The introduction of tech companies has caused anxiety in many industries, including real estate. Is your business in danger of failing in the wake of tech competitors? How can you keep doing business when so many of these companies gain popularity for their convenience and low prices? On this episode, owner and CEO of Omaha’s Elite Real Estate Group, Jeff Cohn joins us to discuss how your business can flourish if you embrace new technologies and digital platforms.
Be aware that you now have to differentiate yourself from the other agents AND big tech companies. -Matt Johnson
Three Takeaways
Change the way you offer value
With the rise of the millennial generation, we need to start adapting our approach to satisfy younger clients. Millennials prefer communicating over text and don’t want to make tons of appointments- so find ways to meet those desires. However, remember that there are older people who will continue to buy and sell for years to come. The best option, going forward, is a hybrid model.
Stop worrying about tech company prices
We’ve never not had to compete over prices. Stop agonizing over the prices tech companies offer and treat the competition as you always would have. Of course there needs to be an adaptation of sorts, but don’t assume that the presence of technology automatically makes you obsolete.
Share behind-the-scenes footage
One of the reasons clients might choose a tech company to buy or sell their properties is because they assume agents do little to no work. Use technology to disprove that theory. Share content that shows you doing all the tasks no one outside the industry knows about. You’re not only setting the record straight- you’re also opening yourself up to an audience and starting the process of them getting to know, like and trust you.
Technology isn’t going anywhere, so it’s vital that businesses adapt their models as soon as possible. However, even if you need to adapt, think of changes as a hybrid of sorts. You’re still speaking to past clients and networking- the only major difference is the platform you’ll use. Remember, what’s an asset to the tech companies can be an asset to you, too. Use technology to show clients aspects of the business they would previously never have known. Reach audiences previously outside your reach. Changes are always a source of anxiety- but sometimes they’ll end up taking your business to new heights.
Jeff Cohn is the owner and CEO of Omaha’s Elite Real Estate Group. Known for his legendary expertise in social media, Jeff and his team generate on average 2000 internet leads per month. Since exiting daily operations at his company, Jeff has continued to make his mark on the real estate industry. Today, he maintains a presence as a trainer, podcaster and speaker, among other commitments in the industry.
To find out more about Jeff, head to: https://www.bhhsamb.com/agents/50633-jeff-cohn
And to see more about Omaha’s Elite Real Estate Group, visit: www.omahaseliterealestategroup.com
Gene Volpe is the Lead Digital Architect at GVI Media. With over 10 years’ experience in marketing, he is well known as a national expert. Gene is also incredibly well-versed in real estate, and has been involved in over 200 transactions. Gene is passionate about establishing brands and helping his clients reach wider audiences through digital marketing and video content.
To find out more about Gene, head to: www.genevolpe.com
One of the biggest mistakes new agents make is trying to follow the rulebooks of top producers because they end up missing the foundational pieces. What are the fundamentals that just can’t be skipped when building a successful and sustainable business? How does technology make it easier to build the fundamentals in? On this episode, REDX CMO, Curtis Fenn shares why new agents shouldn’t be imitating top producers and what you should be doing when you’re new to the game.
Technology can help you expedite the process of building a network and database that can refer you business. -Curtis Fenn
Three Takeaways
What it takes to get to top producer status
If you’re wondering and worrying about where your next check is coming from, that’s not a business. If you want to have the life you want, you need to have sustainable and predictable income. Without that, it’s impossible to become a top producer.
Top producers vs. new agents
There’s a huge divide between what new agents have to do to become top producers and what top producers do. New agents are often given advice from the perspective of a top producer, who tells them what they are doing right now, not what they did in the beginning and how they got there.
Why door knocking is still necessary
Most top producing agents still take the time to knock on doors to build their database, while a lot of younger agents feel that they are above door knocking. Unfortunately, without a database and network, you can never build a sustainable business.
If you want to get to the point where referrals just come in, you have to hustle to build a sphere of influence, and a network of people who will continue to refer you business. This is the part of the business that you just can’t skip or circumvent. Luckily we don’t have to do the exact amount of activities that the top producers have to do. By leveraging technology, we can speed up the process of building the database and build a sustainable business.
Guest Bio
Curtis is the CMO at REDX, a technology company that helps real estate agents develop sustainable growth with the best tools and practices for acquiring new clients. Go to https://www.theredx.com/ for more information.
Most agents dream about being able to move through business with the perfect words that will handle any objection and close the client, but the truth is there is no magic bullet. What is the overarching step we need to take to get better at handling objections? How does a scarcity mindset kill our success? How can you handle FSBOs and actually bring them value? On this episode, we do a Q&A on objection handling.
When you’re having trouble with objections, don’t look for magic words. Focus on lead generation and have more options so you’re not overly attached to one lead. -Matt Johnson
Three Takeaways
How to bring value to FSBOs
When you’re talking to FSBOs, if you can bring more than your value as a real estate agent that will get in the door. If you had access to investors or if you were even the investor yourself, you will be able to get yourself in the door. The key is being in integrity so you actually have investors or an investment deal, and you also need to have done the work in the backend to set this up.
Why some clients aren’t worth working with
Some buyers are just skeptical, or their always looking for a bargain and this isn’t something you can change about them. When you deal with people like this, ask yourself if all the trouble of working with them is worth your time. If not, let them go.
The truth about objections and how to navigate them
Whenever you’re having a conflict, take a step back and ask yourself what you’re protecting. When you’re having challenges with objections, usually what you’re protecting is mindset of scarcity that makes you hold onto a lead instead of just letting it go. But if you let that go, you can let go of the lead and move onto others without too much attachment.
There are no magic words that will handle every single objection you get. The truth is, objections shouldn’t affect you if you’re not overly attached to that lead. The only way you can avoid attachment is to have options, and be generating enough leads to where you know that if that one lead doesn’t work out, there are others. Once you get out of a space of scarcity, the way you handle objections change and you’ll be able to give an answer that truly helps the client.
The internet can be a very dangerous place for kids, and very often parents are in the dark about what’s actually going on. How can parents keep an eye on their kids’ online activities, and get more tech savvy? Why is this such a valuable thing to teach? On this episode, Gene Volpe talks about the internet, how to monitor what our kids are doing, and trends you need to keep track of.
