Hey welcome back to confidence and conversion. We want to help you be more confident make more sales and there is no doubt as you're. Listening to this. This is one of the more challenging marketplaces we've been in since 2009, so to help us get there.

I got my man dan from hilton head south carolina dan welcome to the show, hey tom how's. It going super good man, hey buddy, so so people have some context. How long you been selling houses now. So i got my license about 20 years ago and i've sold for probably 18 of the 20 years and have been stepped out of production a couple years ago.

Take that big leap of faith that yeah you describe yeah, it's been great so so last year you guys had a pretty remarkable year, looking at the stats 416 transactions so for the person listening, uh 36 agents - 16 support staff, 355 million dollars in volume about 10 Million dollars in gci most would argue. You got a team ridge, a monster team doing a lot of transactions, but we want to get into the confidence and conversion side. So just give us some context. When i say to you, i believe we're in one of the more challenging marketplaces that we've been in since 20.

You know 2009. What are your thoughts on that? Well for sure, there's in every market there's a challenge right if you're a buyer. This is a challenging market uh. If you were a seller a couple years ago, it was a challenging market.

So it's all you know your optics of of the environment, and you know all we can do is serve tom yeah, and so we just serve clients uh. We serve them the best that we possibly can uh. I don't know about you, but i don't. I don't influence the local real estate market.

In that sense, the market is what it is yeah and all we can do is adapt to it. 100. How long have you had a team or a team ridge now at this level, um for since 2008, um but refined it my dad retired in the end of 2017, and we kind of refined things in 2018 um and got real serious about our structure? And that's about the time i think i thought about getting out of production um to help uh to help more people. You know to help my tribe right right, interesting, so many of the people dan that we you know the flock that we run with uh.

The number of you that have taken on that same mindset like okay - i figured this out now. How can i share this with others? How can i help my agents be the best that they can be um? I know it isn't part of the show, but you brought it up when you're, making that leap of faith when you're going from uh producing rockstar to now, i'm gon na spend all my time serving my agents to help them be more productive. That had to be a little scary at times for sure for sure i remember when i told my wife she looked at me like what are you nuts? He crazy? I was the you know my sales. I was the cash cow right, but you know another thing, that's funny is for the longest time i would just tell people all i wanted to do was sell.

I didn't want to manage people yeah, and you know i i don't know. I don't know why uh why it's turned out this way, but i love my life now yeah, i love helping agents, discover their power, yeah um. When did it clear? No, it makes my heart sing. Yeah i get it when when did it click at what point you started, i mean you've been doing this for a long time, but you were selling then in 2018 you took the leap of faith.

When did it start to really click like hey? This is working. You know i still don't feel like i'm there. I feel like there's so much room for improvement, and that's probably what makes my heart sing yeah is that i get up every day. You know three years ago, four years ago, when i was in production, i felt like everything i was doing.

I had done before yes and - and my life now is every day, is a challenge to grow and to help those around me grow. But i'd say you know: two years ago, two years ago, coming out of covid, there was a lot of uncertainty and i think i did a good job stepping into my leadership role at that point, rallying the troops and we continue to work throughout the pandemic, albeit From home, but we still made our calls, we still had our operational meetings, we still ran a business, we never took our foot off the gas and i thank you for that. You know you were you were describing that that's the type of business we should be running at that point. That's right! You talk to us as leaders yeah and you and you two did it well youtube.

Did it well? So so, let's focus on the listener. Right now who is trying to figure out, how do i become more confident? How do i win more business in these uncertain times, so maybe share with us. What are some of the the training tactics, the piece of advice, the strong recommendations you have today for agents that want to get their offers accepted? Make connections you know want the listing agent on these on the other side, turn them into your advocate by just starting by being nice, asking questions being inquisitive. What's your seller looking for and and you know using that connection to your advantage, yeah.

So what do you see? Second, is right: yeah go ahead! Second, is writing good offers? Now i can't see. I can't tell you how many offers i see that come in on our listings that it's a you know: a million five property with five thousand dollars. Earnest money like you, know, wow one with some earnest money right yeah. So so what else do you find uh causes an offer to stand out today? Well, i think i think a lot has to do with the listing agent when they're presenting 10 offers to their client um.

