Latest / The Complete Agent - The Podcast For Premium Real Estate Agents / 139. Why Your Estate Agency Is Struggling (And How To Fix It)
Transcript
- Michelle Smith: Good morning and welcome to the Complete Agent podcast. Each week we get together to talk all things estate agency. You're joined by me, Michelle Smith and my esteemed industry colleague, James Kendall. Absent for another week is David Warburton fundraising for his internet connection and Ian Storey on his fourth holiday since September. So obviously it's going to be a great show. JK, how has your week been? JK: Smashed it. Well done. Round of applause there. Ian Story once attempted the intro and it went something like this. welcome to the Complete Agent Podcast, where what do we do, Lats? Who am I? Yeah, it was hilarious. He's never done it ever again. So well done. There's a lot of pressure on you when you on your first one. week's been okay. we're gonna get into it obviously this week in terms of you know what the market's like at the moment, what everyone's feeling. speaking to a lot of agents again up and down the country, in and out of TCA, lots of people reaching out and you know, having that conversation about, you know, how is the market, what are you doing at the moment, and what does it look like? for us at the moment, we're not absolutely bustling with sales, I've got to be honest, or busting with sales, not bustling, busting with sales. but we are getting some deals done. And what is really sort of helping us is the level of fee that we're dealing with. that mid to upper end of the market at two percent, like it is just an absolute game changer, especially in this market at the moment. terms of keeping things on top and keeping things healthy, keeping you in the black. but yeah, we'll I guess we'll get into it more. But yeah, in terms of week, really good vows. Valves have have actually picked up for us. vowels were down. we've really put the work in, got some really good sign ups going on. Lots of viewings had one viewing, sorry, one house we had five viewings on yesterday. offers over a million, Michelle Smith: That's right. JK: which is great. I've got a I've had a third viewing on the three million pounder that we've got. I've got a couple of off market social media viewings that I've done on a house I've got one point seven five. so a lot of my activity is kind of happening at the upper end, but also a couple of the sort of gold dust ones at three and five hundred. We've got some Good interest on as well. So yeah. I mean, again, we're not going to break any records in terms of actual numbers, but with the actual units that we sell, I said to you off air, you know, you sell three or four of those, you can quite easily be into six figures Michelle Smith: Yeah. JK: for for you know single-digit sales. So yeah, pretty good all round. and yeah, keeping busy. My daughter, bless her, has just got over a bout of shingles. she's Michelle Smith: no! JK: five years old, and we did She developed she was developing a rash last week. And my other half made the executive decision on Friday night to call 111 and get her into the hospital. And they did no, not like I say hospital like the proper children's war, but like the emergency, like out of hours doctor. And they were like, Yeah, it's shingles. And get they gave her and what's really crucial about that, for anyone that's listening, I know this is an estate agency podcast, but lots of us have got children. and If your child does develop shingles, it is crucial to go and get an antiviral medication because in the first seventy two hours of the rash and the bumps developing, that's when the virus is most active. And if you Michelle Smith: All JK: get an antiviral medication at that point, then yeah, it could save them a whole world of pain. But there's nothing worse than your five year old daughter, bless her, screaming in pain. There's nothing you can do about it because she won't let you touch it or anything. So yeah. Michelle Smith: it's all fucked. No, it's all fucked. JK: So that up and down to the week. hopefully that saves somebody's behind when they get shingles or if somebody else they know is unfortunate enough to get shingles. But on that lighter note, how was your week, Michelle? Michelle Smith: Well, yeah, good week. I did quite a few coaching clients on Monday. One of the themes that came out, so this is coaching with listers within a business. We looked at kind of some sticky stock and also the types of conversations that need to be had with sellers at the moment. And one theme came out and I think it's quite prevalent is staying ahead of your seller. So, you know, the real skill and comfort that you can give to a seller is in always being a step ahead. So I think a lot of discomfort comes for people when they are chased for feedback. There is that feeling that can kind of come where they feel like they've got to pull a rabbit out of a hat. And that can be negated by always being a step ahead of the seller and... guiding them through the process. So a lot of the coaching really doubled down on that and focused on what that looks like within the conversations that they were having. So that was interesting and got some really good feedback and very practical stuff that they can go and implement straight away. And kids are off, so they broke up on Tuesday. So just doing the parenting juggle. And I know your, your kids are only young. My eldest is 13 and I'm going through. interesting times at the moment. So she is wanting more freedom and we are absolutely, you know, happy to give it her within boundaries. One of the things, because my kids have got horses, they're really into anything horsey and Amelia wants to go to the hunt, which is a winter kind of equestrian sport, if you will. And there is a newcomers hunt on Saturday so she's 13 never been her horse that we've got her is a real accomplished horse in the hunt but needs JK: well. Michelle Smith: a special bit to give some breaks because she just gets too excited so I'm having that massive internal struggle of I know she'll be okay but I will literally be beside myself until she comes back JK: Yeah. Michelle Smith: okay so it's giving her the freedom to go and do it knowing that she is a capable rider with a capable horse but the mum, the mum part of me is just, you know, my anxiety about it is high. Spoke to one of my equestrian friends, sorry if you literally hate horses, this, you're just going to find this really boring, but spoke to one of my equestrian friends and she said, I've got a great tip for you. Put an air tag on the saddle and then if Amelia and the horse part ways, you'll always find the horse. I was like, you are not helping. That is not helping JK: No. Michelle Smith: my anxiety. So, yeah, so