There’s nothing better than being able to give to someone without asking for anything in return but still giving something powerful that it compels the law of reciprocity. -Greg McDaniel
Three Takeaways
The importance of systems
Systems make your business easier to run, and they help you simplify your work. When you do create a system, don’t start taking on jobs outside of that because that just creates confusion.
How to protect our kids
There are so many nefarious and dangerous things happening on the internet that put our kids at risk. As parents, we need to be more tech savvy and stay on top of the new trends and changes.
The power of giving value
Give value without expecting anything in return. Not only will this set the law of reciprocity in motion, it also means that at the very least, you will be top of mind.
The internet, social media and mobile phones are incredibly powerful mediums that bring convenience and information to our fingertips. But there’s a dark side to the online world, and if we have young people in our lives, we have to keep an eye on these things. In order to set your kids up for success online, stay on top of what they install regularly. Ultimately, the more tech savvy you are, the easier this can be.
When it comes to how we market and advertising ourselves, one of our biggest pitfalls is thinking like a Realtor and not from the perspective of what consumers want. How can we fix this? How can we make our Facebook ads more effective? How can you stay ahead of the game in a changing market? Why is focused engagement so important and how do we achieve it? On this episode, Gene Volpe joins guest Mike Sherrard to talk about levelling up our marketing.
Be the vehicle and catalyst for what people would like to know, what would be valuable and what they don’t have access to. -Mike Sherrard
Three Takeaways
How older agents can thrive in a changing market
A lot of agents in a changing market are trying to chase everything that happens to be new trendy and techy and this only diverts their focus. But focusing on too many things means you just won’t get good at one thing.
The future of social media engagement
According to Andy Frisella, the future of social media influencers is this mathematical formula for engagement. E2I = FC. This means entertainment, education and impact = focused engagement.
How to get your Facebook ad costs down and your conversions up
Don’t think as an agent, think as a member of the general public. Instead of running an ad of a just listed, do a coming soon just before. Instead of just sold, create a PDF of why a home sold quickly, how quickly you sold it so that the consumers can actually get value. Go to new home builders and get valuable information and photos.
If a changing market is a downmarket, you have so much more time on your hands. This is the time we should double down on our marketing and focus on building a brand. No matter how much the market slows down, we have to keep the human element of prospecting alive, and social media is how we do it. By bridging the gap between old school and new school, and what’s valuable, what people want to know and what’s fresh, we can be really successful.
Guest Bio
Mike is a Canadian Realtor and a Top 30 Realtor on social media. Check him out on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/mike_sherrard/.
We are all making decisions based on who we aren’t. We need to move away from the physical and start to understand energy and the universe we live in. How can our energy influence our success? How do we go from surviving to thriving? How do we identify the right path for us? In this episode, coach Bill Heinrich talks about how to get out of survival mode and shift our energy so that we can effect positive change in our lives and careers.
Anytime you’re connected to something remotely to do with your purpose, it’s going to energize you and take you into an immediate state of expansion. –Bill Heinrich
Three Takeaways
Success is easy when we’re on the right path
Everyone taught us survival from when we were born, but that brings no satisfaction. The only satisfaction is when we are truly connected to who we are. We’ll know we’re on the right path when what we do is effortless and energizing.
Changing our energy to get where we need to be
We all tie who we are to our accomplishments and we must disconnect from that to thrive.
We are addicted to the physical but the universe runs everything. It’s scientifically proven that everything is a vibration. When we change our energy, we attract what we put out.
Acting out of love instead of fear
There are only two emotions to deal with: love or fear. They can’t coexist and every other emotion stems from them. We must ask ourselves ‘is it love or fear, and what are we protecting?’. With love, there is nothing to protect because the more we give, the more we get. Fear causes us to protect, and when we’re fearful we’re putting the physical first.
Everything in the universe is a vibration, and we are linked to those vibrations. When we chase things in the physical world that don’t blend with the universal, we limit our ability to expand and grow. We were all born with seven divine gifts, but we have them in different proportions. We have our own individual gift to share and when we do, we become ageless, timeless and abundance comes running in. Thriving is ultimately trusting that the universe is bringing that energy together to let it click. The only satisfaction is when we are truly connected to who we are.
Guest Bio
Bill Heinrich is a Professional Coach and Entrepreneur. He started two real estate businesses from scratch in California and Oregon and has owned and operated his own businesses since the age of 25. Bill increased sales at his first company from $100,000 per year to $125,000 per month. He has over 35 years’ experience as an entrepreneur with strengths in operations, marketing and business development. Bill is the creator of “The Coaching for Divine Purpose” coaching certification program, and author of “The Seven Levels of Truth: How to identify, access and live your true life purpose” and “Clarity has no Story - A Shaman’s guide to mastering the Law of Attraction”. Bill is also a certified Feng Shui Practitioner and Numerology Instructor. His long list of qualifications includes an Associate’s Degree in Business Administration from Champlain College, Level II Big Money Business Coach certification, Coaching for Divine Purpose certification, a Certified “Presentainer” from Speaking Empire, a Certified Time Abundance Coach, and numerous Master diplomas from Instant Miracle Mastery in areas such as Peace Process and Extraordinary Coach.
As agents, establishing and managing our relationships with sellers and buyers can be difficult. How do we set ourselves apart from other agents? What difference can our tone of voice make to our success? How do we deal with indecisive buyers? In this episode, we talk about how we can engage with situations that agents come across when dealing with buyers and sellers in real estate.
The way that you look at and talk to people sets up your success or failure with them within the first 5 seconds. –Gene Volpe
Three Takeaways
How to set ourselves apart from other agents
We need to convince sellers that taking us on as their agent is the right move by identifying what previous agents did or did not do, and working from that to establish how to make a successful sale. We must also consider how to use our advantages to market the property in a way that is new and creative compared to how it was marketed before.
The problem with selling ourselves instead of the system
We don’t want people to want us as individuals, we want people to want the system we’ve built. When we don’t make it clear that we are part of a team and a system clients will expect to, and only want to, deal with us personally.
