In the real estate industry, there are two types of ghosts:

The first occurs when a buyer initiates contact but then disappears. It's common, but we shouldn't ignore it. Instead, we should follow up with these individuals after some time has passed. More often than not, they simply got busy, not because they disliked us or found another agent.

Reaching out with a call, text, or email is essential. We should inquire politely about their home buying progress. Even if they ghost us again, it's not a big deal. Let's not fear this type of ghosting and continue to pursue potential leads.

The second ghosting scenario involves us ghosting others inadvertently. It happens when we forget who certain contacts in our phone are. To address this, we should review our contacts and ask those we're unsure about to remind us of our connection.

By doing so, we might uncover opportunities we would have otherwise missed. Let's stop being ghosts ourselves and maintain connections with our contacts. These...

Folks, let's retire the F word - follow-up.

You know how often you've had salespeople call you saying, "I'm just following up" or "I'm just checking in." It's not the best approach. It sets the tone of being an annoying salesperson, and we don't want that. We should aim higher and see our services as valuable.

Instead of using "follow up" or "checking in," try these alternatives:

Start with, "As promised, I'm calling you because I have that listing you asked about."

Or say, "I was thinking about you today because something interesting came across my desk."

Or perhaps, "I'd love to get your opinion on a strategy I have for maximizing your home's value. I know you're not ready now, but it'll work anytime."

Another option is, "I had a little time between appointments, and I thought I'd give you a quick call. I only have about five minutes, but I wanted to ask you something." This way, they know it won't be a lengthy call.

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Hey folks, let's step into my DeLorean and journey back to January 1st. Time to take a look at what you've achieved from then till now. Join me as I walk you through a self-evaluation of 10 pivotal actions.

First off, calls. Have you connected with everyone in your database? A quick chat or two?

How about personalized texts or DMs? Opting for video texts is even better.

Emails - have you sent individual, meaningful emails to each database entry? And what about bulk emails? Regular newsletters, monthly or more?

Are you leveraging audio snips? Those small audio messages can make an impact. And video messages? The personal touch goes a long way.

Speaking of impact, client events. Have you hosted any this year? If not, consider it. Networking meetings also count.

Have you engaged in one-on-one conversations over coffee or meals? How many times a week?

Now, let's talk about social media. Are you consistently posting five...

Guys, 60,000 agents have already left the industry, and another two to 300,000 are projected to follow.

But here's why it's good news for us as REALTORS:

Each departing agent likely had one or more transactions last year. As they leave, those opportunities come back into play, and we have the chance to handle them as real estate professionals. So we can expect to get busier with each agent's exit.

However, there's an even bigger opportunity that most agents are overlooking:

Every agent who leaves the industry leaves behind a sphere of influence, a network of family and friends who may have some influence that we can tap into.

Here's what you can do:

Reach out to these exiting agents and express your condolences about their departure. Then ask them a quick question: Would they be interested in monetizing their hard work by earning referral fees? Since their license is still active, they can leave it hanging and...

Hey guys, quick idea for you. Actually two.

First one is: Have you mapped all the home anniversaries for clients you sold a home to in 2021? Maybe you go back even further. You could go back to 2020, 2019 and map those home anniversaries of those closings, and then give everybody a call as their anniversary comes up.

You can say, "Hey, happy home anniversary. By the way, I did a quick updated CMA on your home for you to let you know what your home is worth and to show you how much equity you've built up over the last 12 months. It's incredible. Let me show you what's happened here."

That will be a value added call. People will appreciate you're making the call and they'll be looking forward to it next year.

Okay. That's a one idea.

Second idea is this time of year, everybody's starting to file their taxes. Get it in front of it. Send everybody you closed a home with in the last 12 months a copy of their HUD and closing statements so their...

Here's an interesting question for you coming into the new year:

How many clients did you fire in 2021?

If the answer is zero, then that tells me as a coach that you don't take your time as seriously as you should.

You see, we all have a value of our time. And we can all figure it out quickly. We can take the 2000 hours an average agent works for a year and divide it by our gross income for last year. And you'll know exactly how much you're making per hour.

So if you made $100k, for instance, divide it by 2000, and you made about $50 per hour. If you made $200k, then you made about $100 an hour and so on.

Let's say that you're at the top, you know, you're doing $200k-$300k a year. Meaning, your time is worth $100-$150 an hour, which is very true for many of my coaching students (and even far more than that), but they're not saying "no" enough.

Here's what I mean:

If you have somebody that's wasting an hour of your time and your...

What is Q2?

Well, Q2 is your most valuable asset. And you might not even know it.

Your most valuable asset is your database, your sphere of influence, we know that.

But what's Q2 mean?

Q2 represents the quality and the quantity of your database. So let's look at those two issues and how they can impact your bottom line coming into the new year.

Let's start with the quantity. What does that mean? Well, if we know that for every 10 people in our database, we'll average one closed sale, knowing that quantity makes a big difference. In fact, when I talk to agents on a regular basis, and I ask, how many transactions did you close last year? And they say 10, 12, I'll say, how big is your database? Let me guess. It's probably 80 to 120 am I right? Most people will say, yeah, you're right on the money.

Why?

Because your database is a reflection of your performance. Smaller database, smaller performance. Larger database, larger...