In this episode, we cover "Breaking Through in the Midst of Disruption, Distraction, and Chaos" with Greg Harrelson and Todd Tramonte.

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In this mastermind session, we discuss the attitude, approach, and expectations you need to break through before the end of the year! With just four months left in 2020, it’s time to figure out what will help you take your business to the next level or get you back to where it was when the year started.

We want to thank Greg and Todd for sharing their knowledge with us and the real estate community! It's important for us now more than ever to band together and support one another through these uncertain times.

Here is a transcription of the entire discussion:

Kevin McCarthy:

All right. Welcome back to Keeping it Real. On this episode, our topic is Breaking Through in the Midst of Disruption, Distraction, and Chaos. I think this is going to be really interesting. I'm looking forward to it. Your host today are myself, I'm Kevin McCarthy, the co-founder of Real Geeks. And Todd Tramonte of Dallas, Texas. With the Tramonte Home Selling Team. And Todd and his team endeavor to provide a high level of service here in Dallas, and I think they succeed. And our guest today is Greg Harrelson, from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. He's been a longtime guest on Keeping it Real, and also a longtime Real Geeks user. And he's built a very impressive business, I think and we'll probably dig into that a little more. If you haven't seen Greg before. So in this session, we're going to talk about the attitude approach and expectations to take your business to the next level and break through before the end of the year. So we've got about four months left here, Greg and Todd, what should everyone be doing?

Todd Tramonte:

Yeah, Kevin, thanks for having us. I'm always excited to get to chat with Greg. Sometimes we talk privately, sometimes we talk publicly like this and every time it's like an intense tennis match of ideas. We're just volleying. So I'm always thrilled. And I was bragging on you, Greg, before you jumped on. As Kevin and I were just checking technology stuff that I'm always so appreciative of your willingness just to give legitimate actionable value. That you can take in use. It's, there's a marketing technique called the open loop, you leave something out so people have to come back to fill it. And you just don't do that, you give the whole enchilada. So I really appreciate it. Welcome. And anything, any thoughts just burning on the tip of your tongue before I ask you a few questions?

Greg Harrelson:

The only thought is I thought that the tennis analogy is just so great. I mean, that just makes me laugh. Because it does ... that is exactly what it's like when you and I get together. No, why don't you to just go ahead and take the lead on this thought. I think we're very clear that man, we want to deliver some content today that helps people take on the rest of the year. And you know what the great thing is the market is good enough and just about all around the country, that if anyone's feeling like they're a little bit behind. There's still time to catch up and have a fantastic year. So that's what I want to leave people with by the time we're done today.

Todd Tramonte:

Awesome. We'll tell him where we're going to take him. We'll take him and then we'll tell him where we took him.

Greg Harrelson:

There we go. I like it.

Todd Tramonte:

Taking you through the end of the year strong, confident. I agree entirely. There's plenty of year left. Kevin actually said it really well. There's about four months left. If you look at the calendar it shows like it's five, but we all know that there's a 30 day or so lag. What you're doing today is going to trickle out into the real world in 30, 60, 90 days from now. So let me start with this. You've been delivering a ton of technical information all over the internet and real world lately. I've been seeing you talk about workflows and leads and follow up. But let's start with a little bit more of a strategy question.

Greg Harrelson:

Okay.

Todd Tramonte:

That kind of an overarching umbrella strategy between now and 2021. Between now and the end of the year, what do you think is a good umbrella approach strategy towards the rest of the year?

Greg Harrelson:

Okay, yeah. In a non tech, it really comes down, the first thing that comes to my mind is I need to have deeper conversations now. Deeper conversations, so more conversations and I'm not talking about more contacts, everybody don't make 100 contacts today. That would be one variation to have more conversations, but I think it comes down to you need more conversations, get deeper in those conversations and do it now. And the thought process here is the more people you talk to and the more conversations you have, the deeper you get, the more likely you're going to identify the opportunities. And you're going to identify the ones that can convert sooner than later. But the value right this moment is we've been in a very confusing space across the country. Whether it be health, whether it be economy, whether it be elections, whether it be protesting, all the different things that are out there. There's been a lot of distraction.

Greg Harrelson:

And one of the things that we have stopped doing is we've stopped communicating and really just having deep conversations. We've been distracted. And so I think the agents that go out to the consumer right now and show that I really want to know what you're up to. I really want to know how I can help you. I really want to know what you need. You only find those things out if you ask questions. So people talk about you got to peel the onion layer after layer and get to the core. When anyone uses that analogy, all they're saying is ask a bunch of questions. And then ask why. And then why again, and why again, get deep. If we'll go deep in our conversations with more people now, we're going to do really, really well by the end of the year. We're setting ourselves up specially for the next year.

Todd Tramonte:

Yeah, that brings so many thoughts to my mind. A couple things I love that you said. Number one, you said do it now. I mean, the best time to have deep conversations about real estate was yesterday, too late. So we might as well go with today because every one of those conversations, if done well offers a depth of opportunity. Do they need to do something now? Do they need to do something later? Do they know someone that needs to do something now? Do they know someone that needs to do something later? Do they have a need that I can solve that has nothing to do with the sale that's going to lead to value later? The longer we wait to have those conversations, the less likely we are to capitalize on it in the short term.

Todd Tramonte:

It leads me to another thought. And tell me if you agree and you might not, which would be great. We can get multiple perspectives here. But it's my belief, we're actually in the middle of our coaching group mastermind. There's people in our training room right now, we stepped out so they could all watch you. But there we were talking about the idea that how do we finish the year strong? And I brought up the fact that I believe there's two timetables remaining between now and the end of the year. One is the calendar year, what happens between now and 2021. The other one is what happens between now and cold and flu season. And just to let that sink in for a second. If you don't have that as a mile marker out in front of you, where your market might be different than mine.

Todd Tramonte:

I'm in Texas, we don't get crazy winters and all that. But somewhere in October, cold and flu season starts. Based on another thing you said, there's a lot of other uncertainty and fear and concern out in the market. My belief is that's not necessarily going down anytime soon, but I expect it to go way up, back up or up further than it's ever been. As soon as everyone starts to have a sniffle and a fever and a cough and think, oh, my gosh, is it COVID? Is it some out some new freakish virus or whatever? I don't know what's going to happen, I don't know what's going to happen to buyer confidence, seller confidence, inventory, activity, interest rates. We got an election that's going to happen right around then. So I think there's two timetables, one is the rest of the year, and one is the rest of the year before cold and flu season. Do you think there's any real impact with that to how we might strategize prospect, hire, fire, train, learn between now and then?

Greg Harrelson:

Yeah, so yes. And so to expand on that though, so I would share my concern that I think that that's something that we might be dealing with in the next couple of months. And where we really, really share a common thought here isn't when we start talking about certainty versus uncertainty. And so I do believe there are a few different things, flu season, elections, that there are going to be people that are going to go through. I'm certainly feeling certain and I'm feeling uncertain the next day. We're just going to be on a roller coaster ride in with certainty and uncertainty. And we're probably going to have a touch more of uncertainty than certainty. Now, let's circle back and back it up to have these conversations now. One way that you can really develop or one way that a relationship can withstand turmoil is when the relationship is built. And it's got, it's on a solid foundation, where that relationship is really, really good.