How to deal with indecisive buyers
When we find a property that ticks all the buyer’s boxes but the buyer doesn’t want to make an offer, their hesitation often stems from a feeling. We either need to bring the decision back to being quantitative, or we need to respond in a way that uses emotion by helping them realize the potential for disappointment.
Navigating relationships with buyers and sellers is tricky, but there are ways in which we as agents can manage them more effectively. We can instill confidence in our abilities by showing clients how we can use our advantages to their benefit, and explaining what sets us apart from other agents who have failed. By being aware of the power our tone of voice has, we can foster client relationships in a positive way. We must develop and use systems and tactics that ultimately help us be better agents, and maintain our relationships with buyers and sellers.
Many agents believe that having a database of thousands of people makes them successful, but they mistakenly focus on quantity over quality. What makes a database more likely to lead to more transactions? How do we properly classify a lead, and what should we be doing to stand out from every other agent? On this episode, Beverly Ruffner is back to talk about common database mistakes agents make, and the simple but effective ways to correct them.
In real estate, it’s tough to build a competitive advantage that withstands somebody else being more convenient. -Matt Johnson
Three Takeaways
Why a database isn’t enough
A database is great but it can just be a glorified phone book of names, phone numbers and emails. You want a database that is organized so you know every person you’ve ever spoken to and exactly what their situation is and why they are buying.
Why a list of names doesn’t automatically mean more business
There’s no exclusivity with online leads, and even with your database. Every lead that is in an your database is in at least 3 other databases of your competitors. No one is going to do business with you out of loyalty. What they care about is you being convenient. Your goal should be to position yourself to be convenient when they are looking.
Leads vs. respondents
Online respondents should not be confused with a lead. A lead is when you’ve built a relationship and there’s a level of trust between you and the person. A respondent is just someone who took action on an ad.
The assets of a real estate company are the relationships you have and your systems. A database without any real, detailed information about why they want to buy or sell or when is really just a list of names and numbers. In order for our databases to actually move the needle for our business, having the conversations that give us information is key. You need to aim to be different from everyone else by actually putting effort into regular communication. Even with the best brand, if you don’t have a strong database, your business won’t survive any shift on the horizon.
Guest Bio
Beverly Ruffler is the CEO/Founder of Balance Business Consulting and real estate team owner licensed in Virginia. Go to https://www.balancebusinessconsulting.com/ for more information.
Real estate agents around the country are dealing with the issue of low inventory. How do we generate ‘Come List Me’ calls in this climate? Who do we need to hire to help with referrals and why? How can we use events to encourage referrals? In this episode, Josh Anderson joins us to talk about about shifting how we do certain things so that we can generate a consistent stream of referrals.
We got more intentional about reviews and, different from everyone else in the real estate agency, we started using Google reviews focusing on local business. –Josh Anderson
Three Takeaways
How to deal with low inventory
When we run out of inventory, we need to be proactive. By shifting our lead generation towards agents who have properties coming onto the market that aren’t out yet, we can get ahead of property listings. Our relationships with agents are important and we need to maintain them.
Who we need to hire and why
2019 is the year of video and we need to keep with where the market is going whilst filling a gap within that. Hiring a marketing professional who specializes in social media platforms like Instagram and resources like video is an asset to our team.
Tailoring events for referrals
Hosting events helps us get referrals when it caters to the client and when it’s something they look forward to attending. If your clients are married and have children, a catered event at home would work much better than after-work drinks.
We need to be proactive about the shifts we make so that we can address the issue of low inventory in real estate. Maintaining relationships with agents, making hiring decisions that align with the current market and hosting events that cater specifically to our clients are ways in which we can increase referrals and, by extension, grow our inventory. We should also focus some effort on encouraging reviews as they can take on the function of referrals. Through harnessing these overlooked spaces, we can tackle the issue of low inventory and our businesses can thrive.
Guest Bio
Josh is the owner of The Anderson Group Real Estate Services and Nashville’s most trusted realtor, is ranked in the Top 1000 Real Estate Agents in North America by the Wall Street Journal and consistently ranked in the Top 10 Keller Williams Southeast Region Groups for monthly closed volume. He is a business savvy professional with a strong desire to cater to his clients' particular needs. Josh is skilled in Negotiation, Luxury Goods, Budgeting, Sales, and Entrepreneurship and has a BS focused in International Business/Trade/Commerce from Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College. His market expertise coupled with his superior negotiating skills set him apart from the rest. For more information visit http://www.joshandersonrealestate.com or email josh@joshandersonrealestate.com. You can also connect with him on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/nashvillesrealtor/.
Rockstar Agent Marketing Toolkit - Featuring our favorite scripts, tutorials and quickstart guides to marketing strategies like Facebook Live, door-knocking, remarketing advertising, open houses and referrals. Get actionable ideas and tactics you can use in your career right NOW.
One thing that sets us back as real estate agents is that we’re quick to embrace new technologies, apps and platform in our daily lives, but reluctant to use them in our businesses. What are some of the things we should be paying more attention to? Why does candid video beat polished, professional, over-produced stuff? How do we balance the entertainment factor in our content with the educational factor? On this episode, The Zillow Killer, James Rembert, and Gene Volpe talk about changes to Facebook, tools and strategies we should be leveraging to be more relevant to our audiences.
Agents aren’t failing because there’s a lack of leads, their failing because of obscurity. -James Rembert
Three Takeaways
Why Instagram and Facebook stories matter
Make sure your content strategy includes anything that can keep the consumer or create content natively on the app or platform. This is the real power of Stories and how you can leverage them to be more relevant.
Perfection doesn’t sell anymore
6 years ago the people we admired on social media were the ones that were perfect. Now we’re looking for imperfection, vulnerability and honesty because that’s relatable to us. Social media has made us more available, so we know that it’s not realistic for someone to be polished all the time.
The huge opportunity with messenger bots
Messenger bots are a force to be reckoned with in the marketing game, and other channels pale in comparison. At its highest, email has an open rate of 23% while messenger bots have up to a 97% open rate.
Digital is an enhancement of everything we do, we have to embrace it. When we think of social media to generate leads and grow our database, we have to look at it through the lens of a business. Advertising and marketing are the lifeblood of our business, they are the key to us becoming rock stars in our local markets. That means committing to creating good content which is relevant and relatable because that’s what audiences are responding to. Ultimately, if you’re not generating conversations on social media, your strategy is outdated.
