Amy Corr the Executive Vice-President of Culture and Agent Development for @properties and Christie’s International Real Estate, talks about her journey and her experience from tech firm to getting a real estate agent license. Amy explains how important is to give so much love to clients and get to know them better. Next, Amy talks about her passion for coaching and an innate ability to push people to do their best. Last, Amy emphasizes the importance of being authentic towards others.
If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!
Amy Corr can be reached at 312.254.0200.
This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks.
Transcript
D.J. Paris 0:00
What do buyers and sellers really expect from their agent? We’re going to find out today. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. Their agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And now on to our show.
Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Parris. I’m your guide. I’m your host through this show. And in just a moment, we’re going to be speaking with Amy core. But before we get to Amy, just a couple of reminders, oh actually got an announcement. So we finally have an Instagram account, which sounds silly. Everybody has an Instagram account. But we actually created one very diligently and intentionally so that we could provide more content to you the listeners. So we have a team now that goes through our episodes and clips out the very best moments. And we post those video moments usually 30 to 60 seconds on the various social channels including Instagram. So we’re on Tik Tok, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, probably some other places. But anyway, please follow us on Instagram, which is at top agent interviews at top agent interviews every day, we’ll be serving you up a short form video with a tip from one of our great great guests. Please also tell a friend about our podcast keep us expanding by telling other realtors about keeping it real. So send them over to our website keeping it real pod.com Every episode we’ve ever done, we have almost 500 Now can all be streamed right from a browser window Okay guys, let’s get to the main event my conversation with the great Amy core
right today on the show we have aded core with AP properties in Chicago also Christie’s international real estate. Let me tell you more about AMI AMI core oversees the development and delivery of branded coaching, training and business planning solutions that help agents consistently and sustainably grow their business resulting in genuine agent satisfaction and a thriving brokerage culture. Amy’s curriculum tackles every stage of the agent lifecycle from broker fundamentals to leveling up to top producer status to building and running successful teams. Her programming is practical, engaging and actionable, based on 20 years of experience as a six as successful sorry about that successful agent of her own right and award winning managing broker. She was born and raised in San Francisco, Amy graduated from Santa Clara University lives in Wilmette, which is basically Chicago with her husband and her two daughters. Guys, this is a really special episode for me. I am very very honored to bring Amy on. If you’re if you’re not from the Chicagoland area most of our audience is not at properties started as an independent brokerage and has as quickly or over their lifecycle of their business has become one of the most successful brands for real estate in independent brands in the entire country. So this is really, really exciting. We’re huge fans about properties. Amy welcome. Oh, by the way, everyone go visit@properties.com at properties.com. Also, Amy does a show every week with Kevin Vanek and that is at on it. Follow her on Instagram at coffee with Amy and Kevin. So at Coffee with with Amy and Kevin, I will have links to all of these in the show notes. So you don’t have to write this down. Amy, welcome to the show.
Amy Corr 5:07
Oh, thank you so much for having me. Thank you for such a nice intro. You made me sound so good.
D.J. Paris 5:13
Well, you, you are incredibly impressive. And I am so so happy to chat with you today. So let’s I want to hear about you. I want to know your journey. So tell us how you started in real estate. How did you get involved?
Amy Corr 5:30
Yeah, no, that’s a great question. A lot of people usually start with how the heck did a California girl?
D.J. Paris 5:35
Yeah. How did you go from the west? How’d you not end up in the tech world?
Amy Corr 5:40
Yeah, well, I kind of started in the tech world. But yeah, so I actually moved from California out to Chicago, a couple years out of college. And I actually started in technology, I was moved out here by a tech firm and enjoyed it, you know, did technology for a while with a company called SSA. In fact, I looked them up to see if they still existed, they were just function bought by somebody else. So a while. But then I moved to a cool startup. And I think it was 98 or 99. And worked a ton in tech. And it was super interesting worked so many hours. But after about three years, I kind of was at this point where you know, I was getting old enough to think what the heck do I want to do with the rest of my life? And is this you know, is this what interests me? And I was I didn’t read the What color is your parachute? But it was definitely trying to figure that out. And my now husband, who was my boyfriend at the time, kind of just planted the seed. And he said, you know, you’ve always seemed like you kind of like real estate and you know, like looking at houses and I wasn’t I didn’t own anything at that point in time. And I thought, huh, that’s kind of interesting. So I explored it a little bit. Next thing you know, I enrolled at the place on Halsted Street in Chicago darkness was the gentleman who owned that company, the yellows, Hanson Yes. And really had some real estate. Yes, yes, yes. So I had no clue what I was doing, right. So I decided, Alright, I’m gonna go ahead. I still work full time. But I went, you know, in the evenings to study and get my license. And then I got, I got my license, I got licensed. And I just I actually, I don’t know if you know, Jan Smith, who owned J. Smith and Associates in Bucktown, she actually her old offices now are at properties Bucktown office, she was my first managing broker, I love her, I still see her often. And I just kind of hung my license with her because she was a friend of our family members. And I kind of didn’t even know what I was getting into. But I was sort of excited by the idea of I was working so many hours in technology. And what I remember hearing at the time, it was like 2002, and the market was moving was you know what, if you work really hard, you can be really successful, and you’re your own boss. And so I found that really interesting, because I was working so so hard to make somebody else a lot of money. And I loved my people and where I was at, but I just felt like you know what, if I’m going to do it, now’s the time, I don’t have kids, you know, I’m still single, why not make this change. So I jumped in and worked with Jan for a little bit and then moved over to a different brokerage firm. I worked with Suzy minor for about a year, which was great. That’s where I went met one of my very best friends who really kind of mentored me. And then she and I moved to add properties in 2002. No, sorry. 2004. So, you know, I’ve been with ad for a really long time, I was probably maybe agent 150 at the time. So think about how far I’m like blown away by how far we’ve come if you really think about it. I mean, I remember being in the basement of the Clyburn office selling real estate in the city, and now now look at us as a company, but it’s been a really phenomenal journey. I feel really fortunate and lucky that, you know, I’ve just sort of been given the opportunities that I have in in this industry because I’m just really passionate about it.
