Agent Advice

Waiting for inspiration to strike

Andrew Duncan

02 Sep 2025 — 8 min read

Every Monday, my main priority is to send this newsletter. But some days, it just doesn't happen. Writing, like marketing and prospecting, requires a level of creativity, and sometimes (usually when I've had too much coffee) that creative spark just doesn't fire.

I can sit there staring at my screen all I want, but the words don't appear by themselves.

In real estate, we often experience days where we plan and fully intend to prospect, but for a multitude of reasons, it just doesn't happen. We get busy, distracted, stuck in appointments, or bombarded by sudden emergencies.

One major key to success is not to avoid these days entirely (that would be impossible), but to not let them stack up one after another.

Miss one day of prospecting? No big deal.

Miss a week? Red flags waving.

Miss a month? Your income is about to free-fall.

When you miss a day of prospecting, it's imperative you get back on the horse the next day and make calls. Because if we aren't careful, delaying those proactive business-building activities can become a habit, and habits are hard to break.

One of the smartest things I ever did was name this little business 'Agent Monday'. The name in itself sets up an expectation that I have to deliver something every Monday. Now I don't always hit that goal, but 9 times out of 10 I make it happen. I can guarantee that if it wasn't for the name, that wouldn't be the case.

How does this help you?

Prospecting is important but not urgent. When tasks don't have a deadline, they are easy to delay, procrastinate over or flat-out ignore. It's easy to make ourselves feel busy and productive while still avoiding the most valuable use of our time.

The solution?

Book a weekly one-on-one with your manager. Let them know the amount of prospecting you plan to do each week, create a weekly checklist, and sit down once a week to review progress.

Learn the key elements of an effective income-growth checklist:

This is an incredibly simple step, but it can unlock so much success if you buy in.

Think about it this way:

What if you were able to do twice as much prospecting as you currently do?

Would you double your income?

To be honest, it might even triple your income - we all know real estate is a momentum game, and work creates work. You reach a tipping point once you have a certain number of listings, where local sellers will start calling you in purely based on your profile.

Doubling your prospecting output might sound daunting, or unachievable, but I'll bet that for most salespeople, if they added up all the time they spend actively talking to potential sellers, it'd be less than they spend scrolling social media, browsing online, or gasbagging at the office.

Prospecting is a bit like going to the gym. We spend way more time thinking about doing it than we spend actually doing it.

All we need to do is improve that ratio. To turn a little more of that 'thinking about prospecting' time into action. The way to do that is to place a deadline on the task and have someone to report to.

Action step 1: Book a 15-minute one-on-one with your manager at the same time every week. Preferably early in the morning, before the office gets busy and before you have any excuses to skip the meeting or get sidetracked.

15-minute: Pick 3-5 weekly business-building (prospecting) activities that, done consistently, will help grow your business.

For specific ideas, check out these guides:

It's not about being perfect! There will be weeks when you don't complete all your prospecting tasks. The point is, simply measuring your output is guaranteed to improve it.

Before you go, a word of caution...

Don't bite off more than you can chew

One major note to all of this is that you don't want to set yourself up to fail by setting your expectations too high. The biggest mistake salespeople make when they seek accountability is to go in all guns blazing:

"I'm going to spend 2 hours door-knocking every day!"

"I'm going to make 40 calls a day!"business-building

Start with manageable numbers to build your confidence. The absolute key here is to stack days and weeks of habitual prospecting. It's not about the total number of contacts (although that helps, of course), but rather, establishing a habit and giving yourself confidence that you can fight through that prospecting inertia and pick up the phone.

Tips to help you succeed

Timebox your prospecting. Block out appointments in your calendar to complete your key business-building tasks.
Carry a list of your past appraisals and potential sellers everywhere you go. When you have a spare 5 minutes in your car, pick one contact to ring.
Write down every proactive connection call you make.
Keep your weekly activity checklist on top of your desk where you can see it every day.
Have a folder where you keep each week's completed checklist. In future, you'll be able to see a direct correlation between the checklist being completed and your increased income in the months following.
Show up to your one-on-one, even when your week turns to crap. Keep the meeting, discuss what got in the way of your prospecting plans, and work out what you need to do to get better in the weeks ahead.
Review your activity list. If it's been 4 weeks and you aren't getting traction, up the numbers or add a new weekly task (like sending an email newsletter). Conversely, if you aren't ticking off everything on your list, reduce the numbers or remove a task until you can achieve your weekly objectives.
Give it time. Commit to a weekly one-on-one review of your prospecting checklist for 6 months. I guarantee your business will improve as a result.

But I don't like my manager!

I get it. Salespeople don't feel comfortable sharing the inner workings of their business with a manager they don't trust. Especially if that manager is also a salesperson themselves!

In that situation, find a real estate buddy you can work with. It could be a colleague who is in a similar position, or a salesperson who is in another part of town that you aren't directly competing with.

It could also be a friend, but if you pick someone too close to home, it's easy to skip the meeting when your schedule gets busy, or you haven't completed your prospecting tasks.

Would you like some help?

I provide regular accountability sessions for a number of clients. These can be as quick as a 10-15 minute session, once a week or once a fortnight. Over the phone or via video call.

If you are interested, reply to this email and I'll be in touch.

💡

The key to creating consistent income in real estate is to consistently follow a plan.

So what's on your list this week?

Stay awesome,

Andrew Duncan

Quote of the week

"Wear gratitude like a cloak and it will feed every corner of your life." – Rumi