Episdode 028 - Top 5 Characteristics of Successful New Realtors

Right? These are common characteristics of successful people throughout the industry. Right, right. And so, if we could just kind of hit on those, that was sort of the thought. Right. And I think a really great program, too, begins with the end in mind, right? You're not just saying, oh, here's your real estate playbook, go. You're trying to develop these new agents so that way they're successful for years to come. And I hadn't even thought of this until you mentioned about the coaching because, unfortunately, sometimes I do come across an agent who's been in the business for 10, 20, 30 years, and they're at the end of their career. And they have no plan, really, to exit the business. And they may have been a great salesperson for years.

They may have had some really great, successful years. But there's just no – they didn't have the proper habits to take them through the career, right? Right. And so, I think that's the key, right? We talk about it all the time when we're talking from a development standpoint is, do we want a brand-new person to come in and hit the ground running and get a sale under their belt as quickly as we possibly can? Of course we do. Sure. Because we know that that success breeds other successes, right? Right. But really, when we look at our long-term goal with a development plan, it's, are they going to do these things that are going to make them successful when we're not around? Right. And they're on their own. Right. When they're not – you know, they're out there running their business. And so, you said the word a minute ago, just have it. And so, if we can create great habits, I feel like we win.

Right. And so far, that's proven to be relatively successful in our group. But I wanted to kind of dive in today and say, okay, you and I, we debrief the people who graduate from our program. So, we kind of get a bird's-eye view of some of those common traits. But you have a probably bigger one being an instructor, being a coach, and being surrounded by people who are in that world all the time. Right. These are the things that, if I had to go out and hire a robot that was going to be successful, what are the five things that this robot has in common? Right. So, let's start with number one. Establish and follow a productive daily schedule. Okay. And as I was thinking of that, I had to draw a line through it because it was just like, first, just establish a daily schedule.

But not just any daily schedule. Have the discipline to actually do it. Right. Do it. And make sure it is a productive schedule. Right. So, that's where I think a lot of agents can, you know, a lot of people jump into real estate. They're not fresh out of high school and say, I want to do real estate. Right. They're coming from some other industry. And that shift in now this newfound freedom of being a business owner and working on your own schedule, that tends to be one of the first things lost is, okay, now what do I do with my time? Right. So, and if you don't have a plan, but also if you don't have a plan, but also if you don't have a plan, but also if you don't have a plan, you know, I can speak from experience here when I first started. It's really easy to get up in the morning, it's really easy to get up in the morning, get the kids out to school, maybe sit down and watch, in my case, sports center.

Yeah. And hang out and then maybe do a little bit of work. That's probably not productive work. Right. Like you said. And then go grab lunch with somebody and then come back to the house. And next thing you know, the day's over and you've probably done an hour or two of work. Yeah. And was it really great work? And so I had the good fortune early on of somebody telling me like, you're not going to get anything out of this unless you put it into it. Right. And then also we were broke. So I had to work. Right. I had to make it work. But yeah, I agree. I mean, I think it's even still true today. Yeah. Well, and I think having a mentor, having a more experienced person in your corner to help you figure out what that looks like, because that will look different for everybody out there based on what their strengths and weaknesses are.

Right. And when we think of those schedules, like what does that productive schedule look like? Because that was the same way. Right. It was Wendy Williams for me. I just wanted to sit and watch my coffee. And instead of sitting in traffic, I wanted to just enjoy the traffic on TV and enjoy the fact that I wasn't having to drive. I wasn't sitting in traffic. Right. Yeah. And I wasn't putting on a tie or whatever that was. Right. Absolutely. Right. So what does that schedule look like? And believe it or not, a lot of theories are in if you think of what that daily routine is, you actually want to begin with that nighttime routine on what's going to set you up for success the next day. I tie into that, too, is is begin the day with gratitude. You know, when Barbara Bush passed away, one thing I remember hearing about how she lived her life was she began every single day with five note cards.

Right. Five handwritten cards to express gratitude and thanks to somebody who impacted her life. That's a cool habit. Isn't it? That is a very cool app. Yeah. Yes. So so I think there's there's very small things that you can't miss. Beginning your day with gratitude is a big one just simply because it's going to help you have the proper mindset to get into your routine for the day. But but identifying what those time blocks are and some non-negotiables, that's going to help you get to reach your goals, whatever those goals may be. So you've touched on a bunch of stuff that we could go down rabbit holes. So, number one, the morning routine is, I think, a must have. One of the common themes of interviewing people in this podcast, the successful ones have a morning routine.

