Hey everybody welcome back to the podcast. Today i have sarah desamours compass real estate from miami beach. Sarah welcome to the show hello everyone so yeah i mean i'm. You know i was just saying before we got started that uh.

I was in jackson, hole wyoming recently with uh. You know a bunch of my speaker and writer. You know, partners that run marketing edge and all the different events we do, and i said you know i really want somebody like young and vibrant and who's just crushing it just a few years in the business who really understands modern marketing and literally in the room, Like sarah sarah, like i got like three shout outs - and i i remember saying to them her like because i follow you on instagram they're like yes, she's, absolutely amazing. So that's a lot of that's a that's a lot of, dare i say, instant swag.

For my audience, when they hear that debbie, holloway and jeff and bill pipes and jason feel this way about you um, but let's go back 2015 you're living in montreal, you're working for like scotiabank and then all of a sudden you're a real estate agent in boca. What happened? Well just a few um corrections, so it was actually 2014. right, 2014 and i moved to miami. So i was in a relationship with a guy that was in miami yeah and then i was pregnant.

So you know i decided to have my daughter in canada, because canada is better for healthcare. Obviously you know i was born and raised in montreal and our plan was, you know when she's born after a couple of months, you're gon na move, you know you'll move to miami and i was ready to make the risk. I was engaged um. We were ready to go and i'm like: okay, we're gon na start a family in miami and everything, and i left everything i had in montreal.

All my friends and you know i worked for scotiabank. I worked in mortgages. I never had to solicit one client ever in my life, because i knew everyone yes right, so i left all of that and i moved to miami where i had no friends, no family, nothing with a four-month-old baby and i literally had to start over and then, When i moved here after a couple of months, the relationship didn't work, so i had to make the super tough decision. Listen.

Do i go back to canada where i'm comfortable, but my daughter is not going to know her dad, so i had to make a very tough decision and i gave myself a year. I said. Let me give it my all for a year and if really it doesn't work and i hate it, and i can't see myself living there i'll just go back to canada. You know me and her dad we really get along, so he understood yeah and for one year i hustled and hustled and hustled - and you know i was a single mom at the time and again, no friends, no family, nothing and i had i had to start From scratch, so sarah someone's going to hear that story and - and you know, i'm i'm just such a fan of like fighting through the resistance and that all of your, your real sort of joy and happiness and growth comes outside of your comfort zone.

A lot of people think man, i would have just hot tailed it back up to canada. I got parents there, you know that guy can get on an airplane. That's a that's! A bold move like have you always been like that, because, or did that kind of, was that sort of post having a baby and just a different sense of doing the right thing like what was your mindset? So you know i've always been an entrepreneur right. I've always done little things on the side.

Even when i was working at the bank, i had a food blog. You know i ended up on a cooking show because i love cooking, so i've always done things differently, but i always kept my job at the bank because it was always comfortable right. I didn't have to solicit. People would just come to me.

It was very easy, but at the same time i felt like i i was stagnant, but i was comfortable. I knew i could do better, but i was just like you know what i'm fine and when i made this bold move to this day, people think i'm crazy for having done it sure, and i don't think i would have been where i am today had i Not made that move, i had to really get out of my comfort zone. I could have and i've always loved real estate, yes, always always loved. I even took the class and got my license in canada.

I just never jumped full time because i was afraid of being on my own and not having the stability. Okay. So there's there's a lot for us to unpack here, but let's talk about that first year right, so you know you know, there's going to be a lot of people that are going to listen to this podcast or watch video or see you know clips. You know on on all kinds of social sites um the question i get a lot when i do like q.

A on instagram is hey, i'm a new agent. What do i do so? I want to know from you like what did you? You said you hustled, but for the listener remember she's got a four-month baby at home or somewhere. What did you do and how did you manage all of that? It was tough, i'm not gon na start being all inspirational at first. No, i got it i to this day.

I think that was one of the toughest moments of my life. I think i had postpartum depression, but i also think it was a combination of changing countries, and you know the states are completely different from canada, not having friends not having a support system. So when i tell myself that i want to do something whether it's traveling or a career move, i do a lot of research before i do it right. So again i worked in mortgages and i told myself: okay, maybe i can go back to mortgages, but then, when i realized that there was such an opportunity in miami for for real estate, i say you know people from all over the world they buy here.

Even my own family members owned real estate in miami, so i said, that's an opportunity. Let me do some research so did a lot of research on the market. Again, i didn't have my license all on zillow um researched, just what it was like being a realtor. I remember reading the book uh the millionaire real estate agent, yep gary, and i reading also uh the book, the one thing and also the seven levels of communication.

I just read a lot of books and when i did, i called all of the realtors that i knew that were very successful in canada and i asked them now. I'm talking to realtor, that's that are selling 50 million and up right. They were all my clients in the mortgage industry and i ask them listen. I want to be a realtor.

