That's cool. What you need though. this cameras Oh is it Brandon yeah we need need need is Talent yeah for sure because any anybody can turn the camera on y right? only if you can edit totally and really make it right I know yeah he is he is. but he is a not a videographer.

he is a cinematographer creating film and like he is an artist artist man. But the idea is to be looking at Tom the whole time right? Yeah, we're having a conversation. but then if I say like Jay is there something want to like? say directly to the audience like what has what has been the single biggest mistake you've seen in gifting and then you might go no branded? Listen yeah like like I don't want to cut a set of like I don't want to cut a steak with someone's name on it, my name on it I have one I sold it from Trump's golf course in Ireland True story. Wow.

but I have one and it was just a joke and we were all too drunk. Are we recording? Cut that out? Cut that out Edit: No that's going to be the intro to the show. Yeah, yeah, exactly what. Well at least he stole it from Trump All those people will Pro Trump Yeah, exactly where's my knife right? Exact exact.

we're missing a knife. We're missing a knife. Yes, hey! welcome back to the podcast today. I've got Jay and Jeff coming in from client Giant fellas Happy New yeary New Year That was really good timing on both of your parts right there.

That was happy. New Year Happy New Year I thought we're going to harmonize on that I'll take the third. you take the wow we I got a boy band here in the podcast you probably good I'm man bandn really is this how it's gonna be the whole time? I Love it So fellas. uh I am obsessed with your company I I'm a huge believer as you know, in the law of reciprocity right? and so much of what you guys do is about that, so could you guys take a second just before we get into all the The Nutty You know, like what people should should do and not do when it comes to marketing, gifting.

You know, taking care of your clients staying top of mind. We're going to get into all that and more. If you want more referrals, pay attention to this show. Um, what's the origin story? Like what did you guys do before? How did you start this? Where did the idea come from? Did you R&D it did you create it? Talk to us.

So my background's in real estate I don't know if you even knew that. Um so I was a real estate agent starting in 2011. Things were going well getting referrals I actually opened up um a Remax franchise with my broker at the time and things were going well. Yes, but I did a self audit in 2014 where I kind of went through all of my Zillow reviews the the five star reviews that that I asked for right? Surprise surprise, they're so commendable.

But what was alarming as I was going through all these reviews looking at what people were saying and they're like Jay was great, He was always on time, super knowledgeable, got the home of our dreams and it was going on and on for like 90 reviews and I'm like okay, I'm in trouble if that's what people are saying because anyone can do that, you know So it start okay, hold on, that's a big Insight what do you mean you were in trouble. So I would have to think that in order for my business to be defensible that inside of a five mile radius that no one else can check those boxes. Yeah right. which would be crazy Of course they can and nice is not a degree of separation right you? He wrote an offer that got accepted is not a degree of separation 100% So that was actually kind of eye opening to me because I was thinking how am I going to be in business 10 20 years from now and I'm looking at these reviews and so I started to kind of dissect and break apart the whole process.

What does a customer Journey look like in real estate? It's so vastly different than most. Industries where we've got 30 60, 90 days to make an impression on someone whereas like someone underwriting an insurance policy's got nothing, it's transactional, right? So right. We started looking at I started looking at what are the Peaks what are the pits? What happens in a customer Journey How much money do I make on a transaction and how much would I reinvest to Stoke This person out forever and kind of emulate that same experience of going to your favorite restaurant or favorite hotel and start getting like dieh hard passionate referrals. Yeah, so I just go at it manually drafting up all these ideas.

Okay, well when something goes under contract, send them moving boxes like moving boxes suck to have to go buy get them for them. you know, take care of their affording address, their transfer of utilities. don't wait till closing to send them a gift. Maybe their loan gets approved and you send them a celebratory something like hey, the hard part's over, sit that kind and I implemented so many of these processes along the way for the customer journey and then post transaction.

I Didn't stop. So I would you know most people get paid? They've left the building every quarter. They're getting something whether it's an umbrella or like a barbecue brush or something that just says like hey, your barbecue brush is probably thrashed from last season. Here's a new one.

Enjoy your summer. That's it. Not like from the number one agent in York town. Like none of that crap And what do you know, people responded really well to that.

But why so most people want to tout number one or this or put their name on it. We know other companies that like they put they put you know the agents a logo on everything. Why did you not go that route? So I actually talk about this all the time with the difference between a consumer mindset and a business owner mindset. and people have a business owner mindset.

They can't help it but just tell them people about their business. but everyone who owns a business is in fact a consumer and they would not respond well to those things. So you kind of have to just check yourself and have a little bit of common sense like would I want J O'Brien all over my product or whatever that no you wouldn't all am I gonna rock a Remax umbrella. No, it's never gonna happen.

So why would I do that to someone else I I don't I don't want a Tumi thing on my Tumi bag and it's the only and it's the only brand that I use right? Like So I'm I'm with you on this. Okay, but let's let's back up so you you have this: Insight You had 90 reviews. You're reading your reviews and you realize that every agent in town could do the same exact thing. And then you said what is the client experience Now we know.