going through those parenting things that we all do of just giving more freedom. But actually, it's about managing myself in that, not really anything to do with Amelia, as is parenting. JK: Yeah. I'm going through a little bit of that as well though with my nine year old son. he's he's saying to me, Dad, like, why can't I play out on my own after school with my mates? and I'm I said to him quite plainly, because I don't trust ya. Because you're what Michelle Smith: straight to the point, J.K. JK: well yeah, but it's but it's true, I don't. But he'd until the thing is, how you do anything is how you do everything. And How he is in the house and how irresponsible he is with the house. He's got a bit of a tendency to show off. Like I don't know where he gets that from. but a bit of a tendency to show off and do silly things and I c I but also equally he has some issues controlling his emotions. And I just I said to him, Look, the reason I'm doing this that when you show me that you can do things in an adult way and take responsibility and control your emotions. I said, then we can absolutely have a talk about like what you can do and and Michelle Smith: DLJK, I mean, can we speak to some adults about being able to do that? JK: but but you know what it is though? Like like and I and I I get it, but at the same time, my son is just is not street wise at all. Michelle Smith: Now. JK: and so so here's here you go. This is what stops everything in the beginning. This is why I wouldn't let him go out in the beginning. I said to him, Right, mate, before you go out with your mates and before I'm going to consider it, if a man came up to you and said, I've got sweets in my van, do you want to come and see them? What would you say? And he said, Depends on what sweets they are. Like Michelle Smith: That's funny but it's JK: And exactly that, exactly. It is funny. But at the same time, like I was like, absolutely not. And then so I had this conversation with him again the other day. And he goes, I was only joking. I was like, that's hilarious. So you're in a van, you've been kidnapped, and then you've been carved up and sold for meat in another country. Like, that's hilarious, that is. Michelle Smith: JK, honestly, honestly, you've got to give him little bits of freedom and allow him to succeed at it and then build on that, you know. JK: Yeah, but also I don't want him to be a statistic that gets found in a park at midnight. Like that that's my Michelle Smith: Right, JK: other thing. Michelle Smith: do you know what? This episode relates not only to estate agency, but also life. So JK: Yeah. Michelle Smith: I think we should crack on with the episode and then you can tell JK: Yeah. Michelle Smith: me off there at the end, what are going to relate into your own parenting life? JK: Yeah. Well, it's definitely not gonna be him going out. But yeah, go on. Let's let's let's go into let's go into it. Like I to be honest, half the reason I'm talking about this is because I know what we were gonna talk about today. so Michelle Smith: Yeah. JK: let's go for it. Gone, you you kick us off because it's this is all you today. Michelle Smith: One of the things that I see, you know, when the market gets like this and those of us that have been in the market a long time, you know, it's cyclical and these ups and downs happen, you know, with frequency. The only guaranteed thing is it will happen again. So I think it's really important to look at mindset and understand a little bit more around it because It's important for yourself and your own self-management and your experience of the market and your life, more importantly, and that of your team. So I've picked a few key areas that we can talk about today. My background in coaching and positive psychology is with NLP, so Neurolinguistic Programming, which is really a framework to understand and help how we experience the world and how we can impact our life choices, behaviour, mindset, et cetera. And also other modalities which have gone into that, but most of it is informed by the NLP work that I do. So the first one is control the controllables. So, you know, I love the serenity prayer. basically understand the difference between what you can control and what you can't control and not knowing the differences where all the problems happen. That isn't the serenity prayer, but that's the synopsis. So, you know, we can't do anything about the wider economic conditions. We can't do anything about mortgage rates. We can't do anything about Iran. We can't do anything about the... potential cyber attack that happened yesterday that took CRM systems down. But what we can control is the meaning we make of it and the actions we take within it. So in the state agency, things like fastidious follow ups, quality of advice, being ahead of the client, key prospecting time, measuring effectiveness of prospecting. Being the person that's interpreting the market for the buyers and the sellers rather than just repeating what's happening. What does it mean to them? What's the implication for them? And you know, the work that we can do on ourselves through strengthening our skills and the effectiveness of ourself and the team. So they're the things that we can control. What tends to happen is a lot of focus goes on the stuff that we can't and that's a really disempowered place to operate from. You have to empower yourself and give yourself the options and the choices which are the things that we can control. What are your thoughts, JK? What's your experience of that? JK: Well, in terms of the market, do you mean? And Michelle Smith: Yeah, well, how you work it kind of controlling the controllables within a difficult market. JK: I think the thing is I've worked in the recession market as well. So I've kind of had the battle scars and had the the the the training of of that market before. So you kind of people will always need to move. And in this market, like you say, control the controllables. The people that would like to move, but they're not that bothered if they move, they're the ones that I would probably tend to steer away from. but in this market, it's about finding the people you know that want to sell and finding the people that you know want to buy and having the right conversations with those sort of people. and on controlling the controllables, you know, there is there's a there's a great opportunity to educate people. and I think I said it last week that, and I actually said this to one of my new clients actually, sat on the market at 1.75 with another agent for. best part of a year. And I went and chatted to her and and and she said, well, you know, the I just don't understand why I need to drop my price. I said, well it's all down to affordability. It's, you know, and and I