What do i need to do? Yeah and most of them were like. Finally, that's good. They were like finally, and i followed their advice, exactly what they told me to do. I did it.

They all told me the thing that came back. They said you need to go full-time, don't half-ass it. I'm sorry. I don't know if i can say that, but you did it's all good.

Okay, they said, don't go in it halfway or do part-time or whatnot. They said, if anything, find a job, save your money and then go full-time. They said, don't go half into it and the other thing they told me from the beginning, they said, get a mentor or get into some type of coaching yeah. So we're talking this is end of 2014 beginning of 2015..

I mean we're only talking, you know four and a half years, five years of your time in the business. So so you know what's interesting about that. Sarah, a lot of my mentors would always say to me: you know the the the sort of not so strategic thinkers ask how and and the really strategic thinkers ask who you know who do i need to ask who's already done it before. Who has the model that i can follow the who is far more powerful, and you i mean you knew early when you said i'm a researcher i was like.

I already know where this is going right, so so tell me about year. One like: where did your clients come from? You saw this opportunity you're looking on zillow you're thinking. You know canadians buy here and you know, and and people from south america and people from all over the world and people from miami move up and down and around right but like what? What? What did you do to generate clients in year? One okay, so reading all these books, i had no budget. I had money to buy books right i had.

I could go on youtube all the time, but i didn't have any, though the money that i had, i had to be very careful. I had to pay bigger for my daughter and i had to pay rent where i lived right. So i said i don't have money for zillow. I don't have money for systems or whatnot so to get clients well what i did the first year, i'm not with them anymore, but i joined keller williams because they were the only company that offered training.

So while i was at keller williams, i learned scripts. Yes, i learned expired scripts. I did bold, i learned how to call my sphere etc. So i just practiced the script.

That's one aspect of it. Another aspect is that i would go on linkedin and just find anyone and just be like hey. How can i help you in your business? I know a lot of people in canada. You know it was kind of like a fake it till you're me till you make it.

I have people that tell me that they met me my first year and they didn't think it was my first year in real estate. I would just go to every single networking event that i could go to by myself. I would dress up like i'm a million dollar listing agent and everyone that i would meet. I would follow up with them, send them emails, i would you know i would invite them to coffee.

Some of them didn't want to, and i was like i'll bring you coffee at your office sure, so i would just meet as many people as i could and peop, and i was against strategic. I thought about it. I said who can send me clients. I thought immigration attorneys.

I thought estate planning attorneys. I also thought some mortgage lenders because i you know just starting in the business and just seeing it. I saw that there was a yeah there's, a lack also in customer service in miami. Unfortunately, and i said you know if even if someone works with a realtor, they might see that i have a different personality and maybe send me clients one day.

So it was just months of hustling and meeting people, and eventually i got my first client and then it just where that client come from. So my first listing it was a chamber of commerce person, that's someone that i met and i would see her at all. The breakfast and all of that and i always followed up with her and then after i think not even two months in the business she gave me uh my first listing congrats congrats. So go back to the linkedin thing.

You said i would just go on linkedin and i would you would just find people. I don't think it was random that you were finding people strategically, because you mentioned like. I know a lot of people in canada like what was that again like explain that, so i would go on linkedin and i would look for people in the miami area because that's where i live sure - and i would i wouldn't dm them. I would actually look for them and call them directly because linkedin, you know even me, if you send me a message, if you you for sure don't want to reach me, just write me a message on linkedin, so i would um i would find their phone number Or sometimes one thing i i would do that still works to this day.

I would find them on facebook and then add them on facebook. I feel like people really respond to that, so that was just a way to look for a specific type of people. For example, um immigration attorneys, like i said before: yes, people that a you can relate to you've gone through it and you know they have a specific need. They got clients that need help.

So i love it and also other realtors right so in year in year, one how many transactions did you finish with so year, one. So i say year one because i got my license in april. I believe, and then so i count from april to december yeah. I sold close to two million dollars and then i won rookie of the year congrats congrats so was that was that one listing at two million dollars or was it five deals? Three deals.

18 deals like give us contacts, so that's what ha so my first year, i got the listing and i also got some buyers right and they weren't super expensive buyers. They were under 200, 300, 000 range, but one of those buyers it was. I think it was kind of like a lucky thing where it was a four hundred thousand dollar transaction, but because it was a new construction they were giving like. I think i believe, seven percent - commission.

Yes, so it really increased my production and i thought it was always like that. So a lot of mistakes, my first year, yeah yeah. I love it. So so tell me about year, two! So now, like, okay, like i've, you know my daughter's okay.

