Tulsa, OK Real Estate Careers Video Blog with Jennie Wolek and the Wolek Group

How to Use Facebook to Grow Your Database

2018-06-14T12:29:00.000-07:00

Whether you’re seasoned or new to the industry, utilizing your Facebook friends can be a great way to grow your database.

Are you looking to build up your database? I recently got a great idea of how to do just that from my friend, business coach, and trainer: Brian Eisenhower.

As a team, he taught us a fun trick and tool to build your database by simply using Facebook. More than likely, you’re already on there, so why not make it purposeful?

Get on your smartphone and go into your Facebook mobile app. From there, go to your profile page and you’ll find your friends list in ascending order. Eventually, you’ll create a private message to send out to your friends list, but remember Facebook’s regulations—you’ll get into trouble if you send a message to too many people. The way around this barrier is to send your message out to 20 people a day, just to avoid “Facebook jail.”

As far as what this message contains, make it generic since you’ll be copying and pasting it. Here’s the script that I use:

Keep your message short and sweet.

“Hey, it’s Jenny. How have you been? I’m updating my real estate database and I’d like to send real estate info from time to time. My real estate business was amazing last year.” Or, as an alternative to that line, “I’m new to real estate and I need to be better about staying in touch with people I know. Would you mind replying with your home address, phone number, and email to help me out?”

Keep your message short and sweet. It’s amazing; people actually respond, and these are your Facebook friends, so it’s likely that they know you and want to support you.

Use this tip to build your database. I’ve found that even though you might be an agent who’s been in business for a while, you might be missing out if you’re not utilizing Facebook to expand your reach.

If you have any questions or thoughts about this approach, please reach out to me. If you give it a try, I’d love to hear your results as well!

3 Types of Video to Add Value to Your Real Estate Business

2018-05-17T10:23:00.000-07:00

There are three types of videos agents should make in order to personalize and improve the quality of their business.

Today I’m going to talk about three videos that you need to make for your real estate business right now.

A lot of times I am asked about where to get started. To be honest, video has really changed my business and my life. Simply by being a real person, people will trust you, like you, and use you to help them with their real estate needs.

The first video I ever made was a pre-listing video. I find value in sending a video in advance before I get to the property; this way, the clients recognize me when I get to the door and they know what to expect. In the video, I just tell them about how I look forward to meeting them, what our objectives will be for our time together, as well as some links for them to review.

I find value in sending a video in advance before I get to the property; this way, the clients recognize me when I get to the door and they know what to expect.

Another video to make in advance is one geared towards buyers. Do the same thing as the first video I mentioned, only make this one like a buyer consultation. Let them know that you are excited about meeting with them and give them some links to materials to get started. Mention the importance of pre-approval, if they are obtaining a mortgage, downloading your apps, and anything else they can do before your in-person consultation.

Finally, the third video to make can be used for buyers, sellers, and the general public. Talk about your value proposition—are you on a team or are you a single agent? How will you best serve them in their real estate ventures?

You can make these videos cheaply, even on your phone, upload them to YouTube, and share them on social media. If you really want to get fancy, you can later enlist the services of companies to help you edit them, but do not let the editing and details bog you down.

I can share my videos with you so that you will have an idea of what to do. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me. I would love to help you.

How Relationship Patterns Influence Our Business

2018-04-10T13:20:00.000-07:00

If you keep track of relationship patterns, you’ll see that making one contact can lead to a windfall of transactions down the road.

If you look in the video above, you’ll see I’m holding a piece of paper I’m really proud of that I want to share with you. It’s a flowchart of a relationship pattern my team and me have been tracking.

What this shows me is that making one contact, making one relationship, and helping one family with their relationship needs can lead to over 30 other transactions.

If you take those 30 units and multiply them by our average commission of—let’s say—$5,000, that’s over $300,000 of gross commission income we can bring in as a team, all by being purposeful and having a database that applies systemized touches. And, it’s fun!

Give thanks to the people who help you with your business.

So, make sure you notice relationship patterns. The reason I was reminded to share this with you is that Nate, one of our sales associates, has been working with some new clients buy and sell homes, and we retraced those transactions to a friend I went to college with whom we helped buy and sell a home last year.

That sign in the yard led to another listing across the street, which led to an open house guest, which led to four other families we now get to help. Celebrate these kinds of patterns and don’t forget to reward the people who help you with your business.

As always, if you have any questions or there’s anything else I can assist you with, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d love to help you.

How to Train Your Referral Partners

2018-03-16T09:08:00.002-07:00

Make sure that your family, friends, and clients all know the best way to refer you to a potential client. Here are a few tips to help them.

How can you make sure that when people refer you, they’re doing it correctly?

Have you ever had a past client, friend, or family member tell you that they’ve given so-and-so one of your business cards?

In those situations, I’m always very appreciative. However, there is an issue with that sort of referral. If the person who received the card is anything like me, they’ll eventually lose the card. I like to tell the friend or client who gave them my card to call, text, or email me. The last thing we would ever want is for that person to end up with a weak agent.

Sometimes, we just need to remind our friends and family how they should refer us to them. One script that I love is Mick Hick’s “The Promise.” It’s a great foundation and piece to add to your business.

Sometimes, we just need to remind our friends and family how they should refer us to them.

“The idea is, during the process of us working together, you will likely hear of other people talking about buying and selling real estate. In that time—between now and when we get to closing—we sure would appreciate if you would give me a call when you hear of anybody that’s thinking about buying or selling."

