Level Up - From Agent to Entrepreneur

Most agents are doing 90% of their business with buyers, but with all the changes coming from the NAR settlement, it might be time to pivot to doing more listings.   Landing a listing quickly isn’t as hard as some agents think it is. If you know where to look and what to do, you can get a listing a lot sooner than you thought. What are 3 easy sources of listings? How do you convert them into listi...

The NAR settlement is all anyone can talk about in real estate lately. The problem is most of the conversation is based in fear, scarcity and a gloom and doom mentality. Agents actually have the opportunity to come out of this change better and stronger, but that depends on where you put your focus.   Instead of complaining and panicking, we could be using the settlement to give our clients a bett...

The key to taking more listings is setting more appointments. The biggest barrier to getting to the appointment is the first no you’ll get from a seller.   That first no is nothing more than a smoke screen that you have to get past. What strategies can we use to get past the smoke screen and interrupt a pattern of negativity?   In this episode I share simple ways to redirect a rejection and turn i...

In the competitive world of real estate, hearing a "no" can feel like hitting a dead end. It can leave us feeling like it’s not worth making the ask again.    But the truth is, "no" doesn't always mean never? Very often a “no” means “not now” or it’s just a smoke screen that’s a lot easier to overcome than you think.    How do you turn rejection into an opportunity? By reframing our mindset and pe...

Working your database is a surefire way to generate a ton of business without bringing in any new leads. But in order to convert your contacts into clients or referrals, you have to have an engaged database.   You have to turn the names and email addresses you’ve collected into a true audience that reads and responses to your content. Here’s the simple secret: the more valuable our content is, the...

Across the country, real estate markets have been split into two distinct groups. The few agents taking all the things, and the many who aren’t taking any listings at all.   People might think it has to do with the market itself, but this has nothing to do with how many listings are on the MLS. Whether inventory is high or low, the same thing is happening. Top producers continue to dominate while...

Most real estate agents don’t want to hear this but, an abundance of leads does not equate to business growth. In fact, too many leads could be the reason for a decline in deals.   Getting a truckload of leads sounds great, but if they're not turning into real business, what's the point?   Collecting leads like they're going out of style isn't doing us any favors if they just sit there. If you eve...

The lawsuits, litigation and legal concerns on the buyer side prove two things about our industry. The landscape for buyer’s agents is shifting, and unlike the listings side, agents in that space are heavily misunderstood.   That doesn’t mean agents who work buyers are obsolete, you just have to differentiate yourself by proving the value you bring to the table.   How do we demonstrate our value?...

While well-meaning coaches, team leaders and Brokers typically equate scripts with dialogue, that couldn’t be further from the truth. As a matter of fact, by thinking of them as one and the same, we could actually be doing ourselves a grave disservice.    So, what is the chief difference between the two, then?    Is one more likely than the other to get us better results with leads? Could focusing...

When we think about making calls, most agents tend to think in terms of how to get a resounding ‘yes’, but sometimes, a ‘no’ can be more profitable.    The truth is, in real estate, a ‘no’ is seldom a final answer, and ‘no’ typically means not right now.    So, what can we do when we’re faced with a ‘not right now’? Is there a way to nurture a lead over the long term without coming across as sleaz...

In a metrics-obsessed industry, it’s super easy to attach our idea of success to grand numbers and achievements. Unfortunately, this approach can do more harm than good.   In our book, the numbers are insignificant. The process is what we should be obsessively fixated on.   When our vision of success is tied to what we do every single day, the extraordinary results we seek take care of themselves....

A listing-based business is a lot more profitable than a buyer-based one, but it’s also harder to grow and scale. Generating seller leads isn't as simple as purchasing a list of buyers. It takes strategy and intentionality to turn a homeowner into someone who’s ready to list.   Driving listings is a lot harder than holding an open house, but not impossible. When we build a rich database of homeown...

