Top 5 Ways to Build Your Business as a New Agent with Trevin Oberkrom

There just wasn't a lot of, of tech. And Chris was at the forefront of it. I stole everything I could from him. So whether it was, yeah, absolutely. So whether it was, you know, somebody that I was working with inside of like HAR or something, uh, because I didn't have a big brokerage to go into, uh, or it was finding people online who just had great ideas and stealing the shit out of them, making their own. Absolutely. So surrounding yourself with, with the people who you want to be like and learning from them. That's, that's first on the list. Yeah. What else? Number two, really for me is once I got pretty comfortable in the real estate world and necessarily what I was up against every day, whether it was on the buyer side, seller side, uh, prospecting, whatever that was, um, I tried to just be who I thought the industry thought I was. So my dad, right. He was in real estate. He was always dressed to the nines, button down shirt, pleated pants, all of that stuff. So my first year in the business, I was running anywhere that I got a potential.

Well, it didn't matter if it was Galveston or wherever it was, I was running around. I was running around in slacks and a button down and just was uncomfortable, sweating to death in the summer. And I was like, what in the hell am I doing? This isn't, this isn't who I am. What's going on? And, um, I, I talked to, um, Bill Graff, who is one of the agents that's been with us for a really long time. And he's like, you've just got to figure out who Trevin is. We were playing golf over in Longwood one day. And he's like, you need to just figure out what that is. And things will just develop for you. And I really took it to heart. Um, and I'm pretty low key. I'm really easy going. I'm shorts, tennis shoes. I am who I am, uh, black and white, either like me or you don't, it is what it is. And so I, I just, I got comfortable with that. I figured out who I was in this business. And, um, I just ran with that. And funny enough as it is, uh, everybody used to kind of joke that I was real serious or didn't take any BS or whatever. And that, unfortunately, well, no, maybe not unfortunately, but jokingly ended up turning into the tagline of our team.

Right. Um, and so it's just kind of stuck, but since I figured out really who I was, what, what I was trying to accomplish in this business, it really was kind of that next step that helped me then figure out where I wanted to be and not just what I was doing every day. Um, at that point I was just literally, I'm just trying to get a contract. I'm just trying to find a sale. I was trying to find a prospect versus where do I want to be in three years? Where do I want to be in five? Stuff like that. Yeah. So I think, I think you brought up a couple of really good, good points there. You know, this industry is one where there's a lot of comparison, right? Like people are always comparing themselves to other agents and the things that they're doing. And part of that is because by our nature, we tend to be relatively competitive people.

Absolutely. Right. But the other is there's a race to try to get, get that next thing. And so, you know, I, I joke about the people who are always taking like model photos and Instagram model photos and stuff like that. Cause you know, if I did that, I would just, I would make funny ones, right? Like beer belly hanging out, that kind of thing. Um, but if that works for them, that works for them, it's just being true to who you are. And I think that's the key because, you know, whether it's people who are afraid to get on video because they don't like the way they sound or they don't like the way they look, you may be funny looking and you may be funny sounding. It's possible. Your client's going to find out that you're going to meet them and they're going to find out that you are in fact funny looking where you are in fact funny sounding. Just get over it and move on. That's who you are. Just own it and let's go. Um, and I think that that is a really, really good point to bring up to people is, you know, just be you. If somebody doesn't want to do business with you because of that, then that's fine. Don't do business with that person. Just, but be yourself, be true to yourself, nothing else. Right. Absolutely. And, and that really kind of helped me, um, then get into the next step. And I know this is cliche, especially from a sales standpoint, or we've all gone through tons of training of, um, things of that nature, but I had to figure out realistically my why it when somebody first said that to me, I didn't know what the heck they were talking about. I was like, Oh, it's my family. It's easy to throw a surface. Yeah. Right.

Oh, my kids. Exactly. Yeah. I'm like, Oh, I mean, it is what it is. And, um, it took me a little while to figure that out and figure out the dynamics behind actually what that meant. And so for me, all of those little steps leading up to that helped me figure out, okay, I want to be one of the elites. I want to continue to strive for that. I want to continue to build for that. And so it was really, it was figuring out, okay, number one, I had to pay bills, right? I mean, you've got to do that. So that's a given. Um, I have a good, uh, strong background at home. I've got support. So that wasn't anything for me. It was then going, okay, I'm not just a real estate agent. This isn't just a hobby. This is a business. And I remember sitting down with you very early on. Um, you, you preached that to us and thankfully by the grace of God that hit me quickly and maybe a lot sooner than it does for some others. Um, and so I, I immediately went into, okay, um, where am I going to take this?

