Be Such A Good Real Estate Agent Your Clients Can’t Ignore You

Welcome to this episode of Confessions of a Top Producing Real Estate Agent with your host, Jennifer Myers from aging Grad School dot com. Learn the secrets of real estate success that no one else will tell you. No fluff, no theory. Only exactly what’s going on in her own record, breaking business right now in today’s market. Yes, you can have the real estate business of your dreams. Here’s Jennifer welcome to another edition. The Agent Grad School dot com book club is called the entrepreneur Real estate agent book clubs. And if you haven’t joined already go to Agent Grad School dot com. Scroll down about halfway through the homepage, and it shows you exactly how to sign up. So click that middle button and sign up so that you’ll get an email about what books are reading about once a month and you’ll automatically get these recordings as well. So I’d like to say hi to my book club cohost Amy Wease. Hi. Hi Amy. Thank you for joining me again. I always love your perspective on these books that we go through and how we take these. What seems to be, you know, non real estate related books and apply them to our own real estate businesses. So I always appreciate you being here and sharing your perspective on how you’re doing that, because I think you do it in such a great way. So thank you for being here. Thank you for having me. I’m excited. So Amy is part of our book club at our brokerage while residential, every single month, we have a group chews, a business book, and a few weeks later we have lunch and we come together and we talk about the book and how we are planning to, or have implemented the techniques and strategies from that book into our real estate business. So I always find it so fascinating when we hear the different perspectives of the group and it’s, you know, usually different perspectives from each agent. And so I’ve asked Amy to join us to kind of recap what that discussion was for all the agents who rock out there on Agent Grad School dot com land. So let’s start this month. Book Club choice was called So Good They Can Ignore You Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love by Cal Newport on the cover of the book, the co-founder of LinkedIn, cause this book and important guy to starting a remarkable career. And I would add that. I think it’s a important guide to starting a real estate career. I love this book. I think it’s an excellent read for every real estate agent out there, because it helps you continue to not only be great in your business, but it talks about this idea. I think a lot of real estate agents turn to become real estate agents. ’cause they have a Passion for real estate. And with this book is so great at explaining is what to do when that Passion runs out. And you can continue to have a business that you love when the Passion is gone. What happens for every single business owner he’s in this book, he is constantly repeating some core principles of how to be successful, doing work you love. But what we saw before we dive into these core principles, they’re kind of rule four different rules that he has for being successful at doing work. You love let’s first start with where Cal, Newport got the title of this book. I love the story at all, linked to this in the show notes to this and this video, it actually comes from Steve Martin of all people. And he was talking to Charlie Rose back in 20 2007, Steve Martin had written a memoir called born, standing up and Charlie Rose recount something he saw. Once we are an audience member stood up and asked Steve Martin, how do you be successful? And in this interview, Steve recounts that he responded by saying, you have to be undeniably good at something. And then he goes on to say, this is Steve Martin talking. I’ve said it every time I’ve asked. And I say it every single time I’ve asked, I’m asked, nobody seems to take note of it because it’s not the answer they want to hear. He says, how can I be successful? What they want to hear is how do you get an Agent here’s how you write a script. Here’s how you get a show. But the truth is you must be so good. They can’t ignore you. And that is where Steve Martin saying that. And that his advice to any w you know, wanting to be or aspiring comedian, that is his advice be so good. They can’t ignore you. He goes on to say that if people would instead think about how can I be really good at my craft, people are going to come to you. And it’s much easier than figuring out how to be successful. I absolutely love this perspective from Steve Martin. I absolutely love the fact that Cal, Newport saw this interview and created an entire book about what Steve Martin was saying. There Amy I guess, pipe in here. What do you, what do you think real estate agents need to keep in mind about Steve Martin’s advice and the name of this book be so good. They can’t ignore you instead of focusing on being successful. What are your thoughts? Yeah, so I love this book. I mean, as you know, we’ve talked a lot about a Cal Newport and this book, and, you know, I think that it was a great place to start that title. You know, when he says I’m, I’m asked every single time and he says, you have to be undeniably good at something. He doesn’t say you have to be undeniably passionate about something, you know? And because we all kind of have our own passions. I think if we want to call them that things that we just, a lot of, you know, some people in sports or reading, clothes, Decor, whatever, you know, things like that, looking at houses, realtors. So we talk about this all the time. So many people will say to me often, Oh, what do you do? You’re in real estate. Oh my gosh. I love looking at how it says, you know, a lot about being a real estate agent, you know, or I, I did do that