I've got her in days and i wan na we're gon na unpack by the way everyone that's listening, we're not pack hey. What's coming is like how are you now running this crazy, successful business? Your daughter's five six six right so homeschooling run your business right and, and you know, work from home life. The whole experience we're all going through we're gon na unpack. All of that, but i wan na stay on this point of like so tell us about year.

Two or maybe better, when did it start to click? When did this business start to really make sense? Okay, so year two so year, one i was like whoa. This is awesome. I'm bawling like this is great blah blah blah. I overcame year.

Two was the toughest year yeah of my entire career in real estate, because so basically you're one. So what happens even to a lot of realtors, even people that i talk to now. Everything goes well. You have a like one or two deals under contract and then you stop prospecting because you're, like i'm good, you know, like i'm fine yeah, and so you don't prospect and you don't go to as many networking events because you get busier, you don't send as many Emails, you don't contact as many people, because you think that, like you've made it yes, okay, so year, two first of all i just wan na say i love you and by the way that happens for people after you're, five you're, seven you're, ten you're twenty yeah.

I learned it the hard way like it was literally like a punch to my face yeah, okay, so year two i had some clients and things were going pretty. Well, i thought yeah and i i did have a couple of deals. It wasn't like a lot, but it was so you know it was going well, but i was kind of like this is not going as easily as you know those past couple of months the year before, and then something happened where and i'm being super honest with Everyone listening to this and i'm open about it, but um my second year in one month i had four deals fall through, so those were all deals that i was waiting for that i was like. Oh my god like this.

Is it like i'm good? I have four deal. Four of them fell like just fell through completely for a different reason within i would say within six weeks, and i panicked i lit, i completely panicked. I didn't know what to do. I had no more money, i had some savings, but i'm like.

I can't survive that long with these savings and for like a month and a half i had to make a super tough decision. I had to find like a part-time, which it wasn't really a part time, so i drove uber for like six weeks. I i love yeah, so i heard part of this, so i'm so glad you were just like straight up right, like hey, like i had to do whatever i'm a single mom, i got ta do whatever it takes. So what was that yeah? What's crazy about? That? Is that i did it and i was super embarrassed about it, and i really and i know my parents could have helped me.

I know people could have helped me, but i'm very hard-headed. I don't like to ask for for help financially ever so i'm like i'm gon na, do what i have to do and by doing that just for six weeks i got two clients really really. You heard it here. First, ladies and gentlemen, if you're down on your luck as an agent uber, just not in california, but only my california friends will appreciate that so uh.

So so all right, you do that! You make the transition and, and then what happened? How did you finish year? Two or was that the end of year two so year, two so i did that, but then everything came back, but while i was doing uber and even when that happened, i got this epiphany where i'm like, there's no way in hell that i'm ever gon na. Let this happen to me again. I said: there's no way that i'm gon na put myself in a position where i have to find a part-time job, because i really love real estate. I really realize this is something that i want to do it's something i love doing.

I love helping people. I'm like there is no way that i will do anything else, but that yeah and i said the only way that i can never go back into that situation is. If i prospect it's not just about going to events and whatnot, it's you have to pick up the phone and you have to prospect, and i am not someone that grew up in miami. I don't have a bunch of friends here.

I don't have clients that are come left and right. I wasn't there yet and i said i need to pick up the phone and i mean, and i need to do it consistently yeah. So so, where did this resolve come from? Are you the? Are you the first child, the only child, the there's, no way you could be the baby, i'm just i'm just guessing yeah yeah that i mean that anyone that has kids and you know what i'm talking about. If we were all kids at one point, so we get that right, you're, you sound very first child.

I'm gon na make my own way. I'm gon na do whatever it takes. I'm not going to ask for help that certainly served you a lot. Has that mindset ever cause you to stumble or hurt you in your business? I mean, i think, that you know when i told you the uber situation.

I think that i could have asked for help, and i think that i could have maybe taken a credit card or instead of doing it, but i look at it both ways because now, because i've done it first of all, i respect anyone who does it even More now, because it's not easy, yeah and number two it made me it humbled me. Yes, it humbled me a lot and it made me realize that you know you can have everything in the world and everything can come crashing down yeah. So it showed me the importance of having savings. It showed me the importance also of budgeting when you have a when you have a big commission, it's not going to be forever.

You need to budget it, so i had to go through that and i had to be at zero yeah to learn. All of that. Do you think that came from your like your formal education, your parents, working for a bank like where did that come from, because what you're saying is common sense? But, and i'm not dogging people, but the vast majority of people. They get that big check and it's money, money, money, money, money and they're out spending and they get way out over their skis and then a deal falls apart and they're in trouble.

You're like okay, i've been there been there than that. I was like that. You know so i that's why that's how i was living because i'm like oh, this is a lot of money. I'll be fine.

I have all these other deals spending, but four deals in six weeks. I feel like it was. That was the biggest sign from the universe that hey this is. This is real life.

