KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Choose Your Enemies Wisely

Episode Date: October 1, 2024

How I read and interpreted the book, Choose Your Enemies Wisely by Patrick Bet David and how I am implementing what I have learned from that book into my business and how you can do the same as an entrepreneur or especially a real estate agent. I'm Ali Garcent. Welcome back to my channel. I'm Ali the agent on all social media.

If you ever have any questions, hit me up on Instagram. Shoot in the comments below. I respond to all comments. I respond to all messages on Instagram. I'm here to help. If you know of any books that you have had on your to-do list of books to read, but that you know you really won't get to read, in the future. Chances are I've either read it or I also have it on my list. I'm more than happy

to make a book review, like literally read the book, analyze it and think about how an agent, a real estate agent can implement what the strategies are into their business or into your business, and I'll make a video on this channel. Yes, I am a nerd like that. This video is all about choosing your enemies wisely. Now I wish I read this book a little bit earlier because I loved it. It was so, so good. But hey, no better time than to read it at least now. So here are my takeaways. and some specific excerpts from the book itself so that way you can act as if you have read this book yourself. The whole thing is about building a perfect business plan for you and building a business plan that you have never built before. So that way you can make the next 12 months or three years, five years, 10 years the best that you can make it.

According to Patrick Bet David, a lot of business plans do not look too much into the past and that is a mistake. You should be looking into the past and seeing what did not work or maybe what did work. and using those lessons learned into the future into your today business playing he says the last 12 months are the most important to debrief on this video is going to have a lot of exercises for you to think back reflect upon write down if you want to write it down the comments feel free otherwise just writing down your own personal notes but the first thing is to think of the five events that happened within the last 12 months that consumed a lot of your mental energy your mental bandwidth what are five to maybe 10 events that happened last year that consumed a lot of your thoughts were they good where they bad. If they were bad, what can you replace that thought whip in the future? Now, think of the next 12 months from now to the next 12 months and ask yourself, what could weigh you down? What can you get rid of? And how are you going to get rid of it? For example, it could be giving up Instagram or say, you know, say you're instead of a content creator, say you're more of just a consumer and you

consume too much. You spend too much time scrolling. Maybe you can give up Instagram. Maybe you're spending too much time going on pointless dates. So maybe say goodbye to Tinder. Whatever the case may be, reflect on this for yourself. Patrick Bet David took this very seriously and he said he was going to give up until he had his first million. He gave it up for 17 months. That's when he made his first million and that's when he was able to do his thing. So ask yourself, what must you eliminate according to your last year? The best businesses have the longest time horizon. Say you're just now looking to become a real estate agent where you just started your business, whatever your business is. Do not think of her business as a one year or even five year time span.

Think 20 years, 30 years. Think your kids taking over the business. Because that's what's going to get you started. I'm thinking about who is going to take over for you. How can you make this business self-sustaining, aka not reliant on you to make all the decisions and do all the work in order to keep it running? Next exercise is think about any generational curses that you think you have

or that you've heard maybe your parents or grandparents talk about. After you've thought about those limiting beliefs, tell yourself that you will need. never say out loud or even think those limiting beliefs unless you're saying it in the past tense and how you were changing that in the future. So for example, say you didn't grow up with a lot of money and anytime you went out to a restaurant, you guys maybe never ordered the steak or never ordered the prime rip. Whatever the most expensive item was on the menu, say you just never got that. That could be a limiting belief, a generational curse that as we go out as a family to eat together,

we go out, but we don't get that top tier item because we can't afford it. So stop. saying we can't afford it and instead think of that statement as a past tense of yourself. You are breaking that generational curse. You are breaking that limiting belief from here on out and you used to not be able to afford it, but now you can't afford it. It's a big mindset shift. Next is think about any single time that you self-sabotaged. Reflect on how you ended up hurting yourself or hurting your family or hurting your business because you didn't think you were capable of doing XYZ. And how can you change that? moving forward. Obviously, Patrick Bet David talks a lot about choosing your enemies and it's not so much

about, you know, having an enemy be like, oh, I hate that person or that person is, you know, grindy, whatever it is. It's using that like feeling to fuel yourself into creating a better and bigger business for yourself. Obviously, as is the title of the book, the book spends a lot of time on choosing which enemy. And the biggest thing, first of all, is that your enemy today may not be, and actually should not be your enemy three years from now, five years from now, 10 years from now. So today's enemy should be somebody that maybe told you you couldn't do it, somebody who did not support you, somebody that you are so intent on proving wrong. That is your enemy. Patrick says the most successful people feel like they have something to prove.

