Hey guys, what does it mean to go “upstream” with a real estate business?

Well, one way you can look at this is targeting specific people in your community that could send you business, who are also business owners themselves.

But how would you identify them?

Well, one quick strategy is just to ask people already in your social sphere of influence with a question like this:

“Hey, do you have any financial advisors that you would rate a 9 or a 10 in terms of their skill set?”

And when they say, “Yeah, I’ve got somebody,” they raise their hand and say, “This is my person, this is who you should talk to.”

You say, “Great. You know, one of the people that I like to refer to are people that are highly regarded, and obviously I’m dealing with a big financial investment when it comes to housing. So I like to refer great people to great people as well.”

And now you’ve got their name.

Now you call that financial advisor and you say:

“Hey, I was referred by a couple people in my group, ...

Hey, have you ever said to yourself, "I wish I was a better time manager"?

Who doesn't, right?

But time management is really a little bit of a misnomer because we can't manage time.

I wish we could. I wish we could add hours to the day, the week, the month, or the year, but we're not able to do that.

All we can do is manage ourselves within the time that we have.

So it's really not time management. It's self-management. And when we look at this, we ask
"How can I manage myself better?"

Because that's what it comes down to: Priorities.

The people who are the most effective "time managers" are not the people who have their schedule dialed in and color-coded. They're not the ones doing every single thing efficiently.

You can see people where it looks like a bomb went off on their desk, but they're still getting a lot done. The reason those people are getting a lot of stuff done is because they've got great priority management.

You need to reset your priorities around what really ...

Hey guys, if you’re an agent and you’re out there selling real estate, here’s one question that you need to answer.

What is the lifetime value of one client that you close the transaction with?

So you have an escrow, it closes, and you receive a commission. And a lot of agents get in this mindset of, "well, I earned my $10,000."

Is that the lifetime value of this client? Is it $10,000, or is it a lot more than that?

Here’s the way we look at this in our coaching program. In our coaching program, we look at each client having a value, a lifetime value of $161,000. You might say, how do you get to that number? Well, we get to that number with a combination of things.

First of all, ideally, this one client isn’t going to just do one bit of business with you. They often, in a lifetime, are going to do two, three, four, or five pieces of business with you, whether it’s investment properties, whether it’s buying their second home or third home, or relocating and you referring them out s...

Hey guys, do you have a client party scheduled for spring or summer? If you don't, you're missing an opportunity. Why? Because the best agents in America generally are doing at least one client party a year, and a lot of them are doing two—the best times to do a client party: spring/summer and fall/winter. So those two types.

And ideally, I would say spring and fall are the absolute best times. Now what's the benefit of doing a party with your clients?

Well, first of all, the benefit is that you're going to treat them as friends. Remember: Friends do business with friends, and friends refer friends. And when you break bread with people, when you have a drink with somebody, when you relax in a relaxed environment, you become friendlier.

You have more conversations that aren't always business related.

So I'm going to give you a couple of tips, two or three ideas, about creating your best event possible.

First tip I will give you is this: it's not about the event size, it's about the...

Hey guys, have you ever thought about how you're interacting with your Sphere of Influence on social media?

Now, obviously we need to be really smart about this, and every single person that's in our Sphere of Influence, we need to make sure that we're connected with them on Facebook and Instagram and all the other possible places, maybe LinkedIn. And that should be maybe a spreadsheet or a checklist that we're checking that box off.

But let me give you one more idea. It's from a top producer I recently saw and thought it was brilliant:

What this agent did is he built a closed Facebook group for his, what he called VIPs—people that have sent him business or done direct business with him. So referral partners, people that have sent him referrals, or people that have done business go into his closed VIP Facebook group just for them.

And by doing so, he does all kinds of fun things. He runs contests in there where he rewards people for sending him referrals or doing direct business wi...

Hey guys, we're coming into Spring, and this is a great time of year to offer your concierge services to all of your clients.