D.J. Paris 9:09
It’s an incredible story and I’m curious, so at properties has Gosh, I don’t know more than 3000 agents, I don’t know here in the local Chicago area, at least 3000 Probably more You’re certainly one of the biggest players and and yet you know, this sort of grassroots built business which you know, competes with Compass and and Coldwell Banker and at you know, and all buyer Baird and Warner and all of these other big players in the space and you guys came in like, it just sort of took over and what I what I see having what I saw have has happened in in here in Chicago is this the branding of ad properties is so immersive what it does. So App properties did something that I thought was brilliant, which, as a marketer, they basically said, what what is, and again, I don’t know, the conversations that led to this. So I’m just, I’m just pre presupposing. But they basically, you know, took one of the deepest, you know, experiences in human existence, which is love. And they said, We want to brand around love we want when people think about our brand, when they think about buying homes, when they think about our agents, when they think about our sort of processes, we want to be the happy, loving, fun sort of group. And they’ve they focused on the one word love, and that became your brand. And it just absolutely took off. And I’ve never, I’ve yet to see another brand in any industry, capitalize on love, and use it as their mascot as their bread and meat is literally your mascot. And it is such a strong message. Because of course, all of us have a connection to that word, you know, and we see it and you guys have it all over the city, you can’t go here in Chicago, you can’t go too far, in at least here within the city limits, without seeing the word love somewhere with the add properties kind of logo there. And they don’t even necessarily talk about real estate in most branding efforts. That’s what’s really cool. I love
Amy Corr 11:33
that that’s also intentional. You know, it’s also intentional. So I wasn’t in the room when it happened. But I was here when it did. And, you know, we were talking earlier about bad Wong, you know, I think one of the things that you you know, we have to incredibly credit him for is that, you know, he is the mastermind from the very beginning with so much of our branding and marketing strategy. Natasha, Pat Lowe, who’s, you know, our CMO now is incredible, and the two of them together, but he really drives that it’s, it’s what he loves to do. And, you know, all of our fun campaigns, if you’ve watched them throughout the years, you know, we don’t take ourselves too seriously, I think that is really sort of at the root of our culture is We laugh a lot. And, you know, we joke a lot, even in a lot of our management, you know, our different management meetings that we have, you know, we just really have an enjoyment of working together. And we really want that communicated out not just to our agents, but to the consumer. And, you know, because when we’re selling real estate, yes, it’s a transaction. But think about what is related to the home and what everybody thinks about homeownership and life. And so he was sitting down with Natasha, and he was like, I want to come up with a word that would just resonate with everybody something that everyone, you know, can relate to. And he ultimately, I think, even said, everything that’s, you know, something that everyone would love. And then he was like, Wait, that’s the word. Yeah. And, you know, we use our intention was, we’re going to use it as, you know, a campaign, we obviously aligned ourselves with Matthew Hoffman, who was the artist who actually designed the script for love, which we then you know, licensed and purchased through him. And we just started it as as something that we thought would be a cool campaign for, I don’t know if it was 2016 or 2017. And then it was just like, the response was crazy. So then we were like, Okay, why don’t we start taking this a little bit further. And we do a lot of the love magnets, people like to put those on their car. And I remember I was driving somewhere and I pulled up into to get gas somewhere in the in the suburbs. And I pulled in, and this guy pulls up next to me and kind of this kind of beat up car. And I’m like, Okay, I don’t know what he’s wanting for me. And he rolls down his window, because I’m pumping gas. And he was just like, where did you get that love magnet, I’ve been looking for one forever. And I was like, you know, buddy, today is your lucky day, I’m gonna give you my love could have mine. Yeah. And so it just became this thing that we realized, had this amazing experience, and it created this amazing emotion for people. So we have continued to use it, but we really try to use it in a way to that, you know, really pushes ahead of our brand. Like when COVID hit, we started doing signs that were Love is the unity in your community. And you know, it didn’t even have that properties on it, but it was like everybody just knew. And you sometimes I think when you lead with the right intention to focus on others, to give back to figure out how can we help other people instead of serving ourselves first, the universe opens up for you and I really do feel like that’s one of the things that I have learned and developed, you know, not just in my career but as a human working here at at you know, because we all work really hard but I think we’re always asking like, especially for our agents, what do they need from us right now? You know, how can we support them? You know, as independent contractors in you know, great markets, but also challenge In markets, and so, you know, the love is extended amongst one another, but then it you know, and it’s also a great branding opportunity for agents to use as they’re trying to connect with their clients, you know. And so it’s it’s kind of taken a life of its own. And so many of our affiliates, it’s one of the things that they really anchor to and have just really loved, loved having the opportunity to use in their own communities.
D.J. Paris 15:25
Yeah, I would love I would also love to talk about, sorry for the pardon the pun, would love to talk about teams, because I’m switching gears kind of abruptly only because, you know, this year with rates being where they are and inventory being less than what most markets would would prefer. We are now seeing a lot of agents moving around, right agents are starting to feel oh, maybe I’m if they’re on a team, maybe they’re not on the right team, maybe they’re a different brokerage, maybe there’s better options. And what what we’re seeing is this, this fractionalization of agents, the the the migration of agents who are sort of, on their own maybe thinking maybe I would be better in a collective, maybe I would be better in a group versus just me running everything myself. And at properties is obviously embraced. team mentality. There’s lots of teams that properties, lots of teams at many brokerages. I’m curious on what suggestions you might have to agents who are thinking about joining a team or creating a team?
