Sharif Hatab - Sharifsells.com: So if you want different results, you don't want different standards, then really don't want success. You want comfort. And the really isn't the problem. ⁓ Rates are the problem. Inventory is not the problem. The real problem for most agents is accountability. Now, is the bridge between intention and results. And without it, goals become wishes. ⁓ Activity becomes distractions, and frustration becomes permanent. So having accountability in your business is essential if you wanna get ahead. Good morning, Peter, how you doing today?

Peter Boutros-StunningNJHomes: I'm doing great, how are you?

Sharif Hatab - Sharifsells.com: Doing well, man. You know, just living the dream here.

Peter Boutros-StunningNJHomes: yeah, finally we get this snow to melt, right? Don't me about that. ⁓

Sharif Hatab - Sharifsells.com: I know, seriously, but I think we got more coming, so don't get used to it. But yeah, I mean, today I just wanted to dive in because I know like, you know, one of the things that we pride ourselves on on our team is the fact that we keep our agents accountable. And not only that, we keep each other accountable, right? And I think it's really key is you got to find accountability partner. You got to find some way to keep yourself accountable because I mean, human nature just tends to be that way, right? You get comfortable. You don't really want to grow anymore because it's uncomfortable. You get uncomfortable doing the growth. So with that being said, having someone keeping you accountable to what you need as your standards for success is essential, don't you think?

Peter Boutros-StunningNJHomes: Oh, of course. I think it's one of the best ways to show somebody that you really care about them. Especially if you do have somebody that you work closely with, if it's a team, a coach, a friend, a partner, a family member. And I always tell people this too, because sometimes when we have, and I know you do the same, Sharif, when we have these conversations with agents, they think we're being mean or we shouldn't be so hard on them. but they don't see the big picture. They feel like we're just doing this just to make feel bad or whatever the case is. But what they don't realize is that if somebody doesn't tell you what we need hear, then they really don't care about your success. If they just tell you ⁓ what you to hear all the time, then all they're doing is just keeping you where you're at now and they're not pushing you further.

Sharif Hatab - Sharifsells.com: Yeah, so true. And it's not worth saying that you shouldn't, you know, there's a difference between support and accountability, right? There's people that can support you know, support says, no, basically you're doing great. Right. And a person like supporting you, like your spouse or your family, like you're doing amazing. Now, a that wants to keep you accountable tells you, ⁓ you know, you're supposed make 20 calls, but you made six. Right. They're keeping you accountable of what your standards need to be so that you can be successful. And really growth lives in the accountability, not the support, right? Support is great to keep you motivated, but the fact is you need someone to keep you accountable so you can continue to.

Peter Boutros-StunningNJHomes: Yeah. And most people want to stay comfortable over And that's really the fall back to, right? They fall back to people that tell them, Hey, you know, you're doing okay. It's all right. If you know, ⁓ if you don't, you hit, didn't hit your numbers today, you know, you'll hit it next week or you'll hit it tomorrow or there always going to be a next time. And that's what most people, ⁓ I guess, lean to. And, and they find comfort in because this is a comfortable conversation. But like you said, know, account, accountability is like, okay, look, we're going to have a plan, a business plan or a plan to do X, Y, and Z. And this is what you're expected to do. And why didn't you do it? What got in the way? How can we support you to make sure that you, we do, you do it next time and just always, always reaching out to them and making sure that they're, they're progressing, not digressing at the end of the day.

Sharif Hatab - Sharifsells.com: It's so true. you know, I think people just get comfortable and they start to blame things. Right. So we touched on it, like the market, the interest rates, you know, different things, but it's easy to say that the market is slow or the leads are weak buyers are scared to enter the market. But really, it's to ask, you know, ⁓ how real conversations did you have this week? Right? That's like the key to it. It's someone making sure that removing your excuses, right? But quietly doing so and really just guiding you in the right direction of what you need to do to be successful. And just got to get over the excuses part of it, right? Everyone's got excuses, but excuses don't pay the bills. So you just have to dive in and do the uncomfortable tasks and then have someone that you can report work to tell you, yes, you're on the right track or no, you should be doing such and such and such so you can stay in the growth mode because I can promise you if you're not intentionally growing day, you're slowly dying. Business that stays stagnant ends up being out of business. Like you always got to be growing your business. Otherwise someone is growing faster than you.

