Stop procrastinating and start prospecting.

CRE Success Principle: You do not build prospecting momentum by jumping into the deep end. You build it by progressing deliberately, letting relevance and confidence grow with each step.

Procrastination shows up in commercial real estate when prospecting feels bigger than it needs to be. I see it in others, and I catch it in myself too. When the task feels overwhelming, it is easier to delay instead of just getting on with it.

The mistake most people make is thinking that prospecting is about closing deals. It is not. Prospecting is about starting conversations and creating a bridge to the next step. When you remove the pressure to generate immediate revenue, it becomes far easier to begin.

Start Where You Are Comfortable

If you are early in your career or entering a new market, aggressive cold prospecting is not the place to start. Begin with people you already have a relationship with, even if you have never done business together. Those conversations build confidence and momentum quickly.

From there, expand to people who are similar to them, people you can be referred to, and eventually the type of clients you actually want to work with. I’ve learned to categorise these as five-star clients. Define what makes them attractive and start targeting them with intention and relevance.

Momentum Beats Motivation

The hardest part of prospecting is starting. Once conversations begin, momentum helps you keep going. Each interaction makes the next one easier, just like easing into the shallow end of a pool before moving to the deep end.

If a lack of prospecting has been weighing on you, this episode will help reset your mindset and give you a clear place to begin.

Listen to episode 255 of Commercial Real Estate Leadership to hear the full breakdown and start building momentum today.

Episode transcript:

Do you do more procrastinating than prospecting? You're not alone.

So, let's talk about ways that you can get started and do more prospecting that will help you raise your performance.

Welcome to episode 255 of Commercial Real Estate Leadership. My name is Darren Krakowiak. I'm here to help you lead better, grow faster, and stress less.

Thanks for joining us. If you're enjoying this special series of episodes, this is the fourth and final series on momentum and mindset to help you get 2026 off to the right start.

Hopefully it is because we're in February now, if you are enjoying it, what I was trying to say is that do me a favor and just let the algorithm know that you're enjoying it by subscribing to the program.

Whether you are watching us on YouTube or listening to us on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify, that means you get notified whenever we do drop a new episode.

If you are so inclined, leave us a rating or review or click like on the video and that'll let us know that you are there supporting the channel. It's an easy, simple thing that you can do to support the content that we are bringing to you.

And today's episode, I think, is a nice circuit breaker. It's also a nice segue into what is going to be our next special series of episodes, because next week we're moving into pipeline, prospecting, and production power.

But before we do that, I want to talk to you about the importance of not procrastinating and the need to do more prospecting.

So, if you've been putting off your prospecting because you're waiting for the exact right moment, the perfect conditions to actually do the work that you know is necessary, I think this episode is going to be a great reset for you.

And it's going to help you take the action and to continue to build more of that momentum.

If you haven't yet, if you're not feeling like there's much behind you, if you want some tailwinds to propel you forward, I think this episode is a great reminder of some of the things that you can be doing to create that for yourself.

It's also a little bit of a trip down memory lane because this was originally episode 62.

That was back just after a lockdown in Melbourne, and I think I'm feeling pretty good in this episode because it's just after I got a haircut.

I'm pretty relieved because if you go back to a couple of episodes before that, my hair's out of control because we couldn't get haircuts for like three months.

I do look a little bit different. Anyway, that's okay. I've enjoyed bringing these special series of episodes to you.

It does provide me with a little bit of a contrast between now and then, and I hope you're enjoying it too. I appreciate you being with us for it.

------

The idea for today's episode comes from partly myself.

I find myself when I should be contacting new prospective clients doing something else and not focusing on the activity, I will listen back to this episode to remind me of some of these ideas.

But also, it came from somebody who subscribes to my emails who contacted me a couple of months ago to let me know that they were moving to a new job.

And the new job was one where they would be required to find their own clients.

And their previous role wasn't one where they were in a revenue-generating role.

And they asked me for some ideas on where they should get started with prospecting. Because they just didn't know where to get started.

And I thought, well, what a great idea for a podcast episode.

Because I think a lot of people feel like that. Not only when you do move into a new role or you move into a new market, but just every single day.

“Where do I get started with prospecting?”

So that's where the idea or the inspiration for today's episode comes from.

If you don't know where to start with prospecting or you find yourself procrastinating when you should be prospecting, and if you are one of these people who is relatively early in your career, one thing I want you to know as we go through some of these ideas’ is don't feel like you need to be aggressively prospecting at the very early stages.

Yes, I do want you to be out there speaking to people. But the idea of aggressively prospecting, sort of running before you've learned how to walk, may not be the best idea. Because you might not be ready to run yet.

So, what I would recommend that you are doing at this stage is just focus on starting conversations and really growing your sphere of influence.

Now, prospecting of course is not about closing deals. It's all about opening up a conversation and getting you to the next step.

So, adopting that mindset can help you at any time with prospecting because it takes some pressure off the conversation.

Rather than thinking, “Oh my goodness, like I've got to make sure that this next call leads to revenue or else I'm not going to be able to feed my family.”

If you think more about, “Well, I hope that I've got an opportunity to speak to this person again”, then that's probably a better frame of mind to be in when you're prospecting than putting a lot of pressure on yourself.

So, with that being said, let's talk about some places that you may want to start with prospecting.

And the first place I would start would be people who you have some business relationship with.

Now, even if it was in a different context, so they weren't necessarily a client of yours.