Like recently we did some research with Boomtown and others and then we did a huge MLS Deep dive on just transactions a cohort of clients that came in as leads. It took on average 115 days before they closed or excuse me before they went under contract. So5 days from Yes. Jeff We'd like to buy a house 115 days later.

You're saying you were looking at that Journey then the escrow and then post. At first it was just the escrow and then now it's before, during after everything thing. So but yeah, escrow and post. but even before.

So we would work under buyer representation agreements right? So someone comes in, they sign up right when they sign up. they're a client now. So what are you doing to Kickstart That exciting process you know, right? And so for me it always boiled down to the way you make someone feel at the end of the day. like my favorite restaurants.

my favorite everything. It's not really the food that did it right. it's not that thing, the experience, the memor we do. It's not the gift, ever, it's the sentiment and the thoughtfulness behind it.

So if you could just pepper that in every step of the way and show that it goes a long way. but what happened to your business? So I had an army of repeat and referral business come in from all these people. So before I was getting these passive referrals hey oh you I overheard you want to buy real estate you should hire Jay he was great. Oh well.

actually my husband knows a guy. Okay well if it doesn't work out, call Jay that's a passive referral and I was getting lots of those right? But their job is kind of done. Now a passionate referral turns into like no, no, no, you have no idea you're not speaking to this guy. Your husband knows you have no idea what you're in for.

This guy sent us to dinner after our transaction, sent us boxes and they start being this passionate person Advocate The same way we're saying, how have you never seen shash Shank Redemption like you know what I mean like you, there's nothing in it for me. You want that person to experience the thing that way you've not seen that movie of course I have okay insane I was going to say all right shut down the podcast, go to YouTube TV right now we're watching it. This is this is point that that right there that some to experence what You' experience the number one or number two movie right now on every one of the IMB list I mean it's an extraordinary film Yes So what if someone could talk about your real estate business that way? Yeah, right. So that's kind of the idea.

What if people talked about your real estate business that way? that's the question, right? So so you have this Epiphany you you're now sorting, selecting, sending. Well like UPS became your new best friend like they they loved you guys right? Or my assistant became my new best friend. He had an assistant at a TC who was now still she was our number one employee number one. She's still with us today because she did it originally.

This is usually where I step in CU he doesn't want to like tout his own things I did not come from Real Estate I had a technology background I ran tech companies and usually around communicating and you know Connecting People Yeah I Met him because my wife and I are looking for our first house in 2015. Yeah, we go to see a lender. She says do you have an agent I'm like no I'm using red Fin. my wife's like I told them we need an agent right now right? She says I got the guy for you who's going to be your best friend I literally said I don't need a best friend I just apparently need an agent cuz she says so drive across town, go into his office.

he makes me sign a buy a rep which I' never even heard of before he's so passionate about. Look, I'm going to be working for you. You need to do this. I gave him some crap on the agreement I think got me noticed.

um and the next thing you know like this this lender was right. like now here we are nine years later we're you know, best friends and business partners. we just you know I was best man at his wedding but anyway so I got to see what was happening with him so we become close friends. I'm watching him do this so what happens is when he implements this in his business he goes from being kind of a big deal in Orange County to top 30 under 30 with Nar to you know most Innovative agent with Inman to and he starts speaking all over the country, all over the world.

as far as South Africa right? Um and literally all he's doing and I would go and I'd help him put these talks together. All he's telling people is hey guys treat your clients at a whole different level, treat them like it's not a paycheck, like it's not a transaction, like it's a real relationship right? And here's what: I do he give him the Playbook Here's what I do on day one on day seven on day 12 on day 30 and all these people in the crowd are like I'm going to I'm going to write it all down I'm notes how many do you think actually did none none literally none Glen Glenda Baker yeah probably treasure. she was early treasure Davis for sure shout out to Treasure Yeah so he's I forget what what talk it was but he's we've been talking about what should we do like and I said to him hey I've got a team I've been doing technology for 10 years like we can automate this. We can make it so every agent in the country can push a button and this happens and their clients will think it's coming from them.

But really we're doing everything. Yeah so he's like ready to go on stage at some talk and we put together a quick jot form says we got to get some validation. Get people would you do this? Would you pay for this Goes on stage Hey guys, go to this website. Please let us know.

Answer these questions. you'll be on the early you know admission list. Answer these questions. everybody say yes I'd pay for this.

This is what I would pay. They were willing to pay more than we thought we were going to charge. Um and then within two weeks I quit what I was doing and he was stepping out of real estate and launched it man. I Love startups I Love a wild ride It it is.

Okay, so now that was eight or nine years ago, that was 2018. Six years ago. Okay, so not that long ago, straight straight into the pandemic. Congratulations right? That's fun, right? Actually turned out great.

