Real Estate Survival Guide

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On today’s episode, we’re going to talk about how rising tides lift all boats. This week while in a real estate group, I saw a post that asked why there are agents out there asking questions of other agents in their market. The person commented that they would never help their competition. If you know me, then you know that this is the opposite of everything I stand for. Of course, my response was that this is the absolute worst mentality to have—that they were hoarding information and being selfish instead of helpful. I was a bit nicer than that, but I basically said that they weren’t getting it right. We’re supposed to be encouraging, helpful, and care about each other. The comments I received on my response varied—some agreed with me, and others thought I was nuts. A rising tide lifts all boats. There’s plenty of real estate business to go around—I don’t need to fight other Realtors to have success. It’s ok to help others, and if they get a deal over me because of information I gave them, good for them. I have never once lost a deal to a close friend, or someone I coach or mentor. Will it happen? Absolutely, but I really think it’s more important that we care about and help each other. Another one of my favorite phrases is collaboration over competition. This is exactly why I do everything I do, and it makes me sad that some people don’t feel this way. When you’re kind, gracious, and helpful toward someone, it’s going to come back to you—but that’s not why you do it. You do it because it’s the right thing to do. I help Realtors all the time in the membership. Some of those members are from Lancaster County. I believe that if I’m doing my job, I’ll be just fine and have plenty of success and I don’t have to worry about helping out my competition. We have to do better as a community to help each other and be less selfish. The more people I help, the more I’ve seen my business grow from the real estate side to the coaching, membership, and mastermind. I hope you’ll think about this and remember that a rising tide lifts all ships. Don’t be that person who made the post. Don’t be one of the people who is unwilling to help another Realtor. Thanks for listening. I’ll talk to you on our next episode.

Resources

Free social media coaching calls are back! To schedule your free social media coaching call go to: https://calendly.com/realestatesurvivalguide/social-media-strategy-for-realtors

Podcast edited by Kenny Carfagno.

Show notes and blog posts are created by Jennifer Harshman and RealtorEmails. John Schuchman is a licensed REALTOR® in Lancaster, PA, with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Homesale Realty and a part of the Andrew Welk Group. The opinions shared on this show represent the opinions & values of John Schuchman and do not necessarily represent the opinions & values of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Homesale Realty. The opinions & ideas shared in this podcast do not guarantee or promise any results of success to the listener. 

My wife told me recently that I needed a hobby. I think she noticed that, even though things were going really well in my real estate business, that I seemed to be stressed a lot. I needed something to take my mind off real estate. At the time I really resisted—after all, I already had a hobby—I play Madden, I watch sports. She pointed out that I get mad when I lose at Madden and that a hobby isn’t something that makes you mad. She had a point. She said I needed something that would take my mind off work without frustrating me.  She had a point, but at the time I didn’t realize I wasn’t getting that. I really enjoyed our time in Florida doing things I didn’t get to do on a normal day in Lancaster. I was reminded on this trip that I do need a hobby. I ended up buying a pretty expensive L-series lens for my camera while on holiday and I had a great time taking pictures of the Phillies spring training. I really found a new love for photography. I wouldn’t want to do it as a paying job, but I loved doing it for fun. It really brought me a sense of calm, peace, and enjoyment. So, I ended up realizing that I do need a hobby, and I encourage you to get a hobby too. You need something to take your mind off real estate sometimes. Not that real estate isn’t great, because it is—I never could have imagined how much I love it. There’s no W2 job out there that would let me go away for five weeks with my family. Real estate is awesome, but one of the downsides is that you’re never really clocked out. Valerie and I have figured out a system where it’s ok that I basically have to work every day. But while in Florida, I had the freedom to work for only 30 minutes to an hour some days. Imagine a job where you get to be gone more than 10% of the year. It just doesn’t happen—so real estate has the major advantage of being able to be away and work from anywhere. But you do work every day, so you still need that release and break from real estate. That’s why you need a hobby. Mine is going to be going out and having fun, taking pictures of sports. Another thing I really love is going to the movies. It's something that I don’t mind doing by myself because I can just sit there and enjoy the movie. I plan on going to more movies, and I want to encourage you to do something you love as well. I’m here on this podcast to encourage and motivate you, and hopefully help you have a successful business, but if you don’t have some kind of release to get a break from your work, you will burn out. So, you need a hobby. I would love for you to commit to doing something you enjoy, something fun for you, once a week. That’s what I’m committing to do. Whatever that looks like for you—taking a walk with your family, going to a movie, bowling, a sports event, whatever, just do it. I need a hobby and you need a hobby. Go out and find one. I’d love to hear from you guys about it, what your hobby is or what you are going to do to give your brain a break from real estate. I appreciate you guys, thanks for listening. I hope this was helpful, and I’ll talk to you on our next episode.