What's going to happen down the road? What do I want to happen down the road? Um, not just with work, but my personal life, my family life, things like that, uh, because they all correlate to each other, uh, whether we really realize it. And so for me, it was really trying to figure all of those things out so I could then figure out what my focus was going to be on a day-to-day basis and not just going through the routine of chasing people. Yeah. I think, you know, that why question is one of those that it's real simple until you actually start getting into it. And then it's really, no, it's really, really hard. And so, you know, like my why with my kids has always been, and I've known it from the get-go because of the example that my parents said, my why with my kids has always been, I work as hard as I do because I don't want to ever tell them no, because I have to. Yeah.

I'm going to tell them no. And I do tell them all the damn time. Right. But I don't ever want to tell them no, because I have to. And my parents were that way. Like if there was a great opportunity for me to develop, to do something unique that would help me in the future, it was almost always a yes. And they told me no to a lot of other dumb stuff that I, that I asked about. But that was always the thing for me, but it took some time to just sit there and instead of just saying, oh, my kids are no lie. Really, it wasn't my kids. Like, I mean, my kids are great. I love my kids, but it really is. My role is to provide the most opportunities for them to be better humans as they get older. And I want to be able to do that no matter what the circumstance is, if I can. And that's a big thing for me, honestly. And where I am today is the, not even just the want, but the need for success. And I know that may sound strange to some, but one of the reasons I was hesitant to get into real estate, my dad started out in residential real estate and then got very big and very successful with it and then got into development and develop some of the largest, um, still to this day, nicest subdivisions in the Kansas city area. Well, over the course of about 15 years, he was a millionaire, lost his ass and was a millionaire and lost his ass again in that span of time. Yeah. And so for me, when I was a little kid, I went from hearing stories and seeing things of anything and everything you can imagine to, I mean, pinching pennies from a thing. Um, and so for me, there was a underlying need to be successful with this business. Um, not just from a financial standpoint, but after going through industries that I never was really happy with, I needed this to be the thing that was going to pull me to the steps of where I wanted to go in all aspects, financially, family, et cetera. And so I really pushed that, um, when I got into this to figure out really what that meant, where I was going to take it and what I wanted to provide for, for my family. Um, our ruger at is going to be out of high school in six years and we're going to be in our early forties. I'm like, well, I want to travel. I want to be able to do things. So how the heck am I going to figure out a way to create that for my family? Um, and so those are some of the underlying things that pushes me for my why it's not just solely financial. It's being able to have those experiences because I didn't get that with mine.

My mom worked her tail off, but we didn't have a lot. Right. And so I want those things and those help me to stay grounded on a regular basis to, to be able to do and provide for them. So since we're on the note of like cheesy questions and like motivational speaker-y, what's your why type of stuff. So you talk about these things that are, I'm working hard now for the future. Do you, as part of either a daily routine or anything like that, do you vision board? Do you have like visualization app, you know, any of those kinds of things in your business? Or do you just sit there with a picture of like Italy above the computer? I don't know what. No. So, um, ironically, I guess about a year and a half in, uh, I read a book called the seven levels of communication. Um, great book, by the way, if you haven't read it, it's for sure. Awesome.

I've shared it with all of my mentees stuff too. It was a game changer for me. Just, I guess, mindset wise, if you want to put it that way. Um, I read that book and it clicked for me. Uh, I had real bad, I had once, but I didn't have productive habits, I guess, if you put it that way. Um, and this book was underlying the fact that, I mean, yeah, you have the freedom of schedule and you can be your own boss and whatever. So if you want to sleep in, you can sleep in. Well, the thing that I guess really triggered for me is, is, um, the most successful athletes that have ever lived, the people that are incredibly, incredibly successful in any industry that they're in, they all have very precise habits, routines, schedules, time blocking, whatever you want to refer to it as. Um, and I remember at the same time I was reading that book, I ended up, uh, watching a documentary on Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant about how insanely regimented they were from the second they woke up to the second they went to sleep and how strict it was. Well, that book was detailing the same kind of mentality with it. Um, and ironically, when I got finished with that, uh, I challenged myself that I wasn't going to get up at five or five 30 every single day, because if I had a two or three hour jump on all the other real estate agents while they were still snoozing, well, guess what? I had at least a 15 hour jump on you every single week in productivity. Right. Uh, and I tried to carry that through, through my entire week, my months leading up and I'm going to be honest, whether it was coincidental or not, or it really tied in and it was productive. Uh, as I adjusted my schedule and created the non-negotiable items, things like that. Um, my business really changed, uh, definitely in a positive direction.