for a while. I mean, how many people do we know that you used to be a real estate agents, or I did that when I was, you know, younger or whatever. And so I think it’s important because Passion piece, I think you say this, you know, if that’s, what’s driving you to be a realtor or to work in real estate, it’s not going to sustain you probably, it will get you so far. I interview agents at least once a week and you know, me, I probably hire one or two of them a year, but I am meeting with Agent at least once a week. And one of the questions I ask them is why do you want to be a real estate agent? And if I hear the words, because I love houses, or my passion is real estate, I worry that they’re going to end up like the yoga teacher in this book, which is broken, Which was broke and confused as to why they’re broke. Because like, he does a pretty good job of talking about this. And in our group, we did a good job at talking about our parents. I think we’re probably, I know my parents were follow your dreams, follow your passion in the money will come do what you love. You know, and everybody always sees kind of The he uses CS, Steve jobs, you know, as they like the holding these people up as the pinnacle, like, Oh, he did what he loves. When in fact, if he read the story about Steve jobs, that’s not necessarily true. He didn’t really even like computers, you know, he was a very good at it. And so it, it flips this whole idea on, on its head and talks about How, but constantly telling me, you know, your kids or your family or friends, don’t do what you love. I mean, how many times have people told you that, just do what you love, you know? And you were like, okay, I will then, you know, and then people are running around, like you said, really miserable. I’m happy. You know, they’re unhappy in the jobs that they have. They’re not fulfilled. They don’t understand why they are not more successful. And its because they believe this idea, a concept that they’re supposed to do it, they love. And then the money and everything comes and he’s flipping on its head saying, no, no, no, that’s the exact opposite of what you should do. In fact, He said for different rules for creating a career that you love, essentially discovering what it is. This book was all about discovering what it is that people who love, what they’re doing, how did they get there? And one of the very first rules, which I think you’re getting at here is don’t follow your passion. And to actually following your passion can be a dangerous endeavor, Right? Yeah. But it’s, you know, he says that like not that many people, you know, I mean there are people who probably are passionate about singing and become like the best in their field. But there a lot of people who are passionate about singing, who don’t, you know, I mean, even if you watch American idol or the voice or something like that, you’re like, wow, there’s a lot of towns with people in the world, you know? But there aren’t many who get to do their due, what they Love and get paid for it their whole life. Yeah. And that’s kind of rule number two and the book, but he says, you know, that the book is broken down in chapters, but the chapters are based on these rules and rule number one is like, we just talked about, don’t follow your passion. That’s actually dangerous. But rule number two to your point is what you do for a living is far less important than how you do it. Right? Yeah, totally. You know, and I think everyone focuses on that. What you do, you know, versus like the How and then like Steve Martin says, people say, well, how did you do it? And nobody wants to hear what, you know, the simple truth. You have to be an undeniably. Good. You know, they’re kind of like, well, what does that mean? Well, and I think A new part in this book, it talks about understanding the importance of skill. And he specifically says you have to create rare and valuable skills. And you know, I love that because I’m always asking real estate agents, why should somebody choose you? What makes you different right now? And that to me is all about creating rare and valuable skills. That is the How. And so in other words, in the Quest for doing, for having a career that you love, it’s about first finding what you are rare and valuable Skills are. So therefor you can answer that question. Why should somebody choose you? So what are your thoughts on that? Amy for real estate agents in how they can create a rare and valuable Skills for their business, which is essentially step one in how to create work. You love. Yeah. Yeah. I mean it, well, one of the ways they can do it is by doing it over, doing what they’re really good at over and over and getting good at it. You know, it talks about that, that in order to build career capital, you have, it takes time. I think he says that somewhere, you know, it comes in phases. So first acknowledging that like you’re probably not going to hit it out of the park at the very first year, an eight year in Agent, you know, and maybe setting up a contingency plan for that, you know, having some side work on the side or something like that, but it’s going to take it a little bit of time and, and maybe put that in the horizon of like wanting to be the best and wanting to be undeniably good. Okay. We want to be that, but we also have to be a realistic and again, that’s something people don’t want to hear it. Right. They want to hear like, you’re going to take like two months a vacation and make $200,000 right away because we drive a Mercedes. Yeah. And the market is through and you don’t have to really work that hard and you drive a Mercedes and like go visit your friends and exotic places and stuff. And the reality is, and what he’s saying is that, you know, it, it takes time to build these skills that you have to really