Scaling your real estate business from $250K - $1m requires a machine mindset and strategic focus.
Here is the proof that building a robust business is easier than you think...
Scaling your real estate business from $250K - $1m requires a machine mindset and strategic focus.
Here is the proof that building a robust business is easier than you think...
incredible. So, by the way, john and Troy, as you were coming on, we just had a phone called dumb by AI.
Speaker 2:I heard it.
Speaker 1:Right and we're. You know, one of the things I can't, one of the things I get out of it is I tell you what AI doesn't personalize rejection. You missed the first few minutes, kept going and going and going and in the end made a sale and didn't stop there, went off to an up sale afterwards After all of that, hey, hey John, hey Troy. Geez, you guys look good there. Good to see you both. John, good morning. Is that the? Is that the McGraw office? You're in there or you had a coaching, coaching people today?
Speaker 2:New office, new office and exciting to be here. Hi everybody, Good to see you all. Yeah, it's interesting, tom. When I heard that because you kindly sent it to me the other day my initial impression which I'm sure many others had was it was it was too hard. It was kind of like the poor woman on the other end and maybe it was real, maybe it was fake, but they achieved a sale. But I felt it was kind of all but. But it'll get better, ai will get better and more empathetic and the language and the slight time delays will get lined out, and it's definitely a way of the future, for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So, troy, have you seen, have you heard? Have you had ever received a call? Have you heard these AI calls?
Speaker 3:No, tom, I haven't received a call, but I actually have been over the Christmas break looking at a lot of that AI technology and you're right, there's so many different elements now that you can actually use AI and it is getting better and better. I remember when we first looked at it, maybe a year ago, it was really primitive. And you look at it now and some of the stuff is really advanced, so I think it's the way of the future. I think it's a little bit scary as well. You've got to think of ways to to be ahead of of the competition and make sure that you're doing everything right to make sure you stand out in a crowded market.
Speaker 1:Well said, well said. So, gentlemen, we are going to be doing, by the way, everyone, john and Troy, a lot of people, a lot of people said you know, ask me. They said, oh, you know, you, you, you work, you work at McGraths, and that I don't work, I'm not an employee of McGraths. But they said, oh, you've always got you know, it's always John or it's Maddie, troy, alex Jordan. Let me give you some interesting stats. Everyone In the real estate gym.
Speaker 1:There has been over 450 individual agent interviews in order of content. Most viewed John McGraw one. Maddie Steinway two. Get ready for this. Alex Jordan three. It's not my fault, they're just in those colors, right, they're in those colors. And I think, I think, I think what it is, john and Troy, I think what it is is the mindset of the business has always been don't worry about plagiarism, keeping your secrets, share, share, share. Life works out better that way, and I think that it's just underpinned from the top, john, and that's the way a lot of the agents are. Would you say that's a fair assessment, or?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think so, tom. The other thing I'd like to believe is knowing your gym members people are on this call and others, as I think I know them, having spoken at a few events with you they like the message of integrity, transparency, honesty. Raving fans make it easy and we kind of trash the other message, which is tell them whatever you have to tell them, you get it signed up and then beat them down and condition them. So I think that the better people that listen to things like these podcasts and your gym members, they like the message. And that's the message. Alex Jordan lives every day and he's writing a million and a quarter a month every month, and seven or eight years ago he was writing 380 in a year and he's embraced that message and he's reinvented himself and he's just kept going and built one of the best businesses on the planet. So, yeah, I believe it works.
Speaker 3:What are we?
Speaker 1:gonna focus on today.
Speaker 2:What's the message just today?
Speaker 1:What are we gonna focus on today? So, john and Troy, every Tuesday and Thursday we run prospecting Blitzers. Everyone comes on collectively, they make phone calls. We do it on Zoom not that there's any sound coming just like group meditation I know Troy does CrossFit classes. Group CrossFit classes seem to work better than solo. Same with yoga and meditation and anything you do as a group.
