Latest / Massive Agent Podcast / 2 Huge Mental Mistakes I Made as an Agent
Transcript
- 0:00SPEAKER_00: When I got into real estate 12 years ago, I made two huge mistakes, and they were mental mistakes.
- 0:05SPEAKER_00: They didn't need to happen.
- 0:06SPEAKER_00: They were preventable, but they're also very common that agents make.
- 0:10SPEAKER_00: Now, this isn't these mistakes aren't just for new agents.
- 0:14SPEAKER_00: I see agents that have been in the game for 15, 20 years still making these mistakes.
- 0:19SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna break them down right now and show you what to do instead.
- 0:22SPEAKER_01: The massive agent podcast.
- 0:25SPEAKER_01: We need generation tips and strategies to give you more leads and sell more homes.
- 0:30SPEAKER_00: I love to buy houses, I like to sell houses.
- 0:32SPEAKER_01: It takes brass balls to stop.
- 0:35SPEAKER_01: Wait a minute.
- 0:38SPEAKER_01: You're weak.
- 0:39SPEAKER_01: I've had better.
- 0:41SPEAKER_01: Oh have I got your attention now?
- 0:44SPEAKER_01: Here's your host, Dustin Broome.
- 0:48SPEAKER_00: What is up, guys?
- 0:49SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to the Massive Agent Podcast, episode 296.
- 0:54SPEAKER_00: Uh, we're pretty close to 300.
- 0:56SPEAKER_00: I should probably plan something for episode 300.
- 0:58SPEAKER_00: That's crazy.
- 0:59SPEAKER_00: That's just a month away.
- 1:00SPEAKER_00: Welcome.
- 1:01SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to the show.
- 1:01SPEAKER_00: My name is Dustin Brohm, your host here in Salt Lake City, Utah.
- 1:05SPEAKER_00: And today I'm gonna break down two huge mental mistakes that I made as a brand new agent, but I see veteran agents making the same mistakes.
- 1:14SPEAKER_00: Still, it here, it's crazy.
- 1:16SPEAKER_00: Now, one of these, one of these is absolutely both of them are avoidable.
- 1:22SPEAKER_00: One of them is an absolute must that you fix, and one of them is not totally necessary, but in hindsight, I really wish I would have done it.
- 1:29SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna go over those two.
- 1:30SPEAKER_00: Uh, I think they're gonna help you out a lot, regardless of where you're at in your career, regardless how many homes you sell, how long you've been doing it for, maybe you're not even in real estate yet, you're you don't even have your license yet.
- 1:42SPEAKER_00: You're actually the lucky ones.
- 1:44SPEAKER_00: If you're just about to get your license, or if you're a brand new agent, man, I wish I knew this shit.
- 1:49SPEAKER_00: I wish someone would have taught me this.
- 1:51SPEAKER_00: Now, had they taught me this back then, I don't know if I would have been in the right mindset to listen or to take the advice, but that's up to you.
- 2:01SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, you're in the right mindset where you can hear the wisdom that came from experience and learn from it.
- 2:08SPEAKER_00: If you don't, it's just going to be much more difficult, as I learned the hard way.
- 2:14SPEAKER_00: This episode is sponsored by Keeping Current Matters and BAMX.
- 2:19SPEAKER_00: Keeping Current Matters, also known as KCM, this is such a cheat code for agents.
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- 2:52SPEAKER_00: Are they down?
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- 2:54SPEAKER_00: What's going to happen in the future?
- 2:56SPEAKER_00: You need to know this so you can help your buyers and sellers make better decisions.
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- 4:01SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's it's so many things, but what is so important is that you get yourself in an environment where you're around others that are doing or have already done the thing you want to do, and you have access to all of the how-to.
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- 4:39SPEAKER_00: Massiveagentpodcast.com slash BAMX and use code MASSIVE.
- 4:44SPEAKER_00: Let's get into these two huge mental mistakes I made as a brand new agent that unfortunately a lot of seasoned agents are still making.
- 4:52SPEAKER_00: Number one, you see everyone as a transaction.
- 4:57SPEAKER_00: I did.
- 4:58SPEAKER_00: Now, the second biggest mistake is actually the cause of the first one, and I'll get into that one in a second.
- 5:05SPEAKER_00: But I was told, I remember hearing this all the time, that you need to value relationships over transactions.
- 5:13SPEAKER_00: And like, you know, consciously, I get that, that makes sense, of course.