You know they'll kind of hold their hand on maybe the one that is the one that they'd like them to accept. So, knowing that the agent on the other side knows what they're doing um that they, you know work with real clients that are going to close on the transaction that there's good earnest money, the other terms are strong and then again i love having the conversation before. I write the offer you know they don't have to answer the question. I can't tell you how many negotiations i've won by saying.

Tell me what this offer needs to be for us to get the house yeah. I mean there's the question right like give it to us again. Tell me what our offer needs to be for us to get the house yeah, yeah and - and i think the listing agent can answer that and still represent their listing client well right. So what about? On the list side, you know with 36 people on your team, you guys are taking a lot of listings as well um.

You know listings. A lot of people argue today that you know the easiest way to get a listing today is just raise the price and lower your fee. What say you? Oh, no, we don't lower our fee, we we earn our fee and that's part of the whole problem. I think in our industry is it's a race to the bottom and the bottom is zero, so we focus on service um.

We focus on our skills and we focus on adding value so give us a drop. Our fees yeah give us an example like how do you demonstrate value to a seller today in a marketplace? Stand where you know a lot of people just think: look you're going to put this in the mls and it's going to sell no matter, no matter what i've got a fantastic house so give us some examples of demonstrated value. Well, i mean we push prices. So one of the things that we've kind of been scratching our head with and taking advantage of recently is when we talk to a seller.

They all know that the market is good, but when we give them our assessment of the number, they don't realize how good it is. So we've been on many appointments lately where they say you know. I don't think i want to sell, but we'll talk to you, but when they get the number they're like oh yeah, i'm a seller yeah. So i think i think that's.

The first thing is a very high quality cma and we have. We have potential listings say that to us all the time we've met with three people nobody's gone, to the extent that you have to derive the value for our property, so so for the person that's listening, uh listening only give it like unpack that for us like What does that mean like a high quality cma? What are some of the components of that? It's an appraisal. We do our version of an appraisal and it's it's very, very detailed. It's not just comps and price per square foot, because then you have a problem with lot value and those types of things which you know we're on an island, the closer you get to the water, the higher the lot value.

So we really go in deep um into the cma and do an appraisal for the person. That is not an analytical. We just give them a piece of paper and they, you know their reaction is wow they've done their homework. I don't know what all this means, but they've done their homework.

They put a lot of work in here and the analytical they just eat it up, yeah, so so you're actually leading me right into one of the questions i wanted to talk to you about which is um. Looking at just some of the questions, i had sent you in advance and just in our conversations one of the questions i asked was like: what do you wish you knew earlier on in your sales career, and you said disc and specifically understanding personality profiles, and you Were just kind of flirting with it there so so share with the listeners? How are you helping your team use personality profiles to be more influential? Well, i mean we, we talk about the different. You know types of you know. If we're talking about the buyer side, we talked about the different types of buyers and what what signs indications they have.

They could have on what type of profile they are, and we just we help them, learn how to talk to those people in a language that makes sense to them. Yes, is that hard to teach um? It is for me, because i you know, i'm i'm still. Learning it you know, i i uh i'm i just uh, i'm gon na be 51 next week and uh. I tell folks that you know there's a stage in development as a toddler that uh that you learn that the whole world doesn't see the world the way that you see it, that other people have different perceptions.

I learned that when i was 48 thanks to my coach. Yes, yes was that debbie holloway that helped you with that one early on or was that? No, it's andy! Okay and andy love. It shout out to andy all right, so so as you're learning something and then you're teaching it. Sometimes that can create some uncertainty.

So how do how do you create certainty as you're helping everybody else develop these skills alongside you, like all good leaders should do when you have a weakness you hire to that. So we have a full-time trainer that that basically develops a training program and works with our agents to learn all aspects of the real estate business, including understanding disk personalities, beautiful so give us a typical week in your office. What are some of the trainings that i would attend if i was there well, there's the whole onboarding process and that's significant. We have morning huddles where we go through different aspects of what's going on in the market with help with that, and then we have workshops.

