Hey everybody welcome back to the show uh. This morning i was re-listening to my interview with bunda baker and john rollin uh on really the power of giftology in preparation for the guy. I'm going to introduce you today because i could have just as easily had matt on that same show, but it probably would have just been overpowering, and i thought i want to do this separately. I really want you to hear from this guy so before i bring him onto the show or formally introduce him uh matt farnham team, farnham real estate in las vegas.

Ladies and gentlemen, talk about a market of distraction and he's going to talk about how he is penetrating through that distraction and really connecting with customers in a super deep way and you're going to be able to do the same. So heads up a coaching member of ours for the last five years: 17 years in the business today with a team of three agents and three client care team members very important language there, my friend as you're, listening three client care team members in 2020. They had 110 families, put their faith and trust in them to help them buy and sell real estate about 87 percent of the business came from the formal strategy from a macro and micro standpoint we'll be talking about today, so heads up 87 of 110. That is a lot of business that you know he has crafted and harnessed and improved upon over a decade plus of this strategy.

Um and of course, as i mentioned, you know using these strategies, he would call it the experience economy, which you know he, and i are both. You know - excuse me big fans of that book and the work around that but he's taking it to the next level. In real estate this year, they're going to help 150 families buy and sell real estate, and - and i just i think, about 2020 - i think about people like matt - i think about consumers today and - and you know it is it's the flight to quality. When you look at the numbers right now in the u.s from my friends around the world right now, 50 of the agents - let's call it in the bottom, half event of the mls's are basically fighting over nine percent of the commission.

Think about that. As i say that to you that, let's just call 1.5 million agents in the u.s 50 are basically fighting over 9 of the commission and 91 of the commissions as of right now, as we record this, i just got this data point two days ago. The top half 50 are doing 91 of the commissions, and what it really tells me is the consumer wants a better experience and when they find it, they gravitate towards it. They talk about it, they share it.

They refer these people out and that's why i've got matt with me today. So hey matt, welcome to the podcast thanks tom i'm excited about this yeah man. You know we we've talked about this for a while, and i think you know again. I go back to that.

You know john and glenda interview and, as i said, i could have easily had you on that show, but i think it would just it would have overpowered you know, uh john, and what he was trying to accomplish. So so thank you for for joining me today and sharing your insight and brilliance um. Would you take a second though, and just take us a little back in time before we get into the hacks and the psychology and the? Why and the tactics and all the things you do because for the person listening you're going to want to take notes during this because, again you know, matt is a beautiful soul inside and out, and he can also talk very tactically in terms of what you should Do if you want to have more of this type of business, but take them back like before we started. I was like how long you been married, how long in real estate like give us a little optics on that absolutely so yeah.

I was the crazy person that bought my first home, got married and started my real estate career all within, like maybe 60 days of each other in 2004. So my wife leslie and three three kids now ages, 12, 11 and eight we've been married about almost 17 years here in a few months uh. So it's been a fun ride. Um.

Before that i was i'm in vegas, so service industry. I worked in hotels. I worked at the pool at bellagio. I did fine dining in bellagio golf course service things like that, so always pretty much in customer service jobs, which i think we were talking about this before the show started, yeah what a perfect transition in my city for serving people at a high level in real Estate, so there's a lot i want to unpack in there um.

Let's, let's talk about that service side. First, you know we were chatting before the show uh for the person. Listening that you know it's so natural. When i meet someone, i'm like what did you do before real estate like i was a nurse, i was a teacher.

I worked in a restaurant, i was a bartender right. I was in client services i was on. I was in another sales role in a service model and i just think to myself: all they have to do is learn the language of real estate and and the odds are, the odds are in their favor. That they'll do just fine, but matt.

You know there's some people that work in the service industry that that can't make the leap to to a higher level product to a higher level service um when you're. Looking back at the early days, were you able to you know like? Sometimes you meet a bartender and they're just they have a bartender mindset, not a service mindset, not a i'm in a people, first business and it doesn't matter if you're, a billionaire or you're buying your first property like. I know how to take care of you, because i get people. What are your thoughts on that? My first thought on that is probably just a limited belief in i'm just thankful.

I did at such a young age because, knowing me and what i struggle with on a day in day out basis now with limited beliefs, i think those people just need to coach, because if i was making that transition now at the age of 39, i would See myself being scared to do that, especially with a family, and things like that, so, i would say, seek out guidance, make sure you're aligning yourself with with a mentor. That's going to be able to really show you the ropes and you can ride their coattails. It's really hard, i think, to get into this business any other way nowadays to really learn and have a chance to be successful. Yeah interesting, i was with uh tim smith yesterday, uh in a coaching session and then driving around he's like i'll.

