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How To Be Consistently Magnetic Even When Life Throws You A Curve Ball · Ninja Selling Podcast

• 0:02
  Ninja Selling: Subtle skills, big results.
• 0:05
  Welcome to the Ninja Selling Podcast.
• 0:07
  Eric: Hey everyone, it's your good friend, Eric Thompson.
• 0:09
  Welcome to the Ninja Selling Podcast.
• 0:10
  Thank you as always for listening and engaging.
• 0:13
  We appreciate it.
• 0:14
  Today's gonna be a good one.
• 0:15
  Today's gonna be a powerful, really incredible interview
• 0:18
  that I'm so looking forward to.
• 0:21
  I want everyone to meet the Ninja extraordinaire April Myers.
• 0:25
  Say hello, April.
• 0:26
  April: Hi.
• 0:27
  Thank you for that introduction, Eric.
• 0:29
  Now I've gotta pack some power behind my interview.
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  Eric: I have every belief that you will.
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  We have no doubt, April that this is gonna be an awesome podcast.
• 0:39
  We appreciate you being here.
• 0:41
  You work with Shelly Culbertson.
• 0:43
  Shelly is your Ninja Coach.
• 0:45
  We appreciate that.
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  And we appreciate all the takeaways that you're about to share, and you're
• 0:48
  gonna share an amazing story that people will relate to because we all
• 0:52
  have hard stuff that comes along.
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  And so I'll tell everyone right up front what we're calling this podcast
• 0:58
  is how to be consistently magnetic even when life throws you a curve ball.
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  Because April, you'll tell a story a little bit about life
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  throwing you a curve ball.
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  But why don't we start with just some questions to get to
• 1:09
  know you a little bit better.
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  Tell us where you are, the company you're with, a little bit about your family.
• 1:15
  April: Absolutely.
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  So you may have to remind me if I don't cover all those topics, but April
• 1:21
  Myers realtor in Arlington, Virginia, which is the suburbs of Washington DC.
• 1:28
  So we're right outside, across the bridge from Georgetown.
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  I met @properties, RLAH @properties.
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  So, @properties became our franchisor in I believe 2022.
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  So we really enjoyed our partnership with them.
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  So many amazing tools, and it's such a, a great, great brokerage.
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  And so I'm with them in Northern Virginia.
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  They have offices all throughout the DMV, but I just, I'm very
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  focused on just Virginia.
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  That's where I do all of my business.
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  And I have a husband, Colin, and my son Gabe, he's seven.
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  I guess in our free time together as a family, we will go on hikes.
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  We'll go to maybe a festival, we'll drive out to the countryside
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  in Northern Virginia and enjoy, you know, a nice afternoon.
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  We love the pool.
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  We've met a lot of really great friends for Gabe's school.
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  That's me in a nutshell.
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  Eric: Great.
• 2:26
  Great.
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  April, thank you so much for sharing that.
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  That's fantastic.
• 2:29
  Yeah.
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  People should know that we're recording this during the shutdown,
• 2:32
  during the government shutdown, and coincidentally it worked out that way.
• 2:36
  April: We did not plan that.
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  Eric: Your market has had some challenges this year and we, we
• 2:42
  will talk about that and, and again, how to be consistently magnetic
• 2:45
  even when things like that happen.
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  Before we get into your production, how you responded to those kind
• 2:51
  of things, we thought it'd be fun to share April a little bit
• 2:55
  about your real estate background.
• 2:57
  And you, you had a really interesting role in real estate.
• 3:00
  For I think seven years, if I have that right, I won't spoil it.
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  Tell us what that was and what, what you did, and then we'll get into what, how
• 3:09
  that translates to what you're doing now.
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  April: So I'm not gonna spend too much time talking about this
• 3:13
  phase of my life, but I actually went to college for real estate.
• 3:16
  I got my minor in real estate from the University of Northern Iowa.
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  UNI go Panthers proud alumni.
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  They have a real estate division there.
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  So I decided to get my degree and do real estate right after college,
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  and so we'll fast forward to 2016.
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  I was hired by a local brokerage here in the DMV to be their recruiting manager.
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  And went up the ranks of doing recruiting and was the vice president of strategic
• 3:47
  growth actually for my current brokerage.
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  So not only did I spend years trying to sell agents on the brokerage and
• 3:56
  our mission now I'm like living it.
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  It's given me a really great platform to become somewhat fearless in now
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  being back in, in real estate sales.
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  Eric: Yeah.
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  You told me that that may have been the hardest thing you ever did.
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  April: Absolutely.
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  Eric: How many agents did you recruit to your company?
