Five Stages Of Cold Calling That Will Change Your Business

And we're programmed to believe that deals are limited. None of that's true. Closings happening in your market with people who would have loved to have worked with you over the agent they worked with. They just don't know who you are. What we're really doing, and we don't know it, is we're doing deals to build our skills. The goal is a lifelong relationship with this person. Let's dive in here. Ladies and gentlemen, make some noise for Ricky Carew! Ricky Carew from Gulf Shores, Alabama. I think the best way to do this is maybe, if you guys could tell me, give me a starting point for kind of where you guys feel like your biggest weakness is, where you guys are running into a snag or getting stuck. I think that might be the best starting point for this. So maybe if you guys could start there, if somebody could maybe give me and light me on where you guys feel like your biggest weakness is that's costing you the most money. It's consistency, not protecting my mornings. I go through a period of time where I don't have any escrows and I'm prospecting, prospecting, prospecting, and all of a sudden I've got escrows and I'm like, now I'm running around and I'm not focusing on protecting my mornings. I know what I need to do, it's just a matter of doing it. Staying consistent of all the time. The full prospecting, spending three hours every single morning. And I'm not doing that consistently. Okay, okay. So, you guys feel like across the board this is like your biggest problem is, is you're just not consistent with the prospecting? For me, I can't speak for everyone else, but for me. What is your name, good sir? It's Jason. Okay, Jason. Okay, cool. And again, you guys are in, what market is this again? Madera, California, about 20 minutes north of Fresno, California. Got it, got it. Let me look that up real quick. Let's see, what's it called? Madera, California. Okay, okay. Kind of like in between L.A. and Sacramento, kind of. Kind of, yeah. Yeah. All right, cool. Okay, sweet. And then, how many of you guys in the room, if you just raise your hand, are under a year in the business? Everybody's over a year? Okay, one person? And then, okay. Cool. Is anybody making a million dollars or more on their own? No. Okay, okay. If you want to. What is your average price point in your market? Probably $430. And any idea how many agents are in the market? I use Madera, I'm a member of the association. How many agents in Madera? There's 400 members. 400 members? 400 members in Madera and about 400. How many transactions were done in the MLS last year, whatever? Well, we coveyed to Fresno Association of Realtors MLS as well. So, that encumbers us about 4,500 agents total. Okay, but you don't work the Fresno area, right? We do, we do. Yeah, we do. Yeah, we handle tough children. A listing's a listing, bro. Yeah. How far, so that's like what, a 10-minute ride? About 30 minutes, approximately. All right, and then what, and then how many deals were done total? Like, do you know, a roundabout, how many deals were done in Fresno slash Madera? I don't know, I'm not sure. All right, all right, I'm just trying to get a gauge for you guys, like what's really happening. Okay, so a couple more questions so I can really dial in on this. What's everybody's like ambition in the room? Are you guys trying to get to a million dollars? Do you care about money? What's the deal? For me, it's lifestyle. I'm looking for a lifestyle. I'm looking to be able to work, I'm just looking to still be a mom and a wife and go to soccer tournaments, but yeah, continuously make money. Got it. That's kind of the dream, right? Everybody wants to make a lot of money and not have to work. Cool, cool. Okay, cool. I guess, let me just dive into some of... So I did this really incredible YouTube video yesterday. I did it live. I don't know if you guys watched it or not. There was a lot more people on it than I thought would be, but I want to condense that and give you guys the highlights of that because it was really... And then I want to take it a couple steps further to kind of illustrate what this could actually look like for you. And then we'll end with some Q&A if that sounds good. All right, so yesterday, what I did was the entire premise of the video was why 99% of real estate agents sabotage their own business, okay? Did anybody see it? Raise of hands. Jason. So good, none of you guys seen it. So basically, I'm just going to give you guys like the Cliff Notes version. Basically, we've all been programmed to think a certain way. And the way that we've been programmed to think lines up with... There's two things. There's your brokers when you come in that teach you certain things, and then there's the corporations who want to make a lot of money off of you. And so when you think about the brokers teaching you bad habits or bad philosophies, bad beliefs, you got to believe that they're not doing it on purpose, they're doing it out of... That's how they... That's their belief as well. They're doing it out of love, but it's kind of like when we grow up. Like we grow up and we're in kindergarten, and we're in elementary, we're in high school, and we're kind of taught to get a job and to go to college and to trade time for money. And we're programmed to work like that. I grew up roofing houses, and I'm working by the hour. And every job I ever... Like everything I did, because my dad roofed houses till he was close to 50, and then