Things like that are gon na happen in real estate. It also showed me that you always have to have people in the pipeline. You can't depend on a deal yeah. I love that you speak that language because you know, like i mean that's, that's so our ecosystem, five, five, four talk to your past clients talk to new people every day.

Do your lead fall very nurture, nurture nudge um. But let's talk about that question i want to go back to when did when? Did the business really start to click? For you i mean for context, tell people how many homes you'll sell this year and what kind of volume you'll do this year for this year? Okay, so this year praying that it all goes well, i'm looking to sell 20 million okay, so so 20 million, so you're gon na make you know 450 500 000 bucks, which listen for a single mom, show me the money baby. I mean congratulations right with with kovid. Thank you very much which you know.

One of my closest friends lives right above nikki beach, so i you know i get the inside scoop every time. I talk to him about what's going on in the miami marketplace, so you know you're doing phenomenal. When did it start to click and what was it? Okay, so i even though i was renting when i moved here, i lived in a very uh, expensive, neighborhood, very, very expensive. It's called a crest, that's where i lived so a lot of celebrities lived there.

A lot of athletes lived there, that's actually where i got my first athlete client. I got to him a house there and i always told myself, i'm going to be the first black realtor who's going to be known all over pinecrest people used. To tell me i was crazy and unfortunately, the company - and i don't want to bash any companies, but they didn't really encourage me. They were like, oh no, you can't do luxury you're too you're too young in the business yeah.

They really tried to discourage me and i knew deep down inside. I said i know that's the market that i want to work in, i'm i'm a marketing person, i love marketing. So when you have a more expensive listing, that's when you have more opportunities right so and i knew the neighborhood by heart because i lived there. So i left that company i went to a higher end company.

I went to douglas element at the time and my broker there, who still encourages me. She always comes to watch me whenever i'm on stage and my broker at the time she encouraged me my first week there she's, like oh you cold call she's like well. If you get an appointment, i'll help you so within a week of changing companies and being around top top producers, i got my first million dollar listing so when that happened, it just showed me that, no matter how new you are no matter how young you are No matter what nationality you are, even if you don't fit in someone is going to give you business. There is business for everyone.

You just have to go after it. So from that moment on that, just my business has never gone down. It has only gone up from the moment. I got this listing.

Okay, i just have i'm looking at brenda right now. I want that moment right there on instagram brenda, my my podcast producers. I see her starting to do this. So that's a profound moment right when you realize, like it's like that moment of self-discovery like hey, i can do whatever i set my mind and intention and my work ethic to do.

Yep, and also that was the first. The only time that i got a that. I got a listing at the first appointment for in that caliber, that's pretty incredible and i'm assuming the property sold and then what happened from there we're asking price with multiple offers. It set a record, isn't that great and so and how did? How did pinecraft and the the general market react to that? How did the other agents reacted it and then what did you do? That was just a stepping stone and i always told myself: i just need one.

I just need to do one, and then people know who i am now, especially in pinecrest. I have clients that are buying or selling in that area. It's opened also just having that listing and having to deal with it for a couple of months showed me a lot. It showed me the because it was an expired listing, so i came in and i suggested staging and that's what they did.

So it showed me also the importance of doing things differently, especially with it when it didn't sell the first time, and it also the most important is that it showed me. I have to bring in something to the table. Yes right, there's over 50 000 realtors in miami. If you work with me, what is going to be different, so i have to make sure that i'm very confident about it.

Yeah, that's another moment i mean so it's so great. Sarah. The question i was going to ask: you is kind of okay, knowing what you know now, if you were talking to somebody that was two or three years in the business and they were struggling, they were just you know like just a hard time getting their feet On the ground and really creating any any type of momentum, you've already dropped a bunch of very good points, but i would ask you this right very pointly. What are the three to five most important things, someone that is struggling to get the momentum and keep it? What do they need to do? You said you said prospecting, you said, create some measurable degrees of separation, but tell me some things are not business related.

You have to get disciplined in your life, yes, well, i think that's the number one thing, and i i remember reading the miracle morning and saying: oh, these people are crazy. Who does that like who wakes up? I'm like i have i'm a single and again the whole victim mentality. Oh i'm, a single mom there's no way i can do this. I started waking up early and doing the same thing every morning and it just sets the tone for your entire day and for your entire life.

So you have to get disciplined about things that bring success, and it's not just me if you read about anyone, who's super successful, there's something that they do every morning. So you have to get disciplined in your life if you're not disciplined in your life, you're not going to have success in the business or you might have success, but it's not going to be consistent and i know it. I've lived it. I've seen other realtors that are not realtors anymore.

