I mentor a lot of appraisers from all across the nation. Most of the time, appraisers ask me how to do something such as, how to get their business to the next level. How to be more efficient. How to be able to close the doors at 5:00 pm and have weekends off. How to (fill in the blank).
While the answers to these “how” questions might provide some help, the more important questions are “why” and “what”. If I had to give them an order, I’d say that why is the most important and how is the least.
I’m sure you understand the difference between why and what but people often confuse what and how. To make it easier to understand the difference, let’s relabel those. “Why” equals the principles, “what” is the practices and “how” means the procedures.
Your principle, the driving factor behind everything could be more financial freedom and time flexibility. This is your why, it’s the thing that you’re working towards. Now comes the practice, what you do to allow you to get closer to your why. Maybe your practice is going to be 20 appraisals a week. This would allow you to have the finances to support your life but also give you time to spend with your family. Finally, you’re at the boots on the ground part, the procedures you’ll use to make those 20 appraisals possible. It is the hiring of a VA or getting some particular software type thing.
Starting with the procedures is putting the cart before the horse. You don’t need to hire that VA until you have an idea of what you need them to do. You won’t know what you need them to do until you know why you want to do it. You have to start by knowing why you are doing everything you are doing.
Most people actually have a why, they just haven’t taken the time to really think about it and define it properly. Once you do that it makes a huge difference, everything shifts. I recently helped one of my coaching clients make a major life decision. They were trying to decide between continuing to run their own practice or taking up a staff position they had been offered at a firm.
We spent several coaching sessions looking at figuring out their why, digging into what they wanted their future to look like. Determining why they were doing what they were doing was the key to making a decision.
As a business coach it's not my job to give you the what or the how. I'll help you with that but it is more important that I help you decide what your why is. Once you find that why, you’ll know what you need to do and how you need to go about doing it.
Don’t spend all your time working in your business, don’t focus only on what and how. Knowing why you are doing what you are doing helps you make the decisions that will move your business to the next level. Are you, on a regular basis, asking yourself “why”? It may change the way that you live your life.
If you're interested in my personal, one-on-one coaching it's something I love to do. Work with me on getting to know your goals and finding your why.
For more information on this subject, please listen to The Appraiser Coach Podcast Episode:
