Tag: Goal Setting

I spent the morning at a breakfast with Carson Palmer, Ryan Tollner, and Katie Rodin. We talk a lot in real estate about “winning,” but these three have a different definition of it. Whether you are leading a brokerage, running a desk at a title company, or out there as an agent, their take on ethics hits home for our industry.

Character attracts character

Ryan Tollner is a top sports agent who admitted he entered a “slimy” business specifically to do it better at a higher level. He was very open about the fact that being ethical has cost him clients. In our world, we’ve all seen people say or do whatever it takes to get a listing or a signature. Ryan’s strategy is simple: position yourself as different. When you operate from a place of abundance, you realize there is enough business for everyone. You don’t have to chase the “scarcity” mindset that leads to cutting corners.

The “Double Life” trap

Katie Rodin made a point that every leader in our industry needs to hear: you cannot be one person in the office and another person out of the office. If you aren’t aligned, the cracks will eventually show. Carson Palmer backed this up, saying it is impossible to be consistent if you are cutting corners behind the scenes when no one is looking.

When the pressure is on and you’re tempted to take a shortcut, Carson’s advice is simple: pause and pray. He reminded us that your name is your only real currency. His athletes know they represent the name on the front of the jersey and the one on the back.

When things go sideways, don’t hide

We’ve all had a deal blow up or a mistake happen at the closing table. Katie’s advice for those moments is gold:

1. Make it right immediately.
2. Reverse engineer the mistake to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
3. Lead by example. Don’t hide behind your title when you mess up.

Creating a safe space for your staff and agents to own their mistakes is how you actually eliminate them in the long run.

Coaching the person, not the production

Carson mentioned that when an athlete’s performance drops, he looks at what’s going on in their life. Whether it’s a kid or an NFL pro, the human needs are the same. If an agent or a staff member is struggling, ask about the underlying issue. Usually, if you coach the person, the performance turns around on its own.

The support system

One thing that really stuck with me was Katie mentioning her spouse is a critical part of her success. In real estate, our families feel the heat of our schedules as much as we do. Acknowledging that support system is part of being an authentic leader.

In an industry where our reputation is everything, these reminders are a great gut check. A reminder that playing the long game is how we win the day.

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“All great undertakings do not consist of doing again what others have done before, but in recapturing the spirit that went into what they did.” ~ Paul Valéry, The Collected Works

Every market produces its legends.

The agent who dominated a farm area for twenty years. The MLO who built a referral network so deep they never ran a cold lead. The recruiter who had a sixth sense for talent and almost never got it wrong.

And every generation tries to copy them.

They study the scripts. They reconstruct the systems. They read the books, attend the events, and try to reverse engineer the moves that made those people great.

It rarely works. Not because the information is wrong. Because the information is not the point.

What made those producers exceptional was not the specific action they took. It was the thinking behind it. The belief that relationships compounded over time. The conviction that the market rewards consistency when everyone else is chasing momentum. The discipline to do the unsexy work when the results were not yet visible.

That is what Valéry is pointing at. Not the tactic. The spirit.

If you want to build something that lasts in this business, do not ask what the greats did. Ask why they did it. Ask what they believed about people, about service, about the long game, that made those actions the obvious choice.

Then ask yourself what those same beliefs look like in your market, with your clients, in this moment.

The script they used in 2004 will not close the client in front of you today. But the mindset that built that script absolutely will.

Do not imitate the act. Carry the spirit forward.

Over the last few posts we did exactly that. Simplify. Survive. Stay grounded. Embrace the hard. Build something that lasts.

Let’s go build.

“This is how we grow: by being defeated by greater and greater things.” ~ Rainer Maria Rilke, The Book of Images.

There is a moment in every real estate or mortgage career when the challenge in front of you is bigger than anything you have handled before.

Maybe it is your first luxury listing in a neighborhood where the clients expect a level of service you have not delivered yet. Maybe it is a complex commercial deal with moving parts you are still learning. Maybe it is building a team for the first time and realizing that leading people is an entirely different skill than producing.

Most people in that moment feel like they are failing. They are not. They are growing.

The problem is we have been conditioned to treat difficulty as a signal to stop. To pull back. To find the lane that feels more comfortable. But discomfort is not a warning. It is a marker. It tells you exactly where your edge is.

The agent who only takes the listings they are certain to win never finds out what they are actually capable of. The MLO who only works the loan types they know cold never builds the range that separates good from exceptional.

Rilke was not writing about real estate in 1902. But he understood something about ambition that applies to every producer in this business. The things that stretch you, shake you, and occasionally beat you are not obstacles to your growth. They are the mechanism of it.

You do not grow by mastering what is already easy. You grow by taking on what is just beyond you and staying in the fight long enough to figure it out.

The next time a deal, a client, or a challenge makes you feel overmatched, pay attention to that feeling. It means you are in the right room.

The Noise Is Loud. Stay In The Game Anyway.

