What’s Your Ideal Zone- Creating Opportunities By Pushing Your Limits!

Welcome back to the real value podcast, the podcast about business, life, success; about finding value in anything and everything, and about creating absolutely as much of it as you can with the time we have! Good morning my friends, my name is Blaine Feyen and I am your host for this, and every episode of the Real Value Podcast. Thanks for swinging back around to my side of the neighborhood to hang out with me again for just a bit this week and hopefully we can grow just a little bit more together. Its always a beautiful day in the Real Value studios, even when the weather outside is less than ideal, and that’s because in here, we make our own weather, we create our own luck, we determine our own futures, we take responsibility for all of our own stuff, and we never let external circumstances be the determining factor in whether or not we succeed at something. External circumstances can inform us about how or why we might go about doing something or where opportunities exist, but since our attitudes and mindset determine what and how we see the world, we simply choose to make sure its always sunny, breezy, pleasant, and the conditions are always perfect at the Real Value compound. That’s just the way it is. ​

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As it happens, its raining a bit outside and that could make some feel a bit dreary and gloomy about the day, and in turn, life. Not here my friends, rain simply is and its just one of the many ways that the earth gets cleansed and fed and, to us, is no different than it being sunny, breezy, and a perfect 72 degrees, or whatever temperature is ideal for you. As human beings, we tend to develop over our lives what I call our ‘ideal zone of existence’, which is simply our own ideal bubble of the perfect weather, the perfect circumstances, the perfect set up, the perfect plan, the perfect food, and the perfect situation we have somewhere in our heads that, if it existed and was right in front of us, we believe we’d be unstoppable and likely our path to our millions and on our way to a cushy retirement. Unfortunately, rarely, if ever, are all of those things in alignment so, each day, based on some external circumstance, our moods, feelings, and productivity tend to be dictated, to a large extent, by things outside of us. In essence, our ideal zone of existence tends to shrink over time and become more limited. This means that, say, in your 20’s maybe your ideal temperature zone was from 60 to 97 degrees. Within that zone, you were as happy and productive as you could possibly be. Over time and with age, our ideal temperature zone starts to shrink and we become less tolerant of the outer edges of the spectrum. So, maybe in your 30s and 40’s your ideal temperature zone shrinks to between 70 and 89. In your 50’s it shrinks again to between 75 and 80. This shrinking of your ideal zone of existence happens in all areas of our lives and often without notice.


If you’ve ever been to a beach and dipped your toe in the water only to quickly yank it out yelling, ‘oh hell no!’, because the water was way too cold for you, only to look down the beach and see a bunch of children playing in the water, you’ll begin to understand this idea of our shrinking zone of existence. The ideal zone of existence for children is vast and, more or less, wide open. They don’t know any different. They haven’t had enough relative life experiences that have informed them about the extremes of cold and hot so their ideal zone of existence as it relates to temperature is wide. They haven’t had enough relative life experiences with food, or work, clothes, living conditions, and other human beings to shrink their ideal zone of existence into a tight little zone. Over time, and usually with the help of parents, other adults around them, the school system, and a variety of life experiences, the ideal zone of existence begins to shrink. They learn, often unwittingly, that the ideal temperature for swimming is no longer what they could tolerate when they were 3 or 4. Their friends tell them that the water is way too cold to swim so they adopt a new belief about the perfect temperature range for swimming and their bubble shrinks. Anything outside the bubble is a no go. Now imagine how this happens with almost every one of our preferences as we age. The foods we eat, the experiences we seek out, our living conditions, the places we go to relax, the people we allow around us, the ideal temperature in our homes, the activities we choose to do or not do, the clients we’ll work with or not work with, and on and on it goes with almost every category of preference. I’m not suggesting that the shrinking of some of our preferences is bad, just bringing it to your awareness and giving you something to chew on.


