Are you presenting yourself professionally as a resource or as a salesperson to your potential clients? This week we have with us in the OTB studio Kacia and Seena, good friends of the show who recently had their own unique set of circumstances that made finding the right real estate professional a huge priority. This continues what we were talking about last week with Bernie’s story of finding a new home: building a professional relationship of trust with your clients is so important to building your professional reputation.

 

The No-Sale Sale

 

You never know what kind of situation potential clients might be coming to you with when you first interact with them. They could just be looking for a new home, or they might be dealing with property that they have no idea what to do with. More often than not, it will be some of the biggest purchases or sales that they’ve ever dealt with, and so need someone who can help them navigate all the ins and outs of the real estate market. Every interaction is an opportunity to showcase that outside the box thinking that will keep them coming back to you when they need that specialized help.

 

Sometimes this kind of client care can take the shape of giving advice that might lead the client away from your services. This is about building that trust between you and the client by always giving them the advice that would best benefit them, no matter where that might lead them. Ultimately, this is an industry about people and relationships, and establishing yourself as a leader in the market by always looking out for a client’s best interests will help establish you as one.

 

“I think it's super important that you have a closer that not only possesses the technical knowledge but actually has people skills. I've been in this for 18 years now, and I've seen these escrow officers go from transactional to today where the expectation really has to be a little bit more hands on and personal. And finally, I think that you need to talk to escrow officers that are just as invested in getting something closed as you are.” – Bernie

 

“We don't get paid unless you get paid. So, we have every vested interest in making sure that this transaction closes. And not only does it close on time, but that you had a pleasant experience.” – Bernie

 

“The thing that I'm really hoping to change, I think about this in the long term, is that if you know how to build wealth, and you're starting off on this path with me and understanding how many more people can you impact and change their lives?” – Steve

 

“I see a lot of people in our industry where they were phenomenal successful producers 10 years ago, and now they're coaches and they're just using theory from 10 years ago. I've been working through chaotic problems this week, you know, they're good problems working with agents to try and solve problems. But I can only do it because I'm still in it.” - Steve

 

​​You can find Kacia at:

https://www.instagram.com/shegoes.company/?hl=en

 

You can find Seena at:

https://www.instagram.com/seena.ghetmiri/?hl=en

 

 

We’re ready to hear from you! Have a question or topic you’d like us to cover? Send us a message at:

Steve’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stevedvalentine/

Bernie’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bernzpix/

 

You can find us on all the major Podcast apps: Apple Podcasts, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to be notified when new episodes are live and leave us a review and 5-star rating to help the show grow!

We’re rounding out the year here at the Thinking OTB studios by bringing you the story of Bernie and her journey to finding a new home. Luckily, she has a real estate powerhouse in her corner to help her build upon the buying power that she already has as well as helping her to get into a home for her and her family of pups! But it also was an opportunity to showcase what we’ve been preaching here at OTB about a different way of helping your clients because at the end of the day this is a business about helping people.

 

Be a Beacon of Light in Stressful Times

 

If you’ve been able to achieve a level of success in this business, it can be easy to fall into a mindset where you separate the client from the people they are. This is a business where legwork is required, showing houses and keeping in contact with buyers and sellers through the process. It can be tedious sometimes, so to stop yourself from losing sight of what’s important you need to remember that we’re working with people’s dreams for a new future, whether that dream is for a family or for a valued friend and her pups.

 

As a person’s agent and representative, you can position yourself as the expert in the field and help them through the stress of trying to find the home they need to start building the wealth and legacy that seems so hard to find. It may be tempting to pass off some of your interactions on your team that you may not want to do yourself, but you better believe your clients will notice. If you’re not invested in your client’s, don’t expect them to be invested in referring you in the future.

 

It’s all about those little moments, those small bits of personal attention that go so far in creating those lasting relationships. Always keep in mind who we’re working for, and what kind of impact a transaction like this has on a person or a family’s future and where you want to fit in that story. Are you the hero, or just the salesperson?

 

“People don't work through the monetary cost of not doing something the right way. And what I mean is that they won't put an extra $10,000 into a master bathroom or move the kitchen or something of that nature, thinking that's just going to cost too much, we're not going to get it back out. What they don't see is the cost that is equated to how long it was on the market and the reductions, or that it didn't sell right away.” – Steve

 

“It was so fun being your client. One of the coolest things for me is I've been in this business for a long time and I've gotten a chance to work with a few clients, and it's really cool when from the title partner side of things that you've worked with them on all their systems and strategies, marketing and whatnot. To really get to experience their processes because you've never been a buyer or seller. You don't do that very often.” – Bernie

 

We’re ready to hear from you! Have a question or topic you’d like us to cover? Send us a message at:

Steve’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stevedvalentine/

Bernie’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bernzpix/

 

You can find us on all the major Podcast apps: Apple Podcasts, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to be notified when new episodes are live and leave us a review and 5-star rating to help the show grow!