gave her education piece. And I said, look, if you think about your house at 1.7, I said, there's this perception that everyone at this end of the market is going to be cash and they're not. That people are going to be taking million pound mortgages or eight, nine hundred thousand pound mortgages with equity that they've got. And If you go back to May 22, which is when the real last of the cheap interest rates were here. Well, not super cheap, but the the lowest that they were before they really ramped up. the average mortgage rate back then, when I did some research was for 75% loans of value, it was like two point six two percent. And for ninety-five percent loans of value, it was three point two six percent. Now, for your average four hundred K mortgage, the the difference between, you know, five point five now. And 2.62 then is a phenomenal amount of money. You know, you there's lots of people that are on almost double the mortgage than they were three to five years ago, depending on how long they fixed for. And it it was like a light bulb in a head that had clicked. And I said to her, like, you know, what what do you think? You know, when it comes to the market now, government borrowing is the highest it's ever been, interest rates are the highest they've ever been, inflation like. hasn't fully been reported to where it's at yet. The market is the market. And it's not about how much your house is worth to your buyer. It's not about whether it's 1.5, 6, 7, 8, 9. And the same remains whether the house is three, four, 500 grand as well. When you buy a car, you don't think to yourself, or lease a car, whatever you do. You don't go, hmm, that's 50 grand. that's 50 grand I've got to get out. What you think is, How much is this going to cost me a month to run? Michelle Smith: Hmm. JK: So if a c if a hundred grand car is four hundred pounds a month, then great. But if a hundred grand car is nine hundred pounds a month, it's a completely different story. So it's all about the monthlies and the education. That was the education piece I was having with this particular seller and said, look, you know, your buyer's mortgage five years ago was probably four to five grand, which for them at that point. was probably quite manageable with a percentage rate. Now it's eight or nine thousand pounds. On top of that, inflation. So what a hundred pound bought four to five years ago doesn't buy the same thing now. So and there's a good chance also equally that your buyers are going to be or your buyers' children are going to be in private education. There's VAT that's been added onto private education. So life's got a lot more expensive. And It's more about the monthly. So, you know, what was one point seven is now probably more like one point four. And show the data in the graph. and and show them just education. You've got to tell people what what's actually going on, not what they need to hear. Not sorry, well, not they want to hear. Show them what's actually happening in the world, be able to articulate it in such a way that they actually understand it. And then it will unlock sales. You know, we've we've we've reduced loads where We've re I say reduced. Well, we have, you know, let's just be frank. We have reduced them and realigned the prices in the market that they are. So, you know, when it comes to what you said, controlling the controllables, you know, make sure that you're dealing with people that actually need to move and want to move, regardless. Suss out the buyers that want to buy and want to move, not the ones that would like to and have got their stuff in place. But also equally it's it's with your team as well. You know, get your team on board. Like we none of us can decide what Trump is gonna do next. None of us can decide what's going to go on in the Middle East next. you know, none of us can decide whether Andy Burnham's gonna get, you know, gas companies to scrap standing charges. Like, you know, that out that all of that is out of our control. But what we can do every day is go in and identify who our buyers are, who our sellers are, who wants to move, how we get new sellers on, how we get existing sales through, control the controllables. Is that that was a really long way of answering your question, sorry. Michelle Smith: mean you don't do any other type answering JK it's exactly what I wanted and what I expected. JK: Very true. There you go. Michelle Smith: Yeah no I think it's really interesting to have a practical example and it's the thing where people's minds kind of deviate away from and it's that reinforcing all the time just control the controllables don't get lost in what's happening in a wider sense. You have to just deal with what you can control and this will link in further through some of the other points we're going to talk about. So number two, separate the situation from the meaning. I absolutely am fascinated by meaning making and the stories that we tell ourselves because they're so impactful and so powerful. So for instance, you know, the situation could be that the market is slow and, you know, data supports that. That is what is happening at the moment in terms of sales agreed. The meaning that we can make to that can be something that is quite disempowering. So the meaning we could make to that is no one's moving. know, everybody is waiting to see until after the October budget. People won't reduce. So a situation can give you lots of different meanings and it's the meanings that we assign to something that actually defines our next move, so our behaviour. And the question that I always ask people in coaching is, is that meaning helpful? Is that giving you all of the choices and all of the positive behaviours that you really would hope for it? or is that meaning disempowering and holding you back and stopping you from operating optimally? So, you you can look at the stories we attach to things on a business level, on a personal level, and they come up all the time. And I know in a mastermind, I think it was March last year, we did a whole section on the stories that we tell ourselves. And one JK: Mm. Michelle Smith: of the things, it always makes me smile, we did was, you know, trying to identify your own personal stories. And one of the in one of the groups, somebody who shall remain nameless said, I'm absolutely rubbish at doing stuff like that. And, you know, with good humor, I was like, that sounds like a story. It sounds like you're really good at JK: Yeah. Michelle Smith: making stories. And they just laughed. And it is it's so unconscious, the things that we say and tell ourselves and the stories that we live by. And so, you know, you know, invitation really is listen for the stories that you're telling yourself, but also that your team are telling. They'll