What do you look for in a brokerage? What do you expect from them?
Brokerage Standards
Whether you’ve decided to move on from your current brokerage or are doing it for the first time, interviewing a brokerage can be a tricky process. Here is a list of standards REALTORS® Kristina Wilton, Rick Sergison, and Steven Sarasin, featured in the video above, look for in a brokerage:
Attention
“When I’m calling you, you’re not rushing to get me off the phone.” – Steven Sarasin
Support
Invests in you and your career
Proper training
Positive energy
Respect what you have to say
When Kristina met with her broker, she mentioned she felt unsafe working in the current location. She also didn’t like bringing her clients to the office as she felt it didn’t represent her business. Her broker listened and moved to a different office that resolved both issues.
This made Kristina feel respected, valued, and confirmed that she and the brokerage she works with have similar standards.
Get A Prenup
As far as Rick’s concerned, the brokerage works for you. You as a realtor are the broker’s client. If the managing broker doesn’t do their job, the agents leave. He says that one of the most important questions to ask is, “How will you treat me when I leave?”
Brokers can offer you the world when you join them, but what will they do if/when you decide to move on? When your clients call, will they forward your new number or will they tell them that you’ve left the business? Legally, they can take your business after you’re gone. So you need to figure out if their ethical standards align with yours. Think of what you would put in a prenup before shaking hands and working towards growing your business with that brokerage.
Give Us A Call
Book your free consultationhere. We’ll discuss your goals and figure out the best way we can help you succeed online. Got any topics you’d like us to cover in a future episode or a guest you’d like us to sit down with? Let us know in the comments below! You can also reach us onFacebook andInstagram.
Setting and keeping a positive mindset everyday and knowing when to take a moment to recharge can change your business and your life.
Perspective
Most people don’t see the stress, struggles, and sacrifices that happen behind-the-scenes in real estate. The long hours, day after day. The interrupted family events, holidays, and vacations. The ones that are missed entirely.
It can be tiresome to smile all day for clients while working your butt off to sell/buy their home. It can be tough to stay positive at the end of a 12 hour day and know you have to get up and do it all over again tomorrow.
Kristina Wilton, one of the special guests featured in this month’s Over A Pint, brought up the struggle of keeping a positive mindset.
“How do you get yourself out of a negative mindset?”
It’s all about perspective. If the way you are tackling challenges and everyday stress leaves you in a negative space, you need to change your outlook. It can be easy to enter a negative space and stay in it. Rick Sergison shared an example, in the video above. One of his coaching clients continued to self-sabotage everything they were doing. They’d put themselves in a “victim” mindset. One day, he decided to give his client a Superman t-shirt and asked them to go into the washroom and change. When his client came back, Rick said “Let’s start all over again and talk about this situation as if you were a superhero.” The conversation became something completely different.
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t – you’re right.” – Henry Ford
Steven Sarasin, also in the video above, mentioned that wearing a suit and going into the office leaves him far more productive than working at home in sweatpants. Wearing a nice suit is his own version of wearing a Superman suit.
Change the way you think about the upcoming day and its challenges. Focus on the things you’re grateful for, make a list if it helps, and start your day ready to conquer!
If you’re feeling a little run down, as all people do sometimes, give yourself an extra boost. Put the Superman t-shirt under your button-up and wear your Clark Kent glasses. Don’t have a prescription? No problem, get yourself a pair of blue light glasses. They’ll protect your eyes from harmful blue light coming from your device’s screen. Hey, who doesn’t feel smarter with a good pair of glasses on?
Train Your Mindset
Creating a positive mindset doesn’t happen overnight. You need to consistently train your mind and be aware of when you’re entering a negative space.
Rick’s first piece of advice, and Steven agreed, is to read as many books as you can. Read any book that will inspire you. If you’re not someone who likes to read, listen to them. Realtors spend countless hours driving. What better time to put on an audio book and take a moment to put yourself in an inspired space?
I’ve always kept a pretty even, solution-based mindset. If something happened in my business, I’d think to myself “this is my fault, what do I need to do to fix it?” Rick brought up something interesting. He said not to confuse “fault” with “being responsible”. Most of us don’t like to hear this, but we cannot control everything that happens in life. Sometimes it’s just not your fault, but you are responsible for how you react to the issue and what the outcome is.
Your clients get the best of you. You take on their issues, their challenges, and then at the end of the day you have to go home and deal with your own. It can be a lot and leave you with a bad mood and short temper for your family and friends.
Find little tricks that can help you hit the reset button when you find yourself in a negative space. For example, when Rick’s in a bad mood and heading into the office, he’ll park further away from the front door. This gives him time to take a moment by himself, take a short walk to the front door in the fresh air, and reset his mind.
If you love music, create a playlist of songs you love to listen to on your way to an appointment or on your way home at the end of the day. Take a minute to take a few full breaths and list things you’re grateful for. Steven said that working out on a regular basis affected his general mood in a positive way.
Remember, You’re Human
Emotions, negative or positive, are completely natural and only make you human. It’s important to allow yourself to feel whatever emotion presents itself when working towards setting and keeping a positive mindset. Kristina says “if you’re having a shitty day – you can have a shitty day. If you’re feeling angry, if you want to cry, whatever it is you need to do, do it, but then end it.”
Take the hour, the day to feel whatever it is you’re feeling, but then let it go. “Allow yourself to feel it because they’re real and it’s healthy but then release it.”
