Written 100% by Suze, 0% AI

Mindset: The Art of Attracting Clients and Getting to Yes in Negotiations

As real estate professionals, we face multiple challenges, from building a substantive network, managing client relationships, understanding market dynamics, and handling complex negotiations. Our ability to navigate these challenges and achieve success often hinges less on external factors and more on our internal mindset. This paper delves into the importance of mindset for real estate success, examines key mindset models, and looks at some specific applications to help you see how you can master mindset and find the success you desire.

 Understanding Mindset A mindset is a habitual pattern of thoughts, feelings, and behaviours; a set of characteristically related attitudes, ways of being, and relating. Our mindset provides the framework through which we see and experience the world. Our mindset can heavily influence our path toward success or mediocrity. For entrepreneurs like us, fostering the right mindset is crucial. It dictates how we approach problems, build relationships, handle rejection, manage stress, and persevere through adversity. Our mindset defines our choices and how we act and react; hence, our mindset shapes our outcomes and results. Mindset is a choice; it becomes possible to change everything when you develop awareness around mindsets and intentional decisions. 

While this paper is about real estate specifically, the ideas cross over to all aspects of your life, so dig in and get ready to experience some significant positive change. 

A) Carol Dweck’s Fixed Vs. Growth Mindset 

Dr. Carol Dweck’s research has profoundly influenced our understanding of mindset. She categorizes mindsets into: 

FIXED MINDSET: Individuals believe that their abilities are static and unchangeable. This mindset avoids challenges and is deterred by setbacks. In real estate, this can manifest as avoiding meeting new people, fearing rejection in prospecting, hesitating to use new technology, and being reluctant to enter complex or aggressive negotiations. 

GROWTH MINDSET: Individuals believe abilities can be developed with dedication and effort. This mindset sees challenges as opportunities to grow and setbacks as lessons. In real estate terms, these agents would be more open to stepping into the discomfort of meeting new people, gaining new clients, expanding into new markets, and embracing technology and all its advancements. Additionally, agents operating from a growth mindset constantly strive to improve their professional skills, including communication, social and emotional intelligence, and negotiations. PAGE  

If you operate from a growth mindset, you are more likely to persist in the face of setbacks, remain resilient in fluctuating markets, and continually evolve to meet your clients’ needs. 

B) Marilee Adams’ Learner vs. Judger Mindset Model 

Dr. Marilee Adams’ work introduces another vital dimension: 

JUDGER MINDSET: This mindset quickly judges situations, others, and oneself, often resulting in defensive behavior, blame, and resistance to feedback. A real estate agent operating from this mindset might have trouble building relationships with others and carry significant amounts of self-doubt. They tend to blame others for market conditions, competition, clients, or their brokerage for their lack of sales. 

LEARNER MINDSET: This mindset is characterized by open questions, curiosity, and a willingness to explore. It’s proactive and adaptive. An agent operating from this mindset might ask themselves, “What can I learn from this?”, “How can I adapt to better serve my clients?”, or “How can I understand my clients and their needs any better?” 

Marilee’s model demonstrates the opportunity to observe our mindset and that of others. Awareness of our mindset opens the door of opportunity for us to choose between judger and learner instantaneously, which will profoundly affect our results. The advantage of observing the mindsets of others signals to us what to say and how to act to obtain the best outcome for all parties. 

Adopting a learner mindset will make you more likable, and your ability to connect with others will grow significantly. 

C) The ICE Model: The ICE (Ideas, Connections, Extensions) Model further elaborates on mindset in business settings. 

IDEAS: Creative solutions for marketing, business development, presentations, and negotiations. 

CONNECTIONS: Building meaningful relationships with prospective clients, colleagues, negotiation counterparts, and other professionals. 

EXTENSIONS: Leveraging ideas and connections to broaden one’s sphere of influence, such as social and professional networking. 

There are other mindset models, some of which carry limitations that impact their effectiveness, particularly in the emerging ERA of AI, economic uncertainty, and global change. 

People often reference the difference between a positive and negative mindset. While there is certainly much value in looking for the positive in a situation, the ability to remain present enough PAGE 

COPYRIGHT © 2023 NATURAL ELEMENTS COACHING INC. | Mindset: The Art of Attracting Clients and Getting to Yes in Negotiations 

to acknowledge the reality of a challenging situation is imperative for us to help people make important decisions. 

Suze’s Model Adopting a mindset of curiosity creates the ideal environment for us to attract clients and help those clients make important decisions around real estate. The idea of a curiosity mindset comes directly from Dweck’s Growth vs. Fixed model and Adams’ Judger vs. Learner model but simplifies it and applies it to real estate. Real estate is a people business, and the first critical step to success is to find people who need to buy or sell real estate and want us to represent them. This entails having meaningful conversations with people. A curiosity mindset ensures that we have deliberate conversations that make people feel heard, cared for, and appreciated. These are critical steps in attracting clients. 