- 5:18SPEAKER_00: But then subconsciously, I'm like, I'm fucking starving over here.
- 5:21SPEAKER_00: I have no money, I'm broke, I need to sell some houses and I need to do it right now.
- 5:26SPEAKER_00: So I was needy.
- 5:28SPEAKER_00: I was, you know, I had this uh this well, I was frickin' broke.
- 5:33SPEAKER_00: I needed to close deals.
- 5:34SPEAKER_00: And so that unfortunately was fueling me looking at people as transactions.
- 5:40SPEAKER_00: I knew that that that one relationship, if I did right by them, if I really helped them, and then nurture that relationship over time, I knew that that could lead to so many more deals down the road.
- 5:52SPEAKER_00: But when you're freaking broke and you don't have any savings, you make bad decisions.
- 5:58SPEAKER_00: So the second big mental mistake was not having a savings runway.
- 6:04SPEAKER_00: I had no money saved up before I got into real estate.
- 6:06SPEAKER_00: I had no idea how long it would take to start selling homes.
- 6:09SPEAKER_00: I had no clue.
- 6:10SPEAKER_00: I actually like spent all of my money just to get licensed and then to pay the dues and everything just to get going.
- 6:16SPEAKER_00: 12 years ago, it was like it was like two grand, you know, for the for the class, for the licensing, for the test, for the the dues, all you know, MLS dues, all the shit, right?
- 6:25SPEAKER_00: It was around two grand.
- 6:27SPEAKER_00: So because I I didn't have any financial safety net, it made me see people as transactions, it made me focus on transactions over relationships.
- 6:40SPEAKER_00: It it's so in hindsight, it's so screwed up, but it's so clear why that happened.
- 6:46SPEAKER_00: So if you can get yourself in a great financial situation or even just have another income stream, maybe that's a partner or a spouse of yours that they have a job which is paying the bills, which lets you focus on doing your job without all that added pressure.
- 7:03SPEAKER_00: I didn't have any of that shit.
- 7:04SPEAKER_00: It was it was me.
- 7:05SPEAKER_00: My wife was running a house cleaning business that I mean it we were able to get groceries and stuff, but not much else.
- 7:12SPEAKER_00: Thank God she she was running that business and and did that, and it was it wasn't even really a business.
- 7:18SPEAKER_00: Like she she owned her own job, bless her heart, worked so freaking hard cleaning houses, she had a couple employees, and you know, in hindsight, it's crazy.
- 7:29SPEAKER_00: Had that had she not been doing that, we wouldn't have been able to even eat.
- 7:34SPEAKER_00: So we had that, but I knew like we're behind on bills.
- 7:39SPEAKER_00: When you are talking with a potential lead, or you go out to see homes, even if you are like the most honest, the most ethical agent on the planet, you want to do right by everyone, you're super moral in everything, which I believe I am.
- 7:55SPEAKER_00: When you in the back of your mind, subconsciously know that you need them to buy a house, you need to close quickly, the sooner you get that commission check, the better, because then you can get caught up on this bill and that bill and this one and that one.
- 8:09SPEAKER_00: You just approach things differently.
- 8:13SPEAKER_00: Your advice is just a little bit more pushy.
- 8:16SPEAKER_00: You tend to err on speed versus what their actual needs are.
- 8:23SPEAKER_00: And I'm not saying that I misled anyone, but I certainly I was certainly pushier than I than I should have been.
- 8:30SPEAKER_00: There were a few times where I was trying to keep a deal together when I knew that the best thing was, hey, let's just cancel this, let's go find something completely different, start from scratch.
- 8:41SPEAKER_00: If it takes an extra four months, so be it.
- 8:44SPEAKER_00: That would have been the ideal thing that if I was in a better financial situation and I didn't need the closing, uh, that would have been my recommendation.
- 8:52SPEAKER_00: But instead, I found myself trying to push to let's hang on to this, let's see if we can work this thing out.
- 8:59SPEAKER_00: And I in hindsight, I didn't get nearly as many referrals as I should have from the clients for the first few years because I was acting like they were transactions.
- 9:12SPEAKER_00: I was too focused on transactions and not relationships.
- 9:15SPEAKER_00: As I started to finally figure some shit out and get some houses selling and you know, got cut up financially, not even ahead, but just get caught up financially.