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  April: Well, between the two companies, between 175 and 200 agents, you
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  know, I obviously didn't do it alone.
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  There's no "I" in team, I was, you know, the entry point.
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  For a lot of agents, introduction to both brokerages, and then I worked
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  with our management teams on both ends to really seal the deal and to
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  help agents better their lives and, and join these two great companies.
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  Eric: Got it, got it.
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  So you today you're in flow with real estate clients, then
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  you were in flow with a lot of realtors, so it made you fearless.
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  You have no problem being in flow today given how much you were in flow.
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  Before you also told me that a, a big benefit of that and the fact that you
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  were in flow with so many people is now, when you're working with them on
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  transactions, you already know them.
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  They're already know you.
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  So a lot of benefits came from that.
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  April: Absolutely, absolutely.
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  Yes.
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  A ton of benefits.
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  Not only did it make me not really scared to.
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  Converse with everyday people that could be buying or selling a home,
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  which is pretty much anybody you come across in your everyday life.
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  I became friends with a lot of these agents.
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  If I interviewed them and they never came to the brokerage,
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  that was always fine with me.
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  Everybody had to do their own thing.
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  But what it did is it created really great relationships with a lot of
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  the top agents, you know, here in the DMV and, and that has really voted
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  very well for me with my clients and helping them get offers ratified
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  in very competitive situations.
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  They know I'm gonna get the deal done, that I'm serious, steadfast,
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  and that I have experience and that I'm a professional.
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  I didn't realize it while I was in it, but those steps led me to a point
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  that now I know it really prepared me to be a much more confident realtor.
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  Eric: Yes, yes.
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  I love that.
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  So, here you are today.
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  You're having a really good year.
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  So you told me your own pace.
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  To be somewhere between in sales volume, 16 million to to 20 million in volume.
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  April: Mm-hmm.
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  Eric: By the way, to share with everyone, her average price is 900,000.
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  April's average price is about 900,000.
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  And so your volume this year, April, you're projecting to be somewhere in the
• 6:27
  neighborhood of 20% up over last year.
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  April: Mm-hmm.
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  Eric: Before we even talk about what, what happened to you early in the year,
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  given what's going on in your market and what was going on in your market
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  with the layoffs and, and everything happening with federal workers?
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  That was tough.
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  The DC market had a tough start to the year.
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  April: Right.
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  Absolutely.
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  You know, the suburbs are definitely in better shape than DC proper, depending on
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  what you're looking for in the home type.
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  But get on the rollercoaster, put your seatbelt on, because it
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  just seems to not end this year.
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  We just have to get used to the volatility, I think.
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  And I had been saying that before the government shut down on October one.
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  So now we have this, you know, and we have people that have.
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  Decided to put their home search on pause because you know, as of October 24th,
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  they're not gonna be getting a paycheck.
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  It's really interesting times.
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  I'm holding a listing of mine because I have a feeling it could be two
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  government employees that buy it.
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  So we're waiting a week or two before putting it on the market because
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  we're gonna just see how the market fares in the next couple weeks.
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  So anyway, yeah, it's been an interesting year.
• 7:30
  It's hopefully you're in for the amusement park that we're on right now or in.
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  Eric: So speaking of interesting year, and I say this with all seriousness,
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  speaking of, of unexpected, tell us what happened with your husband.
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  April: Yeah, so in the late fall of 2024, so November, mid-November
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  2024, my husband has epilepsy.
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  It's very controlled by anti-seizure medication.
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  He actually hadn't had a seizure in over 10 years, and
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  unfortunately he had a seizure.
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  Not to get into the nitty gritty details, but I went to bed one night thinking
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  everything was fine, and I woke up the next morning and everything wasn't.
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  And so it was one of those moments where, you know, you think you're short
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  on time or you think you're short on certain things and you know, you wake
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  up in the morning and you get a slap in the face that tells you, well, actually
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  no, it's gonna get a little tougher.
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  So, you know, unfortunately, because it wasn't considered a
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  breakthrough seizure, he lost his driver's license for six months.
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  So I became driving Miss Daisy.
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  I've had to drive my son everywhere, groceries, errands.
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  School pickup, school drop off.
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  You name it, sports.
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  In addition to, you know, as realtors, we drive for a living.
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  If we're not out showing houses, we're going to listings, we're
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  previewing inventory, you know, we are spending a lot of time in the car.
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  So my days got way shorter when this all happened.
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  And then unfortunately again in March of 2025, he had another seizure.
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  So the clock started back over.
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  He finally just got his license back September 10th, his driver's
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  license, and he's safe to drive.
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  But man, it really threw our family for a loop.
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  Eric: Almost a year with him not driving.
