It's Official. The World Is Ending.

I am very sorry to be the one to break this news to you.

But apparently, it's over.

The real estate market is collapsing.

Buyers have disappeared.

Sellers have lost their minds.

Interest rates are never coming down.

Or maybe they're going up.

Or maybe they're coming down, which apparently is also bad news for some reason.

The economy is headed for a recession.

Unless it's headed for inflation.

Or stagflation.

Or some other kind of flation that will undoubtedly destroy your business.

And according to the experts on social media, we are approximately 48 hours away from the complete collapse of civilization.

Again.

I know this is difficult news.

Especially since we were all supposed to be rich by now.

But after giving this considerable thought, I believe I have identified one possible course of action.

It's radical.

It's controversial.

And I'm fairly certain it won't get many views on Instagram.

DO YOUR JOB!!

That's it.

That's my advice.

I realize you were probably hoping for something a little more sophisticated.

A new strategy.

A new lead source.

A new AI tool.

A new marketing campaign.

Perhaps a webinar explaining the seven secrets to surviving the greatest real estate catastrophe in human history.

Sorry.

Do your job.

Or, as my former coach Don Shula would say:

"Make the fricken play."

What Don Shula Understood That Most People Never Figure Out

I played four years for Don Shula with the Miami Dolphins.

And there was something fascinating about the way he approached football.

His objective was to win the Super Bowl.

Not occasionally.

Not when circumstances were favorable.

Not when we had an easy schedule.

His objective was to win the Super Bowl 365 days a year.

He established a standard of perfection.

We prepared relentlessly.

We studied.

We practiced.

We watched film.

We corrected mistakes.

And then we practiced some more.

Every player had an assignment.

Every player was expected to know his assignment.

Every player was expected to execute his assignment.

And when Sunday arrived, Shula had considerably less control over what happened.

He couldn't control the opposing team.

He couldn't control the officials.

He couldn't control the weather.

He couldn't control injuries.

He couldn't control how the ball bounced.

And he certainly couldn't run onto the field and make the tackle himself.

What he could control was everything we did to prepare for Sunday.

And when Sunday arrived?

Make the fricken play.

Not explain why the play was difficult.

Not complain about the opponent.

Not predict what might happen in the fourth quarter.

Not spend the entire game worrying about the scoreboard.

Execute your assignment.

And there is something else worth understanding.

Shula didn't expect perfection because he believed we would never make mistakes.

He established perfection as the standard because he understood that preparation, practice, repetition, evaluation, and correction were what gave us the best chance to perform when it mattered.

The scoreboard would eventually tell us the result.

Our job was to perform.

Which brings me back to you.

Your New Three-Part Business Plan

Given the impending collapse of everything we hold dear, I would like to offer you a business plan for the remainder of 2026.

It consists of three parts.

1. Control what you control.

2. Influence what you can influence.

3. Discover what unfolds.

I apologize for its simplicity.

There are no funnels.

No proprietary technology.

No 97-step marketing system.

No guarantee that you'll double your income in 30 days.

Just three distinctions that, if you actually lived by them, could fundamentally change the way you experience this business.

Let's take a look.

1. Control What You Control

Let's begin with a little exercise.

Can you control interest rates?

No.

Can you control the economy?

No.

Can you control the number of homes that sell in your market?

No.

Can you control whether a seller decides to sell?

No.

Can you control whether a buyer decides to buy?

No.

Can you control whether your client likes what you have to say?

No.

Can you control whether another agent promises your seller an unrealistic price?

No.

Can you control whether someone hires you?

No.

This is becoming a rather depressing exercise.

Apparently, you have almost no control over anything you spend your day worrying about.

And yet you continue to worry.

You check the news.

You check social media.

You check interest rates.

You check what other agents are doing.

You check your phone.

Then you check everything again 15 minutes later, just in case the world has changed.

And while you're doing all that checking, there is something you aren't doing.

Your job.

Because here's what you actually control.

You control whether you get up and prepare for the day.

You control what goes on your calendar.

You control whether you follow your calendar.

You control whether you cultivate your relationships.

You control whether you practice your conversations.

You control whether you prepare for your appointments.

You control whether you tell the truth.

You control whether you hold your standards.

You control whether you honor your fee.

You control whether you follow your process.

You control whether you have the difficult conversation you've been avoiding.

You control whether you continue to chase someone who has already demonstrated they aren't committed.

And perhaps most importantly:

You control the decisions you make when things aren't going the way you want.

Not necessarily your initial emotional reaction.