I will tell you, I am not a morning person. Right. I work out in the morning and I hate it. Right. The joke, the running joke we have is every time I walk in with my trainer in the morning is I just say this is the worst day of my life because I hate being up that early. And I certainly hate working out that early. Um, but having that time early in the morning when it's just me and I can just focus. It's hard. We say the word mindset and it's really hard, but it really allows me to the minute I walk in the door, whether that's a literal door like here or a figurative door to my business. Right. Um, I hit the ground running because I've already got all the get ready stuff out of the way. The nighttime routine is something that I have also struggled with because I'm typically a night owl.

So my nighttime routine ends at like 1 a.m. Um, but I bought this thing called the five minute journal because I saw it on probably Facebook. Who knows, but it's literally, it takes me five minutes in the morning because I'm not good at that journaling part. And it is kind of, here's some bullet point questions of what's this, but it also has a one minute in the evening. Oh, awesome. And you sit down and you just write for a second just to kind of clear the day. And more than anything, what that nighttime routine has allowed me to do is sleep. Right. It really does. Cause my, I don't go to bed with a bunch of stuff on my mind. Right. Yeah. So I think it's huge. That's awesome. Yeah.

And then you said something else that I can't remember what it was, but I was going to go down a rabbit hole with that as well. Oh, time blocking. So, you know, we did, I did a show with, with Brian Moran, who really was where I learned how to teach, how to time block. And I think that, you know, you hear it, you know, we used to teach it was my perfect week idea. And I don't love that because it's never going to be always going to get people to interrupt. But the idea of time blocking and having those non-negotiables that you have to do every day, to me, that makes for a really achievable day. Right. Exactly. So, yeah, I think that's fantastic. Yeah.

So beginning there with gratitude, make sure you have a productive schedule. Right. Tell me some of the elements that you think are, if I'm a brand new agent, I'm straight out the gate. Okay. What are some of the non-negotiables? Okay. Non-negotiables are definitely going to be talk to the people I know. Right. I've got to make sure I block out time for that. That's actually one of my points later on. So I won't get too much into that, but definitely talk to the people you know. The other, one of the next non-negotiables is definitely going to be putting yourself in the position to engage with buyers and sellers. So whether that means open houses, whether that means digging into some of the tools that are going to allow you to connect with buyers and sellers, right?

You've got to study ways to interact with clients, right? Yeah. Right. Be in the right place at the right time. Exactly. Like if I, because real estate is a service industry, sometimes we fail to apply concepts of retail, right? Like one of the major things of retail is, okay, I've got my widget, right? Whatever I'm going to bring to the market is now, how am I going to get in front of my potential customers? Yeah. And we don't think of it that way. And, and we, for some reason have this block and just, oh, well, I announced it. So now everybody's going to come to me. Yeah. The question is, why is my phone ringing right in a second? Right, right. But I've got to spend time on activities that are going to get me in front of it. And I think if you're a new agent, specifically if you're new to the market, right?

Um, open, I mean, open houses are just going, it's a no brainer. It's going to get you in front of people. It's going to get you in front of neighbors. Right. Um, yeah. And especially, you know, if you don't have a huge sphere. Exactly. Right. Exactly. Like you said, if you're new to the marketplace, if you, um, if you just don't have a really large sphere because you worked over here, but you're now over here, whatever that looks like, are you just not very good at maintaining sphere? Right. I've never had the tools to do it. Right. Um, as you build up that part, you've also got to be talking to strangers. Exactly. Right. Exactly. And, you know, like you said, applying retail that I think that also plugs into that productive daily routine, which is if I own a retail store and I put the hours on the door and I'm not open during those hours and somebody comes there, they're not going to use.

Right. And so, yeah, absolutely. You have to, you have to be out in front of people because, you know, we talk about this all the time and this is a nod to my, my business coach Cleve. He calls it the river of real estate and it just flows. And it's because household formation, household breaking apart, job changes, babies, deaths, divorces, whatever that is that cause people to make that decision. We're not the catalyst for that. Right. Life is the catalyst. Right. We just have to be on the river. Yeah. When those, when those things happen, we've got to be on the river. Right. And we've got to be out there talking to people. And so, yeah, if we don't make time for that, it's never going to happen. Exactly. Yeah. Great. Love it. Anything else you want to add to that?

Non-negotiables? Talk to strangers. Yeah. Call your sphere. Yeah. I mean, honestly, I hate to simplify it so much because there are some other things that do think are important that we'll touch on, but we also tend to overcomplicate real estate, right? We do. And it's really that simple. So much overthinking. Seriously. Yeah. And I hate to say that because if I had a dollar for every time I say this, what we do is not rocket science. No. It's really not. No. It just takes some focused activities. Right. And those focused activities are pretty simple. Right. I mean, they're not hard. So I actually said that phrase. I was giving a presentation at a conference and it was a smaller breakout session. And I said, look, this isn't rocket scientists. And this guy like five rows back just gives this weird like, yeah, kind of amen from the back.