Once clients have put their trust in us to help them navigate the process of buying and selling real estate, operating with a mindset of curiosity will help us, as Realtors®, to get them the best possible result. By remaining curious, we can build more effective strategies, adapt to challenges, manage difficult people, and negotiate better outcomes. 

Mindset, while intangible, is a foundational pillar for success, especially in a dynamic field like real estate. Agents who understand the importance of mindset and actively work to cultivate a curious or growth-oriented one can differentiate themselves from other Realtors®, offer superior service, and navigate the ebbs and flows of the real estate world with graceful resilience. Embracing a curiosity and growth mindset while integrating elements from established mindset models can lead to heightened professional success and personal satisfaction.

Case Studies Here are two scenarios about two Realtors® who operate out of different mindsets attending the same event and getting remarkably different results. Case

Study #1 – Susan Susan, a Realtor® with Alchemy Real Estate, is heading to a Chamber of Commerce meet-up. Her manager has suggested that she start attending events to meet new people and find potential clients. Susan was reluctant but agreed to go after some convincing from her manager. Susan feels nervous about attending the event and has been worrying about it since she agreed to attend days ago. Susan arrives at the event, gets herself a drink, and standing alone she begins to observe all the other business professionals and their interactions with each other. Susan doesn’t know anyone, and from her perspective, it seems everyone is engaged in a meaningful conversation and looking like they belong. Susan hesitantly shuffles along to the food table, nervously preparing to introduce herself to some people; she gathers food on her plate while she musters the courage to engage in conversation. Susan eventually has a brief conversation with someone else at the food table, but this person seems shy, and Susan feels it’s unlikely that she is someone who will be buying a home anytime soon. They exchange a few final words, and then Susan moves on. The evening continues in the same vein, and eventually, Susan is tired of being uncomfortable and awkward, so she leaves and goes home. Although Susan handed out her business card to a few people at the event, she didn’t feel like she made any meaningful and real connections. 

Case Study #2 – Alison Alison, a Realtor® with Swaying Trees Real Estate, attends the same chamber of Commerce meeting that Susan with the Alchemy of Real Estate attended. Alison has been excited all day for the event and is curious about opportunities to meet new people. Alison is very interested in listening to the guest speaker and has heard that the food at these events is excellent. Alison arrives near the beginning of the event, and as she gets herself a drink, she starts a conversation with an older woman who is trying to decide between a glass of red or white wine. Alison makes a silly joke about Rose, and the two of them have a little chuckle. Alison and the older woman, who introduced herself as Marg, engage in a conversation. It turns out that Marg is a newly elected municipal councillor. Alison is delighted and asks Marg a few questions about her new position. Marg answers enthusiastically, and another person unknown to Alison joins their group. Marg knows Mark and introduces him to Alison. As Marg introduces the pair, she realizes she doesn’t know what Alison does for work, so she asks. Alison tells Marg and Mark that she is a Realtor®, which opens up a conversation about the market and the housing shortage. Mark shares that he works for a non-profit to build  housing for under-housed single mothers. The group of three all continue in a spirited and friendly conversation. The evening continues, and Alison meets dozens of new people and exchanges contact information with several of them. Alison will follow up with her new connections in the coming days to establish a business relationship. 

While it’s tempting to label Susan as shy and introverted and Alison as outgoing and extroverted, that doesn’t prove true in most studies about personality types. Many top entrepreneurs and salespeople are introverts. The significant difference in these two scenarios is, of course, mindset. Susan is closed-minded and judgmental about the event well before it begins, and she doubts herself and her ability to meet people. Susan is also judgemental about other people. Operating out of the judgmental mindset, whether she is aware of it or not, crushes Susan’s confidence and activates her inner critic. It also makes the few conversations she does have feel uncomfortable, disengaging, and inauthentic. 

On the other hand, Alison has made a deliberate decision to be open-minded and curious. She figures if she is going to spend an evening away from her family, she may as well meet some people, have some good conversations, and enjoy herself. Alison is optimistic about the speaker and the food and is curious about who she will meet. This mindset gives Alison the confidence to initiate an initial conversation with a stranger almost as soon as she arrives. Alison’s genuine curiosity about others allows her to engage in high-quality conversations with others effortlessly.  People find Alison friendly and easygoing and are happy to continue the conversation and introduce her to others. 

When you develop the ability to choose the mindset of curiosity, you open yourself up to many possibilities to connect and engage with people. You’ll find that you like people more when you let go of judgment, and importantly, they’ll like you more, too. These positive mindset shifts are the core of attracting more clients and building a better real estate business.