Episode #76: What is the difference between a "Scarcity" and "Abundance" mindset?

[00:00:00] Successful people don't look at others. Successful people don't blame others. They're minding their own business. They're staying in their lane. They have blinders on. It's, I didn't get that deal. How am I going to get my next deal? Where's my deal coming from? That wasn't my deal to be had for whatever reason. So I think scarcity, if you were to kind of like pigeon it into one subcategory, it's going to be people that are, let's just say,

[00:00:29] struggling for new business or struggling to find their footing and be successful in business. I think that they kind of go hand in hand, not all the time, but yeah, I think that there's a direct correlation probably there. Welcome to the podcast dedicated to real estate, insurance and building your business.

[00:00:56] Join us as we take you along our own business building journeys with additional wisdom from our network of local and national experts. Welcome to Bricks and Risk. This episode is brought to you by Property Management Redefined. PMR is not just managing properties, they're creating partnerships that build long-term success for property owners.

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[00:02:44] I'm Timmy Garrity. And I'm Phil Donohue's brother, Sean Mooney. What's up, Sean Donohue? What's happening? How's your bro doing? Oh, he's doing well. He's doing well. Was he ever on Springer? No. Was he ever on anything? He was like an arch nemesis. Besides his own show? No, just Phil. He did like real news before that show, but... Interesting. Yep. All right, dude. What are we talking about today? We're talking about a philosophical business topic.

[00:03:13] Okay. Scarcity versus abundance mindset. This one I find interesting myself because it's not something that really hit my vocabulary, let's call it. It's not something that I didn't really start thinking about myself probably until the real estate market shifted. So I think naturally I've always been more of... Wait, when was that? It's probably about two years ago. Oh, okay.

[00:03:40] So like, you know, 22 was kind of like the year that like interest rates started changing. And then 23 was a fairly slow year unit count wise. And 24, same, like historically. So I think when the market shifted and we started recording the show, it started coming up more, maybe either just through the podcasts or the channels that I'm listening to.

[00:04:08] And just you and I like wrapping on the show about like scarcity versus abundance. So let's dive in glass half empty first. Let's talk about scarcity. So my background, I'm a Gary Vee disciple. So it's been on my radar for years and years and years. Okay. And he's like abundance, abundance, abundance. Yeah, he is. He's definitely an abundance guy. Yep. I love it. Yeah. All right. Let's talk about scarcity, scarcity mindset. Like give me your thoughts on that.

[00:04:35] Uh, so scarcity is like, I'm out to get mine and you being successful is taking away from, from what I have and what I have going on. And that's kind of the, the gist of it in terms of there's a level of competition that comes along with it. And, you know, you're trying to compete against, uh, another business or person or whatever it may be.

[00:05:02] And, uh, you succeeding is going, that mindset of you succeeding is going to diminish me. Yeah. It's like you took that listing from me, which means there's one less listing that I can get. Yep. It's almost like that. Or for you, Hey, you took that client away from me insurance wise. Therefore I'm down a client. Yep. So I love that. I love how you defined it.

[00:05:29] Some of the meaning, like I have an actual definition here. So a scarcity mindset is driven by fear that there will never be enough of the things we need. And being that that's not the way I personally look at business or life, that's just me to each their own. Um, I can empathize with the scarcity mindset because I think it's, it almost kind of applies

[00:05:58] to like gratitude. Like I'm a big gratitude guy and I'm very thankful for the things that I have and not for the things that I don't have. That's just my personality. So I think scarcity, when you have that mindset, it is, it's more competitive. It's like dog eat dog world, you know, killer be killed.

[00:06:23] Like, you know, everyone's on their own, which again, can sometimes be a healthy way to look at business in general, because then, you know, look, you're never going to be a hundred percent one or the other and never going to be a hundred percent abundance or a hundred percent scarcity. You have to feel like have a little bit of balance of both to be realistic, knowing that some people operate one way and some people operate another way. I think what also plays into understanding scarcity versus abundance is, is almost like

[00:06:53] your emotional intelligence. So being able to understand that some people think one way and some people think another way is a good way to be in business. Especially if you have an abundance mindset, because you're smirking right now. So why don't you, why don't you give it to me? I'm just taking it all in. Yeah. I mean, go ahead. Whack me back. You know, no, you just kind of like went into this, like this, this box, this time warp.