There was a study done that Patrick quoted and Alex Ramosey mentions this a lot, and it looks at the three most common traits that a highly successful person has. And the three most common traits that hyper successful people have, number one, is a crippling sense of insecurity. Number two is a superiority complex. So despite them having a sense of insecurity, they still feel like they're better than others. And number three is the ability to have a maniacal focus. In other words, your feelings of insecurity should be what drives you to continue improving yourself and proving your business, proving others wrong. and focus in a way that others don't, grind in a way that others don't.

And a lot of people feel insufficient. But how do you handle it? Do you have that become just a limiting belief for yourself? I don't know if I could do 40 transactions this year. I don't know if I could do 100 transactions. That's just not me. I don't know how they do it. They must get lucky.

Or instead, do you use that fear of being insecure to make you better to prove them wrong? That's the difference. For example, if you're a real estate agent and maybe, you're a new agent or maybe you just move to a different state and you have a new purchase contract, right, the agreement? Maybe you're not the most comfortable with knowing what that agreement says. Fix it. Spend an hour every single day until you have that shit memorized until you know the ins and out

of that contract. Because once you do, then with that hyperfocus that you just set for yourself, you are setting herself apart from other agents that don't have it memorized by spending hours and hours every single day for the rest of the month on studying that one contract or all about. the contracts. At that point, you're going to feel so good about it that your confidence helps you increase your confidence. Now a lot of people are going to say, I'll be the contracts change all the time. And yes, they do. Should that stop you from learning it? Absolutely not. There is no excuse into not knowing exactly what the contracts say that you're having your client sign so that way you can best

utilize them to help get your buyer's offers accepted or help negotiate the best terms for your seller. Another example here is especially for new agents that tend to work with investors that just waste their time and are tire kickers. Do you know the contract, at least in Arizona, says that you can pretty much set up your business as an attorney where you're getting a retainer? You get paid up front for the work that you're doing. Always check with your broker, but so many agents don't do that in Arizona. And I'm very surprised as to why they get so upset when the agent decides to or where the client decides to not purchase when really they could have been paid up front like an attorney. read the contract ask your broker ask others that are doing it how they set it up in a way that works for them i host a podcast called the agent goldvine and i host it with my expe sponsor shelby johnson and we interviewed one of her first interviews was with yosena fernandez and she is a killer real estate agent now in phaipville north carolina

and she said that she when she first got started she was so you know didn't feel confident or competent because she didn't understand the contracts So she was like, I'm not going to have any older, you know, real estate agents bullying me saying, oh, I've been in the business for 25 years and bully her into accepting a contract that wasn't the best for her clients. She was like, oh, hell, though, I'm going to change this. I'm going to read the contract in and out every single day until I haven't memorized. And no one is going to take advantage of me ever again. And that's what she did. And now people go to her because she knows the ins and outs of the contracts.

What might be another example of feeling insufficient as a real estate agent is, Maybe you don't really know how to get leads, find clients. Maybe you're not that good at social media. Maybe you're blaming it on your age. Oh, I'm 45. What do I know about TikTok? I'm 39. I'm 50.

What do I know about YouTube? About Facebook? About Instagram. That's just for the young kids. That's not true. Use YouTube to learn social media. I even have a video on this channel that helps other real estate agents, potentially other competition to help them start their own YouTube channel.

