Heading into the new year, here's a game-changing strategy for you:

Open up your CRM, scan your sphere of influence, and pinpoint all the business owners. Start by reaching out to them. Call and ask, "Hey, Jim, how's the new year looking for you? How did last year finish off?"

Share your plan, "I want to start endorsing a local business every week on my social media, and I'd love to feature yours. I just want to promote local businesses I admire. No strings attached. Are you cool with that?"

They'll likely say yes, appreciating the gesture.

Be the Go-Giver. Lead with their needs. Within a week, make a post about their business on social media. Include photos, share your personal experience, and publicly endorse them. Tag them in the post. They might even share it with their audience. It's a win-win, a feel-good moment for both parties.

Even if they don't reciprocate immediately, the spirit of giving will work its magic for your business.

Now, measure your efforts. If your goal is to...

Hey, team, you're on prospecting calls today—reaching out to expired listings or for sale by owners, maybe marketing in a neighborhood. What if no one picks up? Do you leave a voicemail?

Before that, try this trick:

Hang up and call the same number quickly, twice. Imagine being on the other side—seeing a missed call, then the same number calling back. You're more likely to pick up.

Now, they still don't answer. It goes to voicemail. Should you leave a voicemail as a salesperson? Absolutely. The chances of circling back and calling again are low. Keep the message concise and to the point.

For an expired listing, I might say, "Hey, I'm Jim. Your property delisted today. Wondering if you're interviewing other agents. I have a 25-point marketing plan that works. Just sold a house nearby, 25 days, 5% over list price. Let's talk."

For a for sale by owner, a simple approach: "I'm J Man with ABC Real Estate. Saw your ad on Craigslist. Can I do a video of your property for...

There's a fantastic book I read years ago called "Positioning" by Al Ries and Jack Trout. It delves into the concept that our brains, like a whiteboard, need a space. As marketers, our goal is to occupy that space in the consumer's mind. However, with numerous competitors in the market, the challenge is stiff.

I appreciate the idea that it's not about what we want to say; it's about what consumers want to hear and learn from us. Consider the top four things consumers seek from a realtor: finding the right home, assistance with paperwork (part of negotiation), negotiating price, and negotiating terms.

Reflect on these four aspects—finding the right home, negotiations on price and terms, and paperwork. Are we addressing these in our marketing and branding? Shift from what we want to say to what clients want to learn. This transforms marketing into something people want to pay attention to.

Now, let's consider what sellers want. The top four things a seller desires: an expert in...

Are you actively farming your own neighborhood?

It's a straightforward marketing strategy that many agents overlook. So, why should you consider farming your own neighborhood?

Well, it all comes down to the fact that people prefer doing business with those they know, like, and trust, especially when they share a common bond.

When you live in the same neighborhood, potential clients are more inclined to choose you as their REALTOR. However, this won't happen if you're a "secret agent" – someone they don't even know lives nearby and can serve them.

To get started, you need to establish yourself as a local expert.

How?

Begin by introducing yourself through a letter or postcard. Let them know you're a resident and express your interest in being their preferred REALTOR. Share your credentials and accomplishments to give them confidence in your abilities.

Next, demonstrate that you're an active agent....

Guess what?

Millennials, who were the dominant force in the housing market a year ago, have taken a step back. It's been a significant drop.

Now, why are millennials pulling away from the real estate scene?

The primary reason is interest rates.

The real question is, who has taken their place as the leading group of homebuyers? Who's currently driving the market?

Well, it might surprise you, but it's the baby boomer generation, and they're making a strong comeback in the housing market. In fact, cash buyers account for 27% of the recent transactions, and many of them are likely baby boomers with disposable income, not overly concerned about interest rates.

They see opportunities in the market now that they didn't have a year ago when they were competing with numerous other buyers.

So, as you adapt your marketing strategies to changing market dynamics, consider focusing on baby boomers within your sphere...

The impact of climate change is becoming increasingly evident through natural disasters worldwide. In my market alone, 2,700 homes were lost to wildfires, including three duplexes that I owned. Recent events like the devastating fire in Maui have left hundreds homeless.

How does this relate to real estate? Well, it's directly tied. Amid this destruction, we, as REALTORS, have an opportunity to step in and provide assistance. While it won't be an immediate transaction, it can help us build lasting relationships founded on genuine value.

So what's my suggestion?

Reach out promptly to your entire sphere of influence. Capitalize on the awareness generated by these incidents. Say, "Given the current wave of natural disasters, many clients have requested a quick update on their home value to ensure their insurance coverage is adequate. I've already prepared this report for you, and it took just a few minutes. If you're...

Hey guys, do you want to be a little bit more assertive, not aggressive, but assertive in your market? Let me give you a technique, a tip, and I love this idea. It came from one of my coaching students, and that is the idea of a real estate resume.

So, you are interviewing for a job when you're working for a buyer or a seller, and how many times in the real world, when you get a real job, you have to turn in a resume almost a hundred percent of the time. But what if you just become proactive and you create a real estate resume and you give it to everybody in your database? And you say, "Hey, I'm accepting new buyers and new listings for the spring market coming up, and I just thought I'd give you my real estate resume that you can share with your friends and family about my background as a realtor and my qualifications to help them with all their real estate needs. Here's a copy of it. Feel free to share it with your...

I've got a question for you:

How do you win against Zillow and Realtor.com in your local market?

And the reason I ask this question is because it's kind of crazy when you think about it:

Realtor.com and Zillow come to town, their algorithm takes our listings and uses our listings to get buyers to their websites. Then they take these buyers, they capture the information, then they resell the lead back to us.

It is absolutely bananas and nuts that we allowed this in the industry, but here we are. So how do we win against these behemoths, against these massive algorithms that are running 24/7/365 in our marketplaces?

I'm gonna give you the roadmap right now:

The way you win against an algorithm is you have to win mindshare.

Mindshare, not market share, but mindshare.

What that means is, in your community, when people hear the words real estate, what's the first thing they think about?

Is it Realtor.com? Is it Zillow? Or is it your name...

Here's a quick question:

Have you offered your concierge services to all of your clients?

First of all, what's your concierge services? That means that you are the point of contact for anything that has anything remotely to do with real estate, for all of your sphere of influence. And your farmer areas. And your social audiences. So in all those categories, I want those people to think of you when they need a plumber, an electrician, a carpet layer, etc. They're thinking about you before they think about anyone else because you're the main point of contact.

Now, how do you insert value so that they actually make that call instead of just Googling it? Well, here is the way you insert value:

First of all, you gotta talk about it and you should say something like this, "Hey, you may not be aware of this, but I want to act as your real estate concierge for anything that you have related to your house. Whether it's landscaping, a new...

Hey guys, we've got some good news regarding the real estate market, and that is Fannie Mae does a study, it's a purchase sentiment study. They do it every single month. And finally it's broken the downward trend.

All the way since back in February of 2022, there's just been this downward trend with sentiment among buyers and sellers about the market, about buying, about selling. And it really hit a low point here in the last couple months, but it's broken. Now it's starting to come back up.

Buyers and sellers are now seeing a little bit of a rainbow at the end of the tunnel here. They're saying the worst is behind us, and it's starting to look a little bit better.

So this is good news for us. We're gonna combine that with another piece of good news, which is affordability.

So affordability over the last couple of months has gotten way better. We had an interest rate peak, and now it's come down, down, down, down, down, and it's...