Give Us A Call
Online marketing is a stress that we can help you with! You can book your free consultation here. We’ll discuss your goals and figure out the best way we can help you succeed online.
Got any topics you’d like us to cover in a future episode or a guest you’d like us to sit down with? Let us know in the comments below! You can also reach us on Facebook and Instagram.
Have you ever thought about using targeted Facebook ads as a networking tactic when attending an event?
I had the chance to sit down with Jason Stephen, CREA’s 2019 President. We discussed everything CREA, online marketing, social media, and Facebook tactics for REALTORS®.
“Funny, I Just Saw Your Ad On Facebook!”
Jason and I were both basketball coaches before becoming parents. Jason said he got a client out of that here and there though it wasn’t why he coached. I didn’t want to be “that guy” who walked around handing out business cards at games and practices either.
People don’t want to be sold a service while they’re trying to support their children at a game or practice. At the same time, you want people to know what it is that you do and how you can help them.
So, how can I get them to come to me?
I noticed that parents would pull out their phones during time outs. I decided to run a Facebook ad with a picture that included my face and logo. I then targeted it to the specific building we were playing in and the people attending it. After the games parents would walk up to me saying “Hey! Funny, I just saw your ad on Facebook!” I would smile and say “Wow! What a coincidence!”
It’s an easy way of advertising your services and keeping yourself at the forefront of people’s minds. This applies to any event you’re attending as well. For example, I’ll create an ad when I speak at a conference. I take a picture of myself in front of the building and create an ad inviting attendees to my session.
You don’t have to speak at an event to let people know you’re there. If you’re attending a community event and have a table set up, create an ad and let people know where you’ll be!
Getting Your Facebook Ads Approved
You’ve created your ad and yet, no matter how many times you try, Facebook refuses to approve your ad. There are 2 main things to watch out for:
It could be that you never certified your compliance with local regulations.
You could be using the wrong type of language/words in your ad.
One of our clients runs 2 crossfit gyms. When we run an ad for them, the ad cannot contain a before-and-after picture as it may cause the viewer to feel bad about themselves. Facebook also disapproves ads that use the word ‘you’ too often. Generally those ads make the viewers feel that they aren’t enough and need to be doing more.
We Can Help You!
Need help targeting your Facebook ad to the event you’re attending? Just Sell Homes can help you with that. Click here to book a free consultation.
Got any topics you’d like us to cover in a future episode or a guest you’d like us to sit down with? Let us know in the comments below! You can also reach us on Facebook and Instagram.
Online branding, automation, and figuring out a good work/life balance with Natalie Sutton Balaban.
This week I sat down with Natalie Sutton Balaban, a manager with Sutton Group Associates, Over A Pint. Natalie grew up in a real estate family and has been active in the industry for eight years. She began her career filling in for an administrator and moved her way up to manager. Some of her tasks include training, events, marketing, and online branding.
Online Branding
One of the topics we covered was the importance of branding online and through events. Some don’t find it to be a valuable asset because it doesn’t usually translate to profit right away. Those who see the value understand that you have to play the long game when it comes to building an online presence.
Building your brand and remaining consistent online is time consuming. You have to create and update:
– Your profile in a way that will help with SEO
– Produce top quality content
– Dedicate time to planning and scheduling your content to remain consistent
Organic social media growth can be frustrating. Often taking up to 6 months before seeing a noticeable change. Remember, you’re building a brand culture online and consistently showing up on your followers’ feeds. People get an inside look at your business and can see themselves being a part of it.
You’re accumulating new connections through your online listings and social accounts – time for a new system! It’s easy to casually go back and forth with prospective clients on social media. It’s also easy to lose track of who’s information you’ve actually collected. That can get tricky when it’s time to give them a call or send them an email.
Automation
Advertising your services and listings online is a great way to put your business in front of people. It also means you can find yourself with a large amount of people opting in. This can leave you overwhelmed and make it difficult to figure out which are serious leads and which aren’t.
Though I wouldn’t recommend automation as a main form of contact, it can be a great way to sift out the solid leads. When people opt in, they receive an automated message asking them a question. There are two great outcomes from this simple system:
You’re given information before making direct contact with them,
Those who are serious will take the time to answer the question, those who aren’t won’t bother. You’re left with a shorter list of leads to contact.
Work / Life Balance
Creating a work/life balance that works for you – the age-old struggle.
In the real estate industry it isn’t uncommon to miss certain events. To have to excuse yourself during dinner with the family to take a call. Knowing where to draw the line when it comes to your availability can be difficult. Every individual has their own lifestyle, so there isn’t one work-life-balance-fits-all.
One of your goals is to allow for more uninterrupted time with family and friends. Take the time to analyze your tasks. Figure out where you add the most value and narrow down the tasks that are taking up time and causing stress. The hardest part is letting go of some control and delegating tasks to others. Doing so will help your business grow and help you achieve the sought after work/life balance.
Give Us A Call
You can book your free consultation here. We’ll discuss your goals and figure out the best way we can help you succeed online.
Got any topics you’d like us to cover in a future episode or a guest you’d like us to sit down with? Let us know in the comments below! You can also reach us on Facebook and Instagram.
Andrew Fogliato sits down with Bradley Mayer-Harman Over A Pint and discuss the hustle it takes going from being a real estate agent to managing a team and running your own business.
Got any topic ideas you’d like us to cover in a future episode? Let us know in the comments below!