Amy Corr 16:37
Ah, good, two very different kind of mindsets, very
D.J. Paris 16:40
different.
Amy Corr 16:41
You know, I think, I think it’s, you know, so first of all, I think that, you know, our industry, we are definitely seeing that the team model, you know, is definitely not going away. If anything else, I feel like it’s getting a lot stronger. And I think, you know, for a couple reasons, I think just the speed at which real estate is going now with technology, even if you think 2025 years ago, where we were just on the cusp of things being in the MLS, things being electronic. But I remember when I first started, I would still go and get signatures at night, right? Or the pace was just not quite as fast. And I feel like the consumer expectation was also not quite so high. I mean, think about what they expect now from print advertising to digital advertising to a full blown marketing strategy to where is the exposure, you know, there’s a lot of expectation. And so at some point, as a sole practitioner, you know, we can only handle so much, right, because we’re having to move so fast in order to compete with everybody else. So I think at some point, what I say to so many agents is that if you’re going to grow, there’s only one of you. So you have to figure out what is going to be your plan to scale. And you know, in some time, and what I oftentimes see is that they don’t always scale the right way. You know, I think it’s sometimes just getting bodies to help is the answer where, you know, we actually have a two day workshop that I built with a consultant that is a team’s workshop. And it’s for team leaders for them to really kind of understand like, Am I doing this the right way, because oftentimes, they just sort of develop the team, and have some people that are sort of all working together. But you know, no one has ever really evaluated, what’s the strategy behind this. And so what we really help a lot of team leaders take a look at and what I would encourage most team leaders to do is take a step back and see where your team is at. But what I would have them do is to almost take a sheet of paper and write down on one side, what are the things that I like to do most and I am most effective at? And then on the other side, what do I not like to do or what should I not be doing because it’s not the best use of my time. So many of the team leads that I see and consultant work with, you know, they’re great rainmakers, they’re great at bringing in the business reaching out to clients, they are phenomenal at that. What they aren’t always great at is managing the rest of their people, maybe creating structure for their people. And so what I find is they’re so busy out getting the business and fueling the pipeline. But then there are people who are feeling lost because that team lead just doesn’t have the time to help to develop them. Or what they also don’t always have is a good operations. Person operations are key, right? You’ve got the person that is out drumming up the business, but somebody has to be the backbone to make sure that business is being serviced correctly. And so, you know, I really encourage agents to take a step back and start looking at what roles do I need for the type of team that I’ve either midway built or really want to build. And sometimes what you can look at is some of your people, you’ve got really great talent, they’re just in the wrong spot. And so you know, we’ve we’ve got Um, lots of different, you know, ways for team leaders to really look at stuff. But I feel like sometimes they just sort of throw people into a group. And there isn’t really a strategy behind the growth. And so anybody who’s you know, has a team, I would really encourage that, you know, and I can dive into it for hours, but really just take a step back and understand at the end of the day, what do you want to be doing as a team lead? And what is your role going to be because you cannot be everything, and you need to figure out what roles need to be filled, you fill yours, and then you find great people to fill those other spots. And I will tell you, you will create some amazing synergy. So that’s really, I would say, for team leads for people who are thinking about being on a team, you have to ask yourself, you know, what is the reason for being on a team? Is it simply because I can’t figure out how to fish for myself. And I don’t like reaching out in prospecting. Before that is necessarily your only factor, I almost would even ask you, is this the right business for you? Right, because a big part of being in real estate, let’s face it, you’ve got to learn how to fish on your own. And I’m also a big believer of you cannot expect a team leader to just hand you leads, I think, the best run teams, it’s not that you won’t get them. But at the end of the day, that isn’t their sole responsibility. And that might be some team models of overflow. But my thought is, is that if that ever goes away, if that overflow or the Zillow leads, they purchase, if those dry up and suddenly the team is struggling, to me, it’s all hands on deck, and you better know how to fish. So the best teams I think are ones where team members come in and learn how to cultivate business from the best who is their team leader? And that team leader teaches them? And then I think, yes, definitely, there’s overflow. But you know, so I think when you’re a team member, or somebody who wants to go onto a team, I would ask those questions, I would you know, and if somebody just says, Hey, we’re gonna give you leads, that’s great in the short term, but if you’re in this business, for the long term, you’ve got to learn how to develop your own book of business, that’s your biggest safety net. Because at some point, if that team goes away, and you’re standing there and never develop the tools that it takes to be a great agent, you’re gonna be starting from the ground up again.
D.J. Paris 22:19
Yeah, I’ve, I’ve, I’ve had many, many people on the show over the years who have talked about purchasing leads versus handing leads out organically versus, you know, working referral based business. Of course, everybody who’s listening would love to have 100% of their business be referral based. And, of course, that is ultimately the goal, because it’s the most cost effective way to to run that, that this business. But it takes a tremendous amount of effort to get there. I but I also think it’s something we probably don’t talk about enough, which is raving fans, like how do how do you encourage your agents to because at properties here in the Chicago market is, if they’re not the highest producing real estate brokerage, they’re number two, they’re number one or number two. So you know, we have an opportunity here to talk to Amy and ask her what are you telling your your agents about? How to create raving fans?