But if you have some relationship with them and there's the possibility that the services you provide would be something that they may need in the future. Well, I would start to have some conversation with them.

Because you've already got the relationship and possibly you've already got some deposits in the relationship bank.

So, now's a great time for you to take a withdrawal out of the bank by having a meeting with them, giving them a call, letting them know that you're in a new role and saying that you'd like to come and have a conversation with them.

And that will get your confidence up as well. Because they're less likely to decline you for a meeting because you've already got the relationship.

So that would be the first place I would start.

The next place that I would start would be maybe people that I haven't done business with before, but certainly I've got a business relationship with.

And I would be having a similar conversation with them, letting them know what I'm doing.

But even if I didn't think that they were a prospective client, I'd still be looking to hear from them about what they would have as recommendations for me to be focused on.

And instead of seeing them as opportunities for new business, you can see them as opportunities for information.

And that will help you have more context for the next group of people who I would recommend that you contact.

And that is people who are similar to the first two groups of people.

Because once you've started to have some conversations with people who you already have a relationship with, the next step is to move out of the shallow end of the pool and move a little bit more into the waist-deep water and to start to contact people that you don't know.

Now that will be easier to do if you contact people who you don't know, but you've had conversations with people who are similar to them.

Now, the reason why it will be easier is because you'll have more context about the types of things that they might be interested in talking to you about.

Now, I don't mean that you should be trading in any secrets that you've learned through the people that you already have a relationship with when you speak to these people.

But certainly, you'll get some understanding of what's important to that industry or people who are in that position.

And you'll be able to refer to that information to make the conversations that you have more relevant and resonate more with this new group of people that you do go and speak to.

The next group of people who I would be looking to speak to would be people who you can be easily referred to.

Calling up someone that you don't know is a lot more challenging and daunting than calling up someone who you've had a warm introduction to.

So, in fact, I might even do the warm introduction people before I reached out to the people who are similar to the people who I already knew just because I've got a warm introduction.

In fact, you can have a conversation with them which is more relevant and likely to resonate based on the person who refers you in.

They might give you some information or some context. Or you could do some research.

You could connect with them on LinkedIn. You could see what they post.

You could do some research on their industry or do some research on them and make sure that not only are you having a warm introduction, but your conversation's likely to go somewhere because you've got some relevant information and something to have a conversation with them about.

Now, the other group of people who I would talk to when I want to get started with prospecting is the type of people who I want to do business with.

So, I would be thinking about, and I've got this thing I've learned about five-star clients.

I learned this from a guy called Taki Moore, and he talks about five-star clients.

It's just about defining five characteristics of your ideal client and then looking for clients that have those characteristics.

Pretty easy concept, right?

And when you know what they are, you'll be more likely to see them because your reticular activating system will be on the lookout for them.

So, define who they are, whether it's in terms of size, in terms of sector, in terms of geography. All the different factors that are important for you that are attractive for you to do business with.

Once you know who they are, then start to target them and to know as much as you can about them again before you contact them.

But if you desire to contact them, then that's a good group of people to contact.

So, when I came back to Melbourne in 2019, I'd spent nearly 12 years working and living overseas.

And I had to get started with prospecting. And it was hard to know where to start.

Like here I am in this city I haven't lived in for 12 years, where do I start?

And some places where I looked were if I had done business with the company in Korea, I thought, well, there's a reason for me to contact them in Melbourne.

Also, people who I knew in Melbourne, I contacted them and asked them, “What it is that you are expecting from service providers who are doing what I'm doing. I'd love to know what is it that's important to you.”

So, these are some ways that you can leverage existing relationships or reasons that you would have to call someone.

I think it's all about having a relevant reason to call someone. To contact them. To have a conversation with them.

So, it's something that will go somewhere as opposed to just calling randomly.

So, these are the things that I would do to get started with prospecting.

I think the most important thing with prospecting, of course, is just to get started. And to not procrastinate. And to get the monkey off your back. And to have those conversations.

Because once you start having conversations, that will create momentum. And it will become less scary to have more conversations in the future.

So, you can use the deep-end pool analogy that I used before. Or you could use running and jogging and marathons.

Like at first you just go for a short run and get into it. And then you might start increasing the kilometers and going further and even going for bigger fish to fry.

So instead of thinking, “I don't know where to start,” go through your contacts list.

Think about who it is that you feel comfortable to contact, who you've been dealing with in your day-to-day before.

Start having conversations with them. Start having conversations with people who are like them.

Start looking for people who you can be easily referred to. And start looking also to make contact with people who you want to talk to, who are your definition of an attractive prospect or a five-star client in the future.

There are some ways that you can stop procrastinating and start prospecting.

Like I said, most important thing is to begin. And B is for begin in the A to Z of commercial real estate prospecting.

And I've got another 25 ideas on prospecting in that document. If you want to grab that free document, cresuccess.co/abc

It's the A to Z of commercial real estate prospecting. And it will have a number of ways that will motivate you to not only get started with prospecting. But to elevate your prospecting game.

And give you more ways to do it so you don't get bored with prospecting the same old way.

Because prospecting, I think, is one of those parts of the job which not everyone loves but we all know that we really need to do it.

But if you can get better at it and you can find more ways to do it, then it's going to be something that you are more motivated to do and hopefully that you'll start to enjoy more.

Well, thank you for sticking around to the end of today's episode. I appreciate you listening. I will speak to you soon.