The discussion of ideal clients, for example, is one that is talked about often on this show and we go over a lot in our coaching and mastermind groups. We know from the bad and the good experiences over time what kinds of clients we desire to be doing more business with, and the kinds of clients we definitely desire to be doing les business with. In fact, its an exercise we make all of our coaching students go through at some point to set their intention on the ideal client they’d like to begin attracting. This not only helps them start to see that type of ideal client in their mind’s eye, it forces them to start seeing where they may need some work personally and professionally in order to attract and service that level of client. It becomes an exercise in personal and professional development. However, it is often in this shrinking of our ideal zone of existence that we start to limit our thinking on what is possible. Once we start to shrink our ideal zone of existence, we become less open to opportunities that lie outside of the zone. Using the water example, once we decide that water below 70 degrees is not suitable for swimming, we close ourselves off to the growth experience of feeling the water when its 65, 60, or even 50. I share this particular one because, personally, I love the experience of cold water. I didn’t say I love cold water, I said I love the experience of cold water. Since the early 90’s, while living in the dojo, I have been doing polar bear dips, often illegally, in the middle of the night with a group of students or crazy friends, off of a pier somewhere, a harbor, a closed beach, a hotel retention pond, a yacht club, you name it! If there was water, snow, ice, and way to it, we were cutting a hole or breaking the ice and jumping in. Why? You ask? Simple, the experience! Nobody enjoys the ice cold water. Its just not something that the human body really enjoys, warm blooded creatures that we are. Its uncomfortable, it can be downright painful, and it pulls you out of your comfort zone.


However, the feeling you have after you jump in, take some long deep breaths, learn to feel every single inch of your body under the water, calm yourself while in the water, and just be for a few seconds to maybe a minute, and then you get out of the water, dry off and get dressed, is a feeling of having just expanded your ideal zone of existence. I wont even go into the health benefits of cold exposure because that’s not the point I’m making with this. The point I’m trying to make is that, over time, we tend to become less tolerant of things and experiences outside of our ideal zone of existence. Pick any area of your life and chart what your ideal zone of existence in that area is today versus what it was maybe in your teens or 20’s. For some of you, there may be areas that have actually expanded. Areas that you can say, ‘ya know, I’m more adventurous today in that area than I was back when I was blank…’, and I’m quite sure there are areas of your life where you can definitively say that you tolerate less than you did years ago. And again, maybe some of it is good and some of it maybe not. The point is to simply think about your ideal zone of existence and what areas of your life do you let external circumstances and a limited ideal zone of existence keep you from trying things. Keep in mind that everyone’s ideal zone of existence is operating 80-90% subconsciously. You don’t really think about it, you just automatically set the thermostat in your house to 68, 70, or 72 because you prefer that level of comfort. Below or above those levels, you experience what you have labeled ‘uncomfortable’ in your mind. Within a tight range, you are comfortable. I would encourage every listener of this show to begin thinking about their ideal zone of existence in all areas of your life. The smaller your IZE, the fewer life experiences, and the narrower the range of opportunities presented to you or even seen by you because your subconscious mind wont even allow you to see them. They’re outside of your current comfort zone so you wont see those things as being opportunities. Where, if your ideal zone of existence allowed for rain, sleet, snow, sunshine, extreme heat, and gale force winds, almost everything would present itself as an opportunity.


The weather is just a metaphor, my friends, just as the cold water and swimming examples are metaphors to make this idea of your ideal zone of existence more concrete. Is your ideal zone so narrow that you rarely step out of your comfort zone? Is your ideal zone so limited that you aren’t able to experience and see opportunities all around you? Let’s ask the same question in a different way. Are you having trouble seeing opportunities all around you? Its not for a lack of opportunities my friends, its most likely because you have so narrowed your ideal zone of existence that you simply aren’t able to see most of those things as opportunities. So many human beings get stuck in a certain way of doing and being that they have a difficult time even imagining being someone or something else. They cant possibly imagine doing something else. They don’t even try to imagine experiencing something else because they have narrowed what they consider to be their ideal zone of existence. And for many, as long as all of the external circumstances fall within that ideal zone, its labeled as a ‘good’ day. Any one of the factors falls outside the zone and they tend to say, ‘today sucked’, or todays not the day to start. If you’re a runner, do you run in the rain? Do you run in the sleet? Do you run when its 102 degrees out? Or do you only run in the morning when its cool and comfortable and only on days when its not raining, snowing, sleeting, too hot, too cold, and just right? Or maybe only in the evenings after its cooled down and then only when its not raining, sleeting, snowing, too hot, too cold, and just perfect. Are you a cyclist? If so, same question. Do you ride in the rain, the snow, the sleet, the extreme hot, or the extreme cold? If not, why not? Is it because your ideal zone of activity (different from IZE) is so narrow that conditions have to be perfect for you to do it?


