Top 5 Ways to Build an Agent Referral Network with Katie Day

And the goal for 2021 is a million dollars, right? A million dollars in GCI. Uh, that was the goal last year. Oh, sorry. That was the goal last year. I thought it was this year for some reason. Um, well, so yeah, kind of. So our goal is a million, uh, net million net. There you go. I love it. That's awesome. Yeah. But no one talks about net. Everyone else all talks about gross. So, but yeah, that's, it's the goal. So yeah. Yeah. I mean, you think about that four years in, right? That's, that's impressive growth. And that really is. So one of the things that Katie always impresses me at, and if you don't follow her on social media, you should, um, is she'll go to an event. So go to a conference. And then next thing, you know, all these people that she's met at this event or conference, they're like on a zoom call holding each other accountable and prospecting or doing these things that nobody else does. And I think, you know, I, I speak for most people who go to conferences or go to, you know, speaking events or things like that, that they go and they consume the content and then they really leave. What you've done an amazing job at that's helped build your team is really kind of building this agent referral network of your own. A lot of people are plugged in that into that through their brokerage or franchise, or, you know, through a coaching group or something like that. But you've really been able to go out and kind of build your own group of friends around the country. Um, and y'all do help each other in your business. It's more than just a, Hey, I've got a buyer coming your way or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. And so that's why I wanted to have you on today because I wanted you to share some of those best practices with people and the Top 5 ways to build kind of an agent referral and agent network. Yeah, for sure. I think, um, I love the national stuff because I think that, um, people are so willing to share when like, you know, you're from New York or Massachusetts or Florida, like, yeah, I'll give you my entire, you know, business plan or whatever. So, but what I kind of want to touch on before that even is like the local stuff. Right. And I think that like, for a lot of people, they come from a very closed mindset of like, you know, well, chance, I don't want to share what I'm doing with you because then you're going to do it and steal my business. And like, at the end of the day, like if chance and I go into an enlisting appointment, like people and we're up against each other, like someone's going to vibe with me or vibe with him. And like, it's not, it doesn't really matter what we say. It's going to be like, they're either going to like him or like me better. And like maybe what we're saying and go with us. Right. So, um, where I'm going with that is I think that like locally, there's a lot, um, more that you could, that you could touch on and lean on and, you know, embrace, um, which I feel like, you know, you've done really well with, you know, not only your brokerage, but with other broker owners, with other agents. And that's where, you know, when I kind of opened my eyes to that here locally, it's opened up business for us as well. Right. Um, if someone lives outside of town and they don't want to, to work something in town, I'll, I'll get a call.

Or if they're just like out of town, um, things like that. Um, and I was not that way first starting out when I was, when I was first starting out and I first hired my, my business coach, he said, so what are you doing with other agents in your area? Are you working like in your association? Are you a member of WCR? Like, like, what are you doing? And I was like, no, hell no. Yeah. Like, why would I go hang out with Realtors? They're not going to buy a house for me. And he's like, all right, look, dummy, here's what you got to do. And he's like, iron sharpens iron. You get to see, you get to work with good agents around you. You get to meet them and learn what they're doing and share best practices and everybody gets better. And by virtue of that, we just, we elevate the profession in general. Um, but yeah, for the longest time, I was, I wasn't going to a real estate networking night. I wasn't going to anything.

Well, and I think that mindset shift is important. Um, and I think that, you know, especially now with, you know, the, the kind of market that we're in. So we're in a seller's market, lots of multiple offers, lots of, you know, you get two offers that are both at three 50, right? If I know you personally, there's a higher probability of like, Oh, Hey, I know this team. I know these agents, like, you know, they're going to make sure their buyers are pre-approved. They're solid as opposed to, Hey, I've never talked to them before. And I have no idea who they are. It's, it's not, you know, right. Or I know this team and I know these people and we're not working with them. Right. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Um, all right. So let's jump into your Top 5 ways. Yeah. Is local stuff, not one. So I still have five more things.