Greg Harrelson:

So I'm saying do it now because we need to build deep relationships with as many people because we may be dealing with adversity. And so the agents that are going to be able to manage that adversity to get through this, the uncertain times when their consumer, when the consumer is uncertain. The agents that are going to get through that are going to be the ones that invested in those relationships before we ever got to that point. So just like a husband and wife, sometimes they never really invested in their relationship. And then they went through some financial times that were rough and then their whole relationship was ended. And I'm not knocking anybody that's been through that but when we look at that we say gosh, I wish we would have maybe established a little bit relationship before and been stronger so we could have got through with that.

Greg Harrelson:

We are in the relationship business. Now we are in the sales business, but we are also in the people business. And I don't feel like agents are investing enough time and developing deeper relationships with their database and with the people that they come into contact with. So if we are the ones that are doing it, we stick out like a sore thumb. Because no one else is doing it. And so when I do it right now, it's not that I actually look good by doing it. I'm making all my competition look bad because they're not doing it.

Todd Tramonte:

Yeah. It's pre-preemptive competition. You're beating your competition before they even showed up to the competition, right?

Greg Harrelson:

Right.

Todd Tramonte:

What I love so much about what you're talking about too, is I've got a buddy at church who says, the worst time to put together a crisis plan is in the middle of a crisis.

Greg Harrelson:

Absolutely.

Todd Tramonte:

It's too late. So the worst time to try to build trust is when somebody doesn't trust anyone or anything. And whatever it is cold and flu season, presidential election, interest rate volatility, stock market volatility, whatever. I think we can all agree there's more uncertainty coming. And a confused mind typically says no, or does nothing. When there's confusion and lack of clarity people say, "Oh, we're not ready yet. Oh, we don't know. Oh, no, we're just looking." And they're not lying. They just don't know what else to do. They keep everything at arm's length until they're comfortable.

Todd Tramonte:

Well, if you can build comfort and trust now, and at later someone's motivated to do something you can say, "Hey, we've been talking about this for months. It's safe to go ahead and proceed right now. We've talked about this, you guys got prepared. I know. There's a lot of craziness in the world right now. But we absolutely can help you guys achieve that goal. And I think it's wise to move forward." And then go, "Oh, my gosh, I'm so glad you said so." Instead of feeling well, of course, you'd say that. You just want to sell me something. Right?

Greg Harrelson:

Yeah, let me add something else. So when you said that little role play there we're, "Well, I don't know. We think we're going to wait." If you built there, so you gave a great example of what you can say and then what they would say, "Oh gosh, I'm glad you said that." Another scenario is when they say, "Oh, gosh, I don't know, I think I'm going to ... I don't know, we might just wait. What do you think we should do, Todd?" See, that's another variation. Sometimes they'll say, "Well, what do you think Todd? Please tell me." And the reason is, is they're living in an uncertain. They're experiencing uncertainty right now. But because of the relationship and the communication you've had with you in the past, they actually feel like they can ask you a question that will bring certainty to them. I mean, that's how we win the game at a really high level.

Todd Tramonte:

Yeah, that's lifetime value of a client stuff right there. So ideally, your past clients are already inclined to do that. But what if you could get your prospects to do that?

Greg Harrelson:

That's right.

Todd Tramonte:

So as we think about that, you and I are both big on lead generation, prospecting conversion, but I think we also share this idea that the only reason we do cold marketing, inbound marketing, whatever. Is to expedite the process of building relationships with these people. In the natural flow of life we might build two, three relationships a week. If we can turn that into 20 or 30, then we can really scale a business. And then if we can turn into two or 300, or two or 3000 now you really, now people want to interview you and pick your brain for all your brilliance like Greg Harrelson. But the point is, that's why we do that stuff. Why do I want to increase calls, contacts, appointments, get set met all that stuff? So that I can have enough people who trust me, like me, know me, default to my expertise and whose lives I can impact. Right?

Greg Harrelson:

Yeah.

Todd Tramonte:

That's a lasting business where if someone comes back and does business with you six or 810 times, refers you business every year to you more you think about it, you don't need thousands of them. Most people would be great with dozens of those people. But what Greg's introducing right now is to succeed between now and New Year's Day. We start that process today. Hopefully you've been doing it for years and years and years. But let me ask you this, because I have an answer, but I'm more interested in yours. What do you think it is about this market, this year right now our industry the current setting of lead generation. What's the reason most agents are not doing that? They're handling those calls differently, they're not making the calls. What do you think is the reason they're not going deeper and being more patient is?

Greg Harrelson:

Because they're uncertain themselves?.

Todd Tramonte:

They are certain.

Greg Harrelson:

You can't bring certainty to a market if you're uncertain yourself.

Todd Tramonte:

Yep.

Greg Harrelson:

And in any agent that doesn't have a consistent ritual for lead generation, follow up, communication, if an agent doesn't have rituals and really good systems. In today's economy in today's environment, it's easy for agents to be uncertain. So if the agents are uncertain, they're not going to step out and try to bring certainty to a market when they don't even have certainty themselves. And I hate to say it, I wish I could give a better answer. But truly, I believe the reason why agents aren't doing is because they don't have certainty themselves. And I think that's mind's in your job right now is to just we got to help the industry become more certain themselves as agents, so we can go out and command that type of thing with the consumer.

Todd Tramonte:

Absolutely. I could, I mean, people say I couldn't agree more. But I literally, I'm, that's exactly where I was hoping we would go. So I want to do two things. Number one, I want to blame Kevin for some of this problem. And number two, I want to get clear on why agents would be uncertain right now. I think it would be so fun, let's name two or three things and let's try to give them certainty on those two or three things. I mean, if someone left this, I mean, you know how I do. I'm taking notes on every one of these. But if someone left this with two or three reasons that they identified with what's causing them uncertainty, we could alleviate for them. I think this would be unbelievably valuable. But first, let me blame Kevin, and Real Geeks and things like that for some of this. And obviously, I'm kidding a little bit. But what I mean by that is I think a lot of agents, People like Kevin have built incredible organizations and technology to make getting leads, so much easier than it used to be.

Todd Tramonte:

So much easier than it used to be. You and I have both been doing this long enough where there was a point in our career where leads really were the problem. Leads are not the problem anymore. Kevin and his team can get you all the leads you can handle. Good ones, targeted ones in an area, in a client type, in a price point, property. I mean, it's a beautiful world we're all living. And if you're willing to hustle, you can achieve whatever goals you want. So A, I'm blaming a little bit of it on Kevin. Kevin, would you like to acknowledge that, deny it? What do you want-

Kevin McCarthy:

I'll take that blame. That's, that ... I like where you go with that one. But you're right. It is a different world that we're living in with this technology. I heard a story from before my time that it used to be an agent would get a book in the mail of here's all of the real estate listings there in this book. And then you would be almost the gateway between the people who want to look at those listings and this book, "Oh, you want to see this information? You have to come through me?" Well, that's gone now. It's a new world. Now the leads come in, they can already see it, you can provide the value by letting the leads see the listings. That's already happening on the internet. Hopefully, through your Real Geek site or another site. So now you have to provide some value that's not just access. I think that's that's the world as it changed, I don't know 10 years ago.