So you guys have built, uh, you know, pretty substantial business. We were chatting sort of off camera that you know, uh, buddy of mine. John Roland read this, you know wrote this great book. You guys think oh I remember that book? Um, but what I love about what you guys do is it's it's more real estate related right? and and and no John I love you if you're watching I love you that it's not about the same set of steak knives and it's not about like their branded face on it.

You know what I mean like none of that kind of stuff. In fact, most of our time is spent helping people get out of their own way with that kind of stuff, right? right? So so let's let's just talk about 2024 like 23. I Imagine you know you had some clients that were freaking out. You probably had some clients that went even harder with their with their customers and others that were like I have uncertainty.

All that aside, for six years, you guys have sat almost like in a laboratory of how do consumers react and to what. Yep, so what I would like. Let's assume that the person listening right now now are watching is never going to hire you guys. They're never going to work with you guys.

so I strongly recommend it. They're never going to do it. But but they do get that it's biblical. It's the law of reciprocity you give to receive and and like.

it's not a transactional thing, it is a relationship based strategy. How do I stay top- of Mind How do I stay as the the agent of choice Like that's the outcome here in a very noisy environment with a lot of really good sophisticated marketers online and offline. like how do you do it? So tell me what are the biggest mistakes agents should avoid when it comes to this gifting strategy. I'm going to start with a mindset one and you take a couple of gift ones because I I came from not real estate.

Yes, but I had consulted for a whole lot of different Industries on relationships the first time I said this to him. he's like a mind explosion. This is the first industry in which I'd ever heard people talk about past clients I know I hate the word past. What are you talking about like you did that to yourself? They're your past client because you forgot about them, right? So people that he worked with at that point for eight years, they were still getting something from him.

every single quarter that was meaningful, not asking for anything. So my number one is not gift specific. but it's that mindset of get rid of the whole idea of past clients. You should never lose one, right? Well, and but here's the thing.

if you call them your past clients, they are in the past and therefore they're out of your peripheral. They're not in your cont. But if these are my clients right then they get invited to four, five, six, eight events a year. I'm taking care of them.

they're like it's and they were going towards this mindset of like the fiduciary like I am your real estate agent. It is my obligation to you to give you an Eity review every six months so you know exactly where you stand and and and yeah, okay but so I love the mindset we are th% aligned. Biggest mistakes John John Ruland gave me beep because I said oh when I moved to Dallas I got every person there a bottle of my uh whiskey and then I did the next year like a wine and then the next year so I clearly didn't listen to him but he was like 40% of the people don't drink so you just gave them a bunch of alcohol I'm like but they all remembered me sure and by the way when I did it my assistant shout out to Ruby forgot to put the card inside there that said from the fairies we're in 39 you know, whatever blah blah blah BL so no one even knew no one even they're like even they're like wait, are you you're the guy that gave me that bottle Myst I didn't actually mess up cuz no one knew it came from me. I I became a legend of the building.

they were like Oh you mean the bourbon guy, the cow Exactly right? So I think there's a couple. So um, our mission statement is if you have the power to make someone's day, you'd be crazy not to say that. Again, if you have the power to make someone's day, you'd be crazy not to. So the whole Crux of that means you cannot start by saying all right.

So I'm going to run a campaign for a year on these people and do this and that. then I'm going to measure my return. and if I got referrals then I'll keep going if you're missing the whole thing. So that sort of selfish mindset.

if it bleeds into the gifts themselves, you better believe their brand is going to be on that gift. Well I really want it to be on the knife because that way when they're in their kitchen, they're going to remember who get okay. When in life is that ever happened Or would you think it's going to happen if someone give you a wedding gift or a birthday gift And it was like had J O'Brien on it I'm like oh, that's so you know where you'd be like what the hell are you talking about right? So how is this any different? So that is I mean that's the cardinal sin right there. there.

no branded gifts, no exceptions and people will tell us. Oh yeah, no I totally hear you. but my name will be on the boxes, right? No, their name isn't not. I mean the moving boxes by the way.

No, your name is not on the moving boxes Yeah, one of the touches during a transaction is to have all the moving boxes in tape and markers just show up right when they start thinking about they're going to move. Just one last thing, right? Beautiful. We've literally had ask people ask if they can put their face on the moving boxes, can put my face a sticker, my brand, my logo, my logo, my logo Jeff my logo. You're like no, that is hands down the number one mistake.

Number two would be timing. So um, we speak with people and they go oh yeah, I already do this. Okay, what do you do? well I send um you know baked goods at the holidays Like okay, that's not doing this. You know everyone's expecting something around the holiday season and now you're in that static and noise and it doesn't really Pierce through and illustrate the same way it would if on February 17th you got something at random because the season's coming up in March or whatever you know, right? the timing is important if during a transaction or around the transaction, the time people are working with somebody.