Local stuff is number one. So, so connect with local agents, um, cause they know your market, right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Um, number two, so number two, um, as Jen said, like there's lots of opportunities to network with people nationally, whether that's with your brand, whether that's with like a coaching community, um, whether that's with something that's like an in men or, you know, a national, um, you know, either association or, uh, like young professionals or something like that. Um, but I think the biggest thing with going to conferences, as, as chance said, you normally go there, you learn a bunch of stuff and you're like, Oh, that's great. You go home and you continue doing business as you did. So I think being intentional is super important. So I'm always intentional with like, okay, I'm going to take three takeaways and that's what we're going to implement. But also like, I'm intentional about who I'm going to talk to. Right. So if, whether it's specific people I want to meet, I generally, generally will reach out to people before conference and be like, Hey, chance. I saw that you're going to ABC conference in Vegas next month. Like I'd love to link up, grab a drink or grab lunch or whatever it may be coffee, five minutes of your time. Just want to, you know, put a face to a name, whatever. Um, so obviously if there's people that you want to meet, that's good. But like, there's a website called how money walks. Um, and it is about, um, IRS tax migration. So like tax dollars and where money goes based on like census and taxes and all those things.

And where like between either state. So like California to Texas, New York to Texas, uh, Illinois to Texas, or like county. Right. So where's our money going and where's our money coming from? So if you see that there's people coming from specific States or specific counties around you, like then perhaps those are the people that you should look at their name badge and see and be like, Oh, Hey, chance you're from X, Y, Z County. And that's where people are moving to. Let's, let's grab lunch. Um, so I think that most people don't do that. They're just like, Oh yeah, let's meet. Yeah. Cool. Whatever. Um, but really seeking out those people and seeing either different people you want to meet or different locations that you should meet, um, is important. I love that. Yeah. So you're doing legwork before you even get to the conference, just trying to figure out who's going to be there and setting up times to meet with them before you even get there.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because here's the thing too, is like for some of these conferences, like I went to one, um, was that two weeks ago that was in Vegas. It was only 75 people. But most of them, it's like, there's like thousands of people there. So if you're just like, I'm going to roll the dice and see who I meet, like you're not, you're just going to meet a bunch of random people. And that's great. You'll have a ton of business cards and referral partners. And I mean, we have, we have thousands of people in our referral partner database, but like the people that I've sat down and had a beer with or had lunch with or grabbed coffee or whatever are the ones that like, we stay in touch. We talk on social media and things like that. Um, the, so the really deeper relationships. Awesome. Awesome. So be intentional is number two. What's number three. So I would say number three would be, um, you know, outside of being intentional, like have actual meaningful conversations with people, which I think like, I feel stupid saying that is number three. Um, but again, like, I feel like, um, the entire, like, was like be interested, not interesting. Right. Like I want to know about you. I want to know about your business. Um, you know, I like, sure. I can tell you about mine as well, if you ask and whatever, but like, if I have a meaningful conversation with you and then I can come back home and be like, oh, Hey, you know, hope your kids, you know, had fun at summer camp or hope, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, whatever. And send you some sort of, you know, thank you note or whatever. Nice to meet your note. Like that's going to be way more meaningful than me just being like, Hey, it was so great to meet you. Have a great day. Send me your referrals. Um, and paste that same one to everybody that you met. Right. Now you actually have to talk about that's personalized to them and that's more impactful.

Yeah. Um, we use the same example sort of with when we have agents who want to go join different organizations to help build a sphere. Right. Like I don't personally have anything against a chamber of commerce or, or a BNI or rotary or whatever, but if all you're doing is going there with the, the intention of, I'm going to pass out business cards and hope somebody calls you're going to go once or twice. And then you're never going to go again because you're just tired of it. And you're not going to be building any relationships and whether it's with customers, whether it's with other agents, this is a relationship-based business. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. Um, yeah, no, I completely agree. And that's, I think, um, also, and it's the same thing with like networking events, right? Like how can I help you and your business chance? Like, as opposed to me being like, Oh, I know that chance, you know, is really good at this. So I want to steal his time for whatever, like, Hey, like, let's dig into this. Like, how can I help you? Um, you know, coming from that place of contribution, right? The people that I meet at events and conferences, the one question that always gets me, and I always remember them by this is, is there anything I can do for you? Yeah. Is there anything I can do for you to help you, to help your business? And I'm like, well, no, but it's really cool that you asked. And I'm going to remember that.