Speaker 1:And today, john and Troy, is our first prospecting Blitz back for the year, and I thought would be good from both of you to get an idea of things like what do you think the market's gonna be like this year, the economics of it. Then I wanna talk about what are the main things that top agents are doing and are focused on this time of the year, and I want to let you know that the people that are on this one are at a level of most of them. There are some people here that are doing one, one and a half, but most of them are doing sub five. Right, they're in the earlier part of their life and they wanna go next level. What should they be doing? So let's kick it all off to both of you, your view, and we've had a week of opens. On Saturday we got a bit of feedback on what the temperature is reset at January every year. What are they saying Over to you guys?
Speaker 2:Very good. It's been a positive start to the year is what we're hearing back up and down the East Coast and we don't do West Coast yet but so very much probably in a lot of the markets you guys are representing Buyers. Look, every year buyers come back from Christmas. I always say the best options of the year are the first week of February because people are fresh and they're excited and there's not too much stock. It's just a perfect storm and that's definitely happened.
Speaker 2:But I think there is a feeling of people are seeing that the interest rates have plateaued. They've had a feeling, a bit of breathing space. There's some many pundits are saying the next move will be down, not up. Whether that's true we won't know till the year progresses. So I think a lot of people, even though the general cost of living is not good, a lot of people are feeling that the worst of the interest rates is probably behind us and they want to get on. I mean, most people don't buy speculatively. They buy because they've had a baby, they've had a divorce, they've got married, they need a bigger house, kids have moved out and those things continue on. So if people have been on hold for any reason, maybe the interest rate escalation put them on hold.
Speaker 2:But, as you and I know, Tom, we talk about the fact that the inner market and outer market doesn't really matter what the market does. If there was another four rate rises this year, sadly that would mean some people have to sell, but there are other people that are happy to buy and able to buy. So I think for the people that are everyone on the call, really it's about the inner market. Focus on what you control, which is what you're doing now prospecting. It's about attitude, it's about mindset or, as Matt Steinbeid often refers to, Troy's vibration. Matt says, if you've got the right alignment and the right vibration, people just walk into your business with signed agency agreements and signed contracts and I believe that, Literally, people will find a way to do business if you've got the right energy, mindset, dialogue.
Speaker 2:And it's really important because I was listening to a lot of Esther Hicks, Tom and Troy over the break, and she talks a lot about getting out of your own way that each and every one of us have magnificence and unlimited potential. The problem is we put so many handbrakes on ourselves and mooring lines and so forth. We end up talking ourselves out of greatness, which is a pity because you get one life make it work. So I think the thing is the conversation you're having with yourself is critical.
Speaker 2:What the market does or doesn't do this year is irrelevant. What the competition charges or doesn't charge, or values, property add or doesn't, is irrelevant. You just have to be the best version of yourself each and every day, every phone call, and have a plan. And the plan can change as frequently as you choose it to, but have a plan at any given point in time. I was just doing coaching session with one of our guys, Tom, and I was just said to him he wants to get in the top end of the market. I said what are you doing? He said I don't know what to do. I said well, let's just start really simple. Let's design a game we can't lose. Go and list the names and numbers of the people in the top five streets and the top 100 houses and the top five buildings and then make contact with them and just see if they're thinking of doing anything this year and then, as you list one of them, go back to the others and tell them what's happening. And just simple strategies A lot of people get caught up about. Is this the best strategy? Is there a better dialogue? Just have a simple strategy and execute it every single day. So I think that's where the market's at.
Speaker 2:And Troy, maybe we should segue to talk about what we're seeing the best people in business are doing, and one of them is probably what I've just mentioned Troy. Perhaps it's consistency. Tom Alex Jordan started slow. He's doing 380. And then he got a bit better and a bit better and a bit better and, like the proverbial snowball, the more good things he did and the more great conversations and the more listings he did, the snowball got bigger and faster and success started really propelling itself towards him.
Speaker 2:So I think, consistency a lot of people turn up and they get motivated and they listen to Tom Panos on stage or on a podcast and they go and they do three great days work and then they don't get any listings or they don't get a sale from and then they lose a bit of interest and they start losing confidence. Man, this is a lifelong game. Just if you're on the right track, just keep doing it every day and at some point in the near future you're going to go from being on track to do 250 to being on track to do 350 and 500, and then 500 becomes a million. So yeah, I think consistency Troy would be one over to you if you've got some.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I noticed Troy slipped off the screen.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm here. I've just been pinned. I don't know. Susan, can you pin me again, if that's positive?
