Networking events are challenging and the room is often filled with people who try too hard to make a sale. How can we stand out and avoid being salesy? Should we have as many conversations as possible, or should we focus on a smaller group of people? What’s the best way to follow up with potential clients? In this episode, Jeremy DeMerchant talks about successful networking.
My secret to networking is being everywhere. -Jeremy DeMerchant
Three Things We Learned
Focus on quality not quantity
When it comes to networking, there are two paths you can take: have a large number of superficial conversations or a small number of meaningful ones. The latter is always the approach that brings the most business.
Schedule the follow-up via phone to avoid wasting time
Don’t set up a meeting at a coffee shop. Instead, set up a call. This way, you’ll find out in the first 10 minutes of the call if you’re a good fit for your lead. It’s harder to leave a meeting early without putting yourself in a awkward situation, but there’s nothing awkward about a short phone call.
Control the experience they have with you from start to finish
Send all the people you want to connect with to one place. For example, send all of your leads to your website or put them in an email drip campaign where you share links to your content. This way, you control the type of information they consume. This is also a good tactic to warm up leads. The more they read about you, the higher the probability they start liking and trusting you.
Constantly fill the funnel. Not everyone has to be a sale today or tomorrow. It could be a sale 2-3 years down the road. Be patient with the people you meet and work on increasing your exposure, making a good impression, and engaging with the people that you would like to work with. Last but not least, be everywhere. The more networking events you go to, the higher the chances people remember you.
Guest Bio
Jeremy DeMerchant is the CEO of Permission To Sell and has over 20 years of experience in the sales arena. His mission is to help coaches, business owners, and professionals increase their sales and revenue. If you want to find out more about sales tactics or want to network with small business owners and sales professionals, join the Permission To Sell Group. Jeremy is also the author of 5 C's of Successful Sales Conversations, a sales cheat sheet that you can download for free here.
The luxury market is not much different from lower-end markets. What do all property owners, regardless of the value of the home, look for in an agent? What are the main motivations of buyers in the luxury market? What role does storytelling play in selling a home? In this episode, Michael LaFido talks about the latest trends in the luxury market.
Success leaves clues. Go figure out how someone else got successful at something and emulate it. -Michael LaFido
Three Things We Learned
Negotiations should be done on both sides
In a market that’s showing signs of slowing down, agents have to build a bridge between sellers and buyers. Negotiations shouldn’t just be on the buyer’s side. If sellers are determined to sell their homes as soon as possible, recommend a small discount on the property price. It’s usually quite convincing for buyers who tend to change their mind when they can save some money.
Sellers in the luxury market aren’t much different
Many agents assume that working with sellers in the luxury market requires a different skill set. However, the same problems are solved. Owners of luxury properties are just as nervous about the investment they made as any any other seller.
Storytelling in the luxury market is heavily focused on emotions and status
Many buyers looking for luxury properties don’t need a bigger house, and in some cases, it’s not even a wise financial decision. What they need is a new lifestyle and a way to feel better about themselves and their accomplishments. Your photos, videos, and all of the storytelling should focus on promoting a certain lifestyle, not just a home.
Luxury listings should tell a story about the lifestyle the home offers. In this market, most decisions aren’t made based on price but on the status and location the home offers. Emotions play a big part as well, because buyers have a bigger budget and they want to walk into a home that makes them feel good. However, this shouldn’t prevent you from trying to negotiate the price point with the seller if selling the property as soon as possible is one of their main priorities.
Guest Bio
Michael LaFido is a top-producing luxury Realtor, podcast host, author, and national trainer. He is the CEO of Luxury Listing Specialist and Marketing Luxury Group. Michael is also the creator of a Marketing Luxury Expert Certification program (LUXE) and has over 1 million listing and sales in his portfolio. If you want to get in touch with Michael, you can do so on his social media account.
Agents are constantly chasing new clients and new ways to make lead generation easier. But what if the answer isn’t in new tactics and chasing new clients? How can you tap into the law of reciprocity with your past clients and get repeat business and referrals? How can local events for past customers actually save you money and increase your conversion rate? In this episode, John Mikesh talks about how he generates up to 40% of his income by holding local events for past clients.
I never wanted my business to feel like a job. My biggest personal motivator is freedom. -John Mikesh
Three Things We Learned
Keep in touch with your past clients
Even if you have excellent customer service and your clients are happy with your work, if you don’t make keeping in touch with your database a priority, you’ll lose repeat business and referral opportunities. Your clients need to be reminded of your existence even if you’ve already made a good impression.
Customer events save you money
Chasing new clients and trying new marketing gimmicks that may or may not work ends up being more expensive than maintaining a good relationship with your past clients. Plus, when you serve the people you already served, you don’t need to prove your expertise with free evaluations, free photos, etc.
Put together a system that can be outsourced
Event planning may have to start one year in advance. Because of weddings, most venues will already be taken if you start planning only a few months before the event. Put together a system that takes care of all aspects of event planning and outsource the work so you can focus on other aspects of growing your business.
When done correctly, lead generation gives you relief. Planning events where your past clients feel appreciated is by far less stressful than always having to chase new clients and spend money on marketing tactics that way or may not work. When you work your sphere, you serve people who already know you and you like you. And because you’re investing money into thanking them for their contribution to your success, it taps into the law of the reciprocity. Every time they attend an event, they are reminded of how much you worked to make it happen. And they’ll feel a need to give you something in return as well. Usually, this translates into repeat business or referrals.
Guest Bio
John Mikesh is the owner of ROOST™ Real Estate, a real estate brokerage in Mooresville, of the Lake Norman / Charlotte, North Carolina area. His company focuses on putting the client experience first and this approach enabled him to become one of the top Realtors on the market for years now.
John was also recognized in multiple issues of Charlotte Magazine as a “5-Star Professional.