And I was like, okay, well, that was odd. And then afterwards he came up to me. He goes, Hey, my name's Brock. I'm actually a rocket scientist. And it was so funny because he actually worked on his team, worked on one of the most recent rovers that went to Mars. Yeah. It was actually pretty cool. But he's like, yeah, this is not rocket science at all. Take it from your rocket scientist. This is not that. Oh, yeah. So if I had to have a second habit, it is lean on others to supplement your weaknesses. Amen. And I, rather than just a one time to do like, you have to make that a habit. You constantly have to one, acknowledge that you're not good at everything and you don't have to do this all by yourself. Yes. And don't allow budget, time, like don't allow.

And for some people that's hard, right? Exactly. Because there's ego involved or there's a, you know, Gary Vee is one of my favorite people, especially magazine right there with Gary Vee on the cover, um, ta-da, um, that I haven't read yet. So that's why it's sitting in a pile of papers over there. Um, but one of the things that he thinks is like the great, one of the greater strengths of good business people is self-awareness and taking a minute and realizing, Hey, you know what? I kind of suck at this. I shouldn't be doing it. Right. And even if you are good at it, should you be doing it, right? Um, but, but yeah, knowing what your weaknesses are in, in finding people who excel in those areas. And I mean, by doing that, you're also bringing value to other people around you as well.

And if you want to break it down even more, okay, now you're starting to expand your sphere, which is probably going to be reciprocal to bringing you more business. Because you're not doing things that you shouldn't be doing. You're doing the things you should be doing. Exactly. Right. Exactly. And so whether that's automating through systems and processes or whether that's hiring it out or, you know, whatever that we're just not doing it. Yeah. In some cases. Yeah. In some cases, it's just, that just doesn't need to be done at all. Exactly. Stop. I mean, don't forget. I mean, the bartering system too is a great thing, right? If, if I remember when we started, uh, you know, finding photographers who are also starting their business. And I think when you're new, um, well, a lot of other people are new to what they're doing to you. And if you can get together on the ground floor, I think that relationship will be extremely valuable and you can help each other grow.

I'm not saying take it. Don't take advantage of people. Don't, you know, offer compensation, but if you are somebody in a relationship with another business person who understands, okay, I have no money. Right. They get it. And they're willing to, they're willing to trade. And I think that's something we, we forget as well, but, but lean on others to help supplement things that you don't do well, or you shouldn't be doing. So I learned this lesson the hard way. And I'll be the first to say it because one of the things I think I am pretty good at is knowing what I'm bad at. And there's a lot of it. But I used to think that there was some, for lack of better term, valor in overcoming the things that I'm bad at.

Right. That's just stupid. Right. So she runs marathons. I do not run. My, my, my joke is that I have a gun in a truck. And so I don't run. Right. But also I have terrible knees and ankles. And so I don't run. Um, but over the years, just to like, try to prove a point. I have tried. Right. And in every single case, my body has said, no, this is a bad idea. Right. Don't do that. Right. You're stupid. Um, and you know, we don't take lessons from nature. We have to learn things the hard way today. If I like, there's never going to be a time that I'm not going to have an accountant because I hate accounting so much and I'm not good at it. And I, I, if I just hate it.

Yeah. It's the worst. Yeah. It's the absolute worst. I know that there's people out there that may be listeners that are accountants or like that, but not for me. Right. I'm not going to try to go become an accounting person because I don't want to. Right. And it doesn't do anything to grow my business. Right. Like let someone else do that. Exactly. But in the past I did the hell out of that. Yeah. And probably cost myself a ton of money and time and all the other things. Um, so yeah, I'm with you. There's no valor in trying to become good at things you're bad at. And there, and you can even apply that directly to types of real estate because there's going to be situations. Like I know in my own business, one thing I just won't do, we won't list homes for our, uh, our landlord clients. Like there's just companies out there that will do that better.

For them and better serve them. And it's, it's just not up my specialty. Right. And I think there's a lot of nuances and specialties within real estate that sometimes Realtor, we try to be generalists instead of saying, you know what? I know somebody who can do that way better than me. So I'm going to connect you with them. Yeah. Right. Which is, you know, if we're talking, you know, this is again, another rabbit hole. Yeah. But if we're talking about, we have, we owe somebody a fiduciary duty. Right. Our fiduciary duty is to put their best interest above our own. Right. And if we're not good at something, just let someone else do it. Exactly. The right thing is it'll pay you back over time. Exactly. Right. It may not be the, the, the great big dollar sign check that you had hoped it would be right then. But a, you're putting yourself in a position of liability. If you're not good at it, you're putting a brokerage in a, in a position of liability, but really you're not delivering a level of service to that client that they could be getting from somebody else that you partnered with.