Take you to the airport, you know just extra extra time with a good human being like you, and you know we were talking about, i shared with him that 9, 91 and and he literally you could see like he was like wow. I just i feel bad for new agents that maybe historically would have started their career and done open houses or some of these traditional things that kova just simply eliminated, and then i think back to you, starting in 2004, in las vegas. You were basically at the epicenter of the entire real estate meltdown. What did you do like when 2006 7 hit like how? How successful were you in 2004-56 and then what happened and how did you navigate through it yeah? So, from the day i got in the business uh, it was always a business to me.

I wasn't just like chasing the next where's, my next closing, coming from uh. So i think that really prepared me for those years and business dipped. I mean my first year in the business. I think i did 36 closings for almost 300 gci, which was incredible right, but by the way, that's that's incredible.

For your 10th year in real estate, let alone your first i've been super blessed man and uh super fortunate to have good people around me, but um, but from day one it was show up early. I was young, so i was wearing a tie every day trying to make up for my age with appearance and things like that, but uh first one at the office last one to leave and that hasn't changed in 17 years uh and yeah business dipped in those Years because i think i didn't know what i didn't know - um yeah, i didn't see it coming. I think i have a problem every day living like this. Looking at what's right in front of me instead of slowing down and getting on that 30 000 foot view, but eventually i kind of said: okay, this this is going to be a season here and then i got into the reo game.

So you look for opportunities. I've been hud's number one broker in vegas, for i think 11 years now, so you know you got to find the opportunities, be a chameleon and be ready to adapt and uh. So that's pretty much how i navigated that storm. You know um, it's so interesting! You know we have.

We have so many mutual friends in this business that do such incredible transaction volume business as you do, and the number of people that have text me over the last yeah. Maybe three, four months like hey, should i be re-contacting, my head contacts? Hey should i i'm like. First of all, you should have never gotten out of communication with anyone you had on the reo side or you know the display. You know like any of that.

Thoughts on that. Are you? Are you still active? Do you still see some of those transactions coming your way or is that evaporated in vegas yeah, it's very few and far between and i'm so excited about what we're doing now we have tunnel vision on this client experience game and i know we'll talk about. You know what we think the market's doing what the future looks like and why i'm all in on client experience. So would i say no to those relationships, of course not, but it is not going to be my identity.

Uh i'll, tell you a wake-up call. I had maybe somebody can learn from this, but a number of years ago you know i was selling a couple hundred oreos a year at that point and i walked into my office and i had an agent of mine sitting with a client in the conference room. My client and i'm like oh hi, it's good to see you well, thankfully, she at least had a relationship with her second choice at that time and she's like well yeah. I know that you, you do so many of those bank owned properties.

Now so i didn't, she literally thought i didn't do regular sphere of influence business and right. I had this punch in the face like when did i let my identity get wrapped up in something other than helping families? So i decided that day, never again yeah. That is that lesson i have had that punch in the face. I think every person listening has had that punch in the face.

You know mom. What do you mean? Well, honey, you're, so busy or you work the high end or you work more rural or you're in this part of town, and i'm in that part you're like i could have helped you at least get the right agent. You needed right call me, but it's interesting like i was. I was talking with this very famous uh therapist, like literally matt, like 40 years in in family therapy, 30 years of a syndicated radio show - and i remember asking like hey: what's the most common question you get, he said people would say to me like, like what Are the top four or five reasons why most people have relationship issues and he said people don't have relationship issues, they have issues that they bring to their relationship, and i thought isn't i mean it's this when you said that i'm like? Yes, it's like what is that issue, and you say identity right that that so many people have that they we do so much to build rapport and to connect and to serve, and then we just it's like suddenly became like a blind date.

We're out we're gone. I don't know blind dates. The right you know, maybe, like one night, stand right like what is that and you were guilty of it. How did you overcome it? Uh, honestly, a few i've had a lot of rabbits.

I've chased through the years, but after the reo thing, then i did the broker's thing. You know i own the company here with a partner gidget and and we were, if you had breath in your body, i thought i was supposed to hire you. So we were building the brokerage thing and we, you know, god bless everybody who worked with us, but we woke up one day and felt like we were kind of surrounded by mediocrity in a lot of ways. Just didn't have the same goals and ambitions that we did and then eventually i found my way about a year and a half two years ago to go all in on team farnam like where i can control the level of service that we.

So this team thing's new to me - and i do i have to say i do regret not having my eyes open sooner, because i can't imagine where we'd be right now, with what we're doing and the focus uh. But it was a journey to get here and and now it comes from a spirit of gratitude a couple years ago you know it's, you get burnt out easy in this business, but we just started doing these wow closing experiences and it became like gratifying for us. It became more fun yeah and then we just said you know what: how about how other ways can we show gratitude and just really and then it just blew up on what we started to scale and make you know this. This is our identity.