Guest Bio
James Rembert is the Zillow Killer. Using Facebook, he provides marketing solutions to real estate agents who want to get high-quality leads without investing large amounts of money in platforms like Zillow. You can find out more about James and his work at http://www.jamesrembert.com/.
Rockstar Agent Marketing Toolkit - Featuring our favorite scripts, tutorials and quickstart guides to marketing strategies like Facebook Live, door-knocking, remarketing
When it comes to branding and building up your credibility with buyers and sellers in your market, there is nothing as powerful as a book. What are some of the prospecting problems that are solved by writing a book? What’s a quick and easy way to write a book? How can you leverage the book once it’s completed? On this episode, top Dallas Realtor, Chris Bentley is back to talk about how he used books to brand himself.
Anyone who knows how to deliver a structured listing presentation has a book inside of them, you just don’t know it. -Matt Johnson
Three Takeaways
The key thing about writing a book is just getting the basic ideas out of your head and onto paper. Don’t worry too much about how long it will be when you’re just getting started.
If you have a structured listing presentation, you can do a recording of it, and get it transcribed into a book.
There are a lot of ways to solve objections that come up in appointment. We can handle them with our words, or take care of them way in advance with a book.
For most agents the ideas of writing a book is immensely overwhelming and intimidating because it feels like a major time commitment, but it doesn’t have to be. It can actually boost your credibility in a way other types of content don’t. If you write a book on a subject, people are going to assume that you know a lot about it, and that will make any appointment and listing presentation run so much smoother, and make it more likely that you’ll get that client.
Guest Bio
Chris is an award-winning agent and author based in Dallas, Texas. As one of Dallas' most aggressive real estate magnates in the making, Chris is quickly growing into one of the most popular people on social media. Through his social media posts and videos, we're able to experience what's it's like to be a Realtor®. His achievements to date include being voted in 2017 and 2018 D Magazine's Best Realtor® and being 4x Multi-Million Dollar Producer. Go to https://chrisdbentley.com/ for more information and follow @ChrisDBentley on LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter. To find him on Facebook, go to https://www.facebook.com/Chris.D.Bentley.Realtor/.
Rockstar Agent Marketing Toolkit - Featuring our favorite scripts, tutorials and quickstart guides to marketing strategies like Facebook Live, door-knocking, remarketing advertising, open houses and referrals. Get actionable ideas and tactics you can use in your career right NOW.
For many agents, buying leads online has stopped yielding the results it used to, so they have to completely shift their lead generation. What are some of the reasons for the drop in online lead ROI? Why did our guest choose to double down on branding himself? How does he use social media and podcast interviews to build his credibility? On this episode, Dallas top agent, Chris Bentley, shares on the cautionary tale of relying on buying leads, and how to lean into building a brand.
The value of being interviewed on a podcast that is for the industry is it’s a super credible link to your website. -Matt Johnson
Three Takeaways
The Problem With Buying Leads Now
When you buy leads online through Google PPC, a lot of agents go into it thinking that it’s going to turn over very quickly, or at the very least, that they can cherry pick the top leads, but it doesn’t work that way. People are registering for multiple sites, and they are starting their home search online way earlier than we see them, so we might not even be able to get business.
Why going away from the bandwagon can get you more attention
Most people jump on the bandwagon and refuse to do the opposite of what everyone else is doing. The problem is their voice gets lost among the other thousands of people on the same bandwagon.
How to use LinkedIn to target luxury buyers
If you’re targeting luxury listings, LinkedIn is a great place to post really eye-catching photos. High level executives and luxury buyers spend most of their time on LinkedIn, and they don’t just use it after work or on weekends as they do with Facebook and Instagram.
How to generate content that builds credibility
You don’t just want to have a couple of lines come up when someone Googles you. You want there to be a ton of content because it makes you a lot more credible, and that makes you stand out.
Through the experience Chris had, the cautionary tale is you have to build up a brand before you do anything else. For a multitude of reasons, the dynamic with buying online leads has massively shifted to the point where it doesn’t make business sense anymore. Having a strong brand in your local area and being micro-famous will yield more results over and over again, and your business will be less affected by shifts and changes online and in the market.
Guest Bio
Chris is an award-winning agent and author based in Dallas, Texas. As one of Dallas' most aggressive real estate magnates in the making, Chris is quickly growing into one of the most popular people on social media. Through his social media posts and videos, we're able to experience what's it's like to be a Realtor®. His achievements to date include being voted in 2017 and 2018 D Magazine's Best Realtor® and being 4x Multi-Million Dollar Producer. Go to https://chrisdbentley.com/ for more information and follow @ChrisDBentley on LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter. To find him on Facebook, go to https://www.facebook.com/Chris.D.Bentley.Realtor/.
Rockstar Agent Marketing Toolkit - Featuring our favorite scripts, tutorials and quickstart guides to marketing strategies like Facebook Live, door-knocking, remarketing advertising, open houses and referrals. Get actionable ideas and tactics you can use in your career right NOW.
People often let ego guide them into expansion prematurely. There are several things that need to be considered when growing a successful and profitable business that has room to expand. How do we hire people who are capable of handling business growth? How do we know when our business can expand successfully? How do we grow and maintain our profit margins? In this episode, Aaron Rian shares his knowledge of and experience in expanding his real estate business.
It doesn’t make sense to go into another market until every market that you’re in is running tight, making the margin, and is profitable. –Aaron Rian
Three Takeaways
Hire people based on where you see your business going
Hire staff who have the capacity to deal with where you want your business to go, not where you’re at today. When you hire people to deal with your current capacity only, they often can’t keep up when growth starts to happen. The most important thing to look for in people is who can handle the growth and leadership of the business into the new markets as you expand.
How to know when expanding is a good idea
Expansion should only be a consideration when you have a consistent 55-65% profit margin for at least 12 months. You must know your numbers, from your top agent to your newest hire, and keep track of what’s being brought in and what you’re paying to support your employees. If you’re not meeting that margin or paying attention to your balance sheet, you won’t be able to expand successfully and run a profitable model.
