Do you want more repeat and referral business? Of course you do!

At the same time, providing post-sale value to our clients is one the most challenging aspects of our businesses.

Why is that? Because there’s no immediate benefit, right?

Yet we all want those coveted repeat and referral clients.

In the second part of this 3 part video series, I’ll show you how to create a plan to provide post sale value to your clients so you remain top of mind.

Click here to check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqQUtLAtBvM

The post Providing Value After the Sale | Part 2 appeared first on Travis Robertson.

With sexy new apps, online marketing tools and social networks popping up every single day, how do you cut through the chaos and determine what’s best for your business? You only have so many hours in the day … what should you be spending your time on?

In this video I share a simple strategy used by some of the most successful CEOs and business owners both inside and outside the real estate industry (including Steve Jobs).

Using this basic but essential strategy will make you more effective, more efficient, and you’ll also find that your stress level drops like a rock (not a bad added bonus, right?).

Click here to check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqrtZXDrcrA

The post Dealing With Overload appeared first on Travis Robertson.

What do successful business owners have that others lack? It’s actually a pretty simple concept that anyone can grab hold of, but so many don’t. Why?

I get a little personal with this video and share a story that my wife and I have been dealing with for the last number of years. I’m sharing this story to not only bring the point home about the necessity for determination in the face of adversity, but also in the hope that it will encourage you with whatever challenge you’re facing.

Click here to check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjypKQGSVTw

The post Pigheaded Discipline and Determination appeared first on Travis Robertson.

Many agents are struggling to build predictable and consistent businesses.

One of the reasons is because they use the Feast-or-Famine marketing plan. 

Business is good–marketing tanks. Business is slow–marketing gets kicked back into gear.

Because real estate is a 3-6 month business (meaning what we do NOW impacts our business 3-6 months from now), FoF marketing creates chaos and unpredictability.

In this video I share a strategy that will put an end to FoF marketing for good.

Click here to check it out: http://youtu.be/5RJc3dbvtio

The post Death of Feast-or-Famine Marketing appeared first on Travis Robertson.

On the heals of a hand-written note I sent to an individual that was instrumental in a recent event I spoke at, this happened.

THIS is the power of the mailbox my friends.

If you didn’t get a chance to view the previous video that laid out “The Power of the Mailbox” you can check it out here.

This might seem like a small and inconsequential tactic, but don’t be fooled. While everyone has shifted to online tactics (this is a good thing by the way), set yourself apart by standing out from the crowd.

The post The Power of the Mailbox – Part 2 appeared first on Travis Robertson.

In this day and age where everyone is online, the average person views 3,500 – 4,000 marketing messages per day (whether they want to or not).

Makes it a little difficult to cut through the noise and get your voice heard, right?

In this quick video, I share a simple yet profoundly effective (and virtually free)  way of keeping your brand top of mind with those that impact your business.

I use this tactic consistently, and I encourage all of my clients to do the same.

Click here to check it out. 

The post The Power of the Mailbox appeared first on Travis Robertson.

It seems like in today’s world there are more and more demands for our time and attention, and we end up spending more time putting out fires than doing the work that will move our business forward.

The question is how do we make that change?

In this video, I cover a key principle that has made a huge impact on the businesses and lives of my clients (as well as my own business).

The post Own Your Morning appeared first on Travis Robertson.

A few days ago, Prudential Real Estate released the results of a survey they did on home ownership. In a nutshell, here’s what the survey discovered:

• Of all generations, Millennials and Generation X place the highest value on homeownership at 77% and 78% respectively expressing that home ownership is “very important” to them.
• There are a lot of people contemplating real estate right now due to historic low interest rates and prices in many markets well off their highs of just a few years ago.
• There appears to be pent-up demand and cautious optimism among younger generations.

If you’ve been following along, these results parallel with what I’ve been sharing with you over the last couple of years. The next housing boom will, in large part be driven by the Millennial Generation. Between the Millennial Generation (~84 million in size) and Generation X (~40 million in size), you have nearly 124 million people who may be making serious moves in real estate in the coming years in the US.

I can’t over-stress how important it is to understand this.

Unfortunately, many brokers and agents express concern over their readiness to deal with the shift in demographics. I want to offer a few suggestions for you to be thinking about:

1. The shift in demographics also means a shift in housing needs.

There are so many factors that go into this and, if you’ve heard me speak on this, you know what a lot of them are. I won’t go into detail in this post but, suffice it to say, the Millennial Generation does not want the same type of housing as their parents’ generation did.

The needs of the Baby Boomers and the Millennials are changing and they are pushing toward much more urbanized areas. If you’re not positioning your business to handle this shift, you’re going to risk getting left behind as the trends shift.