come up in the morning meetings. They'll come up when they put the phone down from a difficult seller or a negotiation that is tricky. Listen for the stories. And what I would also encourage you to do is, know, really gently just ask questions around that. So, you know, a story might be there's absolutely no way that that buyer is going to increase or the story might be that seller is going to go absolutely nuts if I ask for a price realignment. And it's that basically is quite a narrow filter of what they're looking for. If you think if that's what they're telling themselves, you can almost guarantee what the outcomes are going to be. So it's with kind of gentle encouragement getting them to move their filter and widen it and look at what the options are. If that wasn't going to be the outcome, what would you do if they absolutely were going to realign their price? What would be your next move? Which is a more empowering thought process than being stuck in a story. like your JK: Okay. Michelle Smith: son's gonna get kidnapped. JK: Yeah. So just on that, I mean you some of one of the things you said at our last training session I think resonated with with our team. and I can't remember what it was. I think it was what was it? I can't remember there was something that came up and in and you said and I can't remember if it was Amy or Matt from my team said something like, we don't we wouldn't do that because of X, Y, and Z and it was because I think something bad had happened before. Michelle Smith: Yeah. JK: And because of that. But then also equally like anecdotal really, and I won't go too deep into detail. But we had something a little while back where we were and I again I as you know, I do have a tendency to overthink things slightly. just a tad. But I we had we were putting a reel together a little while back and the house that we were selling It's it's not funny, but it is funny. and again this is overthinking. one of the songs that we were using, like it was quite a trendy song. it was the Swedish house mafia, like Heaven Takes You Home. Michelle Smith: Yeah. JK: And like it's quite an upbeat tune, like I I love it actually, it's a really good tune. But the person whose house we were selling had like just lost their partner. And yeah, so Michelle Smith: out. JK: We were putting the thing w but that did it wasn't it was just the one of the trending tunes at the time. So Michelle Smith: Yeah, yeah, yeah. JK: we'd started building the reel and we were like, No, we can't do that. I mean I mean the understatement of the year. Like, but the thing is, it's quite it wasn't even the lyrics, it was just the the music. So Michelle Smith: Yeah. JK: the music was like really upbeat, but the track things said that and I just thought, you know what, like Talk about overthinking things, like I think that could probably worked in a good way for us at that at that point in time. But you sometimes you can overthink little details like that. Where I had a client before that said they didn't like a certain way that we did the property tours. They thought the property tours were better without the presenter in it and it it would show the house. so we needed less of the presenter in there. And then a you know, what is it? You I think you called it like a belief or something, or was it a limiting belief or something like that? Maybe you called it like. based on what someone said. But then equally, you know, what I do find interesting, going off on a little bit of a tangent here, I was thinking about this randomly in the shower this morning. There's an image for you. Michelle Smith: Duh! JK: is like through so I'm 41 years old, right? Why is it that I can remember like negatives that happened, negatives that happened like 40 odd years ago or 30 odd years ago, like to the detail to it to some degree. But I couldn't recall all the good things that happened during that time. It's crazy, isn't it? Michelle Smith: It's not crazy at all. It makes perfect sense when you understand that your brain is there to keep you alive, not to JK: Yeah. Michelle Smith: make you successful. So, you know, our brain hasn't really evolved that much since, you know, the dawn of time for humans where our brain was literally, JK: This is deep. Michelle Smith: yeah, it is, you know, your amygdala, your fight, flight, response. is what kept us alive. So if a sabre-toothed tiger was coming to the front of the cave, your amygdala would flash, you know, fight, fly, JK: Yeah. Michelle Smith: you'd absolutely leg it. However, to keep us safe, we also have a negativity bias because, you know, being a bit fearful and operating the fight and fly response is actually what kept us alive as a species. So we still have that. function in our brain and that's why those types of things are imprinted much more easily unless you consciously, which we're going to talk about you know in a little while, unless you consciously redirect and feed your brain more positive intention rather than allowing the default of the negativity bias to take hold. And that's, you never ever want to get rid of your fight and flight. You know, it's essential. But you don't want it to be going off all over the place. So. JK: Can I tell you what came to my mind? The memory that came like because it sounds really dark, I realised when I was saying it, but the memory that came to my mind is I was probably like four or five years old and my grandparents had one of them old jacuzzi baths with all the jets. And I was I know, I Michelle Smith: Yep, booty, very booty. JK: know, and councillor out spoil and all that. But the Michelle Smith: you JK: I just remember like being in the bath, like it wasn't big or anything, but like and pressing the jacuzzi button. Michelle Smith: Yeah. JK: And they clearly didn't obviously use it very often. And basically I pressed it and it started, you know that noise it makes, it goes like and it starts doing the thing. Well, the reason they didn't use it clearly because all the rubber jets were perishing. So literally, like all of these bits of rubber went in the bath and I thought they were spiders. And I jumped out and screamed. Like I can remember it. Like, I mean, I'm forty-one years old. I can't have been any older than four or five at the time. But that Michelle Smith: Yeah. JK: is ingrained in my memory, like Forever. And I don't know why it came into my mind because we we hadn't even discussed really what we were going to talk about today, at that point like properly. and it just came into our mind. It was one of them shower thoughts this morning, like, you know, what if you know, I think was it Holmosy says that, you know, if you can wake up in a bad mood, you can wake up in a good mood for no reason. you know, and why can't you think of 'cause