It is good at those things. Exactly. Right. Exactly. And those relationships tend to be reciprocal. Right. So if I have somebody who, you know, is great in Dallas and I give them a bunch of business, my expectation is when they have somebody who is in need in Houston that, Hey, holla. Right. It really is centered all in, you know, what, again, back to the mindset, do you have this abundance mentality or scarcity mentality? And you really have to exercise that abundance mentality. 100%. Yeah. Awesome. All right. So, so far we are following a daily schedule. We are leaning on others to, to pick us up where we are weak. Right. So what's number three, number three, you have to intentionally nurture relationships.

Oh, okay. This, we could, we could do a whole show. We do a whole show on that. Right. So let's talk about that. Okay. Tell me, tell me what that means to you. That means I get face to face with the people I know. And I'm also intentionally trying to grow the amount of, increase the amount of people that I know. I think social media has, it's, it's obviously very beneficial for, for a real estate career, but it also gives us this illusion of relationship where we stop. Like if we just stop at social media, we end up very lonely. Right. And I think it gives people, it gives real estate practitioners an illusion of I've nurtured relationships.

Right. When pressing a like button or making a comment really isn't that. Right. Can it be part of that? Sure. Right. But it's not necessarily designed to create engagement. Exactly. It's not necessarily designed to further the relationship. It's more of like a, Hey, I'm still over here. Yeah. Don't forget about me. I have a really amazing example of this in, in, when, when COVID hit and during March of 2020, when everyone was literally just locked inside of their homes, my church, the staff divided up the congregation list and everyone took a small portion of people and their job as a staff member was to have a weekly phone conversation. Cause we had to, you know, we couldn't get in person, but to have a weekly phone conversation with everyone on their list.

And so once a week, um, we got assigned to the pastor's list, probably not because we're special, but probably because we needed more Jesus, I think we need more help, but he, uh, so our pastor would call us once a week with no other intention, just to say hello, to say hi, see how we're doing, have a conversation. And, um, and it was, it was extremely touching and, and that did so much for the relationship other than just, you know, Hey, the check-in of, and I think that that disconnect created a craving for connection. Right. So, you know, we do a, we do a call nights with our new people where we have them call people and try to set appointments. And we did one during COVID. And what we found was the number of dials that they were able to make during that hour, hour and 15 minutes where we were calling was fewer than we normally do.

Right. But the conversations were there. Right. Conversations were real conversation. Right. Um, and so the, the connection point of it was fantastic. You know, I tell people all the time, I'm like, look, this thing is in fact, for more than just checking Facebook, like pick up the phone and call people. Uh, even, you know, even amongst our younger, younger listeners out there, the text message in a phone conversation, they're just different things. They are, if it's FaceTime, whatever, just get face-to-face, get out there, have a coffee, have breakfast, have a beer, have whatever it is. Yeah. Get face-to-face with people. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And be intentional about it. Right. It, you're, you never want to say never, but the human aspect of real estate will never go away.

Right. Until robots start buying houses. Right. May happen. And, but it's, the human aspect is never going to go away. You can't take the humanity out of this. You can use all the technology and tools to assist you, but you just can't take the humanity out of it. And, and you have to be intentional about it these days because we have so many tools to help us. We tend to get, we use it as a crutch. Right. Exactly. Use that as a crutch. Exactly. And then, you know, I think you, you touched on something there also, which is growing your sphere. So, you know, we talk about talking to strangers and we've already mentioned it once, but if you look at the trajectory of a new agent, right, there tends to be, there's a zero to whatever in that first year.

And then you usually see a little bit of an increase in that second year. And then second to third year, you know, you see a bigger increase, but somewhere in that three to five year range, you start to kind of see things plateau a little bit. And my, my take on that has always been, they've worn out their sphere. Like they've, they've, they've hit the limit of that particular sphere. And so unless we're intentionally going out and making new friends, the only way our sphere grows is through client referrals. Yeah. Right. And for some people that may be okay, but for the people who really want growth, they're going to have to go do different activities. Right. And you know, the thing I've, you've heard me say it a million times, find the things that you like to do and go do them.

Right. Is that one of your things? No, it's not. I just, I'm very passionate about that because, you know, let's just say the typical thing for a female Realtor is to go join the PTO. And I am not a PTO mom. Yeah. Like I, you don't want me there. So, so, so, you know, I'm the one giving money just so we don't have to do the fundraiser. Right. Which is the best fundraiser ever, but, but you know, yeah, do, do what you're, do what you're passionate about. Go have fun. If you like cooking, go join a cooking class or cooking or a foodie group, or if you're into exercise, go join an exercise group or class or politics or whatever that is. Go do the things because you're not going to come off as a salesperson. Right. You're going to make genuine friends with people who you have things in common with.