What we are now yeah so we're getting into some of the uh, the tactical stuff, but let's, let's back up and unpack for people, what was the generally speaking, i'm just assuming this map that something happened that caused you to say, wait a minute and then maybe You read something: maybe you researched something and you were like. Okay, this whole client experience thing so help us understand the origin story for you behind it. What was the problem you were looking to solve and then what was sort of your original sort of vision for it and then what does it look like today and then for the person? That's listening, i literally wrote down like he's, got six things around buying and selling right and then i wrote down. There's another looks like four tactics of how you deliver it so we'll get into all of that, but just maybe help us like unpack.

What was the problem and sort of what was your your macro vision or philosophy behind it sure absolutely so i think the problem is. Is you know the client demands more now um? What what gratifies me? What gets me going is knowing i'm the best at what i do and i was living at a place a couple years ago, where a lot of my attention was divided between the brokerage and before and between what i wanted to deliver. As an experience to my own clients and a father of three kids and a wife, they were getting the leftovers at home. That's what really drove me to say! Something's got ta change that combined with your coaching in this talk about this experience, economy uh.

We were actually at a retreat in san diego. I think it was you had steve harney on stage and he made a comment that just hit me in the jaw. He said, raise your hand if you truly believe you are the best in the business in your market or whatever. Of course, you have probably a thousand people in the room who raise their hands, because why would we be there if we don't believe that? But i truly believe that that's what we deliver here he said, then, don't you think you have a moral obligation to tell more people about what you do that just hit me in the jaw like i do have a moral obligation to help more families with the Level of service that i know that we deliver so that, combined with your talks about experience economy, the client demands more where the market's going and then some books that really influenced me.

Uh building a story brand with donald miller, yeah that was kind of the viral book in our in our ecosystem right but uh, but it just made so much sense like i'm, not the hero of the story. Stop matt. Did it again. Matt said this: you know people don't care about math, they care about their own story and their family right.

So that really started to challenge my philosophy: uh raving fans kim blanchard. That's a classic always liked that book, but one that really inspired me uh that we still talk about a lot today is the power of moments by chip and dan heath yeah, taking certain opportunities in people's lives, whether it's transition or elevation, and things like that. To really create this unforgettable magical experience, and we we just kind of wrapped our hearts and minds around that, and all those things combined is how we start to move in this direction. Uh, as far as the philosophy uh, sorry, i'm rambling on here, but none of it - this is a podcast ramble away.

This is cool, i'm taking notes like crazy. This is good. I love it well, so the philosophy is. I.

I personally believe that we're gon na wake up - and i think you share this belief - we've you know you've coached on this, but we're gon na wake up five years from now, and the game's gon na be different. You're gon na have really two models. I think you're gon na have the the chop shop volume based model and i'm not gon na name drops, but in vegas we have the billboards. We have the radio ads, we have the commercials, we have the you know i'll buy your home.

For this. That's we're ground zero for what you might call disruption here. Right or you're. Gon na have silver platter, white glove value service, extraordinary experience and people will still want that.

I am not interested in playing on this side. This is way more fun for me to deliver that type of experience, so we want to be ahead of the curve and start delivering that extraordinary magical experience now uh and not be chasing our tails five years from now, when we wake up and as you've said In the past that tidal wave hits us hey, this is changing we're trying to get ahead of it right now, right. You know, you uh, you said so many things. I i always remember saying people you know walmart or neiman marcus, like you know what i mean like what client do you want to serve? I literally was in this conversation with uh, jose who uh picked me up yesterday from the airport and i'm like.

Listen to me, brother, like in the next five to ten years, like some people will be picked up by a car with no physical driver in it and they will get in the car and maybe like a jarvis-like voice, will say hello, mr ferry, you know, like You know, are we taking you home today? I said, but a lot of us. We will actually pay more because we want the personal touch, but what we also want is the humanness right, like the like. I could have anybody pick me up from the airport, but jose has become this guy, jose if you're listening right. Now, i'm literally just talking about our conversation yesterday, like i love this guy, he brings me so much joy.

Every time i've got someone that comes into dallas, i have jose, go pick him up, and everyone says the same thing that is the nicest guy in the planet. Now you might be saying, does that translate to real estate? My answer is, i think it translates to everything in business everything in life, so you've just taken this and you've turned it into a methodology, a way that you do business talk about that well yeah and here's here's. What i think, too, is that i believe that so there's a lot of noise in vegas, specifically for sure arizona, vegas like ground zero for the noise. I'm naive to think that my raving fan is not going to hear the noise, but i do believe they're going to be the last one to hear the noise.

Eventually, it's going to penetrate and they're, going to start hearing the radio ad and seeing the billboard sure right right now we talk about something with our team. It's called t-i-n-b and if a equals b price wins, if a is greater than b price - probably still wins. But the decision's a little bit harder. We should be to the point where we are delivering such an extraordinary experience and just they know we're the best at what we do.