I got him into real estate. But like growing up, like that's all I knew was like people traded time for money. But is it really true? Because like there's so many people that make money without trading time for the money. Okay, so there's all these beliefs in our mind that we're programmed with. So when we think about real estate agents, okay, we come in and then lead generation, okay, different leads are put into different boxes, okay? And we look at all the different boxes we're taught that this is what leads are for sell-by-owners, expireds, Zillow leads, realtor.com, open house leads, you know, social media, pay-per-click on Google, sending postcards, etc. And if you really pay attention to all of those lead types, they're all limited, which means at any given time, there's only so many for sell-by-owners out there, and there's only so many expires, and you have to wait on more expires to hit the market. There's only so many people that are going to walk through an open house. There's only so many Zillow leads. Zillow calls you and says, hey, we have this zip code open. Once it's bought, then there's no more leads in that area. So we're programmed to believe that leads are scarce, and we're programmed to believe that deals are limited. And if you do a deal, then that takes away my ability to do that deal. But none of that's true. Are you looking to set and close more listing appointments? That's exactly why I created the Set More Listing Appointments Challenge. It's a four-day challenge, and I want to teach you everything you need to know about setting more listing appointments and closing more listing appointments. If you want to become a listing machine, then you need to take the next challenge. You can go to setmorelistingappointments.com or just click the link in the description. I'll see you on the next challenge. What's true is, is that deals and leads are both just like oxygen. If I breathe in a breath of air, is that taking away from anyone else being able to breathe in air? Can I breathe in all the air in the world? This is exactly how real estate is. So the first thing I have to get you to realize is that this is not a zero-sum game. This is an unlimited abyss of opportunity. You cannot, you will not do every deal. Part of that is because you can't handle every deal. There's not enough business for every single agent to have 100 deals pending at once all the time. There's not enough deals for that. But there is enough deals for there to be more than enough for everyone to handle at once, at all times, and still be, like, there's more than enough for everyone to have more than enough and still be more than enough left over. This is not what we were taught. And so we have this conception and belief that deals are scarce. Like, you have to try to close every listing because if you don't, that next agent is going to get it, and then when they get it, we lost. But what you don't realize is that in the essence of just that deal happening, more like, okay, you take an apple. I take an apple off a tree. Okay, I took the apple off the tree and I ate the apple. Now, nobody else can eat that apple. But guess what? The seeds in the apple creates an entire orchard of trees and more apples with seeds. Same thing with a deal. If I take a listing out of the market for any other agent to get, that deal, when it closes, that client is going to buy more property. They're going to sell it and buy another one, sell it and buy another one, probably four, five, six more times in their life, and refer tons of deals. And those deals turn into multiple deals, which refer more deals. Like, it's the same thing as the apple tree scenario. It's the exact same thing. And honestly, the universe is set up like this, but we're not taught this. And this is so easy to learn, literally, a fifth grader can understand this concept. But yet, we as adults have been programmed in such a manner that we don't open our eyes up to it. So the first thing, I can't teach you how to go. I can tell you what to do to go make a million dollars. But until I help you become the person that understands how to... Until you become the person that can do what I'm going to tell you to do, then you're not going to do it. Because here's the thing. I would think that every single one of you in the room, you already know everything you need to know to go build a million-dollar business. You know how to go get a listing. You know exactly what the process is. Talk to a property owner, become friends, see what they want to do, help them do it, list the property, close the deal. Like, you already know everything. Okay, it's kind of like poker. You can learn the game in a matter of three minutes. But then when you start playing, you lose a lot of money. And you're like, well, wait a minute. Like, I learned how to play. I know what the cards are. Why am I losing all this money? It's because knowing what to do and being the person that can do it are two completely different things. And it all comes from your belief system. Okay, so deals are like waves crashing on the beach. You know, you go to the beach, waves crash, and they never stop ever. It's the same thing. You go to an all-you-can-eat buffet. Can you eat all the food? No, the restaurant's full, right? You know, the food gets down a little bit. What happens? Restaurant brings more food out. It never ends. And if somebody takes that apple off the tree and gets that listing, and you say, oh, well, I can't wait for more this person