Peter Boutros-StunningNJHomes: Yeah, and just like what you said to people blaming things around them and we call this the victim mindset or this is a term that a lot of people use. But one of the things that made a huge shift in my career, it was after I read this book, Extreme Ownership, and it talks about that exactly. it was, I forgot the guy's name, Jaco or something. But you guys should definitely listen to it. But was in the military, he was leading ⁓ military team to different, I guess, missions that they were supposed to go on. But when anything goes wrong, the leader always takes personal responsibility. And also when this happens, the members of team were always taking personal responsibility. Because when you start blaming things, you have no control fixing it or to see how can I fix this better next time. If you're always blaming the market, the rates, the CRM, the leads or whatever the case is, you're not going to change anything about the situation that you're in. The only time you're going to change it, if you take ownership of it and say, yes, maybe I screwed up here. How can I do better next time? And this is the mindset that these people should go to, especially when they talk to you or the team leader or their accountability partner. Hey, I didn't do this. Why didn't you do it? ⁓ because. It was snowing outside. Okay, so instead of saying that, well, ⁓ was really having a hard time, Sharif. Like, can you help me manage my schedule better? Or, you I'm really having a hard time figuring out which leads that I need to prioritize. Can we go over that and give me a plan to go about that, right? Versus, ⁓ you know, blaming everything around you and then you're never going to get forward. You're never going to move forward.

Sharif Hatab - Sharifsells.com: No, it's so true. And really what you're touching on is just the accountability is internal first, right? Like you got to get honest with yourself. I mean, external accountability helps. Like you have a coach or a team or mentors or anyone really that's keeping you accountable externally is great. But the real growth starts when you stop negotiating with yourself. Let me repeat that.

Peter Boutros-StunningNJHomes: Yeah.

Sharif Hatab - Sharifsells.com: The real growth starts when you stop negotiating with yourself. You know what I'm saying? It's like, did you do what you said you were going to do though you didn't feel like doing it? That's the line. All right. That's what you got to focus on. It's doing the things that you don't want to do at times when they matter most. OK, that's what the accountability is. And that's an internal thing.

Peter Boutros-StunningNJHomes: Okay.

Sharif Hatab - Sharifsells.com: That's something you have to come to, you know, actual with yourself because that's where it lies. You to keep yourself accountable. Other people telling you what you should be doing is great, but you have to have that internal discussion with yourself and stop negotiating with yourself. You just got to do what you got to do. Some people just don't understand that.

Peter Boutros-StunningNJHomes: No, I mean, and I think one of the things that I learned from real estate a lot is, you know, it was 80 % mindset and personal development because ⁓ like said, you know, it's internal ⁓ work we have to work on awareness of the actions that we do. Or, and on top of that, emotional regulation overall. because just, let's face it, know, real estate is an emotional roller coaster between deal, you winning deals, you losing deals, you winning clients, losing clients, things don't go your way. And have to find a way how you can get back to baseline really quickly because, you know, when, people get frustrated, they're typically not able to move the needle in their business. When they get excited, they feel like they can get a little bit comfortable, but like, okay, great. We had a huge win. Let's go back to work right away or we have a loss. Okay, let's move forward. It's gonna, it's gonna work out. Continue to do what you're supposed to do. Were you able to control any of the losses that happened? What did you do to, be, to get that loss, right? okay, let's fix it and make sure it doesn't happen again. Well, let's get back, let's get back to baseline really quickly. because that's what happens a lot of times, you know, when people get, see huge wins, they get comfortable, they let go of the gas pedal and then they go back into a cycle of starting over again. or if they just lose really bad or they lose a few clients, they also dwell on it for too long. And then they let that, I guess, anger or them being upset, keep them away from what they're supposed to be doing. So going back to what Sharif said, it's like just all internal. Like you guys got to be aware of how you react to certain things and then just go back to doing what you're supposed to do really quickly and don't have excuses.