How to grow your profit margin
When your profit margin is not hitting the mark, you need to decrease your expenses. Examine your numbers carefully, see where you’re bleeding money and either try to get that back or lose that part of your business. You should also know where your ROIs are and focus on what’s bringing in the best return. Don’t make the mistake of trying to expand when your main hub isn’t profitable to the level that it makes sense to operate as a business.
Expansion is a tough but rewarding game to play. It starts with having a healthy business and then figuring out which parts of it are reproducible in other places. It forces us to pay attention to systems in our business and to look inward and consider the construction of our team. To expand and be profitable, our business must have people who can grow with it and a profit margin that enables successful expansion.
Guest Bio
Aaron is the Founder and Operating Principle of The Brokerage House, home to a multi-million-dollar team and currently expanding cross-country. The company is currently the number one real estate team by sold volume and number of transactions in the local market, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. In Aaron’s seven plus years as a real estate agent, he has been a Top One Percent Metro Realtor and a Multi-Million Dollar Sales Producer. Aaron also won back-to-back-to-back “Top Real Estate Agent” awards from the Portland Monthly magazine in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 and was recently added to the “Registry of Business Excellence™” by America’s Registry of Outstanding Professionals organization. He has appeared in national publications such as “USA Today” and “The Wall Street Journal”, and was recently featured in “Top Agent Magazine”. Aaron is a regular expert on KATU’s AM Northwest Talk Show and has appeared on several television networks including HGTV, CNBC, CNN and Bravo. His first book, “Out Front: The Art of Closing a Deal”, was sold on Amazon.com and made the best-selling authors list. Aaron and his team are on track to close over 650 transactions with a value of nearly 250 million dollars in volume in 2018. For more information visit https://www.thebrokeragerealtors.com or email info@thebrokeragerealtors.com. You can also connect with Aaron on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronrian/.
Rockstar Agent Marketing Toolkit - Featuring our favorite scripts, tutorials and quickstart guides to marketing strategies like Facebook Live, door-knocking, remarketing advertising, open houses and referrals. Get actionable ideas and tactics you can use in your career right NOW.
Many agents struggle to get anywhere with their goals, businesses and results because they are qualified victims; they know what to do but their negative mindset gets in the way. How can you identify if you’re a qualified victim? How do you move yourself up to being a qualified champion?
What is the difference between focus and awareness? On this episode, Spencer Combs talks more about the process for overcoming limiting beliefs and other stumbling blocks to our success.
Any bus will get you there if you don’t know where you’re headed. -Spencer Combs
Three Takeaways
Why more real estate training isn't the answer
You can know exactly what to do but if you don’t have the right mindset, the right thoughts and the right knowledge, you just won’t move.
It's what we know, but DO NOT do that's our problem
When we know what we need to do but we never do it, that information is useless. We have to bring what we know and what we do together in order to become unstoppable.
3 ways to identify victims in your life
There are three behaviors that can quickly help you identify the victims around you. Victims blame other people and even the market for their challenges, they constantly criticize others, and justify why they aren’t making progress.
In order to get unstuck and get over our own victim mentality, the first thing we have to talk about and get clear on is the accountability. We have to take complete responsibility for our lives if we want to change them. We have to focus on what we want more than what we don’t want, and align our beliefs with where we want to go. Lastly, we have to be flexible and focus less on the vehicle for getting results and more on the destination and the ultimate goal we have.
Guest Bio
Spencer is a Coach, speaker and founder of Spencer Combs Resources. He also serves as Director of Operations for the Jeff Riley team in Columbia, SC. Go to http://www.spencercombs.com/ or http://productivitystreet.com/ for more information. Join Spencer every Tuesday night at 6pm EST for his Facebook Live.
Rockstar Agent Marketing Toolkit - Featuring our favorite scripts, tutorials and quickstart guides to marketing strategies like Facebook Live, door-knocking, remarketing advertising, open houses and referrals. Get actionable ideas and tactics you can use in your career right NOW.
The thing that constantly holds us back from getting better results in business is mindset, and the influence it has on the actions we take. How do we connect the right mindset to the tactics and actions that will move us forward? How do we identify what we’re missing, and how do we implement that piece into our lives? What are the 4 types of agents, and how do you move towards the zone where you are most effective? On this episode, coach, speaker and author, Spencer Combs shares on how to go from victim to champion, he also shares why more real estate training isn't the answer, how to identify victims and why what we don’t do is what holds us back.
Most of us know what we should be doing, we even know how to do it but we won’t take the action, and it’s almost always because of an incongruence in beliefs. -Spencer Combs
Three Takeaways
The 4 Categories Most Agents Fall Into
Unqualified champions are people have the mindset but not the mechanics to get things done. Unqualified victims don’t know the mechanics and don’t have mindset. Qualified victims know the mechanics but have a negative mindset. Qualified champions have the mindset and mechanics so they are able to get into action.
The 2 most dangerous words in the English language
Saying “I know” is very dangerous because it stops us from learning anything or taking the steps to get better and go towards our goals.
The power of clarity and chunking
The first step is getting clear on what it is we want to achieve, and then looking for people who have already achieved it, and starting to break down the chunks of action we need to take to get there.
No matter how much motivation, drive and real estate training we have, if we don’t actually have a detailed and broken down action plan, we won’t be able to grow our business. In order to get to that action plan, clarity is key. We have to find someone to model who is doing exactly what we want to do, and then breaking down the actions that will allow us to do the same. One of the most powerful ways to get traction is to put ourselves into a rhythm of regular planning. Ultimately, when mindset and mechanics are congruent, action will take place.
Guest Bio
Spencer is a Coach, speaker and founder of Spencer Combs Resources. He also serves as Director of Operations for the Jeff Riley team in Columbia, SC. Go to http://www.spencercombs.com/ or http://productivitystreet.com/ for more information.
Rockstar Agent Marketing Toolkit - Featuring our favorite scripts, tutorials and quickstart guides to marketing strategies like Facebook Live, door-knocking, remarketing advertising, open houses and referrals. Get actionable ideas and tactics you can use in your career right NOW.
Many agents have a really difficult emotional adversity to being rejected by new people because they take the rejection personally, but the truth is, a new person’s resistance is a natural reaction. What mindset shift should you make about this so you can persevere in prospecting? How can we go about putting ourselves in front of new people and then getting them to know, like and trust us? On this episode, Dale Archdekin talks about the have mets and the have not mets and how to overcome the fear we have around that.