Mindset plays a huge role in how you approach your business and personal life. What happens when your mindset is less than ideal, or when you’re flooded by negative thoughts and can't seem to focus on what matters? How can you change your thinking pattern and behaviors to get closer to your goals? In this episode, Dr. Hank Seitz, talks about the power of positive thinking and the law of attraction.
Start asking for the things that make you feel good. That’s the secret to all of life. -Hank Seitz
Three Things We Learned
Why perspective is everything and how to “reprogram” yourself
Negative and positive feelings are a matter of perspective. You can change the way you feel about your life by looking at things from a different point a view. Affirmations are a good example of how you can reprogram yourself and start attracting better experiences to your life just by asking for them.
Seek to surround yourself with positive people and experiences
The best way to become happier and more energized is to shun all the sources that bring negative emotions to you. For example, the news is filled with tragic stories, but the companies behind them spend millions to find those stories. It doesn't mean we live in such a tragic place. It just means it’s easier to have access to negative stories. It’s your responsibility to seek the good even if the media wants to keep your eyes on something else.
Why behaviors can’t change unless you detect what thoughts created them
Action is a result of your thoughts. The way you see the world and others impacts all of your behaviors. You can’t change any behavior without asking yourself what thinking patterns stand behind them.
Every action you take is governed by your thoughts and perceptions of yourself and others. But sometimes you may find it difficult to be objective or to slow down and appreciate what you already have in your life. Hardships hit everyone, but what makes it worse is when your way of interpreting them causes pain. To avoid misinterpretations of reality, write down 3 things you desire and appreciate. This way, you can can start taking steps towards practicing gratitude and remind yourself of your goals.
Guest Bio
Dr. Hank Seitz is a real estate coach, author, and podcast host. He has a PhD in Mental Science and is the CEO of Agent Wealth Network where he teaches agents and team leaders how to build several streams of income.
You can find out more about Dr. Hank Seitz here.
Sometimes when we’re working it feels like the hours just flew by and nothing got done. Being trapped in low-value activities shifts our focus away from what makes money. How can you fix this? What should your schedule include and exclude to make the best of your time? Why do we have to delegate in order to scale? In this episode, Gene Volpe talks about the changes he made to become a more productive business owner.
You have to take the time off. You have to schedule that into your calendar. Otherwise, you will burn out. -Greg McDaniel
Three Things We Learned
Urgent tasks vs. high value tasks
Some tasks might not be urgent, but they can be the most important in your business. We have enough hours in the day. We just need to find a way to prioritize what needs to get done. Avoid wasting your time on tasks that have a very little impact on your business.
You can’t scale without delegating
When most people look at their calendar, they realize 80% of what they’re doing can be done by someone else. You can’t scale without outsourcing the low-value tasks to someone else.
Schedule everything, including your time off
Productivity isn’t about working-non-stop. You need to find time to relax as well, or you will burn out. But even time off needs to be scheduled so it won’t have a negative impact on your business.
You have to think about what brings the most income to your business. What’s the income driver in your business, servicing the clients who are already committed to you or maximizing the activities that bring the next round of income? In some cases, existing clients are so valuable the referrals alone work as a lead generator. But if the existing clients don’t bring any referrals, teach someone else to take care of your current clients to free up your time for more sources of income.
Guest Bio
Gene Volpe is the founder of GVI Media and has over 10 years of experience in real estate marketing. With over 200 transactions under his belt, Gene is known as an authority in his field and is often invited to speak at events. You can find more about Gene at http://www.genevolpe.com/about-gene/#.
As the real estate industry changes due to technology, how can agents take advantage of this shift? How can you use online resources to amaze your clients with your expertise? How do you know whether you should stay or leave your family business? What’s the role of conversations and send out cards in lead generation? In this episode, we talk about how new agents can impress their prospects, how to become better at nurturing past clients, and more.
Everyone wants a new hot lead now, but they don’t want to do anything for it and they want the person to be ready to buy or sell immediately without any competition. -Greg McDaniel
Three Things We Learned
What to do when you are a new agent with no experience in the local market
When asked what they want from their agents, a large percentage of clients responded that they need someone with a deep understanding of the local market. If you are a new agent, you can get your foot in the door by “faking” local knowledge with reports. Another option you have is partnering with someone who has local market knowledge.
How having 25 new conversations per day will make lead gen a problem of the past
The real estate industry wasn’t built on relationships but on chasing new clients and new leads all the time. Living in a society where instant gratification is possible thanks to technology only makes things worse. If you have 25 conversations per day, you don’t have to worry about not having warm leads. Few agents keep in touch with their database, despite having all the means to do so.
When it’s time to leave your family business behind
Many agents are trapped in businesses they aren’t sure they belong to. If the agreement is not good enough to make you enter the business even if a complete stranger makes you the offer, you’re probably staying in the business just because you don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.
Real estate is a people-based business, but agents were always about chasing new clients instead of nurturing past ones for repeat work and referrals. It’s now easier than ever to get in touch with your past clients without sounding salesy. From send out cards to having a few conversations every day, no matter what you choose, make sure you are always in front of them.
Tragic events often force people to give their life a new meaning after everything that mattered before is lost. How do you cope with the loss of loved ones? Is there any way you can transform a tragic event into an opportunity to reinvent yourself? How do the ups and downs in your life influence your values and what you do for a living? In this episode, Matt Cubbler talks about how the loss of his brother forced him to find a new purpose and serve others through his business and speaking events.
Life isn’t about singular moments. They are all connected. Everything that happens in your life is a piece of the other. -Matt Cubbler
Three Things We Learned
No event that happens in your life is without meaning or purpose
Sometimes, the most tragic, hurtful events in your life force you to find a new purpose and move away from the past. And without those tragic events, you may never get on the path you’re supposed to be on.
Confidence is a must-have for leaders
If you don’t believe in yourself, you can’t be a leader. Confidence is what sets up leaders for success. But this doesn’t mean you see yourself as a perfect human being. It’s a state of awareness. You know what your weaknesses are but you’re also aware of your strengths.