to buy or sell more stuff because nobody says that when I eat the apple, you can't eat the apples that the seeds in the apple produce. Same thing as if I take the listing you were going to get, that doesn't mean that you can't represent that person when they sell it in three years or represent the seller that they buy the next property from. Like, the opportunities turn into opportunities. But I can't wait that long. Get back in the buffet line. Closings are happening every single day. They happen every day of your life. They're happening today. Right now, there are closings happening in your market with people who would have loved to have worked with you over the agent they worked with. They just don't know who you are and you haven't put the work in to try to connect with these people. It's air, guys. The opportunity is air. It's right in front of you. You just can't see it. You just have to breathe it in. So, that's the first thing you got to understand as you, like, really want to get to the higher levels of this business. Because if you sit around worrying about how to convert somebody or, you know, the competition or the market or anything like that, you're dead in the water. Because that takes up so much mental capacity, you can't possibly handle mentally what you need to handle to get to the million dollars. So, you got to start really... Ben Hardy, he wrote a book, 10X is Easier Than 2X. I'll mention several books to you today, and you need to read them all because it will literally change your life. But 10X, the 10X is easier than 2X. There's basically, the book is, there's a 2X mindset, there's a 10X mindset. The 2X mindset is kind of like, I want to double up. Like, I want to go from 300 to 600, okay? But if you're at 300 and you think, I want a 10X, I want to go from 300 to 3 million. This is the premise of the book. To go from 300 to 3 million, and you think about the pathway from 3 to 3 million, it looks completely different than 3 to 600. And so, to get from 3 to 600, you don't really do anything different. You just keep doing what you're doing and just do it a little harder. But to go 10X, basically, everything you're doing now to 2X, you basically got to get rid of it, and you're going to create a whole different pathway to the 3 mil. Essentially, some of you guys may be thinking too small, and because you're thinking too small, it's affecting your plan, your plan of action every day, and you're actually doing things that probably you shouldn't even do. And so, getting to the next level, a lot of times, includes saying no to a lot of things you're doing, and sometimes that's not easy to do. I actually, right here on this board, let me share this. Number one, is this helping you guys so far? Yes, yeah. Okay, all right. So, let me know when you can see my screen. So, right here, okay, this line is time, okay? Right here, okay, you guys learn something, okay? You learn something. Maybe you learn a prospect, you learn a script or something. Maybe you talk to the number one agent in your market and you think, okay, and here's your goal, 1 million, okay? And you learn something, you talk to somebody, they teach you something, and right here, you think that this, what you learned right here, that this, like, you envisioned that thing getting you all the way to the million dollars, whatever it was. But what happened was, is it did get you somewhere. It did get you somewhere, it got you right here. You thought it was going to get you to the motherland, it got you right here. And so, what happens is, is you get right there and you plateau a little bit and you think, man, it's not really working that great anymore. What I need to do is I need to do more of this, more of what I learned, because it got me here, it certainly got to get me there. And you think it's going to take you further, but it doesn't, it just continues here. No matter how hard you try, it's like a fly trying to get out the window. They keep trying and trying and trying, no matter how hard they try, they're just still not getting out that window. All they have to do is turn around a 180 and go right out the door, so much less effort, and they're out there where they want to be. So we try, try, try, try, try, and we just bang our head against the wall. This is the danger zone. And a lot of agents, see, the thing is, is they think they know everything. They think they know everything. They know all they need to do because they watched a couple YouTube videos and they hung out with a couple people. The learning never stops. There's so many levels to this. So they learn, and most agents just stay right here because they're so egotistical, they think they know it all. They just stay right there and they never get to their goal. But people who actually get there, what happens, the process is, is they stay here for a little while till they realize, you know what, I gotta learn something new. They hire a coach, or they seek out different information, and they learn how to become more efficient, and they have another breakthrough moment, and that gets them there. And the next time they feel that plateau happen, they're like, here it is again. Let me go ahead and learn something quicker this time, because I know what's up. I need to learn something, right? Then that gets them there. And it's a whole learning process that stair steps all the way to the $1 million. The problem is, most people think they know it all, and they think this, this little basic information