[00:07:26] Tim, why do some live by fear? I mean, honestly, I think it's more common to have like more of a fear in your daily business mindset than it is to say like, there's enough to go around. It's the natural reaction. The vast majority of people are going to have the mindset of you did one plus one for you is minus one for me. Yep. Do you know what it also reminds me of? It reminds me of the Sky Michaels episode. What's up, buddy? How you doing?

[00:07:56] And in his episode, he was talking about, you know, your brain, your brain is in survival mode. It's there to help your body survive. So therefore it fights things off. And if it's only logical, yes, they got the listing. Let's say if we're applying at the real estate, I did not get the listing. That's a very logical thing. They got it. I didn't. But if you can take, you can take that and shift that to the side. That's your first reaction.

[00:08:22] He also said your second reaction is a good one to kind of like, you're not, uh, everyone's going to have a first reaction, but you're responsible for your second action. I believe is how he put it. Yeah. The second action would be as much as they got that listing. Why did they get it? You know, why did they get it? And why did I not get it? And you might want to think about that from an area, from a perspective of like, maybe they already own this market.

[00:08:48] So maybe most of the sellers want to work with them because they already do a lot of business around here. Yeah. That's one way. So if we're going back to abundance for this scenario, you could say, Hey, as much as they got that, that wasn't something I was going to get anyway. I need to go out and get mine this way through this channel, through relationships or this neighborhood or this price point or through this marketing.

[00:09:13] So you're kind of bringing it back to you to like your own accountability and responsibility and saying, I'm responsible for getting my next listing, not they're responsible for not getting the one that I should have had. If that's a way to put it. Yeah. So what are your thoughts on that? Uh, I think that it's, uh, it's accurate in that, um, you know, it takes a little bit

[00:09:42] deeper, like, that's why I think most people don't have that. I think scarcity is more popular in business than the abundance, right? It is. It's the more popular mindset, you know, go out. It's a killer be killed. Like go out. This is, we're competing for resources. This is a war zone. It's super competitive. It's super cutthroat insurance and real estate. Like go out and get yours. But you also have to be right.

[00:10:11] You have to be more thoughtful in order to have that second line of thinking about why didn't I get this? What could I have done? Like it's, it's a personal responsibility, right? That you're, you're not quite bothered by it, but you're trying to get to the root of why did it go down that way?

[00:10:39] And what could I have done better? So it, it takes a little more muscle to and thought to go into it. Right. And I think that most people that are in business are, let's call it surface level, right? It's only that they, they operate only by that first reaction. Yeah. The natural reaction to your brain. Right. Survival mode. And then it's done. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:11:08] There's no, there's nothing beyond. No second thought. Right. Yeah. It's true. That's a really good way to put it. And so I think that just by way of that, it eliminates the vast majority of people. Now I will say that I do, I do think that the more successful, that's why I think if you talk to successful people, we're not talking about the vast majority of people because the vast majority of people have this scarcity mindset. Yep.

[00:11:36] The vast majority of successful people. Yeah. The, probably the minority of business people, let's call it, especially in my industry and in yours. Do not have a scarcity mindset. So I think it's probably an 80, 20. Yeah. Yeah. In that successful people don't look at others. Successful people don't blame others. They're minding their own business. They're staying in their lane. Yeah. They have blinders on. It's, I didn't get that deal. How am I going to get my next deal?

[00:12:06] Where's my deal coming from? That wasn't my deal to be had for whatever reason. So I think scarcity, if you were to kind of like pigeon it into one subcategory, it's going to be people that are, let's just say struggling for new business or struggling to find their footing and be successful in business. I think that they kind of go hand in hand. Not all the time, but yeah.

[00:12:34] I think that there's a direct correlation probably there. That's really good perspective. So we have something here that says like, why do some people live by fear, like through the scarcity mindset? And there's three C's that go along with that. Challenges, costs, and consequences. So let's go with the first C, challenges. Like, why is life so challenging? Why is this business so hard? Why is it so hard to compete with that other realtor, let's say?