Yeah. It's amazing. So as part of my morning routine, I've taken on the challenge of, of the greatest salesman in the world, reading each scroll for 30 days, three times a day and all that. And so the first scroll is exactly about that. It's, I will form good habits and become their slave. Uh, and that that's the, the difference between successful and unsuccessful people is that successful people have great habits. For sure. Uh, and then, you know, I, one of the habits I'm trying to form, I'm not going to tell you that I'm perfect at it, uh, by any means is that getting up early part. Uh, and on the days that I do, and I take some time to myself to get the day started, right. It makes just such an enormous difference. Uh, and you know, I say that as a long time night owl, you know, people get emails from me at one, two in the morning. That's the norm. Uh, and I'm trying to change that up. So yeah, that's great. All right. Next up on our Top 5, um, for me really was, um, kind of tying into the tail end of that. Um, I'm a very, very habit driven person. Uh, I don't do well with the, uh, just fly by the seat of your pants improv life. Like it almost gives me anxiety and stresses me out and I'm not productive. Uh, if you turn me into a living ping pong ball, I'm a disaster. Uh, I'm one of those people that like, when I come into the office here, I get in at least a half an hour or so before anybody else that I'm gonna cross paths with. So I can get myself situated, get into my times that I can know this is not interrupted. I can get this done, this done, this done, and this done. Um, and kind of like you said, I have my days where I'm not perfect with, but I can easily see on those days that I lean away from being strict with my schedule. There's not as much positive that comes from those where on the days that I go, okay, I have non-negotiable prospecting at this time. I have class at this time. I am going to make all my phone calls here. I'm going to follow up here. I'm going to do my emails here, which I'm going to say was the most difficult freaking thing in the world for me was phone calls and emails. Um, I was new. I was just about to ask you. Yeah. You know, one of the things that people, I think one of the traps that people fall into is a, when you're new, everything's urgent, right? So everything's got to be answered right now. But the other part is I've got this thing that I'm going to do and I'm going to block it out of my schedule, but I'm going to leave my email open. I'm going to leave my phone on. I'm going to leave Facebook open, you know, whatever it is. And you, you're just asking to be distracted.

Oh yeah. Right. So how do you force yourself to kind of, I'm laser focused on this. Do you set time limits? Do you like, what, what happens there? So, um, I'm a spreadsheet nut, um, everything from my prospect, keeping track of them to scheduling wise. I do an Excel or on Google docs. Um, and I tried to, I mean, we talk about in real estate, non-negotiable stuff all the time. Um, I tried to make sure all of that stuff was literally laid out to where I understood from time to time. And I would set alarms on my phone and I would literally turn that sucker upside down and put it away from me because I knew if I could see something or saw an alert pop up that it was game over. I would be chasing squirrels. Right. Um, and so it was really trying to figure out, okay, majority of the time we show homes is in the afternoon or evenings or whatever. So I was like, okay, I need to get all my non-negotiable stuff done earlier in the day. So I have less of a chance that I'm going to interrupt that or screw that up. Um, because I know if I put it in the afternoon, all of a sudden a showing is going to pop up and next thing, I'm not going to do that. And then I haven't prospected for six days. Uh, and that's the easy thing to get. It's the easy thing to not do. Right. Absolutely. I mean, nobody loves to sit down and prospect. It's not. And you can easily see with your business, especially if I look back over the course of months and even the years, um, one of the cardinal sins that we get into as real estate agents is we get three or four things going all at one time, right? We're working with a bunch of clients. We're getting overwhelmed. There's so much going on and we don't want to drop the ball. Well, the one thing we do drop the ball on is continuing to call people or follow up with people from before to continue to fill the pipeline for when all those deals are done. Cause next thing is, you know, you're literally done with all four deals. And then you're sitting there tooling. What comes next? You know, those big peaks and valleys and production and income and kind of leading in for me with that is, uh, that was stressful for me because I have always come, um, from, uh, even financially in the years past, it was always, you had a paycheck that came in on a regular basis. So one of the, I guess the goals that when I sat down with my wife, uh, as I got further into things was, is one of my goals was, is I was never going to go a month without a paycheck. Uh, cause I wanted to treat this literally like a sustainable thing and not a, oh, I got to stockpile stuff for six months and then we'll just, we'll just pull off this, this fund. Um, so for me, that was one of my, my next goals early on was I'm not going a month without a paycheck. And then whatever happens beyond that, I can scale up and develop, et cetera.