“[...]What I’m asking for is for you to take the next step to make sure that I have the chance to help. In addition to giving my name out, please call, text, or email me their information, because then, I’ll know that there’s a 100% chance that I’ll get in touch with them. This could even be if they’re thinking about refinancing or if they have a general question about real estate. Let me be the real estate expert and reach out to them, because I love helping you and I sure love helping your friends, as well.”

Sharing referrals is a great way to build our business. It’s what we do—we help people and build relationships. Make sure to gather the information of the referring person; we’re not going to bug them. We’re just going to gently reach out and let them know that we heard they were looking for real estate help.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me. I’m happy to give you advice on how to improve your practices.

Being Accountable is the Key to Success

2018-02-27T08:31:00.000-08:00

Accountability is an essential quality for any successful real estate agent. Take it from my friend, Ricky Cain.

Today I’m at the Keller Williams Realty Southwest market center with Ricky Cain of The Cain Team of Austin. Today, Ricky is going to talk with us about being accountable as an agent. Accountability is the most important thing you can do to ensure your success, Ricky says.

It starts by being accountable to a time-blocked schedule. That way, you can accomplish the things that you need to get done when you need to get them done. If it’s not in your schedule, it doesn’t exist. That’s a big BOLD principle.

In addition to being accountable to your schedule, you need to be accountable to your goals. Break them down to weekly and monthly goals, starting with a “1-3-5” or a “GPS” where you are breaking down the one thing that you absolutely have to accomplish this year that will make it the best year you ever had, then breaking it down to those three primary actions and five secondary actions within those primary actions that you intend on completing. Then, create a 4-1-1 plan that incorporates your 1-3-5.

Accountability is the most important tool for your success.

That all sounds easy and good, but who is going to hold you accountable to staying on track? For us, it’s our MAPS coaches, our family, and ourselves. You need all three to maximize your productivity. It’s better to stick to a plan and have your goals exceeded than try to fit everything else in on the side.

This information all comes from “The One Thing” by Gary Keller. If you haven’t read it yet, stop what you’re doing and read it now. They also have some great podcast and webinars.

Thanks to Rick for joining us today. If you need any help in Austin, send him an email to Ricky@TheCainTeam.com. If you need anything else, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you.

How Removing Limiting Beliefs Can Change Your Life

2018-02-14T10:59:00.001-08:00

By removing limiting beliefs, just like I did, you can live your life more productively and more fiercely.

Every single day, we make choices about what we’ll allow into our brains, what we absorb, and how we’ll react to life. When it comes to these choices, it’s important that we remove limiting beliefs.

I remember that my mind first expanded and adopted this concept back in 2010 at a BOLD class when I started thinking about the possibilities of living a life by design instead of default. That’s when I started thinking about life in terms of “I can,” and “I am,” and I started having daily positive affirmations to feed myself positive vibes and thoughts that allowed me to currently live more productively and more fearlessly.

Before that, I had limiting beliefs about myself—either because I didn’t have the same experience as other agents, the same amount of money as them, or that certain “thing” that allowed them to be confident. I just didn’t feel the same thing inside me.

I remember thinking the same thought so many other agents have every single day: I don’t want to bug them. Shifting my mind from “I don’t want to bug them” to “I’m really great at helping people—how many people do I get to help today?” changed everything for me.

Do whatever you have to do daily to remove your limiting beliefs.

At my first BOLD class, I remember that the thought of talking to 20 people in a single day physically made me want to vomit. That’s because I was living in fear of what they might think about me or how I might be intruding on their day. Then I realized that after I connected with them, they were happy to hear from me! If they weren’t, that was OK too. That’s none of my business, and they don’t know me.

When you switch your thinking to “I don’t want to bug them” to “I’m great at helping people,” I promise you’ll be able to remove your limiting beliefs, at least in regards to helping people. After all, we’re in the business of helping people—the relationship-building business. If you don’t have relationships, you don’t have a business.

Do whatever you have to do on a daily basis to remove your limiting beliefs, whether it’s positive affirmations, journaling the things you’re good at, etc. Have accountability around those things as well.

If you have any questions about limiting beliefs our you’d like to talk with me about any “drunk monkeys” that get in your way, feel free to give me a call or shoot me an email. I’d love to hear from you.

Why Are All Successful Agents Learning-Based?

2018-01-30T11:16:00.000-08:00

There’s always more to learn as a real estate agent. Here are just a few examples.

I’m excited to be joined today by my amazing friend, Jessica Starr, a Keller Williams agent out of Connecticut and Lower Massachusetts. I talked to her a little bit about why being learning-based is so important as an agent, as well as about some of the different trainings and learning opportunities that KW offers.

Jessica’s favorite course is probably BOLD, judging by the fact that she’s taken it a dozen times. There are so many different opportunities out there for KW agents, though, that Jessica says you should start building a plan for all the events you want to attend in December or January. Take a look at the training calendars in your office, then determine which ones you want to attend. Jessica advises booking KW Family Reunion and Mega Camp first. A few other courses that Jessica recommends are Quantum Leap and the Language of Sales.

All successful people are learning-based.

You should also make it a point to attend a few masterminds. They can be a game changer. When you're working with people who are doing things at a high level, the conversations and relationships you build are huge and can help you out for the rest of your career. Even though it’s a cost to attend, the referrals alone that you’ll get from other agents make it worth the price of admission.