Accept that a stranger is going to be naturally defensive and skeptical of us. -Dale Archdekin
Three Takeaways
A stranger will naturally be defensive and hesitant toward us. Don't allow that to hold you back.
From childhood, it is ingrained in us not to trust or talk to strangers, and when you’re a salesperson that’s an extra layer we have to break through. But don’t let the natural resistance deter you from talking to new people.
How strangers respond to us initially is not about US - it's about them
When people are skeptical of us when they first meet us, we shouldn’t take it personally. They are rejecting their concept of a stranger salesperson. Remember, if a person doesn’t even know you yet, it’s impossible for them to actually dislike you.
Everyone who knows, likes and trusts you was a stranger at some point
The people you worked with and delivered a great service to were also people who didn’t know like and trust way back in the beginning. You would have never gotten to that wonderful place with that person if you didn’t go through the tough part of front which is a their natural resistance.
The truth about every meaningful relationship in our lives is that those people started off as strangers and they didn’t know, like and trust us immediately. As a salesperson, whenever you talk to somebody new, you will run up against resistance, rejection and a bit of adversity. This resistance isn’t about us or anything wrong with us, and if we actually bring value to these people, they will also become people who know, like and trust us.
Guest Bio
Dale is a Realtor and founder of Smart Inside Sales. Go to smartinsidesales.com for more information, email dale@smartinsidesales.com or find them on Facebook.
One of the reasons many agents struggle to close on prospecting calls is that they haven’t mastered the basics of the call like introducing themselves quickly, and learning what the prospect’s true motivations are. How do you practice these aspects? Why is action more important than knowing everything? On this episode, Dale Archdekin shares what he’s learned from training agents and teams on prospecting and conversion.
There are 3 different stages of the script, who you are, where you’re from and what you’re doing on the phone call. -Greg McDaniel
Three Takeaways
It's not what you know, it's what you DO that counts
No amount of training and learning what works will change anything if it’s not put into actual action. What matters is doing, and even if you don’t know everything, that’s what helps you grow. In prospecting, it’s often about getting out there and just doing it, getting the practice, learning and getting better.
The value of real, live-fire practice
It’s not just about roleplaying, it’s about actually going through the foundational aspects and demonstrating them in real time. It’s about mastering aspects of talking to a lead, objection handling, and working the lead through to a closing. Getting used to this in practice means it will feel more natural on an actual prospecting call.
Why you shouldn't practice in your leads
Don’t practice on your leads because they are getting more and more expensive, and you want to be ready when you get on the phone with them.
If you’re already experienced at the basics of a prospecting call, role play is just a warm up, but a lot of agents still need to lay the foundation of the basics of the call. If you want to get better at cold business, practice your calls, from the opening to the close, from introducing yourself and stating the purpose of the call. It’s all about getting the most important question of the call answered and you get there by mastering all the pieces of the call.
Guest Bio
Dale is a Realtor and founder of Smart Inside Sales. Go to smartinsidesales.com for more information, email dale@smartinsidesales.com or find them on Facebook.
Rockstar Agent Marketing Toolkit - Featuring our favorite scripts, tutorials and quickstart guides to marketing strategies like Facebook Live, door-knocking, remarketing advertising, open houses and referrals. Get actionable ideas and tactics you can use in your career right NOW.
One of the 4 pillars of a successful and sustainable business is after sales follow up and building a referral-based business. If we haven’t been good at our client follow up, what are the steps we need to take to rectify that? How can we evaluate whether our activities are giving us a return on time? What’s a simple system for building more relationships? On this episode, Theresa Barnabei continues to share insights on becoming successful in business, and this time we focus on generating referrals.
Real estate is not a rocket science business, it’s a highly evolved people business. -Theresa Barnabei
Three Things We Learned
The early indicators of ROI
Production isn’t the only indicator of whether we’re getting a return on investment. There are initial indicators that tell us how well we’re doing. Use the acronym TEEM- Time, Energy, Effort and Money. Take a look at the time, energy, effort and money you’re spending on any one of those things, and evaluate if you’re getting a return on investment.
How to get back in touch with past clients
If you have not stayed in touch with your sphere, write an apology letter. They entrusted us with a life event and falling out of touch with them is unacceptable.
How to get more business
If you want to do more business, you have to get to know and like a lot more people. People will do business with people they know, like and trust. In order for people to get to and like you have to get to know and like them.
If you do a good job of keeping in touch with the current clients you have right now, at least half of those clients will come back for repeat business in 4-5 years. It’s all about staying in relationship with these people and getting to know them beyond the transaction. You want to be the person they think about and refer when real estate comes up. The goal of after sale follow up is basically continuing to get to know and like people.
Rockstar Agent Marketing Toolkit - Featuring our favorite scripts, tutorials and quickstart guides to marketing strategies like Facebook Live, door-knocking, remarketing advertising, open houses and referrals. Get actionable ideas and tactics you can use in your career right NOW.
Guest Bio
Theresa is a real estate business coach, educator, author and speaker. She is the founder of Flight Of Your Life Success Coaching With Theresa, TBConsults and Black Card Service. Go to http://www.multiplyyourrealestatebusiness.com/ to get a free copy of Theresa’s book “Multiply Your Business: 10 New Marketing Realities For The Real Estate Industries.”
There’s always a new training product, free webinar of eBook that promises to boost our business. The problem is if it’s out of our comfort zone, we just won’t stick with it long enough for it to work. What are the prospecting and lead generation strategies you should always start with? How do we work towards activities that are more out of our comfort zone? What are the 4 things we need to pay attention to in order to build successful, scalable businesses? On this episode, author, speaker and real estate coach Theresa Barnabei shares on creating a successful business on strategies and activities we can do consistently.
Never abandon what you do successfully. It is usually what you’re most comfortable doing. -Theresa Barnabei
Three Things We Learned
How to connect with people as an extrovert
Being an introvert in real estate doesn’t mean we can’t connect with people. We can still be a bit more extroverted when it suits us and our businesses. You can be introverted but still shine in getting people to know, like and trust you.