On top of that, there is no b ty t i m b and if they're driving past the billboard - and it says anything related to real estate - it's white noise because they they know who the realtor is it's already. There is no b yeah, that's where that's the game, that's what we're going all in on and i'm naive to think they're not eventually going to hear it, but i'm okay with them being the last people to hear it right right and it's so i mean it's So interesting you and i are so aligned on this um. A couple weeks ago i had like 11 000 people between clients and guests on blueprint, and we were talking about, like my. My prediction is: half of every transaction in the next three to five years, will have a referral fee associated to it, whether it's an arbitrage company or an agent agent referral, a relocation or a broker generated, leave whatever it may be.

But half half going to somebody else because they attracted the client and how did they attract the client? They took advantage of the fact that the vast majority of our p, the people in this industry, don't have connections with their database right, don't have marketing messages that stand out. Don't have a client experience that like really draws people in so you you've solved for this long before you know i started talking about this, so you said noise in the marketplace. You mentioned the word gratitude multiple times, you talked about some books that have influenced you. The thing that there's so many things i respect about you matt the thing i i when we talk.

I know when i'm talking to you. I know if i was talking to somebody on your client care team. If i was talking to somebody on your sales team, i know i'm going to get the same experience. How did you translate that culture and that vibe and that language, and that that approach to a bunch of teammates that you know maybe didn't come from the service industry? Maybe you didn't didn't walk into your shoes and have your path? How did you transfer, if you will those values and skills? I think it's been a process uh, it all started with again.

We started doing you know these wow closings and then we start doing client events. And then you start, you just start dabbling, and i think you just i will say this like. I don't recruit i've. Never recruited before i do think you just attract people who who dig what you're doing you know they're just aligned with that and yeah i'd say everybody on our team.

Just truly loves people loves serving people. Uh they get it's. It's families, not houses. I mean just gradual little subtle changes over the years where we put a board up on the wall, we're not putting numbers or houses, it's pictures of families as we are closing transactions, and yes, just those little things like that.

You know they're not leads they're opportunities. These are people that want a relationship with with with somebody to guide them through the process that little subtle language shift. I think you just start to realize who who's all in with that and who's not and if you're not you're, just not gon na. It's just not gon na work because you're not going to enjoy working with us, because, if we're all about talking about money every day and this and that it's just not that's not going to get us motivated to go, serve another family at a high level and Give them this wow experience, that's the focus yeah, i love it.

It's it's. I've heard it so many times. Culture is language. Language is culture.

That's what bonds us so making those subtle shifts for the person listening like think about what he just said there. It is as subtle as it was. It was extremely powerful. Hey we help families, we don't sell houses like that.

Just that matt is very different from you know. Some of my some of our friends that are very transactionally focused and it doesn't mean they're bad people right, like they've, got hearts of gold. They care, but you know they they focus on hey. I want to do 100 transactions or 50 transactions or a thousand transactions or 5 000 transactions, whatever it is um, and i believe you know, i believe again for my friend said: wait a minute barry.

I also care, i know i'm just on and out so before. We talk about before we talk about um, the the. What and the tactics can you unpack for us? Why three sales, people, y3 client care and maybe let's focus on the three client care like what are: what are their roles and responsibilities? So people can, before we say man - i do this and this and this - and this is how - and this is the setup - and this is what we do - they understand that you're not doing this alone, that you have carefully curated people that have similar values and that's How you're able to execute like this, so so just unpack for us, the three client care people, what are their roles and responsibilities, maybe a little insight in their background. Maybe it's a disc profile.

Maybe it's a bank test whatever it is, help us understand who those people are and what they do absolutely so. The first two i'll mention so marketing specialist listing coordination. Um, that's a little bit self-explanatory, but you know bring homes to market, build the brand that we're doing uh start to celebrate more of these uh. These moments that we do for clients on social and things like that, we're continuing to level up in that area, and then we have the transaction coordinator, of course, living in the transaction uh.

But that's another conversation. Client experience is not just champagne and balloons. It's it's that transaction that communication, that uncertainty brings anxiety. They always know what's happening, so we we do that at a very high level like we can talk about that.

But the third piece is the one that most folks would probably be interested in and that's uh. We call it our client experience manager um. She if you know this tom, if everybody owns it, nobody owns it and, as we started to try and scale this and make this kind of who we are and what we're about. We were dabbling and doing hodgepodge here and there, and it was it was great, but it was inconsistent and until we really transition turned this role a little over a year ago.

It's full time you own. This, make the magic happen. Yeah, that's when everything changed so so she's been with me for about nine years, just flat out, loves people, that's what you got. Ta find uh she's a high s on the disc test.

Yeah, i think an s i or maybe an is would do well in that role, but she doesn't need the limelight. She doesn't want credit, she just loves people tom and she just wants to make him happy and that's what gratifies her right and she's got the s in her. So she can follow up and be consistent and you know follow the checklist and right do all that. So so transaction management listing launch all the all the things that we know um, but you made a comment.