I've taken the courses that I've paid for and have compiled it all into a YouTube video that's for free for you. That goes over what settings to press, you know, exactly where to click to make it the most optimized for you starting out. And I'm giving it away for free to you. And then think about who is going to take over your business. Okay, so you've gone over your fears, you've gone over your limiting beliefs. That's now past tense. Now going back to your vision of your business, who's going to be taking it over? I'm sure you don't plan on showing homes until you're 90.

I hope not. So after you sell your company or you step out of the business, are your kids going to be taking it over? Is someone you know right now going to be taking it over? Just think about the long, long-term vision of your business. Another quote that I thought was a really good one, but so simple is, the job isn't done until the job is done. What I got from that is just because you sent out five tax messages

or even 100 text messages or even made 100 calls. The ball is never in their court. Just because you took some action doesn't mean that the ball is now in their court. I'm just waiting on them to respond. I'm waiting on the seller to respond. I'm waiting on the buyer's agent to respond. No, take things into your own hands. This is your business.

If they do not answer within a couple of hours or a day, whatever the realistic time frame is, ping them back up until they do. When talking about still choosing who your enemy is, Patrick says to not choose an enemy that lives inside your house. Your enemy should not be your family. Your enemy should not be your spouse. Oh, my spouse told me I couldn't do it, so I'm going to prove a wrong. No, that's not what we're talking about.

When we're talking about enemies, it should not be your kids. It should not be a loved one. Because within the house that you live in, you guys are a team. Instead, the enemy should be somebody outside of the house. So that way, you and your spouse are aligned. Your enemy doesn't even have to be a person. It can be a law. It can be a social injustice.

It can be a movement. It could be overall predatory, If it causes you to wake up in the morning and want to beat them and crush them, they're your enemy. An enemy wakes you up and gets you so started on your day that you are working hard to prove them wrong so that way you don't feel shame or embarrassment. That's an enemy. So after you've narrowed down who your enemy is, and again, if you're willing to share, drop them in the comments below.

I'm very curious to hear. Once you've thought of who that enemy is, whoever made you feel like you are not part of the club, whoever made you feel small ever, maybe your last employer that said you wouldn't make it as a real estate agent. Once you have figured out who your enemy is, then you're going to ask yourself these three questions. But first, to share complete vulnerability with you, I'm telling you who my enemy is.

Now, I do have more than one. But one of my enemies is when I first got started in the business, there was a lender who wanted to get my business, and I told them my goals. We met in person. I told them my goals of how I wanted to do 20 transactions in my first year, and this lender lacked. This lender was like,

first year agents don't are not going to get 20 transactions so like that's cute but be a little bit more realistic and I'm sure that that lender meant it with you know goodwill I'm sure they weren't trying to like hawk me down I don't know maybe they were but either way I took those words to heart and I was like are you kidding bet you clearly don't know me enough to know that I am going to get that maybe that was the reverse psychology that that lender wanted all along we didn't end up working together go figure because they were like you know what how about you just try for five just tried to have five transactions your first year. And immediately, I was like, okay, my goals are here. Your goals of me or how you think of me is down here. We're not in alignment. I need to surround myself with others that are

doing 20 transactions by first year. That's the group that I joined. You know, like we are killer real estate agents and five pillars with EXP. That's the group that I'm a part of and that's just common. Oh yeah, 20 transactions like first year, 30, 40. That's just the environment that I'm in as opposed to a lot of, a lot of other real estate agents that maybe do three, six. transactions their first year. So I used that statement as fuel and I still use it as fuel now. Now that's one of my enemies. Another enemy of mine is the Air Force. I served for a decade in active duty and I separated as a major in 2022. And for that decade that I was in the Air Force, I never felt like I was part of the in group. It was definitely a good old boys club and the grooming

happened to those, you know, there were grooming specific people to become Colonel. In my career field, not everybody gets to become colonel. It's actually very, very selective. And no matter how hard I worked, no matter how much I outworked to the rest of my office, I never got that number one in my report. Well, I did, but not when I felt like I deserved it. I realized that the Air Force never saw my true value. So I'm like, why am I working my asshole?