2. There is a 2-3 decade age gap between the average agent and the average first-time homebuyer.

Put bluntly, this sucks and it’s a problem for the industry. Many of our coaching clients are working feverishly to close this gap through new recruiting methods because it gives them a huge advantage over the competition in their marketplace.

If you’re a broker, it’s time to take a serious look at what you’re doing to recruit younger agents into your office(s). This is the hottest topic right now for many brokerages and the biggest challenge/opportunity they face.

If you’re an experienced agent, it’s time to look at what your strategies will be for connecting with, communicating with and marketing to the Millennial Generation and Gen X. “Facebook” is not a strategy. What are you doing to build trust with your prospective clients in those generations? What are some ways you can leverage your experience to help them?

If you’re a younger agent, the future of your business is going to be found in your sphere of influence (SOI). Yes, “txt msg is tots gr8″ but it takes more than 140-160 characters to build real relationships based on trust. What can you learn from the experienced agents about that? I suggest you ask them.

3. Your success is still wrapped up in your ability to communicate your value.

If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it 1,000 times – real estate professionals are no longer the gatekeepers of the information. That may be true, but that was never really the biggest value proposition for good agents anyway.

Knowing how to communicate your value to a generation of people who will probably call YOU with new listings is going to be critical. Besides being able to run a search in the MLS, you’ve got to be able to tell them what you can do for them. Why should they choose you over other agents in your market?

Everyone will say they have an answer to this question of value, but trust me…they don’t. Those who do are going to continue to be the ones who dominate in the years to come.

What Next?

So…where to from here? Great question.

• If you’re a broker in Southern California, I’m currently offering complimentary, in-office training workshops on marketing and selling to the Millennial Generation. We’re doing them between March and May and the schedule is filling up VERY quickly. If you’d like me to come in and train your agents, click here to request more information.
• If you’re a broker outside of California, we can still help you out. I frequently provide training and keynote sessions for retreats, annual meetings or special events. Click here to request more information.
• If you’re a real estate agent looking for assistance with your marketing or business plan, I’d encourage you to schedule a complimentary coaching session to see if coaching would be a good fit for you. All you have to do is, click here, and fill out a simple form and we’ll get you scheduled.

Also, stay tuned! We’ll be announcing details for our first multi-day event on June 26-27 – it’s going to be EPIC!

To read the full report from Prudential, click here.

The post 3 Facts Most Agents Don’t Know About Millennials appeared first on Travis Robertson.

****UPDATE****
TO REGISTER FOR THIS FREE EVENT, CLICK HERE!

Last week, I posted a video from an online event I was a part of to break a Guinness World Record(TM). Unfortunately, I did NOT read the fine print and I violated the terms of service of the website that put on the event by making a copy of the video and distributing it.

As a result, I was asked to remove the video from my site which royally sucks because the feedback on that talk has been PHENOMENAL. It was truly humbling.

I left the video up much longer than I was supposed to but, ultimately, it was time for it to come down.

Many people have expressed both public and private outrage at the fact that I had to pull the video down. I have to admit I was pretty upset about it as well.

However…all is not lost! If you were not one of the lucky ones who got to see the video (and even if you were) I am doing a special live webcast where I’m going to go FURTHER in depth on How To Create a Life You Don’t Want to Escape From and I’ll be taking your questions on dealing with FEAR, building a business, defining success and pursuing your dreams and passions.

THIS FRIDAY, JULY 27, 2012 at 1:30PM EST I’M GOING TO REVEAL HOW TO CONQUER FEAR AND CREATE A LIFE YOU DON’T WANT TO ESCAPE!

TO REGISTER FOR THIS FREE EVENT, CLICK HERE!
*************

Recently, I was invited to participate in an online event put on by my friend, Susan Baroncini-Moe. The purpose of the event was to break a Guinness World Record for the longest, uninterrupted webcast.

I was asked to present along-side people who I consider heroes and friends such as Michael E. Gerber, Michael Port, John Morgan, Mitch Matthews, Scott Stratten, Bob Burg, Larry Winget and more people than I have room to name.

It took some technical magic, but I managed to create a copy of the talk I gave titled “How To Create A Life You Don’t Want To Escape From” and I want to share it with you.

In this video, I reveal some of the time-tested principles for success and fulfillment that I share with my coaching clients and through my site. What surprised me was the response I received from people on dealing with FEAR. Many people have written to thank me for what I shared.

What are the things that create FEAR in your life and how do you deal with them? I’d love to hear your answers in the comments below.

The post How To Create A Life You Don’t Want To Escape From appeared first on Travis Robertson.