Amy Corr 23:23
Yeah. I always tell people that you need to focus on the give. You know, I think as agents, you know, especially when we’re new in the business, and I was there, I still remember that panic attack of am I going to be cert able to survive and really grow a career. And there’s a lot of self doubt. I mean, we have all of these CEOs out there, right? They’re CEOs of their own business, but they sometimes barely believe in themselves. And so it’s, and I think for a lot of them, they feel like God, I have to go out and ask for business, I have to ask that question. Do you know anybody who’s looking to buy and sell? And so I actually remove that from the equation sort of all together? My big belief is, look, yeah, I mean, it’s, you know, focus on the person in front of you, and figure out what can I give to them today that’s going to change their life, you know, maybe even just a little bit, you know, and I play this fun game, we have a program called the road to Rolex, and we’ve got over 100 agents that are in the program for the year. And it’s an accountability program, and they’re in small groups of five, and they meet for the entire year. And I am coaching them, like I coach each of the groups kind of once a quarter. And so I was meeting with some of them. And I said, here’s what I want you to think about doing. I want you to like we have this amazing opportunity known as social media, Facebook, Instagram, we get to know more about the people that are in our sphere than ever before. Use it. Don’t use it in a bad way or feel like it’s self serving, but figure out what’s going to move the needle with people. You know, I had a great example I had an agent who had a somebody on Facebook who posted we’re going on Spring Break, and our, our dogs that are the place where we bring our dog, it’s full. Now we’re in a panic, we need somebody to come and you know, watch our dog for a week. So one of this agent who happened to know this woman who posted on Facebook, I said, Be the connector. Focus on the give this person needs something. Do you know anybody? She said, I actually have a girlfriend who does dog sitting part time. I said, Awesome. Or actually, she told me this scenario. So she said she connected and call the woman who does dog sitting and she said, Are you available the week of the 27th? How much do you charge? Can I get this person in contact with you? So sure enough, yep, it worked. She called this other person who posted on Facebook and said, Hey, I have somebody that can take care of your dog while you’re gone for the week. So the beauty of that situation, she just had the opportunity to make authentic contact with two people in her database. And all she did was focused on the give focus on how can I, you know, create an opportunity for others. And maybe she didn’t get a deal that day. But I’m telling you, if you do that all day long, that is going to change the trajectory of your business.
D.J. Paris 26:08
It’s that law of reciprocity thing, right? Like I do good for others, without the expectation of doing good to me. But people are pretty hard wired to want to return favors. So this idea of being real estate adjacent, I always I always like as this like, I’m going to be yes, I’m going to help you with your real estate transaction. That’s obviously the job of the realtor. But all the other stuff that exists all the ancillary, you know, things that come up, or, Hey, I need a pet sitter for my dog.
Amy Corr 26:47
And it’s all related to home. related. Yeah, well, I will say, sorry, no, I was just gonna say I always say to agents, it isn’t just the buy and sell. It’s everything in between, that in between is the secret sauce, if you take care of them in between those deals, like not only are they going to work with you again, but think about all the opportunity that that comes with that. And it’s you know, it’s taking the transaction out of it. It’s really focusing on the relationship piece. And, and yeah, it takes a little bit of lead time. You know, I think sometimes agents get a little antsy with it like, Well, nothing’s happening right now. It’s like, just continue the action, and it will happen, it just, you know, if you throw something out into the universe, at some point, it has to respond, you know, just sometimes as agents, we get impatient. So it’s just let it ride, keep doing it. And you’ll see the change. I’ve seen it in agents that I’ve coached over the years, you know, and some of the biggest agents that I’ve really seen and work with are the best connectors, I call them super connectors, you know, they’re the person that is called for everything. Do you have a guy for this? Do you have a girl for this? You know, who would you recommend in this situation, it’s like, Ah, you got to call Amy or you got to call DJ, because he knows everybody, right? That’s who you want to be. And then the rest takes care of itself.
D.J. Paris 28:02
You really want to bring people into your Echo system, you want to create your own echo system, so that a home buyer or seller or homeowner, or renter, anyone, whenever they have needs around, you know, home related items, that you become obviously the person that they that they go to. And therefore, it’s it’s sort of a simple but difficult thing, right? Like, so you have to, you have to It’s simple. It’s like push ups like good idea hard. So I so I think I think creating an echo system is really, really important, because what you’re really doing is you’re solving these micro problems along the way. And maybe they’re not like maybe they’re massive problems, but you’re solving problems outside of real estate outside of the transaction along the way. And that’s to me, I see that is really the job. The job is how do I solve problems in between transactions for or how to provide value slash solve problems? For for my, my sphere of influence? How do I do that, because if I do that, I can make a reasonable assumption that a vast majority of those people, if I’m consistently adding value to their lives, are going to feel and let’s just be honest, they’re going to feel that they owe you the opportunity to hire you for for a brokerage transaction. So for so I thought that that, you know, the the home selling process is is its own thing. And then but and we focus a lot on that because that’s what we’re in the middle of at any given moment when we’re dealing with a client. But if we can focus if we could really expand to focus on providing value outside of that transaction as much as possible. It’s actually number one. It’s really fun because you can you can, you know, accumulate and And, you know, start to put all of these different vendors and services together and start to create these these guides that you can then project out to, to your clients. But you can be reaching out to them consistently saying, what’s going on with your home, how’s everything going? Do you need anything? Like you can actually reach out to them not ask it like you were saying, not asking, Hey, are you thinking about buying or selling? But hey, how’s everything going with your home? Do you guys need anything, I’ve got the best plumbers, I’ve got the best, etc. I think that is so tremendously valuable. Because number one, every homeowner always has projects that are ongoing, right? Like, we all have ongoing projects, if you are a homeowner, there’s something that you’re like, I need to get to that one room and paint that one wall. And it’s not one thing. And everybody’s got that. So if I was an agent right now, I mean, I am an agent, but I’m not a practice. If I was a practicing agent today, what I might do if I was in between sales, I’m curious to get your thoughts on this, I might come up with my vendor list of all the people that I’ve worked with, and you know, different services related to home, you know, home stuff, and I would have that list. And I would be calling my friend saying, hey, just checking in. Are there any projects currently in your home that are unfinished? Or are you need to work on? Or? Or, or hey, also, if you want to meet to check the value of your home, I can do that, too. But I just wanted to see how everything’s going with the home just checking in on the home. How’s it going? You need anything I’m gonna accent? I mean, could you imagine nobody has ever made that call to me, by the way?
