The number one thing you need to do to stand out as an estate agent is to work on your mindset. It is absolutely everything. It's the thing that's kept me going in the moments when I've wanted to quit.

And I'm telling you, over the years ahead you're going to have dark moments. You're going have moments when you think, ‘Am I doing the right thing?’ But that's when you dig deep and lean on your mindset. That's when you really understand what you're in this to achieve what you're in this for, why this is the career for you.

Working on your mindset is about developing the resilience you need, and developing your ability, your confidence, and your skills. They're the things that are going to help you to improve day by day, week by week, year by year. I promise you right now that this will never be something that you ever conquer – you have to keep developing to keep improving.

I have days when I think, ‘Crikey, by now I thought I would be …’ But no, no, no, that's just another moment where I'm going into a place of learning and growing. When you get that resistance, when you think ‘Am I in this at the right time? Is this the right thing? Is it going in the right direction?’ is when your mindset takes you to the right place.

So what do you need to do to develop that mindset? You need to listen. You need to bring the right stuff into your mind. You need to protect what's going on in there and invest wisely.

People go and train really hard at the gym, but they don't train really hard in their mind. Think about it – your mind is your most powerful muscle. You can develop it, but you've got to understand the challenges that you're going to face.

You’re going to make sure your mindset is strong enough to deal with the situations, the conversations, the difficulties, and the fall throughs that go with being an estate agent. There are loads of things, right? But with the right mindset, you won’t be put off by that.

With the right mindset, you’ll really embrace the difficulties and really understand that's part of who you need to be, rather than run away from the challenges. You’ll know that when you’re willing to be outside your comfort zone your mindset will grow with your skill set.

That's the bit I want you to understand. That's number one – it's all about what you do to invest in your mind from the moment you wake up so that when you're at the office or in appointments you’ll know how to approach each situation.

What does using my mindset look like in practice? I'm just about to go out and meet someone and probably discuss the fact that their house is probably worth somewhere in the region of a hundred thousand pounds less than what they want.That’s a hard conversation to have.

Now what do I do, sit here and whinge and moan about it? No! I'm going to go out there with the questions. I'm going to go out there with the information and the education to help that client to see that their needs aren't going to get met if they just carry on doing what they're doing right now. They have to come on the journey, they have to understand what they need to do, and it's my job before all of that to get clear as to why I'm doing this and how I'm going to do it.

So for me right now, mindset's everything. I have the right mindset to be a real estate agent and so do you. You have to be real to be you. You can’t move outside your authentic self. That's part of the mindset that you need to develop. Don't try to be an estate agent, be a person, be you. Imagine yourself in their situation and ask yourself what advice would you need right now.

Your mindset is your power weapon – work on it wisely.

The second thing you need to work on is your personal brand. I know you hear this an awful lot and there's some absolutely wonderful inspiring people talking about it. If you go and find them on LinkedIn you'll see them everywhere talking about personal brand and how they can help you to develop yours. But the most important thing is you've got to know to have a personal brand are these:

● Who are you?

● What are your values?

● What are the things that you're really passionate about?

● What's important to you?

The third thing you need to work on is your motivation. Is that the same as mindset? Kind of, but I think of mindset as being like training sessions. It's in these sessions that you're learning and you're listening to stuff. But you're implementing stuff that you've learned, you’re working on your motivation.

Motivation is all about doing. It's all about knowing why I'm doing what I'm doing and really connecting with that. You need that connection because if you’re an estate agent, you need to understand that it's a vocation. It's not to be played at. It's not just a job. As an estate agent, you're dealing with people's livelihoods. You're making decisions with people every single day that will affect their future and their outcome.

To make those decisions, so you've got to have the motivation. Without it, you're not going to be able to have the difficult conversations that we need to be having right now in the current climate – I’m writing this in 2023, so I get asked all the time, ‘What’s going on in the market?’

Working in the market as it is in 2023 is completely different to how it was two or three years ago for estate agents. The market was booming – it’s like we were just sat there waiting for roast duck to fly in our mouths. We didn’t have to do much.

But the market’s not always going to be booming, guys. And actually that's not really the market that you want to operate in. You want to market yourselves and operate in a market that's going to really tick your boxes. It's going to really help you to understand your why and get you connected to your passion.

Why? Because if you're out there and you're doing the things, making the calls, having the conversations that nobody else is having, you're going to start to set yourself apart from everybody else. It’s in the heart of conversation that you find the sale right, not on Right Move – it's in the heart of conversation and that's where you've got to have the motivation to understand why you're doing this in the first place.