Speaker 2:I don't like Troy. We can hear you.
Speaker 1:Here you go, Troy. And because we're doing the podcast, here we go, Troy. What are you saying? I'm the best and in your role there, in your role, you're really close to the action with the agents.
Speaker 3:Yeah, correct, listen, we've seen very similar to John across the entire instance. It's the company owned footprint within McGraw, really a high level of metropolitan attendees that open for inspections. Tom, as an auctioneer, I'm seeing a lot of bookings come through as well for February, which is probably historically. We see a couple come through but, given where Australia Day actually falls this year it's actually a full month of Feb, so there's no earlier options. So February shaping up to be a very strong auction market and I think that that's going to be representative of the following months.
Speaker 3:The appetite from buyers seems to be regardless of the price point. They seem to have an appetite to make those decisions, to move on. So very confident conversations at the moment. I think that there's a lot of renewed energy after the Christmas break. I don't know whether they've been sitting around on Christmas Day and Boxing Day with family and friends thinking we don't want to be here for another year, so they're making those decisions. But all in all, it's exactly what John was saying very positive, set up on the market right now for our team.
Speaker 2:On my run. I'll jump in just a few things. Matt Steinway good example. I'll just take a few things. Matt's about energy. He's about I can't do enough for people. He's done it for 30 years Every day. Turns up in his market, enthusiastic, honest. Again, he just attracts people to the energy. So again, those are the listening.
Speaker 2:I was just talking to the guys coaching a few minutes ago before the call, and I looked at his last five sales that he had on our website. It had sold price undisclosed, sold price undisclosed. I said man, why do you do that? And he kind of said, oh, a couple of them didn't really want it. I said you know, here's the three things you want to be. You want to be the guy that's known for integrity, a guy that's known for transparency, a guy that's known for making it easy. So each and everything you do in your business in the field has to be around those. If you want to be known for those things, you need to. So I said by you putting contact agent for price guy price undisclosed you're just pissing off a lot of people that are saying I don't want to contact you, bro, I just want to know what is the price range for this property, or what did this property sell for? Obviously, there's one or two exceptions when people do want a level of discretion, but if it's a public auction, I just say, tommy, you know, reality is 100 people turned up to the auction. Words out already. You know really, there's not a lot of sense in trying to hide the price off the website and CoreLogic can have it in five minutes on their website. So I think that's really important.
Speaker 2:We talked about Alex Jordan. Not only has he got consistency, he is a product knowledge expert. He can tell you every blade of grass in his markets that he focuses on what they sell for, what North orientation sells for as opposed to South orientation, what builders bring a premium, how much of a premium they bring, which designers are doing the best work. And he's just absolutely on it. And if you speak to him and I ring him up and I say, tell me about this, it could be his listing or one of his competitors. He's just got a fanatical attention to detail and too often I just think about it.
Speaker 2:You know I'll talk to an agent and hopefully not one of ours, but you know an agent in the market and I saw you got a good listing there, tell me about it. And they got this terrible thing. Oh, it's a 321. What does that mean? Oh, three bedroom, two bathroom, one car space. I said, man, can't you come up with a better description? Agents got very lazy. It's a 321. Okay, what's the land size? What's the type of property, what's the condition, what's the feeling, what's the vibe?
Speaker 2:Agents are not terribly good at describing and selling the features and benefits of a property, I find. So I'd love everyone that's listening to really start honing in on and I use Kevin MacLeod of Great Designs UK as the benchmark If you want to listen to someone describe a property like poetry, beautifully. Talk to clients, go to and watch as many episodes of Great Designs as you can, and even the Australian and New Zealand ones are terrific as well. But Kevin MacLeod the English version, is brilliant. So you know, have a think about if Kevin MacLeod is a 10, 0 to 10, where do you rate when you describe to a client, either when you're with them at the property or when you're just talking on the phone. What's the quality of your description as you speak to them about that? It's really, really critical. So I think there's some basic stuff that you need to work hard on, you know, make sure that you're at the top end of those areas. And then it's just about energy, about consistency, product knowledge. These things are all vital. Troy, what can you add?