And we know that people buy it from people that they know, like, and trust. And that's where that commonality piece comes in. And it may be a slightly slower play, but long-term it's way better. Exactly. And tie it all back into the mindset, right? When you're truly enjoying what you're doing, when you get to go, you know, oh, my job today is to go have, you know. Fun with people I like. Yeah, exactly. Like, that's just going to, that people are going to sense that, right? They're going to be more attracted to you. They're going to. Because it's just genuine. Exactly. I think when you're, when you are feeling it more, like you tend, you're able to then relax. You're able to bring value to others. They appreciate that. And again, it's, it's just going to help grow your business. So I talk about it all the time for me. Rodeo was something that I never thought it would be a boom to my business because it's literally three, eight hour volunteer shifts a year.

Right. But that 24 hours every year has been great for my business, but also it's just great for me personally because I believe in the mission. I get to hang out with a bunch of people that I genuinely enjoy spending time with and we have fun doing it. Right. And so, you know, just doing that volunteer work down at Rodeo has been great for me, but it's also been as a by-product of that. Great for my business. Right. Because I genuinely do have a good time and like those people. Right. And so we've become friends. Right. Yeah. Now, do we still touch base on social media? Sure. Right. Absolutely. But we also go have a beer. Exactly. Go see a concert. Go whatever that is around here and maintain those relationships throughout the entire year. Exactly. I think there's always ways that we need to take social media off of the page, right?

And into real life. We need to see, you know, those, if you see the one example I always love is if you see your friend post that it was their pet's birthday, like just pop by with a special treat for their pet. Like they will love you forever. And I mean, I would, I forgot my dog's birthday this past week. And so if anybody wants to bring my dog a pet or a treat, so anyway, it's, it's, it's looking for those opportunities, right? Keeping your eyes open and, and being intentional about that. Yeah. The nerd, the nurture part is really, it's gotta be personal. Exactly. Right. Exactly. We want to build those relationships and all the tools and all the technology and the social media and all that can, can supplement that. Exactly. But it's gotta be a one-on-one connection.

Exactly. So, all right. Number four. Okay. Number four. So now getting a little bit more technical into actual real estate habits, regularly check in with your leads. Okay. But why? Right. So I was thinking about, I, after this, I've got to go get my, my nails done. And I was thinking about the fact that why, why do I never go? I go to the same place, but I don't have a person. Like for me, getting nails done is just very much, it's just a utility. And it, you know, as some people love it and everything. You know, it's just something that has to get done. I don't care if I could get. I mean, I like a good pedicure. I mean. Because they rub my feet and I can't get my damn kids to do it. So, you know. I used to pay. I, my mom used to pay me a quarter to rub her feet.

My dad used to pay me to rub his feet. Wow. Was it as low as a quarter? Because apparently my kids won't rub my feet for a quarter. I think it was probably something like that. Yeah. I mean, it was, it was nominal. Yeah. Even in 1980, whatever it was. Exactly. It was, it was still like, you know, below minimum wage for sure. My dad has nasty ass feet. Like really nasty feet. So yes. Mom, your feet were wonderful. So. Dad, yours are not. Well, the reason I don't go, I go to the same place out of convenience, but I don't have a person because no one's ever asked, right? No one's ever treated me like a lead, right? And if someone did, I probably would jump right into that. If somebody who wanted to keep in touch with me. You know, it's funny that you say that because I talk to people about this, not all the time, but when it comes up, we talk about things like this.

How, when was the last time as a real estate agent, you asked your lender or your favorite closer or whatever for a referral? Because I guarantee you no one else does either. Right. And I have helped title officers buy and sell their own homes. I've helped lenders buy their own homes because I asked. Yeah. And that was, I mean, I'm not taking credit for that. My old coach told me, told me that. And I was like, well, yeah, no, I never really thought about it. I just kind of thought of them as, I didn't think of them as a referral source or a lead. Right. I thought of them as just, this is where I go to close or this is where I send people to. But nurturing that relationship from a two-way street standpoint. Right.

Well, and if, you know, first I have to overcome the thought process of, of only looking for people who are ready right now. Right. Because that's what I need. Right. I need business right now. If I keep my horizons open. Right. I'm now I can identify folks who want to buy or sell. Three months, six months. Whenever. Right. Ten years from now. Like, right. This will be awesome. And, and once I know what my plan will be. Okay. At minimum, if there are ways out. Right. I want to touch base with them once a month. Right. And if I know that's my plan. Now, once I've identified, okay, you, you, you are a leader, a potential client. I want to follow up with you at least once a month. Now I can have a conversation too, about what that's going to look like with the other person.