is gonna get them to the motherland. It's not. So 10x is easier than 2x, is when you hit these plateaus, you take a step back and you realize what's taking up 80% of your time that's only producing 20% of your results, and you eliminate that, you make the 20% that's causing 80% of your results, the new 80%, and that's where the breakthrough happens, and you get to the next level. Then you have to take a step back and do the process all over again, but the first step to all of that is realizing and being grateful for where you are. Most people are frustrated, if you're frustrated where you are, and you feel like, man, why can't I get to the next level? First off, appreciate where you are and how far you've come, and then take a step back and evaluate your situation and say, okay, I just need to go find a coach or collaborate with this person or read this book or, you know what the problem is for most people? They don't read, they quit reading. I'll give you a couple of books. So this is the first one, 10x is easier than 2x. You have to read this immediately, okay? The Unsold Mindset, phenomenal, The Unsold Mindset. I don't know if you guys have read this, The Full Fee Agent by Steve Scholl and Chris Voss, the guy that wrote Never Split the Difference. Wow, The Full Fee Agent, The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson. And I've become great friends with Jeff, and this is my all-time favorite book. The Agent's Edge by Jordan Cohen, the number one REMAX agent in the world, six-time number one REMAX agent in the world, another great friend of mine. And then the other one that I love is called Ninja Selling, if you guys haven't read that. If you read those books right there, you're on a whole nother level. I read those books, The Slight Edge I read back in 2012, but most of those books I read after I got out of sales. And the knowledge I have now about how to sell real estate, I'm just like, if I would have had this when I was selling. So let's dive deeper into this misconception and trying to deprogram you. So all the different lead sources, all the different lead sources, they literally scream scarcity. There's only so many for sale boundaries, there's only so many of this, so many of that, so many of this. So we live in this world where we feel like leads are scarce. But the revelation is that all humans are leads. And most people think that leads, even coaches and stuff, like leads are only people that are ready to buy or sell now, today. To me, that's a hot lead, or I like to call those ABSs, Active Buyer and Sellers. I'll give you a formula in a minute of how to calculate exactly, if you wanna close one or two deals a week, I'll tell you exactly how to do that. But for me, all humans are leads because every single human is either gonna buy or sell multiple times in their life, or they know people that are gonna buy or sell multiple times in their life. So every, and even underage people, their parents buy, they know people are gonna buy, and they're gonna grow up and buy. Every single person is a lead. So when we start thinking about the abundance of business, okay, we've got to get out of the traditional lead belief system around for sub-owners, expired, Zillow leads, like there's only enough leads to go around, because that's not true. Every human is a lead. Would you guys agree with that? Yes, yes. Okay, every human's a lead, you guys agree. You can't talk to every single human, so therefore, the business is air. Because every single legion activity, okay, think about any legion activity, social media, Zillow, door knocking, direct mail, sphere of influence, referrals. It doesn't matter what it is. There's one common denominator that has to happen every single time, and that's a real live conversation with the prospect. So if you think about the number one objective of legion being the actual conversation with the prospect, cuz they can see your videos online, but then they can talk to you and not like you, you still gotta win them over. You may have a warmer person, but you still have to lock that in, right, one on one. You haven't won them over yet completely, that still has to happen. Conversation is the key to all closings. Conversation is the part of the funnel you can't get around, right? You're never gonna do a deal with someone that you don't talk to, regardless of where you get the lead from. So as I continue to break this down, all humans are leads. Conversation is the gatekeeper of all closings. So now it's just a matter of talking to every human. But wait, we can't talk to every human. So now we have to think, okay, if conversation is the game, I can't talk to every human, now I've gotta niche down to the exact people I wanna do business with, and then pursue having conversations with just those people back to back to back to back to back to back to back to back all day long. Because if my legion is set up in a way where I'm waiting on inbound leads to come in, I'm at the mercy of a third party, a social media platform, a Zillow, an ad, letters. I'm kind of at the mercy of the market producing those leads for me. And I don't really control the amount of leads I get. I can somewhat control the quality of leads, but I can't really control the amount of leads. Versus if I realize that the entire objective is to talk to people anyway, and I can wrap my head around that, and now I can get access to everyone that I want to do business with that owns the exact properties I wanna sell, then why don't I just have conversations with every single person I can that owns the exact kind of property I wanna sell? Let's stop right there for a second, I wanna get an answer to that. If somebody in the room, if you are like, I don't wanna do that, I wanna know why. The common fear of rejection, I mean, no one likes to be told no. