Top 5 Lessons from a Life Travelling with Realtors with Matt Fagioli

Right. It's tough to be everything to everybody when you've got 2000 people in a database. And it's great that you've got 2000 people in a database, but who are the people who are really likely going to be the ones that send you a referral? Exactly. Or, and, or the polar opposite. You just get in real estate and, and you go, I only know 20 people or whatever, whatever it is. But, uh, we try to focus people in on getting really dialed in on 100, 100 people. And, and so this is just as big of a challenge though, for really successful agents. That's the thing that, that blew me away teaching at explode conferences. I would challenge audiences ago. There's 500 people in the audience who could come up here right now and show me a valid spreadsheet with updated information on it, cell phone, email, home address, birthday, all that stuff for a hundred people that you've validated that data in the last 90 days, raise your hand. And guess what? Not too many people have ever raised their hand. Right.

And so I think even if you're 20, 20 years in the business, if you want to crush in 21, guess what? Go back to basics. It's like when you start losing football games, right? They always talk about, all right, we're just going to go back to blocking and tackling, um, and, and start over. And so having that, that top 100 list is just a big, huge deal because then once you have the data, then you can really be effective with that list. Um, and you know, do, do simple things that, that nobody talks about. Like one of my, one of the favorite things I learned from one of my hundred thousand people, uh, was running Facebook ads, just targeting those hundred people. Um, so that you just crush Facebook and Instagram, uh, for those hundred people. So when you run into those hundred people, they're like, oh my God, you're everywhere, you know, cause they think you're targeting 50,000 people. Right. You got these cheap ads for a hundred people. Um, so anyway, most, most people doing Facebook ads wouldn't really think about that because they think about it as let's go capture new business and new prospecting and leads and not hit the people who already know, like, and trust us, but it just gives you that added street cred. Yeah. Well, these micro audiences, I think it was a big thing that, that I, that I learned from a different hundred thousand person, but, uh, um, but all of these micro audiences, like, so for example, uh, uh, a listing that you're going to, a listing appointment, you're going to go on next week, it's like dial the audience down as little as, as tightly as Facebook will allow you to dial it down.

So that you're basically, all you're doing is just trying to target that house. Right. So that every, they see you every five seconds from now to the listing apartment, stuff like that. Um, and, um, we're on a coaching mall for a brokerage, us being coached. And, uh, those guys were talking about, uh, targeting all the agents in the brokerage for the similar reason, you know, get likes and shares from, from people, stuff like that. So anyway, so, uh, so that's number one. So, so crush top 100 and then use that, you know, use that data in a really powerful way. So, uh, number two is, uh, something I call dreamcast and dreamcast, uh, is, uh, starts with top 100. You got to have the top 100 first because the dreamcast is a simple one page spreadsheet that lists out those a hundred people.

Uh, so left hand column a is, is those a hundred people. And then, uh, uh, across the top, uh, uh, is January through December. And then you're going to go through and create that spreadsheet. And you're going to just put a dollar value next to each of those a hundred people taking a random guess with no, there's no accountability here. You don't care how big the number is. Um, it's just, Hey, I think Bill's going to buy a house in August and it's going to be a $400,000 house. My curse is going to be 12 grand, blah, blah, blah. I'm gonna put 12 grand in August under Bill. Do that for a hundred people. And you don't overthink it. You just throw a number in, I think I'm going to get a referral from Sally. I think this guy's worth a thousand bucks. I think, you know, whatever it is, you put all the numbers in. And at the end of that spreadsheet, you're going to have a monstrous number that, uh, and for most, almost everybody, it will be seven to eight figures. Right. And so, so, but then you take that, you refine it down, make it more accurate day over day, month over month, you make it more and more and more accurate.