You said it's not about like popping the bottle of champagne at the end, you know it's about the client experience throughout. You also made a comment earlier, and i just want to unpack this. You and i are so aligned in this. I've been stomping for 10 years, saying the consumer is demanding a better quality experience, which is why this industry is so ripe for disruption, destruction.

Whatever you want to call it give us an example of like something that somebody could add in to their once: they open escrow or start it start the transaction. What are some things that you guys do differently that just have the client remove some of that anxiety that stress that uncertainty that i picked the right agent did we buy the right house? Oh my god, is it gon na get? You know somebody told me recently, hey man, i got my offer accepted and i was like you're 180 steps away from actually moving in sorry. He was like you're kind of bursting my bubble, dude, i'm like i'm just like that's the reality. You're, like wait for the appraisal, bro exactly uh, so so so many things you could do i mean the simple things would be.

You know bring video into the game. Bob bomb is obviously a great platform for that. We do a lot of handwritten notes uh. So, for example, little stuff uh, you know, there's there's a quote that i love and it's on our wall, but there's no magic in magic.

It's all in the details right walt disney, and you know what, where i stole that in one of your summit books years ago i just yeah dude, that's so us what we do um and another quote. I love from atomic habits from james clear. Is we don't rise to the level of our goals? We fall to the level of our systems. So, yes, it starts at like the first appointment, you're gon na get a bon bon video from me just saying tom, i'm so excited to meet with you um.

You know by the way, check out this quick little landing page and this google form, if you fill this out for one minute time, it'll help me bring more value to our conversation, but i'm finding out what are you absolutely afraid from happening in your home, sale? Um, what is you know, describe the best experience or outcome possible, and you start to learn what's really concerning that client, so you can address those concerns at the appointment. Things like that to where i already have a handwritten note in my folder the moment i get back in the car, it's already stamped my assistant's got it ready. I just write a note relevant to the meeting. I throw it in their mailbox two homes down and they get it the next day.

It's all just you know having this this all planned out in our mantra is the phone rings for new business. Only right a client should not be calling our office asking for an update on their transactions, say that again matt the phone rings for new business, only the phone rings for new business. That's a cultural thing! That's a language thing right! I mean a lot of people right now are like well, there's just no way he doesn't understand my client, i'm in the high end. My clients are so much more demanding right, i'm in the low energy first time, buyers and they're totally concerned.

Is that reality for you or is that an aspirational quote that we fall back because of our systems? It is an aspirational quote, being uh transparent, but i will say that we're committed to getting better every day and we are getting better every day and it's not often our clients to call and say what's going on uh the only gaps we have are those moments Of the transaction, where there's truly nothing going on you're in that, we still need to make sure that they just know that everything's, you know going great for that time, period too, but the so. The way that we do this is we do walk clients through this digital transaction where they see in the pipeline. What's next, we've talked about the the domino's pizza thing and that type of thing right, but we also have. I have videos that i've pre-recorded for many steps along the way, so they're going to get videos about hey what is escrow.

What is title? Um, hey tom? What do you as the seller need to know about the home inspection? That's happening this week and i speak to you, the seller. You know they're gon na ask for all these things. You're gon na get offended and then we're gon na calm, everybody down and we're gon na come to a reasonable solution, and then i'm prepping you about the appraisal and then what does closing mean? What's expected from you at closing, so you're you're constantly getting future paced and setting expectations of what's next in the process, where you're not wondering you know, what's next a week out or two weeks from now it it's easy stuff, it's just taking the time to actually Put it together and build a system around it. So if we just stop right there literally you could you could mic drop on that to.

I could just imagine like michael d who's, my head of client experience in client care at my office. He'd be like yes. Yes, every step of the way you know onboarding welcome here we go new video and it doesn't have to be personalized like hey it's matt and i just want to say: congratulations on your escrow right. You're starting your escrow buy side sell side whatever it is.

Here's three things you need to know and that just automatically goes to people in the checklist as a part of the process. Is it automated or does someone have to actually say? Oh, we just opened up an escrow or is it like in a bomb bomb campaign? Start go: how does it work yeah, it's in our crm campaign, so we have a lot of tasks that are manual or automated, but we know when certain triggers hit that one will go out. So it's kind of a hybrid of both, but they nice. They will get it somewhere between one to three days before the inspection somewhere, one to five days before the appraisal uh.

So it works out pretty well and you i'm just curious just because i nerd out on this stuff. Do you track and measure open rates um and do you ever look at like? Oh, they didn't open open it and they called with a problem. So i'm an artist tom, not an operator. I got ta flip between two all the time.

As the ceo brother, i know man, i got ta level up in that area, so bad, but you know what the phone keeps ringing and we're busy. So i know that's probably not a very good ceo mindset, but it's working out. Listen, hey for everybody! Listening right! Now! You you just! You got another insight into why i have so much appreciation for matt, because we are all a work in progress. Nobody is.

