Guest Blog: Ken Boyd, Brimstone Firearm Instruction
Real Estate can often be a lonely job, where you are one-on-one with customers in remote, isolated areas of a home. This often pushes an Agent outside of their comfort zone, make them nervous or, at least, not relaxed. Predatory people often act on instinct, like a dog. They smell fear and they might just act on it. This is an incredibly rare event, but it is a possibility that can make a normal showing a nervous affair for all involved.
The good thing is that any successful salesperson, such as a Real Estate Agent, can read people pretty well. If someone makes you uncomfortable, act on that feeling. Don’t be alone with them, refer them to another Agent, or just be wary. I’ve often found that if a person knows someone is alert, they stay on their best/better behavior. Subtle cues such as showing no fear and being confident can prevent a situation from happening. Knowing when to act a certain way is just as key to making a sale or winning over a customer as it is to being safe. I teach the 4 levels of mental awareness: Unaware, Aware, Alert, Action.
Being aware is key. You can take a buddy with you, carry mace, learn self-defense, or even carry a concealed weapon, but nothing will matter if you are not aware. This is actually very easy to teach to a sales person, such as a Real Estate Agent, and I would like to teach the agents of JGR how to be alert and some really simple techniques that are easy to learn just in case something bad does happen. Armed with the knowledge that you can do something and the awareness of when to act will give the smallest person the ability to overcome. And that ability will keep an agent inside their comfort zone a little easier in those questionable times when danger might come knocking.