S4 E05 - There Is No Emergency In Real Estate: Mental Health with Mark Stern

**Affirmations, Boundaries and Letting Go: Protecting Your Mindset with Mark Stern** Season 4 of Estate Agency Mastery continues with one of the most vulnerable and practical mental health conversations we have published. Chris sits down with Mark Stern to unpack exactly what he does day to day to protect his mindset while running a self-employed estate agency business. This one gets into affirmations, morning routines, boundaries with your phone, protecting your relationship, and the quiet skill of letting go when a deal starts to wobble. Mark is refreshingly honest about what has worked, what he still gets wrong, and the specific practices his wife Anne (whose business is in spirituality) has taught him. **What we cover** Mark opens with the first rule he lives by. There is no point in feeling sorry for yourself. He talks about the feast or famine reality of estate agency and how even the wins can create anxiety. Within half an hour of a big payment landing in his account, he is already asking himself how long it will last. We dig into his morning routine in detail. He gives himself half an hour of positivity every morning. No phone. Say good morning to his wife. Shower. Then a full ritual of prayer and affirmations that he reads directly from his phone. Chris shares his own version, including a Tony Robbins inspired affirmation practice he has been doing in a cold shower for over a decade. Mark reads several of his affirmations on air, all rooted in gratitude and abundance. Everything is always working out for me in the best possible way. I am constantly amazed at the opportunities that come my way. Thank you for showing me that this issue is already so solved. I have certainty beyond reasonable logic. We talk about the biggest doubt affirmations create, which is when they do not appear to work. Mark shares how he trained himself through certainty, and how consistency (even when you are just going through the motions) builds the muscle you rely on when things get hard. We get into phones and boundaries. Mark shares the rule his wife Anne created. The bedroom is not a work room. Anything that comes in stays until you are up, dressed and downstairs in your office. Chris shares his own approach, including an Amazon phone safe that locks his phone away for the last hour of every day. Both talk honestly about how hard it is to break the habit of subconsciously flicking between WhatsApp and Instagram. Mark shares one of the most quotable ideas of the episode. You need to force interferences to test your strength. Reading a message and training your eyes not to see it. Being present in the field with your wife instead of pulling out your phone. Choosing what you would do if you were on a valuation and applying that same standard to time with the people you love. We close on two of the most powerful moments in the episode. The airplane oxygen mask analogy, which Mark uses as the framework for everything in life. Put your own mask on first because you cannot look after anyone or anything else until you are in a safe place. And the reminder that self-employed agency, done properly, is what gives you the flexibility to build stronger relationships with the people you love. That is worth protecting. **Key Takeaways** - There is no point in feeling sorry for yourself, and the wins can be as destabilising as the losses if you have not built the mindset to handle them - Plan the routine of positivity like you plan a client meeting. Give it protected time in the morning before anything else lands - Affirmations only work if they are intentions you feel in your heart, not scripts you recite. Certainty beyond reasonable logic is the goal - The bedroom is not a work room. Boundaries with your phone are what protect your relationship, your energy and your sleep - There is no such thing as an emergency in real estate. If a buyer wants to buy and a seller wants to sell, the deal will get done