spend your time focusing on doing the things that will set you apart from other agents. And we always talk about some of those things are very simple, but people Don’t do them because they’re so simple. I think we should write a book about like, Be, So cymbal, you know, you beat everybody else. I mean, I can’t tell you how many people say to me. Oh my gosh, thank you for calling me back. It’s a rare thing to call people back. You’re a rare and valuable skills is returning. Phone calls kind of is, you know, you know, and he talks about that. Like that craftsmanship has instead of it. And I think that sometimes agents do this like, well, I’m not going to call that person back. They probably, they sounded uninteresting or they want to have a look in an area that’s not expensive or something like that. Right. They, they make this idea as opposed to I’m a craftsmen. And so I do every step along the way, the same. And this is what I, this is, you know, my work in my integrity is my value. It doesn’t matter. What’s on the other end of the phone. It doesn’t matter where they’re gonna go. You know? And it does make you a rare and valuable because you can make each person feel special and paid attention to. That’s another thing I think is like a rare and valuable skill agents tend to not make people feel rare and valuable. They tend to, Oh, you know, they tend to be pretty quick with people and trying to get again to that outcome as opposed to developing a process. And you know, like the craftsman does, you know, he doesn’t like build the cabinet and throw it up and you know what I mean? You can get those at home Depot, but if you want a gorgeous cabinet, you’re going to go to somebody who’s spent hours and hours on the cabinet. And I love this, this concept. And I think of every real estate agent can really think of their real estate business. And it takes this craftsman approach to their business and understanding that only then can you create those rare and valuable skills that will not only lead you to having real estate be work you love, but also attract clients that you Love, to me, one of the things there’s so many different pieces of the real estate business that people don’t realize is really a craftsman approach. Even, you know, I think a lot of real estate agents think like clients are going to come to you automatically, and then you’re going to show them houses and then you’re going to easily. They’re going to pick one and then you’re going to close. And as you and I both know Amy and hopefully many real estate agents listening to this, even showing houses, you know, I know we talk a lot about it in our trainings, even showing houses, taking a craftsman approach to that. It’s not about opening the door and letting them choose. It’s not what we see on HDTV about like here’s three houses and I don’t like the carpet, but actually showing houses, there is a craftsman approach, but I teach it at grad school and Agent in grad school by our addition, specifically on how to really read between the lines and guide clients and really taking a craftsman approach. Even to that one step, not even talking about craftsman approach to marketing and getting clients that you love working with and choosing your ideal client, all of these, every single stuff of the way we can apply this craftsman approach. And that’s really where the juice is. That is where you differentiate yourself. I think you’re not showing up And showing houses and you know, that’s kind of, what’s expected right? Opening the door, like That is not a craftsman approach. Yeah. And, and a lot of agents think that like, well, I’ve driven here and I’m meeting you or I’m, you know, like this is not a contract. So I’m done now, you know, so much more. Yeah, just during, like you said, there was a whole, a part of Agent Grad School, that’s like the during process, which we’re when we’re with a client and in front of them and how we handle ourselves and how we are the leaders with them and help them make decisions. There’s a whole process that, you know, you teach about that. So there’s craftsmen within craftsmen, within craftsman, you know, there are so many like what pieces of the pie. It’s not just a simple, like, OK, we pulled these calls, you know, you pulled these glass houses, we’re going to go look at them. What do you think? Oh, I don’t like it. Okay. Let me find a house. Say like, you know, the listening, we talk about the listening aspect. That’s a part of being a craftsman in real estate. It’s so fascinating. Is that being the craftsmen and choosing to do it at this level, choosing to take the craftsman approach. I want patients to realize that that choice is what creates work that they love Amy you and I had talked about offline before we started that there is approximately 80% of new real estate licensees will be out of the business after two years. And in my opinion, it’s this one piece of the puzzle. The fact that they aren’t falling in love with the Work and they don’t have probably the income that they thought is because they don’t realize that there’s actually a craftsman piece to every part, even showing how this even meeting clients, if they realized that there is a craftsmen approach, but there is actually more than meets the eye to add true, rare, and valuable skills to their client’s lives. But they actually would do two things. Number one, they would create a real estate business. They Love, which is the whole point of this book. Well, not real estate, but work they love. And then in this case, it happens to be a real estate, but number two, clients will be able to see that you actually created a different approach to their housing search. And then you show that you are rare and valuable and they are not only becomes a loyal and use you again and again and again, but they