Cause we also make the mistake of, we don't set the other person up for success. Yeah. And if you apply that to like, okay, like dating. Right. That's the weirdest situation. If one person thinks you're dating and the other person has no clue what's happening. Right. So, so we need to have a conversation around that. Get the, you know, set the expectations, set the stage for, Hey, I want to check in with you. Every now and then to bring you information you're going to need, by the way, what would that be? Right. And what do you need? Awesome. Exactly. Absolutely. But, you know, we, we tend to just want the low hanging fruit and we forget about the rest. And then we get upset when we do see their post closing on a house with another. That contributes to like super irregular income because you have the peaks and valleys of I'm only going to go for this low hanging fruit.

Right. I don't have a long-term system in place. And yeah, I haven't looked at this lately, but the last time that I looked at it in Zillow's own research, from the time somebody hits a button on Zillow to the time they actually do a transaction is over a year. Right. It's like 13 point something months. Right. And if we're looking at it from, from that standpoint, if we're not doing something to stay in front of people for over a year, 18 months or whatever that is, we're really not doing the job. Right. Like we're not, we're not setting ourselves or them up for success, but someone else might be setting them up for success. Exactly. It's not you. Exactly. Yeah. The other part of that is that I know it's happened to you. It certainly has happened to me.

And so learn from our mistakes, kids, is every Realtor who's been in the business for some period of time has somebody that they thought was going to be their client that ended up buying with someone else, buying a new home without representation, whatever that looks like. And having a plan for regular follow-up at certain intervals based on, you know, quote, unquote, hotness levels or whatever it is, timing. To me, that's just, you have to do that. Right. And that's going back to the time block. So that's a simple thing. Block out an hour, two hours, like once a week. Just to make sure that you are, you're intentionally making those phone calls, getting in touch with them, seeing what they need at this time. Right. Because that's going to change the closer they get to it or maybe their timeline changes.

Right. But yeah, it kind of goes back to that river of real estate, like being there when they're ready. Yeah. But, you know, the other part of that is setting up for success. But part of setting people up for success, in my mind, is also having them not put the cart before the horse. Because I'm sure you've had this happen. I know that I've had this happen. You get somebody who falls in love with a home. Uh-huh. But they're still three months away from buying. Right. And they shouldn't even be looking online right now. Right. They need to be saving their down payment. They need to be fixing their credit. Whatever it is that they need to do. Right. They need to do that and not be looking online. Yeah. Because now that house that they fell in love with isn't going to be there in three months when they can actually buy. And they're going to compare everything else to that house. And so they've just set themselves up for failure because that house probably smelled like cat pee.

You just couldn't see it in the pictures. Who knows? Whatever it is. Right. Yeah. That makes it better. So that part of it is let's have a plan and let's look at what this plan is and really follow it. Right. And don't get ahead of ourselves. Right. So I think that's super, super important. What, I mean, I know that we train this. What is a regular follow-up plan look like in your mind? So one of the common things we coach with We're in Success Systems and to all of our new agents, we call it ABC follow-up. It's super simple. If you, first you have to classify what their timeline looks like, right? Or if they're an A lead, they are ready to go. You always have an appointment with them.

Like, we're ready to go. Appointment B is somebody who's between 30 and 90 days out. You're going to touch base with them at least twice a week. Okay. Twice a week? Yeah. Twice a month. I like to, you know, be really aggressive with that. So a B we're going to touch base with twice a month. And by then you're probably ramping up your search, right? You're really getting ready to move into the actual appointment space. At this point there, it's cool to be looking at homes online. Exactly. If we find something, let's go take a look. Exactly. So everybody longer than 90 days is going to be our seed leads. And you want to touch base with them once a month, right? Nurture that relationship. Make sure it's a personal communication.

You're picking up the phone. You're actually talking to them. It's not your automated newsletter. Exactly. Or, you know, hey, invite them out to lunch. Whatever the case may be. And so in that one, really, I think your focus is delivering valuable information based on what their needs are, right? So, I mean, it's simple. And I think sometimes you have agents because without looking into the explanation of, okay, what is a hotness level? What is all this? Like here, just here's a simple follow-up thing. Now just go dupe it. Again, not rocket science. Not rocket science. Don't overthink it. Yep. Let's just know who's out there. Let's know what their timeline looks like. And let's have a plan according to that. Yeah. Really, really simple.