Of course, as appraisers, we all have our ideal zone of work activity which is the zone of weather and conditions to do site visits and observations in. If its raining really heavy and there’s lighting I will reschedule my site visits and I encourage all of my appraisers to as well. It’s a pain in the rear to catch up and get your week back on track but, since we’re all mobile, it can be tough taking pics and making notes on the tablets in that kind of weather, not to mention that the electronics don’t like that kind of moisture all that much. We have plastic rain gear for the tablets but its still just not the best so it’s the absolute only weather I’ll reschedule appointments for. We go in the extreme heat, the extreme cold, heavy snow, sleet, you name it. It was the same issue even when we weren’t mobile. Even more difficult to write on a clipboard or a folder in that kind of weather. Nevertheless, the question about your ideal zone of existence remains in that situation. Although you might be like me and not go out into that weather to walk around homes, but how is your attitude? Is it gloomy and stormy like the weather? Are you pissed because your week is messed up now? Will this throw off your work schedule and personal demeanor for the next few days? All because of the weather? What I’m asking you to do over the next few weeks is to ask some questions of yourself about how narrow your ideal zone of existence has become as you’ve aged. Have you become jaded and ornery after dealing with people for 20 or 30 years? Has your patience worn thin and your attitude reached its last ounce of grace for those who might try to push it a bit? Something to think about as you move through your day. I’m not talking, by the way, about what you’ll accept and not accept business wise. I’m not asking about whether or not you’ll do hybrid appraisals or how low you’ll go fee wise on an assignment. I’m asking primarily about attitude and activity in this week’s episode because its something we talk about in our mastermind groups often. I also know from working with people for the past 25 years that finding out where people’s comfort boundaries are located is an important part of personal and business coaching because part of what we tend to be doing is moving people past there comfort zones with certain things.


First we find out what they’re comfortable with in a variety of areas, we try to get them optimized in those areas first, and then we try to get them to take baby steps to expand that ideal zone of existence in certain areas in order to see and experience the opportunities that exist beyond their comfort zone. I asked about running, cycling, working out, cold water, and physical things earlier because those can be tells or indicators about what somebody will accept and what they wont initially accept based on their comfort set points or their ideal zone of existence. Its easier to relate to physical things and comfort than it is to self examine and determine our internal ideal zone of existence in non physical areas like growing your business, wealth building activities, networking, prospecting, talking to human beings, marketing, etcetera. The tighter the range of comfort requirements, the fewer opportunities available for the taking. Not just because they would likely require some kind of activity outside of your comfort zone, but also because they wont even be visible to you due to your ideal zone of existence. They simply wont even present themselves to you as opportunities because you don’t have eyes to see them. In essence, your narrow zone of comfort has blinded you to potential opportunities so you wont even see them.


So, I’ve already asked a few questions about physical stuff like cold water and cold weather exposure, exercise and athletics like running and cycling and I did that because, as I mentioned earlier, I participate in some of those things and I do some in less than ideal weather. I’ll also share with you the outer edge of my own ideal zone when it comes to working out and that’s the extreme heat. For those of you living south or southwest or any areas where the temps might get up into the hundreds, don’t laugh at me because our ideal zones of existence are all relative to a variety of factors, one of them being where we were raised, where we live, what we’ve been exposed to, and what we consider to be normal. So, for Michigan, our summers typically peak temperature wise in the high 90’s, sometimes low 100’s, and relatively high humidity. We’ve had several weeks over the past month of mid 90’s with high humidity. As I’ve also mentioned, I have a really nice garage gym with everything anyone would need to push themselves physically and work every single muscle in your body. However, for me, the high heat and humidity has pushed me to find my boundary when it comes to motivation for working out. The hotter and more humid it gets, the more toward my no go zone I get. I imagine going out into the garage, which is a steamy hot box in that kind of heat, and my motivation goes way down. You’d think I would relish the opportunity to really sweat and get a killer workout in but even the thought of it saps my energy and I just want to lay down. Theres an old Stephen Wright joke that says ‘my doctor told me I shouldn’t start working out until I get in better shape’, and another one where he says, ‘whenever I get the feeling to exercise, I just lay down until the feeling goes away’, and that’s exactly the way I feel about physical activity in the heat. I’m not even IN the heat, I’m just thinking about the heat and I get tired! But when I push through the thoughts and I realize that its just my ideal zone threatening to shrink and close in on me, I push through it, I get in a workout, and I feel better. This is also the reason why cold exposure and cold water has so much appeal to me and millions of others around the world. Not only are there health benefits that I wont go into in this episode, but there are attitude and opportunity benefits that come with expanding your ideal zone of comfort and existence by exposing your body to extremes.