I I am I'm very typical of overthinking and catastrophizing, I can't know if that's a word, but like coming to the worst possible result of anything that like somebody will ring my phone and I'll be thinking to myself, right, as a vendor, they're gonna be pissed off. It's gonna be this, it's gonna be that, it's gonna be this, da da da da da da da and literally answer the phone and hey, how are you doing? Da da da da we found a house we really love to buy. And I'm like, yeah. So but again, I think that's just the way that my brain's wired that I'm always thinking like five steps ahead. of what you know, of the catastrophe. So that I think whatever happens, you know, even if it is only step one, I'm already well advanced to step five, but it is exhausting sometimes. Michelle Smith: Well, my question always is, is it helpful? JK: Yeah. I think in some ways, yes, because Michelle Smith: Mm-hmm. JK: it helps me get out of jail sometimes, not literally out of jail, but like you know, like you say you're pulling a rabbit out of a hat and you're not prepared. That's why Michelle Smith: Yeah. JK: I'm always like to be three or four steps ahead of the seller. So for example, w you know, what does that mean in context? So my team are trained and I've always done it in such a way where so set sellers' expectations on things like viewing feedback. So, for example, give them initial feedback on the viewing if we've got it. Like, for example, I did three viewings yesterday actually on one of these accounts. So I don't really do a lot of viewings, but I did three viewings. And the first viewing went really well. got feedback, gave it to the seller. Second viewing wasn't so good. and I gave the seller feedback that pissed them off. and I said, to be honest, I'm pissed off as well. And the feedback was for context that the house was too far away from a village that they wanted to be near. And, you know, this is twenty twenty-six. We've got Google Maps. Like what even annoyed him even more is because they clocked the c the car on the ring doorbell, but also he was out the front when they did a drive by, literally like two days before. Michelle Smith: and JK: And I was like, I've got to be honest, it pissed me off because it did. Like a s half an hour, forty five minutes of my life. I'm never gonna get back and they're never gonna get back. because that is not you know, the house is still the house. It's never it were never gonna go, do you know what? Actually, I'm just gonna jump half a mile up the road seen as you've come to view. Not gonna happen. But as I said to him at the time, you know, people know this and it it just frustrates you know, it's the joys of the general public. But then equally, shit sandwich, the third viewing, loved it as well. So gave them really good feedback. But as but as I said to them at the time, I'm not gonna rather than me say to you and and wrap your feelings in cotton wool and say, it just wasn't for them, like that means nothing. Why do they not want to buy the house? The reason they don't want to buy the house is because of this. And and that and that's as simple as that. so just setting those expectations and so the other part of that was is that in the morning when of the of the day after the viewing, soon as we've done the morning meeting. A holding message goes into our WhatsApp groups to our sellers that says, Good morning, all. Just wanted to let you know we're chasing X viewing for feedback. Soon as we've heard, we'll be in touch. So that way then they're not checking their phone. It's a bit like why Uber has been so successful. Because there's that whole, you know, what's going to happen? When when when when you know, are these people on it? Is it is the taxi coming? And on Uber, you can see the little taxi man, like if he's caught in traffic, where it is. So you You've got information and it's all about giving people information. So you're your number of steps ahead. Please continue. Michelle Smith: Yeah, I mean I've forgotten the question. JK: So did I, to be honest, at that point, but it sent me off on a tangent, you'll be surprised to hear. Michelle Smith: Well, I think where you started was about your overthinking and being, you know, steps ahead and what you demonstrated was there's a real practical positive part to that, which is, you know, in terms of client experience, you can anticipate need and you do get ahead of the client, which, you know, when I was talking about coaching some clients earlier this week, that's what the coaching was about. I heard from you was there was quite a lot of identity stuff when you said about, know, I am an overthinker, I can catastrophize and you can refi... JK: Well done, by the way. That's a great word. Like I struggle, I can't say that word. Catastrophicise. Is that it? I've done it. Nailed it. Michelle Smith: I don't know if it sounds right, I mean, who knows? JK: You know it. Michelle Smith: Thanks, thanks. I'm winning at life intro and catastrophizing. JK: You are Michelle Smith: So, you know, it's reframing it, isn't it? Of this skill makes me give a great client experience. And if it ever becomes not helpful. then that's something to look at, but for the moment JK: Yeah. Michelle Smith: it's something that's helpful to you. yeah, great. The next one is language. I love language. JK: You do. Michelle Smith: It shapes thoughts, which create behaviour and eventually a repeated thought creates a belief. So we are run by our beliefs and that, you know, also creates our internal identity. And the... kind of flag that we can see on the surface is often the language that we used. So when I said before that what I was hearing from you is quite a few identity things. I know that because JK: Yeah. Michelle Smith: I know you quite well and you know the things that I hear you say quite frequently. So what you might hear and you'll hear this from clients and you'll hear this from team members and you may hear this from yourself as well. So in NLP there's different language models that we use. to help to unlock and unpick things. There's one called the Meta model for language and that looks at things like deletions, distortions and generalisations. What that might mean is you're hearing things like everything is being downvalued. So the generalisation there is that everything. So if you think about the impact of that language on your thought process and your behaviour, if you were saying everything is being downvalued, the behaviour that is the outcome at the end of that might not be as helpful as what actually probably is the reality of some things have been downvalued, other things have valued absolutely fine. People tend to lean into the deletions, distortions and generalisations without even thinking it. It comes from your