Your business is an extension of your core values
The business you build should be an expression of your core values. As a business owner, you are able to decide who you work with and how you do it. You don’t have to follow somebody else's path to succeed.
At times, life might puts you through tragic events, but when you look at the big picture, those very events are meant to put you on the path to what you’re supposed to be doing with your life.
As a business owner, you need to find your calling, and the beauty of it is that entrepreneurs have more freedom than employees. You can create your own schedule, serve the people you like, and follow your own values.
Guest Bio
Matt Cubbler is a public speaker, author, leadership expert, CEO of I Got You, and Vice- president of Maxout Strength Systems.
In his free time, Matt uses his experience in the army to teach young teens about the importance of leadership and being accomplished in life.
Sometimes when we’re working it feels like the hours just flew by and nothing got done. Being trapped in low-value activities shifts our focus away from what makes money. How can you fix this? What should your schedule include and exclude to make the best of your time? Why do we have to delegate in order to scale? In this episode, Gene Volpe talks about the changes he made to become a more productive business owner.
You have to take the time off. You have to schedule that into your calendar. Otherwise, you will burn out. -Greg McDaniel
Three Things We Learned
Urgent tasks vs. high value tasks
Some tasks might not be urgent, but they can be the most important in your business. We have enough hours in the day. We just need to find a way to prioritize what needs to get done. Avoid wasting your time on tasks that have a very little impact on your business.
You can’t scale without delegating
When most people look at their calendar, they realize 80% of what they’re doing can be done by someone else. You can’t scale without outsourcing the low-value tasks to someone else.
Schedule everything, including your time off
Productivity isn’t about working-non-stop. You need to find time to relax as well, or you will burn out. But even time off needs to be scheduled so it won’t have a negative impact on your business.
You have to think about what brings the most income to your business. What’s the income driver in your business, servicing the clients who are already committed to you or maximizing the activities that bring the next round of income? In some cases, existing clients are so valuable the referrals alone work as a lead generator. But if the existing clients don’t bring any referrals, teach someone else to take care of your current clients to free up your time for more sources of income.
Guest Bio
Gene Volpe is the founder of GVI Media and has over 10 years of experience in real estate marketing. With over 200 transactions under his belt, Gene is known as an authority in his field and is often invited to speak at events. You can find more about Gene at http://www.genevolpe.com/about-gene/#.
Real estate is a people-based business, yet it’s easy to forget about this aspect when lead gen is now dominated by platforms like Zillow. What’s the biggest source of high-quality leads? How can you grow your database by partnering up with local businesses? What will the new shift in real estate bring, and why shouldn’t we be dependent on online lead gen platforms? In this episode, Nick Sakkis reveals the one lead gen system we should be paying more attention to.
You can be brand new in your market and never sold a deal in your life, but when you start partnering up with with local businesses, you growth hack their audience. -Nick Sakkis
Three Things We Learned
The biggest source of quality leads is relationships
Making friends and building relationships, even on social media, is one of the best ways to generate leads. Very few people are interested in videos about what direction the market is going in and real estate stats. If you get active on social media groups with the purpose of making friends instead of promoting your business, you have a higher chance of receiving a call when someone wants to sell or buy a property.
How to get discount cards from businesses
Discount cards are a great way to help people remember you, and they aren’t that hard to get either. Business owners pay quite a bit to Groupon in order to advertise their products. If you don’t take a percentage out of their earnings, they’ll often be more than happy to be interviewed by you and allow you to make discount cards in their name.
Set up a draw for a free vacation at open houses
Big companies have been doing this for years: offering high incentives for people to look into their products or services, or high incentives for referrals. Real estate agents can do the same at a smaller scale to provide incentives for their past clients and get referrals.
If you’re brand new and haven’t made a deal in your life, partnering up with businesses, interviewing business owners, and handing out discounts puts you in front of their audience. Their database quickly becomes your database because they see you talking about the things they love. As a result, you can quickly scale your database by leveraging local businesses.
Guest Bio
Nick Sakkis is the co-founder of the Sakkis group and a digital marketing whizz. He used social media groups to generate leads for his business, and he now teaches other agents how they can create lead generation machines on a bootstrapped budget at Funnelstoleads.com. Nick is also the creator of Reconnect, an app that helps agents stay in touch with their database and get more referrals.
Mornings are the perfect time for planning your day, focusing on your well-being, doing a quick workout, and spending some time with yourself. But why do so many people hate waking up early in the morning, and what are they missing out on? Why do you need some time for yourself every day? How does not having a morning routine impact both your fitness and business success? In this episode, Justin Zimmerman talks about how morning routines can bring more awareness over how much control we have over our fate.
The people you choose are the people you become. -Justin Zimmerman
Three Things We Learned
Waterproof notes
At the beginning of the day, you have ask yourself, “What does my day have to look like to make me a happier and more productive person?” You can even plan out your day when you’re showering by using waterproof notes.
Don’t let yourself drift from your purpose
Teams and agents that don’t have defined purposes and goals end up drifting. Everyone needs a direction to their life, and that direction is what determines what their daily to-do list looks like.
Don’t neglect your health over your finances
Nutrition and fitness play an important part in the way we feel and how productive we are throughout the day. Finances, nutrition, and fitness are the big 3 pillars of well-being, but when one shakes, the other aspects of our lives suffer as well.
It’s almost impossible to be productive if we have something in the back of our mind constantly bothering us. As we grow older, however, our ability to determine our own fate increases. Journaling, meditation, and planning out each day will helps us become more aware of the choices we have and how we can get closer to our goals every day.
Guest Bio
Justin Zimmerman is the director of content development at REDX and a content strategist with a background in real estate.
He started off in real estate at 24 and built a software that took local MLS housing data and transformed it into a format easy to understand both by buyers and sellers. This helped him gain a competitive advantage in a profession where the average age was 47.
His software was so successful that he started training other agents to become Certified Market Advisors and went from being a simple agent to managing 51 people.