Like many of the lessons I have learned over my lifetime, I learned this one while studying zen with some really hardcore individuals. These are people that liked to push their boundaries and one of the ways they liked to do this was with cold water exposure. One the things that group of students and practitioners is always trying to do is keep their mind and breath centered and focused in the lower abdomen and one of the best ways to develop that ability is under stress. Its called stress inoculation training and you can apply it to almost anything you do when you want to get better at doing something under stress. Think walking with a tray filled with martinis in high heels while I’m throwing tennis balls at you from across the bar. Your job is to make it to the other side of the room without spilling. Think Navy Seals going through hell week and crawling through the mud and under concertina wire while 50 caliber rounds and explosions are going off over there heads. Think pilots training in a simulator under the worst possible conditions and everything under the sun being thrown at them. That’s stress inoculation training. You do the thing under extreme stress and, as your mind and body learn how to stay focused and relatively calm under those conditions, anything less than that feels like a sunny, breezy, 70 degree walk in the park. So the zen folks liked to practice keeping calm, focused breathing, and steady pressure in their lower abdomens while slowly walking out into Lake Michigan in late December through February. As you can imagine, the water temps are in the 30s and shocking to the body. However, if you learn a few specific breathing and mind control techniques, you can successfully walk into the water while focusing on your breathing and stay relatively calm. Almost everybody knows what the feeling of ice cold water does to your breath and breathing. It makes it shoot straight up to your throat and become very shallow and rapid. The cold water, in essence, makes you lose control of your body and your mind goes right with it. The only thing you can think about is survival and getting to warmth. In essence, getting to comfort. If you control your physiology, however, even as your body and mind might be in some conflict at this moment, you begin to realize just how much control you really have over your mind AND your body.


If you listened to last week’s episode, I talked a lot about controlling or changing your physiology as a way to change your mind and attitude. When you push your body and mind to extremes you learn these lessons quite rapidly because they are so closely related to survival at those moments. I don’t mean that you are putting yourself in extreme danger, although the cold water exposure should always be done with a partner, just in case something happens. Nevertheless, the point is that its one thing to practice your breathing and meditating under the most ideal conditions, like in the zendo or in a yoga studio where the temperature is perfect and there is total silence, or maybe soothing and relaxing music playing. It’s a whole new ballgame to do it under extreme stress. But after all, what is the point of learning to be relaxed, calm, and centered if you cant do it under less than ideal conditions. If you can only relax and meditate in the zendo or the yoga studio, what is the point? If you can only work out in the gym or only when the garage is a cool 70 degrees with a nice cross wind blowing through it, what’s the point? And if you can only stay centered, calm, relaxed, and in control when all of the conditions are ideal, you’re missing something. Life is rarely presented in our ideal zone of comfort and existence and its up to us to make the absolute best of each and every day and each and every opportunity. One of the best ways to develop your mind for this undertaking is to do something each day that pushes on that outer edge of your comfort zone. It doesn’t matter what area of your life we’re talking about. The point is to just constantly be asking yourself how big or small is your ideal zone of existence and how did it get that big or small. If, in asking the questions, you come to the realization that your bubble is pretty small and anything outside of that bubble is considered a no go zone, it might be time to expand your bubble and push at the boundaries a bit. You want to make every day feel like it’s the perfect temperature outside? While taking a shower today or tomorrow, turn the hot water down just a bit and get comfortable with the new cooler temperature of the water. Let it flow over your head, your face, and your back. Keep your mind focused on your belly button and breathing deeply into that area. Now, give the hot water another small crank toward the off position and let the water get a little colder. Your breath will want to get away from you and move up into your upper chest and become more shallow, don’t let it. Push it down and tell it to get in line. Just sit there and let the water roll off of you. Now do the same thing again and see how cold you can let the water get before having to turn it off.