It’s our one-year anniversary here at Thinking OTB! One year ago, we got some equipment, hit the record button, and started something that’s grown into the podcast you know and love about success and building legacy as a real estate agent. And with 2021 coming to a close, what a year to start in with a market that is nothing short of bananas, but the harder things are the more valuable thinking outside the box is to getting that success.

 

When we started this podcast we wanted a way to reach out to boots on the ground agents and give them a new way of doing business, one that is focused not only on success but also on building weath and legacy. This year we’ve talked about ways of looking at the current market and how to bring some order to the chaos. We’ve talked about how setting giving goals can bring you closer to the community which you serve, and how all of this feeds back into making this more than just a job, but a lifestyle.

 

Moving into 2022 we’re going to continue to bring you the best information we can about where the market is going, doing more interviews with movers and shakers in the industry and tips and strategies about how to make yourself stand out in our crowded profession. It’s one year in the books talking about how outside the box thinking can push you to the next level of your career, and we’re excited to see how much we can grow moving into the next year!

 

“I think for especially newer agents that are just getting into the business and trying to figure things out, you see a lot of agents that are taking time off and relaxing and they're not going hard. And the reality is now’s the best time the best time to jump in, because what you're doing now is going to catapult you in January.” – Steve

 

“Riches are in the niches, bitches, and at the end of the day, the riches don't necessarily mean dollars, it could also be fulfillment, you know what I mean? Finding those niches that you have a passion for is pretty important. It doesn't mean it takes away from your traditional business but you're finding something that really, really brings you out and that's what people connect to.” - Bernie

 

“What is your packaging and what does your value add that you can add over the other 90,000 agents that are in the market? Everybody's vying for attention, we can’t all do the same thing. It's always crazy that somebody will pay the same amount to a new agent with no experience as they will pay me with 22 years’ experience. People think that real estate agents don't add a lot of value, but they don't see when the shit gets in the weeds.” – Steve

 

“I’ve always thought about real estate in terms of like, good market, good economy, bad economy, good market, bad market, people will always seek shelter. So, no matter what's going on, economically speaking, with finances being good or bad people still need to find a place to live. People will always seek shelter. So real estate will always be a sound investment, whether it's hard to get into it and play or not.” - Bernie

 

We’re ready to hear from you! Have a question or topic you’d like us to cover? Send us a message at:

Steve’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stevedvalentine/

Bernie’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bernzpix/

 

You can find us on all the major Podcast apps: Apple Podcasts, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to be notified when new episodes are live and leave us a review and 5-star rating to help the show grow!

A big part of building legacy as part of success in business is not just about how much you bring in, but what you’re giving back. We’ve talked about giving goals in the past and this week we’re speaking with guests that help expand upon that idea, that giving is not only transactional but can take many different forms, depending on what kind of impact you want to make as part of your specific legacy.

 

This week we have with us Shawn Henss of GivingSole.org to tell us about his nonprofit dedicated to getting good shoes to kids in need, as well as Tim McBride of Wexler Realty who specializes in using real estate to build relationships with charitable organizations. Our conversation focuses not only on what kind of impact these two generous individuals are having on our community, but also how there are so many ways to make a difference.

 

So much of what Thinking OTB is all about is not just being the most successful, or selling the most houses, it’s about making what you do professionally mean something to the community that you live in. Finding ways to give back through organizations like Giving Sole is about creating a legacy of success that is tied to having an impact on the world. Helping your clients with what might be the biggest transaction of their life but also giving them a way to feel a part of the community through charitable organizations that you partner with…well, that kind of community isn’t built with money, but with heart, and that’s what we’re all about.

 

You can find Shawn at https://www.instagram.com/giving_sole/ or https://givingsole.org/ where you can make a donation or find out how you can be more involved with helping kids get the footwear that they need. Let’s help them get to their goal of giving this year of 500 pairs of shoes!

