What if you never got another lead again? What would that do to your business? How would your business change without cold prospecting? Would your warm market be able to sustain you? More than that, can you imagine experiencing an upward trajectory in your business, when only working with your warm market? Most of us spend time capturing leads, bui…

Today, Tom talks with Nohelia & Francesco Crisafulli about working as a team, breaking into the real estate industry, finding balance between work and home life, and more.Di 2nd Home Agents

Do you love using social media to connect with people? Are you trying all the new things that you’ve learned, and done successfully in the past? But now, you’re watching your views and engagement drop? Social media is dynamic and constantly changing: just when you start to think you’ve mastered it, it changes and evolves AGAIN. When we record episo…

What kind of credentials do you have? You may have alphabet soup behind your name...but what do you do with those letters? And how to turn those letters behind your name into something practical and meaningful in your business? When you focus on your business, and what you can do to make yourself better, you can use those letters behind your name t…

Today on Selling the Dream, we're talking about creating a series of frequently asked questions and turning your pain points into closingsDi 2nd Home Agents

What is it like when you create connections? How are you connecting with your feeder markets, and those who may be interested in real estate in your area? We all know that if you immediately start selling to your leads, that’s not going to work! But if you give them the inside scoop, and help them feel like a true VIP, you’ll find that you build a …

Today is a very important day for me on a personal level, and I want to give a special shoutout to my lovely wife, Lori. Together, we are celebrating 30 years of commitment and plenty of lessons in commitment.Di 2nd Home Agents

Can you imagine selling houses without your clients ever actually setting foot in them? We’re experiencing that during COVID, and finding that when we market well and effectively, we can sell houses, “site unseen.” But what does it take to get there? We’re used to this stereotype of the scummy salesman, and how they’re always pushing a sale. They’r…

Ep. 212: Speak Your MindDi 2nd Home Agents

How much time do you spend developing your relationships and common interests? If you’re only posting pictures of houses for sale, or talking about open houses and business, you’re not going to attract the kind of people who are going to do long-term business with you! What if instead, you connected with people over mutual interests and shared pass…

Do you ever find yourself taking the easy way? Sometimes, it’s just easier to do things the “easy” way: not spending money on a particular marketing campaign, or taking the time to try something that may not work. Well, I’m here to tell you that it’s time to take some risks! Try something new! Do something different! Take advantage of this time to …

Are you interested in surprising and delighting your clients? You may want to look into giving better gifts! And we’re not just talking about getting some cheap swag, and putting your logo on it! Everyone gives swag or logoed items for anniversaries, birthdays, and Christmas (we call those ABC gifts). But if you want to be like Seth Godin’s purple …

If you’ve been listening to this podcast, you may know what’s going on! But today, I’m taking a moment to step back and just tell you everything that we have going on, and how you can access these resources that we’ve put together, and how you can use them for your business! From our inspirational tip Tuesday episodes to our monthly Mastermind meet…

Have you ever looked at other real estate agents and wondered how they were getting the sales numbers that they have? Sometimes, you see that you’re doing the exact same things: Open houses Direct marketing Advertising But there’s just something about them that is skyrocketing their sales! Every wonder what that key difference is? They are known. W…

Does the world ever feel out of control? It’s easy to see all the things that are outside of your control, and learn how to adapt. But there are a lot of things that you can control! You can control what you do as a response to fear. You control your actions, and your choices. The more that you take action in the things that you do have control ove…

What is your primary market? If you’re listening to this podcast, there’s a high chance that you are working in the secondary home market, or helping people find the home of their dreams. But what happens when a pandemic like COVID hits, and some resorts are completely stalled, and no one is traveling to these areas and buying homes? This week, I’m…

You may have heard this quote from John Maxwell: “Change is inevitable, but growth is optional.” This is such a great quote, and so applicable as we’re all changing and adapting in response to this global pandemic! Growth is absolutely critical through this process! How are you growing? What steps are you taking to make sure that you don’t just cha…

Are you working in a resort market? If so, then you probably have seen the division in a resort market: there’s your typical real estate, and then there’s the high end luxury real estate. It’s hard to break into that “club” of realtors who work in the high end luxury market, but this week, we’re hearing from three people who did! Not only did they …