Todd Tramonte:

Yeah. And we have some scripting in our initial consultations that talk about that. I think you for a generation or two agents have made the mistake of anchoring their value in access to that information. And that all got democratized now everybody has it, that's not a bad thing if you're a highly skilled expert agent. That's a terrible thing if all you are doing is keeping your, they used to deliver the books or mail the books. And then it was this dot matrix print out that you could print on your ... crazy thing. You'd have the stack, then it was you had access to the database but nobody else did. And then it was, okay, I have access to a little bit more than you can get on your public feet. Now, I do recommend that every agent have some form of a private portfolio or in house list. So you still have access to more than everybody does.

Todd Tramonte:

But still, that's not what our unique value is. Our unique value is in our leadership, in our guidance, in our expertise as we help people navigate the process for real lasting value. But to get back to the main point. All right, we've adequately blamed Kevin for creating unbelievably amazing technology that makes getting the leads much easier than before. But I think because of that, our industry has become a sweatshop of telephone assassins just trying to kick doors in. Now some of that is good. You put in the work, you make the calls, you send the text, you send the notes, all that stuff. But I think I know Greg will talk some about this and I will do that. This relationship building aspect cannot be lost in all of that. So all of that being said, Greg, what do you think are one or two or three reasons that agents even though they have all that are still uncertain in the current real estate market?

Greg Harrelson:

The one thing that I wrote down is they haven't built a predictable and duplicatable business model. So they don't when they ... they don't come into the office, and at the same time, they don't do the same activities that they know that when they duplicate those activities on a consistent basis that it's predictable. So the only thing that changes in a market shift, in a market distraction or in a market disruption. So disruption people said Zillow was going to disrupt the world. Distraction, I would say is COVID-19. And then a market shift is a collapse where the market's actually going down. So there's my difference between those three terms. But here's the only thing that changes in those three scenarios. And that's the conversation.

Todd Tramonte:

I love it [inaudible 00:20:32] [crosstalk 00:20:33]strategy. Yeah.

Greg Harrelson:

Yeah. I have this my day should look the same in every one of those scenarios, the only difference is the conversations that I'm having with the individuals. So that means, so that shows that my business in a shift and when it's being disrupted or when there's a distraction, my business looks the same. Now I may have to change the numbers a little bit, make a few more follow up calls, a few more calls. I have to instead of saying, "Hey, I can't ... I'm so excited I can get you $100,000 more today." my conversation may, "Hey, I'm so excited. I'm gonna get you $100,000 less." But that's a lot better than $150,000 less if you procrastinate. It's the same contact, I'm having a conversation, I'm going to get a listing but the sentences that I said were slightly different.

Greg Harrelson:

It's predictable and it's duplicatable. So what most agents have is they don't have a predictable and duplicatable business. So then they are constantly reacting to any adjustments disruptions, distractions and whatnot. And they're trying to reinvent their day, every single day."Oh my gosh, there's a distraction COVID-19. What am I going to do now?" Well, you're going to do the same thing you did before, but we might want to be a little bit more sensitive in the dialogue. That just a few [inaudible 00:21:54] that comes to my mind.

Todd Tramonte:

So good. And we say this a lot. We say it a little differently, but the exact same point. Each and every time you sit down or jump on a Zoom or whatever with a prospective seller or buyer, it's a conversation about there is not a one size fits all approach to real estate. If you're sitting in front of an agent that's been in the business for 30 years, who tells you this is my fee let's go. And doesn't tell you what they're going to do, or what their strategy, or what are their approaches you're in big, big trouble. This is not a one size fits all business. Because if you're not careful, right now in this market you have a high likelihood of sitting across or on the phone or on the computer with someone who has only a spring summer seller's market. Everything else is wonderful strategy. That's all they've ever done.

Todd Tramonte:

Statistically, that's all they've ever known. That's all they've ever done, or that's the most recent thing they were forced to slightly adjust to against their will. Now, if you sit down with one of our agents or Greg or one his team members, I'm sure they're going to sit down and talk to you about tell me a little bit more about you and your situation and we will customize and approach for you. There's a way to go about this. It's not the same every time. It's not the same this month as it was last month. It's not the same during COVID, as it was during 911, as it was during the tech boom or ... this stuff is changing all the time. So if you have someone who can change their conversation, but not their business model, then beautiful things can happen. Not your discipline [crosstalk 00:23:24], your words.

Greg Harrelson:

Yeah, and that's versatility. It's just like I will ... I don't know if this is pick on Kevin day. But Kevin's probably a little bit more on the analytical side. I would just assume he's a little more on analytical. I am not, well, I am high on the analytical but I don't display it the way Kevin does.

Kevin McCarthy:

Thanks Greg.

Greg Harrelson:

You could just ... okay, so the my communication with Kevin must be completely different than my communication with somebody that's a much more of an expressive personality. And that's versatility. And the same thing applies, that's what you're saying, Todd. Is that we got to have the versatility here to be able to communicate, we got to meet people where they are. And stop trying to get them to meet us where we are. And then once we meet them where they are and we establish rapport, then we can lead them to where we are. But you got to meet them before you can lead them.

Todd Tramonte:

And the only way to do that is exactly what you were saying to kick us off. You're asking them questions, you're slowing down, you're caring. By the way, it's not just a strategy. It's not just a gimmick, it's more fun and enjoyable and profitable when you actually care what they have to say. And you actually want to create a solution that's best for them. And so when you do that and you find out that their wife is pregnant, so they're a little bit more concerned about exposure to the virus, you can say, "Hey, great, here's how we could do that for you. And it doesn't have to be today, but I might recommend that it's before this day where our opportunities might be not as attractive."

Todd Tramonte:

And all of that is just based on listening, I'm still pointing towards a compelling value. I'm still pointing towards an ideal timeline, the best use of interest rates and the current market and team structure or whatever you have to offer. But all that is customized now around their needs, their desires, their goals, their limitations. Instead of I'm going to say the same exact thing, no matter what day, week, month, year market I'm in. And if I say it enough times, I'll kick enough doors in and I'll make enough money. Nobody wants to do that long term, you'll wear yourself right into the ground or you'll get your butt run out of town. So I mean, I think what we're saying on some levels is very simple. But there's also some complexity to it because before you open your mouth, fully equip to be creative and flexible. You need to be paying attention.

Greg Harrelson:

You got to listen.

Todd Tramonte:

Yeah, exactly. So are there some market conditions or aspects of the world we're living in now that you think might be other reasons an agent might be uncertain or unclear right now?