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  And let's acknowledge we're, we're, we're so happy to hear that.
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  He's better.
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  That's terrific.
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  Now, let's just bring all this together.
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  Here you are this year, having a year that's 20% better than
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  last year in a market that is not 20% better than than last year.
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  Your market is down more than its fair share of challenges, and your husband
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  has a seizure at the end of 2024.
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  You're dealing with that.
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  Emotionally, you're, you're done with the time of that into him,
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  and now, now you're having to do all the driving of your young son.
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  Any of us with children know what that's like.
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  How did you do that?
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  How did you stay on track?
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  Stay consistent, get those results, keep going.
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  How did you do it?
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  April: Right.
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  Well, I still look back on the last 10 months and wonder I don't, or 11
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  almost months, and I'm like, whoa, I don't know how I did it, but.
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  When I reentered the sales world in December of 2022, which is going into
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  January of 2023, I knew I needed to have a plan and I needed to have a
• 10:16
  system to set up and run my business like a business in order to grow.
• 10:21
  And I had read enough studies and I knew it well enough, seeing other
• 10:25
  agents take off in years prior in management, and I knew it would take
• 10:30
  about three hardcore years of grinding.
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  Doing multiple open houses a month, doing things to grow a sphere.
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  So I had names on my database to market to, and so, because I had
• 10:44
  done a lot of that work earlier on, thanks to Ninja, I was in a weird
• 10:50
  way, somewhat prepared to handle.
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  At least the part of the business that needs to run while you're out running.
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  I already had had my business plan in place, and when Shelly and I met for
• 11:01
  my business planning for this year, we really took a hard look at what can we
• 11:07
  really focus on this year that's realistic and that works with April's schedule.
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  And what are ways that I can maybe create silver linings out of this
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  awful situation that I'm in that I can't really tell people about and
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  that I'm scared to tell clients about?
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  Because I don't wanna lose clients.
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  'cause if they think I can't drive, am I gonna like, am I gonna miss out on a
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  deal or like miss out on clients 'cause oh, she's too busy or she doesn't have
• 11:31
  time or she's going through a hard time.
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  Like that is the last thing I wanted.
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  I had, didn't work my butt off for the last two and a
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  half years for that to happen.
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  And so.
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  I became really bound and determined to say it will affect me.
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  I refuse to become a victim to my circumstances, so I just
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  refused outside of, I don't know.
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  I don't know outside of that.
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  So it's a lot of really good time blocking, it's a lot of planning ahead.
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  It's seeing realistically what can fit into my schedule.
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  I mean, I've done not nearly the amount of open houses I probably
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  should have done this year.
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  But you know what?
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  Like I can't do it all.
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  So I feel like the universe has somewhat blessed me with some things that have, I
• 12:13
  don't wanna say fallen into my lap, but maybe it's because of the seeds that I
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  planted years ago or that I continue to plant consistently that have really led to
• 12:22
  some more business than I ever imagined.
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  Eric: More business than you ever imagined in, in a really tough year.
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  April: Right?
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  We did not know the amount of layoffs that would happen when
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  we did our business planning.
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  We didn't know the amount of, like a little bit of upheaval, you know,
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  and, and just getting used to changes.
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  Not saying what's wrong or right, or what you agree with or what you don't.
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  I mean, these are changes and that's a fact.
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  And so it's not only adapting to that, but adapting to a different
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  lifestyle in my own personal household.
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  Eric: Right, right.
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  So we, we say everyone knows this.
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  We say three keys to success, mindset, skillset, action in that order.
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  And what's coming up for me, April, is that there you were having that
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  player mindset, not a victim mindset.
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  We know about response ability.
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  We have the ability to choose our response.
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  We can't control what happens, but what we can control is
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  our response to what happens.
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  And there you were saying, you know what?
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  I'm gonna keep going.
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  I'm gonna figure this out.
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  I'm gonna make this work.
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  I can do this.
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  No way.
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  I'm gonna let this be in the way, and this is a big deal.
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  Your eyes were open to it, but you decided that you were still gonna make it happen.
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  April: Absolutely.
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  I started getting up half hour to an hour earlier every day.
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  I was already getting up early, but now I'm like, well I have less time,
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  and how do I create more time to do my affirmations, to do my mindset stuff?
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  Because I know like I need to work on that because it keeps me grounded
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  and it keeps me sane every day.
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  It is really weird.
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  How or odd, I don't know what the right word is, or you're,
• 13:57
  you're probably like, no, April, this is how it's supposed to be.
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  But like after you do so much mental work for two years, how it prepares
• 14:04
  you to handle a tougher load when a tougher load comes your way.