Amy Corr 31:41
That, here’s what I want you to, here’s what I want to identify. No one has ever made that call. So Kevin, and I just did a coffee last week. And the first thing on the coffee was pick up the phone. I’m telling you, if you were asking me which agent is going to win this year, is the one that picks up the phone and start, you know, face to face man to man voice to voice contact. You know, it’s the fastest way to get into a yes or a no. And we’re so afraid of no. But what if the answer is yes. And you’re missing all of those yeses. That’s what drives me crazy. And it’s funny because agents that I do coach, they get really nervous about the phone. And there’s a lot of them that do like they can talk to anybody until the cows come home. But the minute that they feel like oh my god, I’m calling somebody, and I’m interrupting them in particular.
D.J. Paris 32:27
Also, if they haven’t been following up with them, consistently, paths are like, Oh, I haven’t called that person in a year. It’s gonna feel weird. It’s good. Yep.
Amy Corr 32:36
Yeah, it’s like they would rather like rip off 10 band aids out there are as opposed to make that call, you know, but so it’s funny. So what I had encouraged a lot of agents to do is, you know, there’s those straight to voicemail apps fly dial. And so I said, You know what, let’s warm up with this. And so then they would push back with on me, and they would say, Yeah, but they know that I’m going straight to voicemail. So then I said, then just own it. Call them and say, Hey, Bob, you know what I wanted to give you a phone call. And I wanted to go straight to voicemail, because I know, oftentimes, you’re in the courthouse. But gosh, I would really love to connect with you and see how you and Susie are doing, how are things going with the house? Is there to your point, DJ, is there anything that you guys are thinking about during the spring? And can I provide any vendor recommendations? Give me a call back when you have a second, there is nothing that will ever replace the sound of my voice, the tone being inflection, my excitement and energy to be trying to connect with them again, I don’t care how hard you try how many exclamation points on text. You’re never gonna get it. And there’s so many agents who are so afraid to do it. It drives me crazy.
D.J. Paris 33:45
You are so right about the voice, straight to text voice, like the slide dial it straight to voicemail. You are so absolutely right. So I want to make this point because you just made it I want to I want to reiterate it and it’s a good one. People want to hear your voice. They also you if you want to do a straight to voicemail via sly dial or any of these other straight to voicemail services. And you might think oh gosh, like Amy said, Well, what if they know that I’m not actually calling them going straight to voicemail? Here’s how you would say it. And Amy just gave a great script there. What I would add to that, as well as saying, Hey, I didn’t want to bug you. I know you’re at work. I’m just shooting this right into your voicemail, but super excited to catch up with you. You know, bah bah, and then and so you don’t have to. I always say this about it’s kind of like the dating apps. I always say you don’t have to worry about being perceived as a creep. If you’re not a creep. Like if you’re not a creep, you don’t have to worry about it. So so if you’re going to someone’s voicemail, you don’t have to pretend that you’re not you can explain why you are doing that because you don’t want to bug them. Yeah. And by the way, most people aren’t going to answer the phone anyway. So you’re gonna get their voicemail
Amy Corr 34:54
to their voicemail right? And all of you out there you can thank us when you try this later today and you You get a client calling back? Who’s super excited to talk to you? Right?
D.J. Paris 35:04
But I mean, isn’t it really this idea of value? Right? Like, it’s I, I’ve done 500 of these episodes. And I would love to say that, that I’ve, you know, sort of extracted this this secret elixir of how to be a successful real estate agent over all these episodes. And it seems to be if somebody were to put me on stage and say, What did you learn from interviewing hundreds of top 1% agents in the country, I would say, they work really hard. And they’re constantly thinking about how they can add to their customers lives, like add some sort of value. And that’s pretty much it. Like, there’s a lot there. I mean, with those two things, that’s kind of everything. And it’s not easy, but it’s this consistently. Like, like, Amy, like, you were saying, How can I add value today? I mean, it can be as simple as, you know, if sometimes it’s funny, too, because people are like, Well, how do I how do I find more? Leads? How do I get more leads? It’s like, Well, okay, do you go to the grocery store? Yes. Okay. Do you run into people at the grocery store? Well, there’s people at the grocery store, I try
Amy Corr 36:13
not to, I hate when I hear them say I try not to Yeah,
D.J. Paris 36:17
right? Well, and I’m not saying you should talk to everyone at the grocery store. But I’m saying, if you can think about forget about leads, if you think about smiling at people or or acknowledging them, or complimenting them or saying something affirming, that is genuine, authentic, you know, something that moves you like I was, I was at a committee meeting with the Chicago Association of Realtors yesterday, and a friend of mine, or one of the people on my committee had purple hair. And I was like, I gotta remember to tell her I love that purple hair. If there’s always ways we can add value to people’s lives, and if we consistently do that, whether it’s a compliment, whether it’s being of service, whether it’s, you know, checking in on them, this is what wins the race. It’s always about effort. I think
Amy Corr 37:08
it’s effort, and it’s care. You know, I mean, and, you know, you had said there was, what you would say about agents is, you know, constantly providing value and working really hard. But I would also say, really being authentic, you know, I think as agents when you are looking at top producers, and I’m not saying you shouldn’t look at sort of your real estate heroes, or you see a top producer, you know, in your office and you say Dang it, you know, I really want to be like so and so, yes, there are certain things about that person that you’re attracted to. But don’t lose yourself. Because the thing is, is that and this is what I also say to agents is, look, you have a great engine behind you with App properties, Christie’s international real estate, you know, we’ve got a lot of stuff that you are able to go into a listing presentation, or sit down with a buyer and feel super confident. But here’s what I want you to work on. Who are you? And why are you bringing them the value? Because the thing is, is that they’re going to pick you because of you probably not much of anything else. Yes, you’ve got all of this other great stuff, which is going to add to that confidence. And you know, I think what I love the most in coaching, is when I get to that point where I can work with an agent, and I help them find themselves. You know, not everybody can just pick up the phone and be super confident and be able to say certain things doesn’t mean you’re not going to be successful, or does it mean that you don’t have to start slow start with a sly dial and be as nervous as all get out? It’s okay, it gets
D.J. Paris 38:34
okay. It’s okay to be where you are. So in other words, if you are scared, if you if you’re messing up. I mean, look, you know the the reality of it, is it. The phrase that I’ve hated my entire professional career career has been the fake it till you make it. I don’t like that phrase. Because it implies that we’re going to pretend that we have competence when we do not. I think I think it’s way better to acknowledge insecurity fear. I think people relate to that I think people now ultimately we want to develop skill and we wanted to, you know, hone those skills and develop those. But I think the being authentic, if I could make any sort of suggestion to our audience, whatever you’re into, I don’t care what it is, whatever you’re passionate about outside of real estate, somehow figure out a way to incorporate that into your real estate practice. If you’re into horses, if you’re if you’re into racing cars, whatever it might be your dogs,
Amy Corr 39:41
whatever it is, yeah, kids. Yep.