 

You can also find Tim at https://www.instagram.com/tim_mcbride_re/

 

Have a question or topic you’d like us to cover? Send us a message at:

Steve’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stevedvalentine/

Bernie’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bernzpix/

 

You can find us on all the major Podcast apps: Apple Podcasts, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to be notified when new episodes are live and leave us a review and 5-star rating to help the show grow!

Our guest this week is none other than Brian Gubernick, Chief Real Estate Officer for Homeward, a home finance company. Brian is a prime example of someone who has come to realize that the best path to a lasting legacy in real estate is being open to outside the box ideas, and his company Homeward is one that teams up with agents to make themselves more competitive.

 

Making yourself more Competitive

 

We had a great conversation about what Brian and Homeward can do as a tool in every real estate agent’s pocket, both as a reactionary option and more importantly, a proactive option to build business. It’s very important that as agents we utilize every option open to us to be competitive in the saturated market, we find ourselves in. Which brings up a very important aspect of Brian’s professional journey in his time as a real estate agent.

 

“When all this stuff hit, I was drawing up plans to run virtual showings and virtual open houses and how do I coach and train my team and my coaching clients around all these things because we thought real estate was about to spiral downward. And it's so funny when I look back at some of these things I was drawing up, none of it came to fruition, none of it proved to be necessary. It was just such a weird time.”

 

The last few years have shown everyone that things can change drastically from what we thought was normal. Everyone has had to adapt to this new normal of iBuyers and working remotely, and those of us that have been open to that change the quickest are going to be the ones that prosper. Being competitive in today’s market isn’t only about how much hustle you have, as Brian points out, but about how you perceive your professionality and how you think through the reality of the market.

 

“There's no question there's going to be crisis again and I will deliberately run at it, as opposed to how many of our peers hid under the desk and said, “This is going to go away.””

 

You can check out Homeward and what they can do for agents at https://www.homeward.com/ and on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/thehomewardway/

 

Have a question or topic you’d like us to cover? Send us a message at:

Steve’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stevedvalentine/

Bernie’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bernzpix/

 

You can find us on all the major Podcast apps: Apple Podcasts, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to be notified when new episodes are live and leave us a review and 5-star rating to help the show grow!

What is Mental Coaching? This week we have as our guest Al Fuentes to talk with us about mental coaching and what benefits can be had by agents looking to break themselves out of their professional slump and get on that next level. But what is mental coaching, and how can it help?

 

According to Alfuentes.com:

“Mental Coaching is not life coaching or counseling, it is a system that uses the physical body to improve the way the brain functions. Just like the mind can affect the body, the body can affect the mind.”

 

“The best part about these techniques is that the foundation is built off of two things you do every single day: breathe and visualize. These simple yet profound techniques have allowed thousands of professionals to learn how to regulate their mind by using their body.”

 

We had a great conversation with Al about mental coaching and how his ideas can help agents both personally and professionally. Here are some key takeaways from the man himself:

 

“The biggest mistake Realtors make when trying to figure out their identity is they look at systems processes or the industry itself and they're looking at all these things to define them. When they get to me, they've done all these things and still feel a little lost. And that's when we get to make real estate fun, because they get to find themselves and then pick and choose what systems and processes work that align with them.” – Al on finding what’s really holding professionals back.

 

“We've become a society of front brain thinkers, which is our logic, our intellect, our processing, and we've relied on this to be the dominant solution of all the things that are going on in our lives. You've often heard that problems get solved when you sleep or the minute you stop thinking about something you figure it out. That's because the minute you step away, you're stopped front loading the back brain, which is also a much bigger processing unit that now has the chance now to go to work on the problem. But we keep everything in the front of our brains swirling all the time, including fear, doubt, worry, including all these things.”

 

“When you start slowing down, it feels like you're flooded even more, which people don't want to do. But you're actually not thinking more, you're just realizing how fast your brain is going. Because the more you slow down, the more awareness that you have, and more awareness can be scary because you just weren't aware of how much is going on in your head.”

 

You can find more about Al and some free exercises and methods at:

https://www.alfuentes.com/

 

Have a question or topic you’d like us to cover? Send us a message at:

Steve’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stevedvalentine/

Bernie’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bernzpix/

 

You can find us on all the major Podcast apps: Apple Podcasts, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to be notified when new episodes are live and leave us a review and 5-star rating to help the show grow!

Here at Thinking OTB we talk a great deal about legacy. What you leave behind for your loved ones is a huge part of working and investing in real estate. Part of what legacy means is not only what you leave behind, but how you leave behind when it’s your time to pass on. Life planning is not something that people like to talk about much, but it’s a huge deal for those that are going to be settling your affairs when the time comes. Having a plan can bring so much piece of mind not only for your loved ones, but for yourself.

