September 4, 2024·32 min·Justin Ford, eXp Realty

How Justin Ford sold 100 homes in year one with a bulletproof prospecting mindset

Justin Ford sold 100 homes in his first year on Michigan’s number one team and still takes 7 to 10 listings a month. He walks through 10 ways to build a bulletproof mindset, from embracing rejection and expecting the no to clear goals, self-discipline, gratitude, and protecting your health and rest.

How Justin Ford sold 100 homes in year one with a bulletproof prospecting mindset
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Key takeaways

  1. Expect the no and go for the no, since each no brings you closer to a yes and 90 to 95% of prospects will say no
  2. Talking to 25 people a day, five days a week, at one yes a day works out to 4 listings a month, 48 a year and roughly 30 sales
  3. His first-year goal of 100 homes was reverse engineered with Jeff Glover into talking to 10 people per hour, 3 hours a day, with one appointment per 10 conversations
  4. Flip the switch before every call session; whatever happened at home or with a client, it’s showtime when you sit down to prospect
  5. Self-discipline means doing the prospecting and follow-up even when you don’t feel like it, because you can’t live by your feelings
  6. Keep a vision board at your prospecting desk so your why is in front of you on the days you want to quit
  7. He has never worked a Sunday in his career, and says sleep, rest and health are non-negotiable if you want to stay sharp

Transcript

00:00 — Deciding to find a way to win

Justin Ford00:00

When we make a decision in our mindset that we are going to find a way to win and we’re not going to just give it a try, we’re not gonna just try prospecting, we’re not gonna just try real estate, but when you make a commitment that you’re gonna go all in, you’re gonna find a way to win, guess what happens?

00:17You find a way to win. And so that’s just a mindset decision that, yes, it’s difficult. Yes, I don’t like fear of rejection. Yes, this is hard, but I’m going to push through those things to get to the other side where the results are.

Loida Velasquez00:35

Are you a real estate agent that is struggling to prospect and generate new leads? The problem might not be your skills, but perhaps it could be your mindset. So on today’s episode of Vulcan7 Coaches and Mentors, we’re gonna be talking about 10 ways to create a bulletproof mindset. We have an amazing guest, Justin Ford.

00:54So with that being said, Justin, welcome to the show.

Justin Ford00:58

Thanks, Loida. I’m so excited to be back.

Loida Velasquez01:00

Absolutely. So for everyone that’s watching that maybe is not familiar with you, go ahead and give us a little bit about your background.

01:07 — From the mortgage crash to 100 homes in year one

Justin Ford01:07

Yep. So I have been in the industry for the last 19 years. Got licensed when I was 12 years old.

01:14Just kidding. But I’ve been in the business since I was, geez, 22 years old. And so my whole adult career, all I’ve known is this industry. I started off in the mortgage business back in 2005. Was prospecting for refinances when it was the refinance boom, and then 2008 the market crashed.

01:35Lost everything, went through a very difficult time, but stayed persistent and committed to learning how to navigate the changes. Did short sales and loan modifications for a period of time during the foreclosure crisis. And then back in 2013, got my real estate license, joined the number one team in Michigan, learned how to prospect, sold 100 homes my first year in the business.

02:00And now I lead a team here locally in Michigan, have an expansion team. I’m a prospecting coach, so I teach real estate agents all over North America how to prospect, and I’m still on the ground taking seven to 10 listings every month and having a great time.

Loida Velasquez02:19

That’s awesome. And for those of you that are watching or listening, make sure to follow Justin on Instagram and Facebook.

02:25I mean, I see all the time you’re posting, “Just got a listing, just got three listings.” So I mean, you’re actively doing this. You have your prospecting boot camps. But, you know, I’m excited to get into the conversation of mindset, because even before we hopped on this show right now, you mentioned to me I just talked about mindset.

02:43I spoke at an event, a training. So let’s get right to it. What do you think is the biggest issue when it comes to mindset for real estate agents?

Justin Ford02:52

Yeah. I appreciate that question. So, you know, I speak, coach, and train all over the country. I actually just spoke to a group of agents this morning, and there’s two things that I always share, that if we work on these two things as real estate agents, everything kind of falls in place.