see that difference in our able to refer your clients. I think if, if more real estate agents realized that’s in craftsman approach to loving the real estate business, it would really save 80% of the licensees that leave the business in two years. I think you would save a lot of those people. I really do. Yeah, I do too. I think, you know, 80%, I mean, if you sat down and when you were in real estate school and someone said, okay, I just want to let you know, what are some of you in this classroom will not be here in a year. You know, people would be like, Oh, this is not me. You know? I mean, nobody thinks that they’re gonna, you know, but it’s it statistically true. But you know, that’s a really high, you know, and I think part of it, like you said, is this buildup an expectation that it is going to be all these things and you know, it, that it isn’t it, you know, and, and, and they’re not taught, I mean, in all fairness, I wasn’t taught this, you know, I wasn’t taught across men point of view. I was taught like they are, and I don’t think most people are in most of their careers, which is why I wrote this book, you know? That’s true. Yeah. And another concept that I love about scattered throughout this book is that concept of not worrying so much about your quote unquote true calling in life, but instead of being passionate about wherever it is that you have chosen to do with your life, I really love how this concept can help real estate agents with some of the things that we talk about and Agent grad school like why somebody should choose you and adding more You into your brand, into your business. So a perfect example is let’s just pretend you’ve chosen to be in real estate. So, you know, ADP percent of the licensees that are getting out of the business, I’d love to just talk to directly to them and say, you’ve made a choice. You’ve decided to become real estate agents. So the question is, how do you add your passions into your real estate business? And I think if more real estate agents did that, that that would speak to you again, why somebody should choose you among all other options. I love more than anything. When I see real estate agents really add part of their personality or things that they Love. So for example, there is a couple of real estate agents that, you know, really talk about mid-century modern homes or how to renovate a home. Or I know Amy you talk about, you know, staging because you love like staging houses and making houses look great. So I want people to realize that you’ve chosen the, the career of real estate, but really ask yourself how can I put my passions into my business to differentiate myself? Yeah, I think you definitely, you know, I think, you know, this is where in real estate, you do have the opportunity to shine and, and it makes it unique, which is why I think another reason people come to real estate, right? They don’t want it, the confinements of maybe a corporate culture. And, you know, in real estate you can really make your brand yourself, which is where people sometimes run into problems, I think. But also this is your opportunity, you know, see the same side, is there usually the same coy in different sides, right? And so having the opportunity, knowing what that passion is, and then, you know, really focusing on it and, and then repeating it, you know, he talked about this, he says in here, like, you know, it’s a lifetime accumulation of deliberate, practice that again. And again, ends up explaining excellence. It’s not excellence first. Yes. You bring your passion to it, but it’s, you know, you’re a lifetime experience. I mean, for me, it was staging. You know, I look at it like years ago, like eight, nine years ago versus now, you know, some of the pink colors, I use some of the choices I may, you know, that maybe I’m making a little bit differently or maybe the way that I’m handling agents with the staging is a little bit different or my approach, you know, I’m growing every year. And, and I think, you know, if you are growing and you’re changing and you’re, you know, you’re working, then you are, you know, becoming excellent over and over and over, but you have to keep doing it. And I think that like, most people just kind of fall off the wagon after a year, I guess, because the expectation is I don’t have to put, I mean, it’s hard work. I can tell you like lugging around furniture and like wedding to DAS. And like, you know what, I’m lugging it around. I mean, you know, there’s a lot of like, and I always laugh. My friends will make, here’s the glamorous part of real estate. I was just sweating. Like, and I look terrible and I’m exhausted. My arms are like walking upstairs and you know, a beautiful, old homes are great, but a lot of times they have a lot of stairs or, you know, a beautiful old condos, buildings are beautiful, but there’s no elevator, you know? So I’m carrying everything up on my side and, you know, there’s all kinds of challenges you face all the time. And I think, you know, I ran into a girl when I was shopping one day and she was checking out, she was a checker at, I think like TJ Maxine, I was buying something for staging or home goods. And she’s like, Oh, you’re a realtor. She said, yeah, I took the class and I did all that. And I, and I started it and she was like, I just had to get out of it. She said it was too much. Work, you know, I mean, she didn’t last a year. You know, being excellent is bringing your vision. The knowing your vision is gonna require a lot from you. And I think, you know, to be across many, but you know, they don’t work nine to five craftsmen work all the time at perfecting what they do. So it’s no different in real estate, you know, it’s real estate, whether it’s real estate or rent or anything that you do, if you want to be so much