I'm not going to spend the remainder of my 10 years in order to get my pension. I'm not going to spend three years out of those 10 years in Africa. No, I'm going to live my life now. One of the kernels told me that I would never make kernel. That I used as fuel. Now looking back, I used that as fuel in the wrong purposes. I was trying to make kernel and prove them wrong. And as I was just working hard, I mean, coming in early, staying late, sacrificing way too much of my time.

It got to the point where I was like, I'm working so hard and I'm still not seeing results. And it's been years. And I'm working hard for what, only to get something different on my performance report when really the pay is the same as the dirt bag that's not doing shit. Fuck that. With this amount of hard work that I'm putting into the Air Force, I could have unlimited income by being a business owner. So that's exactly why I left. My views of the DoD are my own. This is my truth in the Air Force. I felt my light was dimmed in the Air Force, you know, so to speak. So I was like, eff it. Now I left and I told myself that I used that as a lot of fuel as well. That is my enemy because I was told that I would never make Colonel. I would never make, you know,

that salary wouldn't make that rank. I made as much money. that following year more than a colonel. How'd I stayed in the Air Force I would have had to wait another 10 years to maybe make a colonel and maybe make that amount? No, I did that shit the next year, working for myself. Maybe your enemy are small thinkers that maybe you're surrounded around. Those who always blame others. Victim mindset. I hate that.

So back to the three questions that you're going to ask yourself. One, why do you want to defeat this enemy? Two, what will it feel like when you defeat this enemy? Three, and probably the most important, what are you going to do to reward yourself once you defeat this enemy? And this is very similar to Olympians and very high-level athletes. They have to vision themselves, crossing that finish line, jumping over the last hurdle, you know, touching the end of the wall. They have to feel it and truly envision the emotions, the feelings, like close your eyes and truly envision. What is it going to feel like when you defeat the enemy?

How are you going to reward yourself or reward your family? And again, complete transparency. My reward for my first year, I wanted to do a certain amount of appointments because those are behavior setting activities. I only like to track really what I can change. So I like tracking conversations and appointment set. So after I hit my certain number of appointments set and prior to this, I told my wife, my reward is going to be, I'm going to be taking you, wife, Brit.

I am paying for first class international flights from here to Scotland. We splurged. It was my first time ever flying first class that I paid for. And it was amazing. And it helped because Britt was like, hey, are we close to going on that trip yet? And boy, do I not want to let her down. So do the same thing with yours. As soon as you let your family know what you're going to reward debt with,

you bet your ass are going to be asking you every day, every week. Hey, are we going to go to Disneyland? Are we going to go to whatever? Have it work for you. Now, that's like a big end of year reward, right? Also reward yourself smaller rewards in the interim. So on Wednesday afternoons, I like to take it off. I like to try to be as guilt-free as possible when reading a fiction book.

Because I love it. I love just like turning my brain off and turning it on to some fiction story that's not my life and just like escaping a little bit. Just taking a breather. So I try to schedule that almost every Wednesday in the afternoon. I suggest you do the same. Now, going back to it in the beginning where I said, enemy is not going to be the same enemy three years from now, five, ten years from now, your enemy must change. If your enemy doesn't change, that means you're not progressing.

Once you've mastered that contract, once you've mastered scripts, your enemy then changes to something else. That lender that totally I wasn't going to be doing 20 transactions my first year, I proved them raw, they're really not like as much of an enemy right now because I did more than double that in my first year as a full-time real estate agent. So it's, that doesn't hurt me as much. I'm not able to use that as fuel as much anymore. So as you progress, once you have defeated that enemy, then just think of who the next enemy is going to be and do it again. Another hot tip, Patrick says, is to take the word just out of your vocabulary. And he says that a lot of people will say, I just want to make enough money to travel. I just want to make enough

