There’s a tweet from Alex Hormozi that’s been stuck in my head this week:
“The reason people don’t start businesses isn’t because they don’t know what to do, it’s because they don’t know what’ll happen. Operating in uncertainty is the job. By the time you have perfect information, it’s too late.”
Gold.
This is true not just for entrepreneurs but also for every commercial real estate broker who avoids cold calling.
See, the prospect call itself isn’t hard. You pick up a phone, dial ten digits, and have a short conversation. That’s it. You’re not performing heart surgery.
So why does it feel so heavy?
Because picking up the phone puts you face-to-face with fear. Not surface-level discomfort. Real, career-defining fear.
“What if I suck at this?”
“What if I don’t have anything valuable to offer?”
“What if I’m just annoying people?”
“What if this proves I’ll never make another deal?”
The act itself isn’t difficult, it’s the internal dialogue that kicks in the moment your finger hovers over “Call.” That’s what you’re really avoiding. And yes, even experienced brokers feel it.
But let me tell you something:
Business development is the lifeblood of your career. If you’re not generating opportunities, your pipeline will run dry, no matter how good your execution is.
That means cold calling (or however you choose to prospect) isn’t optional.
And here’s the truth: you shouldn’t rely on a single touchpoint anyway.
One call isn’t enough anymore. That’s why our most successful clients build omnichannel campaigns: calls, emails, texts, and even physical drips. Each touch builds trust, momentum, and awareness. Together, they compound. We call this approach omnipresence prospecting—and it’s lightyears more effective than “smile and dial” alone.
After 16 years of coaching and tracking CRE brokers, here’s what we know with certainty:
Phone-based prospecting remains the #1 driver of new client revenue. And it’s not even close.
But the brokers who truly win use the phone as part of a structured, multi-touch campaign. That’s the difference between just “showing up” and building a system that compounds.
Try This:
One of the simplest and most effective ways to beat resistance is to gamify the process.
Set a clear, measurable goal, not something vague like “make good calls,” but something binary:
10 dials a day
3 meaningful conversations before lunch
1 meeting booked before 4 PM
Then, track it.
Write it on your whiteboard.
Create a scoreboard in your office.
Tell a colleague and hold each other accountable.
You can even turn it into a friendly competition.
See who on your team can get the most conversations or meetings booked this week. You might be surprised at how quickly business starts moving when there’s a scoreboard, and a little friendly pressure, to fuel performance.
Even though I’m not cold calling anymore, I hold myself to goals using the same principle. I write them on a whiteboard in my office, where I see them daily. It’s not motivation that keeps me going, it’s the system.
And that’s the point.
You can’t wait to “feel ready.”
You need a structure that pulls you through the friction.
Every elite broker I know has their own version of this. Because it works.
And once you get consistent, the fear fades. You stop overanalyzing what might happen and start focusing on what needs to happen. The wins start stacking faster than you expect.
Because while your inbox might feel safe, it won’t build your future.
Your phone will.
Want to build an easy prospecting system to make all of this 10x easier?
To turn cold calling from a source of stress into a source of success, you need a reliable prospecting system—one that you can actually stick to.
That’s what The Prospecting Playbook is all about.
If you want to create a prospecting system that works without relying on tired scripts or guessing your way through every call, we’re running an all-day live workshop to help you build your own custom playbook.
We’ll show you exactly how to structure your outreach, book more meetings, and start having better conversations with the right prospects.
The session is on Thursday, April 24th. Our last live workshop in February sold out in the first week (and had twice the capacity).
👉 Click here to learn more and secure your spot
Only 100 spots are available.
