I remember Lucy, an admin that we had at a finance company I used to work at early in my career. Lucy brushed her teeth…a lot. Every time she would drink a beverage or grab herself a quick snack, she brushed and flossed. You see, Lucy was engaged to be married…to a dentist. Teeth were the main focus in her household. That’s just the way it was. Four out of five denists recommend brushing and flossing after you eat anything…well, I’m not sure that it’s four out of five, but that’s what I’m going with for the sake of argument.
Regardless of the field you choose, you are going to have a disproportionate focus on that area of your life in relation to the general population. As a long-time banker, I log into my on-line banking every single day to go over my bank accounts to make sure nothing is hitting my accounts that I don’t expect. I have an unnatural focus on my credit report and I have minor chest pains every time I pull my credit or debit card out of my wallet. That’s just the way we are wired. Fitness gurus are going to count every carb and calorie while hand models are going to obsess about a hang nail.
Whether you are purchasing notes or buying real estate, you have to ask yourself “what is the most important thing to the person that I am talking to?” Perhaps you hold a mortgage for a single mom that hasn’t received her child support payments for the last six months. Maybe the family that is trying to buy your remodeled bungalow just had to pay for braces for little Timmy and they are tight when it comes to paying for closing costs. Whatever the case, you must put yourself in the other party’s shoes to determine what it is that is most important to them. If you can identify what they obsess over and offer a real solution to their conundrum, you’ll likely gain a customer that will refer others to you.