We have workshops, we have um every wednesday. We have morning call where we go through different scenarios and we really let the agents drive that based on kind of the pushback that they're seeing in the market, and then we, you know, we role play off of that. What they tell us they need. This is the time where the very best separate themselves from the rest and drive their business to the next level.

This is exactly what we teach at blueprint. It is the playbook for top agents for people like yourself that are looking to elevate themselves out of this market and take control. It's gon na be myself and a bunch of top coaches and a bunch of top clients revealing their best practices. So you can plug and play and grow your business.

So if you're on my podcast just go to tomferry.com blueprint and enter the promo code blueprint15 to get 15 off your ticket price, i can't wait to see you there. Do you find that role playing is easy for people or some people? It depends on their personality type. Some people just jump right in and like you're like okay, let somebody else have a turn yeah so, but you know we're all we're all in the people business. So what do you do with that person that's uncomfortable, presenting or uncomfortable, maybe presenting in front of their peers? I i think that that's just creating in a safe environment and and if there's one thing that i think we've done really really well, it's creating that safe environment where everybody uh can be vulnerable.

Let their guard down and be themselves so that they can. We can learn from each other, you know have one-on-one, training sessions is great, but when you create an environment where you know, everybody is rowing the boat together and helping each other, that's where the magic is and and to me. That is the thing that happened uh by grace or by luck. Uh.

It happened on our team that i'm i'm most proud of. With regard to our team, yeah sounds you know you and i have had these conversations, but maybe you can share a little insight. Brene brown yeah, so um, you know brene brown um. I want to meet her one day, she's just she.

She just spoke to my heart. So, a few years ago i read the book of positive dog, the positive dog by john gordon, and that book really got me thinking about life and the choice of happiness and becoming more grateful. And so just as i kind of stepped in, i was at a conference and bernay brown spoke about vulnerability right and i'm i'm a high d um i've always looked at the vulnerable person as the weak person. The person that can be taken advantage of and brene spoke differently about that, and she said the person, that's vulnerable is really the person that has the superpower, because if you can make yourself vulnerable and open to be stepped on, trampled on.

Taking advantage of you know, however, you look at that um and you're. Okay with that you're. Okay, with you know, kind of opening your heart up to that that the the world, the universe, really respects that, and i have ever since i heard brene brown talk. I've tried to be a more vulnerable leader, more vulnerable, dad husband and uh, and has served me well so that she's a genius as far as i can see.

So maybe it's something that everybody else already knew. But i didn't yeah, but you said, stepped on, beat up and all these other things as you relate to vulnerability. Is there? Is there an other side of vulnerability? Well, yeah, there's having your guard up, you know and not being not being open to. You know again being vulnerable is not that that that you remove the risk, it's that you're open to the risk, you're you're open to failure, you're open to scrutiny.

But you know your heart and gratitude is in the right place where you can accept that, as is something that you can learn from and be better from, and i don't know it's it changed. My life being more vulnerable, excruciatingly vulnerable at times is really improved. My life, how how has it improved my life? It has allowed me to connect with people at a level. That is probably the reason why i now love leading and helping other people.

As much as i do yeah i mean i, i get it as a fellow d or you know when i look at like the the insights. You know my red that shows up that just says, be bright, be brief, be bright and be gone as quickly as possible, but that doesn't work so well in a leadership role. No it you can come across as kind of a uncaring person right right, um and, and you know it's not - that you don't care it's it's it's just. You know a lot of times.

You have a lot going on, but you know being vulnerable to people is about saying like i do care, and i am here for you and oh you know when when needed. Like you know, you need to step it up. You know it's a when: when people see you be vulnerable, they can tend to take suggestion. Criticism help all of those things differently because they see the whole.

You do, you think, there's an element of uh vulnerability and confidence that can be applied effectively in a presentation. Well sure i mean certainly you know, vulnerability is the ultimate show of confidence, and that was the thing that i didn't understand like. If you can stick your neck out, there put yourself out there um in knowing what the consequences could be. Knowing that you could be, you know, made fun of or taken advantage of, and you could do that um, not many people do that tom yeah, and so i i find that it.

