How's your real estate business going?

When I ask some people this question, they seem to lack enthusiasm about where they're at with their business. Unfortunately, this is not uncommon as we've entered what I like to call the Real Estate Hunger Games, and here's what that means:

This year, we're projected to close about four and a half million transactions in real estate with around 1.6 million REALTORS. When we rewind the clock back to 2012, just about a million REALTORS were in business and we were still closing about the same number of transactions. With 60% more REALTORS doing the same volume of transactions, it's no wonder why it's more competitive than it's ever been in our industry.

So, the question is, how do you make sure that you're not market driven but strategy driven?

I'm going to share with you a simple strategy that's going to be so simple you might think it won't work, but it absolutely will work...

How many referrals did you send out last week to your favorite vendors in your market area? If the answer for most of you is a big fat goose egg, here's the problem:

The problem is you gotta put into place the power of reciprocity.

You start pushing out what you want to receive. Give, give, give, and eventually things will start coming back to you. It's just a natural thought, reciprocity.

We give because we want to be grateful and generous, and we know eventually good things will come back. But when you're not in that mindset of having abundance and you're closed up, you're not ready for opportunity. You have to open yourself up to opportunity by being the person that provides opportunity to others.

When you're out in the market, you're listening for opportunities to help people in your sphere of influence, people that you can help with their small businesses and what they're trying to get done in their lives. When...