The bottom line is that all successful people are learning-based. Jessica and I actually filmed the video above at a Mastermind event in Chicago. If you or someone you know needs real estate assistance in Connecticut or Massachusetts, give her a call at (860) 761-3765 or send her an email to StarrRealtyGroup@gmail.com.

If you have any other questions for me about your real estate career, give me a call or send me an email. I would love to hear from you.

How Going From E to P Can Help You Burst Through Your Ceiling of Achievement

2018-01-16T11:20:00.003-08:00

Going from E to P changed Scott Klaas’ life for the better, and it can do the same for you. Here’s how.

Here at my latest mastermind trip, we’ve been talking about Keller Williams’ six personal perspectives. One of those perspectives I want to share with you is going from E to P, and I’m happy to be joined by fellow agent Scott Klaas from Wisconsin and have him explain how this perspective had a positive impact on him and his business.

The E in this perspective means “entrepreneurial.” Your natural ability, energy level, and anything else you can naturally do has a ceiling of achievement, and the only way to bust through that ceiling of achievement is to go to P, which means “purposeful.”

Hearing that for the first time changed Scott’s life. Now everything he does has to have a system, a model, and it has to have leverage behind it.

“Those three things will break you through your ceiling of achievement,” he says. “And then that ceiling will become your new floor.

When you keep busting your head against the ceiling, you need more leverage and better systems and models.

From there, you can move toward your next level of achievement. When you keep busting your head against the ceiling, you need more leverage and better systems and models. From there, you can keep going up and up.

What are some ways to increase your ceiling?

For Scott, going from E to P is about having a better life. He was working nonstop 16- and 18-hour days with 10 to 20 deals always under contract. He was always dealing with something wrong, or some headache, or always putting out fires, and he was never present anywhere. When you get purposeful, you have other people take some of those responsibilities, and you time block extremely well. It frees up your nights and weekends and helps every area of your life.

If you’d like to get in touch with Scott or you’d like to send a referral his way, you can reach him on Facebook, call him at (414) 795-6675, or send him an email at sklaas@kw.com.

If you have any questions for me, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I’d be happy to speak with you.

Prioritizing Your Time to Maximize Your Outcomes

2017-12-29T07:58:00.000-08:00

Using the 80/20 principle, we can ensure that we’re prioritizing our time to be sure that our money-producing activities are handled before everything else, which sets us up for success.

Today I want to continue my discussion of the six personal perspectives by focusing on another of them: the 80/20 principle. It shows up time and time again in our lives and in our businesses, and I really believe that there’s so much truth behind it.

Pareto’s principle states that 20% of our activities will produce 80% of our results. Simply put, not everything we do is equally as important. Because others have gone before us and done the research, we know that we need to do our most dollar-productive activities in the morning to make sure those things get done because that will help determine our success in our business.

Real estate agents and salespeople of any kind all have the same job descriptions:

Lead generation
Lead follow-up
Go on appointments and negotiate contracts
Practice and roleplay

I usually reword these and put them in the order of how my day usually goes. So instead, I would say:

8:30 a.m.—Practice and roleplay
9:00 a.m. to 11 a.m.—Lead generate
11 a.m. to noon—Lead follow-up
Afternoon—Go to appointments

Pareto’s principle states that 20% of our activities will produce 80% of our results.

It’s crazy how this works and when you set accountability around it, it starts showing up, and your perfect calendar does start to come true.

Back in 2015, I took BOLD four times in a row. I did that because I knew I had to get into action and get things back on track for my business and for my team. During that time, I had five different role play partners, with a different partner to work with at 8:30 a.m. every morning in a different city. That really helped increase my ability to talk better, know my scripts, be better at objection handlers, and it’s also a great way to connect with agents across the country.

After practice and roleplay, I would go into my 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. lead generation. Early on with the new coach that I had, he required that I send him a text every morning at 9 a.m. when I got into my database. By sending that text every morning, I was certain to open my database to see who I needed to call to get into action and get busy. That one little text I sent every morning has changed my business over the past couple years.

Think about what you are spending your time on all day long. If you’re still a single agent, that’s super great—just make sure you’re doing your most dollar-productive activities in the morning. Everything else like setting appointments, making flyers, and doing inspections can all be done in the afternoon, after you’ve ensured that your money-making activities have been taken care of.

Let me know how you focus on your 20%; I’d love to hear about it. For any other questions, feel free to contact me by phone or email. Have a great day!

Are You Adding Value to Your Own Life?

2017-12-04T07:51:00.000-08:00

Are your schedule and general thought-process adding value to your life? If not, switch things up so that they do.

Today I want to talk about self-mastery. It’s one of the Six Personal Perspectives that Gary Keller, Co-Founder & Chairman of the Board for Keller Williams Realty, wrote about in his NY Times Best Seller, The Millionaire Real Estate Agent. He discovered that the most successful real estate agents have a similar mindset when it comes to success and boiled this mindset down to six fundamental perspectives that are at the core of Keller Williams Realty’s education for its agents.

Self Mastery is the mindset, process, and habits associated with making sound decisions for desired results & self growth. It's the self control that comes from having a clear vision & the determination to see it physically manifest.

In other words, it's "KAIZEN" a Japanese term and philosophy meaning "continuous improvement" or "change for better." You've mastered "Self" when your thoughts, words, actions, and reactions all align with your goals/mission.