better, especially in this industry where they are so many real estate options, you know, you really have to know what you’re bringing to people to make them choose you. Yeah. And I think, again, adding that Passion for whatever it is that you have outside of real estate, you’ve chosen this career and putting that in can also lead you to having more control. It says, that’s rule number three in this book. So good. You can’t ignore you finding Why Skills, Trump past Passion in the Quest for work. You love is creating a control in your business. And I think more than anything, I want real estate agents, especially ones that are new or struggling that you want to a hundred percent have control over the destiny of your business. And you want a hundred percent have control about what your business looks like, what it feels like and what you can bring, you know, things like your passions outside of real estate, how you can actually make that, turn that into part of your branding and part of your business to the fuel. You’re a business that you apart and create a business that you love, any thought, any addition to anything you want to add to that before we start on rule number four, anything about control in this rule, number three, he says, turned down a promotion and have the, and the importance of control. Yeah. And I think that’s knowing your value, going back to what you’re, what you’re a rare and valuable at. And once you do that, you have more control because you can say, you can say no to opportunities. I think that’s the other thing with agents. We, we stretch ourselves a little thin, say yes to everything, right. You know, how many times have you heard that get as many people as you can work? You know, and all of a sudden you are all over the place. And at least for me, that’s happened in the beginning of my career. And, you know, I think the more that you can hone in on like what you’re good at and repeatedly doing what you’re good at and what your passions are and being a craftsman, then you can do, you can say no with confidence because, you know, you’re saying, you know, I think it’s in this book or another book we talked about, you know, time is limited. So we have to learn what to say no to, and, and in part of that note process, you’re in control. But I think a lot of people are afraid to say now, I think that’s a great point. Amy actually, I hadn’t thought about it until you, you brought it up. But I think part of, you know, we don’t have quote unquote promotions when it comes to a real estate business. But I think that could be, I would say he says, turn down the promotion. I think that could be for real estate agents turned down the client that doesn’t work for you. What I mean by that. And, and that’s how you have control over your business. So a perfect example, and I’m not suggesting, but never will. I was suggesting any violation of fair housing laws or anything like that. But I, I get probably a call a week for a new investor client or a new developer in town who wants my help on identifying properties for them. I think I get at least one a week at every single time I, you know, answer their call. And I explained to them that, no, unfortunately that’s not the work that I can. I turn it down. I turned down the work for two reasons. Number one, I’ve been doing this for so long that I have, if, if I was going to have a good property, I would give it to my loyal developer clients that I’ve met 15 years ago. Yeah. And number two, it takes me away from the business that I really actually enjoy and love and has been my choice, the control, which is helping first time home buyers. Right? So for every client that maybe isn’t in the niche that you’ve chosen or isn’t what you’re best at for me, it’s, first-time home buyers move up buyers. And my repeat clients, I have to say no to every other quote, unquote promotion, every other type of business that comes my way because I literally can’t fit it in. And that gives me control over my business because that was, that does, is allow me to service people that I love helping, which is part of this, you know, instead of finding your, you know, finding work you love and adding your passion to it, I’ve passion is helping people who need me, who really have doubts about being able to be a first time home buyer and me being able to help them make that dream a reality. It’s so much more rewarding and is work that I love versus running around like a crazy person, trying to get developers to be loyal to me. Right. You know, so I never thought about it. And so you said it because I kept thinking like, number three, it doesn’t apply. It turned out in the promotion, importance of control. But I think what I think I get it now and how it can apply to real estate agents turning down clients that don’t fit your niche. That don’t make you work. You love it. Yeah. It’s not Work that you love it. It’s pulling you away and pulling your time, your energy, you know, I mean, our energy is, is again, like finally we have a finite amount of that. You know, I remember in the early in my career, many nights going home with like utter exhaustion, you know, haven’t use the bathroom in 10 hour, you know, I have a, I’m exhausted, you know, ’cause, I’m like, I, you know, I’ve got it. I’ve got to help everybody. I’ve got to say yes. And I’ve gotta like, you know, reach my financial goals. You know? So for me at the time it was like, you take everything, you never say no, you know, and I have learned that, you know, that’s not what a crock, you know, a craftsman doesn’t know how to think about these cabinets, but, you know, they don’t, they don’t make cabinets for everybody. They don’t make them for hotels and four, you know, for like the, the one person client are, what are they can do that? You know? And this is a, really