In this episode I interview one of my one on one coaching clients who killed it last month, where he earned over $100,000 in commissions and ask him how he was able to accomplish these results.  See how long it took for him to get these results and how he almost gave up before having a breakthrough in his real estate business.

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Transcript
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Chadi Bazzi here and welcome to another episode of Real Estate Success Mastery, you’ve heard me over and over say that I’m super excited about this episode, but this time I am really really excited about this because today we have a special guest, one of my one on one coaching clients who’s been simple knocking it out of the park.

I want him to share a couple nuggets, a couple stratgeies of some things that will have you taking more action, closing more deals.

Chadi: Without further or do, meet Craig Chastain. Craig why don’t you tell every one who you are, where you work out of, and what market place you are in.

Craig: Like Chadi said, my name is Craig Chastain, I’m the owner of Next Level Realty, operating out of Rancho Cucamonga, servicing all of the Inland Empire. I have been licensed for 4 years, and have been working with Chadi in the last 6 months.

Chadi: Craig you’ve been in the business for 6 years now and we have been working togather for approximately 6 months, without going to far back into history, what kind of production were you doing in 2014?

Craig: Prior to working togather?

Chadi: Yes

Craig: We got togather around Summer of 2014, I was around 18 total transactions in the 6 million dollar range.

Chadi: Okay, and do you specialize in working with buyers or sellers?

Craig: I started off with buyers, now I focus 100% on Sellers, still doing both, but I focus on sellers.

Chadi: And how did we meet?

Craig: I actually reached out to you, I saw some things you were doing with other people in the area, and it has been great ever since.

Chadi: That is great to hear, that is my goal for those that are watching or listening to this podcast, helping out as many people as possible.

Now Craig, I really want people to benefit from your journey because, correct me if I am wrong, your biggest obstacles wasn’t so much making money, but your biggest challenge was, how do I work less? Do you remember that conversation we had?

Craig: Yes

Chadi: Can we talk about that? I know there is someone out there who is in the same situation, maybe earning more, but for them it is not about the money, it is more about having a better quality of life, so please talk a little about your experience.

Craig: Absolutely, prior to us working together, I was doing quite well, I believe in 2013 I closed around 7 million in volume, in which in this area is fairly decent, but to close that kind of business, I was working 50, 60, and some times 70 hours a week. I was also working 7 days a week, not working full days, but was available whenever I needed to, but you can only sustain that for so long.

When I reached out to Chadi, I told him that I already had a decent business, I wanted to be A) more effective and B) more efficient. He told me, you’re going to need to start taking more listings, leverage yourself listing sellers vs buyer sales.

That’s what we started working on right away and I would say fast forward 6 months, my business has doubled or more and have become more 2 – three times more efficient.

Chadi: Now I know we didn’t talk about this earlier, but I’m going to put you on the spot, you can choose to speak about it or choose not to, totally up to you.

Prior to us getting togather, what is the most money you have ever made in one month?

Craig: I don’t know specifically, but I can say its between $30,000 – $40,000.

Chadi: Again, its up to you to disclose or not to disclose, this month we are like 18 days into it, how much money have you made so far or will you be making by the end of this month?

Craig: Right now, it is going to be slightly over $100,000.

Chadi: So basically, this like almost triple, in one month. So did you ever think you could make this kind of money in one month?

Craig: I knew it was possible, I just didn’t know how I was going to get there. To answer your question, probably no.

Chadi: The reason I wanted to break this out, is it is not so much the numbers, is because there are people out there that know they are capable of doing more, but will never ever do more and something I always talk about is there is a different between knowing you can do something or believing you can do something.

Look we all know we can do more, but do we all do more? The only people who do more are the only ones who believe they can do more.

You know there are certain things you could be doing and should be doing on a daily basis, but do not. The reason being is because you need to work on your belief system, so Craig can you talk about some mindset shift or work that you have done or are still doing that someone else that can actually apply, that will help shifting their mind and improve their income.

Craig: Yeah with regards to mindset, your mind is a great thing, but at the same time it can be your worst enemy. One of the things I did differently, after I got with you is daily affirmations, affirming the fact that I wanted to take more listings, what’s a good affirmation? I am a Powerful Listing Agent. One for a specific day is, I am going to set an appointment today or I am going to list a home today.

When you start doing that on a daily basis, it sets in your mind that you are going to do that and you start believing in yourself. I think that was it for me, training myself that I can do it. So now I’m at the point where I don’t know that I am going to get a listing appointment, but I know I’m going to do it. From doing affirmations, the compoud effects have been profound.