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but as a realist, all you're doing is just prolonging the inevitable, because you gotta talk to your prospects anyway, right? So here's what happens, we get programmed to believe that deals and leads are scarce, a scarce resource. And then once we realize that it's not a scarce resource, our brain wants us to continue to believe that lie to protect us from being a little uncomfortable, because talking to people is uncomfortable. So our brain is protecting us, and so we continue to believe deals are scarce, deals, leads are scarce, there's only so much to go around. And if we believe that lie, then we don't have to call a bunch of people, right? So our brain is protecting us from a situation of anxiety, and fear, and rejection, but the thing is, is that you say rejection, but I'm gonna tell you what it really is, you wanna know? There's a term, it's actually in one of the books I just, it's in the Unsold Mindset is where I originally saw this, and then I did more research on it, because I thought it was so fascinating. For years, I'm like, why won't agents just call people? Because they spend thousands and thousands of dollar, time, and money, and energy doing all these things, open houses, and making videos, and doing all these things. They spend all this time, money, and energy not to have to talk to someone, just to turn right around and talk to the people that they spend all the time, money, and energy to acquire. Every single Legion activity produces a list of people for you to sit down and call. You do an open house, you're just getting a list of people that walked in so you can call them the next day. Social media, you're hoping to get a list of people to call. Zillow, list of people to call. Every single Legion activity produces a list of people for you to call. My thing is, is why would I put my list of people to call in the hands of random people that are selling me this list for an expensive price, or I'm paying an expensive price through my time, money, and energy. Why wouldn't I, for less than a penny, get the exact people on the list that I want to do business with, and go ahead and have those conversations right now? So the reason that you won't, see, when I say it like that, it makes perfect sense, right? The reason that you won't is because of a thing called stereotype threat. Stereotype threat is when a salesperson is concerned that their customers are going to think that they are the stereotypical high-pressure salesperson. So what's really happening subconsciously, I believe, is that you're worried that when you call, they're going to put you in that category of a high-pressure salesperson, only greedy, only looking out for themselves, selfish, scam artist, going to sell you a bad property. And the thing is, is you are a good person. You want to help people, but your mind is holding you back because you're scared that they're not going to think that you're a good person because you're calling them with a property that they might want to buy. I don't think it's rejection. And rejection is only your prospect telling you what they want to do, right? Rejection and objections, they shouldn't be fought with force. You know, a lot of trainers and coaches, they want to say, when your prospect says this, you come back at them with this to get them to go the other way. No, right? That's called playing football, right? That's force with force. What I like to do is jiu-jitsu, which is the gentle art, which means take the force and use the force to go where you want to go. When they give me an objection or a rejection, I'm listening. That's them telling me what they want to do, and I'm here to help them do it, whatever that is. I'm able to take that and turn it around and use it and take the situation where I need to take it. But my feeling is that agents are more worried about, I had an agent down in Fort Lauderdale who, there's this handwritten letter. This is gold. I'll give you the handwritten letter. This is gold. You do a handwritten letter. You have a buyer for the property. You handwrite the whole envelope. You put it on a nice letterhead, and you write, Dear Mr. and Mrs. So-and-so. And it's one question. You say, would you consider selling your home at whatever the address is to a prospect of mine? Sincerely sign your name, put a business card in there. I've made, not just sold millions, I've made millions off of that letter. I listed properties. I sold a bunch of off-market properties, et cetera. And I teach this in my coaching program. But you guys can have that. But this lady in my coaching program, she wouldn't send the letter. She had a buyer. Think about this. She had a buyer for this property, for a house in the subdivision. She wouldn't send the letters, because she was scared that the people would think she was a liar. When she had the buyer, imagine this. Right? Imagine this. This is classic stereotype threat, where she's worried that the people are going to think that she's the stereotypical salesperson, when she's not. And it's literally just a perspective. It's just, I'll tell you what it is. It's your brain trying to protect you