Speaker 3:I was going to say, john, inspirational Kevin MacLeod with his grand design episodes Anyone that's looking, just jump onto YouTube and, before you go and do your next property video in the new year, that would be something that I'd be referencing and going. Yeah, this is the way I want to present myself and create a point of difference. John, I think that's something that we're going to see in 2024, tom, agents that create a point of difference, that have a reason that people want to connect.
Speaker 1:It's frozen again there. It's frozen. Well, sir Troy, you broke down a little bit there, but just say it one more time, troy, so it wasn't disjointed.
Speaker 2:Point of difference. We got point of difference.
Speaker 3:Yeah, agents in 2024 that are creating a point of difference out there in the market are definitely going to win. They built better relationships with clients. They do things slightly different, like John was saying 321,. How else can you explain that to create a connection and also an attraction to your business, that, regardless whether it's your property or not, like the Alex Jordan scenario, people are coming to you and asking you those questions. Those individuals definitely in 2024 are going to see a lot of great results in their markets.
Speaker 1:I ran into a guy on the main road in Byron a week ago. There was a profound 60 second conversation and this guy was riding around 250 for about four or five years. He's now look, he's not a million dollar agent, but he's doing about 7,800, right, so he's tripled his income. And I said to him what do you reckon the difference was? He said I was listening to a podcast and he goes. It was as if this podcast was purposely built just for me.
Speaker 1:I felt like I was having dinner with the guy that was on the podcast. I said what was said he goes. He said I need you to know. No one's coming to save you. There's no Prince Charming at the airport. No one's going to come in and do those calls for you. No one's going to actually work on your brand but you. No one's going to actually work out what you should do that day and what you shouldn't do that day. No one's going to sit there and actually help you build a personal brand. You've got to do that all yourself. So sooner or later, you come across that bridge and accept personal responsibility. Life works so much better, I think, john and Troy, in the last 10 minutes I've got you here.
Speaker 1:By the way, everyone, this is the million dollar agent podcast, live on the prospecting blitz that we've got. So those are those that are watching this right now. By the way, if you are listening to this and you're not a gym member, you've got till the end of this month to become a gym member. We've opened that up. I want to ask you, troy and John, what do you think if you're an agent doing 300 GCI now, or 250, let's call it sub 500, and you want to go to the next level? And the next level for many people might be 700 or 800. For some people it might be a million, but we're talking about the people that are sub 1 million. What do you think the areas of focus for those people might be different to the people that are the 2, 3 million GCI agents?
Speaker 2:I think the first thing you've got to describe a clear set of metrics on what it's going to take. Is that 50 sales at $20,000 is a million Okay, that's fine, could be 20 sales of 50,000 GCI commission, but have a clear understanding of what are the metrics that allow you to get there, including average percentage, commission you're charging and so forth. I think that's critical. Two is then you need to work on your belief, because the belief that got you to 250 K time ain't going to get you to a million At 250, if you've been in the industry longer than a year or two, it probably means you are absolutely blocking some of your success, because everyone on this call, everyone in this industry, has the ability to do far, far better value for themselves and their customers. So I think you've got to start working on your belief. You've got to have the simple plan. It's a simple industry prospect list. Sell three things You've got to be really, really brilliant at what is your prospecting plan and you should have multiple layers. You should have at least six to 10 activities that you do on a weekly basis around attracting and connecting with potential clients. Really critical Then listing you need to have a nine out of 10 listing presentation and there is no excuse for not having one, because there are so many great listing presentations on your podcast, on your website, on YouTube, at Eric wherever you want to go there's great people doing great listing presentations. Pick the best out of each and everyone.
Speaker 2:Tom, you talked before a lot about price maximization strategy and I'll agree that is the number one thing that every vendor wants to know and wants to hear. And yet so many agents come and go to a listing presentation and they actually don't even talk about that. They talk about it. They just sold this property around the corner and I've got a great price and I'm the award winner on number one and I've got more social media activity. But I'm sitting here wanting to say well, just whether I say it or not, I'm thinking it what are you going to do for me to get me the most amount of money? At that point? You've got my attention. Up until then, we're kind of just small talk until we get to the real thing. So I think the key thing is a listing presentation. You must have an extraordinary price maximization strategy and the last one, which I've just mentioned, is launching a property of the market.