D.J. Paris 39:45
Yeah, bring that figure out a way to put that into your bring that into your business and you will attract other people who of course, also have those interests, but also people we we demand authentic. The city from our from our service providers, we want to know what you are like, we want to know what you do at home you don’t, you can set boundaries around what you’re willing to share. Privacy, of course, is important. But you know, we want to know who you are as a human being. And thankfully, we have technology that allows us to share those things. But people want to know who they are working with. They don’t, the skill is important, of course, but also the human side of it, who are you as a human being, and if you can demonstrate that, along the way of also providing value as as you continue to work with your clients, you’re just going to have a massive success.
Amy Corr 40:41
Yeah, I think especially just because, you know, we are in an industry that is so personal for our clients, you know, I mean, there is personality related to, you know, the selling of a property, you know, when we go in, and we are evaluating their house and giving them a price, there’s a lot of sensitivity to that, because there’s a lot of pride, and when, you know, when the price isn’t maybe what they expected it to be, you know, it’s a personal thing for them, right, because they believe, you know, gosh, but this was so special to me, I don’t see why everybody else can see it. So, you know, I say a lot that I think one of the biggest things for you know, being in real estate is that high emotional component, and really being able to lean in and understand you know, who these people are, because it is personal under, unlike other industries, and so, you know, back to your point, DJ, you know, the more authentic you can be, and the more that they can, you know, you don’t want to show them all of your flaws, but like when they’re feeling a little imperfect, if they’re feeling like, Ah, okay, I’m seeing the human side of this person, I feel more comfortable sharing my imperfections, or some of the things we’re worried about, because they have to open up about a lot. And you know, so I think as agents, again, you know, it’s, the more you are you, you are going to attract the people that are like you and you’re going to actually enjoy working with them more instead of working with people that are constantly pushing back on you or not believing you know what you’re saying. But it kind of starts with us figuring out who we are. And I remind my agents all the time you are CEO, you get to pick out all this stuff, you get to decide, you know, what you want to wear, who you want to focus on how you want to prospect, you know, you get to pick out the how, but you still have to do, and you know, and sometimes it takes a little while, you know, and what we were saying before, you’re gonna screw up, you’re gonna feel stupid, you’re gonna get nervous. But you know, I was talking to an agent earlier this morning, who just got her first eluxury opportunity. And she was like, I was so nervous, I’d wear all black because I felt like I was sweating everywhere. And she said, but what I told myself, is that this is a growth moment. I am growing, as I’m sitting here as terrified. And I said, Yes, you are.
D.J. Paris 42:54
Well, that’s true. Both things can be true, I am scared, and I’m excited. And both of those things can be be present at the same time. Yeah, I think I think it is so much about going all the way back to giving right we can always come back to value, like how do we improve people’s lives, right, we’re going to help them buy a home, we’re gonna help them sell a home, we’re gonna help them rent a home, we’re also going to allow them to, to come to us when they need, you know, things, fix things, things move. And, and we’re going to let them in on our how we how we cope with the ups and downs of, you know, a real estate transaction, for example. So I think the emotional sort of component or the emotional maturity of of, of an agent is really important to be able to anticipate the emotional reaction of like disappointment in advance. So I think really good agents. I’m curious to get your thoughts on this. No, okay, I’m about to deliver some rough news. Because we know that at any part, at some point in every transaction, there’s bad news, every transaction, there’s one at least one piece of bad news. So this is something we get to practice a lot. So the my point, what I’m trying to get to is, if you can identify, Okay, I know what the experience is. Or I’m going to ask other agents who have been through this kind of thing. What’s a typical client reaction to you know, not getting a home or having an offer come in goofy or whatever, whatever the the bad news is, being able to, to predict that that may be happening really makes because because I like I bought a home a few years ago, was not my first purchase. And I had forgotten because it had been a few several years.
Amy Corr 44:49
You forgot the pain.
D.J. Paris 44:53
And it was a really pretty easy transaction. And I was like, it was so stressful. And I was I was thinking god, I forgot I forgot how stressful this is. I mean, I’m not practicing agents. So I don’t know what a lot of our agents know. But boy, I really needed somebody to like, kind of give me a hug at certain times during a metaphorical hug, I guess. But, but the point is, is I think agents, it’s such, it’s, you know, we’re talking about a huge financial, you know, huge financial decisions here with respect to home ownership could be the largest financial purchase, possibly in you know, in the family. But understanding what the emotions are that are at stake, and understanding how to cope with those ups and downs, I think really separates the wheat from the chaff with respect to top producers.
