Recently, I had dinner with a person who works in the world of anesthesia. “Putting people to sleep and wakin’ ‘em back up” is her tagline. 

As we shared a pizza, she told me about a new job she had started where she now teaches students to be professional propofol pushers. Better known as the “Michael Jackson drug.”

When a person is “under” during surgery, the job of the anesthesia provider is to a) keep ‘em asleep, b) keep’ em alive, and c) control their pain. As I’ve said before, when you are new at something you don’t know what you don’t know.

So, you can imagine a freshly minted student’s first surgery and the surgeon looking over and saying, “Well? Did you give them TXA?”

What should this poor student do?

One of the other jobs of an anesthesia provider is to give good conditions to the surgeon. That could be making sure to lower the blood pressure to lessen bleeding, or make it high enough that there isn’t a stroke, or “and the most important thing we teach students is, give the surgeon confidence you know what you’re doing so they can make other big decisions for the patient. If you don’t have the TXA, say ‘yes, of course doctor,’ and then go call for some flippin’ TXA.”

My eyes were wide as I chewed my slice and considered what might have happened during my five knee surgeries. 

This leads me to today’s focus.

Your clients need you to be confident, friends. They need it so they can concentrate on bigger decisions. Does any real estate agent know everything about everything? Of course not. 

But just because you are a new real estate agent does NOT mean you shouldn’t be confident about helping someone find their way into or out of a property. Yes, it’s a large call, and there are lots of moving parts for you to administer, but if you don’t know the answer to something, you’re resourceful enough to go find out. 

“I do not know if it’s customary for that septic to be pumped. I’ll call ‘my guy’ and ask. I’ll get back to you by tomorrow morning” is not a terrible thing to say to your client. It doesn’t make you a bad agent. It makes you an amazing, hustling, resourceful agent in the eyes of your client. 

We do not live in a life or death situation. It’s okay to call for the TXA (the right answer) on the fly. 

Exercise:

1. On your next appointment, focus on confidence. Tell yourself whatever it is you need to say to show up confident. You’re helping your client and yourself.

2. Notice the times when you shy away or make up an answer that isn’t true because you feel insecure. Stop doing that. Fibbin’ isn’t helpful. Tell them you’ll get the answer, and when that answer will be delivered. 

As an aside, "fake it, til you make it” is not about walking around making up stuff because you don’t know something. It’s about confidence. If you don’t have confidence right now, you still need to show up like you do, until you do. It will come with more experience that takes time to get.

This week’s exercise is about implementing a way that works for you. Not just for you, but because your client MUST have confidence in you to do business with you. It lends to the trust part of the “know, like, trust” mix.  

I’d love to hear your ways of drumming up the air of confidence. Leave a comment below.

Until then, chin up, keep your feet moving … and burn the white flag.

sz

Copyright 2020 - Shelley Zavitz Realty