Bob's inspirational keynote speech given at the Scenic Sotheby's International Realty 2020 Awards Banquet. 

I cannot overcome my limiting beliefs until I identify what they are.  Here is the most profound limiting belief I’ve seen in real estate: “I'm not worth making that kind of money.” Get rid of that stinking thinking.  Who told you that? Why are you buying into that lie? You are worth anything you want to be.  I am telling you right now, focus on the positives, focus on the solution and set the time. Get rid of the stinking thinking that somewhere in your past, whether it’s your mother or father or significant other. People that were talking negative. Saying You can't do that.

I remember when I started my company 30 years ago, I was in retail for 16 years. Reached the very top of my profession in that industry and I decided that my ladder was leaning up against a wrong wall. And I quit! This was the late 80s and I was making 6 figures.  Everybody thought it was crazy to leave that position. I saw a vision and I believed in my vision. When I talked to my uncle Jack he said “Robert, you need to get a real job, you can't do something on your own. You have to work for a company.” I said “Uncle Jack, I respectfully love you but disagree with you.” And I proceeded with my vision and my plan for p helping real estate agents build a phenomenal life.

Let's fast forward 10 years. I am doing events both in Brooklyn and Illinois. I invited him and introduced him at the beginning of the conference. I said “Here is my uncle Jack, my Godfather, he told me to go get a real job.”  Uncle Jack looked at me and said: “Robert, you've listened to me your entire life. This time you didn't and I'm proud of you for discerning when to listen to me and when not to. I'm very proud of you Robert, continue doing what you are doing.”

So be clear about what you want to achieve, be committed to the plan and then implement it. Anything is possible with a dream, but you must have a determination to achieve your ultimate goals.   I am happy to help anybody with the downers in your life because I always say, eliminate the negative people in your life. You will ultimately achieve when you eliminate the negativity in your life.   BOB CORCORAN & ASSOCIATES 850-303-0733 | info@bobcorcoran.com

I think most people have not clearly defined what is the "Life you love" for themselves. So the first thing I will say to you, is: identify what's the life that you want.  If you are married, is the life you want the same as what your spouse wants? You are in business and if your spouse or significant other is not part of the planning process, you will fail miserably.  It’s easy to say I want to do 100 million in sales but if your spouse is not attached to that outcome you are going to be a workaholic, then it’s never going to work.

So the whole goal at the end of the day is: family first. Work-life balance is right there with family first. If you can’t have family first, then why are you doing it? You are going to work yourself into the grave. I'm not going to coach anybody who wants to only focus on work, not be focusing on family first.  I can teach you how to make money. But I don’t want to go into an early funeral because you are a workaholic

So when you talk about the struggles, be in line with your spouse or significant other.  If you are single, well, then you are a different animal. Single people are my worst clients, because quite frankly, they are all workaholics. If you are single find outside interests and make them important in your life.

Do not make real estate the most important or consuming thing of your life. Work-life balance, family first, we can grow the business.   BOB CORCORAN & ASSOCIATES  850-303-0733 | info@bobcorcoran.com

You look at the question becoming Tom Brady of Real Estate. How many coaches does Tom Brady have? How many coaches Tiger Woods have, Michael Jordan have?  Coaching is an outside voice to you that is helping you stay on track. No one person has all the answers. However, collectively, when you bring in an outside voice to you, it helps keep you centered, it helps you to achieve your goal, as long as you and your coach are aligned on what your goals should be.

Like with my clients, we do our goal settings, probably in October for the following year. However, goals must be solidified by November. As every great athlete will tell you, I need to work 6 months ahead of the structure. As a coach, we always look to work six months ahead. It is easy to predict what's going to happen next month, next month. But more importantly, a coach needs to bring in the vision of 6 months to 12 months in the future.  Matter of fact, I just had a call today with one of my clients. We are developing one-year, three-year and five-year plans, That's what a coach can bring to you.

Its long-term visioning. We are not worried about what's going happen today. We are most concerned about clients. Are we going to be around in 3 years or five years?   Let’s put together that one-year, three-year and five-year plan to help you achieve the goals and aspirations that you want to achieve. And if we don’t, there is retooling the process to help you figure out why we didn’t hit those goals.

BOB CORCORAN & ASSOCIATES 850-303-0733 | info@bobcorcoran.com

In my personal opinion, success is defined by you having a vision, you having a goal, you having your spouse or significant other on the same page in order for you to achieve the goals, dreams and aspirations that you really want for your life.  If your family is not on board, you will fail miserably.  Life is all about having people around us. There are a lot of people that can say they are Lone Rangers out there but at the end of the day they don’t succeed long term.

What are your goals? Are you in for the short term, or the long term?  If you are in for the short term, you want to come in, make a splash and move on, that's not our clients. If you are in for a long term like all our clients, you have a vision for the future.   At the end of the day, this is a team that requires you if you are going to do high volume like 50 transactions a year. If you have an aspiration to do 50, you can’t do it alone. You need other people in your life.