How to switch from a selling mindset to a serving on
When people are prospecting and lead generating, they tend to have a mindset block. They think they are selling, and because of that they will struggle to get on the phone and have conversations with people. It’s important to switch the mindset to one of serving.
The best way to choose a prospecting method
If you want to be successful in business building, figure out what’s in your wheelhouse that you see yourself doing, that you can get excited about. The things you’re comfortable doing will be the easiest to commit to. Then from there, you can stretch yourself into activities that are out of your comfort zone.
There are 4 things we need to pay attention to in order to build a business that can scale and keep producing results. First, it’s the time we put aside for ourselves and our loved ones, then it’s taking the time to build business through prospecting, executing on the transactions we have, as well as after sale follow up. Prospecting can be a challenge when the required activities feel difficult for us to do. If the activity is not in our comfort zone, we’ll procrastinate, drag our feet and never get it done. Overcome this by focusing on the things you are confident and comfortable doing. Because you’re consistent with it, it will consistently deliver results.
Rockstar Agent Marketing Toolkit - Featuring our favorite scripts, tutorials and quickstart guides to marketing strategies like Facebook Live, door-knocking, remarketing advertising, open houses and referrals. Get actionable ideas and tactics you can use in your career right NOW.
Guest Bio
Theresa is a real estate business coach, educator, author and speaker. She is the founder of Flight Of Your Life Success Coaching With Theresa, TBConsults and Black Card Service. Go to http://www.multiplyyourrealestatebusiness.com/ to get a free copy of Theresa’s book “Multiply Your Business: 10 New Marketing Realities For The Real Estate Industries.”
The start of a new year provides an opportunity for us to set new goals. While a great opportunity, this can feel overwhelming. How can we achieve every resolution we’ve set for ourselves? Is there a way to level up more than one dimension of our lives at a time? On this episode, we speak with a master of goal setting and achieving, Morgan Oaks. Drawing on his personal experience, Morgan advocates a holistic approach to elevating your life.
A third-party view is critical: find someone with the nerve to tell you when you’re doing something wrong.- Morgan Oaks.
Three Things We Learned
Taking a holistic approach to goals
Far too often, the third parties we employ to help us with challenges we face only concentrate on one area at a time. For example, business coaches do not consider your relationships, in the same way that relationship counsellors do not take into account your business issues. The reality is, as a human being each of these areas plays a significant role in your life. Make sure you’re always aware of this.
The importance of exercise
Exercise is one activity that can help you level up almost every dimension of your life. In addition to the obvious benefits for physical health, it can also assist in reducing stress and maintaining focus. As we emphasize, when you achieve new levels of fitness, you experience a sense of victory. The feeling of achievement is carried with you, even after you leave the gym.
How to achieve in multiple areas of your life
Find singular, helpful tools that help you meet multiple goals at once. This does not require fully realizing each of your goals at the same time, but speaks to a process whereby you can achieve small victories. Meditation, for example, can help you slow down and enjoy the moment- and help you be more productive afterwards.
There is no better time than the start of 2019 to start adopting routines that will help you find success in every aspect of your life. Routines like exercise go a long way in helping you achieve goals in terms of both physical and mental health. The ability to meet two goals with one activity should never be discounted. While you may see the categories in which you place your goals as distinct, remember that they are all important to you for a reason.
Guest Bio
As a chiropractor, transformational speaker and high performance coach, it’s safe to say that Morgan Oaks has a diverse range of talents. Morgan points out that one of his greatest motivators is never feeling that he is getting enough out of what he’s doing in the moment. By thinking that way, he is always pushing for more and trying to best achieve his goals.
Rockstar Agent Marketing Toolkit - Featuring our favorite scripts, tutorials and quickstart guides to marketing strategies like Facebook Live, door-knocking, remarketing advertising, open houses and referrals. Get actionable ideas and tactics you can use in your career right NOW.
When it comes marketing, it often feels like we have to constantly step our game up in order to succeed. When it comes to new strategies, why is podcasting a front runner? How do we balance what the audience wants with what we’re interested and what we want to talk about? On this episode, we discuss some key points to consider when it comes to crafting content to grow your business.
Even if the audience comes, if the content doesn’t help you sell more houses, you will get burnt out on it a lot faster. -Matt Johnson
Three Things We Learned
Why YouTube is better for growing an audience
YouTube is so much better at serving up your videos to people who are looking for stuff in your area or on your topic, and serving you up as a recommended video than iTunes. To get started with podcasting, create community-oriented, events-based videos, keep them short and put them on YouTube and then drive people there.
How to craft content that the audience actually wants
One of the biggest mistakes people are making with their podcasts and video content is wanting to do something that’s fun for them and still grow an audience but those two things are actually incompatible. People either don’t care about the topic or they’re already getting the content from someone else.
Why focusing on a niche is important
No one is interested in just one thing, so to make highly focused content you have to cut a deal with yourself to sacrifice certain things you would want to talk about to deliver what the audience is interested in. The more focused you get, the more people understand exactly what mental bucket you’re trying to fit into, the more likely they will be to come to you for that specific thing.
As business owner, creating content is not an art form, it has a purpose and that is to get more people onto your calendar that want to meet to buy or sell a home. You want to get more business, and if you build the audience and it doesn’t translate to that, it will be disappointing. Your content creation has to actually put money in your pocket, or else it will feel like a waste. The more focused you are in your content as it relates to your business purpose the more likely you are to have success.
One of the ways we can truly build a life of freedom is to jump into investing. Do we have to have been in the business for a long time? What is a basic deal we can set up? How does investing empowers us? On this episode, Zach Beach shares on how he went from bartender to 100 investing deals in under 3 years, and how we can do it.
A basic lease-purchase deal is a net lease with an option to purchase at the end. -Zach Beach
Three Takeaways
The profitability of lease-purchase deals
A lease-purchase deal gives you 3 paydays as an investor. First you get the non-refundable deposit, and then the difference between what you pay on expenses, and what you’re collecting for rent, as well as the principal pay down.
How lease-purchase deals benefit the customer
A lease-purchase deal is a bridge to homeownership and an opportunity for people to become mortgage ready. Buyer’s get to lock in their price today. As an investor, the benefits aren’t just financial. You get people who will take better care of the home than a renter.