I remember when we first got started, you know, my wife was working in a place where there was a paycheck. So worst case scenario, I mean, if you wouldn't make much of a paycheck, the worst case scenario, we knew that our mortgage is going to get paid. Right. Um, and when things really started to kind of click and I felt like, you know, not that I had made it in the business, cause I don't know that you ever really feel like that, but I felt like, you know, I was going to be doing this for a while. Right. Like I can see further down the road. Um, that was when we kind of set the goal of, okay, we're going to close two transactions. And that way that amount of money based on average sales price and all of those things, not only does our mortgage get paid by, by her, but we can live relatively comfortably on those dollar amounts. We're not going to be, you know, making huge investments or anything like that, but we're at least going to be able to live a lifestyle that we'd like to live by doing that. Uh, and so that became the goal. So, yeah. Yeah. For me, that was kind of the leading factor with stuff. Um, as I kind of mentioned earlier, the, the hunting industry that I was in at the beginning, it was, it was decent from a fruitful standpoint of finances, but as things progressed, it got worse and worse. And, uh, I got tied into some business deals that really weren't all that productive and ultimately probably could have been the end of me and a lot of other things in my life. And, um, so my wife was kind of the breadwinner there for a while, keeping us afloat, the same thing. So keeping the mortgage paid, keeping food on the table, all that stuff. And I would contribute as things came in. And, um, that was one of the promises I made to myself was, um, I was going to pay her back for that because she carried a lot of load that it's difficult to put that all on your shoulders. And while it was hard to show appreciation when you're not showing it financially, um, I tried to, that was one of my goals for, for down the road is like, I'm going to get her the hell out of there. She's going to be paid back and be able to kind of go for a little bit. Um, and, and just take it easy because that's, that's a lot to carry for, for a family. And, uh, I can thankfully say, um, three and a half years into this, um, that my wife left her job of 15 years, um, about a month ago. Um, and I am not nervous to carry the load. I'm not frightened, um, to be responsible for all that. I'm in a position where I know that I can comfortably do that and we don't have to sabotage our lifestyle. And so those are the things that continue to push me to think, okay, what's my next plan? What's my next goal? Because if you can get to those attainable things, it, it, at least for me, it drives me to push onto the next. Absolutely. Yeah. And I think, you know, there's also a piece of it that you look back at these, at those days, right. And I think it helps with the humility piece. I think it helps with keeping you focused on the next thing and making sure that, you know, we went from literally like rolling coins to pay for diapers to a few years later, doing really, really well, but working so hard that it was just miserable. Um, and so you look at those, those kinds of learning experiences and how you progress and you set goals and, and you start to build systems and processes around stuff that you never, a million years when you're in your twenties or early thirties and be like, let me set a system about my budget. You know, it just, yeah. Um, but it's a huge difference maker, right? When you set those things up and you start to achieve them. I mean, it is big time. The confidence level just snowballs. It has. And it's made, honestly, really in the last, I don't know, maybe not even 12 months, but I mean, nine, 12 months, um, I sat down with you at the conference table, um, in the middle of COVID last year, when we were actually able to get back in the fricking office. Uh, and I was so swamped that I was hardly around them. And I remember asking you, I was like, look, I'm doing real well in business right now, but I'm like a real crappy ass part of my family. How the hell do I fix this? Because that starts to wave in in different ways. Yeah. You're all fine and dandy that business is going well, but that that's not the big picture for all of them. Um, and so you told me that day, you're like, you're going to have to systemize everything. And I didn't take that lightly, but I still didn't really fully, I guess, know what that was going to mean until I spent a little bit more time. And, um, for me, I knew that from a longevity standpoint, both for the next six years, why my rug rat's still in school, as well as when she leaves, that there's gotta be some form of plan for every day to where I don't have to be the control freak that's managing everything.

Right. Um, and so I did, I started, um, I got even crazier with scheduling, planning things in certain ways for myself, but then that's kind of how the evolution of, uh, kind of my team took place was knowing that I needed some people to have my back, not, not just as much for me to boss somebody around or try and make money. It was really just kind of a support system, even, um, for me to have somebody that I knew that if I needed to sneak away for three days to try and be with my family and not feel guilty about it, I could figure out how to do that. Right. Um, because they're the first probably two and a half years in this business. I don't think that I really got to take a day off. I mean, we went out of town a couple of times, but guess what? You were still working. Your computer and your phone finds you. And next thing I know, I'm still being a crappy member of my family and not giving anybody devoted attention. And so that's kind of where that, that was born was figuring out how I was going to create that. Um, because I'm completely honest. I like money, but I also want to be happy and enjoy my life. And so in the next seven to 10 years, I don't want to be working probably the same amount of hours that I'm currently working and I'm okay admitting that, but I don't want to lose the financial side of where that is. And so I started planning for the three years, the five years.

