How to take advice from Mentors, 3 great ways! EPS: 23

I was never good at selling anything. Okay, let me rephrase that. I was never good at selling the way they

wanted me to sell. I was a brand new Realtor, 2002. I was working at a really large brokerage and was

struggling to help this buyer of mine find a home that he liked. I had showed him, like, a gazillion billion

houses in a three month period of time, and I was tired. I found myself in a conversation with two very

experienced agents who actually called themselves my mentors, and I told them what my dilemma was. I

was actually asking them for advice. And then one of them chuckled while the other one went on to say,

you'll never be a top producer. Teresa showing that many homes to one buyer. Oh, my goodness. 2s I

didn't know what to think at the time. The only thing I could think was, I'm doing this all wrong. I have

spent so much time getting my real estate license and going through school and working at what I dreamt

about doing for the rest of my life, and it was all for nothing. I was so discouraged. I felt like giving up. 1s

Have you ever felt this way, like giving up on your future because a mentor made a comment about the

way you were doing things? 1s It was very soon thereafter when I made the decision that when I listened

to advice, I had one ear closed and the other ear was only half open. 1s And I tried hard to prove to

myself that I was designing my business and that the way that I was doing it was going to work. And it

did 1s work, but I'll never forget that day. So that brings up the question today, as small business leaders,

how do we know what advice to take and use and what advice to leave? We are always learning, right?

Not even the most experienced, successful entrepreneurs know it all. So how did they choose what advice

to listen to and act on and what to pass by? Please allow me to unpack this topic today so that it may save

you and myself a lot of heartache in the future and maybe speed up our path to success. Wouldn't that be

cool? Thank you for tuning in today to the Ufirst Business second podcast. I'm Teresa Prem, and I help

small business owners and service professionals make more money in less time and take lots of time off

for vacations. I am specializing and connecting with customers on a deeper level, figuring out that it was

my specialty. And so I'm here for you. Stop over and find me on Instagram. My handle over there is

Coach Teresa Prem, and I go live there every Tuesday evening. Now, I'm a huge fan of speeding up the

path to success. Are you? I'm a learner and I love to listen, I love to watch, and I love to soak in what the

big gurus have done to find success. 2s Reading books and listening to podcasts and listening to

examples of how they came from here to there. And my goodness, there's Shark Tank. I love that show.

There's the profit. I love that show. And I love all the examples of how they got where they're going. And

I know that the path to success was not easy for them. And I know and you know that the path to success

is not easy for us. But what did I learn in that conversation back in 2002 that showed me the importance

of having one ear closed and the other one half open? I learned three very important lessons that day. I

want to share these lessons with you. The first lesson is, number one, be careful who you share things

with. And if you happen to share with someone who may not have been the right person, even a mentor,

then realize that quickly. 2s Maybe I should not have told them, and then the conversation would not

have taken place. Things would have turned out differently. So, number one, be careful who you share

things with. If you want a mentor and you want someone to give you solid advice when you go to them,

ask them. Say this at the beginning. Say, Look, I want you to be objective. If you can give me feedback, I

want you to look at it not as my friend, not as my family member. I want you to look at it from the

standpoint of and then fill in the blank. Is it the standpoint from a buyer? Is it the standpoint of a prospect

is at the standpoint of an entrepreneur. If you know the feedback that you want to get from someone else,

then you're going to know who to go to. So be very careful with who you share things with. 1s The

second thing that I learned that day about our conversation back in 2002 and what it taught me was,

number two, the customer relationship has no time limits. 1s I was not going to put a number on the time

frame on building the customer relationship. I was tired. Yes, I showed a lot of homes. And so I was

wondering I was was brand new. I was wet behind the ears. So I was wondering, should I even be

showing this many homes? So I went to my mentors and asked them, and I didn't get the response that I

was looking for. 1s But I learned that the customer relationship has no time limits. And what I mean by

that is if I'm going to put number on the customer relationship, if I'm going to say I'm only going to have

two conversations with this person, and if they don't buy from me, then I'm done with them, or I'm only

going to do three months worth of effort with this person. And if they don't buy from me, I'm done with

them. 2s Maybe you do things differently in your business, but if we didn't have customers, my friend,

U1

we wouldn't have a business. And so you're in your business because you are good at relationship 1s and

you are learning every single day how to be better at relationship. And so what I learned that day is that

the customer relationship ship has no time limits. Now, listen to this. This is awesome. I went on to sell

that buyer his first home, and he gave my name away to his entire family. I probably made four to five.

Now, it's been a while. Four to five additional sales because of the customer relationship and how I

treated him. So that's the second thing I learned that day. The third thing that I learned that day is that I

can design my business the way that I want to. I love this. I love that there is so much freedom and

entrepreneurship. Freedom to do things and try things the way we imagine. Freedom to pray and ponder

and meditate on all the ideas that roll around in our head before, or we ask someone else for their advice.

Did you catch that? 1s Personally, I go to God now. And I mean, I've went to God for a long time, but I

go to Him first and allow him to speak truth to me because then it saves me so much heartache when I go

and ask a mentor and it gives me a filter to where I can say yes and no. So what do you do? Do you

meditate? Do you journal? Do you brain dump? Do you go to your spouse and run things by him or her?

What do you do first before going to Google, going to a mentor or even going to an acquaintance? Now,

there is a fine balance between customer relationship and putting the customer first. And let me explain

the difference. One of the quotes we hear a lot in business is put the customer first, right? You'll be very

successful and you'll make a ton of money if you always put the customer first. I mean, this has been

drilled in our head as salespeople, my friend. If that is 100% true, if that's even 50% true than my real

estate mentors that day, they were not selling anything, were they? Because they didn't put their

customers first. I could tell by the advice they gave me. 2s But they were selling a ton of real estate, a lot

of real estate. So putting the customer 1st may put you in a place of making a lot of money and being

very successful. But is it really something that you should believe? Is this one of those cliches and those

quotes where you should have one ear closed and the other one half open? So if you get to choose what

quotes to live by and what to not live by, you also get to choose who you listen to and who you take

advice from. You get to choose who you want to be your mentor and who will just be an acquaintance.

You get to choose. 2s And the best part is you get to design your business from your successes, your

failures and all the ideas you have rolling around in your head. You get to go out there and provide the

type of customer service that you want to provide to your customers and your clients and love on them

the way you want to. You get to choose. 2s So keep choosing. Choosing is a daily activity. And then

here's an idea for you before I sign off. Make a list of do's and don'ts for yourself. 2s And make a list of

do's and don'ts for yourself as the business owner. So it's two separate people. And if you want a resource

on this, go grab the book The emth Revisited by Michael Gerver, and you will learn the difference

between the entrepreneur, the manager, and the technician. So make a list of do's and don'ts. Take that

list and remind yourself often of the statements on this list that are and will continue to be your core

values to help you be the best small business owner or service professional you can be. One of the things

on my list is when I take advice from people, I'm going to have one ear closed and the other ear half

open. And guess what? They don't even need to know that. But just remember, sometimes you have to

choose who you take advice from, and 1s taking the advice you want to apply and leave the advice that

you don't want to use, you get to choose. Bye for now. I'm Teresa Prim, the customer relationship Coach,

helping you put yourself first and the business second. See you on Instagram.