is a business where a lot of what we do is face to face business. So there’s only one of us, you know, we can have health and we definitely have our helpers, but at the end of the day, we really have two, you know, make choices that, that are going to help our clients and help us and create that page that Passion are talking about. I love it. So don’t be afraid in order to have work. You love, you’ve chosen real estate. Don’t be afraid to turn down the quote unquote promotion, which in this case is the wrong type of clients. Yeah. Let’s move on to the rule. Number four, which is a little cerebral. So let me explain it, and then we’ll talk about it. Rule number four in this book is, think, think small act big, which is in my opinion, sums up the core idea of this Book, which is in order to create Work you Love, you must first build a career. You must first build career capital, which we’ll talk about in a second, which was essentially those rare and valuable Skills. And only then can you create a mission? Because creating a mission is how you create Work you Love, you have to get to the cutting edge, which then turns into expertise. And only then can you create a mission or a movement that mission or movement is the key to creating work you love, but then you have the final step. And that is to take baby steps and implement tiny things along the way, receive feedback from there and figure out what to do next. From there, you can be remarkable. You can create remarkability in order to be remarkable. There are two laws of remarkability. Number one is you literally have to compel people to remark about it. And number to it must be launched in a venue conducive to such remarking. What I usually say is I call this the vehicle for your communication, for example, this podcast or your website, or your newsletters, or your social media posts, Instagram, that would be the venue conducive for such remarking. Essentially you need to do, to decide on the correct platform to be remarkable within it. So I know that was a lot, a lot, right there, rule number four, there, we touched on several topics, but essentially it’s wrapping in everything, all the steps, all the rules into creating work. You love, it’s almost like a formula. And if you can kind of get them all right at the right time, you create work, you love, which then automatically creates this remarkability. So I have a lot to say on this topic, but Amy, I want you to go first. Yeah. I mean, it is, it is the, you know, think small act big, but I think about for example, and I’m not going to repeat it correctly, but my mom is an entrepreneur. She owns the business for 30 years and she has a very simple mission statement. It’s essentially to provide like, you know, wholesome, good food, you know, and to pay her employees the very best she can pay them and to create an environment that people want to keep coming to enjoy her food. I mean, it’s, it’s a couple sentences really, but this is like, whenever we talk about her success is always going back to these core missions. Like whenever we look, you know, a certain, she’s got tons of, I don’t know, 300 reviews, five star reviews on TripAdvisor. You know, when I look at them, it’s like, but every, everybody is answering that core mission statement, right? Like all the things that they love about her, her restaurant, her business. And I think that’s that act small part, right? It’s not a big idea. She is not created food. She is not created around it. You know, she’s created nothing new that she has emission that is very specific and very, you know, important to her. And this is what she is focused in her venue in of course, is the restaurant, you know, and then getting that word out is through, you know, a lot of different ways. And, and so I think it is good to have a mission that you feel passionate about. You know, one of her things is she feels passionate about paying people who work for her really well better than her competitors. And she’s always done that regardless of her, you know, how much money she is making it at the time, because this is one of her missions and core principles And maybe one of her rare and valuable Skills Yes. And rare. And I agree. Yeah. So I think it’s a rare capital. Yes. Because she is not being forced to theirs. No, like, okay. The, in way the minimum wage, or is this, you ha you know, if she does it ’cause, this is belief system, you know, he talks about one of the women in here in this role in, you know, why they do that, this professor. And because it’s just this mission that she has, but it can be simple. And I think that’s the key, right? You don’t have to get caught up in, Oh, I have to be Jeff Bezos or, you know, create Amazon, or, you know, I have to be Steve jobs. I mean, my mother owns a restaurant in a small town in Virginia, and she’s very successful and very happy and very good at what she does, you know? And I would say that she’s created remarkability. Yeah. And that’s what I want real estate agents to understand. I think so many times, I think people skip over this career capital, I can say, Oh, that’s a hard one rule number four, think small and act big. Really what it’s talking about is first creating a career capital, the rare and valuable skills that we talked about a few minutes ago. And only then do you have essentially permission to create a mission? Not only when you create this mission, can you actually expect to be remarkable? You have to compel, you’ve got to be something above and beyond rare and valuable in order to be remarkable. And the only way that you’re going to create a real estate business that you love, and that is sustainable over the long term is if that you create something that clients find remarkable, truly remarkable, right? And the only way to do that is if you’re rare and