I've seen how the people focusing more on the look of their brand instead of their craft and instead of you, know what you do every day to get clients right. So i think discipline is number one yeah so discipline morning, routine discipline prospecting and i love how you said: discipline your craft right because a lot of people you know they they want the fancy photos. They want the great looking video they want, the beautiful brochure, but it's like no, no earning that. Like a, i have a friend of mine who makes knives i'm another friend who makes wine small batch.

They don't do a lot of it, but they do it with so much passion, intensity and discipline that the product is extraordinary right. I mean i'm hearing kind of the same thing, so discipline is number one. What's number two, i would say: uh not just discipline but practice and just learning all the time you need to know the business i remember. Even before i was in coaching, i was watching your videos on youtube all the time i was listening to your podcast.

All the time i was reading the blog every single day, you know even ryan sirhan. He has a lot of really amazing videos on youtube, uh, there's a girl, lloyd velazquez, who, of course, that cold calling. So i would every day you need to you need to get better because you want to out work other realtors. You want to make sure that you know more about the business.

You know how to handle objections and also how to present yourself and how to speak. To sellers, how to speak to buyers, but you can't just learn that, like just by yourself, you need to and we're so lucky that we have all these videos now. It wasn't like that before yeah right, like i, have followed other realtors, i've done open houses for other realtors. You have to learn.

You have to learn every day. It's not just once in a while, you go to summit or you go to yeah marketing edge. Just one time, no ever all the time you need to learn, you need to read. So i think that's the second most important thing just always always looking to educate yourself yeah, and i like how you said it too, because because again, there's 50 000 agents in your marketplace and you're competing all the time.

And we talk a lot about the sea of sameness, we're going to talk about marketing a lot today, but that sea of sameness, where most people, just everybody, just kind of looks and acts the same. What are you going to do to stand out right, so you got to learn. You got to figure out what everybody else is doing. Somebody that's doing something well in montreal or new york city, or you know a person in miami.

You can emulate and borrow r d and then do it your way. So what's number what's number three i would say number three would be to get really on top of it on social media. Okay. So when i started off again, i had no budget.

That's when i started on instagram, because i said okay what's free and where is there a lot of people? So that's a that by the way it's a good strategy. What's free, where all the eyeballs are exactly. You know whether it's even other realtors right, some people say: oh well, there's a bunch of realtors following me. You never know.

I have realtors in my own market who have given me referrals, because i speak french yep yeah, so yeah just getting it right on instagram and facebook. I think those are the top top well now. There's tick tock, of course, but the easiest ones where you can find people easily is are those two platforms and you need to to be on it. Every single day have you seen uh just looking at this company, uh buddy mine introduced an investment triller t-r-i-l-l-e-r yeah.

It's like it's, the usla version of tiktok, we'll see we'll we'll see it could be the next beluga or friendster. Who knows so when you say get all of yes, my team got that reference. That's good um! I was on beluga by the way just heads up and i was on friendster that did not work out. I bet it.

I bet it more aggressively on facebook, so when you say get all over social. What do you say to the person that you know? I mean look, you have a lot of charm, a lot of charisma, a lot of energy. I have said for decades. If you want to give me a person that i can help become the number one age in the world.

Give me a female single mom who has an accent, and i can basically take over the world like that. Like that's it you with me, and i mean i've been saying that literally for 20 years, so you know you you fit that persona. What do you say to the person it's like yeah, but i'm not that i'm not young, i'm not. You know i don't.

I don't have her flavor her energy. Should i be doing social. Everyone has something that works for them. Yeah.

Everyone has this one hobby that they like doing yeah, where they're gon na find people that are gon na like that hobby, yep. Okay, i know realtors that are older and they're, always posting their golf stuff. Guess what they're getting a bunch of clients, because they love golf social media - is somewhere where you can share? Who you are as a person? Yes, and because, at the end of the day, you want to work with people who, like you as a person, not just oh, come listening and then they end up being like the devil on earth, and you guys don't get along. So i think it's so much easier when you work with people that have common interests so whatever it is, and i always tell that.

No matter what age and in no matter what business whatever it is that you like make sure that you're posting about it. Not just real estate, if you like to cook, there's a girl at compass that she's always posting her pies and i'm sure she it made her click with so many people for sure for sure. So just find what you like and share about it. It's yeah.

I think it's easy when, when it's something it's not like forced, if you like to cook, it's not forced that you have to post a meal that you're cooking, you do it all the time right, bingo, bingo and you know the old line. Your vibe attracts your tribe right like what what you're into attracts more people. My my younger brother, who maybe you met patrick, said to me, yeah. I got like a two million dollar listing because i posted a photo of my visla dog and the guy's.

Like you have a vista. I have a visa, that's a very rare dog and you know hey and you're in the real we want to talk to you he's like i got ta come. Let me call for two million dollars because i post photos of my dog. It's the same thing.