I Think there's a lot more mistakes that can be made and I talk a lot about. Like the fourth wall in this industry has been broken. people understand the Dynamics of a transaction they watch selling. Sunset They know that you just got your commission, they know the exact percentage it was and you.

it's flashed on the screen. It's flashed on the horrible. So you close that deal and you go to them. You go to the Clos you bring the keys and you bring them your $300 gift card to Lowe Or you literally you just quantifi that human relationship.

So to your point, there's way more Tech that's involved that we can get into. but we're measuring every single touch we know based on What's the timing of it, the messaging that's on it, which by the way is more impactful than the actual gift itself. right? The reason that you're doing it, the um, the gift itself and then packaging, uh, delivery timing. Etc So we now know without a doubt, if you start taking care of somebody before you've gotten anything from them, you haven't made money yet.

Yes, all that's if you could do one thing. Starting to take care of somebody before you've made money from them changes their whole perspective of why you're doing it. That's how I built my business. really doing stuff for free, doing stuff for free, answering questions all day long on Facebook or YouTube or at event like I Most people don't get that.

no and obviously right. You know when you start a business you got to create Revenue you know you're bootstrapping what you're doing. The person watching this right now is be like hey man I have like no escros right now like this sounds like a really great strategy, but like I need to go find a deal? Yeah, so I I understand. So is there a certain point when this makes sense for an agent? Is there a revenue amount that like have you know if I'm making I'm just using numbers I'm making $100,000 a year in commissions and I want to do this I want to go from 100 to 200 to 300 to 500 a million.

Whatever it may be. I could see this as a viable strategy, but if I'm a brand brand new agent I've got like you know, $10 into my bank account. This doesn't seem to make sense to me is is there another way? Is there a Is there a free way? Is there a you know, like I would just answer questions. be of value? be nice to people.

You know what I mean There's a lot of ways. Absolutely there's a free way of doing this. if you have no clients and you're brand new in the business and you're farming a neighborhood. What if you just took out people's garbage cans every single day or every single Thursday or whatever once a week and then back in for your farm and you ask for nothing.

People will remember who you were, but if you said like, by the way, I'm never too busy for your referrals, probably not going to happen right? right? So um, that yeah? I I Think that's you can absolutely do that for free. And as far as reinvesting, when is the right time, everyone's different the way I did this when I was selling real estate 10 years ago. property values were not what they are today, right? So if I earned $8,000 on a deal, that was a good deal, right? and I would drop 800 bucks easy on that person, 10% easy on that person. and what I'm thinking is okay I get to keep 90 they're taking 10.

They're never going to use anyone else ever again and they're going to tell anyone who will listen. Is that worthwhile investment? Yes, now you I mean it costs a fraction of that for someone who wants to do this. But one of the touches I would do. Which actually leads me to the third mistake.

third mistake being gift cards. What I would do is post transaction, 30 days post close. my assistant would call my client uh I'm sorry. my assistant would call the restaurant that I contracted out to the restaurant would call the client, congratulate them on the purchase or sale of the home and say Jay wants to send you and your husband, you and your wife, you and whoever dinner for two on him to celebrate and roundtrip.

uh Transportation will be provided so they would take the reservation right there on the phone. it'd get communicated back to the assistant and then they'd get picked up. They get whined and DED they'd never see a bill right? Amazing right? So they're taking photos Instagram whatever and people would couldn't help but ask like oh, what do you mean like they're not seeing a bill like what happens if like this person orders a $500 bottle of wine or whatever you know and I would say well then that person's a dick. but like I'm but I'm but D But I'm not going to dilute the experience by saying here's a $200 gift card to a $500 restaurant Don't get any appetizers.

Have fun right? Exactly I'll cover your tip right right? We do country Are you delivering the experience or Are you delivering a gift card interrupting my own show with a quick little announcement: If you're like me and you recognize this is the time of the year when we've got to make decisions, We got to look back at what's worked in the past and decide what we want to have happen in 20124, then yes, it is time for you to get your plan together. Now if you're one of my coaching clients, you know you just go inside a loom. You download the 2024 plan. You and your coach work on that together.

If you're not one of my clients, go to Tomferry.com There's be a link below. Download and copy the plan, get to work on it, Use chat GPT and other resources to answer the tough questions about the strategies you need to implement to ensure your success in 2024. So Tomferry.com get your business plan and let's get to work now. let's go back to the show.

Okay I'm gonna I'm going to say something controversial that I want to come back to I Want I want us to brainstorm under five free things like the trash can as an example and I got a couple inside my head that for everybody, they should be doing as well. but I'm going to make a statement and someone's going to get upset at me. No I Hate personal notes cards I hate them I think they're stupid I think they are archaic uh I have sent people personal note cards and no one has ever written me a personal note card back. Oh you with me like I I get personal note cards I'm sorry if you sent me a personal note card like I I just I literally go like this I go huh? and I rip it in half and typically what I would do is I'd go hey Jay thanks for that not card man.