Greg Harrelson:

Quite frankly, I'm going to really be committed to taking a stance that the market conditions that are ahead of us, whatever they mean, may be is irrelevant.

Todd Tramonte:

Yep.

Greg Harrelson:

I'm not going to bend on that one.

Todd Tramonte:

Yeah.

Greg Harrelson:

Now let me be vulnerable and say, can something happen that's going to scare the heck out of me and I'm going to experience fear and like, oh, my gosh, Todd, am I going to make it if this happens? Is there, does that mean Greg never worries? Does that mean Greg never has fear? No, absolutely not. I mean, I fear things that could happen that ... but that fear that I have in the horizon motivates me to say okay. As a businessman that fear, I'm going to let that fear be an indicator. It's like a KPI. It's an indicator that says, "Okay, look over here, look over here." So when I'm experiencing that, I've trained myself to realize, okay, that fear is healthy. Because in a way if I didn't have that fear, I might jump off the Empire State Building and think that I could fly. No, I got to have some fear or I would be too brave.

Greg Harrelson:

And that fear causes me to go back and evaluate, strategize and whatnot. And I end up coming back to pretty much the day looks the same. But I, a lot of things that we talked about whereas how does the conversation have to change? What should I be listening for? I mean, right now, there are people that ... and I'm one of them that think that we could be experiencing a higher default ratio over the next 12 months in our country when it comes to mortgage defaults. There's evidence out there if you look and just google how many people missed their mortgage payment in July? You're going to see an article that's going to say 32%. It's going to say 30% in June. Now factored into that extraordinarily high number of missed payments is going to be forbearance.

Greg Harrelson:

Now I know for sure we just listed three short sales in the last seven days. I haven't listed a short sale in a few years. And two of the short sales that I just listed called me up and said, I have been in forbearance. I'm, forbearance is over, I can't make my payments. I called my bank and my bank sent me a letter and says, "Well, you have three options. You can deed in lieu of foreclosure, you can do a short sale, or we can talk about a remote ... a modification of your loan." The last time we were in this situation, or in a situation wait, last time banks were faced with these types of conversations. They dragged their feet and-

Todd Tramonte:

They weren't prepared.

Greg Harrelson:

For ever. Now they're just sending a letter saying, "Hey, you want to short sale, a loan mod deed in lieu." And so the person just called me up says, "I want to do a short sale, can you list me?" And all this is transpiring and happening right under our noses right now. So that I don't, I'm not going to predict the future but then that tells me, okay, now I have my, I'm a little bit more fearful that we could see some softening in the future because of defaults. But now what does that do? That forces me to get up earlier in the morning, think about my business, see how do I need to change my conversations, maybe add a few additional questions. Listen very carefully, so I can serve them to the best of my ability, knowing my competition is not even awake right now listening to this conversation.

Todd Tramonte:

Yep. I love how firm you're standing because the reality is, Greg did what I hoped he would do and painted a picture of something that could totally freak you out. We always say that fear does one two things. It motivates you or it debilitates you. You can curl up in the corner, or you can come swinging. And getting up early and thinking of a few more questions and being creative, that's throwing punches. That's, I'm fine. I might have to fight a little bit harder for a while, it's probably going to take me a month or two to get my arms fully around this and then we'll be kicking. But the difference is you still took the listings? You're still going to make the sale. We're still going to do what we do. And most of it won't be very different.

Todd Tramonte:

The conversation, the strategy, the thoughtfulness, the way we reassure people and add value for them might change a tiny bit. The general mechanics are the same. And I love that because you're painting a picture for anyone watching or listening right now to say, look, the good news is if I stay consistent I'll be fine. Are there going to be some fluctuations? There always are whether we like it or not. But can I maintain a rolling consistency instead of a panic? You know rollercoaster? Absolutely. And really that comes down to discipline and having a good plan to start with. You could call it COVID-19. You could call it presidential elections, you could call it stock market volatility. You could call it regular seasonality and weather patterns. The reality is none of us should ever be convinced that we have a set it and forget it, prospecting plan, business model, messaging, whatever.

Todd Tramonte:

We should always be listening and tweaking. And by the way, I think the ones that get rewarded the most are the ones that are willing to lead quickest. And say, "Hey, here's what I think might be coming." Now it might not. And I think one really good strategy around the cold and flu season idea is simply to say, look, I really don't know what's going to happen this fall. I think there's reason to believe, there's a lot of volatility uncertainty coming. A lot of that might be driven by cold and flu season. Here's what I do know. I know that right now X, Y, Z is happening for buyers. A, B, C is happening for sellers. If you and your family and your finances are ready, I would take advantage of the certainty we have today. If you're not ready, I'll be here then and we'll create a strategy for you then, no pressure.

Todd Tramonte:

By the way, that's a massive trust builder. I'm not in a hurry, here's our plan today. I think it's the better plan. But we can come up with a plan for later as well. No pressure. And again, like Greg said earlier, the ones that trust you're like, well, if it was you, what would you do? I'd be in the car right now, buddy. I'd get a sub 3% interest rate. If it goes down, I can live with that. If it doubles, I'm going to be pretty frustrated. I missed that. That kind of deal. Kevin, do we have any questions coming in or have we let people know they can send questions in?

Kevin McCarthy:

No, not a lot of questions coming in. Someone says they like your scripture science behind you. But [crosstalk 00:32:47].

Todd Tramonte:

I didn't know they were close enough to see them. If you have, if you want to ask questions, you're welcome to do that. I should have said that earlier, my fault. You can send them to the Q&A box, Kevin will have his eye on that. And if there's some good stuff in there, he'll pepper them into us. You're welcome to ask questions. I know Greg's glad to take your questions. While you're thinking of questions or typing those in. When we promoted this Keeping it Real, we mentioned that we would talk about daily activities, leverage and mindset. I feel like we've covered a little bit on mindset and some of the daily activities. Let's talk a little bit more about leverage, if you don't mind, Greg. What are some of the ways you're using people and or technology to do what we're talking about at scale?

Greg Harrelson:

Yeah, yeah. So the number one person that you need to leverage is yourself. Yeah, you got to leverage yourself. Okay, number one, do not go out and start trying to leverage others until you have fully leverage into yourself. And I like how you pointed to your head because there's a lot of intelligence that we've all gained. And we need to, before we go out and lead others, we've got to make sure we're a good example of what we want people to do. The people that we leverage will do much more for you and produce at a much higher level, when they're actually observing you being productive. So I want to make sure that so many people are leveraging to replace themselves. Know you're leveraging to increase your bandwidth, not to let yourself off the hook so you don't have to do anything anymore.

Greg Harrelson:

The people who are trying to replace themselves, especially in an uncertain marketplace like this, the people that you're leveraging are looking for true leadership. That true leadership is going to lead by example, not just by talk. So you got to leverage yourself. Now what do I mean by that? What is your routine? When do you get into the office? And what do you do? I always believe in lead generation, but lead generation gets this bad rap. Everyone thinks that lead generation is just making calls. Lead generation is any activity that can help you generate an opportunity. It doesn't lead you, open houses is lead generation. Direct marketing postcards is lead generation. Cold calling is lead generation. So the term lead generation is very broad.