There is no perfect brother, it's just getting better and better as much as we can every day moving things forward. So so, let's talk about it. You mentioned uncertainty and anxiety. Um walk us through, like you know, we were chatting before this and you were like.

Basically, the buying and selling experience there's like six things that we sort of look at right. The removal of anxiety which it sounds like we've covered um survey, videos celebrating moments along the way. Is that also a part of this bomb bomb campaign? Or is that something separate um talk to us about that yeah? So you know a lot of the client experience we do is return on relationship. That's your phrase that you were just using last month right but yeah, but glenda is a good friend of mine.

No accident right we're very, very similar and, yes, she says love on the people who love you and i love how she puts that and that's what we do over the life of the relationship, but during the transaction. We also celebrate moments through that. So it's all operationalized it's built into the smart plan. We know you know at the the ground, breaking they're, going to get ground breaking cupcakes for new construction or different things like that.

Here's something we do! That's really cool! Anybody can do this real easy. But what's the worst part of a transaction for a buyer, what were they most scared of which, which one moment of that transaction? Are they freaking out about? I'm looking at ruby, my assistant, who bought a house recently ruby? What was the scariest part of the transaction once you got the offer accepted she's like that it wasn't going to close on time. Okay, so most people i'd, say it's the home inspection they're. Probably i was thinking i was saying, yeah home inspection, but you know, but she had like austin no eddie who's, our uh who's.

Our guy eddie was like. I got this room, don't worry about it, nice, but yeah. So, whether it's that or or yes, but keep going, but so with that inspection, so we say: okay, if that's the most scary part of the transaction. How can we? How can we flip that on and let's, let's turn this into a positive? So so, but we do something very easy, but we bring a little inspection goodie bag where we make it a moment and we bring a branded notebook and a branded tape, measure and a pen, a bottle of water and a snack - and we say hey.

This is a fun experience. This is where you get to learn about your home. Let's take some notes, let's measure, let's, let's start figuring out where the furniture's going and then we also talk to our home inspector partners and we have like a little punch list and tom in new construction. You probably know an nho walking new home orientation.

They show you how the water heater works and they show you how to unclog the garbage disposal. It's not just all the bad stuff yeah. So what we do on the back of the inspections is we take them through? The inspector knows he's going to have to kind of do this little nho experience yeah. So it's not all the summary report, which is 20 negative things.

It's also get to learn your home. This is fine right and it's almost like an assumptive close as well too. If you, i didn't think about it that way, when we created it, that's my coach. You know mike um who's, like hey, that's kind of like yeah.

I guess it is. You know that works out yeah, but but even those moments you know moving boxes for the client and then the signing experience where we bring cider and champagne. And so it doesn't. It's not all client events and pop buys and that stuff that stuff's great.

But it's in the transaction, that's when you start building the wow in that raving fan through those moments. Yes, so so so much of this - and you know and you're very, like you know, i'm not perfect to this. Nobody is, but you made this a repeatable and scalable process. You know it's one thing like there's one thing to do this at like eight or nine transactions, but to do it at 10 closings a month or you know 15 in one month and seven and the next and and keep this machine going.

What have you learned about yourself, your team, the dynamics? What software do you use is there? Are there some better like hard assets, you use or soft assets, software etc? What has made this process more repeatable, more scalable, a few things number one making sure your whole team's in on it. The culture everybody's in this is what we're doing. This is our identity that helps a lot again. If everybody owns it, nobody owns it.

The game changed for us when we put kristen full time in that position. Now somebody owns it, it's gon na get done. Uh and monday.com is what we use for project management. There's a lot of great platforms out there, but yeah absolutely.

You know you say tom. If it's not, your calendar doesn't exist, uh, that's! That is true, but if it's not if it's not on some type of systemized operationalized plan, it's just not gon na be executed. So uh we do have all that built out. We actually do a a content calendar for the entire year, not just marketing and branding, but we know already when we're going to send the first save the date and the invites and these for the events - and we know when pop buys - are happening when the fantasy Football invitations are going out to do fantasy with our clients and this type of stuff.

It's all built out in a calendar yeah, so monday.com for project management calendaring. You know, calendaring all the experiences throughout the year this, the stuff that you know. That's not, you know back to school, you know fantasy football. The nights right it talks about hockey before so, let's go into there's four specific tactics that that really have moved the needle for you beyond the transactional stuff, which i love by the way um shout out to the crm you use uh, chime, chime love it.

I actually sold a business of mine to the ceo or the owner. I should say of chime. Did you ever meet him? Uh joe shin is his name. He started renren, which is the facebook equivalent in china, okay, so so joe joe last time, i was with him at dinner, which was probably two years ago.