But now you've got a single page that every day, all you do is get up and look at that page. And now, you know what, that'll, that'll define everything you need to do. Cause you're going to go, you know what? I forgot about Bill in August. I need to send him listings. I need to take him to lunch. I need whatever it is. And if all you did was literally manage that one page and those hundred people, I prompt, so you see these people run ads that are like, Hey, I can double your business, you know, with my coaching or whatever, like literally take the two minutes of what you just heard on this video, do that. You'll double your business. Yes. And it's, you know, it's almost like having a vision board for your money, right? It's not necessarily, I want to buy this stuff or this is what's driving my why, but this is my vision board for my income in the next year. Yeah. Well, and so, so bring that back down to now, right? So once you've built that, you're managing that spreadsheet. So now, uh, we're going into October. So everybody, so now you've got that so dialed in that October is basically closings that are, you know, like, here's all the stuff that's going to close, right? So I'm going to make X in October and here's the numbers. So when I get up in the morning, I look at October and I go, Oh, I got to do that. That's supposed to happen. Like I got to literally, you know, drills it all down, but also the stuff that's nine months, 12 months out, you don't forget about it and go, you know what? I better take bill to lunch and talk about his goals because he said he wanted to do this and you know, that kind of thing. So anyway, so I think that, I think that one of the things that is a plague and I don't, this is not a real estate industry issue. This is a sales industry issue is, yeah. And if you, if you've ever read the book 12 week year, it's kind of that where, Hey, you know, I, I set this goal that I want to sell 50 homes in 2021 or a hundred homes or whatever that number looks like. And, you know, maybe I get through the first quarter and I've got one or two, but I'm pretty far behind, but you know what? It's fine. I've got nine more months and then you get to six months and yeah, I need to play a little catch up. And then in the last three or four months, you work your ass off, you make a bunch of money and you're just like, well, what if you just worked your ass off for all 12 months? And so that Dreamcast board kind of keeps you on track of, I need to be doing this every single month in order to make that seven, eight figure number, which is a realistic number as if you do the work.

Yeah. Well, and even if you like back to Gary, you know, I consider the millionaire real estate agent to be like the Bible of, of real estate. And he'll, you know, he talks about, you know, if you aim high, you miss a little bit, you still have a huge number and, you know, uh, you know, in most, in lots of markets, uh, Atlanta included, you know, 250, 250,000 ish is kind of average selling price. And so, so you start using that as a calculator, a hundred, a hundred deals of that is, you know, $750,000. So why aren't way more agents approaching that number? Uh, and I think it's just a question of, you know, boiling it down to focus and, and a way to manage it. So Dreamcast for me, um, which is something I learned 20 years ago in, in just a regular sales role, um, outside of real estate, it's just so much to me and it's what I every day. That's what I do is what I look at. So, um, so number three, another shoe drop, uh, is, uh, control your schedule. And, um, no one again, like room full 500 people, raise your hand. If you could show me a schedule that looks like this, I lead generate in the morning before I lead generate, I have my personal time, then I lean generate in the morning. Then I have specific times that I set appointments with client, you know, some kind of real structure that they actually stick to two out of 500. Right. And it's because it's because everybody undervalues it. Right. They go, Oh, that sounds really cool when I'm sitting in the conference, but I can't execute.

So I will tell you, you know, when we talk, when we train here and we talk about scheduling, we really kind of try to focus on the whole time blocking aspect because, you know, the reality is, let's say I'm going to spend my time prospecting in the morning. Um, and I call you and you say, Hey, you know what? Actually, there was a home that just came up on my neighborhood. I'd like to go see it. Nobody in their right mind is going to say, you know what? I'm in my prospecting block right now. So I can see clients this afternoon, right? You're going to jump in the car. You're going to go over and show the house or most agents are going to jump in the car and go show the house. And so the flexibility of time blocking and being able to move those blocks. Okay. Now I have to do a little bit of that client time in the afternoon because I put some of that showing time up in the morning and be able to move that in. It's just making sure that all the blocks get done.

Right. Well, I guess that's one way to look at it. And, you know, um, on our podcast, we interviewed, uh, Ricky Carruth and Ricky said he does it three days a week. Uh, so there's plenty of other time where like if something happened on Thursday, he can still roll that time, that, that lead generation block into Friday. Uh, and so, and, and Nakia, my, my partner in the brokerage, uh, talks to agents about 30, 30 minutes a day. Like anybody can do 30 minutes a day. And then if it's, when it becomes three hours, you know, that's, that's another thing, you know? Yeah. I think Tom Ferry's, Tom Ferry's is the, you know, the, the hour of power or whatever it is, power hour, you know, whatever that looks like, but it just has to happen. Yeah. Well, and, and I do think though, that you can reach, I think everybody can reach a point of discipline in their career, uh, where, uh, where, where they don't break it. You know, I, I, I really almost never break mine ever. And, and it's hard, right? Cause you have to say no to stuff or, or, or refer that client. The client's got to go right now or, you know, literally refer them out because there, there's so much value in the rhythm and the consistency.