Uh, don't ever send me one again. just send me a text Bro or let's play golf like I I don't know what people are obsessed with with I mean I I get it in 1902. It probably made sense. Yeah, do you know what I mean like God bless like Johnny Rockefeller for writing letters to his son.

If you guys haven't read that book, you should read that book like I Love that. But in 2024, well can I take a devil's advocate please? What's your most? I'm not saying I'm not saying I'm right I'm just saying I hate them. What for you? Yeah, what's your most valuable resource? time? So somebody takes that you know 3 minutes, 5 minutes to sit down and write that. The feeling that I get from you send that is totally than you sending a text message.

Yeah. So I think you know a lot of people that hits home for me I still hate him. Send them all to Jeff Send them all to me. Yes, send.

Jeff Jeff's home address is every time you GNA send me a note, send it to Jeff You just need a handwriting machine you know I almost bought a handwriting machine company and I passed on that recently and I think that was. You know that that's a really interesting marketing strategy and I and I like it. but I think the average consumer that is paying attention is like yeah, that wasn't written by you. You know what I mean so it's kind of.

you know, but it's cool. Um, and big shout out to a lot of those companies I actually invest in one that that went under All right. So maybe I'm a little tainted five different ways. Things that I can do for free.

So you say I'm gonna take a 200 home farm and I'm gonna take out their trash right? I would say I'm gonna do like some kind of charitable drive I'm gonna do a book drive in the community. Uh I love one of our clients. maybe a client of yours as well Dave Roblas A big shout out to Dave Dave is just a he is a marketer's marketer right? Giant heart, very thoughtful, very creative. So he goes into his Geographic form like call it 2500 homes and he says I'm going to provide a $1,000 scholarship every year for one kid here in our community.

But what I need you to do is I need you to submit annually a letter of what you loved about growing up in this neighborhood. Now could you imagine now 10 years later, the stories he has documented from the children in that community and he so he's telling me the story one time and I'm like Dave that is such a cool idea because it's like you are the mayor of that town. $1,000 is nothing in today's day and age when it comes to college you with me. It's not even books right for a semester, but it's thoughtful.

it's It's relatively inexpensive, but you know what came out of it. The best story was he said so I'm on this listing presentation. it's a three $3.3 million deal and and the gal calls me and says hey I want you to come talk about the sale of the home and so great. Okay, cool, he comes over, they're they're in Rapport they're going through the marketing She goes I have to stop you really fast Um, you didn't select my daughter and he goes, is that why I'm here right? He's like uh yeah, he's like, you know it's it's a it's a group of us like whatever he said right? And then the long story short goes.

But the fact that you do that for the community was so meaningful to me. Yeah, so whether it's taking out the trash, or you know, a book drive or something like that, what else? What else should people be doing for free for their besties or maybe even for their prospects in this case, like a geographic Farm Yeah, I mean Community is huge and some of the things that we do if we get to the point of doing things right with gifts. If you can do something that actually helps somebody celebrate or experience something with their family, yeah, it can be multiplier in terms of impact. So the same thing for our community.

So I'm thinking in our community, we've got an agent that sets up a golf cart parade at Christmas time, right? He just puts the whole thing together I Don't think it costs him anything. Maybe there's some pastries or something there, but he gets everybody together and they tour the neighborhood for a couple hours and everybody absolutely loves it. Yeah, so we're talking about two different things. One is, what can you do for free to prospect for business right? whereas what we do is go deeper with appreciation to get the rep referral business.

So so those are all great free prospecting things free go deeper rather than wider kind of approaches. One of the things I used to do um, as a real estate agent was let's say Mother's Day is coming up Yeah, you'd get a call days before and say hey Tom Mother's Day is coming up on Sunday you wants to take any care of anything for Kathy right? So now we're going to take something off of your plate cuz I'm an A of Service guy I Love that right? And we do the same thing for anniversaries so we wouldn't call and say happy anniversary my anniversary is on the 30th her birthday's on that? No, yeah and this is the thing that we would need to know, right? So we we wouldn't call and say happy anniversary we would call a week before. I' be like hey, Ken you know your anniversary is in a week right? like oh, it's in a week Okay, what can we do to help you that's free? Okay, so I want to back up and I I don't know if you guys listen to my podcast when I interviewed one of our clients Lisa Munoz so Lisa's in Austin Texas and this gal is so sharp I'm so like I knew when I first met her you she's selling you know, 100 plus homes a year. She's just crushing it like you know, two decades in the business.

She said three three unique things on the podcast. The first one was every client we start to work with. There's an intake form and we learn everything and I was shocked how many people when they heard that on the podcast. Big shout out to Lisa they were like intake form.

What's what's on the intake form she's like. well I need to know, especially if you're moving to her Town What kind of food do you like? What's important to you with this: How active are you? What are the things you're interested in? She's like because I'm going to take care of you and make sure you get connected to every So is part of your process. To start having agents do that that's actually built into the our system is a client intake form. Um, we do it a little differently.