It's so true. Well, it's the same with my daughter. I remember my parents, you know my parents are i'm a caribbean haitian, so they're, very um old school when it comes to sharing your children on social media, and you know some family members were panicking. Oh, no, don't show your daughter etc, but because i share her all the time you have no idea how many referrals i get of people that have families that they said they're moving from out of town, and they know that i can help them with schools, because I have a kid bingo or even french.

I did the entire relocation of a french company because of my social media, because i could help them find schools that have french programs do you so i know we're gon na talk about we're. Gon na talk about social and marketing and strategy here, um, but just delving into it for a second, do you do much uh stuff in french, targeted specifically to either people in france or people in in montreal, quebec, etc? Do you do any of that or like? How does that? How does that work? I don't. I don't target french people, because most of my i want i want my videos to be more international and english is a more international language. That's how i operate.

I do some stuff in french sometimes, but what i do is really more of an in-person type of thing. I go to all the french, the french american commerce chamber event. Yes, i pre-culved. I would travel back to montreal at least every three months, and it's not just traveling for fun.

I wouldn't travel there to meet up with the big big realtors, the lenders with people who work in banks in wealth management or even here at my daughter's school. I'm pretty involved, i just i'm more in the community in that community, rather than just targeting them on social media. I love it you're being a part of the community and that's that's a it's a great there's, no right or wrong way. But i love the approach of i'm just gon na be a part of it right just be in there help make a difference.

Make connections win business um. Let's talk about your daughter right, so so you know a lot of people are struggling with or questions. I'm getting more and more of okay, you know i'm a single parent, you know, one of my friends has two kids and he has 100 custody of his children right. So you know how am i going to manage listing appointments? Buyer appointments managing my business, doing my social running around doing things i do teaching them at home right and making dinner and and and and doing, doing, hair and everything else.

So so, how are you managing all that give us give us some sort of tactical advice on what we should do if we want to be better at all of it? Well, the i think the first thing that i want to talk about, since i told you before i'm the type of person. I don't like to ask for help. I have to get out of that mentality. I really had to realize that i cannot be successful in this business.

If i don't have help, thankfully i was able to find other realtors in my market. That's why it's so important to connect with other realtors, the real other realtors. Are your family they're? Not your competition they're, not your enemy. You have no idea what we can do as together.

I have other realtors that are also single moms or have a family. I have realtors that that told me from the beginning. Whatever help you need, you can just drop eva with me, and i've had to use them a couple of times. I've had to hey.

I have this last minute appointment. Would you mind watching her for an hour and those are people that i trust so not being afraid to ask for help and the second thing and that came from my coach, hank uh when i started coaching with him. I remember freaking out like maybe when i started with him. Maybe two years ago i'm like i need an assistant.

I need an assistant he's like no. You need like help with your daughter. You need like a driver, so i had to learn to delegate certain things, especially the mornings uh, with her uh school drop-off, i'm sharing a nanny in the morning. I actually had found another nanny for her for the ballet and tennis things like that, although i love taking her, but it would cut my day in half so realizing that it's okay to ask for help and to get help you're, not a bad parent you're, not A horrible person, if you have someone else, picking your kid up and taking them home to help you out or staying with your kid for a couple of hours, and i can only do that if i do well in the business.

Yes, if i, if i don't, do well, i'm not going to be able to pay them yeah and also i'm delegating things like cleaning. I get a cleaning lady, that comes every two weeks and what that does is that i used to spend all day saturday and sunday cleaning and doing doing the laundry now. I can spend more quality time with her because i'm very busy during the week. So, just not being afraid to delegate and asking for help yeah, i think a lot of people i mean.

There's you know you, you know. If we had a panel of a thousand people here, you could literally get a thousand different opinions about what you just said. Right but being raised by a single mom right as the number two child, the more responsible. If you will no knock on my older brother matthew, i love you buddy um, but i was the one that was like she's like hey.

Listen when you get back from school make sure this happens. This happens. Here's your list get the beanie weenies and the crockpot blah blah blah. Like you know you just she said, hey we're doing.

She would say to us we're just doing the best. We can right. Why why do we always have crappy taco salad on tuesdays she's like because it's just easier for me to just have the same five or six meals like now? I understand what she was going through, so so so trading money for time. That's what i'm hearing! What do you say to the person that says, but i don't have the money and therefore i can't do it like.

What do you say to that person? I was the person with no money that couldn't do it, so i had to find friends and i had to find people around me now. Thankfully i have some family here, but before that i just had to become really good friends with people at her school or her daycare, and we would always help each other out so getting out of. I had to get out of my comfort zone because i'm i'm not the typical mom type, i'm kind of a i don't know how to explain it, but i'm not super the typical mom that has the perfect lunch prepared and the perfect breakfast, and so it was A bit weird for me to start talking to the other moms, but it's something that really made everything so much easier and so much better for me too, because they helped me a lot. I've helped them.