Greg Harrelson:

And the key is make sure that before you go and leverage people that you make sure that you have some leverage on yourself where you're doing those things every day. Now from a leveraging people standpoint, the things that I would be using people for is to make sure that they can prepare and prep me for all the things that I have to do with the things that I'm generating. So I'm generate like for me, let's just assume for a moment somebody calls me today and says I, calls in my voicemail. Because I'm never going to answer the phone. That's the reality. Okay, as I don't answer my phone and I don't ... unless I know you and I see your name, I won't answer the phone.

Greg Harrelson:

But if you're not plugged in, I'm not going to answer and I'm not going to check my voicemail. I haven't checked the voicemail for years. But what I do do is I have an assistant that checks my voicemail probably eight times a day. And then out of let's say, there was 20 messages today, I probably will only know about two of them because she can handle 18 of them. That's a form of leverage. So I'm keeping myself from being distracted and I can focus on doing the high income activities, or at least stay in my lane. Whatever my lane is or whatever your lane is. I can do what I feel like I do really good and I can just do it constantly. Then at that point, just to give you again, an idea of what leverage is looks like for me. She's probably going to find somebody on my voicemail that says, "Greg, I've been getting your emails over the years, I'm thinking about selling can you ... I'd like you to talk to me about what I can sell my home for."

Greg Harrelson:

I still don't know that calls come in. She at that point will do call them, let, acknowledge that the message was received, make sure that it gets in my schedule. And then she's going to do the tax, pull the tax records on the MLS sheets, do all the actual CMAS and then she's going to set it into a folder in my CRM. And then I'm going to call the person open up the folder and everything a bit of research that I need to there. And then I'm going to hang up the phone and let's just assume I have to go see this person tomorrow. I'm going to hang up the phone and my assistant is going to know that tomorrow at three o'clock I got to go meet him. So tomorrow morning, when I get to the office be assured there's going to be a folder, and it's going to look like this. And it's going to be a full package of the listing agreements, a yellow notepad because I still use yellow notepads.

Greg Harrelson:

That's going to have everything that I need to know, to just actually so if I'm running out the door and like, Oh my god, I got a three o'clock appointment. All I got is to just pick up that folder, everything is there. And then I'm going to go and I'm going to spend 45 minutes to an hour with this person. And I'm going to come back and I'm going to drop that folder off, and then everything that will be done from that point on and then I'll just go back to stand in my lane doing what I do best. And by the way, when you do this right, and this is an opinion, so I guess it's not right. In my view, when it's done correctly. You do not have to work 10, 12 hours a day. You don't want to work 10 to 12 hours a day and here's why. Because if you stay in your lane for five to six hours a day, meaning you're actually doing something at a high level of skill that you're passionate and love to do. Then you will generate so much that you don't have to work 12 hours a day.

Todd Tramonte:

So true.

Greg Harrelson:

So people are bouncing around from what they want to do, and not want to do, and what not they want to do, and what they not want to do. And it's in between the what I like to do and what I don't like to do, which is where all the time is wasted. So I just stay in my lane so people are constantly, "Well, Greg, how late do you work?" Well, I'm usually playing, this is at three o'clock. So when I knew I was going to be here at three o'clock, guess what I knew I wasn't going to do? Damn I'm not playing tennis today at 3:30.

Todd Tramonte:

Sorry, I apologize-

Greg Harrelson:

No, that's okay. There's five days in the workweek. So I got the four other, I've already played twice this week. So but the key is and when I play tennis at 3:30 I'm not missing anything. Because instead of me putting in 12 hours a day, six hours staying in my lane and 12 hours just trying to act like I was busy. But I was pissed off the whole time. Because I was doing stuff that I didn't like to do. I just spend the six hours doing what I love to do, that's high impact and doing it at a high level. And I'm going to do twice as much as somebody that's going to actually be there for 12 hours.

Todd Tramonte:

No doubt about it. No doubt about it. I've got like five notes. I'm going to try to give them quick so we can get right back to you. Number one, I'm so excited to have you contributing at this year's unofficial Real Geeks User conference.

Greg Harrelson:

Yeah, man.

Todd Tramonte:

If you don't know what I'm talking about, go to urguc.com. Unofficial Real Geeks User conference, urguc.com. Because last year Greg was going to be there and then he had a conflict and we were all totally bummed out. He'll be there this year, he'll be on some panels and interviewed and it's like this every time just tons of value. So make sure you're there. There'll be Greg and 15 or 20 other contributors. Amazing real estate professionals, we'll talk a ton about real geeks and a ton about other real estate stuff. Urguc.com, can't wait to have you contribute there. Okay, a couple other notes. You mentioned that you're not going to answer your phone. I just want to make one clear point about I'm the exact same way. My phone is on Do Not Disturb all day long.

Todd Tramonte:

And there's like 20 people, my close family and our team members that can get through the Do Not Disturb deal and I'll talk to them. Everybody else, you're going to get called back by someone else or me. And that doesn't mean look how awesome I am. What that means is you're focused. Now there's a bunch of people watching this live or recorded that are like, yeah, right. I could never do that. And the message I think that Greg is giving you is yes, you can, maybe not today. But you can grow and work towards a point where you stay in your lane, and you're focused, and none of those things are emergencies. And as long as someone's acknowledging and caring for those people and delivering value. That's a beautiful thing. That's what professionals do. Doctors, accountants, CPAs, attorneys they're not answering their phone all day. They're working.

Todd Tramonte:

They're working for high income, high wealth buildings mentality. A couple other things. I do this training a couple of times a year actually, I think I did it at the User Conference last year. About categorizing your world into things that you ... things that irritate you, things that you just tolerate, and then things that fascinate you. And your goal is to work 80% of your time in the areas that fascinate you. And that's what you're talking about. If you put in five plus hours a day, and things that you love to do, you're super gifted at and you're passionate about, your business will explode. But if you put in 20 hours a day at things that irritate you and you barely tolerate them, you're just going to grind and grind and grind until you wear yourself out or get lucky.

Todd Tramonte:

And getting lucky is not repeatable. It's not scalable. So that's a beating. So as you grow your business grow ... let's all be like Greg. Do as much as you can in your wheelhouse in the area that fascinates you where you're really gifted. And you really can build the business where you will Work a good solid day, but you don't have to work 10, 12, 15 hours. You get really efficient at that. I know you, Greg, and I ... you and I talked about this right when the quarantine stuff hit and we were all in lockdown and we did a panel. We talked about how both of us did differently. But we both created schedules for our team and our agents and said look, if you'll put in five or six hours a day of lead gen, follow up client care, negotiation, that kind of stuff and leverage everything else, you'll be fine.

Greg Harrelson:

Yeah.