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  Eric: Yes, absolutely.
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  And, and you know what?
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  You made the decision to really lean into it.
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  Sometimes we see when people have hardship in their life,
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  challenges, things that come along.
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  They always do.
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  Sometimes we see people at that moment go away from things like
• 14:25
  the morning routine, go away from.
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  The very thing that would build up their mindset, that that's when they
• 14:30
  stop doing it, when they actually need it the most, and they stop doing
• 14:34
  it because it, they get distracted.
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  They get pulled off track.
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  Their attention is having to go to this thing that's become an urgent urgency
• 14:40
  in their life, which makes sense.
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  But you had the mindset and you are aware enough to know that, oh, oh
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  no, I need this now more than ever.
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  My morning routine and, and all the things that, that build up my mindset.
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  April: Mm-hmm.
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  Right.
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  And I, I think I wrote out for a while, I will not be a victim of my
• 14:57
  circumstances, or maybe we didn't do that.
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  Maybe we made it a positive, but I, I can't even remember.
• 15:02
  But, you know, I, I made sure that that was not gonna happen.
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  And so I was like, I will be an anomaly.
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  I will be.
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  I was already going to be, so why let this stop me?
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  Eric: Right.
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  You had the mindset and then tactically you really leaned into time blocking.
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  You were already a time blocker, but that became a really important
• 15:22
  skillset and, and action for you.
• 15:24
  April: And as best as possible in our market, still the houses that look
• 15:29
  good and that are priced right and in areas where a lot of people wanna
• 15:34
  be, are still flying off the market.
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  I mean, this past weekend I listed a house.
• 15:39
  Five offers 50,000 over asking like you would never know the
• 15:43
  government shut down, right?
• 15:44
  Obviously, like there's certain things I do to prepare for that listing that
• 15:47
  make it stand out against others.
• 15:49
  However, we have to be ready to get the phone call that, hey.
• 15:55
  I know April, we told you we were just gonna go open house.
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  We're just browsing.
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  But I got a call on a Sunday at 4:00 PM that said I need to have this house.
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  And offers were due the next day at 12 and there were five other offers on the table.
• 16:08
  So you do have to still put everything down at some point to
• 16:11
  make it work for your clients.
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  These were great clients.
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  It doesn't matter any sort of client.
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  And so leaving a little bit of space still for the unexpected.
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  Is important and knowing that it's gonna feel crappy when
• 16:25
  you're going through that moment.
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  But when you get a ratified contract and a two and a half million dollar house
• 16:31
  that Monday at 3:00 PM after the offers were due at 12, it's really worth it.
• 16:37
  Also, planning ahead for it to be a little.
• 16:39
  A little tougher.
• 16:40
  I knew that the market probably wouldn't improve and we wouldn't
• 16:44
  be seeing a ton of inventory in the neighborhoods that I work a lot in.
• 16:47
  That stayed consistent through this year, but yet again, that's where my recruiting
• 16:51
  experience came into play and comes into play because that offer was ratified
• 16:56
  with an agent I recruited years ago, and it worked out very well for my clients.
• 17:01
  So not only the time blocking, but leaving some space for knowing that your
• 17:05
  weekends are gonna be a little sporadic.
• 17:07
  But making sure there's some safe space in there for your
• 17:10
  family and for setting aside.
• 17:12
  So I really don't take meetings on Fridays, Saturdays, or Sundays unless
• 17:16
  I absolutely have to because I know I'm gonna be out showing houses.
• 17:20
  I'm gonna be either doing an open house or things with my family.
• 17:24
  'cause there's sports on the weekends.
• 17:25
  Eric: Right.
• 17:26
  Exactly.
• 17:26
  Got it.
• 17:27
  We all have those times where we feel like we're overwhelmed, like
• 17:29
  we feel like there's no time.
• 17:32
  You were really shown that life was like, okay, I'll show you no
• 17:35
  time, and you still figure it out.
• 17:37
  So hopefully that that's a lesson for everyone.
• 17:40
  You can make it happen.
• 17:41
  You can create the time.
• 17:42
  One thing, April, that helps you to be consistently magnetic is your flow.
• 17:47
  You have a very effective flow system, both your live flow and your auto flow.
• 17:53
  Let's talk a little bit about that, if that's okay.
• 17:56
  And so let, let's, why don't we start with with auto flow things that
• 17:59
  you're sending out to your sphere.
• 18:00
  So.
• 18:01
  Tell us how many people are in your database in, in your sphere, and then
• 18:05
  walk us through what they receive from you in the mail or, or by email.
• 18:10
  April: So I have about 225 people total on my database, in my database, and I market
• 18:18
  to all of those people on a regular basis.