Do this exercise for 2-3 minutes in the shower and do it for 2 weeks, every time you take a shower. End every shower with this cold water exercise. Not only will you be retraining your temperature center to assess the temperature around you with new set points, you’ll be retraining your mind to accept an expanded set of circumstances that are less than ideal. If you’re a runner or a cyclist and you generally don’t ride in the rain, do it. Just simply do it. Put your shoes on, get your gear on and go out in the rain. Do it a few times and everything else will feel like the ideal conditions. You see, my friends, when you figure out where your boundaries are and then willingly push at them a bit, you build up that muscle, the muscle of expansion and growth. You build up the muscle of trying new things and operating out of your comfort zone and your ideal zone of existence begins to expand. Pretty soon you’re on the lookout for ways to push the boundaries every more. Again, I’m not talking about doing dangerous stuff and risking your life. I’m talking about pretty innocuous stuff, but stuff that will help you expand your awareness, expand your zone of existence, and open you up to greater opportunities. And I’m not just talking about business opportunities, although this is one of the big areas we coach people in, I’m talking about opportunities in life and opportunities in changing the way you think and experience the world around you. When you learn to enjoy the process of pushing your boundaries and expanding your ideal zone of existence, you learn to see the world in a different way, the whole world becomes your playground, and you can learn from it and get immense joy from it regardless of the weather, the temperature, the forecast, the conditions, or your preconceived notions about what is ideal and what is not.


I once sat on a World War II era train, on the floor with my legs scrunched up to my body, in between where the two rail cars are connected, surrounded by 20 plus people all crammed into odd body positions, all headed from Warsaw to the mountain region in a place called Zakopane in Poland, for over 12 hours. If I moved my legs I was kicking somebody else in a similar position. There was no sleeping, no moving, no peeing or using the bathroom, no nothing! Just sit there and learn to enjoy the conversation. Oh, by the way, I don’t speak fluent polish so there was no real enjoying the conversation. What I had to look forward to once I disembarked from the train was a 10 mile bike ride with a 60lb back pack on my back up mountainous switchback roads until we reached our destination. The 10 mile bike ride alone would have been torturous had I just started from a comfortable and cushy train ride where I had gotten lots of rest. But it wasn’t cushy and there was no rest. The ride was the most torturous experience I had had up to that point and I’ve been through some uncomfortable things in my life. But imagine what it felt like to unfurl my legs and stand at the end of that ride. Imagine what it felt like to stretch for the first time in 12 hours. Imagine what it felt like to smell fresh air after being crammed with 20 or 30 others in this little transition area of the train for 12 plus hours. My ideal zone of existence had been completely smashed at that point and anything, everything was better than being on that train for one more minute. The bike ride was torturous too, but I just kept thinking back to the train ride and all of the sudden I was thrilled to be pushing my legs to their absolute limits slagging up these hills. Now, 15 years later, can you imagine the kind of seats or conditions I need to have on a train to be happy? While you may need to have VIP or business class seats with champagne service, I am quite happy just to have a seat. My ideal zone of comfort and existence was expanded so much by that one experience that I am just happy to be in a seat whenever I travel by train.


Can you see how that one experience could forever change my belief about what is acceptable and what is not? Can you see how making it through that experience has informed my mind and body about what is possible and what I can endure? And can you see how willingly expanding your own ideal zone of existence can enhance every other experience you may have in life? When we get too comfortable in any area of our lives we close ourselves off to new opportunities and new experiences. When we expand our experiences and the level of experiences we’re willing to accept, we also expand the range of opportunities that will expose themselves to us. Prior to expanding your boundaries, you likely weren’t able to see a whole spectrum of different things as opportunities. Push yourself a little. Expand your boundaries a bit. Do some things that scare you a little. Try some things that make your breath jump up into your throat and then practice pushing it back down. I told you all about my mountain biking experience in North Carolina over spring break and how I had a pretty significant over the handlebars crash. I’m still not fully recovered and probably wont be for at least a year. Weekly chiropractic visits, weekly massage, weekly stretching, neck and spinal expansion and decompression exercises each week, muscle rolling, and some other specific things that I need to do to try to get back to normal. Nevertheless, I just bought my new mountain bike and am ready to expand my boundaries and get past my fear. I could let the accident scare me back toward safety and maybe I should. We’ll see. I know that I need to ride within my skill level and take it easy for a bit. What I fear more than riding mountain bike trails and crashing again, however, is letting my ideal zone of existence close in on me because of that experience. I fear becoming too safe and, therefore, too cautious about what I choose to do in life. The other thing I’m doing this year is becoming a certified national ski patroller so I am pushing myself to learn outdoor emergency care and expand my skills on the slopes. Do I have time for it? Probably not? Will it push me and tax my mind and body? Most likely! Will it make me a better person and expand my opportunities as well as my experiences? Most definitely!