If you are married, you need your spouse or significant other that will buy into your vision. So communicate that vision to them. Make sure they buy in, so that they are aware of what you want to achieve for you and them.  However, at the end of the day, if you aren’t happy, then what the hell are you doing?  Let's just do what we need to do to help you achieve your goals but you have to be clear. What’s that destination of your dream looking like?  Is it just you? Is it the significant other? You need to bring other people into the mix to help you achieve your goal.

We are here to support and help you in any way shape or form we can. If you ever want to go through your vision with us, all you do is email us at info@bobcorcoran.com. I will help you reveal your business plan for you, and tell you where the flaws are, where your strengths are to help you achieve our ultimate goal which is your desire.  BOB CORCORAN & ASSOCIATES 850-303-0733 | info@bobcorcoran.com

In my professional opinion, establishing your team culture is the most important and effective way to build a dominant real estate machine.  Culture, as Bob Corcoran defines it, is based on my four pillars of a great business:  Pillar #1: You only hire people based on who agree to embrace your mission statement. You don’t have one? Develop it.

 Pillar #2: Hire people that agree to embody your core values. If your team doesn't have them, develop them.  Pillar #3: Patrick Lencioni wrote a book called The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. This is mandatory reading for all my teams that I personally coach. New hires have 30 days to read the book, and give a one-page book report.

Only hire people that agree to adhere to the five dysfunctions.   Pillar #4: Only hire people that agree to be self-managed and self-discipline. This is perhaps the most important of all.  When you have those four pillars in place, you will stand out as a team leader. With those four pillars, your world is going to change.  This is your business. You've spent huge sums building your brand. Build a brand that incorporates people who agree to abide by your vision and your plans for the future.  Once you do that,      1. Your life becomes easier    2.  Work-life balance is in place    3. And you make a lot of money  BOB CORCORAN & ASSOCIATES 850-303-0733 | info@bobcorcoran.com

1. Work-Life balance     2. Family values     3. Time management  

If you are not happy with who you are as a person, then nobody in your life can be happy with you.  So if you want to make a lot of money, and be happy, work on your time management and make sure your family is your highest priority.  BOB CORCORAN & ASSOCIATES 850-303-0733 | info@bobcorcoran.com

In Bob Corcoran's world, anything is possible if you want it enough. Let me give an example of one of my clients.  When he was considering hiring me he said “Listen, I've been stuck for 5 years at 250 to 275". And I said “OK, I will agree to coach you if you agree to have a goal of 350 for next year.”

This was in December of the year he hired me, and he flippantly said “Sure Bob! I don't like your fees. I think you charge too much.” I said “Well, I can either charge you x amount of dollars a month to coach you or take percentage of your sales growth.”  To which he replied “No, your reputation precedes you so I will take the monthly fee because I don't want to overpay you.”

To make a long story short, the very next year his general manager called me on December 7 of that year to thank me for helping him close 350 deals.  Fast forward 6 years, this is the same team that I initially help them achieve 350 closed transactions in the first year of coaching with me, last year they closed 993.

Well, am happy to announce I helped this client to sell his business for over 7 million dollars.  Think about that! How did we achieve those numbers? 1. Operational excellence  2. Having a goal, a vision, and a future  I'm most happy to share he is now working 20hrs less a week.   What's important to you? How many hours do you work? And how much money do you make?  To me, I'm about operational excellence and work life balance.

At the end of the day, if you want success in this business, think with the end in mind.  Let's plan your exit strategy, and then implement that strategy to help you achieve your goals.  BOB CORCORAN & ASSOCIATES 850-303-0733 | info@bobcorcoran.com

We care about our clients. It's not just about selling homes. We are all about work-life balance. I can teach you how to sell a lot of homes. But I don't want to work with a client who is a workaholic because then, I am going to coach a young widow. We avoid that by focusing on operational excellence first.

We customize our services based upon what your wants and needs and desires are. Some of our clients simply will hire us to help them with their exit strategy because they need to retire in 4 years. So we work on that strategy.

It's all about starting with the end in sight.  How many more years do you want to do this? When you figure out what that time frame is, then we work out what's what exit strategy looks like. Is it to bring in a partner to take over the business? Do we look at our current team members if they want to buy into the business?

We don't give anything away for free.  You spent years building your business. We want you to capitalize your investment of time, effort, energy, and more importantly your sacrifices you and your family made to get your business to this level.

When I got into the real estate industry, what I realized right away was that most real estate agencies have zero systems. They ran by the seat of their pants. So, 30 years ago, I decided to start a company that will teach top real estate agents how to be proficient at running their own business.

We must start with operational excellence first. If we do not have operational excellence first, you put the cart before the horse you are never going to materialize the monetary benefit you want to achieve.

