Let's consider your office location: If you were to drop a pin on the map around your office, extending 2 to 5 miles, have you connected with local business owners in that area?

Many business owners are facing challenges due to economic changes and other factors. It's an excellent opportunity to reach out to them and establish a connection.

Here's a simple approach: initiate a business card exchange. Walk into a nearby business and introduce yourself. Mention your office's proximity and express your interest in referring people who are new to the area. You can say, "I often meet people relocating here, and I prefer to refer local businesses. Would you mind exchanging business cards?" Allow them to share information about their business.

You can further enhance the connection by saying, "I like to highlight a local business on my social media each week. Would it be okay if I featured your business next week and tagged...

Hey guys, let me share an inspiring story with you:

Years ago, I met Wan Foran, a REALTOR who faced incredible challenges on his journey to success. Wan graduated from real estate school on September 11, 2001, as a Muslim immigrant in a small town. Despite the odds stacked against him, Wan achieved remarkable success. I asked him, "How did you overcome these obstacles?"

His answer changed my perspective, and it can change yours too.

Wan knew he needed to expand beyond his local market to thrive. So he adopted a unique approach to farming...

Instead of targeting specific demographics or niches, he focused on feeder markets—areas surrounding his town that contributed potential clients. Wan identified the top 10% of REALTORS in each feeder market and initiated contact through postcards, calls, and emails. He introduced himself as a hardworking REALTOR and offered an enticing proposition:

If they referred clients to him, he...

How's your real estate business going?

When I ask some people this question, they seem to lack enthusiasm about where they're at with their business. Unfortunately, this is not uncommon as we've entered what I like to call the Real Estate Hunger Games, and here's what that means:

This year, we're projected to close about four and a half million transactions in real estate with around 1.6 million REALTORS. When we rewind the clock back to 2012, just about a million REALTORS were in business and we were still closing about the same number of transactions. With 60% more REALTORS doing the same volume of transactions, it's no wonder why it's more competitive than it's ever been in our industry.

So, the question is, how do you make sure that you're not market driven but strategy driven?

I'm going to share with you a simple strategy that's going to be so simple you might think it won't work, but it absolutely will work...

Hey guys, some new interesting information from NAR regarding how far people move when they buy a new home.

For decades, the number was about 10 to 15 miles from where they were moving to where they were going to.

Now that shot up dramatically last year to 50 miles—an unheard of number. And where are people heading?

1. Small towns: up 9% from last year.

2. Rural areas: up 7% from last year.

So people are wanting to exit urban areas, kind of that urban exodus we've talked about for a long time. And why are they doing it? Well, they have remote working, they have a remote school, and they want to get out of the urban jungle. And affordability is a big issue. They can buy a much bigger house, much nicer house by going out to these rural and small town areas.

So what about your market? Are you starting to see this in your market?

Maybe you're on the flip side where you live in a rural market like I do and you're benefiting from people coming to you. And on the other side, maybe...

There's a great book by a guy named Harvey Mackay. He wrote the book Dig Your Well Before You're Thirsty.

And in the book, he talks about this $25,000 question, and I'm gonna pose this question to you.

So the $25,000 question kind of goes like this:

Imagine you own a muffler shop or some kind of business. And it's payroll week and you don't have the money to pay your employees. And you know, if you don't pay 'em, they're all gonna walk because everybody's trying to hire right now. So the question mark is it's 2:00 AM you wake up in the morning and you're like, I've gotta come up with $25,000 by tomorrow morning. Otherwise I'm probably gonna lose my business. Who do you call? In your friends list, your personal friends list, right now, is there someone you call and get $25,000 from by tomorrow morning?

If the answer's no, the reason you probably don't have anybody that qualifies in that category is because you haven't helped enough...

What if there's one thing you could do that would have a massive impact on your business? And it was something that would feel like it wasn't work? It was almost rejection-proof. And it's something that you could do every single day. Would you like to know what it is?

The answer is networking. And what I mean by networking is going to coffee, dinner, drinks, lunch, breakfast, you name it. Whatever it is where you're meeting one-on-one with someone in your sphere of influence.

There's nothing more powerful than you can do for your business in terms of marketing than that.

Now it's not going to feel like you're doing anything — you're just having fun with somebody who you like to visit with. But by stretching yourself and meeting with more people in your sphere and getting outside your comfort zone, I can promise you the result of this will be referrals.

Now it's not instant gratification. It won't instantly happen. But when you...

In 1918, a guy named Ivy Lee was approached by Charles Schwab. Now, when we hear the name Charles Schwab, we might think of the Charles Schwab we know today who invested and traded stocks. But this isn't the same Charles Schwab.

Charles Schwab at that time was one of the most wealthy people in the world. He owned Bethlehem Steel and steel was, of course, a huge deal. So he was a hugely successful entrepreneur.

And so what happened with Ivy Lee and Charles Schwab was Ivy was a consultant — like how we have consultants and coaches today.

Anyway, Schwab came to him and said, "Hey, I want to increase my managers' efficiency and productivity as well as my proficiency and productivity. I want you to give me your best idea. What's it going to cost me?"

So Ivy being a smart salesperson, did a couple of things.

First, he said I'm not going to charge you anything. I'm just going to just give you the idea and then you can pay me what it's...

It's likely that you know someone who has had a business close this year. We're seeing this across the country; about 8,000 businesses have already closed in 2020 . With Covid-19 and to online shopping - small business are suffering. Shockingly - 61% of retail purchases this year were done on a mobile device and that number is likely to grow in the coming months.

So what can you do to help people in your database who own a business that are struggling right now? First it's important to understand that we are all small business owners. We are all in this together. When a local business closes - it hurts the owners sure, but it also hurts the suppliers, the building owners, the employees, vendors, and countless other people who rely on small businesses in the community.

Four Ways You Can Help:

1) Endorse them on social media. 

"I'm going to feature a local business every single week on my social media throughout this COVID crisis. I want to make sure that we're supporting...

What if lead generation didn't have to feel like work? What if you could tap into the easiest, most productive lead generation system to produce an endless stream of referrals? Oh, and by the way - no technology skills or social media mastery required!  

The answer is networking. Before you dismiss this concept let's dig into the details and the specific technique. 

Networking simply means you are connecting with people who have the power to send you referrals. It may be surprising to hear that according to Columbia University every American has 290 connections.  These aren't Facebook friends or Instagram followers but actual connections. This is your clients sphere of influence.

Now of that group how many people will be moving this year? According to the US Census Bureau 11% of the US population moves ever year. This means that every single person in your sphere is in direct contact with 33 people who will move this year.   

Now let's assume you...

Why should a consumer do business with you? Most of us might answer because of our reputation, skills, and value proposition.  But what if consumers want more? 

Enter cause based marketing. Cause based marketing means that we publicly support a cause that we are passionate about and encourage our clients to follow our lead. Not only can we do something good for the community we can also create more opportunities to sell more real estate. 

According to a recent study: 

86% of consumer believe that companies should take a stand for social issues

Americans prioritize companies that are responsible (86%), caring (85%), and advocate for issues (81%)

Nearly 2/3 of Millennials and Gen Z express a preference for brands that have a point of view and stand for something

Watch the video to learn how many first time millionaires get involved with local charities and philanthropic work, and three ways you can begin implementing a cause based marketing...