What if your next transaction is embedded in your current transactions? This is such an easy concept but often overlooked by many agents. Every escrow you have is a pathway to more escrows. Let me share three key strategies to help you leverage this opportunity.

First, introduce every single person you're in escrow with to your VIP program. You might say, "I don’t have a VIP program." Well, you need to start one. A VIP program simply means telling your clients:

"Now that you’re my client and we're closing this transaction, I’d like to invite you to my VIP club. Here’s how it works: If you hear someone thinking about doing real estate business and refer them to me—even if they don’t close—that act alone makes you a VIP. As part of the VIP club, you’ll get access to special events throughout the year, quarterly prizes, and a grand prize at the end of the year. Plus, for every referral you send, you’ll receive a small gift from me."...

Do you ever judge somebody when you meet them for the first time?

The answer is, we all do. We can't help it. It's human nature. In fact, there's a scientist, Daniel Kahneman, who recently passed away. He was an expert in this field. He pioneered the idea of heuristics, or the ability to quickly make decisions by rapidly processing millions of pieces of data.

Some of us benefit from the "halo effect," which means people make a positive judgment about us based on how we present ourselves. Others don’t benefit from this phenomenon.

So, how do you present yourself?

There's something I like to refer to as the "million dollar—or maybe in today's world, $5 million—standard."

This means if you got a call today from someone asking you to list their $5 million house, would you be ready within 10 minutes to walk out the door and do it? Or would you be struggling, thinking, "Oh my gosh, I'm not ready for this. I have to get a million things put together."

This standard of...