[00:13:03] Like, why, why, why? That is the first one. It's like, it's challenging. You know, 87% of agents, five years or less, gone. So it's a challenging industry. It's very easy to say, why, why, why? Then also the second one costs, why is everything so expensive? Okay. I'm an agent. I'm trying to come out with a marketing plan. Things cost money. Like you can do things through sweat, but you also have to do a few things through debt.

[00:13:31] You're going to have to pay for some things here or there. Some people go very big on their marketing budget, especially cold lead generation. And some people go very light, very small because it's, it is more about the relationship or it's more about the sweat that goes into it than just pulling out your credit card and paying for some marketing thing. And then the third one is, is consequences.

[00:13:54] You know, if I do that, then this is like these three C's, I feel like are very related to that fear mindset of like, well, I'm not up for the challenge. I'm just going to quit real estate or that costs too much money. I'm not going to pay for that, even though you need marketing or I'm not going to put myself out there because if I do, I'm going to be embarrassed. Like those are three good examples.

[00:14:22] I think it's difficult and easy, right? Right. Works hard. I got to go find the, I got to go find the leads. I got to go talk to the people, right? I got to put the work in. That's hard. Yeah. Right. I have to come out of my pocket and spend money. Yep. To be successful. That's hard. Right. Rather than it's easy to say, I don't have the money for that. It's easy to say, I don't want to invest in myself. It's easy to say, I don't want to hire a coach. Right.

[00:14:50] So, so you have the path of easiness and resistance and the path of difficulty. Right. Yep. And so as we're, we're humans, right. And this goes back to Sky's point is our tendency probably is just to find that easy path. Yeah. That's why the vast majority of people don't find success because they're always choosing that road. Should be easier. Yeah. Why is this so hard? Yeah. Like I don't get it. Yeah. I have a license.

[00:15:20] I'm a realtor or I have a license. I'm in insurance. Why don't they want my coverage? Like, why don't they want to work with me? They know me. They know I do this. Yep. Well, there's lots of reasons. Yeah. And so I think the people that are successful in business look at these different challenges, these difficulties, and they're more inclined to kind of rise to the challenge. Right. They want to tackle those problems. Yeah.

[00:15:49] They have the mindset where they want to spend the money and invest in themselves. Right. Because they're betting on themselves. Yeah. I can do better. They believe in themselves. Yep. But consequences, you know, I'm willing to sacrifice a little over here so that my business is going to grow over here. And there's a willingness to make those decisions and go the path of difficulty because they know

[00:16:17] at the end of the road, it's going to be much better. Totally agree. All right. So let's go to abundance mindset. And as much as I joke all the time about the glass half empty, I do know that you and I are both abundance mindset guys. That's how we look at the world. That's how we've built our businesses. Is here's where I'm going. I don't care what else is going on like here or there. The other thing, here's where I'm going. And this is why.

[00:16:45] So the meaning behind abundance mindset is it allows people to see possibilities even during times when resources are limited, which goes to my initial point of me personally, like hearing the abundance scarcity philosophy, let's call it topic. I've only really been like hearing that more in the last couple of years is because the last couple of years, the resources are limited in residential real estate.

[00:17:12] Sales have been down about 30%, 40% from the top year during the pandemic. The pandemic years, 21, 22 were like insane. Two of the busiest years ever for people buying and selling residential real estate. And now that the resources are limited, you're going to hear more people saying, I can't wait for the rates to come down because if the rates come down, well, then people are going to buy more houses, which is true.

[00:17:41] It's not to say that's not true. But if you're just going to sit around and wait for the rates to come down to get control of your business, you could be waiting years. I mean, no one has a crystal ball. No one knows what's going to happen. And why do you think some people, as you had stated, the scarcity side, why do you think people like you and I, because we've done this, why do you think we push forward with more of the abundance mindset?

[00:18:09] Like what is really like some of the driving factors in your opinion? I think that it's probably a couple of things. I think one is that we've been doing it long enough and can kind of see the landscape from 30,000 feet. Right. We know there's going to be ups and downs in the market.