Sharif Hatab - Sharifsells.com: Yeah, it's so true. we're really connected with me. What you just said is have a baseline too, right? And it's to move forward, but you gotta keep track of what you've done, right? Like high performers, they actually track their numbers, right? That's how you keep yourself accountable to understand, okay, well, I had conversations yesterday. Now I know that's my standard, right? Now I know I need to have a baseline there, something I need to increase from, right? Or something I shouldn't go and deviate lower than, right? So you gotta know your numbers. That's what high performers do. They track their numbers. Average performers just guess stuff, right? You just wanna make sure that you're actually tracking what needs to be tracked. Like, I don't know, maybe conversations like I just mentioned, or appointments set.

Peter Boutros-StunningNJHomes: Yeah.

Sharif Hatab - Sharifsells.com: or contracts signed, offers written, right? You wanna track something so that you understand what your standards are so you can keep yourself accountable or have someone accountable for you, right? Because numbers create clarity, all right? And then clarity creates control. So you'll be able to control your business better if you understand your numbers, because it's a little bit more clear for you, right? So just remember that. You can't just have... You know, okay, I'm going to be accountable, but don't understand what your baselines are. Definitely track your numbers so you understand where you're at, what it's going to take to improve. Like I used to start off like when I started getting busier, I would just say, okay, let me track what my numbers are. I just want to get one sign listing a week or I want to get one sign listing every other week, or I want to take a buyer out every day. I want to book some type of a buyer consultation once or twice a week. It was a baseline that I knew I had a goal, right? Because I tracked my numbers, I knew what I was doing, and I knew what I needed to do to actually increase that. I knew if I increased the actual production that I was doing, the things that I was actually projecting out there so that I can bring business in, right? If I can increase that, then I know the business itself would increase and so would the transaction count. So you gotta know your numbers in order to be clear about it.

Peter Boutros-StunningNJHomes: Yeah, I mean, that's the only thing that's scalable in your business. You know, if you know your numbers, you're going to be able to scale it. And you also, like you mentioned, you're able to predict how much you can make in this business and what you need to focus on if there's any coaching opportunities or any things that you need to improve on. And, know, like I know, like this business is hard and not a lot of people make it and that's okay. But like, you got to understand. if you're comparing yourself to maybe the top 1 % or call the top 1 % for a reason. And same thing for athletes, right? Like if you go back and look at the top performing athletes, like, you know, let's say Kobe or Michael Jordan, you know, if you guys seen any of the things that they do, they go to training every single morning and they train more than anybody and they're showing up no matter how they feel. And they still do the training. Like, you know, they're already superstars. People say like, why would they need a coach? Why would they need to still train? they're the top of their league. You know, the reason why is because they're not okay with being average. They always want to grow. And just like what Sharif mentioned, because you're not growing, you're dying at this point.

Sharif Hatab - Sharifsells.com: No, I love that. mean, the fact is I like that Kobe reference, You know, mentality. And Kobe was the type of person that would actually ⁓ go into gym before anyone else. Right. ⁓ And he would shoot just to just shoot the basketball. And he had a goal of how many he needed to have in a row. Right. But he was alone in that gym just shooting the basketball. No one around him. And that in itself will tell you that sometimes accountability feels lonely too. All right. gets crazy. And as you get more accountable, you start to distance yourself from other people. And it's happen, right? Only because when you raise your standards, you become less tolerant of excuses, including your own. Right. And the people around you that are giving you those excuses, you tend to shut away a little bit more. So you'll find yourself maybe practicing alone like Kobe did. Right. that's a part of it. And uncomfortable. It really is. But discipline is rare and rare things get rewarded. Right. So you to be disciplined with yourself and understand that sometimes you're going to walk this path alone. Right. but it's you walking it with yourself. That's what the true battle is. You're battling yourself. You gotta be accountable and understand accountability sometimes does result in loneliness.