Amy Corr 45:45
I agree. And I think what I would also say is, and this is something that I feel like I had on sort of my own journey of growth in my professional career, is I sort of felt like God, I’m supposed to just know how to do all of this stuff, if I’m gonna be really good. And you know, what I really learned is, you know, you’ve got to continue developing your craft, and you know, you don’t come out of the gate brand new knowing how to really be really solid when it comes to the emotional piece to your point, TJ, people may not necessarily know like, how do I respond or what should I anticipate, but you know, continuing to learn, read books, get mentored by other agents, but then also, it’s just you kind of have to go through enough transactions to then know, I know what’s going to happen this time. But one of the people that I really love is, it’s Chris Voss right with a V. The FBI hostage investing, hostage negotiator negotiator read is, yeah, so read his book. And we actually did kind of a workshop, Kevin and I were, we took some of his top tips, and kind of tried to apply them specifically to real estate situations, and sort of like how to use his scripting, because we aren’t saving a life. But sometimes we are saving a house, right. And one of the ones that I love to your point DJ was, I think it was called the accusation audit. And you know, where it kind of was like, Look, DJ, I know you’re not gonna love me, and you’re gonna be really upset when you hear this news. You know, it’s sort of where you put that into their psyche, where you’re already setting them up for a level of disappointment, or they’re already thinking, Well, I can’t be that disappointed at you. Right? So you kind of you but that was a technique that I probably used at certain points without even knowing it. But once I learned that, I thought, oh, my gosh, I use it on my kids. I wish I could use it on my dogs. I use it on my husband, you know what I mean? But suddenly, it was like, this is a communication technique that I can use that allows me to get the person on the other side prepared for something so bad so that when I deliver the actual news, it doesn’t feel quite as awful. Right. And he has a lot of interesting techniques.
D.J. Paris 47:48
Yeah, Chris Voss This is the never split the difference author, famous FBI hostage negotiator, guy, definitely read this book. But But this, this is what we’re talking about emotional, sort of competence, I would say or emotional coping competence, like real estate agents, you know, if anything, yes, they’re going to sharpen their skills with respect to, you know, market related data, right? They’re going to know, hopefully, they’re going to know, their, their, their numbers, but also knowing sort of the touch points of the clients understanding sort of, what are the motivations? What are the emotions, what are the personality types, and trying to cope ahead, I like the word cope ahead, say, Okay, tomorrow, I have to deliver some bad news to so and, you know, ex client, and like Amy said, I’m gonna maybe I’ll use one of the techniques to sort of maybe soften the blow a little bit. But I also, you know, you can cope ahead and start to think about how might that feel to somebody, okay, they’re gonna, they’re they lost, they lost the deal. Okay, how might that feel them, they’re gonna feel probably pretty defeated, they’re going to feel sad, they’re going to feel maybe angry. Maybe they’ll blame me. You know, you sort of need to go through all of these different instances in your mind and put yourself in their position and say, Okay, let’s let’s cope for all of these. Let’s cope ahead for all of these different inevitabilities. We don’t know which, which one’s going to actually turn out, but I’m going to prepare ahead so that when they respond with whatever their emotional responses, which is going to be probably severe, I am going to have a Don’t worry, it’s okay. Because x and that that I think is is really the key because I know if and as a homebuyer, myself, and home seller, I’ve done that several times. I just all all I ever want in a transaction. So think of me as more of like a lay person. I just want somebody to go it’s all going to be okay. That’s all I ever really want somebody to say somebody who I trust
Amy Corr 49:53
that and then here’s what we’re going to do next. Exactly, no, it’s going to be okay. And then they’re the ones that are going to move have the ball down the field. And that’s what we have to do as agents, we say it’s okay. But here’s the plan. And I loved your idea of as an agent, kind of taking in the shock of the bad news first, because let’s face it, there is an emotional component that we go through, we get so tight and close to these clients of ours, and their loss, let’s face it is our loss, it’s you know, the better the agents, sometimes, the more emotional or, you know, the harder we can take it, but the best agents understand that take the emotion in, allow themselves to be sad, be frustrated, be all the things that you need to be, allow it to pass, and then recognize I have to be the one that can go in with, we got this attitude, there’s something else for us out there. And you know, be able to remove the emotion to allow the clients to have as much emotion as needed. And I think that’s important, because sometimes an agent will get the bad news, and doesn’t take that time to process it and get to where they need to. And they’ll call the client too fast. And then everybody’s emotional, right? And then no one’s helping anyone. So you know, and I think that is practice, right? I think there’s a million times probably early on, that I was super emotional and called the client right away. Oh, that didn’t go so well. So, you know, it’s a lot of this. And what I also say, to so many agents is, you can be a serial student, though, too, you can read books, you can, we have a lot of classes, we’ve got a lot of programs that you can be in, at some point, you got to jump off the diving board straight into the deep end. And you got to just start, you know, working and trying to figure it out and make a ton of mistakes. And, look, we’ve also arrived DJ, you’re sitting here, I’m sitting here, how many times have we blown it?