Chadi: So for you now, its like, its going to happen. Now there is a couple things people know, did these results happen over night for you or no? There’s a lot of people out there, and it is sad because they did the things you did to get here, but they don’t do it long enough. So can you talk a little about your journey and when the turning point came?

Craig: Specifically what we talked about from the beginning was that I needed more listings, so I needed to call canceled, expireds, and for sale by owners. I knew there was going to be a learning curve, so this was July/August that we started doing that, so I got setup with the lead systems, the dialers, and all that. I would call for 2 hours a day, Monday – Friday, and I legitamitly called for 4 months with 0 results, I think we took a look at the numbers the other day, it was like 600 contacts before I ever took a listing, so it was pretty tough on me because I felt I was a capable agent, I didn’t think it was that difficult. Month one, month two, month three, I told Chadi, what’s the deal? He kept telling me that I’m right there I’m right there. That is where I had to kick my mindset back into gear because this is when it starts going against you, that is why affirmations are powerful.

At month 4, there is still nothing, but I finally took my first expired on December 3rd, with my birthday being the same week, it was like an early birthday gift. Fast forward up to this point, I have taken a total of 9 expireds, I’ve closed 3 of them, which has increased my volume by $3 million.

Chadi: So Craig, some people heard the volume, some people heard 4-5 months, 600 contacts, and I want to speak about that. Some people begin something that will give them specific results, but never get that specific result because people are excellent starters and poor finishers. So for you, 4 months into it, you got absolutely no results. What do you think most people would have done? They would have quit, would they have not?

Craig: I contemplated it myself.

Chadi: So you contemplated it, but you pushed through, for those who are right on the edge right now, what would you say to that person right now?

Craig: You just have to stick with it, for the reasons you are not getting the results, maybe it is the skillset, I don’t know what it is for you personally, but the result is there, you just have to go get it. There is a pile of gold at the bottom of the hole, you just have to keep digging. There are people that are doing it, so you know it is possible. Getting your mindset right is the biggest thing that will allow you to push forward.

What worked for me at the time, was that I tracked my numbers, how many contacts I made per appointment made and how many contact made per listing taken, and the dollars per hour I was making while doing all that. During that time it was very low, but now I think it is around $233.

Chadi: So what you are telling me is that every time some one hangs up the phone on you, you make $233?

Craig: Yeah, whether I list with them or not, like I said I prospect 3 – 4 hours a day, 4 – 5 contacts an hour, comes out to like $1200 – $1300 an hour.

Chadi: Wow, that’s freaking awesome. Craig you said SKILLS, lets talk about that for a moment. Do you think you have better skills now, than you did 5 – 6 months ago?

Craig: Absolutely.

Chadi: How can someone acquire that skill?

Craig: It was a combination of a few things. I went through your Elite Sales Mastery program and I also coupled that with your NLP Program. Nuero-Linguistic Programming.

Chadi: How did that help you?

Craig: I know that there are people out there that have intentional conversations. I felt I was a fairly good communicator prior to being exposed to that, there are ways to direct conversations or drect a certain outcome through words. It made my overall conversations more strategic. Before it would just a shot in the dark, if we got there great, if not what happened?

Now I’m equipped with the skills to get to get to the result that I want.

Chadi: Awesome, for those of you who don’t know what NLP is, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, Neuro being brain, linguistic being the words you choose, programming meaning creating the result.

So in essence we teach you how to use your words in a very effective way to delivery a specific message into the brain of the prospect to get them to do what you want them to do, and the best part, have them think it was their idea to begin with.

Craig, can you maybe recommend a book, for someone to read, who can’t get involved in coaching, or who can’t sign up for NLP or maybe they just want a book to read?

Craig: Since we are talking about NLP, it would be “Unlimited Selling Power by Donald Moine”

Chadi: That’s a good book, what about one on Mindset?

Craig: It’s been mentioned on this show several times, it would be “The Magic of Believing” by Claude Bristol

Chadi: So Craig, any final words of wisdom for those who are either about to enter real estate or are already in the business?

Craig: Define what you want out of this business, create a goal, create a vision, then find someone that has done it, find out exactly what it took to get there, then be 100% coachable in that process.

Chadi: So in essence, model someone who is doing what you want to do. Craig, thank you for, appreciate your time, I look forward to you earning 6-figures every single month here on forward. For our viewers, thank you for your support and continuing to watch Real Estate Success Mastery TV, and I’ll see you in the next episode, take care.