Let's say you know: one of them wants to go back on the job market, that that's happened, a lot and they're like hey. I don't know how to handle this interview and i could help them with that. So it's like we help each other out. So you have to have a village, yes, yeah, not cliche, very true, very real.

My wife's um, at least at least three of my wife's closest friends today and my oldest son, is 21 for context, are all of her original buddies from her mommy and me group from back when the kids were six months old. So so i mean i love hearing that single moms, you know ones that work ones that don't work. It's it's. You know it's the whole pool of experience.

So what about school? What are you gon na do with school this year? I'm not getting political, i'm just saying like this is real all right, so you know when they did um when it started in uh march april yeah. It was rough because you know she's in school and then after school she's in daycare right. So i had to homeschool her in the morning for a couple of months. It was hard, so i was really from nine to one.

I was completely busy with homeschool, so i had to change my whole schedule around and i remember at the beginning of the quarantine or whatnot whatever it's called. I completely stopped the whole morning. Routine thing just like everyone else did, because i had really weird insomnia. Maybe it was the stress of everything and what was going on.

I had trouble sleeping, so i wasn't waking up early and when school started after i think two weeks i said i can't do this anymore because i'm not available anymore from nine to one as much like i'm available on my phone, but not for showings or anything And i have to wake up early again, and that was also the moment where it clicked. I said i had started the process, but that was the moment that i hired my first assistant bingo bingo. So so i love the to be honest because i think a lot of people. You know a lot of you know they covet punched, a lot of people in the face right and i watched a lot of people step more into greatness and i, like i watched a lot of people.

I love and respect that were just like. I can't sleep, i'm totally dealing with all the uncertainty. I've got kids at home, like i went from being an empty nester to all my college, kids moving back home to my house and like so so it created a lot of angst for people. So, in the middle of all this, you hire an assistant.

What was that like? That was insane? Okay, so um? I was already kind of starting to process. I used a wise hire yeah. I had a couple of people, and i you know when you just start and you're not really into it, but then i'm the type of person where i look at the opportunities. So when kovitz started - and i saw that my business was still rolling as usual, even almost better, because i was already doing the virtual tours - i was already facetiming my my clients and showing them properties, and i was already doing that.

So things didn't really change. People were even more upset that you know. Sometimes we couldn't do a showing right. So when i saw hey, my business is still going.

How am i gon na figure this out with my daughter at home? I need help for the admin stuff yeah, i'm a great sales person with admin, i'm horrible zero, not good late, all over the place. No, no sc in your disc profile, a lot of a lot of i a lot of d high, i not yeah! So i'm i said you know a lot of the things that i do in the morning. Sometimes i waste a lot of time with admin stuff, so i hired my first assistant and obviously she couldn't start at the beginning, because i didn't know if offices were going to open. It was a bit weird and then, after about a month of hiring her so early may i was freaking out and i was like: can you start like virtually yes and she started virtually at first part time, because it was a lot of uh learning at first.

You know the systems and whatnot for about two three weeks and then she became full-time. This changed my life. It changed. I think it's changed my career.

It's changed my customer service experience with my clients, because i can be more present when i'm talking to them. I'm not freaking out looking for paperwork or trying to send something through loop, while i'm doing a showing right. So you know during covet. I just look at everything as an opportunity.

I said okay during this time, a lot of realtors are going to fall off because i was seeing it on facebook. Instagram people were full of excuses, complaining the whole time talking politics, just looking at like the worst case scenario, but the way i looked at it, i said: okay, even if there's a war, people are gon na. Look for a hut. Okay, right exactly, i said: we're lucky we're in a business where people are gon na look for a roof over their head.

Yes hold it or not. Yes, so i said okay yeah. So what did you do differently once you have the assistant in place? Oh, my god, so i um it's funny on my big on my vision board. I had a whole.

I have a the wording customer service excellence. You know, i love that. So tell us about that. What did you do so? I even before looking for the assistant, i wrote down a list of my processes.

Right, like okay, i get a referral from a realtor. What do i do next? Do i send them an email to say thank you. Do i send them a handwritten note. I just did all my processes, for when i get a buyer, when i get a seller when i get a tenant, i just wrote all of them down and as i was reading it i'm like wow, it would be really great if i really did that all These amazing ideas, but isn't that, like you know, we've talked about i'm certainly with your coach hank right like it's the.

If this, then that and i think what most people make the mistake and there's a great lesson here for everybody listening is you know what sarah did is she said? Here's all the ifs. If this happens, i should do this. I know i should do this, but we don't because we don't have help exactly or even, if i want to do it, i don't have the time um. It was yes or completely overwhelmed, yeah, right.