Albert Einstein once said the definition of insanity was “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

If that’s the case, I’m pretty sure we’re all guilty of occasional bouts of insanity.

As a peak performance and business coach, I see this most clearly in the work I do with my clients. One of the more common phrases I hear is, “I feel like I’m in a rut.” It’s a better way to begin a conversation than, “I think I’m insane.” Either way, the result is the same – people are stuck and they don’t know how to get out.

Maybe that’s how you feel right now – stuck in a rut.

So you grind it out hoping that something will eventually catch, your wheels will stop spinning, and you’ll be pushed free from your rut. You do the same things over and over again and keep expecting the results to change.

In my post on The 4 Phases of Living Your Mission, I wrote about a phase of life I call “Phase 2” in which you are likely to at some point find yourself. Phase 2 is characterized by a gut feeling that you have a mission or calling on your life – a purpose – but for whatever reason are unable to discover it.

Phase 2 can be extremely frustrating when you are in the middle of it. In fact, there are some of you who, if you spend too much time in Phase 2, will throw in the towel and settle for a mediocre existence. The feelings of frustration become so overwhelming you begin to believe you’ll never figure out what you’re supposed to do.

How do I know?

Because for about 10 years, I longed for a mission in life that would make me feel alive and fulfilled. But for 10 years, I also did the exact same things day in and day out. On the one hand, I wanted to launch and run my own business. On the other hand, I wasn’t sure I knew what I was supposed to be doing.

The biggest mistake you can make while you’re in Phase 2 is thinking that you’re supposed to know what you should do before you take action. This is where I screwed up. Because I didn’t know the specifics of what I was supposed to be doing, I didn’t do anything new. As a result, I was never in a position to actually make progress. And, because I was never in a position to progress, I kept on showing up for my routine of death each day.

I was in a rut. Every day, I would wake up and plod through my routine – hoping and praying that inspiration would strike and things would change.

That is until the day I realized I had it backwards. I discovered that waiting around for inspiration to strike so that I could change was not the way change actually takes place in our lives.

You see, you don’t wait around for inspiration to strike so that you can change. You change so that inspiration can strike. (Tweet this.)

Yet most people don’t change in advance of inspiration. They get stuck in a rut and keep spinning their wheels. But, as anyone who has ever been in a car that’s stuck in a rut can tell you, simply grinding it out and “trying harder” often makes the problem worse. Instead, you have to grab a plank of wood or something that you can leverage off of to gain some traction.

In life, the principle is the same: If you’re stuck in a rut, you have to throw something new at the problem. You have to pick up a 2×4 and take it to the head of complacency.

Will it scare you? Absolutely. Because your rut is comfortable. Your rut is familiar and predictable. You may not like what you keep getting, but at least you know what you’ll keep getting.

Change brings fear and we don’t like fear. Most people would rather have predictable misery than fear-filled fulfillment. (Tweet this.) In fact, the idea of fulfillment requiring fear doesn’t make any sense to us.

We want to believe that fear and fulfillment are mutually exclusive. Our society, our friends, our media tell us that, we’ll be truly happy when we have no fear, no pain, no want, and no need. And all we have to do to get fulfillment without fear is drive this car, buy this house, wear this suit, and live this lie.

However, if you look at anyone who is truly fulfilled in life, they did things that scared them to death. We call them “trailblazers” not “path followers.” It’s time for you to blaze your trail.

Will it be difficult? Yes. Will it be challenging? Yes. Will you be afraid? Yes. Is this a good thing? Yes.

Because it’s in the face of fear that we are able to gain courage.

That’s the crazy thing about courage: if you want to be courageous, you must get used to acting in spite of your fear. Where there is no fear, there is no courage. (Tweet this.)

So where do you begin if you’re in Phase 2? Well, a good place to start is by changing something in your routine. Step out of your comfort zone. Try joining a new networking group or speaking at your local chamber. Volunteer at an organization you’ve never done work with before but think is interesting. Experiment with a project you’ve thought about trying. Remember, Facebook didn’t start out as a billion dollar idea but as a way to rate the attractiveness of coeds.

Don’t feel like you have to have it all figured out before you take the first step. Trailblazers don’t know what’s around the corner until they get there. Your life will often follow the same pattern.

If you’re in a rut right now, look at your routine and ask yourself what you could do to mix it up a bit. It doesn’t have to be earth-shattering (such as quitting your job all of a sudden). But don’t go too easy on yourself either. Courage is like a muscle that has to be built up so make sure that what you do scares you a bit.

Then, share your step with the community in the comments below or cheer on those who are brave enough to post their next steps!

The post Why You’re Stuck in a Rut (And How to Get Out of It) appeared first on Travis Robertson.