Today, he uses his real estate and marketing knowledge to help agents create content that eliminates the need for prospecting and builds a strong database.
A large percentage of active real estate agents have never experienced a market shift. Selling homes isn’t that hard when the economy is in your favor, but how do you prepare for a drop in volume? How can you cut costs? Should you focus more on sellers or buyers? In this episode, Brian Gubernick talks about how to prepare yourself for a shifting market.
One of the dangers in real estate is the constant talk about volume, and units but we aren’t talking about net income enough.- Brian Gubernick
Three Things We Learned
We should make our fixed costs variable
During a shifting market, it’s wiser to pay more for a bonus instead of paying less for a fixed salary even when there are no sales coming your way. This will protect you during periods when you won’t have sales but you’ll still have wages to pay. Your profit margins will be smaller, but you’ll also eliminate risk.
Get better at communicating with your agents during crisis times
When sales are slowing down due to a market shift, it’s important for team leaders to be transparent with their agents. Many young agents have never been through a decrease in sales and panic may ensue. This is when leaders have to be more present than ever.
Be more listing-focused and be less picky about appointments
If you’re buyer-based, your income is less predictable. The more listing-focused your business is, the more money you make and the more predictable your income is.
The best way to prepare our team for a market shift is to make sure they’re part of a training program that prepares them for a highly competitive game. A common mistake team leaders make is not recruiting new agents, when in fact the search for talent should be more intense than ever during times like this. There is a way to not just survive a shift but to actually thrive through it.
Guest Bios
Brian Gubernick and his team Homehelper Consultants at Keller Williams Realty Phoenix have been recently named as one of the top producing teams in the U.S by Wall St. Journal & Real Trends. He has also been featured in both Forbes Magazine and Money Magazine. Brian’s team is present in 4 states across U.S, and he has built a real estate coaching business where he helps agents implement the same strategies he did when growing his business.
Gene Volpe is the founder of GVI Media and has over 10 years of experience in real estate marketing. With over 200 transactions under his belt, Gene is known as an authority in his field and is often invited to speak at events. You can find more about Gene at http://www.genevolpe.com/about-gene/#.
Technology is about to create a big shift in the buying and selling process. Will we be replaced by tech? What qualities are desirable in agents during times like this? How can we survive the shift and leverage the tools we now have access to? What will happen to the single agent? In this episode, Adam Hergenrother shares his predictions about the future of the real estate agent.
Every real estate company needs to wake up to virtual brokerages, because those are the ones giving freedom to agents. -Adam Hergenrother
Three Things We Learned
The entry barrier will be higher but the agents who make it will earn more money
The companies that afford the technology to speed up the process while delivering a superior customer experience will make it harder for agents who have only a few sales per year to survive by themselves. As a result, the entry barrier will be higher. In order to survive, agents will need to join teams where they have access to all the technology and training that they can’t get with their own money. A side effect of this shift is the fact that agents will be expected to increase their sales after receiving all the support and training needed.
Agents won’t be locked geographically anymore
With the rise of virtual brokerages, we can now live anywhere in the world as long as we have access to high-speed internet and a showing agent working for us. The only obstacle that stands in the way of this becoming the norm is the price of airplane tickets.
Virtual brokerages will also have a meeting space
Working from home has its own struggles. Loneliness and isolation is a real phenomena among remote workers. Plus the agent ends up feeling disconnected from the company and its team. To counter this, many virtual brokerages are now considering investing in meeting places for their co-workers.
The new shift in real estate caused by technological advancements will enhance both the consumer experience and that of the agent. The companies that have the budget to invest in the newest technologies will be the ones who have the leverage. The agents who want to benefit from this shift will have to join a team that gives them all the resources to make the sale (e.g., assistants, coaching and technology). The agents who now look at real estate as a side hustle will probably disappear, but those who want to make a career out if and have the capacity to adapt will actually benefit from the shift.
Guest Bio
Adam Hergenrother is the Founder & CEO of Adam Hergenrother Companies – which includes Keller Williams Vermont, Hergenrother Realty Group, BlackRock Construction, Adam Hergenrother Training Organization, and Hergenrother Foundation.
His extraordinary background includes experience in the real estate industry, construction, and coaching. Adam was mentioned in publications such as the Wall Street Journal and Inc, and he was awarded the prestigious “30 Under 30” award by The National Association of Realtors.
You can find out what others are saying about his coaching programs here.
Finding the right candidate is hard, especially when you don’t know what you’re looking for. Should your first hire take care of all of the things you hate doing? Is it possible to find a jack-of-all-trades, and what’s the alternative to that? How do you build a team that doesn't fall apart if one of the key workers leaves? In this episode, Jay Niblick talks about how to make your first hire, what traits work best for different roles, and how to protect yourself in case something goes wrong.
There is someone out there who loves to do what you loath to do. -Jay Niblick
Three Things We Learned
Your first hire should take care of the tasks you don’t want to do
You need to think about what tasks you shouldn’t be doing and how much more money you can make if you delegate the mundane tasks to someone else? That said, you also have to keep in mind that you will likely need more than one hire to take care of things you don’t want to do. There are few people out there who can do a little bit of everything and maintain the same quality of work.
Don’t wait for a rockstar to join your team
Many agents make the mistake of expecting a rockstar who can adapt and handle whatever is thrown at them without having to be managed or trained. Not only are these hires very hard to find, but once you find someone like that, it doesn’t take more than 6 months to 1 year for them to figure out that they can earn more somewhere else.
Build a system that makes top performers want to stick around
The key to building a successful team is to leave room for growth so they don’t have to leave if they want to climb the ladder and earn more. You should have a system in place that retains the top performers but doesn’t rely on them completely, so the whole business doesn’t fall apart if they leave. Invest time in building a replicable system that can be used even if one of your top performers decides to go somewhere else.