• 18:20
  I have certain tags set up.
• 18:22
  First of all, I use the @properties, CRM, called Platform.
• 18:25
  It's amazing.
• 18:26
  It makes up my life a lot easier every day.
• 18:28
  But I have about 240 people total.
• 18:32
  That's across the United States.
• 18:33
  I market to agents, I market to my family, I market to my sphere.
• 18:39
  Friends and family that live around the country.
• 18:41
  And then locally here in the DMV, I have about 150 people on my sphere, so
• 18:46
  they get at least two emails a month from me, typically a local newsletter
• 18:51
  about things happening in the area.
• 18:53
  I rarely put real estate things in it, but sometimes I do.
• 18:56
  And then they get at least two to three mailings from me, I
• 19:00
  would say every five weeks.
• 19:02
  So I do a quarterly newsletter that I write.
• 19:05
  My marketing team at RHLA helps me get out and then I do postcards and then
• 19:11
  any other mailings that I can spice in in between and sprinkle in between.
• 19:15
  Eric: Just to make sure we heard you right, so two emails a month and
• 19:19
  both of those emails really don't talk about real estate or is there
• 19:23
  one is real estate and one's not.
• 19:25
  April: Yeah, so one is about like local events, like what's happening in the area.
• 19:30
  It's like a beginning of the month newsletter and here's what you
• 19:33
  can do in the DMV for October, or here's, you know, ways you can prep
• 19:38
  your home for the fall and winter.
• 19:40
  And that comes from me.
• 19:42
  It's put together very easily.
• 19:44
  It's all done for me in our platform.
• 19:47
  And then another email goes out to my sphere through just my Gmail,
• 19:52
  and it's more of a market update or what I'm seeing in real estate.
• 19:56
  And I will say it's in my calendars, I send that.
• 19:59
  But as far as the topic goes, I have to be fluid with it because things
• 20:03
  are consistently changing in this business, and I wanna speak about.
• 20:06
  Write about what's relevant, and I wanna be concise.
• 20:09
  I wanna be looked at as the local expert.
• 20:12
  Hey, if you have a real estate question or a need, this is who you go to is April.
• 20:17
  I want it to get forwarded.
• 20:19
  I want it to be seen.
• 20:20
  And so it comes directly like from my Gmail, and it's just something I write.
• 20:24
  Every month based on a topic that's relevant.
• 20:26
  And a lot of times I'll get those ideas either from the Ninja
• 20:29
  sales meeting or from our own sales meeting at our brokerage.
• 20:32
  We use the data that my brokers go over with us and
• 20:35
  use that as a tool to send out.
• 20:37
  Eric: Okay.
• 20:38
  So we we talked about that mixture between art and science.
• 20:41
  April: Yes.
• 20:42
  Eric: So you're doing that with these email newsletters.
• 20:44
  One is art and then two weeks later, is science and then a similar approach
• 20:48
  to your postcards, or are all the postcards more real estate focused?
• 20:53
  April: No, I'll do like maybe a, a late summer sales recap, or if I've
• 20:57
  got a great testimonial from clients from a transaction recently, I'll put
• 21:02
  that on a postcard and send it out.
• 21:04
  Or if there's some sort of specific holiday or something
• 21:07
  going on for the month.
• 21:10
  Right now it's, you know, Halloween.
• 21:12
  So I sent something out about the Teal Pumpkin project, which is the
• 21:15
  food allergy friendly program for kids with food allergies and how
• 21:19
  to manage that around Halloween.
• 21:21
  It's in my calendar what we're sending, and if I don't have anything or the
• 21:25
  time to figure out what to send, I lean in on my brokerage and they have
• 21:30
  pre-made, you know, marketing pieces that I can do a couple clicks of the
• 21:33
  button, and then it goes out and they customize it for me and it goes out.
• 21:37
  So it's super easy.
• 21:39
  It's super, super easy.
• 21:41
  So if you know I'm running shorter on ideas or shorter on time, I do it.
• 21:45
  I have not skipped a beat since I started doing this in December of 2022.
• 21:50
  Like I said, going into 2023, I just started.
• 21:53
  And then the other piece that they will get is a quarterly newsletter
• 21:57
  from me that's written, that's designed, my immediate department
• 22:00
  helps me with that design.
• 22:02
  But we put on maybe a couple sales, you know, what's happening in the fall market.
• 22:07
  Or this last one was what's happening so far this year with numbers 'cause
• 22:12
  there's so much mixed information in the media about real estate and
• 22:16
  what's happening with the market.
• 22:17
  So I did something about that and then on the backside of
• 22:21
  that I created a vendor's guide.