from uncomfortable situations. And I'll tell you what it really is. This might hit a little too hard for you guys. What it is, is it's your old self holding your new self back. And you got to get that old self off of you and say, quit holding me back. This is the new me. I'm going to go out here. I'm going to connect some buyers and sellers today, and a bunch of them. So that's what I really think it is. There are stages to calls. The first stage is you're scared to death. Think about this. Every single person goes through the exact same thing. The exact same thing. Ryan Serhant, Ricky Carruth, Grant Cardone, every single person has went through these exact same stages. There's no way around it. So you're not special. I'm not special. We all have to go through this. I'll illustrate this on the board. This might help you guys, since it seems like you guys are. I might want to spend a little time on this. You guys will like this. This will really help. So there's five steps. The first step is scared. The second step is realize not going to die. What's that? Yeah, I can't hear you guys too good. If you do have something to say, come up to the mic or come closer to the thing. So you're scared, so you don't make calls on the first level. The second level, you make some calls and realize, oh, wait, I'm not going to die. And then the next step is what to say. So we realize we're not going to die, and we're like, oh, OK. And so then we move to the third level, and we learn what to say. Now, this right here, this level, this is where most agents get stuck, right here. Because they learn what to say. It's the classic think they know everything. They learn what to say, and they're like, OK, I got it. I'm good. And then they try it for a couple of weeks, saying what they need to say, and they don't get the results, and they say, oh, this doesn't work. And they quit right here. This is where most agents quit, right here. And they never make it to this step. Step four is how to say it. So I don't know if you guys are on step one, step two, three, or four, where you guys are in the process, but this jump from three to four is the toughest jump. Why? Because this is where you think you've got it down, and you're giving it all you've got, and you're making a lot of calls, but you're not getting a whole lot of results. And the reason being is because you had to learn exactly how to say it, and it takes time to learn. It's nothing you learn overnight. And then the fifth level is reading people on the phone. And this level is mastery. And I don't care who you are, you can try to act big and bad and say, oh, I was never scared to make calls. I still get scared to make calls. I make live calls. I've been making live calls on YouTube for almost 10 years. And in front of thousands, I've had millions of people watch me make live calls on YouTube, and I still get scared. I've made way over 100,000 calls. The difference is, see, I still get scared. The difference is, I've made so many calls, I know how to manage my anxiety. And I know I'm not going to die. I know what to say. I know how to say it, and I know how to read people on the phone. I don't even use a script anymore. And so the hardest jump is from what to say to how to say it. That's the one every agent has the most trouble with, because it takes time to get from there to there. Now, now that I've said that, check this out. I'm doing some of the stuff that I actually do in my challenge that I'm doing next week. I do a monthly challenge. This is a lot of the stuff I share in the challenge. OK, so this is a hill and a valley, OK? So this is average agent hill, OK? And this is Mount Millions, Mount Millions. And what happens is, here you are, right? Here you are. And you're real happy, because you see Mount Millions over there. You're like, oh, my god. And you're like, oh, I'll just jump, OK? I'll just jump, right? But from here to here is a mile. You're not going to jump it. You can see it over there, and you're like, oh, that's nice. But what you're going to have to do is go through this valley. And this is the valley of a lot of calls, OK? And so I'm just telling you, I don't care what your lead gen is. The only thing between you and $1 million a year are thousands of one-on-one conversations with people in your market. I can build a million-dollar business on Instagram, just Instagram, just YouTube, just Facebook. I'm door-knocking. I could take any lead gen source, drop me down in a new market, and say, you can only use Instagram, or only door-knock, or only cold call, or whatever. And I will build a million-dollar business, because I understand the objective of any lead gen is to have conversations, and as many as you can have. So I don't care how you slice it up, you're not going to get here without going through here. Not going to happen. So what happens is a lot of agents are like, OK, Mount Millions, let me go, let me go. So they go down here, and they get about right here. And they're like, oh, this is a little too deep for me. And they go right back, and they stay right here of their career. That's what happens. And what's really cool is, if you really break this down, this is stage one. You're scared to make calls. You start going down the hill a little bit. This is stage two. You realize, oh, this is kind of steep, but I'm not going to die. Most agents turn right around, and they keep going. You get to stage three, which is, OK, I'm not going to die. Let me learn what to say. And then