What have you learned from this pandemic? All over, we’re redefining our jobs, and what it means to be a real estate agent. Many of us are still working constantly, grinding away to be the number one producer, the number one agent. I’m one of the worst of those: I’m driven, and constantly looking for ways to innovate and succeed! Then COVID hit, an…

What can you do with a podcast? Last week, Matt McGee and I talked all about what it’s like to have a podcast, what you learn from it, and how it can help shape your business! This week, we’re talking about the process of creating a podcast, and what we do for our podcasts! With the Selling the Dream podcast now at more than 200 episodes, I’ve lear…

Back in 2008, I was really struggling. The market had crashed, people were struggling to keep their business, and I was right there with them, trying to figure out how I could stay on top of things! I happened to pick up a book titled, “The Ultimate Sales Machine.” One of the concepts that he taught was the Dream 100. That would be 100 people that …

I love podcasts. I mean, after nearly 200 episodes of my own, you know that there has to be something amazing about podcasts! I firmly believe that podcasts are an amazing way to connect with my audience, and build a stronger network. Through nearly 200 episodes, I’ve had to change to interview nearly 100 different agents, and share my tips with my…

Have you ever worked with someone who wasn’t the best at their job? Maybe it’s the other agent you’re working with, or the seller of the house you’re showing to buyers. It’s tempting to throw them under the bus when things aren’t going as planned … but don’t! Instead of throwing people under the bus, be proactive and be kind! Speaking negatively ab…

Have you ever looked at an aspect of real estate, and thought, “I’ll never do that!” Maybe it was rentals, or certain locations. Maybe you didn’t want to sell condos, or houses in the suburbs. Whatever it was, you knew that you wanted to do anything but that! For Lyndsey Garza, it was vacation rentals. Or at least, she’d never wanted to do vacation…

Did you make goals at the beginning of 2020? I sure hope so! But now, it’s time to take those goals out and reevaluate them. See, those goals were made pre-COVID. They were made before the world experienced complete upheaval. For some agents, the real estate market has completely halted, and the aren’t able to make any sales. For others, the market…

What is your dream vacation? Have you ever thought about selling real estate in your dream vacation location? For many of us working in resort and high-end real estate markets, we may be working in our dream location! But what if you dream of visiting the beaches of Mexico, or anywhere in Central America? What can you do to turn that vacation lifes…

What are you doing in the face of uncertainty? Are you putting your head down in the sand, hoping for everything to just get figured out? Or are you leaning into hard times, practicing resiliency in the face of everything that is going on? If you’re combining resiliency and uncertainty, you’re going to create this elasticity in your business. It ma…

What did your real estate market look like when you started? Was it just a few homes a year, in a very short window of time? Or did you find that people were buying and selling year round? Dennis Hanlon found that when he started, there was a fairly narrow window of time to sell! The prime season lasted for about 4 months for tourists, and the rest…

What are some of your favorite tools and resources to help you connect with people? If you’ve listened to this podcast for a while, you know that I’m a believer in the DiSC profile! I firmly believe that using tools like this to help understand what makes people tick helps you to be able to serve them even better! When you’re able to dig deeper int…

Do you ever think about the early days of your real estate career? How old were you? How long did it take your first sale? How did you prove yourself to your clients and leads? I remember those days! When I first started working in real estate, I actually gave up, chased something else for a while, and then came back a few years later! It’s always …

When you look around, what do you see? Do you see a crazy world? I mean, with COVID-19, politics, health care, school scares, everything happening, it’s easy to think the world is nuts! Or are you looking around seeing one thing: opportunity. It’s time to step up and serve, filling the void that is left when other agents put their heads in the sand…

How are you posturing yourself to pick up business after COVID-19 dies down? Are your buyers actively looking for a deal? Do your sellers call you, wondering if they should list or not? Are you still stuck at home, just waiting for stay at home orders to end? Or are you worried about taking action, and then being known as “that agent” who is taking…

How do you market to your feeder market? We’ve all got strategies to be able to help people find their dream homes! But when you’re working in a resort market, it can take a completely different strategy to market effectively to your clients and leads! You want to help them find their perfect home in their version of paradise, and you’ve got to sho…

Can you be found on Google? If you type your name into a Google search, what comes up? There’s a simple (and free) tool to help you build your business on Google and be found anytime someone is looking for a real estate agent in their area! It’s called Google MyBusiness, and you can use it to show proof of your reputation, gather reviews, post list…