Self-mastery is to continue to work on, and ultimately master, you.

I’ve been thinking about scenarios from my own life and business that I could share with you to help you understand what I mean. One of the things I’ve done for myself is created a habit of getting up early and having “me time” while exercising on the treadmill.

I was using that 30 minutes of walking on the treadmill in the morning to watch Netflix and TV series from Amazon Video that I normally never watched. It was just guilty-pleasure time, and I think it’s important to have that. However, I was noticing that I was filling my brain with silly stuff—things that didn’t matter or add value to my life.

Self-mastery is to continue to work on, and ultimately master, you.

So I switched that routine. Instead of mindless shows, I started listening to audiobooks about growth, mindset, and leadership, or else inspirational and motivational videos with John Maxwell or Tony Robbins—anything that could add value to my life.

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t take time for yourself and do some of those guilty-pleasure things, because those are fun and enjoyable as well. I just had found that I wasn’t growing. And by listening to these different thoughts on leadership, business, and life balance, I was able to trigger thoughts in my own mind that inspired me to think of new ways and ideas to better my family, business, friends, and community.

Do these little things that tweak your mind and your schedule to where you’re adding some value to yourself so that you can continue to improve.

Let me know how you work on your self-mastery, and I can in return share some more ways to grow through this practice. Life is a journey; we’re continuing to grow every single day.

If you have any questions about this or other topics, please feel free to reach out to us. Make it a great day!

A Better Way to Handle Your Buyer Listings

2017-11-10T10:14:00.000-08:00

We’ve been able to do a much better job of handling our buyers by adding one simple tool to our business.

Today I’d like to share something cool with you. It’s a system our team uses for buyer listings that was developed by my friend Brian Inskip. It’s called My Buyer Listing. Essentially, it’s a website where you can post your buyer listing information and have a system behind it and a plan for how to share the listing with your network and your neighborhood.

All of us post seller listings all the time and share them with our networks. Why not do the same thing with our buyer listings? I like to think of it as a dating game for houses. Maybe a homeowner isn’t thinking about selling until they see that there is a buyer on this site that is clearly looking for a home like theirs. Wouldn’t that be cool to match up with a buyer or seller in advance and not even have to list the home?

It’s like a dating game for houses.

I just wanted to share this tool with you to help you get in front of more buyers. If you have any questions for me in the meantime, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you.

The Gift of Giving

2017-10-16T11:20:00.002-07:00

Put it in your business plan for 2018 to give back to your community. We have some ideas about how you can do that.

Today I wanted to talk with you about giving—giving back to your community.

Giving is awesome, and it feels great. Make sure you have it in your budget and your business plan for 2018 to be able to give back to your community. The following are some ways that we like to give back.

In 2013, devastating tornadoes hit our neighbors in Moore, Oklahoma. They hit so close to home that at that point in May, we chose to, as a team, donate $100 of all the rest of our closings that year back to the relief efforts in that area, including the food bank, the Salvation Army, United Way, and so on.

That felt really good; we got to give back about $4,000, which really makes a difference. As a team, we chose to continue with that feeling of giving and charity. Since then, for every closing that we have, we call up our client after closing and thank them so much for allowing us to help them choose which organizations we can give to in their name.

When people give, it makes them feel good, and then we all feel good.

Honestly, those are the best conversations ever. When people give, it makes them feel good, and then we all feel good.

Another way we give as a team is on our green sheets. If you’re with Keller Williams Realty, we have distribution authorizations that pull donations out of our money at closing automatically. Our team gives to the Keller Williams Kids Can organization, as well as KW Cares.

Don’t forget that there are ways to give that are mindless and easy, and just feel great.

Let me know what ideas you come up with! I’d love to hear other ways that you’re giving. And guess what? If you already have this in your budget, when disaster strikes our country, you’ll be able to be first on call to give back.

I look forward to hearing from you.

What Can You Do When You Feel Unmotivated?

2017-09-21T14:16:00.000-07:00

Recently, I’ve been feeling a little unfocused. Today I want to share a few tips on how you can overcome these same, common feelings in order to meet your goals.

Right now, I’m feeling a little “blah.”

This is something we all experience from time to time, but feeling tired, unenthusiastic, and generally unmotivated can put a huge roadblock on our work and life.

This is reality. Even after a weeklong vacation of re-focusing and rejuvenating with my daughter, I’m coming back into the swing of things with very little energy.

We all know how Monday mornings can be. However, looking at your goals can be a great way to re-focus yourself.

Since I’ve been feeling this way, that’s exactly what I did.

I looked at the numbers, like my 411 and business plan, because doing this can really help in getting back on track.

Our goals are bigger than any temporary lack of energy.

Life comes with a lot of high and low points, but wherever you are at: keep going. We all occasionally feel a lack of motivation, but the important thing is to not stop.

Our goals are bigger than any temporary lack of energy. It is always important to remember what you’re working toward and why it is important to you.

Whatever your goal is, all you have to do is keep working toward it. Set up a schedule, stay focused, and keep moving forward.

If you’re interested, I can share my 411 with you so that you, too, can build your own.

If you’d like me to provide you with that, have any other questions, or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

How Can DISC Help You Help Others?

2017-08-31T06:49:00.002-07:00

We use the DISC personality profile to help us in our business and personal lives.

Here’s what DISC stands for.