you start coming up the other side, and we start learning stage four, how to say it. And then right before you get to the top, you actually get to where stage five, you're reading people on the phone. You're flowing. You're able to make something out of every conversation. If you watch me make calls, you'll see. I turn something out of every conversation. You guys know what a reticular activating system is? Yes, yeah. It's in your brain. And basically, you program your brain to recognize what you want. Dan Sullivan said, your eyes only see and your ears only hear what your brain is looking for. And so I think about that, because so many gurus talk about the RAS. And it's interesting, because when I think about me prospecting versus amateurs, or even people that are pretty good but aren't at my level, I think about it like we're both driving in the same car. I'm thinking about buying a white car. He's thinking about buying a red car. And all he sees going down the road, the same road. We're going down the same road. He recognizes the red cars. I recognize the white cars, because I've programmed my brain. My brain is programmed to recognize the white cars. His brain is programmed to see the red cars. But we're going down the same road, but we see different things. It's the same thing with prospecting. When I'm talking to prospects, I'm talking to the same prospects you guys are. Some people are like, oh, people are just too nice in your area. When I prospect, I'm talking to people all over the country, because people all over the country buy in my market. I've coached agents in every market. This is universal. That's a cop-out. That's like, oh, people. When you start stereotyping your prospects, you're dead. You're dead in the water. When you start stereotyping your prospects instead of trying to learn how to communicate with them, you're done. But it's interesting, because we're going down the same road. We see different cars. It's the same thing. I'm talking to the same prospects you're talking to, but I'm able to turn those conversations into something where other agents are not. And that's just part of the process. So anyway, I hope that was helpful. It's just reality. So I've got two things. I've got a million-dollar formula, a million-dollar formula, and I've got situational prospecting, which is kind of like my newest strategy for prospecting in this market with higher interest rates, gold on handcuffs, election coming up, et cetera. So which way? Let's take a vote, because I feel like we only have time for one, and then take some questions. Would you guys rather me talk about situational prospecting or would you like to see a million-dollar formula, how to get to a million dollars? Situational. Well, correct me if I'm wrong, but to get to a million dollars, you've got to perfect the situational prospecting. Yeah, you do. They both go hand-in-hand. But if you can't, I'll do both. If you can't visualize why you're prospecting, though, that's the thing. If you don't know why you're prospecting, see, what you do today is not just to do deals today. Every single thing you do today has a purpose for your entire career. And this goes back to how we are programmed, because we are programmed to do deals to pay our bills, right? But in reality, what we're really doing, and we don't know it, is we're doing deals to build our skills. Situational prospecting. Well, the first year I did 100 deals was 2014. It's 10 years ago. And then by 2017, I was doing a million bucks a year. During that time, like 2012, 13, 14, 15, 16, it was so easy, because I could call property owners. I wanted to sell their property. And I could call them and say, hey, a property down the road sold. Didn't know if there's something I could do for you. And most people were looking to do something. And it was so easy, because interest rates were still 5 and 1 half. Interest rates were still the same as they were when they bought that property three years before. And prices weren't up that much. And the price increase actually helped them, because it gave them some equity to buy the next property. So it was really easy for sellers to upgrade into the next home they wanted to buy. That doesn't work great right now, as you guys know. Because most sellers are sitting on 2%, 3%, 4% interest. They don't want to let that go. And prices are so high, so we're just kind of in this situation. So I was like, OK, you can't just call people and say, is there something I can do to help you? So what do we do? And I realized we have to call them with a situation. So the first thing you have to do is create a situation to call people about. Second thing you do is you get a list of the people that you want to target with the situation. Third thing you do is you make an offer of the situation. The fourth thing you do is you create and nurture that relationship forever. So let me walk you through the process of it. You can create a situation out of anything. You can take any listing on MLS. You can take any listing you have. You can take any off-market deal you have. You can take a for-sale boundary. You can take anything, just the listing. This is just like a general situation. You take whatever listing you want to sell. Now we create a situation out of it. How do we do that? Well, we take the selling points of the property, and then we think, OK, what property owners would look at this as an upgrade? So let's say it's a four-bedroom. That's easy. We target all the three bedrooms