Don’t fear experiencing things my friends. Don’t fear failing at something and, therefore, never try it. Don’t fear trying something new and maybe not enjoying it. Fear complacency, getting too comfortable, and aging too quickly. We all know people who have gotten old in mind even though their age doesn’t match. We all know 40 and 50 year olds who cat like 70 and 80 year olds. And, if you’re lucky, you know 1 or 2 80 year olds who act and experience life like they’re 30 or 40. The great thing is, as long as you’re breathing, you get to choose your existence and how you experience your life. Choose expansion, growth, feeling nervous every now and then, and pushing your own personal boundaries a bit. What’s the worst thing that could happen? Well, the worst thing that could happen is you’ll die. But you’re going to die anyways so why not experience everything you possibly can before that moment comes instead of waiting for it to happen. True comfort lies in a greatly expanded range of what you’ll accept, not in a narrowing range of temperature and physical expectations. Expose yourself to a wider range of life’s offerings and see if your understanding and experience, even your definition of comfort and your ideal zone of existence doesn’t expand to allow more and better to come into it.


A few episodes ago I mentioned the Real Value Coaching program and that we’ll be opening up spots in October for new students and we’ve had lots of inquiries and conversations with some of you so I’ll take just a minute to clarify some stuff. I tend to use the word class when referring to our coaching program because we tend to run things in a structured way so that new students can begin at a certain date. This allows me to onboard new students and bring everybody up to speed on how we do things and what is expected of them all at the same time. As opposed to jumping into a group full of students who have been following my system for 6-8 months already and feeling lost and behind. So, when I said we’ll be starting a new class in October, I call it that like the Navy Seals call their next group by a class number. Class 225 or 257 just graduated. And although there is a lot of educating going on, our coaching sessions are not held like boring classes that you just sit, listen, and take notes through and then sent off on your way. You’re part of a class, or a group of professionals, who have all started at the same time. You’re all likely working on different things, are at different levels in your business, at different points on a path and needing slightly different things as you grow. What a good coach helps you do is set and stick to goals in a variety of different areas (business, personal, money, health, family), they likely help you push and expand those goals beyond where you think you can go and achieve, they see some of your blind spots and maybe some of your self imposed limitations and help you dissolve them over time so you can do, be, and have more. A good coach keeps you accountable and this is one of the big things that have helped our students go to levels they never imagined they could. Knowing they have to answer to me and their fellow team mates on the call for what they said they were going to accomplish before the next call, which, depending on if you’re level 1 or 2, or doing private coaching is either once or twice per month. But its not a class in the way you may be thinking and the way some of you have asked on our calls together. Its not classroom style, it’s almost all video based small group coaching and we have a unique set of principles, documents, and systems that we use to to take your business and life to the next level. Its really that simple. We don’t take everybody because not everybody is ready for that level of personal accountability so we’re creating our level 1 program, which will also be available in October, which is almost all audio, video, and pdf exercises (we call them evolutions) based with larger group video coaching calls. What you don’t get in the level 1 program is the same level of accountability that the other levels ask for. Not everybody needs or wants me breathing down their neck to do what you say you’re going to do, so if that’s you, level 1 is for you.