Behavioral assessments can be used to better both business relationships and relationships in your personal life.

When you can observe behaviors in your friends, family, coworkers, clients, etc., you know better how to adapt and relate to who they are and understand how to help them.

We use the DISC personality profile to accomplish these things. What does DISC stand for, though?

The D stands for “driver,” “dominant,” or “doer.” These people are the CEOs and trial attorneys of the world. These people come in, get stuff done, and don’t allow anyone to waste their time.

The I stands for “influencer.” These people are motivated and typically work through other people. They’re sometimes referred to as “the life of the party” or “a social butterfly.” This isn’t always the case, but they’re definitely not shy in group settings.

The S stands for “steady,” “stable,” or “secure.” This personality represents the majority of the population. These people don’t like change. They’re the schoolteachers of the world. They’re all about love—when you walk into their home, you’ll see family pictures everywhere because that’s important to them. It should be important to all of us, but it’s especially evident in them.

Finally, the C stands for “compliant.” These people are the accountants and engineers of society. They love following the rules and checking off tasks. Sometimes, they’re hesitant to move forward until they have all the answers.

You can tell a lot about people by how they act in groups and how they work through challenges in their life.

All of us have each of these different behaviors inside of us—they just show up differently for each person. Some people are more slanted toward one behavior, while others are a blend of each. D and C personalities are task-motivated, while I and S personalities are more relationship oriented. You can tell a lot about people by how they act in groups and how they work through challenges in their life.

If you have any questions about DISC or how you can use behavioral assessments to better your life and the lives of those around you, feel free to get in touch with me. I’d be happy to talk with you.

Tips for Success From a Rockstar Agent

2017-07-26T08:30:00.000-07:00

According to fellow agent Kelly Henderson, time-blocking and lead-generation are two great tips to achieving success in our industry.

Looking to sell your Tulsa area home? Get a free home value report
Looking to buy a Tulsa area home? Click here to browse Tulsa homes for sale

I have some invaluable tips about how to achieve success in our industry from someone who’s been there, done that—fellow KW agent Kelly Henderson. Kelly is the team leader for her market center, a MAPS coach, and a brand-new mom. Needless to say, days are kept pretty busy. In the morning, she spends her time coaching. From about 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., she’s got her team leader hat on. During her lunch break, she does one-on-one meetings with all of her team members. At the end of each day, she reviews what her team is doing. How does she do it all? Time-blocking. She knows exactly what points of the day she’ll be doing certain activities. From her experience of being a new mom, her favorite tip to share is that sometimes money can cover everything. Leveraging your time with money through systems and people is actually one of the points I discuss in my class, too—along with learning how to say “no” more often.

Whatever time and energy you can carve out each day is your stepping stone to achieving success.

Looking back on her own career, Kelly’s advice for younger agents is to simply show up and work. That doesn’t just apply to younger agents—that applies to anyone getting their real estate license. It takes time and energy to make money in real estate, specifically through lead generation. Whatever time and energy you can carve out each day is your stepping stone to achieving success. For example, if you’ve never lead-generated, talk to five people a day. If you’re already lead generating, you should be talking to 15 to 20 people a day. Set a manageable goal every day, and hit that goal. The compound effect of that will add up over time. If you have any questions for Kelly or referrals for her team, you can email her at KellyHenderson@KW.com. If you have any questions for me, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I’d be glad to help you.

How the 1-3-5 Tool Can Help You Accomplish All Your Goals

2017-07-12T13:55:00.000-07:00

If you haven’t been using the 1-3-5 tool to get things accomplished in your business, I highly recommend you give it a try.

Looking to sell your Tulsa area home? Get a free home value report
Looking to buy a Tulsa area home? Click here to browse Tulsa homes for sale

Are you using the 1-3-5 (or GPS) tool to accomplish your goals? Just like the GPS system in your car, this system helps you determine where you’re going in your business career and gives you directions along the way. I’ve been using this tool for the past couple of years now, and you can also use it to accomplish goals in your personal life as well. How does it work? First, you start with one goal, which can be anything from completing a certain number of transactions in a year to taking on a certain type of project in your business. Then, you break that goal down into three priorities. Under each of those three priorities, there are five strategies. We just did a mid-year review for our team so we could check in on the goals we set at the beginning of the year. By doing this, we can see if we're on track to accomplish them and if there's anything we could do to tweak them. One of our 1-3-5 goals was to help 150 families in the Tulsa area. Our three priorities for this goal were divided into buyers, sellers, and business partners. We had strategies for each priority, but we noticed during this mid-year review that we hadn’t checked many of them off and perhaps weren’t implementing the right ideas for these strategies.

The 1-3-5 tool helps you determine where you’re going and how to get there.

That’s when I heard about a great idea from BOLD coach J. Michael Manley about breaking down your annual 1-3-5 based on leads, listings, and leverage. That’s exactly what we did, and now that we’re halfway through 2017, we have two questions to ask ourselves: What are our biggest sources of business? Can we still plus those?I think the answer is always “yes.” Our biggest source of business is our referrals from our database, meaning past clients, our sphere of influence, and other Realtors. Are there still areas in each of those categories that we still need to plus and tweak? Yes, and that’s our focus for the rest of the year. I have a great 1-3-5 template document I’d like to share with you, so if you haven’t already, head on over to my Facebook blog page “Your Journey With Jennie” and hit “like.” I’ll add the document there so you can borrow it from my Google drive. If you have any questions about this tool or how it can help you in your own business, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I’d be happy to assist you.