 

Settling Accounts

 

Having a life plan is not only for those of us with assets to deal with, but for anyone. The reality is that this is a situation that every one of us is going to have to deal with or leave behind, so having a plan is something that everyone needs to think about no matter what age or state of health you’re in. It could be as simple as talking with a financial planner about where you’re at and where you’d like to be that can start you on the path to being prepared.

 

“Who do we want to raise our kids? But who do we want to manage the money? It’s two different things.” – Steve

 

Just these two simple questions can show how complicated a life plan can get, and so needs the necessary amount of time and investment that you would give to any one of the day-to-day tasks that you would normally devote your time to. That’s the mindset that we want to stress is needed for thinking about end-of-life planning.

 

Life planning is just another form of investment that needs to be done by everyone. It’s about taking care of those you leave behind and not being a burden on them. Losing a loved one is hard enough without having to untangle business dealings and assets and who is going to be taking care of who. Being truly successful is managing yourself as much as possible so that your loved ones can concentrate on what is important when the time comes that you pass: remembering and mourning.

 

“My dad had a small life insurance policy, but there was also a lot of debt and a lot of unknowns and a lot of untangling things. It took years to help my mom to get through it but there could have been things done differently to set that up. But what happens is we get so busy in our day to day lives that we don't think about it. And then the worst-case scenario happens somebody passes.” – Steve

 

“An estate planner is going to go through all the different scenarios, like should you be doing a will? Should you be doing a living trust? All these different things, because what they're going to do is they're going to ask you all the questions.” - Steve

 

Have a question or topic you’d like us to cover? Send us a message at:

Steve’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stevedvalentine/

Bernie’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bernzpix/

 

You can find us on all the major Podcast apps: Apple Podcasts, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to be notified when new episodes are live and leave us a review and 5-star rating to help the show grow!

This week we have with us one of the best in the business when it comes to getting veterans into homes. Julie Calza is with us here in the OTB studios to share with us how she uses business plans to keep her team on track and push her business to make as much of a difference in people’s lives as possible. We had a great conversation ranging from knowing who you are and who you aren’t, understanding what kind of impact you want to make from your business, and who makes a good team member and what kind of qualities they need to be successful in this market. Here are some highlights from our conversation:

 

On Starting Right with a Business Plan:

 

“I think what’s the most important thing to focus on is really your mindset. I think it's important to start with your mindset first. Then, when you're sitting down to start a business plan, you have to have information; sitting down in front of a blank piece of paper is what makes a lot of people not do it. You could have the best template in the world and it's not going to work unless you have information, and most important is an understanding of leading indicators and lagging indicators.”

 

Have the proper Motivation:

 

“If your motivation is to make X amount of money, I can give you that formula for that. But you're going to come out the other side of that, and it would probably work out to be honest, because formulas work, but you're going to come out the other side of that with an unstable business. If you’re always striving for money, the customer can sense that. They know quality when they see it, they know what your intentions are with how you're talking to them and how you're treating them. Even if you put on the prettiest smile, you know, it's just lipstick on a pig, and they can see the pig.”

 

Money Isn’t Everything:

 

“I think that if you're trying to build a business to make a lot of money, there's one thing you will never have a lot of: money. Because yes, where focus goes energy flows, but when you're focusing on a result, without knowing or focusing on the activities that get you that result, then in my experience, it doesn't work. It's just not the type of person I am. So, I like to focus on how many people I'm able to impact.”

 

You can find Julie Calza on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/calzajulie/

And you can find Calzaco on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/CalzaCo

 

Have a question or topic you’d like us to cover? Send us a message at:

Steve’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stevedvalentine/

Bernie’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bernzpix/

 

You can find us on all the major Podcast apps: Apple Podcasts, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to be notified when new episodes are live and leave us a review and 5-star rating to help the show grow!

This week on Thinking OTB we’re very lucky to have in the studio with us Fred Delgado from the Keller Williams Group. Fred is a good friend of Bernie with years of being a successful real estate agent and team leader in the Phoenix area and he was gracious enough to come share some of his thoughts on Business Planning, having the right mindset about being in business for yourself, and how that mindset can translate to being an integral part of a successful team.

 

Making the Hard Decisions

 

Becoming a Real Estate agent means taking on a certain amount of risk. Fred learned that fact early on when the 2008 financial crash happened right as he was starting in the business. With everything that was happening and how the market was crashing, he was faced with a decision: to go back to his old 9 to 5 or keep working as an agent and find a way to make it work.