- 9:27SPEAKER_00: I was able to really understand, okay, let's focus more on the relationship, whether they close this week or next year, doesn't matter to me as long as I do right by them, because that's going to lead to more referrals and more deals long term.
- 9:42SPEAKER_00: I had to get to a better financial position.
- 9:45SPEAKER_00: In hindsight, I wish I would have had other income streams.
- 9:48SPEAKER_00: I wish I would have had investments that were paying cash flow.
- 9:50SPEAKER_00: I wish I would have had maybe another business that that was um you know bringing money in, or at least at a minimum, saved up a bunch.
- 9:59SPEAKER_00: Because I could have approached every situation, every client, and focused solely on the relationship instead of the transaction.
- 10:07SPEAKER_00: But I had to spend a year or two or three treating people like transactions.
- 10:14SPEAKER_00: I don't think that they consciously felt that, but I'm sure somehow at a subconscious level they absolutely could.
- 10:23SPEAKER_00: And and it shows.
- 10:24SPEAKER_00: Like you when you go to a store, you can tell a store that has salespeople, you can tell if they need to make a sale.
- 10:33SPEAKER_00: You just can.
- 10:34SPEAKER_00: If they don't need to make a sale, they're just like, hey, whatever you want to do.
- 10:38SPEAKER_00: Like if they don't need to make a sale, they may even tell you, hey, you should actually go buy it across the street.
- 10:43SPEAKER_00: It's 50% off over there.
- 10:45SPEAKER_00: It's a better product.
- 10:47SPEAKER_00: When was the last time you told a client not to buy a house?
- 10:50SPEAKER_00: When was the last time you told a client to not sell their house?
- 10:54SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
- 10:56SPEAKER_00: Now, if you haven't been advising people, I'm not saying that you're just seeing everyone as transactions and you're pushy.
- 11:03SPEAKER_00: That's not what I'm saying.
- 11:05SPEAKER_00: But when you are solely focused on building deep relationships, that's the kind of advice you give more often.
- 11:14SPEAKER_00: And once I finally, like four or five years in, was finally able to really understand what everyone had been telling me my whole career up to that point, that you need to focus on relationships over transactions, which I would I didn't even want to hear in the beginning.
- 11:29SPEAKER_00: Because I'm like, I'm like, you don't even know.
- 11:31SPEAKER_00: I need some fucking money.
- 11:33SPEAKER_00: So don't tell me to focus on relationships.
- 11:35SPEAKER_00: I need transactions, so that's what I'm gonna focus on.
- 11:38SPEAKER_00: And I acted like it.
- 11:40SPEAKER_00: But once I was finally able to really grasp what that meant, I started to get referrals.
- 11:46SPEAKER_00: I started to get more business that led to more business that led to more business.
- 11:49SPEAKER_00: So the sooner you can get to that place where you are legitimately only worried about building great relationships, you don't care if they close on the first house they see or the hundredth.
- 12:05SPEAKER_00: You prefer they they buy one of the first few, of course.
- 12:08SPEAKER_00: Of course.
- 12:09SPEAKER_00: But if they don't, if it takes them time, or if they decide not even to buy at all and they're just gonna keep renting, if that's legitimately okay with you, and you make it very clear to them that you are not only okay with it, you support it, you understand it, you're there to help them, even in that.
- 12:28SPEAKER_00: Oh, you're gonna rent?
- 12:29SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, what do you need?
- 12:30SPEAKER_00: What can I who can I hook you up with?
- 12:32SPEAKER_00: What kind of services are you gonna need if you're gonna be moving into a new rental?
- 12:36SPEAKER_00: And you can help them even though there's not a direct commission check in it.
- 12:41SPEAKER_00: That's what builds the relationship, which leads to referrals, which leads to many, many, many more transactions.
- 12:48SPEAKER_00: The stat that I've heard many, many times is that the average client, when you nurture them, when you do right by them and treat them well, each client should lead to seven to ten deals later on.
- 13:02SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's repeat business from them, but usually it comes in the form of referrals where you help someone get into their first house, or even you advise hey, don't put your house on the market.
- 13:13SPEAKER_00: Instead, rent it and then do this.
- 13:15SPEAKER_00: And like you teach them some creative financing, for example.
- 13:19SPEAKER_00: Or uh they can go pick up something with seller financing where they take over someone's payments and a subject to transaction.
- 13:25SPEAKER_00: Uh, maybe you don't even get paid from that, but they're like, oh my God, like he put us first.