unconscious. And again, this is about the flashlight that we focus on and this gives us our experience of life. So if you're hearing these things, so everything is being downvalued, buyers always take a long time to make a decision. Know that that is limiting. It's limiting... the options that we're giving ourselves to deal with that given situation. And it's also creating how we experience it. So now I've kind of explained that I can guarantee this week there'll be loads of things that you hear where JK: Mm. Michelle Smith: you hear these kind of linguistic patterns. And my encouragement really is to gently kind of nudge people's awareness because it is generally unconscious. So things like, that's interesting. I'm really curious what tells you that. Is that everyone? Have there ever been any valuations that have gone through okay? You've got to be a bit careful when you're that type of questioning because when it is unconscious, unless you are quite skilled in the questioning or quite delicate, it can be quite affronting to the person. JK: There's a there's a saying though, isn't there? Like what you see and what you hear depends on where you stand. Michelle Smith: Yeah, yeah, yeah. JK: And I think if if you're surrounded like, you there's bit of a negativity bias going on and all everyone's hearing is, no, this is happening, that's happening, and you're kind of trapped. This is where I think TCA sometimes is so powerful when you've got other people to lean on, where, you know, you're even if it's just once a quarter, let's say we're in the room with a mastermind, but even with the WhatsApp group as well, just giving people perspective I had a couple of chats directly with a couple of members recently and it sometimes just having another perspective from someone that's out of your business can help you totally reframe your sort of existing belief system and what in what's happening in the market. and I know those people have have had reductions. They've so and sometimes it you know if you're a a great agent, sometimes you know what the answer is. But sometimes you almost need to hear that from someone that you respect. So whether that, you know, it doesn't have to be a mentor, it could be just to be a fellow colleague that, you know, you at you admire in the industry. And just hearing them say, Well, why don't you just do this? And you're like you know that's the answer. But it's just an affirmation because running a business can be quite a lonely place. Michelle Smith: Yeah. JK: especially if you're a single director and you haven't got anyone to bounce ideas off. Or, you know, bounce your thoughts off, you know, and you can't sometimes there's things that happen you don't necessarily want to bounce off your team. you know, you you need to hear from a a similar peer. And I think sometimes that that can really be helpful. And I remember when you came and did a session with our team and Matt Matt's been really good by the way at getting price realignments. but one of the things I think you said to him and I again this is an educational piece for himself. he loves the podcast. He's been listening to the rest is politics and the rest is history as well. Michelle Smith: Yeah. JK: but he retains information like nothing I've ever seen. But he's been great, yeah, been great at getting price realignments. But but I think, you know, to give you credit, working back to in the office, you know, you said to my team, what's the market like? And what did he say? Michelle Smith: sensitive. JK: Yeah. And then what did you then unpack that? Hey, I knew I'd get one in there somewhere. How Michelle Smith: you JK: did you unpack that? And what did you then reframe that as? I'm just I'm just thinking of giving people context that are listening to the podcast. you know, you I think you said something along the lines of, you know, yes, it it is, you know, you are right. It is price sensitive, but how you're saying it is in quite a negative way. so Michelle Smith: Yeah, it's got to relate to, it doesn't mean anything does it, to the buyer and the seller. It's what is the impact for them, how does that practically work for them and how can you frame that to them in a way that makes sense to them. JK: And that's the thing where it comes in with the educational piece when we start talking about interest rates. So rather than saying the market is price sensitive, you say things like, Well, the market is driven by the the mortgage market at the moment because your average interest rate, you know, the latest right right move HPI that came out on Monday states that the average interest rate at the moment's five point five five percent. And what I do find incredible is people make out the headlines that, you know, prices have increased by one percent. No, they have not increased by one percent. The average asking price has increased by one percent, which means absolutely nothing. which I don't I don't understand doesn't mean absolutely nothing, but it it just frustrates me that sellers see that headline, but when you actually present the data that shows them and show you know, show your industry peers as well what the market has actually done. When you dive into something like Dataloft, for example, and you can get regional and granular with, you know, what different areas are doing, then you can really start to powerfully articulate the market and get buy in from buyers and sellers alike, more so sellers, to be honest, to what the market is actually doing. So rather than, you know, because you know, he's right, the market is price sensitive, but what does that actually physically mean? And how do you articulate that in such a way? that people understand it because as you said, price sensitive, well, what does that mean? It does that mean prices need Michelle Smith: Yeah. JK: to change by five grand? Does it price prices by five percent? Exactly that. So yeah. Michelle Smith: Yeah, definitely. I think language is key and probably a lot of what I coach on actually is around language and framing and positioning. And I think it's so powerful because your thoughts, they create your beliefs. So belief is a repeated thought over and over again. And the next one that I kind wanted to talk about was that beliefs impact how we experience life. And JK: Yeah. Michelle Smith: I think if there's anything that you can take away from this, it is that. And, you know, I don't say beliefs create our happiness or, you know, it isn't that, it creates our experience of life, bearing in mind everybody's experience of life is different. There's an amazing study, I love this study, I think it's fascinating. And it just shows how powerful your beliefs are, not only psychologically, but physiologically. So I know everybody's heard of the placebo