It creates opportunities um in presentations where people want to connect with you. So in closing, i asked you uh: i asked you a while ago about things that you would recommend uh somebody that just wants to improve overall confidence and conversion and i'll tee. You up. You said: what do you have to lose feed the positive dog and set your vision? What did you mean by what do you have to lose? Well again, if, if you subscribe to vulnerability, what do you have to lose right, and so i step into something i focus only on the positive only on the positive uh things that aren't going my way become positive because they showed me the the road that i Should be on, and i take all of those things in align my vision to that, and i you know myself my team.

We become unstoppable because we all know where we're going. We all have permission to fail. We all have permission to be vulnerable and you know it's it's the secret sauce. I agree my mind also goes to so many people.

Let me say this: you, don't you don't make any money when in second place on a listing appointment for sure. So why would you not throw the kitchen sink every time? Why would you put yourself in a position where you you had a chance to not win yeah exactly and the best way to win every single time like every single time is to connect right, and the best way to connect is to be a human? Yes, yes, all right, so you also said: uh feed the positive dog. What does that mean? So john gordon's book, the positive dog he talks about feeding the positive dog and starving the negative dog yeah, so the dog that you feed is the one that grows. So you can be the woes me person, you know life isn't going my way.

I can't get any contracts accepted. You know i've seen that yeah, but i've also seen the person that goes. Oh, that contract didn't get accepted. I'm just gon na keep going.

I'm here to serve right and they just feed the positive dog and then you know they'll go on a run and close or put four or five deals together in a row. So i see the dynamics. You know on my teams um, in what we try and do. Is we feed that positive dog writing contracts is a good thing.

I don't care how you cut it. It's a good thing whether or not it gets accepted. That's a little bit of training. That's a little bit of perseverance, but what you can't do is start to get down when they're not accepted right right.

It's a part of the game. Today, it's just it's like it's like saying to the batter who's mad, because they're only getting three out of ten. You know if you're, if you're about 300 in the major league baseball you're, making a lot of money exactly. I think, michael jordan said that he's he's lost 300 games in his lifetime, taking the winning shot right right.

You know he didn't take the shot thinking. He was going to miss it, no no 100, so dan as we wrap this up. This was this was super insightful like i came into this kind of thinking, one thing and we you know we, we went down the path of vulnerability and i think that's the show like that's that's where, like i think it's going to resonate with a lot of People are there any books. You would recommend if people want to go deeper there.

So brene brown darren greatly uh fantastic book, and it's it's about this. You know if you're gon na take the winning shot. You know sometimes you're gon na miss sometimes you're going to make it the world doesn't remember you for the shots. You've missed.

They remember. The world remembers you for the shots that you take um. You know one of the things that early on when i started stepping into vulnerability that i would tell myself is whether this works or doesn't work. My daughter's still going to be happy to see me when i get home from work tonight right.

My dogs aren't going to care yep sherry, i mean you know sherry. She might. My wife might get a little upset because you were because you were the cash cow. So yes, exactly well dan.

Thank you. So that's a great book, john gordon, the positive dog. You know those two books changed my life love it well. Thank you so much for being on the show uh.

What's the best place for them to follow you if they want to connect with you on instagram, so dan dot, prude home and the misspelling that we always get on prude home is home, has two m's, so p-r-u-d-h-o-m-m-e love it. Thank you so much man for just being in our community and making a difference and uh just just unlocking this whole vulnerability. Conversation was really powerful today, so we appreciate you well tom, thanks to you and you know all the coaches um i've learned so much in the three years that i've been with you and i i wouldn't have gone down this road uh if it wasn't for all For all of your team support yeah, thank you shout out to all the coaches brother shout out to all the coaches, all right dan. Thank you.

So much hey make sure you hit the notification button if you're on youtube like subscribe - and this is probably one of those ones. You want to send to a few friends that have been running into that wall and putting their guard up like that. Big d versus getting a little more vulnerable thanks. So much for watching the show, we'll see you soon.

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