03:09 — Mindset and skills go hand in hand

Justin Ford03:09

And number one is mindset, and number two is our skills. And these two go hand-in-hand, because you could be great at, you know, your skills. You could learn the scripts. You could write out the scripts. You could learn every objection. But if you have a ton of limiting beliefs, or you have fear of rejection, or you don’t have a strong mindset, you’re not gonna last long.

03:32And it goes to the flip side, right? If you have a strong mindset and you don’t really struggle with fear of rejection, you don’t have a lot of limiting beliefs, but you don’t know what to say, you don’t know how to overcome objections, then you’re not gonna be very successful when it comes to making phone calls.

03:50And so these two things, I believe, Loida, is so important, because if we don’t work on our mindset and our skills, then we’re gonna struggle. And what I’ve found being in the industry now for a very long time, ’cause even before I got into real estate as an agent, you know, I was prospecting for a mortgage company.

04:10You know, I was a prospector at a telemarketing firm. I did travel agency. You have to have a strong mindset, and you have to have good skills. And I think what I’ve found is a lot of times it’s usually one or the other. We work really hard on skills, but we never work on our limiting beliefs.

04:29And we don’t make it, because we struggle with things in our mindset that keep us from really being consistent, really pushing through the hardship and the pain and the struggle and the difficulty of prospecting, and we never really get the results that we want. And so I wanna talk today about the 10 ways to create a bulletproof mindset, and this is gonna be a two-part training actually.

04:52Today, we’re gonna talk about 10 ways to create a bulletproof mindset, and then in the next segment, we’re gonna talk about the skills necessary to become a great agent. And so I’ve had the privilege of training thousands of real estate agents all over North America. You know, again, I have a team that I teach these things to, lead the prospecting boot camp at Glover U.

05:14 — Fear of rejection and nearly quitting at 45 minutes

Justin Ford05:14

And what I always find is the number one reason why most people have a hard time prospecting or picking up the phone and making cold calls is the fear of rejection. The fear of rejection is something that most people struggle with, and the good news is you can overcome the fear of rejection. You can overcome the limiting beliefs that holds you back from picking up the phone and making calls.

05:38It’s just going to be a little bit painful for a while, and you’re gonna have to push through and get to the other side of it, but the good news is you can do it. I think back to the first day that I was getting ready to get on the phones at Jeff Glover’s office, who I started on his team.

05:54And, Loida, believe it or not, 45 minutes into my first prospecting session, I said, “This sucks,” and I quit. “I’m not doing this.” Because I felt like a telemarketer again. I didn’t wanna be a telemarketer. I did that years previous. You know, I’m like, “I just wanna be a real estate agent.” I was watching, like, Selling Sunset or HGTV.

06:12I’m like, “That’s the type of agent I wanna be.” I don’t wanna be picking up the phone and being told, “No. Go to hell. You’re the scum of the earth. Go get a real job.” And so, like, 45 minutes in, I almost quit. I mean, I really was about to walk off the team and leave. But I’m like, “You know what? I don’t really have many other options.

06:31I don’t have much going for me.” We had just went through some financial struggles. I was trying to get back on my feet. I had little kids at home. Like, I didn’t have a plan B. I had to make that work. And one of the things when it comes to mindset is making a decision to go all in. I think a lot of times real estate agents and even human nature, you know, we wanna be comfortable.

06:55We don’t wanna be put in uncomfortable situations. And so the minute we experience any type of being uncomfortable or fear of rejection, we naturally just pull back, ’cause we do not want to experience that hardship. And so I remember that day I made a decision that I was gonna go all in, that I was gonna burn the boats, and that I didn’t have a plan B.

07:18And I think a lot of times the reason why real estate agents struggle… I mean, it’s crazy to think this, Loida, and you know this, 90% of real estate agents are out of the business in their first 24 months. And the reason why is because they’re not really truly committed. They were looking for, you know, like get rich quick, make a lot of money real fast.

07:39Then when you realize it’s not what Selling Sunset shows, it’s not what HGTV shows, you gotta get in and roll your sleeves up and get to work. You’re gonna have to face some rejection, and most people don’t like that. So I made a decision to go all in and never look back. And I think that when we make a decision in our mindset that we are going to find a way to win, and we’re not going to just give it a try, we’re not gonna just try prospecting, and we’re not gonna just try real estate.