effect, which, you know, is basically that you believe that you are being given a medicine and you have a physiological response. But there was a study done in 2007 at Harvard and it was two psychologists, Ellen Langer and Alia Crum. Now what they did, and this is just... fascinating. They looked at how a person's mindset and beliefs can directly alter their physical and psychological health markers, even when actual behaviour remains unchanged. So the actual study, they looked at 84 female kind of hotel room attendants, so housekeepers across seven different hotels. And most of these women kind of on the daily, they did quite heavy labour. such as scrubbing, vacuuming, making beds, yet they actually considered themselves to be inactive because they didn't do any kind of formal exercise. So they didn't go to a gym or they didn't run, et cetera. So what the study did was they split the group. So they had 44 women in the informed group and 40 women in the control group. So the informed group were told an unfamiliar truth. that actually what they did daily met or exceeded the Surgeon General's recommendation for a healthy active lifestyle. So they were given all the information, the education of what they were doing daily actually impacted and contributed and was physical activity. There was posters that were put up in their staff break rooms and reminders were given to them. So they were basically embedding the belief. that what they did on the day to day was actually viewed as exercise. In the control group, they received no information about the health benefits of their work. So the results are phenomenal really. So after four weeks, so one month, the behavior was unchanged. So they all did exactly the same thing that they did on the daily. And what happened was the informed group mentally perceive themselves as getting significantly more exercise. Physically, the informed group lost an average of two pounds. They dropped systolic blood pressure by an average of nearly 10 points, that's like 10%, and they improve their body fat percentage, body mass index, and waist to hip ratio. So they didn't do anything different, they just believed. that they were actually doing exercise and the kind of control group just remained the same. So it's amazing really. And I think it just goes to say that how we frame or label our daily experiences, you know, it changes how we experience life psychologically and physiologically. So that's physically. think of the impact that your beliefs have psychologically. I think everybody needs to kind of really think about what is running the show, what are the beliefs that are built on. Loads of things like this come up in Money Mindset JK: Yeah. Michelle Smith: and, you know, or people can have these set patterns where... they get themselves to a point of success and then they sabotage themselves in some way or another. And all of that is run by underlying beliefs that generally are unconscious. So I think it's absolutely fascinating and language can just be the little picky plaster on the top that can start to uncover some of these unconscious beliefs. JK: that new the you said as well before everyone's got that neuroplasticity that you you know you can what start wiring new thoughts and wiring the neurons that to to fire and and mold in a different way and just while you were talking about that sort of placebo study there's a tony robbins heart like thing that he talks about which is like all of his events the the Harvard coffee priming study Where basically they asked people to temporarily hold a hot coffee or an iced coffee. And then 30 minutes later, they had to put together a description of of a person and sort of eighty-odd percent of people that described the person who who was so sorry, people who were the eighty-one percent of people that were Holding iced drinks, iced coffees, describe the person as sort of cold and uncaring. And 80% of the people that held the hot coffee describe the person as warm, connected, and caring. And I think the whole point of it was is that it's all about showing like priming, I guess, the the unconscious and environmental cues that can dictate our thoughts and perceptions. Michelle Smith: Definitely. Thank you, JK. JK: And why you've got to intentionally prime your mind every morning instead of letting your sort of surroundings control ya. Michelle Smith: Do you know what? This is slick because the next bit is all about managing the inputs to your head. you know, that understanding of how important your beliefs are is key, but actually what practically, what can you do? So I think the key is managing the inputs to your head. So, you know, you have to know that the unconscious mind runs the show and your senses. So how we experience the world is through our senses. and it collects roughly 11 million bits of information every second. But your conscious mind can only process about 40 to 50 bits per second. And it isn't random, the bits that we consciously grabs those 40 to 50 bits, it isn't random. We have like a gatekeeper of our brain called your RAS, and that's there to kind of prevent total sensory overload. It intercepts those bits and it streams it and filters it out. So it forwards only what it deems critical really to your conscious mind. Now this is the key bit and this is where you can have an impact. It's programmed by your core beliefs, your current goals, your survival priorities and your repetitive thoughts. So if you're spending your morning doom scrolling, you are consciously putting in, you know, data. to your brain, which will help your RAS filter out the things that it thinks is important to you. So if you're consumed by reading negative press and news, your RAS will search for it. It's like the algorithm of your brain. It will search for it. JK: Is it a bit like that red red car theory? Michelle Smith: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. That is part of it. So it's your conscious awareness. you know, you know, everybody said, you know, you're the sum of the five people you spend most time with. It kind of ties into that as well. So you have to be really conscious and curate what you put in your brain. So what are you reading? What social media are you a part of? What relationships have you got that are helpful, you know, or unhelpful? And what business colleagues do you associate with, are you aligned, are they looking for growth, because all of those things help and sometimes you know I see like the online forums and things like that and they can be so negative and if that is what is feeding your brain, your RAS is a very trusty servant, it will just serve you more of the same and all of a sudden you know, the inputs that going into your brain become quite narrow and it creates polarization, know, wider