And, and, and the thing is, you can never appreciate that, uh, until you, until you actually execute the consistency for a while. Um, and actually, uh, I kind of jumped ahead because that's the next, the next point is the consistency trumps everything. Yes. Amen. And you can never know, you can never really believe that in your, in your heart and in your mind until you try it for a month and go, Oh crap, I did whatever the thing is, uh, every single day for 30 days and life is different because X and it doesn't matter if that thing was, I'm going to, I'm going to be, I'm going to breathe. I'm going to meditate for five minutes a day for 30 days. Right. Everything is. And so we always talk to agents about the, you know, it's a new month. Here we are. It's first of the month, you know, pick anything. I'm going to meditate for five minutes a day. I'm going to give out two business cards a day for 30 days. Like who can't, you know, people always try to bite off too much. Let me give out 50 business cards, you know, um, but anyway, so this consistency thing is just unbelievable. Yeah. So we, you know, we always harp on, you know, none of the stuff that makes somebody successful in real estate is sexy, you know, and the tendency for agents is to focus on the sexy stuff. I need to have this killer website and I need to have this and that and whatever else. And the reality is it's these few daily disciplines that are just repeated over time consistently, consistently, just do it, do it, do it. And it's just becomes habit. Like you said, rhythm. And we talk a lot about that here is, you know, going all the way back to, to the Rockefeller habits from, you know, a hundred years ago, that building that communication rhythm and building that rhythm in your life, um, is what really helps just make sure that all those little daily disciplines happen every single day. Yeah. And start and starting with little teeny pieces that you can get, you know, five minutes that you can get your head around. And then once you, once you win it, like it's better to win something for 30 days at five minutes than to do it for 10 minutes and lose or have it be inconsistent. That's, that's the magic that people have to get to is pick something, do it for five minutes, do it for 30 days.

You know, once you've shown yourself, Oh, I can do it. Um, and not fail. Yeah. And I think, you know, that I think that motto right there could be applied to just about everything. You know, when we talk about our businesses, everybody wants to come in and, Oh, I'm going to go door knock and I'm gonna go do this. And I'm going to call it expireds and fizz bows and whatever it else. And let's just focus on the stuff that you're really good at right now. And then let's gradually expand your comfort zone and build on those things. But let's focus on getting some wins under our belt early. And then that just kind of snowballs, right? You know, success breeds success. Yeah. But the tendency is also opposite of that, that failure oftentimes breeds more failure. And so we got protecting that. Well, and that was a great segue too. So number five, uh, is, uh, protect your spirit. Uh, and so real estate is hard, right? You just, you just started on it there. Like we get beat, we get abused, you know, clients are tough. Things are hard. Uh, what I also find is that most people and Realtors for sure are not spending much of any time really, uh, controlling their spirit, controlling their mind. Uh, and the, the first step of that, that I learned from one of my 100,000 friends, uh, is that, uh, yesterday is over and you, you can't carry it into today. And, but I think, I think what's, what took me a long time to figure out about that, that I, that I think might be helpful to people is that that's one of those thousand things that's really easy to say and hard to execute. And what happens is I think that we all don't necessarily recognize what we're doing.