08:08But when you make a commitment that you’re gonna go all in and you’re gonna find a way to win, guess what happens? You find a way to win. And so that’s just a mindset decision that, yes, it’s difficult. Yes, I don’t like fear of rejection. Yes, this is hard, but I’m going to push through those things to get to the other side where the results are.

08:31And so I wanna give you 10 ways to create a bulletproof mindset. And so number one is that we actually have to embrace rejection as a part of the process. We have to embrace it. We can’t run from it. We can’t be afraid of it. We actually have to embrace it, because rejection is inevitable in real estate.

08:51Even if you don’t pick up the phones and prospect, it is a part of real estate, and it’s a big part of prospecting. And for some reason, Loida, I think that when real estate agents pick up the phone and they start prospecting, the minute that they get told no, they get afraid, as if they didn’t expect to be told no.

09:10And so if you’re taking notes right now, I want you to write this down. Expect the no. Most people are going to tell you no… and that’s okay, right? Most people are gonna tell you no… and that’s okay. Expect the no. We just have to get really good at turning a no into a yes. That’s how you get really good at learning the objections and overcome the objections, which we’re gonna talk about next week on the skill session, is we have to expect the no.

09:42And matter of fact, go for the no. Why? Because each no brings you closer to a yes. And so what you need to do in order to develop a bulletproof mindset is develop resilience by seeing that rejection is a learning opportunity and a necessary step towards being successful on the phones and in real estate.

10:09We have a saying, Loida, at Glover U. We have these what we call Gloverisms, and one of them is, “The more rejection I get, the more money I make.” The more rejection I get, the more money I make. Why? Because rejection leads us to the yes, okay? Rejection leads us to the yes. And it’s really a numbers game.

10:32 — How 24 nos a day become 30 sales

Justin Ford10:32

And if we can wrap our minds around this, I think everybody watching this video can be successful. Let me give you an example. If you commit to talking to 25 people per day about real estate, and you do that five days a week… Surprise, 90 to 95% of people are gonna tell you no, okay? 90 to 95%. But if you do it every day and you do it consistently, that 5 to 10% is more than enough.

10:59For instance, you know, if you talk to 25 people per day and only one person tells you yes, 24 tell you no, and you do that five days a week, guys, that means 120 people told you no, five people told you yes. So let’s just say out of those five people, you only go on three listing appointments, and out of those three listing appointments, you only get one signed, and you do that every day of the week, five days a week, four weeks a month.

11:32Guys, that’s four new listings per month. That’s 48 listings for the year. Let’s just say only 30 of the 48 sell. What would an extra 30 listings sold do to your business right now? So think about that. You’re rejected 95% of the time, 5% said yes, you just sold 30 more homes in the next 12 months. If I told you all you had to do was get 24 no’s a day to get that one yes, and you had to just do that every day, every week, every month for 12 months, and you knew that you could get 30 sales, how many of you guys would do that? No-brainer.

12:13Every hand goes up, right? The good news is because it’s a numbers game, you do it long enough, you’re going to get people to say yes. It’s a guarantee, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. And how do we convert better from one out of 25? Our skills, which we’ll talk about next week, ’cause the goal would be to get you to convert one for every 10 people that you talk to.

12:38 — Set clear, realistic, achievable goals

Justin Ford12:38

So again, 10 ways to create a bulletproof mindset. Number one, absolutely embrace rejection as a part of the process and stop running from it. Number two, this is where I think sometimes we really struggle, because number two is we have to set clear, realistic, achievable goals. Clear, realistic, achievable goals.

13:03A lot of times we just get on the phone and we willy-nilly it, we throw it up against the wall and hope that it sticks. We have no goal. We have no idea what we’re doing. We’re just kinda going at it. And I can tell you right now, you can’t wing this if you wanna be successful. You have to have a goal and a plan.

13:20Year one, my goal was to sell 100 homes my first year in the business, and I did. And guess what? You don’t just arrive at 100 homes sold your first year in the business by just arriving there, by just winging it, by just throwing it up against the wall and hoping that it sticks. I went to Jeff, and to me, I really believed I could sell 100 homes a year.

13:40Loida, pretty much everybody in my office thought I was egotistic, and who does this guy think he is selling 100 homes a year in his first year in the business? I didn’t look at it like that. Like, I really believed I could sell 100 homes my first year in the business. And so I went to Jeff and I said, “Jeff, how do I sell 100 homes my first year in the business?”