Title: Have You Set Expectations? Have you set expectations for your business as you are coming out of COVID-19? Let’s be honest, we all have expectations for our business, and what we want to achieve! Now, as we are coming out of a global pandemic, setting these expectations is even more important than ever! Everyone has questions: what’s going to…

I made a mistake….and I’m going to run with it anyway! Can you imagine having the confidence to say that? To be standing on a stage, talking to people, and then realizing that you messed up? But here’s the thing: most of the time, no one realizes when we make mistakes! How often do you stop yourself from taking chances and opportunities? How often …

What is your best form of business? If you didn’t say referrals, you’re missing out! Referrals are my best source of business, and that’s because I’ve invested time in building my network. How do I do that? Provide value. It’s not about me; it’s about offering myself as a resource to others! When I share about Maui, and am quick to help others lear…

Technology is amazing, isn’t it? During our May mastermind, Kenny, my assistant in charge of technology was on the East Coast, I was in Hawaii, and our guest moderator and expert, Laurie Carlson, was in Florida! Thanks to technology, even from a distance we were able to connect! That’s one of my biggest takeaways from this pandemic: we can use tech…

As we’re all emerging from stay-at-home orders, people are ready and anxious to start their normal lives again! Realtors have a lot of work to do, as our leads and clients have a lot of questions for us! They want to know how the pandemic has impacted the industry! They want to know if there are houses available, if people are buying (or selling), …

Are you offering value to a lot of people? Are you sharing that value with the people around you? Sharing value was something that Matt Farnham fell in love with. He wanted to give back to others for all the information that had been given to him! Team was a logical step for Matt Farnham. See, Matt was creating value for agents! He wasn’t looking t…

Are you missing getting together with other agents, and brainstorming ways to grow your business? Then you won’t want to miss our mastermind meeting replays! You’re going to want to be a “fly on the wall” to hear about what we’re seeing in the market as a result of COVID, how we’re handling buyers who may have cold feet about buying second homes, a…

How do you market? Do you post on social media, and hope for the best? Are you trying to connect with your audience, wondering exactly where they are, and how you can connect with them? But are likes lagging, and does your content feel like it’s falling short? Or is your social media targeted and effective, with content that turns heads and brings …

If you were asked if you should be an optimist, or a pessimist, which would you choose? The optimist, right? I mean, who likes being around a pessimistic person? I heard a story once, where in a prison camp, the optimists struggled! “We’re going to be freed soon,” they said! They’d look forward to the date when they’d be liberated….and then nothing…

Are you planning your comeback after this global pandemic? You may have seen your business slow down, and had to revisit your strategies for connecting with the communities around you! How are you connecting with your contacts? What are you saying to them to help them face their fears and insecurities? When you know your market, you know their ques…

How can you keep showing houses during COVID-19? With so many people under stay at home orders, it’s hard to imagine gathering people together for an open house! That means we have to stay innovative in how we show houses! Whether it be video tours, or figuring out ways to be able to really know what your clients want, you’d be amazed to know that …

Have you ever walked into a house and thought “something HAS to change for this house to sell?” We all collect our treasures! Maybe it’s turtles, or just knick-knacks that you’ve collected over the years! But when it comes to staging your house to sell, that’s gotta go! How can you tell your clients that their house is ugly? Or that their treasures…

Feeling lost during this pandemic without your routines? Is your productivity suffering? It’s our normal day-to-day actions that help us feel purpose and stay productive! With stay-at-home orders active almost everywhere, how can you stay productive? Instead of staying in bed and sleeping in, get up! Make that coffee! Schedule meetings! Set goals! …

Are you being coached? If you’re thinking about recruiting, and building a team, you’re going to need to figure out some coaching! You know that it takes time to bring powerful agents over to your brokerage! It doesn’t just happen! If you want to build a powerful team, you have to be a powerful team! That is the result of intentional, focused work,…

There is a lot of negativity out in the world right now! People are complaining, and getting upset. When you log into Facebook, or on Instagram, or Twitter, who are you most interested in hearing from? Do you want to see a bunch of people complaining? No! You’re excited about stories about good things happening in the world, and are attracted to pe…

In the last 30 days, how many videos did you make? If the answer is zero, it’s time to change that! I went out on the golf course near my house the other day, and just collected golf balls. See, it’s all shut down and no one is there on the course! While I was there, I took out my phone, and made some videos! I posted them all over the place: Faceb…