[00:18:33] So we have the ability to kind of not get too caught up in one cycle or the next. Yeah. We've been beaten and bullied around. That's the best way I put it. Yeah. So we know that as the market is tight now, as sooner or later, it will loosen up and there will be more opportunities down the road. So I think that's part of it.

[00:18:56] Um, I think that another part of that is also kind of a, a belief in yourself. Yep. Where you don't necessarily rely on, on others, right? Like my success isn't determined by someone else. Yeah.

[00:19:24] It's just, you have complete control and autonomy over the direction that you're going and the success that you have the ability to, to capture with your business. Yeah. So I think those two things kind of play in part as to why, you know, why I have this mindset. I mean, we've talked about it before.

[00:19:51] Or we, we've said, you know, I've, I've picked up the phone. I got a, I got a email from Holden this morning. Nice. What's up, Matt? And he's like, Hey, can you help me out with this risk? You know? Right. And, and I do that similarly. I call agents. Hey, I don't have a market for this. Can you help me? We need to treat the client right. They need something that I can't help them with. Hey, I have this client that's getting non-renewed and kind of give you the example as to what the circumstances are.

[00:20:20] Do you have anything that might fit this? Right? So I'm always in this mindset of, you know, there's enough out there. We want to make sure that the client is taken care of. And in the end, you know, goes back to the Rob Shuck episode. Yep. What's up, Robbie? That, you know, you may help me this time. I may help you the next time. It's kind of scratch my back. I'll scratch yours. Yeah.

[00:20:50] And in the end, it's, it's, it all comes out in the wash. Really? Yeah. You know, you might, I might give you six leads. You might give me four. I don't know. Right. You might give me zero. I don't, you know, it's not really. Um, a scorecard that I'm looking at. Right. In the end, it's just trying to find the right fit for the client. And if you, if you have that mindset where you're trying to do right over and over and

[00:21:17] over and over again, I don't know. I just have this kind of karma aspect that you continue to do good things for good people and you're going to be a winner in the end. Hey everyone. This is Tim, your favorite bricks and risk co-host, but don't tell Sean. I hope you're enjoying this episode and I'll get right back to it in a moment. Our audience grows through word of mouth.

[00:21:43] So if you would please take a moment of your time and give us a review on the platform you're on, that would be fantastic. Please also help spread the BNR word by sharing your favorite episode with a friend. We greatly appreciate your time and trust. Now back to the show. So there's four C's with abundance. There's curiosity, creativity, confidence, and courage.

[00:22:12] I think the curiosity is a really good starting point because that's really, you're just open minded. Like you're, you're going to try things like you and I have tried so many things in business to be like, I know if I do this, I'm going to get leads or I know if I do that, I'm going to get leads. And we've both done tons of things where we've tried something and it didn't work out. Exactly. The gorilla marketing sign. I'll give you this.

[00:22:41] And also you have to understand that being curious in business and trying those things, as long as you're consistent and you're committed to it, eventually some of these things are just going to open up. Us being relationship minded, you just mentioned Matt, you know, you and Matt having a relationship and respect from one for one another and knowing that you do something that he does and he does something that you can't do. You're just going to work together. And every now and then you're just going to talk to each other and be like, Hey, can you help me with this?

[00:23:10] Well, now that's an opportunity for you and the same for Matt. So, which also comes up with like the creativity. So like if your client focus relationship focus, whether you can do the deal or not, whether you can insure them or whether or not I can help them buy, sell or rent. If I can't help them, I'm going to point them in the direction where someone can. That might be to another human being.

[00:23:37] Talk to Bill, talk to Sally, or it might say, you know what? I think, I don't think you're in a position to buy right now because of your credit. I would recommend credit repair. I don't have a credit repair person for you right now, but I recommend you look into that because if you do that, you're in the beginning stages of being able to buy in the future. So that's the creativity, but it's really, I feel like the confidence that you were referring

[00:24:01] to, you just do so many of these things over and over again, again, beaten and bullied by people in our industry. And you just brush it off. And eventually you're like, the things that I do, I like to do, or they work for my budget and my time blocking, my schedule, my family, whatever it is you're doing with your business. And you kind of get that self-acceptance, that confidence. It's like, I've done this like so many times now.

