I recently had the honor of attending a seminar where the owner of The Core coaching company, Todd Scrima, shared some very, very enlightening, simplistic and rejuvenating information. One of his main messages was derived from the book “The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)” by Seth Godin. I read the book over the weekend and couldn’t put it down. I will share Todd’s major ideas from this book. If you are serious about your business and generating huge success over the next 3-5 years, I would suggest you attend The Core Summit Coaching in Scottsdale in May 2010. Here are the details:

What: Summit

Where: Scottsdale, AZ

When: May 13 – May 14 (All Day)

Description: May Summit. Call 800-660-6670 x 206 or 207

Or visit http://www.thecore.tv for more information about The Core.

Major Ideas from The Dip as shared by Todd Scrima with a couple twists of my own.

The Dip is the long slog between starting something and mastery. You may have been in this business for over 20 years but you will still experience a “dip” when the market changes and you have to learn new things to stay ahead of the game. Look how many people learned the short sale game and how many agents are now proficient at bank owned properties. Look at the new technologies we have had to learn over the past 5 years just to do our daily business….

Example: The Dip is the combination of bureaucracy and the busy work you must deal with in order to get certified in scuba diving.

For our industry, the rapid decline into the dip started in 2005 and began it’s gradual assent mid 2009. In this dip there is a new emerging market that we all have to learn to work in. It is in this process, at the bottom of the dip that most people fail. They get frustrated with how much they have to learn and how much they have to work to make things happen. In my opinion, we will experience a rapid ascent from The Dip starting in September of this year. Now is the time to learn every possible thing you can to ride that wave up thru 2015.

Key Ideas:

1. The Dip is the key to success.
2. The people who invest time and energy through the Dip become the best in the world.
3. The Dip creates huge scarcity because so many people are not willing or cannot make it through the Dip!
4. If you want to be a Superstar, find a career with a steep dip. (we have that)
5. Quitting creates scarcity; scarcity creates value in the people who are left.
6. If you can’t become great through a Dip…. QUIT NOW! This is a “cul-de-sac” where you work and work and work and nothing changes.
7. 7 reasons you might fail to be the BEST:

Run out of time and quit

Run out of money and quit

Get scared and quit

Settle for being mediocre and later quit

Focus on short term and quit when short term gets too hard

Not serious enough and quit

You don’t have the right talent and quit

Short term panic leads to long term boredom.

So, all that said, what should you be doing during this dip? Most people don’t have a clue what activities they should be doing on a daily basis in our industry. There are 2 activities that make money. In person appointments and phone calls.

During our day we have Red Time and Green Time. Red time is the time we spend checking emails, getting organized, reviewing files and meeting for updates etc. Green time is the time when you spend your time doing things that generate money.

Here is an outline of the perfect day:

3 meetings per day 15 mins or longer that have impact.

10 calls per day

8:30 – 10:00 Red time

10:00 – 11:00 Prospecting calls. The “Power Hour”

11:00 – 2:00 Prospecting Appointments - Face to face

2:00 – 5:00 Client Appointments (listings, contracts etc.

To rise out of this Dip and be the best you can be and earn the money you should earn, you will have to work hard and smart. Work 5 solid days a week. Be in the office at 8 and finish your day at 5 except for 2 days a week where you work as late as needed. It doesn’t matter which 5 days you work, as long as you follow the outline above.

I know this is vague regarding what activities, scripts etc. you need to make this happen. Work with your in-house coaches or hire a coach to help you get your activities and systems in order. It doesn’t have to be difficult. Just meet and talk to people. Call friends of friends to get referral prospecting calls. Join groups and have people over for dinner. One strategy shared was to invite a past client to dinner and have them bring a friend along that you have never met. Back to basics.

Leads generators are also great to create the opportunity to meet new people interested in your talents. Any leads generator should easily fit into your normal marketing programs. Unless you have a team and staff to continuously manage and dedicate time to generating website leads… don’t waste your money or time. One awesome FREE leads generating system is www.SikkU.com. It fits right in with what you do on a daily basis.