He owns something like 300, like owns 300 companies wow, it's bonkers, so that's great big shout out to the guys at chime. That's great um, all right! Let's talk about the sort of the tactical stuff community engagement right. How do you do it support team, etc? Client experience manager, we should discuss uh marketing department. I want to go more in depth there um and then i want to just talk about like uh, surprise and delights.

So, let's, let's just go first, like community engagement right. What do you guys do? What's the? What's? The plan: what's the roadmap, you've already said: hey, we got a calendar for the year, so i assume there's a lot to unpack. There walk us through that. So that's that's the newest piece for us and i i'm thrilled man.

I i'm so stoked about what this looks like for us moving forward, but there's a there's: a new um community outreach ministry. Here in vegas, it's called the hub lv, but what it's actually a umbrella, if you will of four different outlets and what's so cool about it, if any company is gon na align with something like this, we were like. I have a heart for foster care uh. It's in my family, i have a lot of close friends that have um been.

You know, fostered a lot of children and in that type of situation, uh incredible, but you know for whatever reason that everybody wraps their heart around the same things. So we have done events where we partner with them. We invite those families to join us and things like that and it's been amazing, but we found an opportunity that has four different arms. But it's all this outreach called the hub lb, but it is foster care.

It's also poverty and homelessness. It's also sexual exploitation and human trafficking, which vegas is ground: zero in america. For that right and then the fourth one is the um vulnerable populations for education, so somebody's going to wrap their heart around one of those things yeah every time. So our team is all in on it and now the whole objective for us this year is how can we get our clients hearts around this with us? So we just did our first drive a few weeks ago, where we invited our clients to come by and drop off some things that that are needed from these different.

You know, ministries, uh and then, of course, we gave him a little mini, bundt cake and some information on the hub. It's just that hey! We love you thanks for coming by yeah, but how can we get them involved to serve with us to help spread? The word to donate and things like that and then of course we are starting to make it known hey when you work with team farnam you're literally engaging the city of las vegas through these outlets, because the first portion of everything that we make as a team Goes directly to them before anybody gets paid and the whole team's in on this, because let's face it tom a lot of times, it's the the ceo or leader who says it's a team thing or a company, but it's really tom writing a check or matt. Writing a check right, not anymore, like the whole team, said we're in so before anybody gets paid. We're doing that, and now our clients are starting to learn about this and not everybody's, going to resonate with that, but i believe most of our people will love it and super and get really excited about at least contributing uh through us, if not engaging actually physically.

I love it. I again i go back to the the word you know a couple years ago, the january lead were like operationalized opera. It became the drinking game right. Like every time tom perry said, operationalize people were like drink drink, but that's what you've done.

You you've taken this core value and then you've operationalized it with your team. You've made it a part of the fabric of how you do business, how you show up for others and you're right. If it's just you writing the check, like that's awesome, but when you say hey a percentage of off the top before anybody else like i know you said that a few times you probably said that to a few clients before right. This is how we roll like.

We make a difference first, then we take care of ourselves right right, maybe not the exact language but like the spirit of it. Yes, yes, absolutely yep, so so i'm gon na go a different direction. Just for a second i was thinking about this morning with you, social media, video, mail, email, calls and text your google, my business page you're, set up on profiles um. So, let's start first with like am i going to find you they're going to find you on zillow and trulia and realtor.com and you're going to be in all those places? Yes, of course, yeah and have you have you gone the route of advertising on those classes and continued to have you pulled away from it? No, no! No knock against any company, just curious where, where you're at today yeah so yeah, no knock about anybody but zillow and and the like, i'm sorry i would rather not pay 30 35 or whatever um.

That's the beautiful thing about the us going all in on client experience and having such a large percentage, and one thing growing for us is our age endangered referral pillar. I love my friends across the country uh, i mean tom just this ecosystem. In the last three days, i think we've had three inbound and one outbound with names. I could drop right now that you know very well just incredible people but yeah.

They are like-minded and do business like like we do it here, i'll, happily, pay them 25, every day, uh versus paying 30-plus percent to other sources. So we've yeah we've had those pillars. I've paid for leads and things like that. But it's just it's not the same as hey come list, my home or you know what i mean it's just i'm laughing, not at what you're saying i'm laughing, because if the person's just only listening right now, they don't see your facial expression because you're like this You're, like yeah paper, the look on your face is like i've done that, and i've done other horrible things like okay, but all right.

Let me back up, though, with your own database and with your agent agent referrals, because i knew that was going to be something i wanted to touch on today. So i'm glad you've already brought it up. How do you or do you, use social video, mail, email calls and text and others to get the word out whether it's to your database or you know when you're, when you're trying to reach? If you will outside of your database when you're launching a listing in others, what do you do? What do you not do in? Let's go social. Are you on every platform and how active yeah really is facebook and instagram for us um? We might dabble in linkedin or something like that, but again everything's a system.

