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, ...

As a real estate agent, you have something in common with every single business owner in your community. Everybody from carpet cleaners, to candy store operators, to toy store owners, to clothing store owners — every one of you has something in common.

Here’s what you have in common: you all want to do more business.

As a small business operator, what you can do is tap into that. What I would suggest to you is you go through your entire sphere of influence today and you take a yellow highlighter out — maybe print it out — and put a highlight next to all the small business owners that you know. You know more than you think.

When you have that highlighter out and you highlight all those folks, the next step is to call them, reach out to them, text them, or stop by their business if it’s convenient and appropriate, and say this:

“Hey, you know what? I want to support a local business every single week, and I’d love to do a collab with you if you’re interested.”

A collab — what’s a co...