Well, and normally I feel like the people that ask that are like C-level executives and you're like, no, I'm good. Like, thank you. Like, yeah. Yeah. I'd like you to take time out of your exceptionally busy day to help me with this. But the crazy thing is, is they probably got to be C-level executives because of that investment in people. Yeah. No, a hundred percent. But it's, it's just always funny. Like the type of person that says that you're like, you're going to take time out of your day to help me like, wow, that's really cool. I'm good. Thank you. Yep. Awesome. All right. Number four on our list. Number four. So I think number four for me would, the biggest thing would be following up. So as we just said, like once you leave a conference or once you leave a networking event, follow up in some way. So like, obviously depending on the conversation and whatever, but like calls, texts, video, like bomb, bomb, or a video text. I'm a big fan of video text, emails. It's similar to like your clients and your sphere and your people that, you know, like you need to, to have a regular cadence of how you follow up with them. So if you put them into your CRM or have some sort of spreadsheet where it's like a quarterly touch or whatever it is, you do want to stay top of mind, right? Like, you know, as I was saying, like, obviously agent referrals are big from events like these. Right. But like you said earlier, like the, the relationships and masterminds and things like that. So like, I'm seeking out team leaders that are either doing what I want to do or on the same trajectory with the same, you know, similar goals as mine. Right. So like, Hey, we have a medium sized team. We want to grow it. Um, you know, perhaps they want to be out of production, whatever that may look like so that we can kind of go through hiring and firing and, you know, highs and lows together. Um, as opposed to like either being in a mastermind with people that want to start a team or people that are running like mega teams with, you know, huge org charts, right. Like finding the people. Um, so yeah, just finding, finding the people that fit. And then depending on how they fit into your world and how you can help them and how they can help you, um, having some sort of regular cadence of contact. So what, what's your, what's your preference when it comes to that? Is that a social media touch? Is that a text? Is it a phone call?

I mean, you said video texts, but I mean, are you sending those every time you talk to somebody? Probably no, no, no. I mean, it varies. Like, I mean, we have, um, we have like, obviously people that we've become like pretty good role. We, I, I have people that I become like pretty good friends with at conferences or whatever that like I talk to on like a daily basis. Right. Like the people that are now like in my friend group, like, you know, um, whatever. So like, that's just kind of like, Hey, it's my friend. Like, I'm not going to put you in my CRM to follow up with you. Cause I know I'm going to talk to you every week. Um, but you know, key people, um, I'll, I'll try to put them into where it's like either a monthly or quarterly touch. That may be a phone call that may be an email. Um, I don't think that it's as, um, as imperative as it is to your personal sphere of like, this is how you need to do it every month or you need to do it with a very, very regular cadence. I think it's just to like, Hey, like ensure that you're adding value in some way. And that's where, like, whenever I go to conferences, I'll always like tell people like, Hey, once I get my notes, like typed up, do you want them? And I'll email them out to whoever wants them. Um, so that kind of helps with like having an agent database. Um, but yeah, I mean, it's, it's, um, I would say a lot via email, but social media is big. And I think that that's, um, all of our team is going to a conference in October together. Um, so I told them like, I'm going to make team business cards of like, Hey, this is our team just so that like, we have a branded thing going out. But I was like, what you should be doing is if you meet chance in a bar, you need to open up your Instagram and be like, Hey, are you on Instagram? What's your name?

Let me follow you. And then, you know, stay in touch with them that way. Nice. Nice. Not on Instagram or me though. I'm just terrible at Instagram. I always forget. I just always forget. And I should be going there first, but I just always like instinctively go to Facebook first. It's, um, this is, it's not, this is not a shot at you, but it's a total generational thing. Um, like, I feel like I'm in a generation that it goes either way. Right. Um, or like the decade or whatever, but like I have agents on my team that are older than I am that like, they kill it on Facebook and the agents that are younger than me kill it on Instagram. So it's like, you know, it's where your people are. That's right. That's your, where the audience lives. Yeah. All right. Number five on our list. Number five. I think, you know, I think we're talking about network and all that, but what, what stems from that is actually getting the referrals right. And actually getting business out of us. Right. Um, cause the relationships are great and the learning is great and all that.

And it's, it's definitely invaluable. Right. But I think that, um, all of this leads to having referrals, um, and getting referrals. So the thing that I kind of wanted to talk about a little bit was just kind of like the process. Right. So, um, one thing that I know, I know when I say this, you're going to be like, Oh yeah, like the, the entire, you want to thank them for the referral, not the action of that referral. So if chance gives me a referral, I want to thank him for sending it. Right. Not if I close it or not. So like, you know, for an agent, they'll obviously get paid at the closing table. Cause there's normally some money that's involved with the referral, but like, I normally will send a small gift or a card or a Starbucks gift card or something just to be like, Hey man, appreciate you. You know, thanks so much for thinking of us. Possing a couple of business cards to get sent to their office. Normally. Um, we also have referral boxes that are normally sitting right here, but it's on the other side of my computer. I can grab that.