money to take my kids to Disneyland. I just want to build a business to take care of my kids. I just want to live a simple life. I just want to help the most number of first-time homebuyers instead of that like fluffiness, change it. Take away the word just, replace that with, I'm on a mission too, and then at the end, add a why. I'm on a mission to make enough money to travel the world because my parents were never able to do that for themselves. I'm on a mission to retire my parents because their parents could never retire. I'm on a mission to help a thousand first-time homebuyers within the next 12 months because I wish that I had that as a real estate agent when I first bought my first house. So think about what your mission statement is and add a why. If you want, drop that in

the comments below too. I am on a mission to help 10,000 real estate agents realize the power of surrounding yourself around the right environment and retire early and help their clients to do the same because there is not enough financial education within the real estate agent community and it's mind-boggling. So we're to show that all real estate agents can also retire early. And not just retire, retire early. Now this next section is about business principles. Patrick BetDavid's business principles are, number one, never compromise on your non-negotiables. So therefore, what are your non-negotiables? Think about them, write them down, and never compromise. For example, mine is I do not work with first-time investors. I actually very rarely ever.

I work with one investor right now. So I very rarely take on any investors as a client, but I don't work with first-time investors. They just never end up pulling the trigger. And I'm being said serious. Number two of his business principles are micromanage until there is trust. I found that super interesting. Number three, what brought you here won't take you there. Number four, there is no 100% job security, even if you're the founder or the CEO. Number five, create positive peer pressure by challenging each other. Number six is beat your prior best.

Number seven, treat companies money like it is your own money. Number eight, be radically open-minded, but, not easily persuaded. Number nine, fight any temptation to lower your standards or lower your expectation. And number 10, create an environment where the team is taken care of professionally and financially. Then he goes on to the four rules for elevator pitch, because the elevator pitch is so important. You should be able to express what you're doing, what your mission in life is in a short, concise, brief statement that is different from what people usually hear. So the four rules for the elevator pitch.

One, understandable. Do not use industry jargon. Not everyone knows what a helic is. Not everyone knows what an earl is. Not everyone knows, you know, whatever. Make it as easy as possible for people outside of the industry to know what the hell are you been talking about. Number two, quantify it. Use as many numbers as you can't, again, but keeping it concise.

Number three, succinct. 30 seconds, period. Lastly, make it compelling. Make it easy for the listener to hear, but hard for them to, ignore it. And this last section here is going to be a list of fill in the blanks. This is the most important part of the book. And it's at the very end and I'm writing it all down here for you. So you can also take notes. I would suggest writing it pen to paper increases the chances of it sticking more and you following through. So complete your business plan with these fill in the blanks. Number one,

think of one word to focus on over the next course of the business plan, whether the business plan is 12 months, a three month, a five year, whatever it is. Think of one. Think of one. word that you're going to be focusing on for the entire year. He used the example of magic. It could be the year of saying no, therefore having more of a maniacal focus. Whatever that word is, stick with it and make sure that every action you do from here on now for the next 12 months is focused on that one word. Number two, identify who this business plan is for. This business plan is for you, your team, your marketing team, whatever it is. Number three, this business plan is good for insert timeline, a quarter, a year, five years, whatever it is.

Number four, fill in the blank, I let XYZ thoughts consume a lot of my attention last year. I will replace these XYZ thoughts with ABC. For example, maybe as a real estate agent, you spent a lot of time dwelling on the fact that you had a couple of closings that didn't actually make it to close, deals that fell apart. Why did you spend so much time dwelling on it? Is it maybe because you didn't have enough clients, enough of a big enough pipeline? in order for that one transaction to not really make a difference. Maybe you were working with a lot of investors that wanted a lot of your experience and never ended up pulling the trigger.

Maybe they didn't even value your opinion. Maybe they didn't value you as a real estate agent. Maybe you had a client ghost you. And you're like, what the heck? I thought we were, we already signed the buyer broker. You know, like, why did they ghost me? What did I do wrong? Maybe let a lot of those thoughts consume you.

What will you replace those thoughts with? Number five, fill in the blank. I will completely eliminate blank. Number six, I will not allow, X, Y, Z to stop me. Number seven, this year is going to be different because. Number eight, the enemies that produce the most emotion from me are ABC. Number nine, the enemy this year is, like.