Resources

Free social media coaching calls are back! To schedule your free social media coaching call go to: https://calendly.com/realestatesurvivalguide/social-media-strategy-for-realtors

Podcast edited by Kenny Carfagno.

Show notes and blog posts are created by Jennifer Harshman and RealtorEmails. John Schuchman is a licensed REALTOR® in Lancaster, PA, with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Homesale Realty and a part of the Andrew Welk Group. The opinions shared on this show represent the opinions & values of John Schuchman and do not necessarily represent the opinions & values of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Homesale Realty. The opinions & ideas shared in this podcast do not guarantee or promise any results of success to the listener. 

Today’s episode is about asking the right questions. If you don’t ask better questions, you’ll just keep going around and around in circles in your business. Six months ago, I shared about my irrational fear of flying and how the hardest part for me was the takeoff. There’s a lot that goes on at an airport that intrigues me—the way the business runs and how many people cycle through every day. Recently, something happened that I hadn’t experienced before at the airport. As you know we were in Florida for over a month and after the first couple of weeks my sister Liz came to visit us from Pittsburgh. For some reason, when I went to pick her up at the Tampa airport I couldn’t find the pick-up area for the terminal—I kept driving in an endless loop because I couldn’t find the right waiting area. The same thing will happen to you in your real estate business if you don’t ask the right questions. So many of you are struggling and don’t know how to survive, but actually you aren’t asking the right questions. During every membership call there are people who won’t ask a single question. They sit there struggling, frustrated with their business, but they won’t ask the right questions to get the solutions they need. I can’t fix your business, but if you ask the right questions, you can find the solution to your problem and create a successful business. You should have seen me in our big SUV trying to hide at the terminal—just trying to sit there and not get kicked out by anybody. The rules are to keep people moving, so they would tell me move along and the endless loop would begin again. I even tried to park on the side of the road across from the terminal with my flashers on, but a police officer came and made me move. Of course, it’s for security reasons. No matter where I tried to pull up and park, someone made me move. I asked where they wanted me to go, and they said they didn’t care as long as I wasn’t there. My issue was that I wasn’t asking the right questions. I should have asked if they had a waiting area where I could park until my sister got her bags. I never asked, so I was stuck in an endless loop going around the terminal for 30-40 minutes. Maybe I was stressed, not wanting her to be late, so I just stayed in this endless loop—but it was because I wasn’t asking the right questions. So, my encouragement to you is that if you aren’t getting the results you want, you need to ask better questions. If you’re struggling in your business and you’re around top producers, ask them for advice. Ask them what they would do if they were in your shoes. Thanks for listening. I really appreciate you guys so much. Ask the right questions to the right people and you will have more success in your real estate business. I’ll talk to you guys on our next episode.

Resources

Free social media coaching calls are back! To schedule your free social media coaching call go to: https://calendly.com/realestatesurvivalguide/social-media-strategy-for-realtors

Podcast edited by Kenny Carfagno.

Show notes and blog posts are created by Jennifer Harshman and RealtorEmails. John Schuchman is a licensed REALTOR® in Lancaster, PA, with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Homesale Realty and a part of the Andrew Welk Group. The opinions shared on this show represent the opinions & values of John Schuchman and do not necessarily represent the opinions & values of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Homesale Realty. The opinions & ideas shared in this podcast do not guarantee or promise any results of success to the listener. 