[00:24:31] I know if I continue to do it, I'll continue to get business from it. And like you had said in the beginning, successful people, as they go through their journey in business, as well as in life, they just learn things along the way. Plus things come into their business solely because of things they've done in the past. They've either learned it or it's the relationships or it's whatever. It's the consistency. And then that makes them feel confident. They're like, I've been doing that for 10 years.

[00:24:59] And like, for me, a great example, marketing email newsletter. I've been doing that for almost 15 years to this day, probably still my number one driver of business through my relationships because I stay top of mind once a month in a format that I like that works for my audience. And they find ways to reach out to me and say, Tim, can you help me with this? Can you help my cousin or my neighbor or my coworker or whoever? Yeah, it's definitely, I mean, I touched on it earlier,

[00:25:28] but I think that these are, you know, you look at these four, let's call them personality traits, you know, the people that are curious, people that are creative, people that are confident and people that have courage in what they do. It's like going back to what I said, it's that recipe for success. If you take successful people, I think that you're going to find in them a lot of these four personality traits. Agreed, man. Awesome. All right.

[00:25:57] So we're going to do something a little new today. We've done it in the past, but we're going to offer some tips. So based on Sean and I being more of an abundance mindset, even though there's nothing wrong with scarcity to each their own. Right. Let's talk about some of the tips that maybe we can offer to the listeners and watchers out that might help them either reinforce the perspective they already have, or maybe give them a different

[00:26:23] perspective in other ways that they've run their business that they're just looking for information. The first one that I really relate to, this is big for me, is gratitude. And gratitude for me is very simple. It's just being thankful for the things that you already have on a regular basis. That's the way I look at it. Call it spiritual, call it prayer, call it meditation, call it whatever you want.

[00:26:49] Just sitting down one time and taking 30 seconds to say, man, I really have a good life. You know, I'm very blessed to be able to have good health and walk around and do what I want to do in life or be a parent or be a business owner or have great friends. I look at gratitude personally as that's pretty much one of the foundations of abundance that if you're grateful for what you have, you know that there's more to come because you've already received a lot.

[00:27:19] You've already received a lot in life. You're not worried about what you don't have. Exactly. It's kind of key in that, you know, and I always look at it like, and I always get these weird looks, you know, from Trudy in my office. What's up, Trude? It's like, she's like, how come you don't get spun out on this stuff? Like something will happen, you know, every given week there's some scenario and she's like...

[00:27:48] Trudy, have you seen the Sky Michaels episode? Yeah. Well, that's not out yet. Tune it. Whatever. Yeah. But she's just like taken aback that I don't like freak out or I don't, you know, you know, someone leaves and I send them a thank you card. Right. You know? Like, thank you for your business. Yeah. And they left. Right. It's like, to some people, they're like, what are you nuts? Well, we have it all. You should be sending them a death threat. Yeah. We have them.

[00:28:18] We have that. Right. And so the counter to that is, you know, when we send a notice letter like, hey, we have new insurance coverage for this client. You know, please cancel out the exist. And we have people like calling us, threatening us, saying, we're not going to do that. Saying, we need X, Y, and Z and this in order to process that. Yep. And I'm just like, really?

[00:28:44] Like, this is the last interaction you have with this client. Because I always look at it like, yeah, they're leaving me now, but there's an opportunity down the road to kind of try to win them back. So the last thing I want to, and that's part of the reason why I send the cards out. Like, hey, thank you. You know, thank you for your business over the last few years. Insurance changes all the time.