We send out as well. Um, but like update that agent at the milestones of the contract. Right. So like, Hey, we got the listing agreement signed. Hey, you know, it's under contract inspections went well. We're moving towards closing. I'm a huge, I'm a huge advocate of what you're talking about right there because all too often you send out a referral and then you don't know anything that's happened unless you've either a talk to the client or B you wake up one day and there's a check in your mailbox. Well, and it's just like, it's kind of awkward. Cause I've been on the, the side where I sent that referral. Then I'm like, do I call chance and ask him how it's going? Like, what if it didn't go well? Well, this is awkward. We'll do, or he's already closed his house. And I'm like, Oh, and I never got paid. Well, this is cool. You know? So it's like, it's helpful at least to just shoot that text. Hey, this is what's happening. You know? Um, and then one thing that we recently started doing is like, we'll send them because normally in order for them to get paid on their end, they need like the CD and they need like, so we'll send them the details, right. The high level details, obviously we're not sending them the entire contract package, but like, Hey, it's closing on X date. It's this, it's this price, you know, and this is the referral fee, you know, where do you want the check to be sent? Make sure it's getting sent to the right place. Cause we've had that happen a lot. Um, so it's one of those things that like, every time we do a referral, we're like, Oh, we need to change this this way. So we update our, our, you know, action plans and update everything to be like, this is, this is what we need to do with, if it has a referral. So can we take a step back real quick and say, all right, so we've met this person, we've had a meaningful conversation with them. We are following up the connection between the follow-up and the actually getting business out of it. In your follow-up, are you asking for the business? Are you, um, maintaining the contact and the hope that, you know, you're top of mind that when the conversation arises, you're there. I'm not great at asking for the business. Um, I do it for like our listings and a listing appointment. Cause I'm just like, all right, so this is a listing agreement. Like, and I initial my side and I pushed across the table. Right. Um, but for sphere calls, and I know like every coach is going to be like, Oh, you have to ask them if they know of anyone that's thinking to buy or sell my thing that I've always been like a proponent of it's like, I'm going to add value. And then with that value inherently, or you're then going to think of me for real estate. And like, yes, I lose business from it because of it, whatever. Um, but I also gain a lot of business from it. Um, so like, I just want to be top of mind for, you know, your Texas referrals. Um, and I am on social media and connecting with you so frequently that like, I would hope that you don't forget that. Um, you know, we do send out, um, we do send out like monthly newsletters to our sphere, right. To our personal people that do say like, if you have anyone that's looking to move, like, please click here and let us know. Um, and started one of the things that we're going to start this year. And I think I'm going to do it when I go to this conference, right. Is like having maybe a quarterly newsletter, go out to agents of just like, Hey, here's some helpful stuff that I've learned over the past quarter. And I hope it can help you in your business type thing. Um, but not the, like, I'm going to send you my listings and, you know, whatever emails that everyone unsubscribes from.

Yes. Yes. I have a whole separate like mailbox just for that stuff. You're like, my email is chance at chance.com. Yeah. That's it. Um, I call it the spam, my spam email address. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The Yahoo account that I actually have a client who has an email address that is spam at, that's hilarious. And he, I mean, at first, the first time he gave it to me, I was like, really, man, you're putting me in your spam folder, like on purpose. Come on, made it up to the big leagues, but you know, uh, everything was, went straight to spam. He gave it to everybody. I was like, all right, that works. Um, okay. So cool. So we're connecting locally first, right? Building iron sharpens iron. People understand what's going on locally, you know, closing a home in California is different than closing a home in Houston or Florida or whatever. So being able to build that business locally, uh, and, and having, you know, I just like having the peer group that if something weird comes up, I can reach out to, or, you know, that I can just reach out and be like, Hey, what do you think about this?

Yeah. I've made a few of those home calls to you over the past few years. Yeah. That's fine. I called you. Uh, also you're my source whenever I need a bar downtown, uh, you know, so, um, be intentional when you go to a conference. So not only being intentional about picking the content that you want, but be intentional about the people you want to meet and whether that's on the spot, recognizing what was the name of the website. You said where money walks, uh, how money walks, how money walks.com. So about meeting people who are, are potential referral partners. Um, if you can get an attendee list ahead of time, or you see a hashtag or, you know, whatever it is that you can find people who are going and connecting ahead of time. That's awesome. Um, be interested, not just interesting, really try to connect with people being authentic, uh, following up once you get back and doing so in a meaningful and continuous way, just like we shouldn't be with everybody anyways. Right. Uh, and then making sure that we're getting the business and how we treat people once we do that's good stuff, Kate. Thanks, man. No wonder you're, you're, you're a million dollars in four years. It's impressive. It's impressive. Seriously.