Speaker 2:What is your ability to get vendor paid marketing If you're not getting. Alex Jordan, for example, is getting on average about $3,000 per campaign purely on social media marketing. That's not local paper, that's not signboards, that's not photographs, that's social media marketing. Chris Gilmore we saw Tom did a great presentation with us, or for us with us, just before Christmas. He's bringing a drone into every single, I think, going forward most of his listings and he's making that bit of a point of difference in the marketing.
Speaker 2:So what are you doing? That's a bit different in marketing. What can you do? Yeah, is your ability to demonstrate the value of a property, like Kevin McLeod's. Do you have a dialogue, a vocabulary that excites people and leaves these word pictures in their mind so when they leave the property, do you know enough about the property? You know the history and the provenance and the neighborhood and the community and the neighbors and all these things so you can sell all of those benefits. So prospect list sells zero to 10, 10's the world best. Where do you rate Most people? When I ask a question, they say three out of 10 prospecting. They say five to six out of 10 listing and most of them overrate themselves out of seven to eight out of 10 in selling. And then I say, well, sell me this property that I see on the website. And they say it's a three, two, one. I say, dude, you're not an eight, you're two or three. So I think it's just a matter of raising your standards in the areas that matter prospectively sell.
Speaker 3:Thank you. Three areas that we've got all of our growth agents focused on is going back and identifying the listings that they got over the past 12 months, Tom. How did they get them? What was the prospecting? So they've got to master that lead generation and it's simply going to REA and looking at the list of their recent sales and going got that one from referral, got that one from referral, got that one from community, got that one from a letterbox.
Speaker 3:Drop Whatever that is, identify those areas and then double down on that activity. It got you successful for a reason. It's not re-create the wheel, let's just focus on what we've got. The second one systems and processes. Refine the systems and processes to get you to the next level. All great agents that are writing one, one and a half, two. They have great processes, systems and team methods and roles and responsibilities that go without saying, are perfect and always on the improvement. And then the final one, Tom, that we always look at is handling objections. What does it take? So there are five key objections that you're going to get from clients about you, about your business, about the area that you work, about the style that you have. That is going to help you go to the next level, Because if you master those five, then your success rate is going to increase as well.
Speaker 3:So, they're the three areas that a lot of our growth agents we focus on quite heavily with.
Speaker 1:Beautifully said Coaching session I had five days just before the end of last week. Might have been Wednesday, thursday, I lose track. It was a middle of the week. The guy said to me I've got no database. That's my goal. I want to build a database. He goes how long will it take? I said how many people do you want? He said 500. I said we probably get it done in the next two hours. He goes what? And I said, really simple. I said let's hang up now. I'll talk to you at the end of the day.
Speaker 1:Go to your computer, your inbox for the last three years, and start looking at the regular names that keep coming up. Take that name, put it into agent box or whatever CRM system you're doing. I said once you finish with your emails, then you're going to go to your mobile phone. You're going to look at everything on your mobile. You're going to look at text messages. You're going to look at all your DMs. You're going to take those people. These people have Mets. We're all we're doing is formalizing and taking them away from all the clutter, putting them on one simple spreadsheet. He had 450 people in two hours for that afternoon and it's really hey.
Speaker 1:Let's summarize prospecting. Very simply, at the end, this is what prospecting is. It doesn't matter whether you're selling gyms, mortgages, pharmaceuticals, real estate. You talk to people that you know. You talk to people that you don't know. You create content on social media and you advertise and we're gifted. In real estate, we're the only industry I know that you advertise and part of that advertising is actually subsidized. So you've got five ways Reach out to people you know, reach out to people you don't know these both VPA and APA and create content. Anyway, gentlemen, I want to thank you so much, so much, troy and John, for coming on Really excited as well. By the way, million dollar agent the podcast everyone that's listening in is going to the next level. Over the next few months, you're going to start seeing snippets being put on social media. We're going to see the quality of the production go up, but unfortunately, the content still goes bad.
Speaker 2:Thank you everybody, have a great day. Have a great day.