[00:29:11] Um, when things do, I hope you'll give me the opportunity to try and win back your business. I love that. And so it's, it's being grateful for have them as a client and, you know, people come and people go. Um, and so it's just a different take on, you know, losing a client from having a different mindset. You know, it's, I can do one really good example. And I know you can relate to this in like a tight inventory market where you're one of

[00:29:41] multiple offers, which you're familiar with. And you know, you're, you're speaking to the listing agent. So I'm on the buyer side and they're like, Hey, we have five offers. We have 15 offers. We have 35 offers. And I've heard all these things over the years. And you're putting your offer out there and they're like, okay, we'll have a decision by Tuesday. And then the agents calling me and I'm like, okay. So I'm like, this is either going to be like, I'm in the game or, Hey, would you consider

[00:30:09] tweaking this because you're neck and neck or thank you for your offer? But we went with another offer. Every time that happens to me, I have to, there's two things that happen. One, when they say that to me, I've already put in a lot of time, work and, and hope that it works out for my clients. That's first and foremost. When they say that I'm let down. But the worst part is going to my clients and telling them that we didn't get it.

[00:30:39] So the first step I always take personally with that is I actually say to the listing agent, congratulations on getting the offers you did and getting such a strong number for your client. Like that's awesome. Congratulations on, on the sale. And I bet you most of those calls don't go that way. Yeah. And then when I speak to my client, I say, Hey, unfortunately we didn't get it onto the next one. Not like, Oh, maybe we should have done this.

[00:31:06] Maybe we like, if we go down that road, what it could have, should have, it's just all going to turn negative. It's like, look, we put our best foot forward. It didn't work out. And if for whatever reason you're like, ah, maybe I would have done a little bit more. Guess what? Now you're smarter for the next one. But the whole point of that is just to say, look, it didn't work, but we're still working together. It's going to work. It might take two weeks. It might take three years, however long it takes.

[00:31:34] It'll work, which is where another tip comes in the planning. So again, when you are trying to be more of an abundance mindset, try to map it out. Like if you're saying, Hey, I just got into real estate, let's say, and I want to be making X amount of income, you know, let's say by the end of five years. So I don't become one of the 87% that gets in and gets out.

[00:32:01] Like you're going to have to have a little bit of a roadmap and a vision for your business and know that year one's going to be here, two, three, four, five. Now you don't have to have numbers and stuff for every year, but I will say at the end of every year, you should reflect on your year and plan for the next. And I think if you can do that, it's going to always keep you in this mindset of like, you know what? I tried those five things. Let's say they were all sweat and they didn't work.

[00:32:29] So maybe I got to pull out my credit card next year and try five things through debt because I know people invest in things. Or you set a goal and you hit that goal and you succeed and that builds confidence. And now you have a foundation to build upon. And then maybe you correct the next year to say, oh, I'm going to set an even higher goal. And this is what I'm going to do.

[00:32:56] I'm going to map this out this way to try to increase my sales to get me there. Exactly. And then the last tip we want to give is just trust. Like if you fail, try again. Like that's the bottom line. You fall. I used to say I used to fall on my face. I had to fall on my face like a hundred times before I had to figure out how residential real estate worked because I didn't have a mentor. I didn't join a team. I wasn't at a big brokerage. So I didn't really have all these people like feeding me information.

[00:33:25] I just said, I'm just going to go figure it out. I'm going to use my instinct, my gut, my business knowledge, you know, my love of working with people, just trying to help them out. And then if I'm too nice, I'm going to get in trouble sometimes. And if I'm too much of a dick, I'm also going to get in trouble sometimes. So you have to find that balance. When you fail, fail forward. Yep. Wow. Great advice. Learn something, right? Like why'd you fail? What could you do better?

[00:33:53] You know, find those things that are going to work for you. Yep. And every time that it's not a complete success, find ways to improve on it. And in that you're going to breed more confidence in yourself. So if you like the show and you want to reach out, get us on the email bricksandriskatgmail.com.

[00:34:16] We're on all the platforms for audio, Apple, Spotify, Amazon, and all the socials as well. You can get us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and we have the YouTube channel, Bricks and Risk. You can find us there as well. Awesome. That's all we have for this one, folks. Thank you for tuning in again to another episode of Bricks and Risk. See you soon.

[00:34:43] Thank you for joining us on another episode of Bricks and Risk. Our goal is that you walk away with one or two valuable nuggets, and we greatly appreciate you sharing your time with us today. You can find all BNR episodes on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and anywhere else you get your podcast content. Until next time, keep learning and keep growing.