 

“(The crash), that was a wakeup call for me to figure out: do I go back to my old environment, my old world, which was a paycheck that came every other week? You know, it was an environment that was secure. However, it wasn't a life that I wanted, right?”

 

Much of what we talked about was managing risk with yourself and your business. The purpose of having a business plan is managing that risk as much as possible. For Fred, taking the risk even in a market that was on the downside meant that he had to have a plan moving forward. If he was going to make being an agent, he was going to have to work for it.

 

Building a Team

 

Fred has found success in building and being a part of a larger team of agents all working toward the same production goals. This doesn’t mean letting go of what makes you unique, but how you integrate what goals you have into the team and how the team can help you achieve those goals. This means building a team that works well together and understanding what it takes to get that well-oiled machine going:

 

“First you have to form a group. The first part is called forming, and then storming because they have to get together and work out, and some of them will not. Then it's forming, and then performing. It has to cycle every time you bring a group of individuals together, there is a cycle. You bring them together and you have to form, storm, form, and then perform. Once we get past the storming stage, we get to a forming stage and now we work together.”

 

Understand where you went wrong

 

Sometimes you don’t make the goals that  you were hoping for, and the goals for yourself were set higher than what you achieved. This is as much part of the business as success, and the key to success is knowing how to look at those setbacks and get back to where you need to be.

 

“You will earn based on the amount of value you bring to your community. If you are finding that you're not making any money, look in the mirror and ask what kind of value you’ve brought to your community. When it comes to our business plan, we do go back and say: how many did we help? Did we really create something? Most of our business is referral business, so when clients don't come back then you have to reevaluate how you're doing your business.”

 

It’s a great conversation we had with Fred and so much great information to hear. Come give it a listen and let us know what you learned!

 

Have a question or topic you’d like us to cover? Send us a message at:

Steve’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stevedvalentine/

Bernie’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bernzpix/

 

You can find us on all the major Podcast apps: Apple Podcasts, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to be notified when new episodes are live and leave us a review and 5-star rating to help the show grow!

This week we’re continuing our talk about building a business plan as a real estate agent to really understand what you’re trying to accomplish as a professional. Joining us this week is Billy Hobbs, Director of Operations with the Laughton Team. Billy has a huge role in not only planning out the goals for the entire company, but also building plans for the agents that work with them on an individual basis. Hopefully over the last few episodes you’ve seen that having a business plan doesn’t necessarily mean something complicated, but understanding who you are, who you’re not, and what your goals are for the future.

 

“I think part of it does come down to what you want out of your business, right? If you're an individual agent and doing six, seven deals in your market, that’s good. You've got a database, and you're working that and that's comfortable for you, fine. A business plan can be a simple one sheet: you write out a few goals and keep checking every now and then. It doesn't have to be elaborate.” – Billy

 

Being part of a Team but also being an Individual

 

The key takeaway from our conversation is to build a plan and if you’re part of a team, communicate that plan so that everyone is on the same page. Being a part of an effective team is planning of the future for yourself and for the business as a whole. It’s not just about performance, but about getting to the place that you want to be professionally and understanding how to accomplish those milestones. If you’re a solopreneur you are the only person that you need to be accountable to, but as a member of a team those above you should be just as invested in your success as you are.

 

“This happens in business, and I think in life: we constantly change systems thinking that that's going to be the thing that's going to get us to where we want to be, when it really isn't that. It's your habits and your culture that drives you and so once you've changed that mindset and you've built that into the plan, then you can look at the systems. But I think the advice I'd give is to make sure that your culture is driven to the activity and then you can look at the systems and the technologies to make that better.” – Billy

 

“Income goals doesn't mean that you're about money, but income represents the gateway to freedom. So, whatever in your life represents freedom, there's a number attached to that in order for you to have the freedom that you're looking for.”  - Bernie

 

“The biggest thing is, is that we learn way more from our failures or shortcomings than we do our successes, because if everything was success you wouldn't be learning or be able to shift anything, and you just think it's kosher.” – Steve

 

You can connect with Billy at http://laughtonteam.com/

 

Have a question or topic you’d like us to cover? Send us a message at:

Steve’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stevedvalentine/

Bernie’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bernzpix/

 

You can find us on all the major Podcast apps: Apple Podcasts, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to be notified when new episodes are live and leave us a review and 5-star rating to help the show grow!