Yeah, exactly. Get rid of the idea that you're bothering somebody because that's not your intention, right? Right. You're in so want to think of on value so that they don't make a mistake. Exactly. Absolutely. And then the other part of that, you know, I think is probably something we don't focus enough on and maybe we should even inside of the brokerage here is just because they're a lead doesn't mean they can't also be a referral source. Exactly. If I'm bringing you this, I had breakfast with a guy this morning. He was part of a group when he was younger before he bought his first house that worked in church in the church world. And so he knew a bunch of people that were all young. They were all married. They were all in this world. And then one of them bought a house.

And they're like, oh, we could buy a house. Because they were all renting. Right. And as soon as that one person bought a house, the rest of them started to as well. And so just because you have that one person who might be in a position where I'm not going to buy something for 90 or 120 days, if we're talking to them, we're talking about how our business works. There's no reason not to say, by the way, do you know anybody else who might be in your shoes? Right. Who's out there looking? Right. Because I would love to make sure that they don't make any mistakes either. Right. Or I'd love to be able to help them solve this problem. Or whatever it is that is that value proposition. Let's use them as a referral source. Right. Why not? Right. Wow. And to go, again, not to beat the mindset out of this, but we think of the concept of frequency illusion.

Right? Like when you buy a car and all of a sudden you see your car everywhere. Right? So once you're really fully aware of the potential of something happening, you tend to see it more often, like those opportunities more often. To help people. And so I think stories like that are amazing. Yeah. Last one. Last one is learn one new thing every single day. Okay? I wish that that was a constant for everybody as long as they're in real estate. Forever. Yeah. Because I always, you know, you've heard me say this a billion times, but I always joke around and it's not always a joke. But the person who says, well, I've been doing this for 25 years, you can guarantee that whatever comes next is probably really stupid. Right. Really stupid. I think that's something Dan Sullivan says is 15 years experience isn't always 15 years experience.

Right. It could just be one year of experience repeated 15 times. Right. And, yeah. And for new agents, because you're going to have a tendency, which you should, you need to understand the industry as it is now because you have quite a bit of technical things to learn. Right. But also make sure you take time to learn the future trends. Right. Pay attention to what's going on. Right. What shifts are happening? What new technology is out there? You need to have, and I mean, talk about habits is always have this progressive habit of where the industry is going. So you don't become that. I've been doing this for 20 years.

And you don't get lethargic in your own business. You're able to constantly be innovative and stay with your client base. And even if you don't, even if you don't, you know what you're talking about. Exactly. You know the good and the bad of this or that. You know, you know, I know what interest rates you're going to do in a year. I know what the market looks like in a year based on this or that. Or, yes, there's this new technology, but there's also this. And you can speak intelligently with your clients about it, which is really where value comes from. Right. You know, we were planning an event in March called Value. And part of that is where are these new sources? How do we take this information and disseminate it out in a way that matters?

Exactly. Right. So, you know, I've done, I did a podcast episode with Lee Brown. I've talked about it in a number of different places. Because I think that Realtors should know politically what's going on that could affect their clients. Right. Because number one, most clients don't realize how politically involved Realtors are as a whole. I think most Realtors don't know how politically involved Realtors are as a whole. But I think there's real value in me being able to go to a client and say, hey, did you know that this thing that could really affect your taxes is coming up? Or this thing that, you know, could affect your ability to have water or good roads or whatever. But we're following it and this is what we're doing. Right. I think there's real value in that. And, you know, people who get scared of Zillow or get scared of iVirus or whatever, they're not doing that.

Right. We are. Right. And if we don't talk about it, it doesn't matter. Exactly. And I think that's one thing you've done really well with your agents is to stay on that cutting edge of bringing solutions. Yeah. Just how to talk about it. Exactly. And how to talk about it. Right. You know, one program that we use at CB&A through Homeward, it helps people buy a house before they sell theirs, which is, you know, most average Americans. When sometimes when we even present that to other agents who we know it would be beneficial for them and their clients. The reaction is, it's like a wall just goes up like, whoa. That's voodoo. Yeah. And no, you can't do it. And it's just perplexing why we don't want to help our clients like that, right?

Just by thinking about real estate differently. Yeah. But it's going to have to take that focus of learning new things and knowing that it's not going to be this way forever. So we've got to be able to adapt. And I think, you know, and again, this is another whole episode that we could do is real estate has always been fairly resistant to change. Right. There's always been this, we've always done it this way mentality, which I can't stand personally. You know, one of our core values here at the brokerage is challenge traditional thinking. And part of it is to break that cycle. But yeah, especially now with the rapid pace of technological growth, post-COVID, the real estate industry has made a five-year leap in technology.