14:02And what he did was he reverse engineered 100 homes sold all the way down to how many listing appointments do I need to go on? How many listing appointments do I need to take? How many people do I need to talk to? How many appointments do I need to set? All the way down to, “All right, Justin, if you’re gonna sell 100 homes your first year in the business, you need to talk to 10 people per hour. You need to set one appointment for every 10 people you talk to, and you need to do that three hours a day.

14:30And if you do that consistently every day, if you do that consistently five days a week, if you do that consistently every month, Justin, mathematically, you’re gonna get there. And you know what? I just did it. I didn’t think about, “How am I gonna sell 100 homes a year?” I said, “Today, I just need to talk to 25 to 30 people.”

14:50And if I just do that today, yes, there’s days I’m not gonna set an appointment. Yes, there’s days I’m gonna set five appointments. I mean, one day I set 12 appointments in one day, right? Every day is a little bit different, but the math kinda evens out. If you look at the average over weeks and months and the whole year, you can arrive to a specific ratio.

15:10Jim Rohn calls that the law of averages. And so we have to have clear, achievable, realistic goals, okay? Maybe your goal is just to talk to one person a day just to get it started. Maybe it’s, “My goal is just to be on the phone five days a week and just be consistent doing that.” Great. We gotta start somewhere.

15:30We need to establish both short-term and long-term goals. Why?

15:37Because clear goals provide direction and motivation. It gives us something to pursue, or it gives us a target. You can’t just randomly, you know, throw yourself on the phone and hope something happens and just say, “Well, that didn’t work.” Well, it didn’t work ’cause you didn’t work it consistently. We have to be consistent.

15:59In anything we do in real estate, consistency is the key, 100%. You can’t go a week and set no appointments and say, “Well, that doesn’t work. I’m gonna go try something else.” Guys, there’s times, and I’ve been doing this for a long time, where I could go a week and not set an appointment. That doesn’t mean I get discouraged, quit, and give up.

16:20 — Maintain a positive attitude and flip the switch

Justin Ford16:20

No. I keep making the phone calls, I keep working on my skills, I keep working on my mindset. Okay? So number two is we have to set clear, realistic, achievable goals. Number three, this is a big one, Loida, I know you know this, maintain a positive attitude. Okay? You cannot bring your stinking thinking, you can’t bring the garbage outside of work into your call session or into your business and think that you’re gonna be successful with a bad attitude.

16:48Not gonna happen, okay? We have another saying at Glover U called “flip the switch, it’s showtime.” Right? When you get ready to walk into your office or you get ready to sit down and pick up the phone and make calls, you need to consciously flip the switch. It doesn’t matter what happened the night before, the day before, the morning of, on the way to the office.

17:12You got fired by a client, you got into a fight with your spouse, your kids tore up the house, your dog got into the trash. Doesn’t matter, okay? When you get to the table or when you get to the computer to begin making your phone calls, or when you walk into a listing appointment and you’re meeting with a client, we need to have this conscious flip the switch moment where it doesn’t matter what’s going on.

17:36Right now I have a job to do and it’s showtime. Because positivity breeds success. Loida, I know you talk to a lot of real estate agents, you know, through Vulcan 7 and your network. Very rarely, if ever, do you see somebody who has a bad attitude set a ton of appointments. It just doesn’t happen.

17:59You gotta have a positive attitude, because a positive mindset helps you stay motivated, build better relationships, and overcome obstacles with greater ease. And guess what? If you’ve been in the real estate industry any length of time, you know that you’re going to face obstacles, and we’re all gonna face them.

18:19 — Cultivate self-discipline and a supportive network

Justin Ford18:19

We all face them, and you have a way better chance of overcoming them and moving through that stuff when you have a positive attitude. Number four, I think this is the secret to success. I think this is the key ingredient. This is the one that we absolutely must have, and number four is we have to cultivate self-discipline.

18:40We have to cultivate self-discipline. Success in real estate requires consistent effort. You can’t expect to sell more homes, set more appointments, take more listings, lose weight, build strong muscles, unless you’re disciplined. It’s just not gonna happen. Self-discipline is the thing that I think a lot of people struggle with.