Um, we want to make sure that it's not a checklist of okay. Tom and your birthday, your birthday. Yeah, okay. and then all of a sudden you're like, oh, what a surprise I got something on my birthday, right? it? It has to be a little bit more of this interest layer that's kind of crawling, asking you questions here and there that you want to answer.

So not what's your favorite color, but like hey, if you had to live in another country for two years, where would it be and it has to be a place you've never been before, right? And you're like that's interesting, you know, So things like that that are a little more thought-provoking and then that will all tie back into what that touch is that's getting delivered to them at that time. So do you think so? Are you saying that it's wrong to do an intake form like that? Like not like hate? It's okay. One of the things that I hate more than anything is walking into my doctor Who I've been going to for 20 years and feeling it the same damn form every single. you know what I'm talking about like am I crazy like I want to know in the comments if you think I'm crazy or if you enjoy filling out the same form on a person you've been going to for 20 years like I'm like dude, you're my friend.

we played golf together, you did my hip surgery like why am I feeling at this form again? You know everything there is to know about right? But but I understand the first time I go in I'm I'm cool with like okay, they need to know you know what's my medical history, what's going on So I I don't know like I how do you over time collect it all in an elegant way versus just hey you know I Really would love to know everything about you and your family coming in. so I can serve all your greatest needs? Could you take like five minutes to just fill this? Google Doc: There's two Avenues One is a brand new client which would be like that the initial intake and then one is for someone today who's like oh my god I've been in the business five years I can't start asking them questions now? well you can which is kind what I was describing and really I don't think there's a a right way, wrong way is just be tasteful. You know, don't don't be cheap and like be subtle like be you know thoughtful what you're trying to do. Yeah yeah.

I think you have to be really good at two things in terms of taking care of people with gifts or to be impactful. You have to know what is going to generally work for most people and be impactful with timing and messaging, right? But then you have to know how to play off people's interests and passions to be really impactful when you have the information. So for our system, we intake information from these forms. They don't feel like forms, right? it's it's it would be like asking you what's your bucket list concert Yeah? what is Your Bucket List Concert: Somebody that's living Me: yeah I Don't know if I have gone to a lot of concerts I was thinking rage against Machine but I saw him in like 93.

we were talking about it earlier. um oh did you say descendant if I could see The Descendants again like that would I may I saw them a long time ago. yeah so kn like that which like that's a thought provoking. but I would like want to actually brand thank you for pip I would actually want to hang out with him backstage and just like chop it up you know what I mean like I probably could go out there and sing at least 50 of their songs.

Yeah Yes! so like a normal questionnaire, a normal question someone ask is what's your favorite group or artist but an off putting question that makes you actually think is what's your bucket list concert right So we have that information. We don't do anything with it immediately, but three years from now when you want something we do something you don't remember, you answer that question especially when it was done an interesting way. It's like and then it hits you and then the the general is you know if you don't know something about somebody you you got to be able to do something that you know will hit the mark with most people and not offend most people. Etc But we also have a spy team.

they're not technically called that but like the recipient research team for sure. so there's a lot of information that's public available right? So so any agent that says if they're doing it themselves that says I don't know anything about these people I Mean we once had somebody with a a client that was 87 years old had no social media presence but all the person knew was that every time he came into their office he was wearing a US Navy veterans hat Y and our team did the research, found out when he you know, when he served, where he served and he was he was. He went up to the rank of like Lieutenant Colonel or something and we made him this mahogany box with a seal on top that had the inscription inside of the date that he was made. That lost his mind right? Free thing that people can do though.

they can just be paying attention on social media you know? Oh my client just said feeling sick, sad face. send cold medication to their house and it'll be there in two hours minutes. What real estate agent doing that? It's so funny. like uh, shout out to Budge Husky I actually told this story with John too Like so I wanted this relationship and at the time uh, Budge was the CEO of all of Co Banker globally and you know we had met throughout the years.

but I was like man I'd like to do more I got all these Co Banker clients. It'd be fun to have a relationship with the CEO So I'm on Twitter and I'm just like watching him talk about music and his record collection. He has like six or seven thousand records at the time, right? So he's talking about this band and this it's the CEO of this giant you know conglomerate you know Co banker and I'm like he's a big music buff so like slowly over time I was like Top Five records. okay, top Five records from the 60s.

What about the 70s about? That's it and no, you know what? I did I called one of my buddies who's an artist I bought his nine favorite records and had them all put you know, three, three and three in a giant frame and sent it to the coal Banker headquarters which was a mistake. I should have got his home address but I couldn't get it so I sent it to the and like he opens it up and he's like like a a week later he's like Fair how can we do more business together So so there is a and you didn't ask I didn't I just I just well. okay I want to be very clear I was intentional Sure right. I was like how do how do I do something that's different and not just call the guy and go f all your agents and you know I mean because like he's getting that phone call every single day.