Peter Boutros-StunningNJHomes: Of course. And there was a documentary that I watched a while ago, I believe it was called The Dream Team. And I don't know if you watched it, Sharif, but it's such a great example of what Kobe did when the US lost in the Basketball Olympics, I think was like two or three times in a row and that was unheard of. And they brought this team together, Kobe was one of them. And I believe it was, I don't know if it was after the first time they won or before they were going into training, you know, lot of the big players, LeBron James and a lot of the other ones were going there celebrating, went out for drinks and whatnot and to eat. they came back and Kobe didn't go. They came back, I believe it was like three in the morning or four in the morning. And then they were going to the rooms and then Kobe was going down. train and they were like surprised they were asking where you go and they're like I'm going to train and these people just started just started going back to sleep right and that's what separates a you know the top players and what happened was ⁓ because Kobe's action all of them started doing the same thing Like of all this is what Kobe does look how dedicated he is, right? So you got to make sure that you have you lead by example to like You know, and you got to surround yourself with people like that, you know, sometimes it's it's right in front of you. for example, if let's say you're on Sharif's team, you want to, you want to be as successful as Sharif. Just follow what he does. What time does he go to the office? How many calls does he make? How many appointments does he do? You know, or anybody else on Sharif's team or anybody else that's doing really well, I guarantee you they're doing way more work than what you're, than what you're doing right now.

Sharif Hatab - Sharifsells.com: No, it's so true. And really, it's just stop making excuses and try, ⁓ avoid the accountability, right? A lot of people are doing that. They make excuses, they try to avoid the accountability and they're not taking guidance of people that are doing more than them or found success already, right? They're trying to recreate the wheel. But I can promise you, you can't band-aid it. Accountability will be prevalent at some point or another. Like you can't out-market poor follow-up, right?

Peter Boutros-StunningNJHomes: Okay.

Sharif Hatab - Sharifsells.com: Like you think if you're going to market more, you still have to follow up with these people, right? I mean, you can't basically outspend weak conversions, right? If you're not converting, if you spend more, it doesn't mean you're going to convert better, right? You just have a better chance of conversion now because you're throwing more into the mix, but you still have bad conversions. And in the end, your numbers won't look right. And really you cannot, you know, out hustle broken systems. It's. You got to repair the system itself. You can't just out hustle it, right? Accountability fixes all these things, right? You just have to be present and understand that it's needed to have a successful business. And if you get frustrated, don't ask what needs to change in the market. Ask what you need to change. All right, because 99 % of the time the change needs to come internally within you. It's not the external things like the market or interest rates or buyers or sellers, how they're reacting. You got to look inside yourself and ask, what do I need to change?

Peter Boutros-StunningNJHomes: agree with that. ⁓ thing is, I this a lot to our team especially the younger people on the team, right? You guys that on your early ⁓ 20s, where we a few of them on our team, you have such an advantage right now. And it's great that you chose a career like this so early on. But biggest thing is that you're not going to get less busy as you grow. And now is the only time. that you have to be able to go all in into this. As we grow, we're going to have more responsibility. If it's family, if it's a mortgage, if it's a house, or if it's kids. your time is going to get divided into so many ways. And going to continue to do that. And people as they grow, maybe they have less, priorities that they to divide their time into. So if you're one of those that are listening that still like, know, starting your life, just graduated college or maybe didn't go to college and just, you know, started career really early. Like this is really the time you have such an advantage. Don't waste it. your time is going to get sucked up really quick. So don't waste it on nonsense stuff and be around people that are, want to really see you succeed and hold you accountable. If you're around people that, you know, are just going to give you a pat on the back and, you know, give you a shoulder to cry on. Trust me, those are not the people that you want to be around. You want people to actually tell you you, things that you probably don't want to hear, but they're really going to impact your business and push you forward or pull you forward to make sure that you're succeeding a high level.

Sharif Hatab - Sharifsells.com: Yeah, so true. So good. mean, that's really talking about like, you know, it's to have support, but you just you need that accountability to grow. ⁓ And key. It's really key in order you to have a standard and someone holding you to that standard so that you increase those standards as you grow. But I hope you guys like the content today. If you do like content like this and you feel like you're getting value.

Peter Boutros-StunningNJHomes: Yeah.

Sharif Hatab - Sharifsells.com: please feel free to like and subscribe down below. We'll also add the link to our Facebook group. We usually are posting a lot of great and ideas on how to not only be accountable, but also increase your business. But thank you again for joining us today, guys. Thank you, Peter, for joining and almost being sick while you do it. That's accountability right there. Not feeling well, but showing up when you don't really want to, right? When you don't feel like you should. But thank you, Peter, always for being accountable and keeping me accountable as well.

Peter Boutros-StunningNJHomes: Thank you too Sharif, you've definitely held me accountable too. I'll see you guys.

Sharif Hatab - Sharifsells.com: Yep. All right. Bye, guys.