- 13:30SPEAKER_00: That's amazing.
- 13:30SPEAKER_00: What are they gonna do when you put the client first?
- 13:33SPEAKER_00: They're going to refer you to literally everybody.
- 13:37SPEAKER_00: That's how this works.
- 13:38SPEAKER_00: Focus on relationships where you're causing that reaction.
- 13:44SPEAKER_00: If you can cause more reactions where people are like, wow, they really went, they bent over backwards for me.
- 13:51SPEAKER_00: They obviously weren't even worried about themselves.
- 13:54SPEAKER_00: They just wanted to make sure we were good.
- 13:55SPEAKER_00: They're gonna scream about you from a mountaintop, they're gonna leave great reviews, they're gonna refer you, they're gonna tag you in Facebook posts where people are looking for realtor recommendations, which I know that's a blessing and a curse.
- 14:08SPEAKER_00: Depends on where it is.
- 14:09SPEAKER_00: If it's in a Facebook group, it's a fucking curse.
- 14:12SPEAKER_00: But you get my point.
- 14:14SPEAKER_00: I screwed up so bad, even though I was told relationships over transactions, because I literally needed transactions to pay bills and survive, I didn't get it for many years.
- 14:27SPEAKER_00: I regret that.
- 14:28SPEAKER_00: I wish that I had planned ahead, gotten into a better financial situation, saved up some money, so I had some runway, which would take the pressure off so I didn't so I wasn't being so damn needy.
- 14:43SPEAKER_00: I think this is super common in our industry.
- 14:47SPEAKER_00: The better financial shape you can be in, the better agent you will be.
- 14:53SPEAKER_00: I believe that.
- 14:55SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't mean you must be in a great financial situation or else you're you're an awful agent.
- 15:00SPEAKER_00: That's not what I'm saying.
- 15:01SPEAKER_00: But when you have no pressure, when you don't feel any pressure to get a deal closed, you're going to be a better advisor.
- 15:10SPEAKER_00: Because in the end, we are advisors.
- 15:12SPEAKER_00: We're not salespeople.
- 15:13SPEAKER_00: If you think of yourself as a salesperson, I'm sorry, but you're an advisor.
- 15:18SPEAKER_00: And the more you can advise people and actually put them first, I promise you, you will be closing so many more deals.
- 15:26SPEAKER_00: Because that's how it works.
- 15:28SPEAKER_00: People want to work with an advisor, people want to work with an advocate, someone who they know is on their side and they trust, no matter what, to put their needs first and put your own needs as a salesperson on the back burner.
- 15:43SPEAKER_00: And if your clients feel that you've done that, you get referrals.
- 15:48SPEAKER_00: And that is the most powerful form of marketing there is.
- 15:52SPEAKER_00: It doesn't cost you any money.
- 15:53SPEAKER_00: And it's the amount of referrals you can get is infinite.
- 15:57SPEAKER_00: You do a great job for one client, knock it out of the park, wow the shit out of them.
- 16:03SPEAKER_00: They can refer you to three more people, one of those could refer you to four more, and so on.
- 16:08SPEAKER_00: And pretty soon, hundreds of deals are potentially happening because it started with one.
- 16:14SPEAKER_00: That takes time, obviously.
- 16:16SPEAKER_00: You need time in the industry for that to play out, but it's absolutely possible.
- 16:20SPEAKER_00: I talk to agents all the time who have businesses like that.
- 16:24SPEAKER_00: It takes time, but my God, it will never happen.
- 16:29SPEAKER_00: I don't care how long you're in the industry, it'll never happen if you're just seeing people as a transaction.
- 16:36SPEAKER_00: If you close the deal and then they never hear from you again, that's probably an indication that you are treating them like a transaction and not humans.
- 16:44SPEAKER_00: If you're treating them like human beings, like and you want a relationship with them, you'd probably stay in touch.
- 16:49SPEAKER_00: You'd probably check in.
- 16:50SPEAKER_00: Like any good restaurant you go to, or any restaurant with a great server, they bring the food, a couple minutes later, they come by to check on you.
- 16:58SPEAKER_00: Hey, how is it by the way?
- 17:00SPEAKER_00: How does everything taste?
- 17:01SPEAKER_00: Do you need anything else?
- 17:02SPEAKER_00: Can I bring you some hot sauce?
- 17:03SPEAKER_00: Which for me is always yes.