How to Prequalify a Seller Before You Go to the Listing Appointment

2017-06-22T09:10:00.001-07:00

Looking to sell your Tulsa area home? Get a free home value report
Looking to buy a Tulsa area home? Click here to browse Tulsa homes for sale

Have you ever shown up for an appointment with a seller and they weren’t ready, willing, or able to sell their home?

I have, and I don’t want you to make the same mistakes that I did. I have a lead sheet that’s a checklist to remind myself to ask the right questions of my sellers over the phone that I want to go over with you. Following this lead sheet, collecting the right information, and asking the right questions as you’re on the phone with your sellers will save you both time and energy.

First, you must get all of their contact information. When I get off the phone with a seller and I set an appointment to meet them, I get their email address and confirm they’ll check their email before I get there because I also send them a pre-listing video. This is a great way to get them information in advance so that when you get there, they’ve already had the chance to do some research and get some work done.

Next, you can make the following inquiries

What are their true motivations?
Do they really need to sell?
Have they already been working or talking with other agents?
Are they relocating?
Will they have relocation benefits?

These are important questions you must understand and know up front. Over the years, I’ve focused on making sure the people I work with are motivated to sell and have equity in their home to sell, and if they don’t, they have a way to make it work. The market will help determine what the seller’s home value is, and you don’t have to sell if you don’t get the right offer.

Asking these questions will save you both time and energy.

After that, ask them questions to describe their home. This will give you insight as to whether they’ve made updates or not. People will tell you the truth about their home. You can also ask if they have a mortgage left on their home. In the old days, I was insecure about asking this question because I felt it was too personal. Quite honestly, I don’t care what their mortgage is; I just want to help them get the most money in their pocket at closing. Back when the market was a little harder, they might not have had the equity to sell their home to be on the positive side. You want your sellers to be set up for success from the very beginning.

How did they find out about you? Were they referred to you by a friend? If so, you might want to thank that person who sent that referral. Rewarding referrals are important.

From there, set the appointment. Email them in advance or drop off a pre-listing packet—whichever is your preferred way of doing business. This will help you show up for the appointment on time and ready.

I also use a pre-qualifying script that features some final questions to ask before you meet. When using this script, you’ll first confirm the appointment and make sure everyone who’s selling the property is ready to meet. After that, you’ll ask the following questions:

Do you plan on interviewing other agents?
Where are you moving?
How soon do you need to be there?
What would you do if your house didn’t sell?

These are qualifying questions to help you help them and better manage your time. If you’re prepared in advance and they’ve done the homework you’ve asked them to do, you can walk into the home and say, “Besides price, is there anything we need to discuss today?” If they’ve shown that they’re ready to go and they’ve invited you into their home, they’re already at a yes, so go for it!

Don’t talk yourself out of the business, ask them questions and make them feel like you care about them—because you do. You care about helping them achieve their real estate goals and getting their home sold. I trust that these will help you have a better life and business because the purpose of qualifying is so that you can spend valuable time with your family.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to give me a call or shoot me an email. I look forward to speaking with you.

How Our Team Remembers the Right Qualifying Questions to Ask

2017-05-25T11:22:00.000-07:00

In order to remember which questions to ask when qualifying a buyer, we use the LPMAMA system. Here's how it works.

Looking to sell your Tulsa area home? Get a free home value report
Looking to buy a Tulsa area home? Click here to browse Tulsa homes for sale

When qualifying a potential client, the phrase LPMAMA is a great way to remember all the right questions to ask.

L for location: Many buyers will call excited and not even know if a home they found is even in the location they truly want, so ask this to make sure it's where they want to be.

P for price: Which price point have they been looking in?

M for motivation: Do they have a home currently? Do they need to sell it to buy the next home? Are they currently in a lease? If so, when is it up? You might need to guide them on special timelines, like a lease ending soon that requires a little more urgency. Conversely, if they have six months left on their lease, it might be too early to buy a home.

A for agent: Have they been working with one? If they're calling signs, they've probably called other agents. Sometimes buyers just truly don't understand how we work, so it's our job to politely explain that to them. I also don't want to step on another agent's toes, so if they've been working with another agent, I'll advise the buyer to call them.

Don't just assume they need a mortgage.

M for mortgage: Are they financing the purchase? If so, have they spoken with a lender? You have to phrase this carefully because if you assume they have to qualify for a mortgage, what happens if they're actually a cash buyer or their parents are buying the home for them? You could insult the buyer. I'll always frame it by asking the buyer: "Will you use cash to buy this home or will you obtain financing? If so, have you talked with a local, professional lender?"

A for appointment: This comes after we've vetted them to be sure they're a serious buyer and have talked to a lender. We want to set this appointment because we've found it to be crucial to sit down with buyers so they can see the whole process from the beginning. They can get a lot of preliminary info online, but our true value as an agent comes by taking them through the whole process with as few speed bumps as possible.

If you have any other questions about this topic or you'd just like to discuss your real estate career, you can always give me a call or send me an email. I'm here to help!

How Does Creating a Fan Club Benefit Your Business?

2017-05-10T14:37:00.005-07:00

Creating a fan club is one of the best things you can do for your business. I’ll explain why today.