• 22:23
  And so that went on there, the link to the vendor guide.
• 22:27
  And then I have like a little space on the back of that for like either
• 22:31
  a title company or my insurance guy or a lender to do a little blurb.
• 22:37
  So that's the newsletter that goes out once a quarter.
• 22:40
  So that's the flow that I do.
• 22:42
  You know, there's other things sprinkled in there, like I think I do
• 22:45
  a home bot and my clients get a home bot if they own a home once a month.
• 22:50
  But that's more something, it's just added.
• 22:52
  That's like a bonus.
• 22:54
  Eric: You made the comment a few minutes ago that you haven't missed
• 22:57
  a beat since near the end of 2022.
• 23:01
  Talk more about that because I know.
• 23:03
  Consistency is a big deal to you.
• 23:05
  And, and so talk about consistency and talk about your method related to
• 23:10
  business planning on how you automate your consistency, how you, how you
• 23:14
  become almost automatically consistent.
• 23:17
  April: When I do my business plan for the year in November and December, we
• 23:22
  work with our coach on it, but also do it with Larry as a coaching client.
• 23:26
  Or with you, Eric, maybe as a coaching client, what I do is I take all of
• 23:30
  the things that I know I need to do and then I put it into my calendar.
• 23:35
  And so the beginning of every month, I have real estate reviews blocked
• 23:39
  out every Monday from one to 2:00 PM in my calendar every week, but that
• 23:44
  first week of every month, I have it written down on their, who's all
• 23:48
  getting a review from me based on who purchased last year or the year before.
• 23:53
  So I don't have to think about who to send or who to do the review for, and
• 23:58
  it's a good reminder for me who to send it to because it's on my calendar and
• 24:02
  I live and read by my Google calendar.
• 24:05
  I know that it needs to get done and that it's something that is gonna hang
• 24:08
  over me if I don't, oh, something else.
• 24:11
  I didn't go over and flow.
• 24:12
  I do all the birthday cards.
• 24:14
  The anniversary cards and all of that.
• 24:17
  I also take a client to dinner at least once a month.
• 24:20
  So that's something I added to my business plan this year is
• 24:23
  'cause I know I'm getting less.
• 24:25
  Time to meet new people.
• 24:26
  I'm gonna spend time with the people that have given me referrals or that
• 24:29
  have really supported me and been there early on with me in the business.
• 24:33
  And I love doing that.
• 24:34
  It's kind of a treat, 'cause I get to eat too.
• 24:36
  And then we just talk about fun stuff and we're all friends.
• 24:40
  It's really, really nice.
• 24:41
  So taking more of a personal approach to things like this year.
• 24:45
  Eric: Well that the process you were talking about with your real estate
• 24:48
  reviews and putting that in your calendar and putting the names of
• 24:52
  the people in there for each month.
• 24:55
  Really what you're doing is you're helping out your future self.
• 24:58
  You are offloading thinking that your future self would have to do so.
• 25:03
  Your future self shows up to that month.
• 25:05
  At some point in the future and says, oh, I don't have to think about
• 25:08
  who's getting real estate reviews.
• 25:10
  I've already decided.
• 25:11
  So when you can decide ahead of time, you do yourself such a favor.
• 25:16
  You remove that thinking, and then when you, when you hit that time
• 25:18
  in your calendar, you just go.
• 25:20
  You just do it.
• 25:21
  There's no more thinking.
• 25:22
  You've done the thinking ahead of time.
• 25:23
  So decide ahead of time, think ahead of time.
• 25:26
  Your future self will.
• 25:27
  Thank you for it.
• 25:28
  April: Right, and that's just one example.
• 25:29
  Like I do all of my auto flow and my flow, it's all in my calendar.
• 25:34
  And so my get on Zen list, which is the tool I use with my home buyers, like
• 25:39
  Engage on Zen List, is on my calendar because I know I will forget to do that
• 25:44
  every morning because that's important.
• 25:46
  Like knowing what my clients are looking at online, seeing what they're interested
• 25:50
  in also jogs my memory of being like, Hey, I thought I saw that off market, or I
• 25:54
  drove by this street and there was a sign.
• 25:57
  Oh, okay.
• 25:57
  I need to text X, Y, and Z and, and let them know.
• 26:00
  I might know of something coming up that they like or matching
• 26:03
  it with our off market database.
• 26:05
  Everything is in the calendar and I had no idea when I did that.
• 26:10
  The beginning of this year, obviously, or like even the
• 26:13
  end of last year for this year.
• 26:15
  That I would be relying on that so much and you know, I don't deviate from it.