You have to leverage those systems and processes to be able to let other people do that and pick up some of that piece because there's only so, I mean, there's only so many hours in a day and there's only so much that can be spread around. Right. And, you know, to me, one of the hardest things, especially it was hard at first getting this because we're entrepreneurs and we're in a service industry. So we're always on, right. It got even harder when my wife left her other job and came to work in the brokerage because now we're working 24 hours a day and we're together. And so we had to really figure out a way to, to clearly delineate this is work time and this is family time and never the Twitch show me. Right. Um, and that doesn't always work like everything else. Uh, but more often than not, we're able to separate that. And I think that that's helpful about relationship with the kids and things like that. Um, because there was a time there, especially when she first started working with us where, you know, we'd get home and we just don't have our laptops to keep working.

And the kids are sitting there, you know, on a device or watching TV or, you know, doing their homework or whatever. And we're just, we're not even there. And that's, that's no way, that's no way to do it. No, it's not. And, and I remember when I was a kid, my dad was never around. And so like, I didn't have that super close relationship because of that. And thankfully my wife is one of the most like centered people as far as like family and all that stuff. We both lost parents when we were younger. And so, um, she's like, you, you can't do to her. What happened to you? What happened to you? You know, that, you know, what it was like. And so thankfully here recently, um, I've really tried to be very mindful of that. Now I'm even like non-negotiable every Wednesday night is date night with my rug wrap. We go wherever she wants to go, go do those kinds of things. So, um, while she understands I'm the leader of the house and I'm taking care of all these things that I'm not, I'm not just putting them to the wayside. And so that's helped me even more so probably stay organized on the other days away from that because it's going, I know this is, this is now a non-negotiable just like prospecting.

Right. And if you think about it from that way, not only does it break into those systems, right, but it also ties back to your, this is why I'm doing all that this. And you get that, those constant reminders that continue to drive further and further down the road. For sure. Awesome. And that's really been a big changer for me and kind of the tie in with all of, um, those items is, is the last two big things for me, um, that have really been a game changer in my business. And it seems so elementary when I'm going to say this, but it is consistency and follow-up. All right. So let's talk about the consistency part first, because I think that that's one of the hardest things in this industry. It is. I really do. We have the tendency again, because of who we tend to be as humans, like our innate nature of chasing the shiny object, right? Shiny object syndrome. And so just getting that, you know, we, we talk about it here at the brokerage, the daily disciplines that are executed over time. And that's what builds your success. So let's talk about consistency. Go ahead. Um, this is something that I'm just blatantly honest. I battle with weekly. Okay. Um, I, I won't lie. I, uh, funny enough, I'm not a night owl. I'm, I've joked with my wife for years. I'm like, when, when the rubber goes to sleep, do I get to go to sleep? No, no, that's not how that works. Well, so for me, um, I have always gotten tired more at nighttime. And so for me, I don't want to keep up with a few odds and ends in the evenings. Well, we're Realtors. Guess what? You get calls, you get messages, you get inquiries about listings, whatever it may be.

And I've battled because our clients aren't getting up at 5am website to look for home. So they're doing that stuff while they're sitting on their couch, watching TV and they're sitting used to. Um, so for me, it was, it was figuring out that routine consistently. And so I had to go, okay, same kind of thing of when you're doing prospect. And I was like, you know what? At nine o'clock, my phone's getting flipped over and I'm not doing this. And I will get into calling everybody at eight to nine in the morning, eight to 10, whatever. Um, and how do you set that expectation? I'm very, I know that that's what some people are going to say as well. They're good. They still call it. They still call it. So how do you set the expectation of, you know, these are my business hours. So again, um, I'm pretty black and white. I don't, I don't have gray area with anything. And I'm very vocal about that with my clients when we, whether I've known them for however long or I just meet them. Um, I I'm very just here. It is Wednesday nights.