I wanted to take a minute to talk to you about something that I’ve noticed and has been on my mind. There are so many Facebook referral groups out there, and there is a lot of business to be had by having great relationships with agents across the country. We see some negativity surrounding the term “fan club,” but at the end of the day, I chose to create my own fan club. That means I invested in and have relationships with agents across the country so when they think of Oklahoma real estate, they think of me. I have systems in place and processes that allow me to ensure the relationship goes both ways and that we are able to deliver by keeping you, the referral agent, in the loop during the process. Referrals are so important to us. In fact, 16% of our business last year came from out-of-town Realtor friends like you.

16% of our business last year came from out-of-town Realtor friends like you.

So, create your own fan club! Don’t give into the negativity or the hype. Also, when you send a referral to someone in another area, vet that referral. It’s your job to call and qualify those agents to make sure they are a good fit for your client. Treat your Realtor friends like a database. It’s a contact sport, so get out there and make some contacts! If you have any questions about creating a fan club, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I’m here to help.

How to Master Your Morning

2017-04-20T13:59:00.006-07:00

Deciding to start my day earlier than usual was a great decision. It has allowed me to take back my mornings and be more productive throughout the day.

Although it can be a difficult challenge, being able to master your morning will start to change your life. I know from experience. Years ago, I figured out that I needed to take control of my mornings back. If you have children like I do, you know that they don’t move at the pace that we want them to in the morning a lot of times. They go at their own pace, and there’s nothing you can really do to change that. Yelling at my daughter to hustle up and get ready was turning me into a mean mom. I’ve found that strategy often backfires and leads to meltdowns, tears, and that it wasn’t the right solution. Instead, I decided to take control of myself and my mornings by getting up earlier. By waking up early enough to be able to start my day on my own and then be able to get my daughter going on her day has made life so much better. Of course, she still moves a little slow, but getting up earlier allows me to have the time to better myself and not feel so rushed. One of the common themes of successful people is that a lot of them get up really early in the morning. Setting my alarm for 5 a.m. every day was the key for me to getting my day started. Then once I get in the office, I can stay focused on lead generation.

Successful people wake up early.

As you’ve probably heard if you’re a KW agent, Gary Keller preaches prospecting and says that you must set aside time each day to generate leads. Doing this for three to four hours per day can seem overwhelming, so just start small with 30 minutes of lead generation in the morning and work your way up. I personally time block two hours in the morning for lead generation, as well as an hour after lunch to follow up with leads and other emails. If you’re able to get all of that accomplished in the morning, you can free your afternoons off for generating more business or simply taking an afternoon off. Enjoy your free time while you have it, because the reality in this business is that you might be working this weekend. I hope these tips are helpful to you. I promise that if you implement them, you will have an awesome morning, a great day, a big business, and a wonderful life. If you have any questions in the meantime, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you.

Simple Ways to Improve Video Production

2017-04-04T09:51:00.004-07:00

When I moved into my office, I made sure it was a great place for me to shoot my videos. Here’s how I did that.

I’m taking you on a tour of my office today to show you what’s going on behind the scenes in my videos. I’m excited to show you guys what I’m working with. All of the items I talk about in this video will be linked at the bottom of this blog post. I don’t have an expensive camera or fancy equipment, but I do have some great tools that help me make professional quality videos. I use my iPhone to record the videos and I have a few different tripods for it. I can use one of them for videos in which I am standing up, and I can use the other one to sit right on my desk to record videos while seated. I got the big tripod from Vyral Marketing, a great marketing company that helps us produce our videos. They sent one along when I signed up for their services. When I moved out to the market center, I made sure my office was set up to have great backgrounds for my videos. I even had one of my trusted home stagers come in to help me with the space. In one corner, I have my lead generation station with a stand-up desk. On one wall, I have a beautiful painting that my husband and daughter made me. Another wall is filled with books and shelves. They each offer a different setting, which I love.

Investing in good lighting is important.

I also invested in lighting. It’s one of the keys to producing consistent high-quality videos. I also have a bluetooth-enabled clicker that allows me to stop and start recording without having to walk over to my phone. Another thing I invested in was a selfie stick for on-the-go shoots.

A good microphone is the last piece of the puzzle. I have a lapel mic that plugs right into my iPhone and gives me great sound quality. You can hear the difference in the video above when I take it off.

That about covers it for my tips on creating good videos. Make sure you’ve got a steady camera, good lighting, and a reliable microphone and you’ll be just fine.

If you have any questions for me at all about the real estate business, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email, I would love to hear from you and answer any questions.

Items mentioned
-Tripod from Vyral Marketing
-Desktop Tripod
-Lighting
-Bluetooth Clicker
-iPhone Lapel Mic

Have You ‘Liked’ Our Facebook Page?

2017-03-22T10:15:00.002-07:00

If you receive my emails, you’ll also get a lot of valuable content from the Your Journey with Jennie Facebook page.

I wanted to send out a quick reminder about the Your Journey with Jennie Facebook group. If you're receiving my agent emails, just hop over to the Facebook page and ‘like’ it. This is where I share all of our systems, tools, models, and all the things we use in our business. All of our old posts are there so you can get a good idea of what we do in our business and how we systemize things to make our service better and more efficient.

Allow your passion to fuel your life.

We want to help you so that when you send us a referral, we can get you paid!
Check out the Your Journey with Jennie Facebook page here. Until next time, if you have any questions, don’t ever hesitate to give me a call. I look forward to helping you in your career!

