you start making more money,” he says. “I also talk about valuing yourself. When you place more value in yourself, you begin to get those pay increases or land that second date, because other people start valuing you too.”
Related: Judy Smith: The Real-Life Olivia Pope Knows How to Handle a Crisis
Start your success today
“I’ve noticed that many people are wishing for 2021 and for this year to be over already, as if the current year is a tangible thing,” Serhant says. “It’s not tangible; time is just an organizational tool that humans created. Time management is a wonderful thing to master. However, for many people, it’s become an excuse to wait to start the things that we should be starting today. If you start valuing yourself today, you can start manifesting your own destiny. If you have a healthy routine, make the most of your extra time and create that infectious energy for yourself with humble confidence and self-value, you will become successful.”
So, folks, I mustered up the courage to meet the master of big money energy, and I can report that he is humble, kind and extremely smart. The two biggest takeaways from our conversation for me were to start reaching for my goals now instead of waiting for January 1, which is just an arbitrary date, and to own my “and.”
I’m a writer, and I run a publishing firm. And, I’m off to find our next genius to interview.
Related: Sometimes the Best Game Plan Is No Game Plan, Says Kristin Cavallari
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/359494