19:02I know I’ve struggled with that a lot in my life in different ways, but the one thing that I’ve always had when it comes to prospecting and selling real estate is the discipline aspect to show up, to make the calls, to do the work, because I know that if I do that, the result is going to show up. Success in real estate, again, requires consistent effort.

19:25You can’t start and stop and expect that you’re gonna be successful. “Okay, I prospected two weeks, or one month, set a bunch of appointments, took a bunch of listings. I’m gonna take the next month off, and then come back and start and stop.” It doesn’t work that way. If we wanna set a ton of appointments, take a lot of listings, and sell a lot of homes, self-discipline has to be a key ingredient into what it is that you do.

19:51Develop self-discipline to stick to your prospecting, your follow-up, and other critical tasks even when you don’t feel like it, because that’s what self-discipline is. If we don’t feel like it, it’s the self-discipline that helps us to show up anyway. Because we can’t live by our feelings, ’cause there’s gonna be some days where you don’t feel like doing it, there’s gonna be some days where you feel off and that you don’t wanna do it.

20:16Self-discipline, I believe, is one of the most important ways to create a bulletproof mindset. Number five is surround yourself with a supportive network. You got a great network here at Vulcan7. Maybe you’re part of a great brokerage. Geez, you can go to our free Facebook group called the Glover U Inner Circle.

20:34We have over 22,000 real estate agents in that Facebook group that are like-minded, that wanna sell more homes, prospect more, take more listings. Surround yourself with a positive, supportive network. Engage with like-minded professionals who uplift and encourage you. You’re not called to be on an island by yourself.

20:52It’s very difficult to be successful by yourself, okay? A strong support system can provide motivation, advice, and accountability when you’re facing challenges. And again, you’re going to face challenges. Surround yourself with like-minded people, other people who are prospecting, other people who want what you want, and that will help you to have a bulletproof mindset.

21:18 — Continuous learning and visualizing your why

Justin Ford21:18

Number six, invest into continuous learning. That’s why you’re here. That’s why you’re watching this video right now, because you’re committed to invest into your success. We know that the real estate market is always evolving, right? We just had the NAR changes. This is brand new to all of us. It’s a new way of doing real estate.

21:38We don’t even know all the things that are gonna come along with it. It’s something new to us. However, we need to continuously learn how to adapt and change. We need to stay ahead by continuously investing and improving our skills and knowledge through training like this, seminars, and really learning what we need to do in order to stay sharp in the industry and keep our confidence high.

22:01And again, next week we’re gonna really dive deep into really making sure that our skills are very strong, especially with the changes that are taking place. Number seven, this is a big one, we need to visualize our success. If we’re gonna have a strong bulletproof mindset, and we’re gonna be able to get on the phones and make phone calls and set appointments and really be able to be successful, we gotta know what is our why.

22:26What is our why behind the reason we’re willing to throw ourselves into rejection and be told no, and be rejected? What’s the reason why you wanna sell more homes and take more listings? You gotta be very clear on what it is you want. Visualization is a powerful tool for building confidence.

22:45I recommend create a vision board and put it at the desk that you prospect at. Know why you’re picking up the phone. Know why you’re pushing yourself through. On the days you’re like, “Gosh, why am I doing this? This sucks,” you need to know why. Have it in front of you. I remember that when I set out to sell 100 homes my first year in the business, I had my vision board.

23:04Right in the middle of it was my family. And then it was, okay, buy a new house, save money for my kids’ college, take a 10-year anniversary trip to a tropical island, buy a new car. I kept my why in front of me, so that when I didn’t feel like it, which there are many days you don’t, you’re reminded why you’re doing it. The mental practice prepares you to perform better in real situations.

23:28 — Daily gratitude and problem-solving skills

Justin Ford23:28

Keep it in front of you. Visualize what it is that you want and go make it happen. Number eight, practice gratitude daily. This is huge. Gratitude shifts your focus from what’s lacking to what’s abundant in your life. A lot of times we look at the glass half empty when we should be looking at it half full.

23:48Start your day by looking at what is good in your life, right? Hey, you woke up? That’s a great way to start the day. I actually did a study on this. 88,000 people die every night in their sleep for no reason. Meaning they go to bed, setting their alarm, thinking they’re gonna wake up tomorrow, and guess what happens?