Number 10, when I crush that enemy, I'm going to feel X, Y, Z. Again, envision yourself crushing that enemy. Number 11, I will reward myself or I will celebrate by blank. Number 12. Key direct competitors are, blank. 13. I am not going to underestimate blank. And I'm going to stop numbering these because now these are starting to get a little bit out of order. I will succeed because blank. I must succeed because blank.

I never want XYZ to be said about me. This helps you focus on who you do not want to become. Oh, I don't want to be focused. I don't want people to say XYZ about me and makes you focus more so on what you do want people to say it. about you, which is the next one. I want my reputation to be synonymous with blank. My niche or niche is blank. I will read X amount of books and attend X amount of conferences or workshops this year in order to strengthen X skills. I will improve my ABC weaknesses by insert the blank. Fill in the blank. I will make key hires in the following areas.

blank. The skill sets that I need to add to my toolbell are blank. The cause I am fighting for is blank. What bothers me, what I hate, what I love is, dot, dot, dot. If I won the lottery, I would commit my life to, dot, dot, dot, my mission in life is to blank because blank. He also talks a lot about the SWAT analysis, and that strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Identify one of each of those. Then there's a subsection on dreams specifically. Number one, I have made my dreams visual by blank. This is very similar to David Goggins as well, putting post-its everywhere that you could see it.

So that way you're always reminded. I want to lose weight. I want to do, you know, whatever it is. Two, I will accomplish XYZ goal by ABC date. Number three, I will declare these dreams as a future truth and I will live in the future as if I have already made those dreams a reality. Now the subsection on systems is number one, I automate my life and business by XYZ, which allows me to duplicate myself and buy back my time.

The three most important formulas in my business are, blank. The three most specific strategies to drive consistent revenue are, blank. I have specific systems that I am analyzing to gather data. These are blank. Now, the subsection on culture and the team, if you have a team. The company culture is defined by blank. To actively create this culture, I do XYZ. The rituals and traditions that my culture has is blank. Our benefits package can be described as blank. For your employees, if you have an employee scorecard, my most trustworthy

employees are, blank, I keep my employees accountable by like. I will find X amount of rock stars for roles in XYZ and will happily pay them above market rate. Now, under vision and capital, the impact that I make on my customers are, like, my principles and values are blank, my non-negotiables are, my key personal differentiators are, my key business differentiators are, my elevator pitch is, like, I have a crisp pitch deck with a compelling presentation and I use this when recruiting talent building relationships with potential investors suppliers vendors and when raising money by the way I hope that this is helping so far I have again I do these videos on books that I've read so feel free to watch any of the other videos too now when

looking at your previous year answer these questions one I allowed projects that I was not passionate about to consume my mind I will replace those thoughts with blank and those thoughts light me up and I will make an impact on others. This year I am committed to blank and I know how terrible I will feel if I do not achieve those goals and I know how amazing my life will be if I do. Now in your enemy section, number one, the enemies that are beating me in my field produce the most emotion from me because they are working smarter than I am are blank. The specific personal enemy for me this year is blank and he used as an example inconsistency. That could be a personal enemy.

The specific business enemy for this year is, like, he used this specific example of industry leaders whose businesses have surpassed his revenue. Overall, whether you have a team or not, ask yourself or ask your employees these three questions. Number one, how much money do you want to make this year? Number two, how much money did you make last year? Number three, what do you need to do differently this year to make the amount of money that you want to make? These are the type of questions that our crew is always asking ourselves because we're We're always on the mission to improve ourselves and be better than we were yesterday.

We have accountability pause exactly for this. We hold each other accountable and call each other out and we like being called out because we want to improve. If that is the crew that you're thinking about joining, if you're a real estate agent, book will call me below or, better yet, just join using the lake below. You'll immediately get onboarded. You'll receive a text for me and we will start the onboarding process. And if you want to know any other book reviews that I've done, check out the next video here.

See in the next one.