You can spot traits such accountability and entitlement during an interview just by letting the candidate tell their story. Their perspective usually is telling of how they see themselves and the world around them. For example, someone who is highly accountable will always blame themselves for past mistakes instead of blaming others. But you also have to keep in mind that certain traits aren’t universally desirable or undesirable. It depends on what role you’re filling. For example, you may want a bit of entitlement, as long as it’s performance related, in a sales person.
Guest Bio
Jay Niblick is the founder of Wize Hire, a real estate recruiting software with a data-driven approach to the hiring process. You can take the personality test mentioned on this episode at https://wizehire.com/#disc-ebook-signup
You’ve probably read a dozen stories about overnight success stories. While the success might have occurred overnight, in most cases, the process of actually making it happen probably took years of work. What are the things that you can do behind the scenes to reach your goals? Why are humans so resistant to change? And most importantly, why is turning your life around 180 degrees not sustainable? In this episode, Karen Briscoe and Gene Volpe talk about success and what you can today to create a better tomorrow.
When you are operating at your highest and best self, that’s achieving success for you because each person has unique attributes. -Karen Briscoe
Three Things We Learned
You can’t decide your future, but you can decide your habits
Your everyday habits determine if you’re going to be more knowledgeable, a harder worker or just stagnate to who you are today. If you tell yourself you can’t do it, you’ll convince yourself not to try. But if you start making small changes to your everyday habits, you will get closer to who you want to be.
Small changes are longer lasting and easier to make
You may want to change everything about yourself and take a big leap, but in reality, we work by using old systems that can’t be entirely revamped overnight. Our beliefs, habits, and thinking patterns took years to develop, if you’re making big changes, the systems you built will resist. But if you make smaller changes, it’s easier for you to step out of your comfort zone and stick to your new habits.
Track your working hours
Technology makes it more difficult for us to stay focused. Now it’s harder than ever to work without checking your email or social media accounts. As a result, you may have a distorted view of how much you actually work. But this can be easily fixed if you use an app to track everything.
Success is what makes you reach your full potential. And because we’re all different, success doesn’t have a universal definition. For some of us, it means getting our kids through college. For others, it’s becoming a local rockstar in our industry. But no matter what your idea of success is, you have make sure you aren’t torturing yourself in the process. Find the aspects of your business that you’re good at and focus on those. Give yourself enough rewards to keep yourself motivated. Be gentle to yourself. Punishments and the grind only tire you mentally, and while you may eventually end up where you want to be, the process of getting there won’t be a pleasant one.
Guest Bio
Karen Briscoe is real estate coach, the principal owner of Huckaby Briscoe Conroy Group (HBC) with Keller Williams, and the author of "Real Estate Success in 5 Minutes a Day: Secrets of a Top Agent Revealed".
Her team was ranked in the top 100 teams with Keller Williams and one of the top 250 teams in United States by the Wall Street Journal.
Karen shares her tips and tricks on her show. She became a top realtor on her podcast, and blog.
If you want to ask Karen questions about her coaching program, or simply connect with her, you can find her on Facebook.
Gene Volpe is the founder of GVI Media and has over 10 years of experience in real estate marketing. With over 200 transactions under his belt, Gene is known as an authority in his field and is often invited to speak at events. You can find more about Gene at http://www.genevolpe.com/about-gene/#.
Building an online following is becoming harder because every day more content is being published and more businesses are discovering the power of content marketing. Is there a way to increase your chances of grabbing the attention of your prospects? What type of content will your audience find useful? Are there any guidelines you should follow to make sure your content not only gets read but portrays you in a positive light? In this episode, Tim Stafford talks about the power of marketing through education.
Speak from an intelligent place, but not an intelligently arrogant place. That’s the key. -Tim Stafford
Three Things We Learned
Share information your audience doesn’t already know
Make sure the information you share on social media isn’t something most people know about real estate. Put yourself in the shoes of your audience and ask yourself what the regular Joe doesn’t know about the process of buying or selling a house. And then make an outline of what your audience might be interested in.
Write for short attention spans
Our attention spans are shorter than ever. On top of this, we’re constantly bombarded with information. As a result, you have to be as succinct as possible. Also, you need to make sure you don’t use too many adjectives or adverbs, as they’re shown to lower your credibility.
Don’t talk down to your audience
Speak from an intelligent place but treat your readers as if they aren’t ignorant. The difference between educating with integrity and educating with arrogance is wanting to help as opposed to having a desire to show off.
Educating prospects is more than just sharing information on your website or social media. It’s about how you share it and what it says about you as a person. It’s important to be helpful, and not arrogant. Make sure your content is scannable and easy to digest, and don’t use industry jargon. Most importantly, you have to come across as transparent. One of the most common mistakes business owners make is sharing only their success stories and avoiding vulnerability when failures are by far easier to relate with.
Guest Bio
Tim Stafford is a Doctoral Dissertation Chair and Program Director. He has over 30 years of experience in education and educational technology. In the present, he helps businesses grow their following and educate their audience using content marketing. If you want to find out more about his approach, book a free consultation with him at https://tmphd.youcanbook.me/
AI makes it easier for agents to reduce the time spent on follow-up and leads. But will AI ever replace human interaction? How can chatbots make follow-up and the selection process easier even when dealing with huge amounts of leads? And most importantly, how can A.I weed out the good from the bad and send agents only leads who are warm and highly likely to convert? In this episode, Zach Nussbaum shares how AI can help agents stop wasting time on low-quality leads and interact only with those who are most likely to convert.
Nothing beats a human response. The bots are only going to take you so far. -Zach Nussbaum
Three Things We Learned
Chatbots are powerful but they can’t replace human interaction
With chatbots, you can filter out a large number of leads without moving a finger. But the rest of the follow-up is up to you. AI will rank for you the leads from coldest to warmest, but you will still have to set an appointment and continue the conversation face-to-face.