Yeah, but you know, budge if you're watching I love you. We should do more, but that is the law of human reciprocity. If somebody knows that there's something that they could do for you and you do something that moves them they you clearly spend a lot of time and energy on it's they're just naturally going to reciprocate. But if you in that letter had said hey, would really love to talk about business with you right when you sent those things, it it doesn't hit the same.

No, even though he may know that is potentially you know your intention that's of course of course. So so how do you make random acts of kindness not feel like repetitive? And you know what I mean like I'm looking for the right word like you want them to feel random like oh I was saying much like I'm A Gift Giver like I do that kind of stuff or I'll send videos or I'll say oh my God I Just read this article and it totally reminded me of you. Jeff You got to check this out like like I do a lot of that kind of stuff. How do you? How do you make it not actually, how do you make it just feel random? Yeah, I mean just make it random I guess I mean it's not like our gifts go out like the first of the month every three months or something.

You know it's it's sporadic and usually it's tied to some sort of topical event or something that's coming up and that, so the timing matters. Um, but having a system around it's probably important. Otherwise, your assistant are going to have to remember to do stuff all the time and at different times. Maybe? Yeah.

So why do you think most agents like not the person that's listening right now? Like why do you think most people resist this as a strategy you know? or or worse, they just do the same beep over and over and over and over and over and over with no thoughtfulness. There's kind of two people that would start with us. one is the one who goes I Got this. This is a dollars and cents thing.

This is going to make me a ton of money people. M I Just want make people feel but fast forward 6 months. They're both going to live in both camps, you know? So yeah, I think that honestly we don't really hear much resistance. it's it's very rare that we we talk to someone.

they go. this is a bad idea. I Don't like this. It's usually like more a concern around.

like well I'm already living paycheck to paycheck and like is this going to come back around and I'm you know I want to do it but I'm going to get a return on this. That's the wrong. That's the wrong mindset. I'm I'm going to give it like an outside real estate perspective.

Um, and I generally only talk to people once they have like a sizable business. otherwise they're talking to someone in our sales department specifically. But um I Generally find that there's two types of people in this business. There's people that treat it like a business they're actually not viewing even though it's them, even though it is them as a human.

it's actually a business and they treat it that way. And it actually is an investment they're going to make. And then you There are other people that it's It's just so personal that they don't even see the idea of investing. Like to your point when when there's kind of like a downturn or there's a little sluggish time and people will sort of say well, I'm not so sure you know we I kind of say to them like what? What's the plan there then is the plan to completely forget about the the clients that you have your past, your past clients.

Are we going to not keep reaching out to these people? Are we going to let them all kind of go away because they're still going to be alive right through all of these Market shifts right? 100% Um, so yeah, it's It's kind of treating it like a business and saying I've got to invest in this and but I Also think that people with past clients when they think of them as past clients, they think of that the opportunity with that client solely in another deal. Yeah, because they'll say well, it's going to be seven years before they get another deal with them. They're not even thinking of the fact that that one person can turn into 10 deals we've seen, right? We learned about it actually from your show. Somebody came on here a long time ago.

Tim Smith was it Tim yeah it was Timmy in Orange County We talked about like he he it down to like wow these like 25 clients have sent me each like 15 transactions over the last like four or five years. I'm like spend more time with them. You know real good coaching there right? Spend more time with them. There was somebody who was a client giant member.

that said, in one quarter they had nine. Cummings Is it Greg Cummings Greg Cummings Greg Cummings They had nine referrals from a single quarter of client Giant and like seven of them closed. Yeah, so but but I find most not most most agents that are resistant. They're really not thinking about that kind of multiplier of what could happen.

Yeah, so clearly this is for an experienced agent who's committed. It's not. It's not for the hobbyist, it's not for you. Know someone's passing through this industry trying to figure out what they're going to do next.

but you know, if you're in it to win it long term, then it makes a ton of sense. All right, let's not talk about that. I Want to talk about the company now? So uh, what's your role CEO Chief Day maker? Actually yes, Day Maker? All right. what's your Chief strategy officer? Okay, so so what is the hardest part about starting a business in the last six years? What is the biggest, hardest challenging thing you guys have dealt with I know what mine is? Um the starting of the business actually wasn't the hard part.

That part was starting is fun. Yeah, that exactly starting is fun. We wrote a wave, we were in all 50 states in Canada like five months and then we were like well what? Now the the hard part I think was for me. my personality is go go go let's just get it done like I I don't want to wait I'm not the person who's going to sit down and plan out a strategy for a month.

I'm going to say let's just do it. Let's do this. Let's go. That's what he calls me in my wedding literally I call and that's how I work so that that actually worked out well and served as well.

but then I guess the mistake is at a certain point you're like, oh, we didn't put these systems in place. We didn't build this Foundation right? Whatever. And going back and having to redo it is painful. Yes, so that would be mind advice to the next person.