Where Do You Want to Be in 5 Years?

2017-02-22T08:51:00.002-08:00

You are five years away from where you want to be. If you don’t know where you want to be, you need to determine what your passion and your purpose are.

I just got back from our annual Family Reunion. This year, Gary Keller said something that really stood out to me: “You are five years away from where you want to be.”

How do you know where you want to be, though?

As real estate agents, most of us struggle with working in our business instead of working on our business. Personally, I felt like a hamster on a wheel until I got certified last year to be a QL: A World-Changer Mindset instructor. That’s when it all clicked.

I knew I enjoyed teaching, training, and helping other agents, but I didn’t understand how to combine that with my business. Now, I teach 18- to 24 olds. My goal is to help them start off on the right foot and take a step toward their passion and mission sooner.

In that class, I use an exercise to help them discover their mission and purpose. Just ask yourself, “At the end of the day, what really matters in my heart?” If you focus on that, you will have a bigger, better business — and a better life.

So, figure out your mission and your purpose. I know that we talk about the big ‘why’ all the time, but I feel like most people associate their ‘why’ with money. For example, many people get out of bed to go to work in order to fund their kids’ college tuition, pay down credit card debt, or buy a new car. That is awesome, but you need to know what you would do with your life if you didn’t need to earn money. Find your passion and your purpose.

Allow your passion to fuel your life.

I found that creating a future organization chart really helped me with that. I know where I am going and what my goals are, and those goals help to pull me forward. Attach your business and your clients to things you are passionate about or enjoy, and your business will grow. You will even have more fun working!

As Gary Keller says, “This is a fun business; you are forgetting to have fun.” I was freed when Gary said, “Love on your people: your mets and your database.” Over the years, our business has grown. We’re having more fun and we have more supporters because people can see that we are living our purpose.

If you have any other questions about discovering your purpose or if there is anything else I can help you with, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I would be happy to help you!

Why Organizing Your Database Is a Brilliant Idea

2017-02-20T11:20:00.000-08:00

In just one year, my team increased our production by 20%. Here’s the simple change we made to do it.

Last year around this time, I was asked to be on a breakout panel with the amazing James Shaw, a BOLD coach. He had me up on stage and put my numbers up there for all of my 300 closest Realtor friends to see. It was painful, eye-opening, and awesome all at the same time.

The exercise James was performing was straight out of “The Millionaire Real Estate Agent” by Gary Keller. It was about the importance of your mets and having your database properly categorized.
Before that day, my database was kind of a mess. I had thrown all the people that I had ever met through 15 years of real estate all in the same place. Everyone was getting the same touches and quite frankly, I was probably wasting a lot of time and money on people I didn’t even know.
Over the last few years, Gary Keller has been talking about having a membership database and a concierge service and wow, that sure hit me. That’s how we operate. Now I was given permission to do what we already love and be who we already are. It has made a big difference.

Our numbers and production increased by 20% from 2015 to 2016.

From 2015 to 2016, our numbers and production increased by 20% all because we got super intentional about properly categorizing our database. Now, all 1,053 of our mets are in constant contact with us. These people are past clients, friends, family, and people who like us, trust us, and would pick up the phone if we called them.

Make sure organizing your database is at the top of your list in 2017. For more information, read pages 133 to 147 in “The Millionaire Real Estate Agent” and then re-read it. This is how you can get your real estate career humming along at a great pace. You’ll be happy with the results.
If you have any questions for me, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I would love to hear from you.

Top Tips for Preparing for Family Reunion

2017-02-07T14:04:00.006-08:00

I haven’t missed Family Reunion for seven years and I’m excited to see you there. Today, I wanted to give you some veteran tips to help you prepare and get the most out of this year’s convention.

I’m so excited to see you next week at Family Reunion! This will be my seventh straight Family Reunion; I just love learning and growing and meeting new people. In all my years of experience, I’ve learned a lot about what you need and what to bring to Family Reunion, and I wanted to share them with you today. You’ve probably already heard to wear comfortable shoes, but as a girl, I recommend bringing shoes that are both cute and comfortable. If that just doesn’t work, bring flip flops or flats because you’ll do a lot of walking. Don’t forget to bring a big enough bag for all the shoes you’ll need.
Don’t forget to bring and wear layers, as it can get really cold inside the convention center. Be sure to bring a wrap or sweater or some kind of jacket and some sunglasses for how sunny it will be outside.
Lunch and meals might not be planned exactly how you’re used to eating. I’m personally motivated and driven by food, so I always pack breakfast bars, Kind bars, energy bars, and all kinds of things that can keep me nourished and keep my energy up. I also like to bring nuts, gum, and mints because you’ll want to have fresh breath when you’re meeting lots of people. While you still have time, make some dinner reservations for the nights when you don’t have an event.

Wear layers, because that convention center can get pretty cold.

Don’t forget to bring something for a headache and a sore throat because you’ll be doing a lot of talking. I always pack lozenges, some Emergen-C, and some vitamins. You want to make sure that physically, you’re at your best.

Finally, don’t forget to bring a big stack of business cards. Remember, although, your goal is to collect business cards, but you want to have some to pass out. Make a plan for all the people you want to meet and make sure you set up times for coffee to meet them. If you’re in mastery coaching, make sure you hang out in the mastery lounge to meet some great people.
I’m really excited for next week and I can’t wait to see you there!