Um, all right. Are you ready for the bonus questions? Oh no, I'm really putting you on the spot. Oh no, I didn't. I wasn't, I wasn't made aware that there was a bonus question. Bonus question. There's I'm nervous. My, my palms are sweaty. I'm not favorite business book that you would write that you would recommend to any real estate agent. She's all looking off to her bookshelf. No, I was, I was looking cause I thought that I had it here, but I don't have it in front of me. Um, I'm going to cheat. So my favorite book is white collar warrior by bill Hart. Okay. Um, I think that it's, it really puts things in perspective. Um, cause like um, he basically draws the parallels, but he's like, there are no parallels, but here are the parallels between like combat, literal combat and sales. Okay. But then he's like, but also like they're risking their lives. Like, and you're afraid to pick up the phone. Like, don't be a what? What? I couldn't think I was the two words I had to think of not having to edit. We'll say what? The two words I had were both not appropriate. Um, and then this one, uh, the greatest salesman in the world. Ogmandino, I, you know, I know you like the scrolls. I also like the scrolls.

Yep. Um, both of us on our desk in front of us. Yeah. Super easy read. Um, the scrolls are super impactful. Um, and I'm definitely not like a touchy feely person. I'm definitely like, I started this book and I'm sure you did as well. Like, what is this story and who is this guy and what is he doing? And then like when I got into the scrolls and I actually read them, like every time I read them, every time I read them, cause I've read this book now, like 50 times, it hits differently. You different things hit you at the right time. Um, it's super powerful. I started in May. Wait, it's August. I started in June. Trying to remember when it is. I started in June going back and I really challenged myself to, you know, the, the, the idea behind greatest salesman is you're going to read once in the morning, once at lunch, once before you go to bed, read each scroll that way, three times a day for 30 days, and then move on to the next scroll and so on. And so I I'm now on the scroll mark three, which is I will persist until I succeed, but you're absolutely right. Because I started out with today. I begin a new life and I'm going to form good habits and become a slave to them, uh, in scroll number one. And it was probably two weeks in when I read a sentence that I'd already read three times a day for 14 days. And it just hit me in a totally different way. I was like, man, that might be the most impactful thing in this scroll. And I've just basically looked over it for the last loss over it. Yeah. And also how many times have you read that book? You know, like exactly, exactly. And so I've really enjoyed getting in and doing the, you know, three times a day exercise. Yeah. This is a, if you, if you're in sales and you haven't read that, you need to be reading greatest salesman in the world. Um, awesome. This is great. Thank you for coming on today.

I appreciate you having me. I'm excited. Great stuff. Like I said, this is stuff that most people are not good at. We go, we, we, we meet some people at the bar because, you know, the business of conferences typically happens at the bar. Um, but yeah, this is, this is fantastic. There's a, uh, I was reading a book recently and they were talking about this guy, this it guy who started a conference that's just called the lobby. And they literally like, they meet in the lobby of bar of hotel. There's no like organized, you go into a room for this or anything like that. It's just hang out at the bar. Now they have speakers and stuff, but it's at the bar. I'm like, that's kind of a brilliant way to do a, to do a, uh, uh, conference. Yeah. I've actually, um, so at the conference, we're going to an October, I'm actually planning a networking event while I'm there.

And it was going to initially just be a happy hour. Um, but we're going to do like a mini conference, like hot seat type thing. So like people will go up on stage for like 15 minutes and like we, then people can ask them questions about like, we'll have some pre-prepared questions. Right. But people can ask them whatever they want about, you know, branding video, social media and all that. Um, but like the entire intent is like, we have this room, this half is the conference side of like interviews. And then this half is just like, you can drink. Um, so yeah, we do that. So we do that once a month inside the brokerage, we call it open mic night. Yeah. And it's, you come on and whoever the, the expert for that month, like this month we're doing top 50 program and and just sharing like people who kick ass at doing Popeye's. Uh, and so they'll come on and do essentially like a Ted talk for lack of a term. Uh, and then everybody's there to share their stories or, you know, successes, failures. And hopefully by the end of the night, we all get a little bit better. Yeah. Definitely get a little drunker because it's a little bit drunker.

Yeah. Yeah. Always. So awesome. Well, thank you again, Katie. I appreciate it. Um, this is great stuff. Great stuff. So I hope that, uh, I want to say thank you to you for stopping by and watching to another episode of Top 5. Uh, hopefully you're able to take this stuff, apply it to your business and help you grow your real estate business. We'll see you on the next episode. Take care.