Think Bigger Real Estate

I had an experience today that is teaching me a really powerful lesson. Over a year ago I did something unethical with some clients. I started to give a lead source that was not mine to give. My intentions were good but the way I went about it was not. When it all came out, I felt very remorseful and asked a sincere apology from those involved. 

Just today I had an encounter with one of the individuals wronged and from it I have learned a myriad of lessons about how holding grudges and forgiveness, or lack there of, can limit our ability to think bigger, act bigger and have a big impact. 

Meet Patrick Woods. Patrick began his real estate career in 2002 and is currently an owner and General Manager of 4 Keller Williams Realty franchises with nearly 1,000 associates selling over 7,000 homes equalling approximately $2.5 billion in sales in 2016 alone.

Previously he served as the CEO and Team Leader of the Roseville office. With over 500 associates, the Roseville office has finished as the #1 Keller Williams office in the world in both 2011 and 2012 out of approximately 700 offices worldwide. In 2014 Patrick and his office reached the pinnacle of selling over $1 Billion worth of real estate in a single year.

Our interview with Patrick goes into the rise and fall of his career in the Dotcom world and how that helped him to develop the vision and leadership lessons and attributes to go big in building a real estate and coaching empire. You'll love some of the nuggets shared by this business icon. 

I had lunch this past week with a friend who doubles as a very successful individual. His success extends beyond the business world into his faith and family. He is someone definitely worth modeling.

In our conversation, he shared with me that he had told his wife that he wanted to come up with a billion-dollar idea. That lead he and I down an interesting conversation path and has caused me to reflect on it since our time together. From that, I've derived a question and a formula that can dramatically change your thinking, conversations, actions and impact. 

In this episode I interview the leader of the top producing real estate team, SELLPDX.com, and best-selling author of the game-changing book The Golden Handoff- How to Buy and Sell a Real Estate Agent's Business.

Nick and I go into a massive paradigm shift that agents can have, either at the start of their career, or as they are nearing the end of their career, when they realize that their real-estate business is something they can one day sell.

There are TWO WAYS to get the bingest and best building in town. The first is to take all of your effort and resources to go build it. The second is to go and try and knock down other people's buildings so that yours remains or becomes the bingest building in town. The first is gratifying, helps you become something great, and is effective. The latter will be ineffective, shallow, short-lived, and comes with an opportunity cost of not spending time improving your brand, offering, business, etc.

Whether in the past, currently, or even in the future, you find yourself spending your precious resources knocking down other people's buildings, stop it! You are only hurting yourself and not serving your customers and your industry in the way that you otherwise could.

Show me your calendar and I will show you how big you are thinking.

In today's episode I tell of the realization that I had as I looked at my calendar and seeing a recurring appointment that is a very common practice in my industry. What I know and remembered is that this may not be the best use of my time in helping me to think bigger and therefore help my clients to think bigger and don more.

I encourage you to look at your calendar and see if there are activities and/or white space there that should be filled with bigger thinking activities and bigger conversations.

As you do, I am convinced that you will like the return.

I was in a meeting today with some clients and the topic came up and of how to get out of conversations when clients are trying to get you to heavily compete with other agents.

Our discussion led us to the solution of letting the client know that we do not compete on those terms, but that we compete at a different level on different terms, that are ultimately more valuable to the client and that we are not sure that we are a good fit.

Essentially, what we are doing, is recognizing that this client is inviting us to be small thinking and in small conversations. We are declining the invitation to be in those conversations and inviting the client to join us in bigger thinking and the bigger conversations.

Often times, we underestimate the cost of being in small conversations. We often only calculate and consider the direct costs, like lowered commissions, etc. What we fail to recognize, is the opportunity cost of being in small thinking conversations... which take the place of a conversation in which bigger thinking could be taking place. That cost has the potential to be enormous.

Just last week I had the opportunity to sit down with a real estate agent in my area, who is not currently a customer, but who is consistently in the top 5 or 10 producing agents in our city.

What I share in this episode are some things that I learned about getting into those conversations, adding value in those conversations, and setting yourself up for future conversations with that person.