it culturally and politically. That's exactly what happens when JK: you hang around with four decades, you become the fifth one. Michelle Smith: Yeah, well, third one. JK: Third, do you hang around with four? Michelle Smith: I hang around with Ray. JK: okay, see what we did there. Nice. Well played. I'll edit that Michelle Smith: Thank you. JK: bit out. No joking, I won't. But go on. Sorry. Michelle Smith: So, no, no, don't apologize. So, yeah, the key is managing the inputs to your head. You are in control, you have a choice, you decide what your conscious mind is going to focus on. JK: And I think that's important for anyone in the market to, you know, look at again, just going back to where we started and controlling the controllables. You know, you can and the thing is, like you just talking about news and stuff, like if you focus on everything that's going bad in the world, like, there's t tension between NATO and the Middle East and Putin's talking about nuking and where's he gonna nuke here and da da da da da da da da like You can almost get yourself into a tears thinking, right, I need to go to Costco and I need to buy ten packs of water and pasta and stock the garage up because Vladimir Putin's gonna nuke the UK. Like it's not gonna happen. Like and if it does, realistically, what you can do about it? You're dead. We're all dead. So don't worry about it. In the meantime, you've got a business to run and, you know, control the controllables. Like all that all that stuff has been going on forever. Worry about what you can control. And so, you know, for me, if I was listening to this and taking this on board, like tonight I'd be thinking to myself, right, how can I come into the office tomorrow with a refreshed attitude on what we're gonna do to make a positive impact on our result? So, you know, what let's go through all of our listings, load up right move. Let's go through all of our listings that are currently online at the moment. What's gonna sell this house? What do need to be doing differently? you know, it might just might not just be price. And as we said on the pod last week, I think it was, the pricing conversation should never come as a surprise. It should always Michelle Smith: No. JK: be expected by the seller. but once we've exhausted all those opportunities in terms of what you can do in the marketing, you know, can a different social campaign be done? If it's been on the market for four or five months, you know, did you take photos on a rainy day? Could you get back out when the sun's beaming if it if it's cold, refresh the photos? Like just be seen to be in doing things that aren't just price related and sellers can see that you're updating them, keeping them in track and what's on the market. And then, you know, you're going out, do it, you know, spending time, doing a social campaign, doing photos, telling the sellers what you're doing. and then having the conversations, right, okay, well, this house is on at offers over eight fifty. You know, does someone buy it tomorrow at eight? Yes, they do. Right. Okay. Well, we need to get it offers over eight, have the conversation with the seller. What who's gonna buy a house this week? Let's go through the database. Who do Michelle Smith: Yeah. JK: we know that we've dealt with is gonna buy a house in the next week or two weeks? Right, brilliant. Well, look, let's get the hot buyers board together and let's start writing the names for people and keeping them front of mind and servicing those buyers. What can we do with those buyers? Like we've we've we've got a couple of buyer campaigns at the moment that we've just done where we've, you know, written out buyer letters to properties that aren't on the market and you it's yield a couple of responses already. you know, that person, you you got a deal make in this market. You know, the time for being the McDonald's drive-thru worker and order taking i is over. It's you Michelle Smith: Yeah. JK: you've got to make deals and Michelle Smith: Okay. JK: you've got to find the worms are always there. You've just got to dig harder. Like that that I remember that being on the wall when I was at countrywide and when we were in the recession market, one of the managers put on the in the coffee room out the back. It was a a little, I remember it now, like a piece A4 piece of paper. And it basically said like it was two birds there. One was pecking at the ground and another one was like had his beak firmly in the ground. And the other one, one was was like, where did you find, you know, where did you find all them worms? And it was like the worms are always there. You just have to dig a bit deeper. And that always stuck with me. I just think, you know Anyone can take orders, anyone can service, but not everyone can make deals. And that's when you do have to go a layer deeper and sometimes you have to think outside the box and dare I say it, actually be an estate agent and and be a salesperson. Michelle Smith: Yeah. Absolutely. Controversial stuff there, JK, to finish on. Crikey. JK: I know. Who'd have thought, right? so if you are interested in being a part of the Complete Agent and would like to learn more, like there's so much we offer that we can't possibly pack into a 10 second plug on the podcast. So if you're struggling in the market at the moment and you need some help, advice, and it's not just about selling big houses, it's a part of it, but it's very much about the gold dust as well and succeeding in the market, changing your mindset. We can help with various parts of it. So have a a quick chat with either one of us. We'll jump on a call and we would be delighted to help you. And I think if you spoke to any of our members, they'd tell you it's been absolutely game changing for them. And if you are looking for something to turn your business around and really start twenty se 2027 rather off with a bang, then get involved sooner rather than later. Been an absolute pleasure. Michelle Smith: It absolutely has, they're going to be back aren't they next week and ruining our buzz. JK: Yeah. Do you know what? I think for a laugh, seeing as you did this week's intro, we should make Ian do next week's intro again. Like just for the banter, because Michelle Smith: 100%. Yeah, I'm here for it. JK: it was dreadful. I think I'm gonna have to dig it out actually. I think me and Dave might actually have a sound bite of it in in the group somewhere. 'cause it was so, so bad. and I'm sure now I've said it, he probably won't listen to this episode, but if he does, and he gets all the way to the end, he'll feel the pressure even more. but I'm gonna heap the pressure on him this week. Anyway. Have a great week, everyone. Thanks so much for listening and we will see you next week. Michelle Smith: Bye.