This week we’ve talked about building content and making connections, and today we will talk about the confluence. Confluence is a great word that I heard from Vincent Pugliesi that he came up with from looking at what successful businesses were doing. Confluence occurs when several things come together—it is used often when smaller rivers come together and form a larger river. For our business purposes, confluence is where you take your content and your connections and you add marketing—and it becomes a powerful force that works together for the success of your business. The interesting part about confluence is that it brings together things that may not be powerful by themselves, but together make a big impact. I know people that have tons of content—they want to build a website, do a podcast and they are always giving away free content. Some of you have so much content that your content river is overflowing and flooding everywhere. Imagine that your river is overflowing on the content side, but there’s a dam set up and the water can’t go anywhere. The dam is there because you haven’t done any connecting. The river can’t keep flowing without both content and connections. You have to use your connections to serve, be helpful, and be kind—that connections river has to be long and deep just like your content river. Of course, it doesn’t have to start that way. Many rivers start as a foot-wide stream that only has a little water in it—you don’t have to start big. You can start small, but you do have to start. Eventually that stream begins to widen and turns into a river, and when those two rivers of content and connections combine, where the confluence occurs—that’s where the power and success begin. That amazing third river that results from the combination of the first two…it must start somewhere. You can create content that’s helpful for people and then make good connections by having great conversations about what you’re doing—not a pitch or sale—just building relationships, helping people, and talking about what you’re trying to do. You need both of those rivers flowing well to get to the confluence. You can do it—I’ve seen tons of people do it and I’ve done it myself. If you can do the content and make the connections and relationships, the confluence is going to be amazing. It’s going to come together and you’re going to have a ton of success. So, I hope this is helpful to you. If you have any questions about building your niche or micro niche after hearing this week’s episodes, I’d be honored to talk to you. Thanks for listening.

Resources

Free social media coaching calls are back! To schedule your free social media coaching call go to: https://calendly.com/realestatesurvivalguide/social-media-strategy-for-realtors

Podcast edited by Kenny Carfagno.

Show notes and blog posts are created by Jennifer Harshman and RealtorEmails. John Schuchman is a licensed REALTOR® in Lancaster, PA, with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Homesale Realty and a part of the Andrew Welk Group. The opinions shared on this show represent the opinions & values of John Schuchman and do not necessarily represent the opinions & values of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Homesale Realty. The opinions & ideas shared in this podcast do not guarantee or promise any results of success to the listener. 

On the last episode, we started talking about your micro niche and building content. Today we’re moving on to step two, which is connections. Some of you are great with connections, but a lot of you don’t do it well. A lot of people want to start a podcast or a membership, but without the connections, the content is meaningless. You have to have conversations with people. Vincent Pugliese does this so well as he builds out his $9 a month membership—he has conversations. He gets on the phone with people, spending 30 or 40 minutes basically giving them a free coaching call. When he mentions the low-cost membership with Total Life Freedom School, they jump on it before he even gets to explain it all. The majority of people don’t reach out and really care about another person.  Your micro niche and your content are absolutely pointless if you don’t have connections and don’t build relationships with people. I’ve talked about the hour of giving in the past and I try to do this every day. I don’t do it as well as Vincent, but part of what I do each day is connect with friends, clients, past clients, potential clients, and people I see on social media. So many of you hate social media because of all the superficial posts you see, but you aren’t on social media trying to change that—if you don’t like something, go and do something about it. Remember purposeful scrolling? I log into social media daily and think about the people I can connect with, help, and serve…and when I do that, those people want to promote me to others. I think of all the people who have connected me with other people who have helped me have success in my business. I helped them and they helped me. Interestingly, most of those people who come to mind are women. Maybe women are better at connections. I respond to every single message and text that I receive and sometimes they just say thank you and the conversation ends there, and I totally understand that. I’m not saying all this to make you think you’re doing it all wrong, but the point is to ask how you can get better at it so you can build out an effective micro niche and produce content that will help people–maybe even have a membership or something one day. 99% of the guys that I interact with are terrible at this—most talk about sports, which is fine from time to time, but that’s not going to grow your micro niche. Friday we’re going to talk about the confluence and what happens when content and connections come together. On the last episode I had you write down some ideas about content. Today I want you to scroll through your text messages, Facebook messenger, WhatsApp, whatever social media you have. Reach out to 10 people you haven’t spoken to in a week, or a month, or longer. Just reach out and check in. Tell them something you appreciate about them or that’s been helpful to you. That’s how you build connections. I started doing free social media audits and I still do them—you can book them, just message me and I will make it happen. It’s not a pitch about the membership, it’s so I can build a relationship and help you with social media (which I know is something that Realtors really need because I talk to Realtors every single week with what they’re struggling with). So, if you want to be successful, content is important, but you can’t do it without connections. Make those 10 calls or messages and tell those people you’re thinking of them, praying for them, saw something that they would be interested in, or whatever. When you build connections, people want to help you. On the next episode we’ll talk about confluence and how to put it all together. I’ll see you then.