I will not be returning phone calls to you. I may text you back later in the evening when I come, whatever, Sunday mornings, uh, church, I'm not going to be running around ragged. Um, and I, one of the, we kind of talked about this a little bit ago, but one of the biggest issues as Realtors is somebody calls, you think you've got to text them or call them right back. Right. Okay. I screwed that up royally for my first year in the business. Cause I, I just like, Oh God, somebody's calling me. I've got to do something. Or I got an email, um, where I probably got some of the greatest freedom in this business was from a consistency of something. This minor was I said at times that I'm going to return phone calls in this hour block and I'm going to return emails in this hour block in the morning. I have two of those. I do one in the morning and one in the evening and the rest of it, I don't mess with it. And unless it's something dire crucial involving a closing that has to be addressed. Other than that, um, I let them know, Hey, look, I've got this going on, this going on and this going on. Uh, if I don't answer you, shoot me a text, I'll get back with you as soon as I get freed up. So I try to be very, very just upfront about it. And I haven't run into any issues because they don't have the surprise factor or the, why are you dropping the ball or why aren't you calling me back? So let's pull the thread on that. Okay. Cause I think that one of the reasons why a lot of agents, specifically new agents, I think one of the reasons why a lot of agents are hesitant to do what you're talking about is the fear of the client going to work as long as losing the piece of business or something like that. So of all the times that you've gone about setting this expectation, how many times have you lost it? Yeah. And cause people are normal people, right. Well, they get the fact that you have a fit. So I'm a firm believer in all honesty, that, um, people are going to sense your expectations, sense your feelings on something.

Um, some call it cocky, some call it confident. I don't know what it is. I'm very confident in where I am as a person, as well as I am as an agent. And so I don't fret that really from any regard, because I, I, I am open in communication with my clients. And so I don't worry. Um, I don't worry about that. Um, because I haven't ever had a reason necessarily to, um, if I started losing clients left and right, because of my actions, maybe, but I think that there's a piece of it that the client actually respects you more. Yes. Right. You're telling them that you're involved with your family. You're doing these things. You're showing attention to other clients that they want that same respect. Oh, he's, he's not going to interrupt them to call me back. I would appreciate not being interrupted when he's with me. And so I think that there are others. I think it's a mental thing that we psych ourself out more than anything else. And, um, as soon as I got out of my way with that, that panic or that anxiety of things, uh, life got a lot more. So nervous were you the first time you tried it? Well, God, I mean, it was, it was bad. It's the first time you do anything. That's the trick.

The first few days of the, uh, only calling people back when I'm going to call people back and not pulling my email up. Cause it's right there. Yeah. It, it did. It like gave me almost an anxiety feeling like, Oh, what's there that I don't know, or what am I about to screw up? Or are they going to leave? Uh, and, and they didn't, they didn't, uh, and it took a little bit to get over that. But once I realized that it was, that was made it even easier for me just to explain to them up front, Hey, look, this is when I do this and this and this. Um, so just expect this. And to this day, I have not, I've not had any issues, but it's created the freedom that I've needed in other aspects of my schedule and, uh, things like that, which has allowed me to have what I call more productive time throughout my day. And you're probably getting more done in that productive time. Right. There's days that I'll literally work four or five hours and it's straight productive time. And then there's days that I work eight or nine and I feel like, I didn't get a thing. Yeah. There's days I, I sure worked my hands off today, but I really didn't. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. All right. So consistency. And then the other thing that you mentioned, um, and I, especially when they tie together, right. Before you have to follow up consistently without a doubt. And it, it is the single handed thing that I can, if you were to show an example of proof of something that works or doesn't work. Right. Um, I'm a firm believer, like when I'm coaching or whatnot, I share the crappy stories, the mistakes that I've made, because I personally have learned more from somebody telling me, don't do this. Cause this bit me in the rear end. Right. And so I'm very adamant about teaching that the same way too.

Well, follow up has been the one thing that I will never forget. And it's something like there's still times that it bumps me and, uh, but I quickly can pick myself back up, but I have literally had deals fall apart because either I was too busy and I didn't set an expectation. Um, or I was so busy and I wasn't organized that I let something slip through the cracks and it's cost me thousands of dollars. Uh, and I don't care how many times that occurs. You'll never forget them. I literally remember the transactions to the T for the ones that I lost in dang near how much commission I lost because I wasn't organized. I wasn't consistent. I wasn't in a good routine. Um, and I can easily say that those contributing factors is why I probably have cost myself at least 30 or $40,000 in my career.