That may show up before you've had a chance to think.

But you can learn to recognize it, regulate yourself, and choose what happens next.

That's the work.

Because when pressure increases, your operating system wants relief.

The seller is upset.

Lower your fee.

The listing isn't selling.

Spend more money on marketing.

The buyer is hesitating.

Start persuading.

The pipeline is thin.

Find more leads.

The market is uncertain.

Panic.

All perfectly understandable reactions.

And all potentially terrible decisions.

Your business will rise to the level of your standards and fall to the level of your compromises.

The market doesn't make those compromises for you.

You make them.

Which means the first part of doing your job is to stop surrendering control over your own performance to circumstances you cannot control.

2. Influence What You Can Influence

Now let's talk about your clients.

Because this is where things get interesting.

You cannot control what a seller believes their home is worth.

You cannot control what a buyer is willing to pay.

You cannot control whether someone takes your advice.

You cannot control whether a client agrees with you.

But you can influence the quality of the thinking that goes into their decisions.

And that is an enormous responsibility.

Unfortunately, many agents confuse influence with persuasion.

They believe their job is to get the seller to reduce the price.

Get the buyer to make the offer.

Get the client to sign the agreement.

Get the prospect to choose them.

Get the transaction closed.

In other words, get someone to do what the agent believes needs to be done.

And when the client resists?

Explain harder.

Present more data.

Overcome the objection.

Create urgency.

Find the magic words.

And if none of that works, perhaps try talking louder.

Here's a different idea.

Stop trying to get people to do what you want them to do.

Start helping them see what they may not be seeing.

Consider the seller who insists their home is worth $2.5 million when the current market is telling a very different story.

You can explain the comparable sales.

You can show the competing inventory.

You can review the showing activity.

You can explain why the price needs to change.

And you may be absolutely correct.

But what if the seller isn't disagreeing with your data?

What if they need $2.5 million to buy their next home?

What if they promised their spouse they wouldn't sell for less?

What if accepting a lower price feels like admitting they made a terrible financial decision?

What if they aren't ready to let go of the life they've built in that house?

Do you know?

Or have you been so busy trying to get the price reduction that you never bothered to find out?

This is where Tactical Empathy and Discovery become essential.

Not as techniques to get someone to agree with you.

As ways to understand how another person sees their situation.

Your job is to create enough safety for the truth to emerge.

To understand their reference point.

To discover what matters.

To explore what they may not have considered.

To help them examine the consequences of their choices.

And to allow them to make their own decision.

The same applies to buyers.

A buyer says, "I think prices are going to come down. I'm going to wait."

Wonderful.

Perhaps they're right.

Perhaps they're wrong.

You don't know.

Instead of explaining why now is a great time to buy, why not become curious?

What leads them to believe prices will decline?

What are they expecting to happen?

What would waiting accomplish?

What would happen if prices didn't decline?

What is the cost of waiting?

What is the risk of moving forward?

What matters most to them?

And what are they potentially overlooking?

You aren't there to decide for them.

You aren't there to steer them toward your preferred outcome.

You are there to help them think more clearly.

And here is the part many agents struggle to accept.

You can do an extraordinary job helping someone think through a decision...

And they can still decide not to sell.

Not to buy.

Not to reduce.

Not to hire you.

That's their decision.

Your influence does not give you ownership of their choices.

It matters who says it.

And ultimately, it needs to be the client.

Your responsibility is the quality of the conversation.

Their responsibility is the decision.

Which leads us to the third part of the plan.

3. Discover What Unfolds

This may be the hardest one.

Because you want to know what's going to happen.

You want to know whether the market is going up or down.

You want to know whether your listing is going to sell.

You want to know whether the buyer is going to make an offer.

You want to know whether your pipeline is going to produce enough business.

You want to know whether you'll have a good year.

And ideally, you'd like to know all of this by Friday.

Unfortunately, life has a rather annoying habit of refusing to provide advance notice.

The future is not available for inspection.

You can study trends.

You can examine probabilities.

You can make reasonable assumptions.

You can prepare for different possibilities.

But you cannot know what will happen until it happens.

And yet, look at how much of your emotional energy goes into trying to secure certainty about outcomes that have not occurred.

You get a listing.

Will it sell?

You meet a buyer.

Will they buy?

You have a Discovery Call.

Will they hire you?

You send an offer.

Will it be accepted?

You look at your pipeline.

Will it be enough?

You spend your day mentally living in a future that doesn't exist.

And in the process, you miss the only place where you can actually perform.