You will see it this week. Maybe you already have.

The agent who cut corners and still closed the deal. The MLO who overpromised and somehow kept their clients. The recruiter who hired fast, skipped the culture fit, and got away with it.

And somewhere in the back of your mind a quiet, dangerous thought shows up. Maybe that is just how it works.

It is not.

Here is what is actually happening. The negative examples are loud. They spread fast. They get shared, screenshotted, and turned into cautionary tales that somehow also feel like permission. Bad behavior stirs emotion. And emotion travels.

Good behavior does not work that way. The agent who spent three years building a referral network through genuine relationships does not make the highlight reel. The MLO who called every client back within the hour, every time, for a decade does not go viral. The transaction coordinator who caught the error that saved the deal does not get a LinkedIn post.

But those people exist. In every market. In every office. In every brokerage you have ever walked through.

The question is not whether the bad examples are real. They are. The question is whether you are going to let them set the standard.

Your clients are watching how you operate. Your team is watching. The newer agents in your office are watching more than you think.

You are someone’s role model whether you signed up for it or not.

Good news is always quieter than bad news. That does not make it less true. Keep doing the work the right way. The market has a long memory, and so do the people who matter most in your business.

A few of my readers have asked me to re-cap what happened in the U.S. Senate today – here is my take: 

On March 12, 2026, the Senate overwhelmingly passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act in an 89–10 vote. This landmark bipartisan legislation led by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-SC) and Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) represents the most significant federal housing overhaul in decades.

The bill combines the Senate’s “ROAD to Housing Act” with the House’s “Housing for the 21st Century Act” to address the national shortage of nearly 4.7 million homes.

Executive Summary

The primary goal of the Act is to boost housing supply and lower costs by cutting federal “red tape,” modernizing aging housing programs, and incentivizing local governments to reform restrictive zoning and permitting rules. While largely praised for its supply-side reforms, the bill includes a controversial provision targeting corporate landlords that has sparked intense debate among industry stakeholders.

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Key Highlights & Provisions

1. Restrictions on Institutional Investors (Section 901)

The most discussed addition is a provision titled “Homes are for People, Not Corporations.”

• The Ban: Prohibits “large institutional investors” (entities owning 350 or more single-family homes) from purchasing additional single-family properties.
• Build-to-Rent (BTR) Mandate: Requires institutional investors to sell build-to-rent homes to individual buyers within seven years of construction.
• Controversy: Critics, including the National Association of Home Builders and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, argue this will stifle investment and could slash single-family production by 40,000 units per year.

2. Cutting Regulatory Red Tape

• Environmental Streamlining: Categorically excludes certain low-impact projects (like infill and rehabilitation) from rigorous NEPA reviews to speed up construction.
• Pattern Book Grants: Provides funding for cities to adopt “pre-approved” building designs, allowing developers to bypass lengthy permit approvals for standardized housing types.
• Rural Housing Reform: Streamlines the joint review process between HUD and the USDA for projects receiving funding from both agencies.

3. Modernizing Federal Grants (HOME & CDBG)

• CDBG Flexibility: For the first time, allows Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds to be used for new housing construction (previously limited to rehabilitation).
• Incentive Adjustments: Starting three years after enactment, CDBG funding may be adjusted by 10% based on a community’s actual housing production.
• HOME Program: Expands income eligibility to better support “workforce housing” and authorizes funds for infrastructure (like water/sewer) adjacent to housing projects.

4. Supporting Diverse Housing Options

• Manufactured Housing: Updates federal rules and provides grants (via the PRICE program) to preserve and maintain manufactured home communities.
• RESIDE Act: Authorized to help local governments convert vacant or abandoned commercial structures into “attainable housing.”
• Public Welfare Cap: Increases the cap on bank “public welfare investments” from 15% to 20%, encouraging more private bank capital to flow into affordable housing.

5. Unexpected Provisions

• CBDC Moratorium: Includes a temporary ban on the Federal Reserve issuing a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) through 2030, a priority for some conservative lawmakers.

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What’s Next?

The bill now returns to the House of Representatives. While the House passed a previous version 390–9, leaders like Financial Services Chair French Hill (R-AR) have signaled that the Senate’s new investor restrictions and the removal of certain community banking provisions may require further negotiations or a conference committee to reconcile the two versions.

“Successful repetitions build competence. Failed repetitions build resilience.”

Read that again.

We talk a lot about confidence in this business. We talk about the mindset it takes to knock on a door after a rejection, to pick up the phone after a dead lead, to walk into a listing appointment after losing the last three.

What we do not talk about enough is where that confidence actually comes from.

It does not come from winning. Not entirely.

Winning builds your skill. It teaches you what works, sharpens your process, and gives you the evidence that you are capable. Every closed deal, every funded loan, every signed contract is a data point that says you know what you are doing.

But winning does not teach you what to do when it falls apart.

That is what failure does.