Place landing pages and quizzes in the chat box
Most people don’t mind answering questions, especially when they know it works as a shortcut to finding what suits their needs. Quizzes and landing pages are a great way to find out more about leads and how likely they are to make a move right away.
Verify all of the information you receive
Phone verification is usually a must to weed out leads who just want to find out more without leaving their contact information. This also creates the opportunity for you to impress them. For example, you can send a seller a screenshot of their home from Google maps to verify that it’s the home they want to sell. Since agents don’t usually have the technology to do this automatically, the seller will probably remember you as a result
AI will never replace human interaction in real estate, but it can greatly reduce one of the most time-consuming and nerve-wrecking task: lead follow-up. With chatbots, you no longer have to waste time with leads who won’t convert anyway because AI can help you filter out the good from the bad by using questionnaires and ranking leads based on their interactions with the bots. This way, teams can manage a large amount of leads without having to do follow-up. Instead, they receive a report and pick only the leads with the highest odds of converting.
Guest Bio
Zach Nussbaum is a chatbox and Facebook ads creator at Braintrust. He helps agents both attract and manage large amounts of leads without having to do follow-up manually. Zach created a completely automated follow-up system for agents that ranks leads from coldest to the warmest. If you want to find out more about how you can save time and money by using AI, advertising, and email follow-up, schedule a free call or send Zach an email to find out if your can benefit from these services.
Many agents see the potential in online lead generation, but when they start out, their biggest challenge is creating content that cuts through the noise. What do people want to see in your videos? How can you use controversy and humor to your advantage? Should you be transparent both with your wins and failures or only focus on the positive side? In this episode, Eric Simon talks about how he leveraged the comedic aspects of everyday real estate fails to build his business.
Authenticity and humor can be great content. -Eric Simon
Three Things We Learned
Video is king
Investing your time into making videos is one of the best ways to engage with your audience because it targets all of the senses. Don’t make the mistake of trying to look perfect on camera. Being transparent and even vulnerable is more relatable than doing things right all the time.
Focus on a niche, don’t spread yourself too thin
Focus on finding your niche. You don’t have to talk about everything. Find a category and dominate it. Make yourself the face of that category instead of trying to create content for every platform and for all tastes.
Video is great for multiplying your relationship building efforts
Because video targets all of the senses and there’s a face attached to the voice and message, it makes it easier for your audience to get attached to you. With video you can build trust and relationships without even knowing that it’s taking place. You no longer have to speak with someone in person for them to get to know you, as many people will feel like they already know you just by watching your videos.
The best type of content is the one that suits your personality and is readable. Most of the content out there in real estate is about agents who got successful overnight, but few dare to share their hard times and be transparent about the good and bad aspects of the industry.
This approach will only hurt you in the long term because honesty and transparency is more relatable than “feel good” stories.
Guest Bio
Eric Simon is the creator of the Broke Agent, a media brand meant to entertain agents by using comedic aspects of the industry. His mission is to stop agents from feeling alone in their struggles and find humor in otherwise hard-to-digest situations. He is currently active in the Los Angeles area, and if you want to work with him you can find him here.
Our thinking controls our destiny. What happens when our believes don’t benefit us? How do we uncover the flaws in our thinking that prevent us from being the best versions of ourselves? Why does lack of transparency lead to a stressful life? In this episode, Kim Ades speaks about uncovering your beliefs and why we shouldn’t be afraid to reveal our true selves.
A lot of people aren’t transparent because they are trying to manage other people’s impression of them. -Kim Ades
Three Things We Learned
Build a team that doesn’t need micromanaging
Accountability is a hot topic, especially for team leaders. But keeping people accountable implies they can’t keep themselves accountable. Instead of investing time and money constantly keeping an eye on your team, why not go to the root of the problem and find out what prevents them from taking action? What are the beliefs that stay in the way of being productive?
Affirmations can actually backfire if we don't address the little voice in our head that doesn't believe them
Positive affirmations hold no power if in the back of your mind you don’t actually believe the things you tell yourself. You have to be able to let go of your inner critic and truly believe you can succeed.
Use journaling to get to the source of the beliefs that hold you back
Journaling can help you find out what people or events made you feel the way you feel about yourself and the world around you. Toxic people or traumatic events can distort your perception of who you are and what you are capable of, and getting to the bottom of the beliefs that rule your thinking can help you reach your true potential.
Lack of transparency never works to your advantage. It will attract the people you don’t want to work with and there will always be pressure to keep up with the persona you build for yourself. You have to accept that some people will dislike you and the fact that you can’t manage the impressions of everyone else, nor can you rely on external validation to keep yourself happy and confident.
Guest Bio
Kim Ades is the founder of Frame of Mind Coaching and Journal Engine software as well as a speaker, author, and mother of five. Kim coaches teams and individuals to unveil their thought patterns and hidden beliefs, and unleash their true potential by gaining a better understanding of who they are and where their talents lay.
If you want to find out what beliefs are holding you back from succeeding, you can take her free test here.
You can’t stand out by doing what everyone else does. What’s the best way to get started in your journey of becoming a local rockstar? What are the small changes you can make to convince your clients appreciate you more? How can you stay in touch with potential clients or people in your database without being intrusive? In this episode, we talk about serving people better, becoming less intrusive, and how to slowly become the face of real estate in your community.
Make yourself stand out so when they think of real estate, they think of you.- Greg McDaniel
Don’t advise your clients based on your wants and needs
If you want people to remember you in a good light, build a positive reputation, and stay in touch with your past clients, you have think of them first. You have to be honest. When you get asked questions about where the market is going or if they should wait to sell or buy, you have avoid giving advice that doesn’t work in their interest.
Don’t be intrusive
If a seller postpones a sale, your best bet is finding a less intrusive way to remind him or her about your existence. For example, you can stay in touch with a potential client by mailing a send out card with a small gift. Few people go that far to stand out, especially when there might be no return on their investment. As a result, you will get remembered by your potential clients because no other agents are willing to walk the extra mile.