- 17:05SPEAKER_00: Are you doing that with your clients?
- 17:07SPEAKER_00: Because if you're not checking in after the fact, if you're not helping them, like, oh, you're gonna redo the kitchen?
- 17:13SPEAKER_00: Well, let me refer you to this great painter.
- 17:15SPEAKER_00: Oh, oh, you need something with the AC, you need it tuned up.
- 17:19SPEAKER_00: Oh, well, I have this great person, let me get you their information.
- 17:22SPEAKER_00: And you start connecting them with service providers that you know are great, that's more value.
- 17:27SPEAKER_00: Then you become a valuable tool in the tool belt of your client and not just someone who is a salesperson that sold them the house and then they forget about you.
- 17:37SPEAKER_00: If you're not getting referrals, if if you've been in the business for more than a year or two and you're not getting referrals, it's time to take a real honest look in the mirror.
- 17:46SPEAKER_00: Why is that?
- 17:48SPEAKER_00: You may not realize it, but you may be treating people like transactions.
- 17:52SPEAKER_00: You may not be focused enough on the relationship.
- 17:54SPEAKER_00: If this is too Pollyanna, if this is too like, you know, if you don't like this conversation, then that means you're in the mindset that I was in when I was broke starting out and not selling shit.
- 18:06SPEAKER_00: So it's not a good place to be.
- 18:10SPEAKER_00: So whatever reaction you're having to this conversation, catch it.
- 18:15SPEAKER_00: Notice it.
- 18:17SPEAKER_00: Audit it.
- 18:18SPEAKER_00: And as soon as you if you find yourself negatively reacting to this and you find out, huh, there's some truth in what I'm saying, and it causes you to change your behavior, or even just make a slight adjustment in how you're approaching your clients, especially right after the transaction, that could change everything for you.
- 18:39SPEAKER_00: A slight adjustment can change everything.
- 18:42SPEAKER_00: So I challenge you today, get yourself in a great financial situation.
- 18:46SPEAKER_00: If you can get more streams of income, uh, do that.
- 18:50SPEAKER_00: Uh here's what's crazy.
- 18:52SPEAKER_00: Even the most so many of the most successful agents still only have one stream of income, commission.
- 18:58SPEAKER_00: What happens if you cannot keep performing and that one source dries up?
- 19:03SPEAKER_00: You're broke.
- 19:04SPEAKER_00: You're done.
- 19:05SPEAKER_00: There's no business anymore.
- 19:06SPEAKER_00: It's not a business.
- 19:08SPEAKER_00: If you have other streams of income from investments or revenue or profit share, other businesses or affiliate income or referral income, and you have other streams happening, it makes it much, much, much easier.
- 19:21SPEAKER_00: You know that if if your client today decides to not buy and it's going to take three or four more months to find him a place, you're like, I'm good.
- 19:29SPEAKER_00: I have money coming in in other ways.
- 19:31SPEAKER_00: It just makes you a better real estate advisor.
- 19:35SPEAKER_00: I challenge you to find out where your blind spots are.
- 19:39SPEAKER_00: I didn't recognize my blind spots until many years later, looking backwards.
- 19:45SPEAKER_00: I didn't have anyone in my business, I didn't have anyone in my life to look at how I was doing things and challenge it.
- 19:52SPEAKER_00: I didn't have this podcast back then.
- 19:54SPEAKER_00: I didn't have anything like this to help me think about how I was acting and how I was doing things.
- 20:03SPEAKER_00: So take this opportunity.
- 20:05SPEAKER_00: One little adjustment can change everything for you in a positive way.
- 20:08SPEAKER_00: And a couple adjustments could be absolutely life-changing.
- 20:12SPEAKER_00: Hope you enjoyed this episode.
- 20:13SPEAKER_00: Please share it with someone who you think would get value from it.
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- 20:20SPEAKER_00: We're actually getting very, very close to a million total downloads.
- 20:23SPEAKER_00: We crossed about 910,000 earlier this week, and we're on track to break a million total downloads by the end of 2023.
- 20:32SPEAKER_00: But I need your help.
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- 20:44SPEAKER_00: Thank you for everyone who does do that, has done that, and will do that.
- 20:48SPEAKER_00: I appreciate it so much.
- 20:49SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening.
- 20:50SPEAKER_00: We'll be back next week.
- 20:51SPEAKER_00: See ya.