Top production in real estate begins before the calls, appointments, contracts, and closings. Frank Montro shares the routines and beliefs that have shaped more than four decades in the industry, including defining a clear purpose, preparing the next day in advance, reviewing mistakes, practicing gratitude, controlling attention, and matching business development activities to personal strengths. Mahmoud Faisal Elkhatib and Frank also discuss consistency, urgency, problem solving, personality assessments, and why agents should measure their actions instead of allowing one difficult transaction to define the entire day.
Frank Montro describes real estate as an inside game. Systems, scripts, databases, and lead generation matter, but the agent must still decide whether to complete the difficult activity when discomfort appears.
A professional may know that a client needs a call, that an older lead needs follow up, or that a problem must be addressed immediately. The obstacle is often not a lack of information. It is the temptation to delay, avoid conflict, or wait until the work feels easier.
The agent who can direct attention and action during uncomfortable moments gains an advantage that no script can create alone.
Confidence and persistence can move a transaction forward, but they cannot replace careful contracts, title review, legal strategy, and clear communication. EV Häs helps Chicagoland agents, buyers, sellers, and investors address the legal issues that appear when a deal becomes complicated.
Mahmoud Faisal Elkhatib is a Chicagoland real estate and foreclosure attorney, investor, entrepreneur, and former real estate broker. His work includes real estate transactions, foreclosure matters, title disputes, building code cases, and complicated property ownership issues.
Through The Bow Tie Edge, Mahmoud speaks with professionals who can explain the legal, operational, and personal disciplines required to succeed in real estate.
Frank Montro is a longtime real estate professional, producer, and team leader with more than four decades of industry experience. His influence extends across a large network of agents who have worked with him, learned from him, or built their careers around principles he teaches.
Before entering real estate, Frank worked in accounting. He later recognized that a people focused, problem solving career was more closely aligned with his personality, energy, and strengths.
Frank believes a producer needs a reason that is stronger than the temporary desire to feel comfortable. His personal purpose includes faith, family, financial goals, health, and the responsibility to provide value to clients.
When fatigue or frustration appears, he returns to those reasons. He visualizes the people who depend on him and asks whether the action he is considering supports the person he wants to become.
This approach does not require every agent to share the same motivations. The practical lesson is to identify the responsibility, relationship, or future goal that makes difficult work meaningful.
Motivation changes throughout the day. Purpose gives the agent a reason to continue after the excitement disappears.
Frank prepares his schedule before going to sleep. He records the people he must contact, the responsibilities that need attention, and the activities that should receive priority the following day.
He also conducts a daily review. He examines what worked, what was neglected, where he reacted poorly, and whether an apology or correction is needed. The purpose is to prevent one mistake from becoming a repeated habit.
Frank closes the review with gratitude and recognition of small wins. Completed calls, corrected mistakes, productive conversations, and disciplined choices become evidence that progress is being made.
A written plan reduces the amount of mental energy spent deciding what to do after the workday has already begun.
An agent may complete the correct activities and still finish the day without a signed contract. Another agent may receive an unexpected referral after completing very little productive work.
Frank argues that evaluating the day only by the immediate result creates emotional instability. One failed transaction can make the agent believe the entire day was wasted, even when the prospecting, follow up, and client service activities were correct.
His preferred standard is whether the agent completed the actions most likely to create future business. Those actions may not produce a closing immediately, but consistent execution increases the number of future opportunities.
The result is not always controllable. The quality and consistency of the activity are.
Frank recommends using a personality assessment to understand which real estate activities fit the agent naturally. An outgoing agent may perform well at events and relationship based lead generation while strongly disliking cold calls. Another person may prefer detailed research, systems, administration, or transaction coordination.
The objective is not to use personality as an excuse to avoid necessary development. It is to build a role and lead generation strategy that can be sustained without constant internal resistance.
Frank learned this lesson through his own career. He was capable of performing accounting work, but the role did not fit his need to interact with people, solve active problems, and lead from the front.
A capable person can still struggle when placed in a role that repeatedly works against that person’s natural strengths.
Frank creates urgency by reducing the time he allows for a task. Instead of giving himself the entire day for something that may require fifteen minutes, he assigns a shorter deadline and uses a timer or calendar block to force focused execution.
He also warns against treating several successful transactions as permission to stop prospecting. A temporary increase in business can become a future decline when the activities that created the pipeline are abandoned.
Consistency means continuing the correct habits when the market is strong, when the market shifts, when a transaction fails, and when the agent feels successful enough to relax.
Top production is not one intense week. It is the ability to repeat productive behavior long enough for the results to accumulate.
A producer should act quickly without pretending to know every legal answer. When a transaction involves title problems, foreclosure, unusual ownership, contract disputes, or another serious risk, EV Häs helps the professional identify the issue and build a practical legal response.
Frank explains that his reactions changed as he began reviewing his behavior, meditating, journaling, and deliberately redirecting his attention toward solutions.
A difficult message from a client may initially create fear or anger. Avoiding the call usually allows the problem to grow. Returning the call, listening, clarifying the issue, and identifying the next action can convert an emotional moment into a manageable task.
Frank does not describe success as the elimination of negative thoughts or difficult days. His practice is to recognize the reaction, reject unproductive self talk, return to the present responsibility, and solve the next problem.
He also encourages newer agents to study successful professionals instead of constantly searching for a completely original method. Proven systems can be observed, adapted, and practiced until the agent develops a personal version that fits the market and individual strengths.
The inner game refers to the thoughts, habits, identity, attention, emotional responses, and personal disciplines that influence whether an agent completes the activities required to build the business.
The agent can review unfinished responsibilities, schedule important calls, identify the highest priority activities, evaluate mistakes, and record the next actions before ending the current day.
No. Closed transactions matter, but an agent should also measure prospecting, follow up, appointments, client service, database activity, and other controllable actions that create future opportunities.
A personality assessment may help the professional identify preferred communication styles, working environments, lead generation methods, and team roles. It should be used as a guide for self awareness rather than as a permanent limitation.
Frank emphasizes purpose, daily preparation, self review, gratitude, focused activity, shortened deadlines, consistent prospecting, problem solving, continued learning, and matching the business role to personal strengths.