Why building relationships is key to investing
Investing in real estate is more of a give and take, and open conversation. You have to be a lot more personable because it’s all about building a relationship from step one all the way to signing the contract.
As an agent, you already have the lead gen tools, prospecting and relationship building skills mastered, so why not add one more arrow in your quiver through investing? It will give you one more way to help people so when you meet a prospect, the conversation doesn’t just have to be about buying or selling. It gives you a lot more value and it can change the rest of your life by helping you build wealth.
Guest Bio
Zach is an Entrepreneur, Real Estate Investor, Real Estate Coach and Marketer at Pre Property Solutions. For more information, go to http://prepropertysolutions.com or connect with him on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacharyrbeach/.
To download Pre Property’s free ebook on investing, go to http://freesrecbook.com
When something goes wrong in our lives, how we bounce back from it depends on how we handle the fall out. How do we get ourselves unstuck from wallowing and feeling bad about ourselves? What steps can we take to get out of the low? What can you do to change your mindset? On this episode, Jeff Coats shares on his book, the lessons he learned from his time in prison, and how he’s applying it to his life and business.
You can take control of your life by setting and accomplishing your goals and being dedicated to those goals and yourself. -Jeff Coats
Three Takeaways
Acceptance should come before any action
Before we can take any action towards making a change in our lives, we have to accept the situation, accept that something is not working, and accept the part we played in making it happen.
How to avoid wallowing for too long
When something isn’t going well, we go through the grief cycle. While it’s easy to get stuck in that for too long, we have to force ourselves to get out of it quickly. The faster we start taking action towards recovering, the faster we’ll be back on our feet.
The importance of taking responsibility
Usually when things don’t go our way, our first reaction is to blame it on someone else, but what we should do is take responsibility. You have to admit to yourself that you have a hand in the failure. If you’re not getting any results, see your role in it and then do something about it.
The results we get in our lives will always reveal if we’re taking the right actions and nurturing the right mindsets. So if we’re not getting what we want, we have to tweak what we’re doing and thinking. We play a huge part in what happens in our lives, and the good thing about being responsible for our failure is that we are also responsible for our successes if we turn things around.
Guest Bio
Jeff Coats is an entrepreneur, speaker and author of Res3t: 8 Principles Guaranteed to Change Your Mindset In Order to Change Your Life. Jeff was incarcerated at the age of 14 and sent to adult prison for 17 years. Released in 2011, he quickly became a successful real estate broker. This book covers his story (and the stories of others who have succeeded against all odds), told through the perspective of a life philosophy that emphasizes changing your mindset to change your life. Drawing from his own experiences, Jeff has introduced 8 principles for living a better life—a life that puts you on the path to achieving your biggest goals. Go to https://www.res3t.com/ for more information and to buy the book.
Many agents get tripped up because they think all the posting they’re doing on social media is automatically going to generate business. The truth is we also need to work on bringing our relationships from social media to something deeper and less transactional. What do we need to have in place in order to bridge this gap? How can we get better at celebrating our successes? On this episode, we talk about our wins at the end of 2018, and how we can set ourselves up for a successful 2019.
Social media has created a “need it now” mentality, but you have to pay the patience game in real life. -Gene Volpe
Three Takeaways
Why attention doesn’t bring business
Social media has created the impression that attention equals dollars which isn’t necessarily true. It can be true, but only if you build a bridge between the two by having really good conversations and strong relationships.
The power of reaching out between transactions
The more we are secure and confident that we are worthy of being referred and introduced, the more it gives us the ability to get out of our own way and ask for it, and reach out and give value in between transactions.
How to celebrate wins in an effective way
It’s one thing to accomplish something and feel the satisfaction, it’s a whole other thing to actually celebrate it properly, whether it’s with a drink, a meal or doing something you enjoy. There is something powerful about a physical ritual with a substance that you’ve tied to success. It means you have a visceral and physical way to celebrate that accomplishment
The thing about this business is you’re not going to call someone and just have them ready to pull the trigger immediately on buying or selling a house. You have to build a relationship with them so that when they do reach the point where they want to buy and sell, we’re the ones they want to work with. We have to use systems and conversations to keep those relationships warm over time, because eventually they will pay off. The key is having more conversations in the real world, and leaning less on social media.
Being disorganized isn’t just a flaw, it is actually a symptom of a much deeper problem - an affinity to chaos. What traits are telltale signs of this problem? How can this chaos factor be traced back to chaos when we were younger? How can we overcome this? On this episode, real estate coach Angela Kristen Taylor shares how to uproot and overcome chaos in our businesses and lives.
Control issues are tied to not having anyone you could trust in your childhood. -Angela Kristen Taylor
Three Takeaways
Symptoms of the chaos factor
Being easily distracted, having a love for organizational tools but never being able to put them into action. Never filling up planners Disorganized thoughts in notebooks, writing sideways
Being late, double booking and complete and total disorganization, and being busy but never accomplishing anything.
What happens if the chaos affinity is not addressed
If you don’t deal with this and you still manage to succeed, you will self-sabotage yourself because you’ll still have that thermostat for chaos. That means you’ll constantly find ways to self-sabotage yourself, and create chaos in your life in some way, shape, or form. So no matter what you achieve you will destroy it.
The root of control issues
Control issues and not wanting to give up any control is something that can be tied back to childhood. If you did not have anybody in your life as a child that you couldn’t trust, to show up and do what they said they would do, you’re not going to believe anyone has that capability except for you.
Having chaos in our lives and businesses goes back to having a childhood where we felt like we had no power or control and we were at someone else’s whim. It’s one of the reasons we choose to go out on our own in business, but also the same reason our lives and businesses are chaotic and disorganized. If this goes unaddressed, it affects how you treat yourself, how we treat others and our whole lives. To overcome it, we have to actively work on ourselves, and dig down to the bottom of the source of the chaos so we can nip it in the bud.
Guest Bio
Angela is a real estate coach and the founder of Master Agent Life. Master Agent Life is the culmination of everything she learned as a real estate agent and everything she learned trying to become the best version of herself: mentally, physically, and spiritually. Go to https://www.masteragentlife.com/ for more information and for access to a helpful video, and a resource on lead generation ideas.