Are you having a tough time trying to "grow" your business? If so, try stretching yourself instead. As Realtors, we're constantly told to grow our business by setting higher goals, by expanding our farming area, by adding names to our mailing and call lists, or increasing our advertising budgets. We're told, and most of us believe, that we have to continually find ways to do or add more to our business efforts. What we're not told, is that the most effective way to "grow" our business is to "stretch" ourselves.

There's an old adage that defines insanity as, "doing the same things you've always done, but expecting different results." By that definition most Realtors are indeed insane.

We find a few marketing tools we feel comfortable with, and resist trying anything new. We find a few prospecting methods we feel comfortable with, and resist trying anything new. We claim we want to increase our income level, but in actuality, we get comfortable with where we are and unconsciously resist doing those things that might actually yield results. It's called our "comfort zone." We like to do what we've always done, and it's hard to change.

If you have difficulty "changing," try a new analogy. "Stretching" simply means taking one thing, one idea, which pushes beyond the boundaries of our comfort zone, and giving it a try. They key is doing only one new thing, one small thing at a time. For instance, if you set a goal of calling 100 new prospects every day, and you didn't call that many new prospects all of last year, you're probably going to fail. Setting an impossible goal is setting yourself up for failure. Instead, try keeping it small enough to guarantee success. Instead of 100 new prospects every day, try ten.

If you're not used to making prospecting calls, making ten calls per day is definitely out of your comfort zone. It's also close enough to your comfort zone for you to possibly be willing to take the risk and commit to giving it a try. Do it for three weeks, (research has shown it takes 21 days to create a new habit, a new "comfort zone") and you'll discover that you've "stretched" yourself, "stretched" your comfort zone to include the new behavior.

Once you've stretched yourself to include the new behavior, you're ready to stretch again. Perhaps you'll decide to add five more calls a day -- a manageable amount. Perhaps you'll decide to find ten new people per week to add to your mailing list instead. Maybe you'll decide to close your office door to visitors and interruptions for 30 minutes per day, a couple of days per week, instead of always having it open and inviting in anybody who wants to distract you from doing the things you know you have to do to make your business succeed.

Think of yourself as a balloon. You might be a big balloon with lots of room to wander around and try new things, or you might feel the skin of the balloon pressing in on you, stifling you. Whichever way the balloon feels to you, if you stretch the balloon just a little, you all of a sudden create new space for new possibilities. And the funny thing about balloons is, they were made to stretch. Like people, they weren't made to stay deflated or stay one size, they were made to keep expanding, to stretch. But, like people, they were made to stretch a little at a time. Stretch them too fast or too far and they pop. Stretch them at a slow and steady pace, fill them with fresh air, (or fresh ideas and behaviors) a little at a time, and you'll be amazed just how far they'll stretch.

So the next time your manager tells you need to grow your business, try stretching yourself first.

Published: April 29, 2005

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John Hagerman has a wide range of business experience, but it all fits together around one common theme -- energizing people to fulfill their highest potential. All of his work, whether as a speaker, writer, manager, business owner, coach, non-profit activist, or Realtor®, has focused on helping those around him unleash Natural Energy to better serve their clients, customers, constituents, and themselves. Years of experience as a business manager and owner taught John the value of raising up his employees and helping them learn how to reach beyond what they thought possible. He coached and mentored them in how to build connections with customers and how to release the Natural Energy of those relationships. His employees benefited by increasing their customer relationship skills, and his customers benefited by discovering sales people who were authentic in their desire to make sure they got the solution that served them best…and who were skilled at giving the customer a great experience in the process.