Brainstorm new ways to market yourself
Because some marketing tactics work, we all tend to do the same thing. The end result? The marketing message gets diluted and you don’t stand out in your market. You’re just doing what everyone else is doing. Explore ways to promote yourself that are creative and unexplored by other agents. One example would be Youtube ads.
No matter how creative you are at promoting yourself and getting in front of people, if you don’t do your job right, you will only attract people that will end up ruining your reputation. The first step is to get creative about marketing yourself. But what makes the difference is how you advise your clients and whether you make them feel great after a purchase, after they sold their home, or if they feel like they get ripped off by an agent who chased a commission. Great promotion tactics and great service have to go hand-in-hand for you to become a mini real estate celebrity in your area.
Getting a real estate license doesn’t actually teach new agents to take the leap into real estate. As a consequence, many new agents are surprised by how real estate actually works. How do you know what strategy will work for you? How do you build a system around your natural talents? Should you partner up with senior agents in the beginning? In this episode, Christina Macro talks about how much easier it is for agents to reach their goals once they find something that suits their personality and skill set.
Meet people where they’re at and build something not simplistic but doable, in the sense of building them a system of thing they will actually do. -Matt Johnson
Three Things We Learned
Find a prospecting method that suits your personality
There are only so many ways you can prospect, but enjoying it and being comfortable with it has a great impact on your performance. You can’t do something you aren’t naturally built for. Find what you might be good at and give it a try for 3 weeks, and if it doesn’t work, move to the next prospecting method.
Focus on a system that works instead of the ideal
When you’re just starting out, you shouldn’t focus on the ideal system right out of the gate. Start with something that works and keeps you above the water, and refine the system over time. You can’t make something work perfectly the first time, nor should you aim to do so because it only leads to disappointment.
Partner up with the top agents in your office
As a beginner, the best place to start is to partner up with the top agents in your office after you’ve discovered what prospecting method suits you. If you perform well, the next time you won’t have to ask around for people who need help. You’ll get call backs just based on the results you had the first time.
If each one of us would be inspired to do what we love, we would all perform at a high level. The secret to success in real estate is to find out more about who you are as a person and what aspects of real estate suit your personality. The next step is to use that knowledge and build a system that taps into your strong points without having to rely on the areas where you aren’t an expert.
Guest Bio
Christina Macro is a real estate broker, co-author of a best selling book on Amazon, public speaker, trainer, and mentor. She quickly climbed her way to the top in real estate by becoming a top performing agent on her team. She realized she enjoys helping and leading people more than anything else, and this is how The Brainy Broker was born.
Christina helps new agents identify what their strong points are and build a prospecting system that suits their personality.
You can find Christina at https://www.facebook.com/christinamacro
Your entire business is built on what you believe you can do, the effort you put into it, and the people you surround yourself with. What happens when you get discouraged and it starts affecting both your focus and productivity? What self-care routine should everyone practice to get stronger mentally and physically? How can you stay away from toxic thoughts? In this episode, Kathleen Black speaks about the experience she had at a Tony Robbins event and how she helps her clients thrive by taking a holistic approach to their personal life and business.
Worrying is a prayer for what you don't want. -Greg McDaniel
Three Things We Learned
Prime your mind and body every morning
Make sure you start off the day with the right mindset. It will affect your decisions, your performance, and the way you interact with others. You have to let negative thoughts go, visualize your goals, and work on your health and well-being.
The best way to fight negativity is to take action
You can’t fight the way you feel sometimes, but you can look around and determine what changes would make you feel better. What can you do to improve your current situation instead of letting the thoughts of an unfinished job eat away at you?
Practice acceptance of the things you cannot control
There will be days when you’re forced to deal with bad clients, and there will always be reasons to feel anxious or angry about something. What makes a big difference is mood control, being emotionally resilient, and not letting emotions control you for the whole day.
Worrying not only robs you of energy and enthusiasm but it also makes you focus your energy on things that aren’t under your control. If you’re constantly stressed out due to your fears and worries, you’re actually making them more likely to come true, as worrying affects your energy levels and productivity, which leads to a vicious cycle. There will always be crisis in your life, but the best you can do is focus only on the things you can control.
Guest Bio
Kathleen Black is a CEO and a leader of a team that has 80% of it’s agents in the top 1% nationally. She is a real estate coach at Kathleen Black Coaching & Consulting as well as a certified NLP practitioner coach.
The rejections that come with prospecting and low conversion rates can wear down any agent. But is there an alternative to finding clients? How can content establish you as an expert? How can you start creating content when you have no experience? In this episode, Justin Zimmerman talks about how real estate agents can use content to build and nurture a strong database that will bring business for years to come.
Content is that vehicle that delivers that ability to build trust over time. -Justin Zimmerman
Three Things We Learned
Ask for a big yes first
When prospecting, ask for a big yes first, and then ask for a yes to something smaller later. This increases your chances of being told yes to the second yes, and this should be the “yes” you were looking for in the first place.
How to create content without any experience
You don’t have to be a writer to create content. In the beginning, you can take topics everyone else is talking about and put your own spin on it. Also, make sure you give your database “micro doses” of content. Overwhelming your readers or viewers with statistics might make them click away.
Content can help you go from prospector to marketer
Content will increase your visibility and help you establish yourself as an expert in your field.
Once you have a list of people who you send content to on a regular basis, you won’t have to put that much time (if any) into cold calling.
Prospecting is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to get new clients when you’re starting out, but it can also be tiring and time-consuming. Most won’t be interested in buying or selling a house right now, but they might be in the future. Instead of just ignoring the prospects who aren’t a potential transaction right now, send them a secondary call to action. Use content to engage with them in the long-term, potentially years. This way, you build a database filled with people who have known you for a long time and consider you their go-to resource for real estate. When they are ready to buy or sell, chances are, they will contact you.
Guest Bio
Justin Zimmerman is the director of content development at REDX and a content strategist with a background in real estate.