Todd Tramonte:

You'll be doing three times what most people are doing right now. If you'll put in five or six hours a day of good and effective important work, you'll kill it. And the truth is, that doesn't change when we came out of quarantine or locked down. It's still true. Most of us are so inefficient. We're getting one or two hours of good work in a day. We're just busy for 14 hours.

Greg Harrelson:

Yeah.

Todd Tramonte:

Those were my takeaways from just that last-

Greg Harrelson:

I call it inspired action.

Todd Tramonte:

Yeah.

Greg Harrelson:

Because instead of just being in action I'm being ... I'm in an inspired action. I mean, it's an activity that makes my heart sing. It's an activity that I enjoy doing. So anytime I'm in an activity like that, I'm probably going to produce at a high level. Anybody is going to like that. And then when it comes to answering the phone, got to understand, my clients thank me. So that I've got somebody called Stacy to answer their questions. I mean, they go out of their way every single time if I have to talk to them. I just want you to know, she is the best thing in the world.

Todd Tramonte:

Yep.

Greg Harrelson:

And so the key is when you're going to delegate and delegate an activity like answering a phone, which most people are not going to do. But just to share in my mindset, I'm not delegating it just so I can get off the hook of having to do it. Yes, I don't want to have to do it because I want to stay in my lane. But I have to also have accept the responsibility that when I delegate it, I better be delegating it to somebody who's going to actually create a better experience that I would have if I was the one doing the activity-

Todd Tramonte:

Because that's her lane.

Greg Harrelson:

That's her lane. And she's creating the most unbelievable experience for them. So the consumers are actually winning throughout this. Where most agents hear the conversation and they're like, some people are going to hear this and be like, that's irresponsible. That's terrible. I would never work with an agent like that. And I know that some people will say that, but that's not exactly what's really happening in real life. It's the opposite.

Todd Tramonte:

Yep. Now I'm so glad you pointed that out. Because that was exactly what came to mind when you first said it. I was like, oh, there's going to be some people on here that say, "Hey, I could never do it. And B, I never would do that. That's irresponsible. Your clients aren't getting the best." And I want to point out a couple things. You talked about staying in your lane, and we both made the point that that's hurling. I want to clarify that a little bit more. Just to recap how could you finish the year really well strategically, you could stop doing things that are not in your lane. And you could find people to do that, that that is their lane. That is their fascination. And most of us like what we like and hate what we hate, and we think everyone likes what we like and hates what we hate.

Todd Tramonte:

So you start thinking, I'm the most noble, kind, generous person on earth, I would never dump this stuff on someone else. Well, Greg pointed out earlier, Kevin has a very different personality than us. He's built an incredible technology in business that I never would have built. I don't have the detailed nature for that. I just, it's not in me. But if I were fortunate to have someone like Kevin and be like, "Hey, we need to build out this sequence or program this or whatever." And I handed it to him, he would not feel dumped on. I would feel Oh, I got that off my plate. That's amazing. And he would feel, oh my gosh, bring me more of this. So I don't have to go sit in someone's living room all day long. I don't know if that's true for Kevin. But my point is there's, there are people who the stuff you hate, they love. And they love, they hate what you love.

Todd Tramonte:

So that's what team building is means. Now, you don't have to build a big team or a traditional team that might be an assistant or a junior agent, or a buyer specialist, or a virtual or whatever it doesn't matter. But Greg's point is, if you'll do what you're gifted at doing and what you love doing, you can get a ton done in five or six hours a day, you can do really, really well and love every bit of it. The opposite of that is if you do a bunch of stuff that you feel like you have to do, you're supposed to do, Greg told you to do, but you don't want to do. All you'll ever do at best is grind out a living and not enjoy it. And someday you'll probably burn out anyway.

Todd Tramonte:

So the good news is, if you'll do what you're fascinated by doing and delegate the other stuff. Now, I think there are a few exceptions we ought to mention here. Certain things can't be delegated until you know how to do them, you've mastered them, you have clarity on how someone else should do it. There's a lot of people right now thinking that what we're saying is cool, someone else can do all the prospecting that's not in my lane. That's not my fascination. What would you say to those people, Greg?

Greg Harrelson:

That don't delegate you're ... the last thing you should delegate in my mind is anything that actually has a direct impact on generating revenue. Because then you're vulnerable. If you delegate that and they leave you, then your revenue left you. And then, okay, could you go back in and get it? Yes, you can. But the downtime, and the loss of revenue through that transition can just crush your business. It could tear up your entire year. So I say that you have to maintain some control over your generation of revenue.

Todd Tramonte:

Yeah.

Greg Harrelson:

That's what I'd really say. And I want to add one other thing because, Todd, there's plenty people on here that have no one to delegate to. Right?

Todd Tramonte:

Yep.

Greg Harrelson:

And where I don't think either one of us in out are saying, "Hey, go hire an assistant right now." Because we can't tell everybody to do that. And it's not appropriate for everyone to do it. But one of the things that I would suggest if you want to figure out how do I eventually get there? I'm a solo agent right now I have no one to delegate. How can I ever get to the point where maybe I can have somebody to work with me that I can delegate? Well, what I would do is I would do this, I would make a list of what would I delegate? Okay, so I actually pick a pad of paper. Go ahead.

Todd Tramonte:

Are you getting real bad pixels, bad audio Kevin?

Kevin McCarthy:

It's fine on my end. I think it must be your connection, Todd.

Greg Harrelson:

Yeah. It might be.

Todd Tramonte:

Okay. Y'all go ahead and I'll mute me, because I think it was sounding rough. Go ahead, Greg.

Greg Harrelson:

Yeah. So one of the things that I would do or I've done is I've taken a pad of paper and on the left side of the pad, I make a list of income generating activities. And on the right side of the pad, I make a list of income servicing activities. Now, every one of us will define those things differently. For instance, income generating activity for me would be maybe calling for sale by owners. And income servicing activity would be, for me would be making sure my new listing got into the MLS. Okay, so I figure out what those things are income generating versus income servicing. And then what I do is I made sure that I have the income generating activities blocked in my schedule to be done between 8:00 and 11:00 AM. All of my income generating activities must be done between 8:00 and 11:00.

Greg Harrelson:

Whatever your income generating activities are, 8:00 to 11:00. Then at 11:00, I don't really care if you get your servicing activities done or not before you go home. Now here's what I know, you will get them all done because the income servicing activities are the activities that other people are relying on you to do. So therefore, you don't want to let them down. So you're going to get them done. The income generating activities, very rarely get done because no one's reliant on you except you. And if you're going to let anybody down, you're going to let yourself down. So what we got to stop doing is we got to stop letting ourselves down. We got to book an appointment with ourselves from 8:00 to 11:00, do the darn generation strategies, you're going to get the servicing strategies done. But when you consistently get your generating strategies done, you're going to grow your business at a level that's going to allow you to scale to increase with people, if you choose to.