If we're not adapting and changing to those things, you know, you talked about the partnership with Homeward. It's not even that somebody is going to use that all the time. But the fact that we're able to have the conversation about it. Yeah. Differentiates and brings value to our agent. Right. And it just really becomes a how do we talk intelligently about this. Exactly. Yeah. And so that's where the learning piece comes in. Exactly. And then to tack on to that learning piece is also there's a practice element. Mm-hmm. Right. You know, when I first, when I first got into coaching, you know, we were coming off a time where we didn't have very much money. Uh, and we were scared of going back to that time. Uh-huh. Right. You know, I talk about it. We, we, we were rolling coins for diapers.

Right. Uh, and I came home and I told my wife, I signed up for this thing that's $500 a month. Uh-huh. Which was 80% of our mortgage. Right. At the time. And she's like, I may murder you, but what is it? And, you know, fortunately for me, uh, thanks Tom Ferry and Mark Johnson, uh, it paid off really, really quickly. Right. Because I needed that in my business at the time. Um, but Tom had the script at the time and I have said it so many times, my kids know how to say it. Uh, like I would just practice and practice and practice that so that it would sound natural. Right. Um, and I still feel like when I used it, it didn't sound natural every time I said it, but it worked.

Yeah. Um, and I don't think that if I had sat there and practice, I call my best friend and say, Hey, I'm going to, I'm going to, every time we talk, I'm going to say this to you. And he's like, okay, I'm still going to help you. You know that. Right. And I was like, yeah, yeah. I just need to practice. I need to say this. And so, you know, my phone call with him always ended with, it's my goal to help. However many families was my goal that year. I sell and invest in real estate. Who do you know that could use my services in the next 30, 45 days? And then I, that was it. Right. Uh, and so, you know, I've said that line so many damn times that I had to learn the fundamentals of why it was 30 to 45 days. I had to learn the art of stopping after I asked the question and creating a weird, awkward silence that may be filled by them. But, uh, but also after learning that I had to practice doing it so that it actually would become habit.

Right. So we just come, come back full circle to the habits. Exactly. Yeah. Lots of habits. Yeah. That is awesome. So let's go back through these real quick. Right. We're going to follow a productive daily schedule. Right. And that may not be perfect. Right. Kat has this really cool thing on her wall that looks like an EKG almost. And she's done some neat things with it, but it kind of does like this. Right. And the idea behind it is, is success is not linear. Right. And the other concept is because it's, it's based off of a book by TV director, Ken Kwapis, who basically says, look, if you want to be successful, I mean, in his industry, it's Hollywood.

Right. But, but, but in a competitive industry, a highly saturated industry, right. You have to be the, you have to determine the ruler of your own success. Right. You have to determine what success is going to look like to you. And it's never right. It's never going to be this perfect straight line at work. There's going to be dips. I think what's on my wall needs like way more dips than it does. Right. As a reminder, but, but that's what it is. It's, it's just not going to happen. It's not perfection. Exactly. Your daily routine could get screwed up. You could have a sick kid. You could have, you know, just something that derails it. A client calls you when you're supposed to be doing this and you do that. And you have to jump up and move things around. Right. But if you're moving in the right direction over time, it's a marathon, not a sprint.

Right. Okay. Number two is finding other people to help you do the stuff that you're bad at. Yes. Leaning on others. Yes. Make that a habit. Don't be afraid to ask for help. You know, I think we forget the psychology of this and because we want to come off as this, I'm this kick-ass Realtor that owns this business and blah, blah, blah, blah. As human beings, we are, unless, you know, you're a sociopath or something, we're kind of wired to help people. Yeah. Right. I think that's, you know, Realtors especially are most people, if you ask why they got into real estate, they enjoy helping people. That's a big part of their reasoning. And so let others help you. Right. They want to. Right. And that goes back to that also asking for referral. They want to help you grow your business.

You just have to ask. Yeah. You just have to. Yeah. So, all right. Number three is intentionally nurturing relationships. And we talked on that about that's got to be face-to-face. It's got to be personal. It's got to be a phone call. It's not texting social. Exactly. Those can play a part, but. Always. You got to have, you got to have that dialogue with folks. You've got to be intentional about it. Absolutely. Regularly checking in with your leads. Right. We talked about growing sphere. We talked about talking to strangers. Right. We talked about not letting things fall through the cracks because we don't have a system in place that where we have a, I've got to take care of this fire that's right in front of me right now. Right. And then last but not least is never stop learning. Never stop learning. Yeah. That's awesome.

So do that and you're guaranteed to be successful. Right. 100%. Awesome. Thank you, Kat. Awesome. This was great. I appreciate it. Thank you. If you're watching or listening, we appreciate you stopping by and we will see you next time on Top 5.