valuable. So the question I want, every single real estate agent to hear loud and clear is number one, please read this book. It is such a fascinating way to think about your work because Passion, even if you Passion fades, right? And so if you can really get to Work and understand that you’ve got to be able to be a craftsmen, you got to be able to create those rare and valuable skills to build a sustainable business that you love, which then turns into a movement, which then turns into remarkability. That is actually when you start loving your business, in my opinion. So, you know, for my story and I sold two houses my first four years, because I was not remarkable, I was not rare and valuable. And I sat down and I said to myself, okay, how can I be different? How can I be rare and valuable? How can I make somebody choose me among all other options? And I have to get to work. I took the craftsmen approach. I didn’t realize it was what I was doing at the time, but it really is irrelevant in the stages of building a business that you love. I had to get to work and become a craftsman. I had to learn about every first time home buyer program in the city. I had to learn about all the down payment assistance programs. I had to get to know all the players. I have to understand how it worked. I had to make, buy my first house by myself because I wanted to go through the process and understand how it worked. I didn’t think I can help people be passionate about buying their first home if I had never done it before. So I had to, you know, dive deep. And from that, I created this mission, this mission about being the only brokerage in Washington, DC, that specialized in the first time home buyers and creating a company that sells $80 million worth of real estate and growing every single year by helping first time home buyers. I couldn’t of done that. If I didn’t start with that creative capital at career capital, I don’t know why I’m having such a hard time with that one. And then from there, I’d be able to create the mission. And then now today, after all that time effort, energy craftsmen approach, rare and valuable skills only then am I now able to be something remarkable or create a business that’s remarkable. And I do think that people see it as being different. And I do think people remark about it. Like there’s something different here, right? And that is I’ve. We have created a brand through taking the approaches in this bit, in this book that compels people to remark about it because it is so different. And then the, the venue conducive for such remarking is I think a couple things. Number one, it’s evident from our website. And then number two, it’s evident from every single interaction that every single one of our agents have with our clients. I don’t know. I know I just went on a tangent and I’m not trying to toot my own horn. That wasn’t the point of it. But the point I’m trying to make is you don’t, you don’t go from zero to remarkability without all the steps in between. And I think that’s what this rule, number four, think small act big it’s what does the next step, right? What does the next best action and not thinking, you know, how do I get to $80 million worth of real estate 15 years later? No, no, no, no. It was thinking small at the moment. What do I need to do right now to be the best at helping first time home buyers become a homeowners, right? That was thinking small. Yeah. I think to, that can apply throughout a Craftsmen’s career in real estate. Right. There are times when we’ve talked about this and if people do go to Agent Grad School that there are steps that I know many Agent, you know, agents sort of be like, Oh, just skip that. That’s not really that important. You know, like that’s, that’s not important that certain email, that letter, you know, again, these venues, the way we’re reaching our clients, the way we are servicing them constantly, you know? And that’s, I think that differentiates us from so many agents, you know, were not just, Hey, you know, and, and we’re, you know, we’re, we’re not just here’s your house. Great. And call me when you want to sell it. We have a whole process. And again, this is about this craftsmanship approach. And I think that that’s part of that thinking small on a deal, you know, a lot of our activities on a daily basis might small. Now I might get a quote, but we were thinking big, always, you know, are process might be maybe be writing a letter or an email, but it’s all a part of a larger strategy. We’re thinking big, always, but we’re acting, we’re acting big, but we’re thinking small. Sometimes, you know, sometimes our daily, our daily sheet is very, it’s a small thing to do are not going out and spending thousands of dollars in marketing that would be maybe, you know, a boy. And I think one big example is what I always talk about. The agents think of baby steps, right? Not how do I sell this house? How do I get this buyer to buy a house? To me that would be an example of thinking big, right? How do I get this client to buy this house? No, that’s not how you should be thinking. You should be thinking small. You should be thinking, how do I help this buyer to today decide if this house that I’m showing them is the right choice for them right. In this moment, right here, right now in this house, you know? Yeah. And, and keeping it very, you know, to keep me in it, like we said, you know, very on this, on that. Yeah. On that. And that moment, because once you start going off into the future casting and, or, you know, maybe you’ve taken a client out five times and they still haven’t bought a house and then you start thinking of it. What are they going to buy this house? Or You, or you’re thinking about, I’m not going to reach my goal. And you’re thinking about yourself and you bring