Yeah, I mean you, You do things that can't scale in the beginning and then certain point. You find out that oh hey, this can't scale Now we got to kind of take six step backward and there's a middle ground there. Think we talk a lot about this. This concept called Mastery and Mastery is like deals and dollars just keep to flow whether you're there or not.

right? The business has a life of its own. People are doing it. Everybody's charged right. But one is like declare it.

Two is like run a 90-day cycle, Three is get into momentum. Oh, it's working. This is great. Step four is stabilization and I think where most people struggle is, you have a breakthrough in your business.

And if you don't restabilize, you fall back to whatever systems and structure you already had in place. So when you were saying that I'm like I'm I'm 21 years into this business and I can tell you that I think I've done that like seven times. Yeah, literally I was like so so that one isn't gonna end right away in case Just or maybe I'm just a dumbass that that also could be the case. You let me know in the comments.

Um, but you know what I mean because I think we're always building restabilizing. Building Restabilizing. Building restabilizing. Yeah.

and I'm in the middle of it right now like I hate our CRM we're switch. You know what I mean like we're redoing the website for the 19th time. You know what I mean like it just feels like it's constant. Yeah, well, and the Dynamics of running a business in the small stages.

It changes so much when you've got just two people and then we hired one and then when you have like 10 people, it's a whole different ball wax but you're still very much in it. Yeah, and then you know at a certain point, maybe 15 20 people I Think we start to feel like okay, hey, we can kind of operate up here a little bit and trust that the operations are going to take care of themselves or stabilize. Like you said, yeah And then you realize pretty quickly. oh, we got to go back in there in the dirt and get back in here.

And there kind of been a lot of ebbing and flowing of of that as we've grown. Yeah, yeah. I Think we have a tendency to, um, like we hire the right people. or at least we always intend to hire the right people and then we tell them exactly the play we want to run.

But like most people want to do it their way. Have you guys experienced that like, like sort of the joke between the presidents and the company of mine are like, we all kind of say the same. This would be really easy if there's no people involved. Oh I know, you know what I mean like it'd be so easy right? Brandon It so easy if there was no people but people add complexity.

people had drama or they add hey I'm on my own mission I'm on my own path and I think the game for us as as like Founders is trying to figure out like how does them doing the work the widget that needs to be turned over and over again help fulfill what they want? yeah and then hey, innovate and make it better if you can otherwise just run that play. You know what I mean like 100% agree but it takes time right? because when you're an early stage founder I remember me I'm like I know how to do everything Yeah, you know what I mean I did it all my dad's company I was the shipping and receiving guy all the way to the Pres I know everything that needs to be done and then you try and freak out like a control freak. Do you guys ever do any of that stuff Yeah I mean I think you feel good about saying yeah I think you feel good about saying like I'm not asking anybody to do something that we didn't already do ourselves right. We've done every single role.

They're different now they're you know? But yeah, you've done it all. You know how you want it done. You also know if you know it's not being done that way. So yeah, I think my mistake, there is actually a little more of the opposite where you Empower someone so much too soon and then you take your eye off the ball a little bit and when you come back you're like whoa whoa whoa how did I let this get so off track? Aomy Aomy to's you get sucked right into the business and you you you've got nowhere to go.

You're right here. you know? Yes, Yes Yes yes um I got like 50 more questions if I got to be mindful of time. So I'm G ask you guys just one last question. what is your most important goal for this year? We're doing this whole okr thing.

We got 10 important goals seven. This is good. So you're you're implementing an operating system into your business? Yes, which we never have before. I Mean we've done it every single year.

We'll talk about certain goals and they'll be disseminated to kind of certain people where we think that they matter, which is normally sales and marketing. Um, but this is the first time that we're actually going across the entire organization and building objectives and you know for every single one of those. So all my listeners have know have said hey, read measure what matters Lrs read for disciplines of execution or read traction I don't care which one you do, they're all the same. yeah they just name it something different but the the methodology is very similar.

so what's yours? Yeah so I mean we have five but I'd say one of the most important ones To me we call it building the Westwing Team So I don't know if you ever saw that TV show. but B having a crew of people that you can depend on that are super super reliable where you can say hey, I need this done and you don't have to follow up it's going to get done and you know we live and die by our project management software and like daily So completion rates on all that stuff and just having everything so tight and right where you know it's almost like militant where you can trust that this person can be trusted with your life kind of thing. That would be my biggest goal if we're talking a year from now is that we have that team or we have 95% of that team. Whatever it is.

Yeah, love it. So for you, my friend, listening or watching I want to know what is your most important goal for this year? put it in the comments. Let me know I want to support you in achieving that I Almost asked you guys what's your favorite SpongeBob episode but I'll save that for the next year. All right and that is a wrap.

Thanks so much for watching you're listening. We'll see you on the next one. Take care. Hey if you like this content, make sure you like And Subscribe to the Tom fairy Channel.