So when we bring a home to the market, for example, we know every listing is going to have a coming soon, just listed under contract sold picture of the family with the testimonial on top of them. Like that's going to happen every time on in mail or just in social like break it down. For me, that would just be social in that example: okay, um, but - and we also yeah - i mean when we do a mailer. We know that you know mailer's going to go out we're going to have a complimentary social ad to go with it and that's going to be a campaign and that's going to complement it uh.

When we're really clicking on all cylinders, it might be a youtube ad going out there too, with with the video and things like that um but yeah. So i'm kind of sorry i'm all over the place here, but i mean everything is pretty much planned out. You know, as often as we get a great testimonial or uh, we need to level up on video testimonials. We we dabbled here come on man.

We just talked about that a couple weeks. You know everybody listening has to level up on that one, but i i appreciate you brother yep, so what about email? What about email is that is that a i don't mean as a form of like hey matt checking in i mean educational listing, launch keeping people informed. If i was on your email list, how many times a week or a month, am i gon na get an email from you guys and what am i gon na get yeah, so you're gon na get a monthly market update where i'll i'll do a video? Usually about 10 minutes and i'll really kind of unpack what i see happening in the market, of course, the stats and those those things, but also my personal opinion. People want your opinion.

They they look to you to be the expert, so i you know, i just tell them what i really feel like is happening and boots on the ground type perspective. Uh they'll get that they are getting educational videos from us. So we have a series uh we're getting ready to pivot and switch directions on it. So it's been a couple months since we put content out, but it's called real life at level.

10 is what we were putting out, but it was really just was tom yeah? You you did that with me: we just love it yeah level, 10 conversations, but but that was real uh. You know how what happens if the appraisal comes in low. You know what is an eye buyer and why would i want to or not want to sell my home with them and just real life educational information, so those would go out every other week, uh, of course, with again back to the social we would take 30. Second, snippets out of that, we would distribute those in advance to build some excitement around it.

Of course, the video would go out and then we'd take a quote or two out of the video and we'd put that on social yeah, honestly just r d stuff that you do just not as good. No, i listen brother we're all we're all doing the best. We can with what we got. I have an army of people that help so it's yeah i mean like if it was left just to me, it'd, be my flip video camera, which i show now and then there you go so you know that stuff.

But then we do hombot homebot's a great resource, yeah home, buy to something that sends a email out every two weeks, and it shows you what your home value is. It also shows you what's cool? Is it's it's it's an engagement piece because you can look at what would it look like if i rented my home what if i turned my home into an airbnb, how much equity do i have uh? What could i do with that equity? Or what would it look like to refinance and people can raise their hand to get questions answered about you know? Is my home value, look accurate or what would it look like to refi it's an engagement tool where they reach out to us consistently and it just creates a conversation, so they get those updates from us and then, of course, just all the invitations to client events. All the invitations to serve with the hub lb with us, yeah uh, the invitations do fantasy football with us like there's always a reason to reach out um and tom. We i've joked with you about this, and i know this is this is not a tom ferry uh.

You know uh game plan here, but but honestly man in 17 years, i've never asked for a referral. We we just consistently stay in touch. We provide as much value as possible and the phone keeps ringing, so you know that's that's kind of how the game's been for me since i started 100. It's like going back to the university with with john roland he's like if you just consistently provide value - and i was talking about hey, there's a reason why i put all my content out for free long before anybody else and the phone would just read.

People like dude you just i i they would call me dude or my team. Do it, but just for fun you know, but but the message resonates right when the message resonates right. It's it's the it's! The old your vibe attracts your tribe right right and you could see that in the evolution of your business and your philosophy and then the tactics that you that you basically implement um, so matt switch gears and just talk about surprising delights like give us just sort Of high level some tactics and things that you guys do that you found to be effective sure, so i think, there's really two main components of that there's. I think the way that we close on a home, whether it's the closing itself or a few weeks to follow and then truly the random, just the unexpected wow right.

So the closings like stop buying home depot gift cards right. Nobody wants that and a lot of people don't even need it um, but really figure out. What's special to tom and kathy like what's going to make their hearts sing, maybe what's an experience that you can provide for them. So we put a lot of thought and effort into those, for example, let's say tom you're new to vegas uh.

What? If we got you a taste of henderson and we tea you up with the best appetizer place, the best dinner place, the best wine place and the best dessert place with information about the restaurants and their ratings and their their articles and all this stuff. And we do that or something really unique to you uh we do we've set up christmas in the home like two days before christmas. You come in there's christmas trees and gifts, we've yeah uh, so many things that we've done had the family show up with. With balloons and party and all the grandkids are there with all these things that they colored and put on the garage for your welcoming and like really just put some effort into this, but then the game changer for us of everything we do.

The pop buys and anniversaries, and all this stuff is a surprise and delight, and that's as simple as tom, i just ran into you at the furniture store and you're like hey, i got ta run, i'm taking kathy it's our anniversary. Oh that's awesome.