Just an example, when i finish a transaction sending out an email asking for a testimonial, sending a thank you or when i get a referral from a realtor just having a templated email to tell them. Thank you and to send them a gift or i'm like it would be great if i did all that so just by writing down my processes, i'm like ooh, that would be awesome, yeah and then with having an assistant. Everything is getting done without me, even realizing. How long is that list now, if this than that, your processes, how many pages five pages - yes, it's ongoing.

It keeps, of course, growing and growing. So it's just for me. I'm about quality, not just quantity. The experience with my clients, i want it to be extraordinary.

I want them to to love me. I want them to write me a testimonial. I want them to refer me to their friends and family and that's not going to be done just by me selling their house and for them getting a lot of money. It has to be a good experience from start to finish, so that was my biggest goal for this year, because last year i was so overwhelmed.

I felt like i kind of fell off because you know in business when things start picking up and going really really well, there's a few things in customer service that are not the same. You know you don't respond as fast or you know. Little things happen where it doesn't make the customer service experience as good as as good as it was when you only had two or three clients right, so i said i want to get back to that, but i can only do that with help yeah. Well, what happens when we get busy client experience, drops marketing and prospect marketing and prospecting drops right, those two things all the time.

So i realized i want to keep prospecting. So what am i going to do with the rest, so i had to get help so so were you able to take that list? Give it to your assistant and say this is what i want done. Every single time when x happens, do y yeah, it's like very, very precise, very specific and again it changes all the time right like i had a template so, for example, just to give an example when, when a client goes under contract, i have an email that I sent them with a big congrats and with a copy of the contract and with all of the dates that are important, letting them know that listen. This is what you need to do next yep and i'm here.

If you need any help, here's my assistant she's going to be with us throughout the entire transaction. I cc the attorney. I see see the lender yep and just that email and also in the email i let them know you're going to get calendar invites. So i can't do i can't live without a calendar exactly so they'll.

They know that they're going to get calendar invites for all of the deadlines and everything just that email. I have had clients, especially when i get a referral from another realtor they'll, go back to the realtor who referred them they're like oh, my god. You referred me to like someone. That's like insane like i've.

Never i have older clients that are like this is like my 15th transaction and i've never had anyone do that or be disorganized, but it was all a matter of like having processes, bingo and then ultimately being able to turn it over to somebody else and letting Them make sure it happens every single day versus you being busy with your daughter, buyers and sellers exactly and those are all things that they're useful but they're not like lead generating type of things right. So just having down your processes and enhancing customer service. That was my goal for this year because i say with if people are happy with the work that you do, this is all you need it's why you know you mentioned the rolls royce of realtors. That's not.

I didn't even have all of that and that's the experience i was giving my clients when i only had three or four yeah, and i want to continue that now. So, let's talk about it, i'm going to go very granular with you. I want to talk about like tell me about your buyer consultation or what are the? What what's the process you have like. We talked about process here, so what is your buyer consultation like for a new buyer? That's coming into miami or an existing person, who's trying to figure out help me decode, the next neighborhood i should be in what are the steps? What's the process you follow, so when i started off, i had more buyers than sellers so that i feel like buyers is really something that i narrowed down and that i know how to how to work very well.

So i have a now. I have a link, a calendly link where people can book me directly for a buyer consultation. So now i added the virtual aspect of it. I have different types of buyers, so there's local buyers and i also deal with a lot of foreign buyers.

So their questions are totally different. If i have a foreign buyer, it's a longer consultation right. So usually, what i do, even if it's a referral i'll, have them book it through the the link, because then they can see what works for them right and then you can book me directly. It goes in my calendar and then once they get that they'll get looking forward to speaking with you, either to zoom or over the phone.

That's what we're doing now, yeah! Sometimes i did it in person, but most even pre-covet. I did a lot of it over the phone or on zoom, because then you can see at work yeah. Yes, it's less time right. You don't have to go to the office or it's just better for everyone.

So i have a very uh. I have a pre-buyer consultation, so the pre-one it's like 15 minutes, just hey. What are you trying to do blah blah? If i see that they're super serious ready to get pre-approved and whatnot, then i schedule another longer consultation. So the first one is like basically warm up, build rapport, connect and then figure out like who they are.

What what are they trying to accomplish? Are they? Are they in research phase or ready phase? Am i am i hearing that kind of yeah just me trying to get to know them right? Yes, you know. Sometimes i have canadians that book me and they're like yeah. I want to get like a waterfront property. Like my budget's 100k, you know they're like a little bit.

You're like okay, the dominican republic, might have something for you, but not right right. So, like i, you know it's just for me to kind of feel them out to see where they are to see. Also, i like to do personality matchmaking when it comes to mortgage lenders. Oh, i love that.

I love that. What do you use? What's your process like?.