Every deal that blew up at the title table. Every client who went with another agent after three months of your time. Every rate lock that expired at the worst possible moment. Those are not just painful memories. They are proof that you survived. That you came back. That the ground did not swallow you whole.

When the next hard thing comes, and it will, your brain does not just ask “can I do this?” It also asks “have I been here before?”

If the answer is yes, the fear shrinks.

This is why veterans in this business carry themselves differently. Not because everything went right for them. Because enough went wrong and they are still here.

Do not waste your failures. They are building something in you that success never could.

Your pipeline is full. Your calendar is stacked. You have three offers pending, two listings coming, and a referral partner who wants lunch this week.

And somehow, nothing is moving.

Here is what most high performers do in that moment. They add. Another system. Another tool. Another meeting. Another strategy session with themselves at midnight.

Wrong direction.

When performance stalls, the instinct is to do more. But more is usually not the problem. More is usually the symptom.

The best agents and MLOs I have watched work through a plateau did not find their way out by adding. They found it by cutting. They dropped the two clients who were consuming 40% of their energy and producing 10% of their revenue. They stopped attending the networking event that felt productive but never converted. They deleted the apps that created the illusion of work without the output.

Clarity is not something you find. It is something you uncover.

Think about your business right now. Not the version you are building toward. The one you are actually running today. What is on your plate that does not belong there? What are you holding onto because you said yes six months ago and do not know how to say not yet?

A transaction coordinator who is stretched across too many files makes mistakes. An MLO chasing every lead type closes none of them well. An agent who is everything to everyone becomes nothing to the right client.

Subtraction is not giving up. It is getting precise.

The most dangerous word in a high performer’s vocabulary is not no. It is yes, said to the wrong thing at the wrong time.

So before you build a new plan, audit the current one. Not for what to add. For what to remove.

When you need clarity, subtract.

Over the next few posts we will do this together. Simplify. Survive. Stay grounded. Embrace the hard. Build something that lasts.

I was talking to a colleague recently who was convinced the sky was falling. Between the inventory ups and downs and the latest round of law suits and regulatory headaches, they felt like they were constantly playing defense. It is a familiar feeling in our world. If you have been in real estate, lending, or title for more than five minutes, you know that moment when a challenge stops feeling like a speed bump and starts looking like a brick wall.

The natural instinct is to vent, white-knuckle it, and pray for things to go back to normal. But “normal” is a moving target.

Lately, I have been leaning on a concept from Ryan Holiday’s book, The Obstacle Is the Way. The core idea is simple, but it hits hard: the thing blocking your path isn’t just an annoyance. It is the path.

Shifting the Lens

In our industry, we are constantly navigating high-stakes deals and big personalities. We tend to see obstacles as distractions from our “real” work. Holiday argues (drawing from Stoic philosophy) that our interpretation of the problem is actually the bigger problem.

Look at the market shifts we have survived. When rates jumped, some people pulled the covers over their heads. But the high performers I know? They treated it like a masterclass. They stopped leaning on easy “order-taking” refis and finally mastered the art of the tough conversation. They got creative with financing because they had to. As Holiday puts it:

“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”

Recruiting in a Gritty Market

I see this all the time with broker owners and recruiters. When the “top producers” are staying put, you can either complain about a stagnant talent pool or you can innovate. This obstacle forces you to stop selling generic splits and start selling actual culture and better systems.

If it is hard to hire right now, that struggle is just a spotlight. It is showing you exactly where your value proposition is weak or where your training needs a renovation. The difficulty isn’t stopping you; it is showing you where to build.

The Deal Killer (and the Tough Candidate) Are Your Best Teachers

For the MLOs, agents, and recruiters in the trenches: we all have that one “impossible” file. It is the one with the nightmare appraisal or the title issue that feels like a dead end. For a recruiter, it is the candidate who has every reason to stay put or the one who ghosts you at the eleventh hour.

It is easy to call these a waste of time. But looking back at my own career, the “deal killers” and the “ungettable” candidates were my best mentors. They forced me to collaborate with affiliate partners in ways I never had to before. They forced me to solve real business problems instead of just pitching a desk. I did not just get through those messes; I became a better professional because the situation was difficult.

Making it Practical

When you hit that next wall (and we both know it is coming) try to look at it through the three steps Holiday outlines:

• Perception: Drop the drama. It is not “bad” that lead flow slowed down; it is just a data point. What is actually happening?
• Action: Stop waiting for the perfect time to move. If the front door is locked, find a window. What is the one deliberate step you can take right now?
• Will: This is the internal grit. It is accepting the market for what it is and deciding to use this pressure to get stronger.

The Bottom Line

We do not grow when things are easy. We grow when the market or the competition forces us to find a gear we did not know we had. The obstacle isn’t blocking the road; it is the road.

Next time you are feeling stuck, ask yourself: What is this mess trying to teach me that I was too comfortable to learn before?

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Source Reference: Holiday, R. (2014). The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph.Portfolio/Penguin.

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