In real estate, there will always be a gap between our projected production and actual production. This makes it really hard to know if we’re on target, especially towards the end of the year. If we want to accomplish our goals, knowing what that gap is in detail is critical.   How do we analyze that gap, including the leads, pendings and what we have in our pipeline? Why are these last 3 months o...

The real estate market might be more challenging than usual, but that’s not why people are struggling. People aren’t hitting their peak performance and this is entirely fueled by mindset.   Our mindset can either be a headwind or a tailwind. The more we pay attention to what we tell ourselves, the easier it is to point ourselves in the right direction. In today’s market, mindset woes aren’t just h...

Real estate agents often blame their production issues on bad quality leads. The actual problem isn’t the leads themselves but rather our mindset surrounding them.   We don’t respond fast enough, we don’t have the muscle of consistent follow up, and we complain when the lead isn’t ready to take action right this second.   How do we develop a better attitude towards leads? How do we increase our ch...

When it comes to selling real estate, no one can say they don’t know how, yet so many agents still struggle to take action. In this market, it’s the doers who are getting a bigger piece of the pie.   In order to become doers, we have to have to gain confidence. What steps can we take to build our confidence? How do successful agents treat a market like this one?   In this episode, Broker/Owner of...

Take 2 agents, give them the same leads and scripts, and 1 outperforms the other, what separates them? It’s easy to think it’s a skill set issue, but what actually drives us forward (or pulls us back) is mindset. We can’t outskill a bad mindset, especially in this real estate market.   How do we know that our mindset isn’t as good as it could be? How do we develop a powerful mindset?   In this epi...

In a market like this one, it’s really easy to take our foot off the gas - until someone challenges us with a big goal and a ton of accountability. For Jeff Quintin, that challenge was to generate multiple listings within a week, which he accomplished quickly.   When you raise your intensity, the velocity with which things can happen and the income you can generate is amazing. How did J...

If you want to see how agents are doing in this market, look no further than MLS and individual Realtor stats. Agents are struggling - they aren’t doing as many deals or making as much money as before.   It’s easy to blame this on inventory or interest rates, but what’s leading to agent failure has nothing to do with external market conditions.   What’s really at the heart of the struggle of agent...

In this current market, the greatest pain point of most agents is not having nearly enough conversations that turn into listings. Everyone’s looking for a magic pill to get more listings, but the answer actually lies in the habits we form.   There’s no shortcuts to generating leads. No amount of automation will take the place of prospecting, and as long as we don’t take our foot off the gas, our b...

When it comes to lead conversion, what some agents think is bad luck is nothing more than a counterproductive approach. How can we expect success if we only call once and never follow up? The pattern of success with lead generation is simple: call fast, get them to the appointment as soon as possible, spot smoke screens, and follow up frequently.   How do we improve our lead conversion hygiene? Wh...

Everyone is talking about getting more listings, but they skip many important steps in their approach. There are 4 interconnected parts to building a massive listing business, and like dominoes, one piece has to fall for everything else to work.   How do we increase our listing inventory? How do we optimize the most important pieces?   In this episode, we talk about 4 things we need to take more l...

When we really get down to it, the activities that lead to success in real estate aren’t all that complicated. The challenge is, we need to have an unflinching commitment to them in order for them to truly bear fruit.   In an industry that’s riddled with built-in distractions, that’s easier said than done, but if we are non-negotiable about just 3 things, we can achieve the production goals we wan...

As tech gets smarter, online lead gen platforms face more restrictions, and consumers get less tolerant of marketing, agents are faced with a sharp decline in their lead conversion.   The barriers between us and the consumer’s inboxes are higher and more numerous than ever before, so how do we still convert leads at a high level?   In this episode, we talk about a problem all agents are facing in...

Between the market conditions of the last few months of 2022 and taking time off for the holidays, it’s natural to feel a bit sluggish and slow-to-start in the new year, but there are many encouraging signs to get pumped about real estate in 2023.   What can we glean from lead flow, market cycles, and even the consumer’s current behavior?   In this episode, we share 6 indicators that you can still...