Yeah. Uh, and I know that other agents are like that too, but you'll never forget those things. And I guess thankfully for me is it, it does stay in the back of my mind, which helps me when I do drop the ball a day, I'm like, Oh crap, I can't do that again. Or it's never, it's never the easy ones where nothing ever happens. We don't ever remember those. It's like, yeah, I did that. But it's the ones that are like, Holy crap, I made $3 an hour on this transaction, right? Um, those are the ones we always remember. So walk me through what follow-up looks like either in a transaction or with a prospect for you. Are you using a CRM? Are you using, what kind of systems are you using? Is this phone? Is it email? Is it tech? Like, what does that really look like? Because I assume the goal here is for a client, there's no, there's no unnecessary surprises for a prospect. It's nobody slips through the crack, right? So for me, um, there's some variables too. Number one, uh, I, I learned very on when I was younger and I was in the corporate world that you can't manage everybody the same way and expect the same result. You can't teach people the same way and expect everybody to learn that way. Um, so one of the very first things I do when I meet somebody or we get time to talk is, is what's your schedule like? What's your preferred method of communication? Cause for some people that's, give me a call. I need to talk to you. I want to know what's going on. Um, a lot more of this day and age is shoot me a text message, please. And for me, I always follow up with everybody, whether it's prospecting or past clients, but for me, it's in basically three different platforms. Um, my past clients, uh, I don't know if this is way overkill or what, but one time a month, every past client in my entire career, other than two, um, they have a special, I, um, I literally either have a phone call or a text chain with them every month. It has something that that became one of my goals was they're never going to forget my big old ball hit.

Right. It's never going to happen. Um, and so they, I keep a separate spreadsheet where that's my past clients. And as more come through, they filter in and that just is a, that's a goal. And so as things progress, I have to change my weekly routine of, I've got a couple more people I've got to hit everything. Um, and so they're separate, um, the prospects that I haven't gotten full communication with, and I'm still just kind of dripping on them. They're in a CRM system, um, to where essentially whether we've had a lot of dialogue or not, they're, they're getting something from me all the time. They're constantly hearing from Trevon, Trevon, Trevon, Trevon. They're going to, whether they like it or not, and tell they unsubscribe or tell me to buzz off. They're going to keep getting information until they buy or not or tell us to buy. Uh, and the third step for that is, is, uh, is the ones that are in between for me, the people that I've had dialogue with, they're not quite there yet or whatever that I call it my nursing phase, but I'm kind of figuring out each one of them individually. And I've got them color coded by call text or whatever on my spreadsheet. So I don't forget because I don't want to be the bozo. That's a pain in the rear end calling people. I'm like, dude, I'm in a meeting this afternoon. Leave me alone. I'll call you back this afternoon. Yeah. And so I've tried to, again, systemize things for my clients, not even really as what's productive for them, but so I can manage it. Um, and that has really been the follow-up side for me. Uh, and I can say easily that I've had deals that have popped up from people in my CRM that I hadn't had any real good dialogue with in over two years. And all of a sudden, we're getting ready to have a conversation. And so, uh, it does work, but I can also say same thing from mistake wise. There's been times that I've let some of those slip to the cracks. And so it's staying again, consistent with everything you're doing that alleviate you from those, those problems.

Uh, and so I, I just try and beat a dead horse here, but I try and systemize everything I'm doing. So if we've got new people coming in or what have you, there's things that are very scalable, teachable, and you can kind of plug and play and create the next step to the business. Instead of me being the control freak that I was the first couple of years of, I can't let go of this. And I still am, but it takes a little while to get better with even your follow-up to when you're handing something off, releasing even those little things like social media posts or whatever, have somebody else do it. Um, cause we are, I mean, we do tend to be kind of controlling. Oh, I'm big. No, one's going to love your baby the way you love your baby. Right. And so, all right. So I have to ask this because you brought it up. You said everybody in your past clients, but two, but I think, I think it's, I think there's a teachable moment here, right? For sure. So I'm assuming the, but two were two that you don't ever want to talk to again. Right. I want to be completely, I want to work with it. Yeah. I would never work with them again. Um, I don't personally have any reason that like I would be rude to them in any way, shape or form, but, um, one of them was an investor, um, that watched entirely too much HGTV. And if someone on TV can do it, I can do it.

