The managing officer of Intero Los Altos says inspiration must come from withinJohn Thompson, or JT as he is known to most, is the co-founder and vice president of Intero Real Estate Services. He’s also the managing officer for one of the company’s most successful offices, Intero Los Altos. JT has been working alongside Intero founder, Gino Blefari, for more than two decades and was one of the guys who sat with Gino in rented office space back in 2003 to map out a vision of what a great real estate company should look like. Today, he’s one of the most respected managers and executives at Intero, known for his ability to motivate and inspire others.

We talked to JT about his management approach, an easy-going, participatory style that focuses on leading by example, communicating openly and inspiring others to find their own motivation to reach their highest potential.

What do you think the biggest mistake is that managers make in trying to motivate their agents?

They aren’t inspiring themselves. That’s definitely the biggest mistake. If you’re not inspired, nobody working with you is going to be inspired.

The other thing to consider is that it’s almost impossible to motivate somebody who doesn’t want to be motivated. They have to want to do it for themselves. What you can do—in fact the only thing the you can commit to—is to be inspiring so that other people see it, are attracted to it and will be motivated to jump onboard.

What’s the hardest thing to do in motivating agents?

The hardest thing for me is to be motivating even on the days when I’m not feeling particularly great myself. But, that doesn’t matter. As a manager, I’m not allowed to have an off day, even though I have the same mental challenges to overcome and issues to work on. People are looking to me for leadership; so it’s that much more important for me to do the things that get me to the place of feeling inspired. Because of the role I have accepted, it is a requirement for me to work harder at this than everyone else, otherwise you have no credibility.

What do you do to get to that place?

I read more books. I focus on my health. I make sure I am having conversations with other inspired people. I review my vision book to remind myself of the things that are important to me and what I’m working for and towards—the people, my family, my friends, places I’ve been, things that I’m excited about doing down the road. Jim Rohn has a line I am fond of . . .

It is important for me to always be looking forward without losing sight of living in the moment.

The truth is, I still have to go through days and put on a strong face when I’m not feeling strong, but I can’t let the people around me down, not when they’re looking to me for that spark.

It seems like you focus on helping people address the “big picture” almost as much, if not more, than the details of selling. Why?

I do that because it’s all connected. Listen, we’ve all worked with the agents who seem to be working smarter and more efficiently than everyone else. People ask me “what’s the secret?” The secret is, there is no secret. There are two things those agents are doing differently. First, they’re focusing their activities on the things that generate results. That’s pretty clear. But more importantly, it’s who they’re being while they’re engaged in those activities.

I’ll give you an example. Two people hold an open house. One gets five appointments and the other gets zero. Do you know who the person who gets five appointments is? It’s the person who’s energy is positive an attracts others. And you can only be that person when you’re internally happy with the things you’re doing and how you feel about yourself.

It’s the same concept as motivating your agents. You can’t force someone to take an appointment with you. The only thing you can commit to is motivating yourself, and if you do that from deep inside, people will be inspired by it and will always gravitate to you. That’s why I focus on the big picture–because it’s all connected.

This business is about connecting with people, and so you’d better make sure that you’re the kind of person others will want to be around.

What specifically would you say to an agent who’s not doing well with their sales?

Tell me right now what you think you can be doing better? What time did you go to bed? What did you do between 9:00 and 11:30 p.m.? That’s two hours. Should you be in bed or doing something to promote your business?

If you’re happy with your results, then whatever you’re doing is not bad, but you’re sitting in my office unhappy. The secret to getting better results is that there is no secret. You have to change all these small things that will add up and have a big impact on you. Shake up your routine. Do something, anything, different.

It can be as small as getting people to drive to work differently. The pattern needs to change. Get yourself out of the pattern if your current routine isn’t producing the results you want.

When people get results, they seem to be happy with life. I didn’t get to the office today until 8:15am, but I was up at 4:30am. I’m not going to say that you have to get up at these hours, but it is an option. Maybe you can do if for 60 days. If you did work harder, what do you think the odds are that you’ll get the results you want?

You say that you read quite a lot for inspiration. Any books you would recommend?

That’s a tough one. I can throw out a couple of books that were fabulous for me, but books are very personal. Some books hit home to one person and land on deaf ears to others.  The key is to keep reading, since you never know which one will speak to you.

For example, so many people love Stephen Covey, they always recommend his material to me and I have tried but I just don’t respond to it.

I think anything by Jim Rohn is worth reading. He’s my favorite author and speaker. I like that his concepts are very simple.

The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz is also good.

A non-business book that’s great is Viktor Frankl’s a Man’s Search for Meaning. He was a Holocaust survivor who went on to become a renowned psychiatrist. His whole thing is about how our mind, our search for meaning, motivates everything we do.