We get up in the morning and we are replaying yesterday in our mind. And all of a sudden, like, Oh, the tension's coming back. And like, you know, chance is such a jerk. And he said, blah, and I'm going to replay that in my mind and get pissed at him all over again. And, you know, versus like, Oh, I'm not going to allow that. Right. Yeah. And I, you know, I think a lot of it has to do with what's your morning routine. You know, I'll give you a real world example. Yesterday, you know, my daughter has to get up at zero dark 30 to go to school. It's ridiculous how, how early she has to get up. And I'm not a morning person, uh, but she slept through her alarm yesterday. And so our morning yesterday was a little panicked. And if you don't stop that and you know, Hey, it's okay. People sleep through their alarms. Sometimes let's get our stuff. Let's get to school. And we got her to school on time, but you know, it started out at this, this high drama setting and that will extend the whole day. If that's the first thing that you're experiencing, right? So it's having that routine in the morning where you get up, whether it's just sitting there and having a cup of coffee and reading a little bit, or like you said, meditating, having something, you know, going through the miracle morning stuff or any of that. It's really just kicking your day off with that right mindset.

Yeah. And, and catching it when it, cause you know, especially for people that listen to this, that really aren't winning that or trying to, trying to win that a new, um, you know, you just catching yourself and like, no, and we all get up, like get up, trying to think, be positive, be, I'm going down this road and we all get derailed by our thoughts. And it's not like, don't kick yourself in the head for that. Just get back, you know, Hey, hold on. I realize I'm off track and get back on track and get back into it and improve that habit day after day. Yeah, that's exactly right. Cause it's easy to, it's easy to get off and you just have, you can't beat yourself up over it. You just got to say, Hey, you're human. Let's now come back and let's, let's try to refocus. So isn't it, isn't it funny how all that stuff is just so fundamental. And after 10 years and a hundred thousand people, that's the stuff that I think is, you know, absolutely the most important stuff. It is. And you know, it's the, it's the stuff that it's hard. It's not easy. None of the things that you just said are simple. They seem simple, but they're not when you actually go to executing them and building habits and making it consistent.

And the stuff that doesn't really make people money is the stuff that's easy. Yeah, that's right. And, and, but that's, that's not the, that's not what lasts. That's not what builds, you know, consistent life. And, um, you know, everybody, everybody talks about how, you know, how do I get that life that I want? That just feels rock solid. And it's, it's these rhythms, you know, that's what miracle morning you keep mentioning. It's a great book. And, you know, but so many others like that are trying to get through is that, uh, it's not the, it's not the one when it's not, you know, any single thing. It's, it's this life rhythm of, this is what I do every day and how I do it. And lots of business gets in the way or shows up in my, in my routine. Right. Anyway. Yeah. No. And that's, you know, people call it being in the zone or being in the, you know, having flow or whatever you want to call it. And, you know, we've been reading a little couple of books here in our book club about this kind of thing. And, and there's a lot of science going on to rhythm and flow right now. A lot of neuroscience, uh, and books being written.

And it's just, it's easier to manage than most people think. They just have to be really, really aware. And that's tough. Yeah. Well, so it all, but it's, you know, it's funny. This is all kind of wrapped up in a little bow, but it's, it's that pick a habit for that's five minutes, uh, that something you're going to execute for five minutes a day. It's the first of the month, pick it and set it for 30 days. I'm going to do this one thing for five minutes for 30 days, recognize at the end of the, if you, you know, once you've executed that, recognize what that did in your life and then add one more thing, but, and imagine over the course of a year, how many things you can implement that you do every day for 30 days and then 12 months and whatever. And, and the massive impact it would have on your life, you know, just five minutes.

Right. It's that progress, not perfection. Yeah, that's right. And that, you know, just like compound interest or just like anything else that just kind of adds up over time. And if you can just do those little things, you know, it's how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. That's it, man. Yeah. Awesome. Anything else you want to? No, no. Thank you for having me. And, and, uh, you know, I hope that those things are useful. I know they're, they're, those are really fundamental, but, um, you know, I think, uh, uh, you know, the, the, the, the, the bit of time I've spent in it with, uh, karate and past, uh, you know, you learn that it's just about constantly getting better at these fundamental things. Um, so, you know, that's helpful. Yeah, no, it was perfect. Thank you, Matt, for being on the show today. We really do appreciate you. Uh, and beyond just being on the show, we appreciate what you do for the industry because explode is a huge part of getting people in a place where they can get better. And so thank you for that. Uh, thank you for you watching today. Uh, and we hope that you're able to take these five tips that Matt's given and put them in your business, help you have a long term, sustainable, profitable business. Have a great day and we'll see you next time on Top 5.