He started off in real estate at 24 and built a software that took local MLS housing data and transformed it into a format easy to understand both by buyers and sellers. This helped him gain a competitive advantage in an profession where the average age was 47.
His software was so successful that he started training other agents to become Certified Market Advisors" and went from being a simple agent to managing 51 people.
Today, he uses his real estate and marketing knowledge to help agents create content that eliminates the need for prospecting and builds a strong database.
The road to success can sometimes be shortened if you put aside your ego and allow yourself to learn from others who have already made it big. What is the biggest misconceptions new agents have when they enter the real estate world? Should you just take any listing in the beginning? Why do negotiation sounds so scary for most people, and how can you get better at them? In this episode, Candy Miles-Crocker talks about the biggest mistakes new agents make and what shortcuts she wishes she knew about when she started out.
You don’t want to take any listing. Not all listings are good listings, and not all money is good money. -Candy Miles-Crocker
Three Things We Learned
Treat real estate like job
Many people get into the real estate business looking for freedom. They want to enjoy a more flexible schedule. But they end up not taking real estate seriously. They don’t put in the hours, nor do they make enough calls. New agents need to learn to treat real estate like a job. You can’t afford to slack in real estate. You either work and take the commission or you fail altogether. In this industry, the sky's the limit. But to reach it, you have to put in the work.
Don’t take any listing that comes your way
Many new agents are desperate enough to take any listing, even when they know that the property is overpriced and the seller unreasonable. You don’t want to take a listing that has very small chance of selling. This wastes your time when you could be working on something else.
Negotiating is part of everyday life
You probably negotiate every day without even putting too much thought into it. Many beginners make the mistake of assuming that people aren’t willing to negotiate. Rejection is part of the everyday life of an agent, but if you don’t ask, the answer will always be no.
Many beginners, out of fear that they won’t get another listing, take whatever comes their way even if the chances of the property to sell are very slim. No matter how much you try to promote a house, when the price is too high, it won’t sell. Buyers today are too savvy to be tricked into buying an overpriced home. They can search online to find out what other homes of the same size and in the same area cost. You have to be honest with the sellers from the beginning when it comes to the real value of their home, and if they don’t change their minds, there is no need for you to waste your time with overpriced properties.
Guest Bio
Candy Miles-Crocker has over 17 years of experience in real estate. She’s a real estate agent who closed 14 sales in her first year, only to see the numbers climb higher and higher over in the following years. In the present, Candy helps new real estate agents get the training she would have liked to have when she started out. If you want to take a sneak peak at what she teaches agents, sign up for her free email course.
Every broker or team leader dreams of expanding their team nationally one day. But what’s the difference between a small team and a business that operates all over the country? What kind of lead generation tactics do they use? What kind of people does it take to play in another league? In this episode, Kevin L Kauffman talks about how to make the right hires, why you shouldn’t go crazy with buying leads, and how you can generate leads for free.
Get in business with the right people first and the rest will take care of itself. -Kevin L Kauffman
Three Things We Learned
Get in business with the right people
The real estate industry is constantly changing. Being in business with the right people is one of the things that will help you withstand any market shift. What matters is finding motivated people of character; everything else can be taught if motivation and character are already there.
Don’t purchase leads you can’t follow up with
The highest conversion rates will always come from sources such as a referrals or past clients. The more time you spend on a lead, the more likely you are to convert. Purchasing leads online is a waste of time if you don’t have the tools and resources for a quick follow-up.
How to generate leads for free
One of the best ways to generate leads without paying for them is to interact daily with 5 people in your database and 5 people you would like to include in your database. You shouldn't ask about selling or buying real estate. Just become part of their sphere, and when they are in need of help, they’ll contact you, not an agent who they barely know.
Leveraging relationships both with agents and people in your database is the one of the safest paths to success. The highest conversion rates come from the people you know personally and you interact regularly with, as you don’t have to work to gain their trust. If you contact 5 people from your database and 5 people outside it, and have a few meaningful conversations with each of them, you won’t have to worry getting enough referrals or warm leads in the future.
Guest Bio
Kevin Kauffman is the CEO of Group 46:10 Network, a real estate company active in 4 states in North America. In his 10 years of experience in real estate, he learned the ins and outs of the industry and shared his strategies and knowledge via speaking events and coaching. Kevin is now offering coaching for team leaders and brokers who want to take their business to next level just like he did years ago.
Starting a real estate business by yourself sounds scary, especially if you’re part of the team. But what happens when a team setting stalls your progress? What can you do when you start from scratch with no experience as a business owner? What should your expectations be and what means should you use to generate leads on your own? In this clip, Beth Seegert talks about how she hit the restart button on her real estate career by leaving her team and starting her own business.
Making calls is not the only way. You just need to find what you are comfortable with and works for you. -Beth Seegert
Three Things We Learned
Success doesn’t happen overnight
We see all these successful people going from zero to 100 when in fact they only get attention when they make it big, not while they’re on the journey of getting there. Few people are honest about their journey and how much work it actually took them to make it big.
No system is perfect in the beginning, and you shouldn’t expect it to be
In the beginning, all that your system needs to be is adequate, just enough for it to generate leads and get you the clients your business needs to survive. The next step is to make your system good, and the final step, which comes with experience, is to make your system great.
Ask the right questions
At an open house, neighbors usually come to look at the home as well. Usually, they aren’t looking to buy but instead just to look around. This is the perfect occasion to try to get another listing by asking a simple question: “Have you secretly thought about selling your home?”
Making calls is not the only way to get more clients. In the real estate industry, there are many ways you can keep nurturing you database, with social media being one of them. But if you really want to get more clients on social media platforms, you need to be more intentional about it. Make a list of your prospects and constantly keep an eye on them. Also, what determines your success on social media is the number of conversations you actually have with the people you’re targeting.
Guest Bio
Beth is an agent based in Detroit, Michigan. Find her on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/beth-seegert-5948a132/.