Of course. And, uh, it was earlier on in my career. Uh, and she was purchasing flooded homes after Harley. Okay. And she was trying to cut corners with certain things with like the molder mediation stuff. And I was like, I'm not putting my neck on the line. You have got to do this stuff. And I was early on, she was like, if we can make this work, I'm going to buy a handful of these a year and then turn around and sell them. So for me, I was like, okay, well that's four, eight transactions a year. I just thought this one client. So I'm going to work a little bit. So one of them, hell, I even paid for the molder mediation certificate just because I was like, I'm not going to continue to put my neck on the line or stuff like that. Well, we got past those things and we're, we're doing better about communicating with each other, getting more comfortable. Um, she, she called me to ask about what kind of building materials to put in flooring, things like that, and ask about comps and how it was going to relate to the sales price. And, um, um, I gave my professional advice and what I felt was going to be the best way for her to make money, et cetera. And, um, she didn't, she didn't really take that route and went her own direction. And it kind of came back and bit her in the behind and guess what? I'm the one in the middle that somebody has to be blamed. That's right. So for me, uh, I separated myself from that relationship because it, it wasn't going to be a good thing moving forward. I think one of the things that we see a lot, especially with newer people, because everybody's, you know, when you're, when you're new and you want to try to capture as much business as you can is that they stay in these kinds of, I don't want to, you know, make light of an abusive relationship, but they kind of stay in these abusive relationships where, you know, it takes an emotional toll on them. It just wears them out. Um, and they're trying to make money and I get it. Like I've been there. Um, but I think that it's really important that we recognize is this worth, you know, if we're sitting down and we're figuring out how much money we make an hour, right? Is this worth the amount of time that I'm going to put into this? Or can I take that time and put it into something that's going to make me more money and make me happier?

Yeah. Right. Uh, and so I think it's important that as we go through this process of building a business, we identify the people that we just don't want to work with again. And then we put them into, you know, the D file for, you know, if you, you, you pick whichever word you want that starts with D, uh, and we just, we're not going to send them any follow-up. We're not going to do anything with that. Yeah. Because chances are also if they refer, if they're assholes and they refer somebody, their friends are probably assholes too. Most likely. Birds of a feather flock. Yeah. You're a dollar skippy. Uh, that's a, that's something I believe with every aspect of your life. So yeah, yeah, for sure. It was a, it was a train wreck and thankfully early, I separated early on. Um, the other one wasn't as drama filled or anything necessarily as far as that goes. Um, really where the kind of the relationship went South is, is we got ready for, uh, closing day and there was some items on the repair list and they just had a really bad at it. They agreed to it, signed the stuff and had a kind of a bad attitude about it and literally busted up some sheet rock in the walls and stuff like that before they left. And when the people came for their walkthrough, they're like, what the heck? Right. And again, I was, I was embarrassed.

Because I was like, this is my reputation sitting here. And so, uh, I actually had one of my handymen go over there and take care of it because I, I wanted to at least the buyers know that, Hey, this guy's not a boat, a bonehead. He, he actually is a good person. And unfortunately for me, there wasn't any drama filled conversations or anything. I just, I don't really want to be around people that take care of business like that. And so I kind of separated myself from any further communication really. Awesome. All right. So let's recap. So we're surrounding ourselves with people who we want to be like, who we can learn from all day, every day and remaining humble enough to, to, to actually sit there and learn and admit that we don't know, which is tough sometimes for people.

One of the biggest battles we have as agents is, I think being coachable. And that's not necessarily like a hiring a coach thing, but like actually when somebody tries to open their heart up and explain something to you legitimately listen. Yeah. I think, I think that that relates to two things, honestly. Number one, I think that that's a, for a lot of people, for a lot of people in this industry, they have very low self-awareness, right? And so I think that if there's a skill that we could perfect, it's really taking time to be honest with ourselves. And again, you know, going back to what you said, be true, which was number two on the list there, be true to who we are and understand that, you know, there's some things that I'm good at and there's some things that I'm real bad at. Right. And so the things that I'm real bad at, I either try not to do or try to get somebody else to do it. Right. And so I think that's one of the things. And I think the other thing is, again, going back to kind of the nature of who we are, we're problem solvers.

And so we hear something and we immediately want to spring into action to do something about it, when really, a lot of times we just need to sit there and listen, or ask a few more questions and really get down to, you know, what the problem actually is, as opposed to what's at the surface. Okay. So number one was surrounding ourselves with good people. Number two is we know our why, we're being true to ourselves. Right. Number three was really being regimented with scheduling in business and in personal life. All day, every day. Be consistent and never let fall through, slip through the cracks. You don't want to lose thousands. Yeah. Learn from me for the Lord's sake. Don't do it. Never forget. Yeah, exactly. I think we've all been there though. So awesome. Thank you, man. This was great stuff. I appreciate it. Thank you for watching Top 5. We'll be back with another episode soon. Have a great day.