How I Went from Rock Bottom to Real Millionaire Agent & How Agent Grad School Came to Be

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I share my story in this first episode of the How They Did It series where I’ll be highlighting different agent’s stories. We’ll be talking about how they got from where they were to where they are today. We’ll talk about how they changed their businesses and applied the things that we are teaching here at Agent Grad School.

Warning–there are three instances of adult language in this one, so if you have kiddos around put on your earphones and if you don’t like that kind of language, kindly skip this episode 🙂
I am sharing my story of how I went from rock-bottom to millionaire real estate agent, and why I created Agent Grad School. The number one question I have been getting asked is why start another business when you already have a thriving real estate business.
In this episode, I set the record straight and answer the question of why I created Agent Grad School.
I’m also going to share a few things that I hope you can directly apply to your own business. I share the pivotal question that I asked myself when going from struggling and rock-bottom to making over a million dollars a year selling real estate.
I’m also going to share three strategies that I applied to my business that turned out to be the cog that turned the wheel:
1.) The riches are in the niches
2.)  Choosing a unique selling proposition (usp), which means being able to answer the question, “why should someone choose you, among all other options, including doing nothing at all.”
3.)  Have a weekly email that went out to these clients that I chose and attracted so that there would be consistent contact with the information they needed that they couldn’t get anywhere else.
Doing these three things, at the same time, is what changed my business and I started to get clients seeking me out.  I never had to pay for an online lead, but instead learned how to create my own leads for free.
Take a listen to the entire episode now and I’d love for you to subscribe and even review it over on iTunes too!
I hope you can apply these lessons to your own business and it helps you feel like you have a magic wand that you can just move anything separating you from where you are to where you want to be.  That’s how it feels once you get this all figured out.
Show Notes
[04:12] What I was doing before becoming a real estate agent and why I expected the same immediate success when I became an agent.
[08:30] My first home-time buying experience was so life-changing and necessary for me to be where I am at today. Sometimes the worst experiences turn out to be exactly what we need to get from where we were to where we are today.
[09:01] Even if something terrible happens, try to use it for good.
[09:50] Buying your first house should be the best experience. I found a need and though I could fill the need.
[11:07] Instead, I couldn’t get clients. Finally, one of my friends bought a house with me. I was in real estate for two years and only sold one house. I was going to the office every day and was kind of like a glorified receptionist.
[12:43] I asked every agent I worked with what they did, and I tried everything. The only place I was making money was at Rock Bottom Brewery. I was l hitting rock bottom in every way, and I was at literally at Rock Bottom every night.
[13:56] I had good intentions, but nothing was working.
[14:25] I sat down and decided that I either needed to figure it out or go back to a PR job.
[15:03] The question I asked myself that changed everything.  This is the question to ask if yourself too if you struggling in your business.
[16:12] I knew I had to stop looking at what everyone else was doing. What everyone else was doing wasn’t working for me or the other majority of agents.
[16:48] How I went from feeling like being “successful” in real estate was unattainable to figuring out my answer to that question creating clarity for me to know exactly how to be successful (and you can use this same strategy to go from overwhelm to clear too).
[17:58] I decided to look outside the real estate industry at other ways for me to get clients.
[19:13] The things I was learning were blowing my mind. I felt like I was learning secrets of marketing that actually worked. I became obsessed and read every book and listened to every tape (there were no podcasts back then, lol!). I was also noticing patterns, and I implemented those things.
[20:42] I started marketing online and slowly but surely things started to work. It was like a marketing snowball.
[21:09] Implementation, consistency, and making adjustments until things work for you.
[21:41] I learned that the riches are in the niches and the idea of a unique selling proposition from Dan Kennedy.
[22:04] Being able to answer the question of why someone should choose you over all options including doing nothing and having a niche will change your business.
[22:36] The third concept was having a weekly email to a list of people.
[23:00] Once I heard and understood these concepts, I still had to learn how to apply them on a consistent basis.
[23:28] I started studying and seeing what everyone else was doing. I started to see patterns again.
[24:01] Four years into a real estate career and I had sold 2 houses.
[24:23] I chose a niche and answered the question of why someone should choose me.
[24:46] First time home buyers were the only people who I knew more than because I had already bought a house. Plus, if I can make it a fun experience, why wouldn’t they use me.
[25:17] This gave me the confidence to keep going. All I needed was eight or ten people.
[25:53] I resisted choosing a niche, but it makes all the difference.
[26:36] I had my target audience, and I knew why they should choose me. You need to know who and how?
[27:52] Who, how, and why they should choose me and why they should buy. Putting these concepts together and my business took off. I want from tips to almost $80,000 a month.
[28:56] Niche down who you are marketing to and your business will change forever.
[29:07] I wanted to create a brokerage that specialized in first-time home buyers. I created Dwell Residential Brokerage.
[30:14] I attracted clients and agents who wanted to work with those clients.
[30:46] In 2011, I was doing more business than ever. Agents wanted to learn and I hired ones who generally wanted to niche and do right by their clients.
[31:34] I had to train my step-by-step system to all of the new agents. I knew I couldn’t keep doing this over and over, so I created a recorded module system and taught the agents who joined my broker, which at the time was Dwell Residential Brokerage, now Dwell Residential, an RLAH Company
[33:29] When I gave an agent a lead, they had to put the lead through the buyer edition program. Eight modules of exactly what to do and create a one of a kind experience.
[34:17] We have an email that we send to each lead. Then we have an initial consultation.
[34:33] This program ended up becoming Agent Grad School.
[34:55] I realized seeing agents go from being new or struggling to thriving was something that I loved.
[35:45] It wasn’t my intention to grow a large brokerage. I’m good at training, not managing.
[36:21] I partnered with a company to help me manage the brokerage to free up my time to share Agent Grad School with agents across the country.
[37:14] I started teaching and mentoring other agents what I was teaching at my office. I love helping people take something that seems impossible and showing them how to make it possible for yourself.
[38:12] Get the step by step roadmap and then have the courage and perseverance to do it and know how to adjust and get back on course.
[39:17] The information here is never theory or fluff. I have so much exciting stuff coming up. Stick around and stay in touch.
Links and Resources:
Rich Dad Poor Dad
Rock Bottom Brewery
Tony Robbins
Dan Kennedy
Shift Happens
Jennifer@AgentGradSchool.com
Stick around and stay connected by subscribing to Confessions of Top Producing Real Estate Agent on iTunes.
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