Dis-Traction is Real
But you can resist it, with a few steps
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They say we’re in an attention economy. I’d argue we’re in a distraction economy. Some days I just can’t seem to get going. Not for lack of trying; but simply lack of traction. There’s always something trying to dis-me from my path.
Maybe you feel like that too?
Let me tell you a story …
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Squirrel
Last Monday, I wanted to scream squirrel!
It was the kind of morning where the media headlines took the real estate industry down the rabbit hole, when it should have hit the ground running for the spring market.
After all, it’s the second Monday in March and we’re supposed to be Springing forward.
Interesting, yes. Pretty cool for some people, indeed. We wish them all well: of course. Yet this was 8:00 AM in my inbox —
and by 8:01, Facebook was aflame
Hundreds — no, thousands — of comments and posts “discussing” the story spread like wildfire. Apparently, nobody had anything better to do than share their opinion of a story that had less than a thousand words: but the “talking heads” turned into a tempest. The trap had been sprung and a morning that might have been filled with constructive client conversations was swamped with social media slant.
My only question was:
The Dis-Traction Dilemma
The challenge is real, and not just in real estate.
For all the wonder our smartphones bring us, there’s a cost. Whether you’re a writer trying to get through the next chapter, a blogger trying to share their next post, or a salesperson trying to make the next sale: getting traction is harder than ever. We don’t lack information or technology or capital or even energy:
We lack resistance to the temptations of distraction.
What’s Dissing You?
Look at your calendar.
How much of your day involves things that don’t contribute to your most important goals? Sure, some tasks are important: But are they important enough to be on your calendar? Take a good look, because the answer might surprise you.
I’m not talking about the need to delegate, either. That would probably help, but it’s not the real challenge. I’m talking about the lack of resistance to getting pulled in, pushed in, dragged into so many things that simply don’t move us closer to our goals.
Things that simply don’t matter.
Un-OnBoarding the Noise
Dis-traction is very expensive.
Think of the cost of the social media tempest: If only 10% of the industry gets caught up in the “news” for merely 2 minutes each, that’s about 150,000 agents spending 300,000 minutes of time which means 5,000 hours were wasted on a non-important issue.
Meanwhile, who’s making appointments with consumers and solving the inventory shortage?
Getting Ready to Get Ready
And it’s not just by accident.
Last week I had lunch with a friend. We were laughing about a perennial problem in this business: Salespeople getting ready to get ready to get going.
“I can’t start until my website is up.”
“I have to get all my slides updated before I can make a presentation.”
“Just as soon as I get my database uploaded, I’ll start prospecting a bunch of people.”
And then my friend said this: “We even do it on purpose - distracting agents from getting going on day one.”
My curiosity was piqued. “What do you mean?”
“Most onboarding is a massive distraction,” he said. He ran a brokerage for a decade so he should know. “We recruit someone and put them in a classroom rather than the sales room. They spend days, sometimes weeks, filling their brains with all sorts of things they won’t need for months. Procedures, software, paperwork and so on. Meanwhile, they’re totally distracted from the thing they need the most:
An appointment.”
“Too many careers lack traction,” he said. “We are tempted to do anything other than the work of the work.”
I thought about it. We can teach someone how to make a prospecting call in less than 2 hours. What if their first day had a short session in the morning, and then we asked them to take out their smartphone - already filled with their sphere of influence - and make calls?
Forget about their database, or MLS login, or presentation slides. Just make some prospecting calls. If they get an appointment, the manager could teach them the next step — and go on the first presentation with them and model it. Do they really need to know how to enter something into MLS before they have something to enter into MLS?
“We’re our own source of distraction,” I mused.
“Without an appointment, most of the things people do all day are irrelevant,” he laughed. “Creating CMAs doesn’t pay the mortgage. Presenting CMAs does.”
“Arguing with other agents about everything and anything online doesn’t help your clients, either,” I said.
We ordered dessert.
Get a Grip on Your Growth Traction
Thankfully, you can get a grip on dis-traction.
Like putting new tires on your car, you can create fresh traction even when things get slippery. Little things you can do to activate your traction control, like:
Don’t check news or social media until you’ve made three calls for the day
Team up with someone in your office for the first hour of the day - even if online - to co-work on things that create appointments and new relationships
Turn off your smartphone’s notifications, sounds, and icon indicators of new activity
Reduce distractions by using only one monitor at your desk, one tab at a time in your browser, and one program (don’t let email lurk in the background while you’re working on something else)
If any of those ideas sound monomaniacal, it’s because they are.
Imagine a devious plan to distract competitors
Imagine you weren’t a nice person.
Twirling your mustache, you were looking for ways to send your competition down the rabbit hole. If they are distracted, you could corner the market! How would you do it?
Just go into a few Facebook groups with competitors in it and post scintillating questions like these I read recently:
“Am I the only one who hates the word ‘networking’?”
It had 283 comments on it.“What would you do with a buyer who wants to purchase using gold?”
Three dozen comments.“What do you think interest rates will do in the future?”
Seventy comments and counting.“What good is MLS other than access to your lockbox?”
Stop… stop… stop!
All those agents.
All that time.
All that dis-traction.
All those listing appointments left un-made in the meantime!
You’re Just a Hare Away from Success
Remember the old fable of the tortoise and the hare?
The hare makes fun of a slow-moving tortoise. Tired of the hare's arrogance, the tortoise challenges him to a race. Confident in his speed, the hare accepts. As the race begins, the hare quickly leaves the tortoise behind.
Feeling overconfident, the hare decides to take a nap halfway through the race.
Meanwhile, the tortoise maintains his traction, steadily and persistently.
When the hare wakes up from his dreams, the tortoise has already won the race.
The moral of the story: there’s barely a hair between distraction and success.
Fighting distraction is hard. Here are a few of my favorite tips for keeping on track:
Read on for my five favorite anti-dis-traction techniques. 👇👇👇
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