Without going into any more detail yet, I will tell you that the Real Value Coaching program is completely risk free in that I WILL NOT accept your money if the program is not for you. I give you a full 60 days to try out either level one or two and, if after that time you haven’t created 5 times the investment in either level of coaching, either in new business, increased savings of time, money, your investments, or some other return for you, we don’t ask any questions, we give you all of your money back…plain and simple. Again, its not for everybody and we don’t accept everybody because I don’t necessarily want to work with everybody. My personality and methods are not right for every individual and not every individual is right for me. Although we have yet to have anybody ask for their money back, I have given 3 people their money back after 4 and 5 months of being in the program because they simply weren’t doing any of the work, they were a drain on my and the team’s time, they didn’t like being held accountable, and they simply weren’t accomplishing anything of significance. If you’re not ready to do the work, make some changes, and follow the system, my coaching program is not for you. If you’ve listened to the previous podcast episodes where I talk about the difference between motivation and inspiration and how motivation is comprised of two words, motives and action, you’ll remember that to accomplish anything you must have a motive and then be taking action. I am not a motivator nor an inspirer. If you feel motivated after an episode or inspired to do something because of something you heard, its because you already had it in you. The job of motivation and inspiration always falls on your own shoulders. One of the biggest misconceptions in the appraisal industry is created by two words that have been used for decades: apprentice and mentor. All new appraisers have to look for a mentor to teach them the appraisal business. What most apprentices end up learning is some level of the technical aspects of appraising real estate, almost none of them learn how to run an effective, efficient, super profitable, systematized appraisal business that enhances your life and gives you more of it. Most, and by most I mean at least 99%, learn how to appraise a piece of real estate, and that’s pretty much it. From there they get fully licensed, go out on their own at some point and BOOM!, they’re in business and on their own. While many appraisers go this route and create very decent personal income for themselves, very few ever learned how to budget, save, invest, create wealth with their personal income, read a profit and loss statement, develop a statement of net worth, a personal or professional balance sheet, or use any of the tools that profitable businesses use. I haven’t even started on all of the other stuff like high quality marketing, networking, building systems within their businesses, SEO, how to balance work and family life, time management, building a team within their business, health and wellness, and self development.


Many of those things are supposed to fall under the category of mentorship but many have been lied to in this business because they didn’t receive any of that kind of mentorship. They were mentored on how to fill out the 1004 form and how to survive, for the most part, doing appraisal work. And that’s ok for most because that’s all many have ever wanted, needed, or cared for. However, there are a smaller percentage of individuals out there who realize they weren’t really mentored and they want more, much more, from their businesses, from life, and from their efforts. And that’s where real mentorship comes in. As I’ve said before, it doesn’t matter to me where you are receiving your mentorship as long as you are continuing to be mentored. You’d probably be very surprised how many very successful people in the world will willingly and openly share their knowledge and experience with people who will listen and implement. You just haven’t sought them out. And if you find one in your town that you really respect and want to learn from, I suggest you propose some kind of fair trade. Offer to pay them something each week or month to have them chat with you by phone or in person for 20-30 minutes once or twice per month. Most very successful people wont have an hour in their week to meet up for breakfast or lunch to do one on one, but they’d do it for one on five. Offer to start a small business mentoring group that will all pay to have that person meet up for breakfast or lunch once a month and mentor you and the group in the principles of success. You can read and listen all you want to great books and audibles but until you have somebody you feel accountable to on a regular basis, and not just anybody, it has to be somebody you respect and, here’s one of the keys, somebody doing more than you! I call it the bigger bucket theory which says that we tend to be more open and willing to learn from those whose bucket is bigger than our own. Some call it the bigger pile theory which says we’re willing to listen and learn from those who have a bigger pile of money than us. I don’t particularly like that way of describing it because I’ve met lots of people with more money than me that I didn’t want to learn anything from other than how not to be. The bigger bucket entails having more to give others from the bucket than just money. However you choose to do it, until you start investing in yourself, in some way, shape, and form, it can be difficult to grow because its very difficult to see your own blind spots and because we tend not to know what we tend not to know. Said another way, you don’t know what you don’t know. Find a business mentor my friends, wherever you can. It can be one of the most important decisions you ever make regarding your personal and professional growth.


I want to thank you, my friends, for investing your most valuable currency with me again this week and that is, of course, your time. Our time is limited and the one currency we can never get back once spent. I am encouraging you to invest your time in life and mind expanding activities and to push the boundaries of your ideal zone of existence just a little bit each week. 1% will do. Small incremental pushes on those outer edges of what you’ll accept and what you wont. When you find something you wont accept, ask yourself why? How did you get to that place? Also ask yourself what kinds of other similar experiences have you limited or cut yourself off from because of your self imposed comfort zone and ideal zone of existence. When you get an answer, ask yourself what it would take to try that thing. Ask yourself what the cost would be to do it, both in monetary terms and in personal cost, and then just do it. Push yourself my friends. Push yourself or find somebody who will gently push you outside of your comfort zone. The worst that could happen is you try something and you don’t like it. The fact that you tried it means you’ve expanded that zone and then its time to try something else. Get to trying some new things and pushing yourselves a bit this week my friends and we’ll meet back here next few weeks to chat about wealth building, setting up your business and personal accounts for success and prosperity, building out your virtual office, and a bunch of other stuff! Until then, I’m out…