D.J. Paris 51:45
Probably, like five times today, even I’ve blown it many, many times. Today, it’s a it’s a matter of effort, and, and discipline and, and discipline, I don’t want to say discipline, that’s a word. Nobody likes a habits, habits, let’s let’s build good habits. Discipline is a word that we should probably just get do away with
Amy Corr 52:07
ourselves some grace, you know, the other thing that I see so much with agents is, we’re so hard on ourselves, you know, I was in this group earlier. And this agent was just sort of not beating up on himself a little bit, but he just was just talking about his lack of confidence. And it was so great, because we have these accountability groups that meet every other week, it’s five of them. And, and two of his other team members were like, Robert, you are like amazing, because he was talking about reaching out to an agent in his community that I think is retiring from the business, and a mutual friend of theirs had said you guys should meet because maybe you’d be a great agent to take his business over. And so this guy, Robert was like, Oh, I don’t know, like, what if I’m not a good enough agent, or I’m not the personality type that he would want. And somebody from his group said, Robert, you know what, instead of you thinking that he may be your lucky star, you might be his don’t cut yourself, you know, so you know, you need to cut yourself some more slack, you are amazing. And so I just I see that so often amongst our agents. And, you know, I think one of the things that is also really important, you know, this is a lonely business, as a real estate agent, you know, we can come into the office, and we all sit around the watercooler and talk about our clients. But a lot of times we go back, and we’re really the ones dealing with a lot of these people’s situations. And that’s really hard. And so, you know, on our end of things, when we really try to support from management standpoint, is really being able to see the agent as the individual, you know, how are things going how’s work, how’s life, you know, that means so much for an agent to feel like they are really seen, you know, and it’s just to never underestimate that, because, you know, you’d be surprised some of the agents out there the things that they’re have going on, and how they are still able to carry themselves with such grace, running businesses, you know, and are all CEOs having to support themselves. It’s just, you know, it’s just amazing. So I just think for so many agents that are out there, you’re all rockstars and just recognize, you know, what you do is incredible and just believe in yourself because I don’t I don’t think agents always hear that enough. They should hear it from themselves, but they don’t.
D.J. Paris 54:17
Yeah, and they should, you should be in community, find your community. Even though you may be an individual producer and you’re producing big big numbers, find your tribe find people that can help support you, whether it whether it’s your your brokerage, or whether it’s just a community of other agents. You know, we are in a sort of communal kind of business, it’s I mean, it’s cooperative for sure. And or at least it’s supposed to be and so this this is an opportunity you know, you even though you might be working remotely, which pretty much everyone is these days you know, you don’t have to not be you don’t have to be apart from from people. So right This idea of you know, get support get an app properties does a great job of this. So we should really talk about, you know, if anyone out there is an A, you guys are not just in the Chicagoland area anymore. You’re kind of all over. Let’s talk about that. So if agents are wanting a different experience, maybe they’re not getting a certain amount of of support or training or resources at their current brokerage, and maybe thinking about switching, looking to see what other options exist. This is the year we’ve seen a lot of movement. How should agents start to explore Christie’s at properties?
Amy Corr 55:36
Yeah, absolutely. So obviously, locally, we’re at properties, Christie’s international real estate, and around Chicagoland, Wisconsin and Michigan, but we do have affiliates. You know, we’ve got properties in Indianapolis at properties in Dallas, we’ve got an amazing affiliate in Detroit, up in Wisconsin, we’ve got an amazing affiliate in Madison, in the Madison area. And then now the cool thing is we’ve got some really great agents just across the country, Christie’s Cirino, out in California, down to John our woods in Naples, we’ve got a lot of really great people and, and really what’s happening, and what I’m enjoying so much is what we have built as a culture and an opportunity to, to train and develop agents, we are really figuring out how to take that and expand that out into our affiliate network. So a lot of the programming that we do a lot of the support that we try to give to our agents, from accountability to you know, how to develop a great listing presentation, you know, we’ve got a really comprehensive approach to training and our technology, you know, platform has been really phenomenal to support the back end of our agents. So I would just say, if anybody is interested, it’s easy to find me on social media or, you know, you can email me but, you know, we’re, we really feel like, it’s also the idea that attraction, you know, I, I don’t recruit as actively anymore. But when I did, you know, I would always say, this is about you finding a great fit, but it’s also about us finding a great fit, right, it should really feel like a partnership. And I also feel like it isn’t so much as hiring agents, but it’s really them deciding who do they want to hire to help them run their business? And how can we be that little engine pack behind them, just to really make sure that they can take off. And, you know, I feel just so fortunate because I think, you know, culture for us has always been a really big thing. And DJ, you said this earlier, we kind of just, you know, we’re growing and did a lot of things. And I think one of it is like we really just focused on not so much what everybody else was doing. We really just took a look at like, you know, what should we be focusing on as a company? And you know, the question that we always have is, are we doing it good enough? Or can we be doing it better? And are agents feeling supported? Or can we be doing better? And, you know, and so we really kind of just came from that vein and, and I think the funniest is we’ve just never taken ourselves, you know, we are very serious about creating successful agents. But we also have a lot of fun. And, you know, I think sometimes that goes out of people’s lives too fast when it comes to work. And I think it’s finding the fun again, even though the market has its challenges. There’s so much opportunity out there and sometimes when we let ourselves go to have a little fun, it’s amazing how the universe will open up for us, you know,
D.J. Paris 58:20
a great, perfect, perfect way to wrap up the show. Amy, thank you so so much. Yes, go out. Have fun. Oh, I am so happy to I hope to have you on in the future as well. When everyone who’s listening who has made it this far to please please subscribe to Coffee with cat with Amy and Kevin’s you can find that on Instagram and YouTube should they do a weekly show talk about the sort of state of the market what you can do to keep your business moving forward at coffee with Amy and Kevin. We will have links to that in the show notes. If you are in any of the markets that Amy mentioned, you’re interested in exploring other brokerages at properties Christie’s international would love to talk to you. So please check them out@properties.com at properties.com. And, and behalf of our audience want to thank Amy for her time today. She is a busy, busy woman. And she was kind enough to be on our show. So thank you on behalf of the audience Amy. And on behalf of Amy and myself who want to thank our audience for continuing to support our show. Please tell a friend to think of one other realtor that could benefit from hearing this, this conversation with Amy and send them a link to this episode. The best way you can do that send them over to our website keeping it real pod.com is where all of our episodes live. Also on every podcast directory out there, just search keeping it real hit that speciated Amy thank you so so much. I had a great time with you. Excited to to have you on in the future because I want to talk to you about more more things related to how to be how to become a success. on real estate So, Amy, thank you. We will see everybody on the next episode.
Amy Corr 1:00:05
Hi everybody.
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