Having operational excellence first allows all of my clients to have unbelievable growth while maintaining work/life balance, and huge client satisfaction numbers. Our client satisfaction ratio shoots up 98% by simply adding operational excellence to how we serve our clients

Remember: repeat referrals is the most important thing in any sales organization. All my clients maintain a minimum of 50% repeating referral clients. And when you achieve that, the business is sustainable, and more importantly, you have a business that is actually valuable to sell because we start with the end in sight.

When I start with a client, we talk about how many years they want to do this. We have to put the end game in the process because eventually you need to get out of the business either by choice or by death.   But at the end of the day, set your business up with the exit strategy in mind.

When I started this business 30 years ago, one thing was obvious to me. Real estate agents were master salespeople, but they didn't know much about running a business.

Since then, my focus was teaching top realtors how to run a business as a business because real estate most of the time was run as a mom and pop organization.   My average client last year sold 200 million dollars in residential real estate. Now its sounds like a lot of business however let's break that down. When I look at, and to me what's proficient and efficient is productivity.

The teams we personally coached last year sold over 36 homes a year per agent. Now, according to the National Association of Realtors, the average realtor sells 4.5 homes a year. My average realtor I work with has 11 agents on the team. So, think about that.  Average of 11 agents sold over 36 homes a year per agent.

That is an extremely predominant number that really solidifies for all the people watching today; it's about agents’ efficiency.  So if you want agent efficiency, focus on team building, focus on culture, focus on systems, build a juggernaut that can dominate your market whether it’s a great market or a poor market.   

We've come out of some tumultuous time right now, yet, all of my clients had the most prolific year last year that they've ever seen in their career.

When we take on a new client, we start working with the end in sight. The end in sight means you are  eventually going to leave real estate. Either by choice or through death. It is inevitable, you will get out of real estate

 How many more years do you want to do it? I don't care if you are 20 years old or 50 years old. Eventually, you will get out of business.  We work with all of our clients, helping them determine their exit strategy.

We do that in the first 90 days. We're going to ask the question: “How many more years do you want to do this?”  “But I am 25 years old and I’m in it for the next 40 years.” What if you had the ability to walk away from the business, very profitable, in 20 years? Why will you wait 40? It's not that you may not walk away, but it's having the ability to walk away and not be tied into just you making income from real estate to sustain your life.

What about building multiple pillars of income? Real estate is one pillar of income. As Warren Buffet says “Invest in the what you know best”. Most real estate agents know real estate best. So, If you want to have multiple pillars, invest in pillars that are focused on real estate. Whether it's flipping houses, property management or buying storage units, it is still real estate.  The majority of agents when they are done, they pack up their "toys", they go home and they lose a lot. They don't do anything with their business, and that is criminal.

If you hear me right now, find an agent or team owner who wants to retire, buy their business. We can help you walk through the steps on how to do it. If you are a client of ours, I'm going to teach you how to buy, because I want you to get lots of money.  We help a lot of clients to sell their business and we help them to buy businesses. We sold one client's business for 7 million dollars that included 6million up front.   So, if you want to learn how to maximize your exit strategy, call us today. If you hear me right now, find an agent who wants to retire, buy their business. We can help you walk through the steps on how to buy their business.   Now if you are a client of ours, I'm gonna teach you how to buy. Because I want you to get lots of money.

I have a client who discovered that his wife was having affair. Think about that. What do you do? It's easy to say let's get divorce.

Coaching client needs to be open to change. if you are not open to change, then coaching will never work for you. I've been doing this for 30 years and I've seen everything. Remember the saying "keep doing what you doing and expect different results." is the definition of insanity.  So sometimes we need to blow up the model and say its not working anymore. OK, are you open to that? Are you open to blowing up the model and looking at different ways to achieve?  If what you are doing is not working, I want to help you blow it up and start over. Starting over is scary for some people. “I'm selling 100 million dollars. Why would I blow it up?”  Are you achieving your goals, your aspirations and your dreams? What's your work-life balance look like? Your sales volume is one thing, however at the end of the day it still has to come down to work-life balance. If you are not open to work-life balance, then we are not a coaching company that can work for you.  If you are not open to work life balance, then why are you doing this? If you want to pacify yourself, and sell x amount a year then great, you don't need a coach. But if you have aspiration to grow your business that's when you can hugely benefit from a coach.

It is most important to understand your strengths and acknowledge your weaknesses.  All great leaders, Jean Maxwell, Tony Robbins, all of them will tell you, surround yourself with people that are smarter than you. You do not have all the answers. So find talent!  There is always room for talent. Look for people who will help me achieve my goals. Hire people that are in line with what your weaknesses are. If your weakness is in recruiting, hire someone that is strong in recruiting. If your weakness is operations, hire a strong operations person.   You need to eliminate the frustration that you personally feel in your business. Without doing that, trust me, you are going down a path that's going to cause you to fail.  So what am telling you right now is, hire your weaknesses, build your strengths. Build a company that is dominant and willing to move forward.

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