Just the other day I was speaking with a successful and well put together Recruiting Leader. This is someone I highly respect who has built a mega team in less than 4 years.
He truly represents The Attractive Leader in so many ways…..
Has a clear vision…………check!
Is able to clearly articulate that vision……..check!
Is living in accordance with that vision………..check!
Everything is going his way in every way with lots of recruiting wins under his belt.
Out of the blue he asked me……..
“Richard do you ever deal with head trash?”
I had an immediate thought rise up in me as I had a hunch I knew what he was referring to but instead of assuming I asked…….
“do you mind defining head trash and giving me an example?”
For the next few minutes he described what most Recruiting Leaders deal with on a daily basis. In these moments we typically internalize things like…..
- That Loan Officer is happy where they are!
- That company is impossible to recruit from!
- My company doesn’t have a known brand in my market!
We question our abilities to move candidates to next steps.
We question whether the individual we are calling can be moved from a mortgage company who seems to have everything going well.
We doubt our phone skills.
We doubt the script we are using.
We doubt what other people think of us as a leader.
We reflect on the hard moments where we get rejection.
And on and on and on…….
The reason I can create this list is that I have thought each of these in moments where I was the Recruiting Leader over my 15 years inside the mortgage business.
The truth is that we all have HEAD TRASH but our success depends on us working through it. I have worked with a number of Recruiting Leaders who just couldn’t seem to move past it so I have created 3 easy steps to get through the trash and onto the treasure.
Step 1 – Set a short term goal:
Here is an example of this. Establish a “bold quota” for the day. These are moments where you get outside your comfort zone and do the things you know will make you successful. Make a call. Send a text. Show up at an event. Be direct.
Step 2 – Create a prize for hitting the goal and focus on the prize:
Let’s say you set that bold quota for the day at 5. Then you create a prize for hitting it. Maybe it’s date night with your spouse and you determine you will hire a sitter (let your spouse know so they can support you hitting the goal). For the fellas perhaps it is setting up a tee time with your buddies. For the gals maybe its setting up salon time with your girlfriends. Name it BUT also let the others who are going to be a part of it in on the moment. Knowing someone is going to ask you whether you hit the goal is enough for you to push beyond the head trash and “just do it” (thank you Nike).
Step 3 – Turn off your brain:
This is where you simply turn off the part of your brain that wants to live in the hypothetical.
The what ifs………What if they are rude………What if they don’t like you………. What if they say no………What if I call that LO and they walk into their BM’s office and say “you will never guess who called me”………………………………what if, what if!
There is an off button that doesn’t require you to think. Now is the time to go ahead and hit that button.
The bottom line is the longer you sit in the trash the farther you get from the treasure. You are only a few decisions from having either at any moment.
You got this! Your future you will thank you for working through it!