Resources

Free social media coaching calls are back! To schedule your free social media coaching call go to: https://calendly.com/realestatesurvivalguide/social-media-strategy-for-realtors

Podcast edited by Kenny Carfagno.

Show notes and blog posts are created by Jennifer Harshman and RealtorEmails. John Schuchman is a licensed REALTOR® in Lancaster, PA, with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Homesale Realty and a part of the Andrew Welk Group. The opinions shared on this show represent the opinions & values of John Schuchman and do not necessarily represent the opinions & values of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Homesale Realty. The opinions & ideas shared in this podcast do not guarantee or promise any results of success to the listener. 

This is the first of a three-part series talking about what you need to serve your niche. I’ve watched Vincent Pugliese build out a $9 membership over the past few months that consists of an email that goes out every week and has shared so much with the TLF community. What I’ve learned as I watched him is that he has really mastered his micro niche—what he’s good at and what he enjoys doing. Today we’ll talk about your micro niche, which is the content. Wednesday we’ll talk about connections and on Friday we’ll finish up with the confluence of where those two things come together. So, for the past almost 300 episodes I’ve talked to you about real estate advice. This week is going to be a little different, but it will still apply to your real estate business. We’ll be talking about how you can build an audience through the knowledge that you have and help people with it—whether it’s a community mastermind group, video course, book, or email list. When you think about building a niche, you have to start with content. For some of us that’s easy, we have a ton of ideas, but maybe it’s hard for you. Think of what you enjoy and do something with that. A friend of mine, Aaron Hunt, has had a ton of success with his YouTube channel. In fact, he’s monetizing it now and it will eventually replace his full-time income by making videos about something he enjoys—Japanese bait style fishing. It doesn’t matter how old you are or if you already have a full-time job, if you can identify your niche, you can build something that can be successful and be a lot of fun. My membership has grown a ton, it’s been a lot of fun, and I’ve had a lot of success with it. I just started with making content, producing it, and building it—building things that I wish would’ve been there when I was starting out in real estate—things that I wish would’ve been there as a new Realtor. I get to share that on the membership. So, I want you to think about what is the content that you have that maybe you’ve never realized you had. John Stange talks about the content waterfall, and we’ve had an episode about how to create yours. Think about what you wish you had known when you got into X? The same way I share how to have success in your real estate business, how to market a luxury listing, how to find balance with work and your family, how to use social media in your real estate career, and how to reassure the client that you are the best Realtor for the job? You need content. As you think of that micro niche, if you are having some confusion, I’m more than happy to talk to you about it. As you think about that niche or micro niche, think about what you are passionate about, what you want to talk about and do. I joke about having a podcast about the Philadelphia Phillies—I’ve had a great time here in Florida watching their spring training games. Maybe I’ll have a podcast one day about that because I love it. Maybe I’ll have a podcast about faith and marriage. I love real estate so much and I love having conversations about how to be a successful Realtor, how to use social media to grow your business, and love answering questions—that’s my micro niche. If you’re struggling with your niche, just write down ideas every day and you’ll figure out what you enjoy doing. You’ll figure out your micro niche and what content you should be producing. Google questions that people are asking in your field and answer them for your content. Answer the Public is a great site for finding questions that people want answered. Take those questions and answer them in an email, blog, or podcast—I encourage you to start today. Do it right now—write down three to five things you wish you would’ve known about something you’re passionate about. I hope this is encouraging to you and we will continue to talk about it as we cover the connections on the next podcast followed by the confluence on Friday. I hope by the end of the week you get a better feel of what that niche and micro niche are, but first you must have that content. Hope you guys enjoyed this episode about how you can create content and why it’s important. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out any time.

