Toby Boyce

By Toby Boyce

Football season is on us and in Ohio that means a lot of cheering on Friday and Saturday and praying for our NFL teams on Sunday. Football is a passion and as I’ve matured and grown older and – hopefully – wiser, I see the wisdom in those screams and rants from my childhood coaches.

“Football is the game of life,” I remember Mike Billow screaming as we worked over-and-over to perfect a task. And the older I get, the more I realize that his statement was right on the mark – and it can even double when taken into application with a real estate career.

I thought I’d share a few of Coach Billow’s favorite “sayings.” I know many of them weren’t original to him, however, on those hot-August days in Danville, Ohio, he made them his.

• Look Down, You Go Down. How often do we see it in this market? The “naysayers” start talking about how the sky is falling and it isn’t going to last. Well, they are exactly right. For as soon as they put their head down to avoid the falling sky, their business fell. Doesn’t matter how beaten, weathered, or challenged you feel – keep those eyes up and looking at the prize.
• Did you get better today? You never stay the same. We practice our craft, hopefully every single day, to improve those listing presentations, get more buyers, convert more short sales,  etc. The reason is simple. If you don’t practice it and make a conscience effort to get better, you will by default be getting worse – because you never will stay the same. Life – and real estate – is about eternalizing responses (i.e. scripts) so that they become a spontaneous response. If you aren’t role playing and practicing, is that possible?
• Football is a game of inches. Life is a game of moments. As Al Pacino so eloquently put it in Any Given Sunday: “Life’s this game of inches, so is football. Because in either game – life or football – the margin for error is so small. I mean one-half step too late or too early and you don’t quite make it. One-half second too slow, too fast and you don’t quite catch it. The inches we need are everywhere around us.” Are you clawing for those inches?
• Football is a game of inches and the most important are the inches between your ears. Those “inches” are everywhere around us. We’ve all bought a new car and then seen hundreds of the same color or model on the street all around us. Why? Our mind is now focused on that “inch” in life. A real estate agent that is mentally focused on successfully assisting clients to buy and sell real estate is going to see opportunities all around her. The agent that isn’t in the right mindset will see all the reasons why he’s in that funk.
• Challenge Builds Character. When things go easy, everyone is a rock star. But it isn’t until things start hitting the fan that you – and your clients – find out what you are really about. I’ve received a lot more referrals from clients where the deal was on life-support at some point than the smooth ones. Why? My character and determination came through in the challenging moments and the clients saw my additional value in the transaction.
• My 98-year-old Grandma could do that faster, and she’s dead! I never wanted to hear this one, since it usually meant additional running or repetitions until it was completed quicker. There is always a time element in what you are doing. Your best friend could list with another agent – one that’s more responsive – if you “forget” to return his phone call for a week.

Life, football, and even real estate is all about making the most of the opportunities that are presented to you on a daily basis. Don’t forget to fight for those inches.

Toby Boyce, MBA, is a real estate practitioner with Keller Williams Consultants Realty in Westerville, Ohio. Visit his Web site: www.delawareohrealestate.com.