• 26:20
  My email, like monthly e-campaign that's in my calendar, monthly Sphere email,
• 26:25
  like from Gmail that's in my calendar.
• 26:27
  Like I said, it hangs over my little shoulder, like a bee,
• 26:30
  like saying you need to do this.
• 26:32
  Like come on.
• 26:33
  So I know.
• 26:34
  When I plan my week now with my Ninja planner, I know exactly what I need
• 26:39
  to do and then what's sprinkled all in there is the fun, unexpected stuff that
• 26:44
  real estate brings, and that's what keeps this business exciting and fun.
• 26:47
  Eric: Yes, always.
• 26:48
  That was great stuff, great takeaways about auto flow.
• 26:51
  Talk about your live flow, how you make that happen.
• 26:53
  You focused a lot on the phone.
• 26:56
  Tell us about that and, and also tell us about your customer
• 26:58
  service calls that you do.
• 27:00
  April: Sure.
• 27:00
  It's probably my favorite thing I do.
• 27:03
  I actually set the stage for the customer service calls at the first
• 27:06
  meeting or the second meeting, whatever.
• 27:09
  Whenever I know we're solidifying the relationship between me and the client,
• 27:13
  we're getting the paperwork signed, saying actually, once a week we do a call.
• 27:17
  You know, especially once you're under contract.
• 27:19
  And so anyway, I set the stage there so they expected it and I kind of
• 27:24
  relate it to like, well, you work on.
• 27:26
  Multimillion dollar contracts.
• 27:28
  So do I. And I'm working on yours.
• 27:30
  So how often do you have a call for your multimillion dollar contract at work?
• 27:34
  And they say all the time "too many".
• 27:36
  We're not gonna have too many, but we're definitely gonna have one a week.
• 27:38
  It's a touch base space.
• 27:40
  It doesn't mean we, you can't contact me or I can't contact you outside of
• 27:43
  there when pertinent things come up.
• 27:45
  But we're gonna do this, and it really will allow us the space and the time
• 27:50
  to be able to review things that are pertinent to your transaction.
• 27:54
  And so we do that.
• 27:55
  I set the stage for that, and then I call on birthdays.
• 27:59
  You know, I call on home anniversaries.
• 28:01
  I call on anniversaries.
• 28:02
  I use a form that kind of customized it, but that Ninja provides a mine is
• 28:07
  called the VIP client questionnaire, and I also give that to them at the first.
• 28:11
  I give that to them at the first meeting and I say, oh, we don't
• 28:13
  have any homework except for this fun piece, and I give it to them.
• 28:16
  I say, just, you know what, when you're done with it, just fill it out.
• 28:19
  Take a picture of it for me, send it to me from your phone.
• 28:22
  I'll take care of the rest.
• 28:23
  And they fill in their birthday, their favorite food, all of that.
• 28:27
  So I already know everything about them.
• 28:29
  And then I put that information into my CRM and then that creates, yet
• 28:33
  again, flows through my calendar and allows me to plan ahead and like what
• 28:38
  I need to do for my week each week.
• 28:41
  Eric: If people are wondering, are we at Ninja, we call that The Fun Facts.
• 28:44
  So just in case you're, you're going back through your Installation manual
• 28:48
  or whatever, you're, you're looking for that document, it's called The Fun Facts.
• 28:51
  April, you're having 50 live interviews a week.
• 28:54
  Is that right?
• 28:55
  April: Yes, and Shelly would love me to be better at recording
• 28:58
  all of them, but I said, trust me, I'm doing it like I know it.
• 29:02
  So we're working on, that's gonna be 2026 is the recordation really?
• 29:07
  Of all of the 50 live interviews.
• 29:08
  That's really the only thing that I haven't conquered, like recording.
• 29:12
  So if we're talking about 85% perfect house, 85% perfect realtor,
• 29:16
  that's made 15% of imperfectness.
• 29:19
  Eric: We'll take it.
• 29:20
  We'll take it.
• 29:21
  Okay.
• 29:22
  April, this has been fantastic.
• 29:23
  So many incredible takeaways.
• 29:25
  Is there anything else you wanna share with an in nation?
• 29:28
  This is your chance to share input, advice, words of
• 29:31
  wisdom, anything like that.
• 29:33
  April: If you can do anything, be fearless.
• 29:36
  Nothing will scare you more than calling realtors every day
• 29:39
  that don't wanna talk to you.
• 29:41
  And so I know that those moments prepared me to call people and talk to people
• 29:46
  that actually wanna talk to me and that actually are excited to talk to me.
• 29:50
  I don't do a ton of cold calling, like following open houses, but it
• 29:53
  definitely made it easier to do that.