24:08They don’t wake up. So the minute you wake up and you open your eyes, I don’t care how bad everything or anything is in your life, why don’t you start out the day by saying, “You know what, God? Thank you for waking me up this morning.” That’s a great way to start the day, because that means you have another chance to get things together and live the life that you ultimately wanna live.

24:35Gratitude, again, shifts your focus from what’s lacking to what’s abundant in your life. By appreciating your achievements, your relationships, and opportunities, you maintain a positive and growth-oriented mindset. Super important. Number nine, develop problem-solving skills. We know that in real estate, challenges are very common.

24:52I struggled with this early on in my career. When somebody told me no, or they were going with another agent, I used to say, “But why? Why are you not choosing me?” I used to feel rejected and take it personal and all this stuff. But by developing problem-solving skills, guess what? I no longer attach myself to the end result.

25:12As long as my mindset is good, my skills are good, and I’m showing up, coming from a place of contribution, looking to add value to somebody, if they decide not to work with me, I’m okay with that. I don’t attach myself to the end result, and I just say, “You know what? God, if it’s meant to be that I work with this person, great.

25:29 — Prioritize health, rest and no Sundays

Justin Ford25:29

If not, no big deal.” Okay? We have to develop problem-solving skills. Build a mindset that sees problems as opportunities to grow and learn, okay? Being proactive and solution-focused increases your confidence in handling unexpected issues, and unexpected issues are gonna pop up. And last but not least, number ten out of the ten ways to create a bulletproof mindset, this is huge, prioritize health and well-being, spiritual, mental, physical, and emotional health.

26:01Guys, we cannot run seven days a week, three sixty-five, and think that we’re gonna be healthy mentally and emotionally. We’re gonna run out of gas. You need to be able to take time to rest. You need to take time to pour into yourself. You need to take time to be healthy. If you drive a car and you don’t get an oil change, sooner or later your engine’s gonna stop.

26:21If you don’t stop and get gas in your car, guess what? Sooner or later, your car is gonna run out of gas. It’s no different than us individually. We need to take time for ourselves. Physical and mental health directly impact your performance. You need to get enough sleep. I think this is one thing that we think, “Man, I’m crushing it.

26:40I’m killing it. Man, I’m only sleeping three hours a day. I’m up writing contracts till two in the morning, then I’m back up at five.” You can only do that so long. It’s already been proven that sleep is so important. Rest is so important. And guess what? If you’re not resting and you’re not sleeping and you’re not taking time for yourself, you’re no good for the people that you’re meeting with, the people that you’re leading, or your own family.

27:03Okay? We need to stop thinking that grinding and working twenty-four/seven is the way to do it. It’s not. I’ve never worked on a Sunday in my whole career. It’s family day, it’s church day. Even if I have to lose a client or lose business, I don’t work on Sundays. It’s non-negotiable. You need to regularly exercise, have a healthy diet and sufficient sleep to ensure you have the energy and mental clarity needed to stay sharp and be focused when you’re prospecting and when you’re working in your business.

27:31You know, one of the things that I’ve really had this love-hate relationship with is running. Because I used to hate running, ’cause it was hard. I was overweight, I was out of shape, and it’s not supposed to feel good. I would literally, like, argue with myself and fight with myself the whole time I’m running.

27:47But running for me is the thing that gives me the best health results the fastest. And so now I’ve learned how to love the outcome of running better than the comfort of not doing it, and it takes investing into your health and prioritizing how you feel and your health so you can show up better and have a better and stronger mindset when you’re prospecting and you’re building your real estate business.

28:12 — Recapping the 10 ways

Justin Ford28:12

So again, these are the 10 ways to create a bulletproof mindset. Number one, embrace rejection as a part of the process. Number two, set clear, realistic, achievable goals. Number three, maintain a positive attitude. Number four, cultivate self-discipline. Number five, surround yourself with a supportive network.

28:33Number six, invest into continuous learning. Number seven, visualize success. Number eight, practice gratitude daily. Number nine, develop problem-solving skills. And number 10, prioritize health and wellbeing. And I promise you that if you focus on doing these 10 things, you’re gonna be a better real estate agent, you’re gonna convert more over the phone, and you’re ultimately going to feel better about what you do.