What is your concierge service?

You want people to think about you when they think about anything related to their house — whether that's putting a new roof on, new carpet, refinishing the floors, needing an electrician, needing a plumber.

You want to be the first point of contact when they have a need related to their house. But you've got to say it out loud.

You've got to reach out to them. This is a great text, a great call, a great email where you say:

“Hey guys, a lot of times this time of year, coming into Spring, is when people like to do home improvement projects. If that's you and you need a contractor of any kind, reach out to me.

I've got relationships with the best contractors in the market. They give my clients great service and great pricing, so please reach out to me.”

Now, here's how I'm inserting value: I'm saying they're going to get whi...

Almost every week I have a new agent come to me and say, “Hey, I want to tackle a new area of the market.” Maybe it’s for sale by owner, maybe it’s expired listings, maybe it’s farming— all very valid areas to market to.

But my first question is always, “Let’s talk about your sphere of influence first. Tell me about that.”

A lot of times they’ll say, “Well, I don’t really have a good number on that.” That’s how I know they’re not really dialed in on their sphere. I’ll ask, “How many people are in your sphere?” And they’ll say, “It’s like 100… it’s like 200.”

They can’t tell me a specific number because they’re not actually in control of their business.

So the number one thing we have to do—before we chase rabbits, before we look for other business, before we search for something else—is get our sphere of influence dialed in.

Why? Because 70–80% of your business is going to come from this source. We have no business spending time, resources, money, and energy elsewhere when we have...

Hey guys, did you know that in the last 12 months there’s been an average 7% increase in homeowners insurance rates? When people are homeowners and paying insurance, premiums on average have gone up 7%. In a lot of markets, it’s probably much higher than that.

When we hear this, we might say, “That doesn’t impact me. I’m a REALTOR. I’m not selling insurance.”

But this is actually an opportunity.

Everyone in our database has homeowners insurance. Why don’t you reach out to our database today and say, “Hey guys, you’ve probably noticed your homeowners insurance rates have gone up. I just want to be a resource for you. I’ve got a great contact—an insurance professional here in town. If you’re looking to shop your rate or get a different quote, I’d love to refer you to them. Just give me a quick call. I’ll make sure they put you at the top of the list and give you exceptional five-star service.”

Now, why don’t you just give them the name of the person to call?

The reason is you want t...

For you brokerage owners and team leaders, I’m going to give you three things not to do as a recruiter. Recruiting is the number one task you should be doing every day, but what are the things you shouldn’t be doing when you recruit?

Number one: you should not be cold recruiting.

Cold recruiting means having a master list of people and calling everyone with the exact same message. That is the worst thing you can do. When you recruit, recruit with intention and purpose, and have a warm reason to reach out. There’s been a trigger event that gives us a reason to connect.

This is what we coach in our program: finding warm reasons to reach out that make sense, that are organic, that are authentic—not just making another call on a long list of calls you’re trying to get through that day.

Cold calling is death to recruiting. People know when you’re cold calling, and they shut you down. Then you get upset, disappointed, and feel defeated, and eventually you stop doing it.

You have to have...

Hey guys, one of the things I always tell people when they’re starting out in the business is to watch what top professionals are doing and model other people’s success. When you do that, you unlock a bunch of “secrets.”

I’m going to share one secret right now that you may not have noticed, but once I say it, you’re going to dial in and think, “Ah, I have noticed that.” It’s one of those Captain Obvious things when you really look at it.

People who are doing a lot of real estate sales—$20, $30, $40, $50 million in production—often talk about new sales, listings, and closings by saying things like, “I just sold my friend a house. I just sold my buddy a house. I just helped my friends buy a duplex.”

Everyone they talk about is their friend.

Then you reflect on your own business and ask, “Why am I not selling as much real estate as they are?” They put their pants on one leg at a time just like me. They’re not working ten times harder than me.

The reason is simple: they have more frie...