it back to that. Or you’re thinking about the big, you know, the big quote-unquote in my mind, this is like, let’s get this house, let’s get them in a house. That’s thinking big. Instead of you want to think small, what is today? How can I help this person today make the right decision today. Right. And then act big. Bye, bye. I think as big as it actually realizing that you’re not there to sell them a house, you were there to help them make the right decision and to have that conversation, even if they don’t understand it at first, you know, that’s a perfect example of thinking small acting big. Yeah. And they think we’re in a lot of people think we’re there to sell them the house. They’re always, we’ve talked about this before. And they’re always surprised when we say, yeah, I think you Can, you know, and I’ve heard you say this and I said it, I think you can do better. You know? And they’ll say, what do you mean? Like, I think you can get a better house for what you’re looking for. I mean, they’re almost shocked. They were like, you’re not suppose to say that you’re like the only real estate agent who tells me not to buy houses. And I’m like, Oh yeah, I have the best. Right. Cause that’s, you know, and I say, you know, I I’ve said to clients before too, I’m like, no, I want you to love your house. I mean, I want you to fall in love what I want you to, to be so excited. You can stand it. You know, I don’t want you to, I love that. You know, just be like, well, we’ll take this. This is fine. This works or whatever, you know, and I want you to be like, so excited, you know, so happy or like the data, you know, when you’ve, when you know, you found the right meet, the right person in your life are so excited, you know? I mean, it’s the same thing with a house. You don’t want to just kind of buy a house because it fits a few criteria and it’s, you know, you want to do it because you’re really excited. And it’s a part it’s a part of your, you know, your making a big decision and all of that stuff. So I think they’re always surprised by that because they looked at me. Don’t want to just want to tell me a house, but that’s, what’s in it. And that’s, I think, I think that’s a perfect illustration, a rule number four, think small act big. And then creating that remarkability and creating this mission of like, no, we’re on a mission to find the right house. And then that’s what creates that. Remarkability, I’m going to wrap this up. Amy anything else that you want to touch on that we haven’t talked about, that you want other real estate agents to know when it comes to this book so good. They can’t ignore you. Why Skills Trump Passion and the Quest for work. You love by Cal. Newport no, my only thoughts or to read the book and, and because it’s wonderful and there’s so many, a there’s so many things that apply and it can be helpful to your, your career. And even if you read it, maybe if you’re, if you’re contemplating real estate, you’re not even in real estate yet. I love that idea. That’s a great advice. Yeah. Amy yeah. And because once you, you know, I mean, it’s not, it’s not an expensive to do all the work you have to do to get licensed, you know, and that’s a lot of money just spend and then find out, well, maybe this wasn’t what I thought it was gonna be, you know, were trying to help with the, some truth telling in the real Estate so that people are doing what they love, building a business, they loved it. It was actually, I don’t want that eight. I want that number to go down. I don’t want 80% of the new licensees to be out of business in two years. I don’t, because two, one of two things happens either. They weren’t able to create the business that they Love, which is essentially speaks to me how to do that in this book. Or they didn’t know what it was like, what, what they thought it was. And they weren’t making enough money, which was probably at least half of those 80%. We’re not making the money they thought they would make. So I just want everybody to, you know, I want any real estate agent who believes that they can be good at this job and just don’t know how I want those agents to stick around. Agent Grad School dot com because more than anything, having a real estate business that you love, essentially, you know what this whole book is about. You’ve, you’ve chosen real estate to create work you love. And this book will help you with that. I hope to help them with that. Anybody hear listening to create a new real estate business so that you love, but start by reading this book and understanding that Passion is not the way to do it. And if you haven’t already definitely read this book, apply the concepts to your business. So your real estate business really Can forever be Work that you love. That’s how I feel about my business. Amy I hope that’s how you feel about your business nowadays. And don’t forget to sign up for the Entrepreneurial real estate agents book club on Agent Grad School dot com. That way you get all this stuff automatically next month’s Book will be announced to you as well. That’s a good one is really good. One and two. Thank you for listening. Thank you for being here. Thank you for wanting to set your real estate business up for success and be different than your typical real estate agent. Thanks. Amy all right, thanks. Jennifer talk to you next month. Bye. It was for listening to this episode of Confessions of a Top Producing Real Estate Agent with Jennifer. Myers be sure to head over to Agent grad school dot, come to leave a comment about what you’ve learned today and what you’d like to implement into your own business. Once you’re there be sure to sign up for Jennifer’s free weekly training opportunities, exclusive content, insiders tips, and personal notes. 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