Resources

Free social media coaching calls are back! To schedule your free social media coaching call go to: https://calendly.com/realestatesurvivalguide/social-media-strategy-for-realtors

Podcast edited by Kenny Carfagno.

Show notes and blog posts are created by Jennifer Harshman and RealtorEmails. John Schuchman is a licensed REALTOR® in Lancaster, PA, with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Homesale Realty and a part of the Andrew Welk Group. The opinions shared on this show represent the opinions & values of John Schuchman and do not necessarily represent the opinions & values of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Homesale Realty. The opinions & ideas shared in this podcast do not guarantee or promise any results of success to the listener. 

Today we’re going to talk about why you should be happy when the wrong ones leave. To be honest, I’ve experienced this recently with both real estate clients in my business and with membership, coaching, and training agents. I talk so much about your avatar and the importance of going after the people who you really align with. Remember the four client boxes we have talked about on the show—high paying/high drama, high paying/low drama, low paying/high drama, and low paying/low drama? You want to stay in the low drama boxes. A client that’s looking at a $200,000 house but is going to be low maintenance/low drama is going to be easy to work with. Sometimes the clients who are going for a high paying $800,000 listing but are going to be constantly complaining and causing lots of drama are just not worth it. I’ve experienced both in business and with some agents that I was coaching recently. I’m pretty low pressure during the first meeting with a client and let them know that they can take their time to decide if they feel it’s a good fit to work with me. Recently, a client said they were sure they wanted to work with me and told me to go ahead and set up the MLS search. The next day I got a text telling me they had decided to go another direction. To be honest, I was a little frustrated and stressed out for a few days because I didn’t know what I had done—but I had to remind myself that they just weren’t a fit. I should be happy they made that decision, happy that the “wrong ones” left. It wasn’t a fit and that’s ok. I’ve also experienced this in the membership when a Realtor comes in and pays the membership, but then dominates the conversation or is rude and obnoxious. There have been a few people that I have either removed from the membership or they removed themselves. Sometimes I have asked myself what I did to make them leave, but I have learned that my job is to protect the integrity of the group. If someone’s not a fit and they leave, I should be happy—again the “wrong ones” left. I want to encourage you in your real estate business to be happy when the wrong ones leave. I believe that if you are working hard, you’re diligent, and have integrity that you will have success in the real estate business, so don’t be upset when people who aren’t a good fit go in another direction. You don’t want to be chasing people that don’t want to work with you. You want to have the freedom and openness for the clients that do need you. I agree, it hurts when a client decides they don’t want to work with you. It hurts when Realtors leave or quit the membership, but my encouragement to you (and myself) is to be happy when the wrong ones leave because it opens you up to work with the clients that want to do business with you and value what you have to offer. I hope that instead of being frustrated when clients go another direction that you will think of it as an opportunity to find the right clients and realize that it doesn’t mean that you are doing anything wrong. It just opens you up to having more room for success in your real estate business. So, thank you guys so much for listening. Hope you enjoyed this episode, and I will talk to you guys next week.

Resources

Free social media coaching calls are back! To schedule your free social media coaching call go to: https://calendly.com/realestatesurvivalguide/social-media-strategy-for-realtors

Podcast edited by Kenny Carfagno.

Show notes and blog posts are created by Jennifer Harshman and RealtorEmails. John Schuchman is a licensed REALTOR® in Lancaster, PA, with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Homesale Realty and a part of the Andrew Welk Group. The opinions shared on this show represent the opinions & values of John Schuchman and do not necessarily represent the opinions & values of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Homesale Realty. The opinions & ideas shared in this podcast do not guarantee or promise any results of success to the listener.