Greg Harrelson:

You don't have to, but you're going to now put yourself in position to have choices because you've got the revenue. The reason in my ... I'm busy I'm on my soapbox now you got me going, the reason why real estate agents are not making the money that they want to make is because they're not following through on the commitments they've made to themselves. And they're following through on the commitments they made to others. It's just not to the sales and they just want to look good in front of the others and they are okay filling bad in hiding with themselves. That to me is a big problem here.

Todd Tramonte:

So well said, so fantastically well said. I am going to start referring differently to what you call income generating and income servicing. We've had other language for it, but yours is just so much better. That's my new label. It's so good. The other thing that, a couple things you said that were, gosh, I hope people heard it really clearly. I was so worried that my audio was messed up I muted myself so I didn't get in the way because you were killing it. You're not natural inclination to please your client not look stupid, not lose the deal is going to ... you're going to get that stuff done. We all stayed up too late and interrupted some family thing, because that's the natural pull to do the servicing stuff. And we've all blown off prospecting, because there was no natural pull to get done. I don't feel good enough, I got an amendment staring me in the face on my email. It's not easy necessarily, but it's so simple.

Kevin McCarthy:

Guys, this stuff resonates with me too. I'm in a different business because I'm not an agent, but I still have to deal with time management. And every day I would make a to do list or these are the things I'm trying to get done. And I'd fall asleep and think I'm going to get that done tomorrow, I'm going to get that thing. Wake up the next morning, I'm going to get this done. And then instead of doing the things on that list, what I do is I open up my email and all of a sudden, I don't do the things on my list. Oh, wow, I got to do this, I got to do this. Bing, bing, bing notifications popping up. So once I realize that do my list and then check the email because that email contains everybody else's priorities. And my list has my priorities on it. And if I open that email, all of a sudden, everybody else's priorities jumps to the top of my list. And it's not because I've decided to do it that way. It's just what happens naturally by jumping in there.

Greg Harrelson:

Hey, listen, we've all been on a plane. And every plane they tell us where to who ... what who the oxygen mask goes on first. Which is totally counter-intuitive. I'm sure I thought, I bet you it flashes through my mind every time even now. That well, maybe I should put it on my 10-year-old first.

Todd Tramonte:

Yep.

Greg Harrelson:

I still like I'm wondering if the plane starts having some problems and that mask is there. I hope I follow directions because instinctively I feel like I should put it on him first. But I understand the logic and why. And so no matter how much we understand it, every time we hear about that mask, we still challenge ourselves with that. So as you can imagine what it's like when it's not life or death. And that's what's happening that, I mean, that to me is the main ... The biggest contributor to people not reaching the goals that they want to reach for themselves and their families is this conversation.

Todd Tramonte:

So if you're going to finish the year strong, you got to have clients. You got to have clients, you can't help clients that you don't have. You can't service clients that ... you can't get a five star review from a client that you don't have. If you're dead, you can't help your 10-year-old child. So take care of yourself real quickly, take care of them. Take care of income generating, and then the servicing will happen naturally. Okay, a couple more things just before we run out of time, and if you've got questions make sure you type them, send them in maybe we'll do a lightning round. If we have time there at the end. Type them now, submit them now, don't wait. One other thing I want to clarify that makes this point even more palatable, you quickly reference the prospecting is not just outbound phone calls. It's a lot of other things and I don't think We need to insult everybody by making a giant list.

Todd Tramonte:

But I'll give one example. I have a radio show, and we do some radio advertising. That's a form of prospecting. As a matter of fact, it's a form of direct response marketing that generates high quality inbound opportunities, which are gold for our team. And it's important to me that my team knows I am super diligent. We record new spots almost every day, we record a new show every single week, I'm not going to miss, I'm not going to mail it in and play recorded shows. I'm going to show up and do what I said I would do every single time. And then repurpose and re-market that as many ways as I can to get them as many high quality opportunities as possible. As soon as I started getting lazy with that I have then modeled that I can't lead myself, so I can't have any expectations. For you my standards aren't what they say they are. They're what I accept.

Todd Tramonte:

The other little note I was going to make that you were illustrating slightly differently is when we talk about building a calendar, which is just a visual representation of your priorities. And you don't follow through with what you said you would do on your calendar, you're losing integrity with yourself. And if you can't keep integrity with yourself, how are you going to keep integrity with anybody? And the reality is, there's an answer to that question and Greg gave it to you. You might keep your word to other people because you don't want to look stupid. But you don't even keep your word to yourself. So now, what's the point? You're doing everything you can to make them happy and you're not building the life you committed to, why would you go through the intensity of building a business if you're not building the life you want to build? You're just everyone else's errand boy.

Todd Tramonte:

That's not what anybody showed up for. That's not why you got a real estate license or built the business. It's probably for freedom and income and to have a wonderful life. So again, to recap how you might strategically finish the year strong and avoid disruption, and avoid all the crazy chaos that's happening out there in the world right now. And all the distraction that come with it. Like Greg said, it's the same business model. It's a slightly different message maybe, in order to deliver that message, we need to be attentive and listen and dive deep on relationship. And then we gave some examples of protect the morning, protect the income generation behaviors, and let the income servicing behaviors follow. I'm just trying to recap what you've said. Greg, any other points or clarity that you would add to that before we see if there's any more questions?

Greg Harrelson:

I think the only thing that I would say is we all know it takes a little bit of time to create a habit. And you said when you don't fulfill the things that you've committed to, you lose integrity with yourself. The challenge is that's most people's habits are to actually fail on their commitments. Now, when you hear that the way that I said that nobody wants to admit that, even myself. I don't want to, okay, yes, I admit that that's what I'm doing. But the reality is that is what we're doing. And that becomes a habit. And if we really want to have finish the year strong, how about we start today by making small commitments and actually fulfill them? It doesn't have to be, well, like I said, it needs to be 8:00 to 11:00. Well, how about start with getting to the office at 8:00, and doing it for one hour? It's okay to start small and create small successes, and then slowly turn up the heat and work your way up.

Greg Harrelson:

Develop a habit, I would rather see somebody successfully show up at the same time and do income generating activities for 30 minutes, five days a week at the same exact time. I'd rather see somebody do that than somebody inconsistently showing up. One day now they'll do it, one day they don't do it. They do it for 30 minutes, the next day they do it for five hours. And the next five days they do it none. I would rather see somebody consistently doing it at a smaller level than inconsistently doing it. And you'll form habits. And if you start doing that right now, you'll be amazed at what you'll create by the end of the year.

Todd Tramonte:

I absolutely love it. I'm reading a book right now audio book, just called Habit. It's so good. They're talk about Keystone habits. And they talk about small wins. It's all based on psychological research and performance research that those Keystone habits that you refuse to compromise on and those small wins. That's how big things happen. No one just achieves monumental success because they just got motivated and went and climbed the mountain. Little bitty wins. Okay, for the sake of time, I'd like to make one other big suggestion that would help you finish the year strong and that would be to show up at the Unofficial Real Geeks User conference and hear Greg share even more.