Right now.

This is what Shula understood.

We could prepare all week.

We could study every tendency of the opposing offense.

We could practice every defensive adjustment.

We could know our assignments inside and out.

But once the ball was snapped, the game unfolded.

The offense did what it did.

The quarterback made his read.

The running back found a hole.

Something unexpected happened.

And our job was to respond to what was actually happening.

Not what we hoped would happen.

Not what we predicted would happen.

Not what we wished had happened.

What was happening.

Make the fricken play.

And then?

Line up and do it again.

There was no guarantee we would win.

There was an expectation that we would perform.

That's the distinction.

Control your choices. Influence outcomes through your performance. Discover the results.

Not control the results.

Discover them.

The Part Nobody Wants to Hear

Now I realize there is a small problem with this approach.

It's not particularly exciting.

It doesn't offer much immediate gratification.

And it requires you to do many of the same things you already know you should be doing.

How disappointing.

You mean the answer isn't more leads?

More marketing?

More technology?

More information?

More training?

More strategies?

More motivational videos?

No.

In fact, I would suggest that for many agents, more is precisely the problem.

More is never the answer to not enough.

You already have relationships you aren't cultivating.

You already have conversations you aren't having.

You already have a CRM you aren't using consistently.

You already have processes you aren't following.

You already have skills you aren't practicing.

You already have standards you aren't holding.

And you already know many of the things you need to do.

The problem isn't necessarily that you don't know.

The problem is that what you know isn't consistently showing up in what you do.

Especially under pressure.

That's why Shula didn't simply hand us a playbook and tell us to study it.

We learned in the meeting room.

We practiced on the field.

We went back into the film room.

We evaluated.

We corrected.

We studied.

And then we did it again.

Day after day.

Week after week.

Until what we had practiced became our default response when the game was on the line.

Imagine applying that level of discipline to your real estate business.

Imagine practicing difficult seller conversations multiple times a day instead of waiting until you're sitting across from an angry seller.

Imagine becoming so skilled at Discovery that you no longer feel compelled to persuade.

Imagine cultivating your relationships consistently instead of waiting until your pipeline is empty.

Imagine holding your fee without needing to defend it.

Imagine being willing to walk away from business that isn't right for you.

Imagine not needing every conversation to produce a transaction.

Imagine the freedom of doing your job without making your emotional well-being dependent on the outcome.

That's performance.

And it is available to you regardless of what the market does next.

So, What Exactly Is Your Job?

Since the world is apparently coming to an end, I think we should make this as simple as possible.

Your job is to cultivate meaningful relationships.

Your job is to discover whether there is a clear path to a successful transaction.

Your job is to listen and understand before you attempt to respond.

Your job is to help clients think more clearly, not to think for them.

Your job is to communicate the truth, even when it is uncomfortable.

Your job is to prepare and practice until your skills hold up under pressure.

Your job is to implement and follow processes that support consistent performance.

Your job is to manage your time and attention.

Your job is to maintain financial discipline so desperation doesn't make your decisions.

Your job is to recognize when you are the Favorite and when you are the Fool.

Your job is to hold your standards, especially when you are afraid.

Your job is to take responsibility for your choices.

And your job is to do what the moment requires.

Not everything.

What matters most.

And then do it again tomorrow.

One Final Thought Before Civilization Collapses

Last week, I asked you to wake up and pay attention to what is happening in your business.

This week, I want to take that one step further.

Because paying attention is not enough.

You can recognize reality and still avoid it.

You can know exactly what needs to be done and still not do it.

You can understand every principle I've written about and still spend your day reacting to the latest headline.

Which brings us to a question I would encourage you to consider.

Are you actually doing your job, or are you spending your time thinking, worrying, and talking about your job?

There is a difference.

A very big difference.

And when you strip away all the noise, all the predictions, all the uncertainty, and all the drama, your responsibility is remarkably straightforward.

Control what you control.

Influence what you can influence.

Discover what unfolds.

That's it.

You don't need the market to cooperate.

You don't need interest rates to come down.

You don't need sellers to become reasonable.

You don't need buyers to become decisive.

You don't need the world to become less uncertain.

You need to prepare.

You need to practice.

You need to pay attention.

You need to make the decisions that are yours to make.

And you need to execute.

Will that guarantee you'll sell another home?

No.

Will it guarantee you'll have a great year?

No.

Will it guarantee the market won't collapse?

Absolutely not.

But since the world is ending anyway, what exactly do you have to lose?

Do your job.

Make the fricken play.