around it. It's kind of like new construction. If you have a new construction builder that's given like 4% to the buyer agent and all kinds of discount points and buy rates and appliances and closing costs and all this stuff, you should be calling every single property owner that owns an older property around it that lives in an older house and say, hey, you want a new home? That's a situation. When you call three bedrooms to see if they want to buy a four-bedroom, that's a situation. If you have a buyer for a property, that's a situation. Hey, I have somebody that would want to buy your thing. I don't like that one because so many people use it. What I like is calling property owners and saying, hey, I see you're in a three-bedroom. Would you like a four-bedroom? Do you need a four-bedroom? I got a really nice one right down the road I'd love to show you. Now what happens with this approach is now they're like, wow, a real estate agent that's not trying to sell my house. The chances that they would want the house you're calling them about are basically nothing. But what happens is magical. They start telling you what they actually want to do. And regardless if they want to do something now or not, the goal is lifelong relationship with this person because they're going to do something later. You're talking to them now. Why wouldn't you solidify a relationship for later? This is a lead. Remember, all humans are leads. And even people who want to do something later on, I want to know more about that. Like, oh, you're thinking about selling or moving in five years? What's going on in five years? What's happening in your life in five years that's causing you to say you might do something in five years? Oh, you're retiring in four years and your daughter's going to college or your mom is this or whatever. Now we're getting somewhere. Now we're getting to know them. And most agents, they just kind of end the conversation and go their separate ways. I don't. I'm digging and digging and digging and digging because I want to understand. And when they have that conversation and they know that you actually care about them, they remember that. And then when they start getting your weekly emails or whatever you do to stay in touch forever, they're like, there's Ricky again, that guy that really cared about me. I'm going to remember him when I need to buy or sell. And so then you start building a brand. And the brand that plays into the million-dollar formula, that's what ends up where you were trading time for leads. See, a lot of people trade time for money. What agents do is trade time for leads. Your brand actually starts to produce leads for you automatically that fall in your lap. And over time, the bigger your brand gets, it eventually gets to where it produces all of the leads of your business. And now you're not even trading time for leads. You're just servicing the leads that are coming in automatically. See, it's so much easier to make $1 million as an agent as it is to make six figures. When I was a six-figure agent, I was working 8 to 10 hours a day just killing myself. When I was making $1 million as an agent, I was working like 20 to 30 hours a week loving life. It's way easier to be a million-dollar agent than it is to be a six-figure agent. But you've got to go through the six-figure agent stages of your business to get to the seven-figure agent years. So that's the basis of situational prospecting. You're looking for situations. And when you start to operate like this, the possibilities are endless, because you can literally make up any kind of situation about anything you want. You could send those letters I told you, and somebody called you and said, hey, I'll sell, and it's the right price. I'll pay you this commission, but I don't want to list it. Oh, no problem. And you just call all the smaller, older homes around it and see if you can find a buyer. You didn't find a buyer, but you found three more sellers. It's never ending. But most agents just sit around waiting on leads to come in, because they feel like those are the only leads, the ones that come through Zillow, or the Open House, or the Pay Per Click, or the Zillows, or the Sphere, or referrals, or that call you on postcards. No, you call everybody. You call everybody and show everybody how awesome you are. But when you approach them with a, hey, I have this that you might be interested in, that strategy right there has helped a lot of agents who had call reluctance, because they don't feel salesy, because they're offering something instead of trying to take something like a listing. Because what most agents go through is, I don't want to be an agent who says, hey, Mr. Seller, I don't know you, you don't know me, but will you sell your house so I can make some money? I know we just met literally three seconds ago, but I'm trying to make some money over here. Oh, you don't? Well, who do you know that might buy or sell something? Because again, I'm just looking out for me. That's how we come across as an industry, and that's why I believe a lot of agents won't make calls, because they don't want to come across like that, and they don't know how to be anything different, because nobody's ever taught them. Versus, if you'll take a situational prospecting situation, and use the situation to find more situations, to find more situations, I mean, and everybody that you come in contact with at all, you put them in a database and do a weekly email forever, it's game over.