• 29:56
  Once I got back into the business after cold calling agents for a number of years,
• 30:00
  so it's kind of like going to the gym.
• 30:03
  It's hard at first, especially, you're like, why do I keep coming here?
• 30:06
  I don't see any changes, but change doesn't happen overnight.
• 30:10
  And so once you start to see those results of efforts, it
• 30:14
  will encourage you to keep going.
• 30:16
  And so I guess be fearless.
• 30:18
  Do the easier things first.
• 30:20
  If there's something that you are.
• 30:21
  Worried about or don't wanna work on, work on the things that you do wanna work
• 30:26
  on, because that will make it easier to.
• 30:29
  At the end of the day, like when you do wanna add something that might be more
• 30:32
  challenging for you, it will make it easier for you to do that because you've
• 30:35
  already conquered the things that you know you're good at or that you know you wanna
• 30:38
  do and just trust the silver linings.
• 30:41
  Like something that I, yeah, I went into like survival mode to be honest,
• 30:46
  when this happened, and luckily, you know, my husband was okay, he didn't
• 30:49
  have any serious, serious injuries.
• 30:52
  That's what I was really ultimately grateful for is that we weren't having
• 30:56
  to figure out how to deal with a wheelchair in our three story townhouse
• 30:59
  or something, but trust the silver lining.
• 31:02
  So instead of being so hard on myself, you know, that I knew I
• 31:06
  would have less time to do things.
• 31:09
  I was like, you know what?
• 31:10
  I'm going to use this time to strengthen the relationships
• 31:14
  with people at carpool pickup.
• 31:17
  Or at the soccer games or at the football games because I have
• 31:21
  to be there, you know, or the birthday parties, what that's done.
• 31:24
  I cannot tell you the amazing things that have come out of me focusing more on that.
• 31:30
  People are just becoming more attracted to how I work, and it's
• 31:33
  less work to get the work to do.
• 31:36
  Just trust that if something hard does happen to you.
• 31:40
  Just trust that maybe something better is beyond that corner.
• 31:44
  I wouldn't have started talking to a couple of very key clients, very,
• 31:48
  very good clients in my life now that I didn't even know I was coming
• 31:52
  across every day that are a client.
• 31:55
  So I've got like a big F. On my poster board and my vision board, and that
• 32:00
  stands for find the Fs, find the people that are hard, hard to find.
• 32:04
  So I, I kept that in mind when I came into this challenging period
• 32:08
  and it's really amazing, you know, what can happen when you double down
• 32:11
  and focus on some things like that.
• 32:13
  So focus for F. F for people.
• 32:16
  Yeah,
• 32:17
  Eric: what you just said is amazing.
• 32:18
  What you just shared is amazing.
• 32:19
  Every, everything you shared today is amazing.
• 32:21
  Be fearless.
• 32:22
  Always look for the silver lining.
• 32:23
  There is one, you just have to look for it.
• 32:26
  Gosh, April, we can't thank you enough.
• 32:27
  This was incredible and thank you for being so open about your story,
• 32:31
  very personal story that you shared, and, and that's, that's, I know,
• 32:34
  is gonna touch a lot of people.
• 32:35
  Lots of people have hard things happen in, in their life and so to, to hear
• 32:39
  your story and how you responded I know is gonna be really, really helpful.
• 32:43
  To a lot of people.
• 32:44
  So, April, thank you again.
• 32:46
  It's you guys, it's April Myers.
• 32:48
  You can find her in the DC area she's with @properties, and she
• 32:53
  would love, I'm sure to receive a, a nice handwritten note from you.
• 32:56
  So look her up.
• 32:57
  Send her notes, say thank you.
• 32:58
  Thank you again, April,
• 32:59
  April: I do my notes.
• 33:01
  I do not miss a note.
• 33:03
  Eric: Yeah, April.
• 33:03
  Thank you again.
• 33:05
  April: Thank you.
• 33:05
  Thanks, Eric.
• 33:06
  I really enjoyed it.
• 33:07
  Eric: Good, good.
• 33:08
  I'm so glad, and thank you everyone for listening.
• 33:10
  We appreciate it.
• 33:11
  And as always, we look forward to seeing you on the next podcast.
• 33:15
  In the meantime, take care.
• 33:16
  Bye.
• 33:17
  Ninja Selling: If you enjoyed this episode, visit us at the
• 33:20
  ninjasellingpodcast.com to learn more about Ninja Selling classes
• 33:25
  and coaching to get you started or further your journey on the Ninja Path.
• 33:29
  Thank you for joining us now.
• 33:30
  Go have an incredible day.