29:01And so the two skills as real estate agents we absolutely need to invest into moving forward is number one, our mindset, and number two, our skills, and I’m gonna give you part two next week. Back to you, Loida.

Loida Velasquez29:13

Everything that you just mentioned, I think agents are going to need to watch and re-watch and watch three, four times this video, because you broke everything down in simple terms.

29:22And I wanna ask you one thing, because you mentioned when you first started, you know, 45 minutes in you’re like, “I don’t wanna do this.” And I think a lot of agents struggle with that.

29:32They get on the phones, they know to call and prospect, expireds, for sale by owners, talk to strangers. So for you, when was that switch that you were like, “You know what?

29:41I love doing this”? Was there a timeframe, or how long did it take?

29:45 — Love the outcome, not the task

Justin Ford29:45

You know, I can’t say that I love it, right? But I can say that I love the results of it. And when you can attach… And the same thing with running now. Like, I love the way I feel after running three miles. I can’t say I wake up in the morning like, “Yes, I love running.

30:04Let’s go crush it.” It’s the same thing with prospecting. You don’t have to love it, but love the outcome of it. And I know that by me sitting down and prospecting, setting appointments, taking listings, it gives me the resources to live the life that I wanna live. So I’ve attached the outcome to the actual task, and once I started getting the results, like I took 30 listings my first month in the business, after that I was set.

30:31I’m like, “This is what I’m doing. If I can take this many listings and sell this many homes just from picking up the phone, sign me up.”

Loida Velasquez30:40

And I also think that once a game plan was created for you, you didn’t question it, right? You didn’t change things up, and I think a lot of agents right now fall into this trap of, you know, “I’m gonna try this one day, or try this another thing another month.”

30:54So, I mean, you gave so many amazing tips, Justin. So for everyone that’s watching that maybe wants to connect with you, your coaching, any programs that you have going on, what is the best way that they can reach you?

31:05 — The Prospecting Bootcamp and where to find Justin

Justin Ford31:05

Yep. So you see my handle right there, under my name, @theofficialjustinford. And I always joke that when I signed up for social media and I put Justin Ford, like, mm, name’s taken.

31:16And then I said, “Who’s got it?” And then I saw like 100 people named Justin Ford from all different ethnicities, and I’m like, “Dang, I didn’t know the name was that popular.” So I locked in The Official Justin Ford, ’cause there can only be one official. So you can find me on Instagram or Facebook. Reach out.

31:34You know, like I said, I lead the Prospecting Bootcamp, which is a 16-week course where I take you through everything prospecting. Or if you just have a question, reach out to me, follow me, connect with me, and I’ll definitely connect back.

Loida Velasquez31:47

Awesome. Thank you. And if you’re watching this, if you enjoy this episode, make sure to give it a thumbs up, share with someone else, and stay tuned for the next video with Justin, where we’re gonna break down the skills that you need to master to succeed.

31:59So with that being said, thank you so much, Justin.

Justin Ford32:02

Thank you.

Loida Velasquez32:02

And we’ll see you all on the next one.

Questions this episode answers

How do real estate agents overcome the fear of rejection?

Justin Ford says fear of rejection is the number one reason agents won’t prospect, and the fix is to embrace rejection as part of the process. Expect the no, even go for the no, because each no brings you closer to a yes, and treat every rejection as a learning opportunity that builds resilience.

How many calls does it take to get a listing?

Ford’s math: talk to 25 people a day and expect 90 to 95% to say no. One yes a day, five days a week, is five yeses; if that produces three listing appointments and one signed listing a week, that is 4 new listings a month and 48 a year, of which about 30 sell.

How did Justin Ford sell 100 homes in his first year?

He set the goal, then had Jeff Glover reverse engineer it into daily activities: talk to 10 people per hour, set one appointment for every 10 people, and prospect three hours a day. He stopped thinking about the 100 and focused on talking to 25 to 30 people each day, consistently.

Do you have to love prospecting to succeed at it?

No. Ford says he can’t claim to love prospecting, but he loves the results, the same way he hates running but loves how he feels after three miles. He attached the outcome to the task, and after taking 30 listings in his first month he was sold on it.

Guest

Justin Ford

eXp Realty · Michigan

Justin Ford leads a real estate team in Michigan, coaches the Glover U Prospecting Bootcamp, and takes 7 to 10 listings a month.

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