Todd Tramonte:

I'm going to be doing interviewing Kevin there, you can direct access to the co founder of Real Geeks about feature requests and things you're under utilizing, and ways to generate more leads and convert more leads and hear about all other technology that works well with Real Geeks and all these beautiful things. It's unbelievably affordable this year, because we're doing it virtually. Which means more contributors, more attendees. You don't even have to be a Real Geeks user to attend. So head over to urguc.com. That's short for Unofficial Real Geeks User conference. It's unofficial because I run it, and trust me that's unofficial, Urguc.com, Unofficial Real Geeks User conference. You can get a ticket for less than 200 bucks. Greg, Lisa Chinatti, Jason Simard, tons of other really, really smart, amazing business owners, real estate agents, team leaders, brokers, individual agents, lots of people, it'll be great.

Todd Tramonte:

One of my favorite things about that is people like Greg, my other favorite thing is that Real Geeks is part of it. That you'll get access to Kevin and the tech support team, and their staff. It's such a cool organization, it's a really fun event. Check it out urguc.com. There's lots of different ways to prospect folks. There's lots of different ways to lead generate, there's lots of different ways to do this business. But I think the beautiful takeaway of what Greg has shared today is don't be changing your business model all the time. Don't be freaking out, don't let your lack of clarity push you to start over again. Stay consistent, do what you know you need to do, follow the plan you've probably already set in place. And I think it would be a great takeaway from this call if everyone committed to ... if you're not already there, start at 8:00 and do at least one hour.

Todd Tramonte:

If we just had an 8:oo AM club, or one hour 8:00 AM Club if you're not already there. 8:00 AM, one hour for the next week, start there. And then see if you can do it for one more week, and see if you can do it for an hour and a half. Then try to go to two hours. But I think I love the way Greg communicates because he makes it so actionable. This was unbelievably valuable. I did two sides of a three by five, I probably should have gone with the legal pad like Greg does. And I appreciate just the perspective you're ... the scale that you're doing this at not only yourself, the way you lead yourself well. Which is a beautiful way to lead your team and multiple locations. And staying consistent with your franchise model and just having success and helping so many other people have success. I really, really appreciate you my friend.

Greg Harrelson:

Yeah, man. Well, I appreciate you having me and always enjoy having this conversation with you guys.

Todd Tramonte:

Awesome. Anything to wrap up, Kevin?

Kevin McCarthy:

We do have one question come in, but it's a big question. We've discussed this topic a few times before. By the way if you guys ever want to see past Keeping it Reals, if you go to keepingitreal.com. We have a really cool search engine in there. We have a transcript of every one of these videos. And so you can search for any keyword and any Keeping it Real we've ever recorded with loads of awesome guests through the years. Anyway, this is a big question, but maybe you guys can address it quickly. Could you please share where you find an assistant, like the one you've been mentioning on the call? And how much do you pay? That's a tough one but where would you start?

Todd Tramonte:

Where's the unicorn farm, Greg?

Greg Harrelson:

Hey, I tell you where a lot of mine have come from is they ... and they've come from my centers of influence. They already knew my personality style and they knew a friend that was looking for something, and they already knew, well, this person would probably match good with this person. So really reaching out to my sphere, and putting it out there. And I tell you right now, there are a lot of people that have uncertainty with their current workplace. There's a lot of people on the market right now, even if they have a job they're wondering if their job is going to be continue. So it's everyone's looking right now. So there's a lot of great talent that's open for dialogue. So you could go to indeed.com and start putting out some classified ads that you're looking for an administrative assistant, that would be a great simple resource.

Greg Harrelson:

Pricing is, or salaries and how do you pay them? That's a tricky question, because every market is totally different. But I will say this, that this is one thing that I found when I'm coaching agents, or have coached agents across the country in the past. Is that a good executive assistant, somebody that's going to be your right hand person is going to be equivalent to a very good paralegal in your ... in an attorney's office. So I don't know a paralegal in my town may be completely different than what a paralegal would cost in New York City. Which would be completely different than maybe somewhere in South Dakota. But I do know that that is kind of true. If you're thinking of a head paralegal, that's going to be right under the attorney, If that's the type of assistant you're looking for, that's probably the type of pay you're looking for.

Greg Harrelson:

If you're looking for somebody else, that's going to be a paralegal, but maybe they're a junior paralegal. They don't have to have all the technical skills, then you're probably going to be you can probably find that category for that particular price range. So if you use the pricing hierarchy, when it comes to top level paralegal to beginning level paralegal, I think that'll give you a good idea.

Todd Tramonte:

Yeah, I love that answer. I'll just give one slight twist to it. What you're hiring for is the intangible stuff. You can train all the real estate skill in the world. So on the one hand, I would, I agree with everything Greg is saying. My addition would be you don't have to find someone with a tremendous amount of real estate knowledge. You got to find somebody with the unique skills and gifts and attitude that are intangible that you, that are so hard to find. I really believe we can teach people the technical skills of real estate or the technical skills of support of agents or support of leaders relatively quickly. The only other thing I would add is wherever you are on PayScale, do your very best to round up.

Todd Tramonte:

I mean, if you can adequately, if not really well compensate really great people, you can keep them. And they'll get better and better and better. And the last little note, Greg does such a good job of talking about the most important leadership in the world is self leadership. If you bring in really great people, they will push you to become better and to grow. And as people see you grow, you create this culture of never ending growth opportunity for everyone. I want people at our company to make tons of money, because if they make tons of money that means I'm making plenty of money. And it's really not as much about what I make, it's about the fact that they're not going anywhere. They're taking great care of their family, their friends, they're investing, they're building wealth, they're growing. We're all trickling down opportunity and value-

Greg Harrelson:

It's contributing to your environment. And in the culture in your own company, and then that's actually even giving you more benefits. It's just amazing.

Todd Tramonte:

Yeah, love it. Love it. Thanks again, fellas. Really, really appreciate it. I know you can always get ahold of Greg, he's happy to share. What's the best way for someone to send you a referral or track you down Greg?

Greg Harrelson:

I would just say hit me up on Facebook Messenger. Just hit that little find me on Facebook, hit that message button and kick off a message. That's the best way.

Todd Tramonte:

Yep, same thing for me. And just one last plug for the conference. If you want to gather with Greg and me and a bunch of other people that really want to share their best stuff and learn from each other. It's going to be really awesome. It'll be virtual, no travel, super affordable. Kevin will be the hit, hit star of the show. We'll put him out front, we'll give him microphone and we'll all run away and see what he says, it'll be wonderful. But you urguc.com, urguc.com. Thanks so much, guys.

Kevin McCarthy:

It's great. Thanks so much, Todd and Greg, it's been wonderful. Thanks for watching everybody. And remember, you can see this episode and then all past episodes if you go to www.keepingitreal.com. And also, if you'd like to be notified of any upcoming episodes, you can sign up there with your email address. We're not going to spam you, we're just going to send you new episodes as they come out. So thanks everybody for watching. And we'll see you next time.

Greg Harrelson:

Thanks a lot, guys.

Todd Tramonte:

Take care.