Welcome to our monthly feature, Close-ing Time – in partnership with TheClose.com.
In this episode, Chris Linsell from TheClose.com talks about the benefits of attending in-person events for real estate agents. Chris also discusses the importance of local associations and how agent can utilize being part of these associations. Next, Chris talks about what agents can focus on when attending large conferences and how to benefit the most from them and also points out the most important conferences to participate. Finally, Chris talks about The Close Pro and what they offer to their subscribers.
If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!
Chris Linsell can be reached at chris@theclose.com.
Transcript
D.J. Paris 0:00
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Welcome to keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents and or real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris, I am your guide and host through the show and today is our monthly series called closing time with Chris Lin sell from the closed.com. Now this is a partnership between keeping it real and the clothes.com. And let me tell you about the clothes the clothes.com is the kind of real estate website designed to give agents teams and brokerages actionable strategic insight from industry professionals. They cover real estate marketing, lead gen technology and team building activities and strategies. From the perspective of working agents and brokers who want to take their business to the next level. Please visit the closed.com That’s th e c l o s e.com And subscribe to their newsletter to get notified every time they publish an article with us as always is crystallin Sal, he is a senior staff writer and real estate coach for the close. Now Chris is the closes resident expert on real estate topics ranging from marketing lead generation transactional best practices and everything in between. He’s a licensed agent in the state of Michigan. Chris has also been part of a hundreds of transactions from modest rural starter homes to massive waterside compounds. And when he isn’t writing, or working with his his buying and selling clients, you’ll find Chris fly fishing or performing on the stage of his community theaters production. Nick, Chris, welcome once again to keeping it real. We’re excited to have you.
Chris Linsell 2:21
DJ, great to be back. Happy Summer, everybody. We’re in it now. We’re innovating.
D.J. Paris 2:27
We are in it. It is 82 degrees here in Chicago today. I am very excited. I imagine it’s comparably warm up where you are.
Chris Linsell 2:35
Yeah, definitely. We’re pushing the 80s into the 90s next week, which kind of feels a little bit like whiplash since I honestly, this is not an exaggeration. I still have hat and gloves sitting on the table in the entryway of my house for my morning dog walks. So the fact that it could be 90 degrees next week, it is a little head spinning. But you know what? I’m not gonna I’m not complaining about it. We’re just gonna roll with it. Say thank you for the warm weather and the green leaves and be on our way there.
D.J. Paris 3:06
Well, my my dog just turned 13 and I were growing up. My mom always said get a small dog if you ever get a dog get a small dog. And I said why is that? She said because small poops. And what I was going to mention about your your early morning dog walk, which you have to do probably all year round, is I have a balcony on in my condo. And I just opened the door and there’s a dog bathroom with astroturf. And it goes into a little cup. And all I have to do every morning in my underwear is just push the door open slightly. And so I I have I do not have gloves and hat nearby. Because I just that’s about the only amount of exercise I have to do in the morning before I get ready for work. But I applaud you for continuing to do that all year round. I have an
Chris Linsell 3:55
easy Yeah, I gotta say this is probably the least I ever expected. Keeping a real podcast to turn towards as far as conversation topics go. So Dog
D.J. Paris 4:05
Dog bathroom, you really have to head with this one. Well, and if you’re watching us, which most of you are listening to us, but if you are watching us, you’ll see Chris and I are wearing almost the exact same shirt, certainly the same pattern. And so we look we look like look like we’re out of some sort of catalog. Well, anyway, so I Chris and I were talking before the show about what we wanted to discuss today. And Chris, I was asking Chris because he’s an actor. I was asking him about his his community theater. There’s communities sort of theater, whether they’ve started opening up and doing doing performances, and he was talking about how they’ve started to do that. And here in Chicago, the same thing and then Chris said, why don’t we talk about that lots of things are now opening up and in particular conferences that Realtors may be invited to whether it’s on the brokerage level, you know, your your firm, if you’ve been particularly if you work for one of the large franchise firms, or Nash General firms may or may not even franchise firms, but they tend to have in person conferences, annual events. I know that there’s, you know, other news outlets that that host events like Inman and we, of course have the National Association of Realtors, you know, conference that a lot of different realtors will attend. So, we’re starting to see these events. And I know you wanted to, you had some thoughts about whether this made sense for realtors to consider.
Chris Linsell 5:25
Yeah, definitely. So let’s, let’s, let’s just start off by saying that I’m gonna, I’m pretty bullish on events for real estate agents, I’ll just put it out there, I think that it’s easy for real estate professionals to get kind of stuck inside their own little circle of this is what I do. This is who I work with, this is my routine, this, this, this, this, this, it’s easy to kind of fall into a repetitive motion that I’m not not not gonna I mean, if it works for you, if you’re making money if you’re able to support yourself and the people that you care about, absolutely nothing wrong with that. But there is more to the real estate life than just the that circle that you travel in there and events, like conferences, you know, professional development events, you know, even the the kind of rah rah motivation events that big brokerages put on. These all can be valuable for agents if you are looking for the things that they’re offering. So I thought maybe we should chat a little bit about that since things are starting to get scheduled. Again, you know, we were on this hiatus this probably 18 1618 month hiatus of events being virtual and nothing wrong with virtual events. But it is a different experience than an in person events. And things are starting to open back up again, there’s a lot of events that are being scheduled, especially towards the the end of 2021. And agents are going to have some opportunities to attend stuff. So let’s see if there are some things that work for agents. And let’s get through that a little bit.
D.J. Paris 7:04
Yeah, I think maybe a good place to start. First is the local level. So everyone listening or almost everyone listening, I’m assuming as a member of a local realtor Association, I know that here in Chicago, we have five or six of them. So depending on the size of your market, you may just have one or they may be many, but odds are you belong to one of them. And probably for the last year, if you’ve been paying attention to whatever events they do host with respect to training or networking. Those events are sorry, more than a year, probably close to two years, like Chris said, have been those events have been virtual. And I know here for the Chicago Association, that and I help with one of the committee’s for what we call the Young Professionals Network. And by the way, for everyone listening, if you are a member of a local association, you should reach out to them to find out what events are happening. I know the Chicago Association, and I’m not trying to be critical, but they I would say could do a better job of explaining, you know, telling their members which we all pay, all of us who are members of an association pay up sizable amount of money to have you know, some have access to some of these events. And we forget or or maybe the association’s themselves aren’t doing a great job of promoting them. So I know that at least with our local association, we are starting to think about doing in person events again starting in the fall. And I suspect your local associations are doing the same. So great opportunity to get reconnected to your local association. Find out what events are happening. I know we have like a kickball event coming up, which which sounds sort of silly, but it’s actually our most popular event of the entire year. Because Realtors like to hang out and have fun.
Chris Linsell 8:47
Yeah, definitely, absolutely there is there’s absolutely a level of kind of professional connectedness that is a major component of these events. And starting on your local level is an important first step, I think because in the same way that we connect that the connections that we make, to our clients are often the most valuable when they are with the people that already know like and trust us. The connections that we make in our professional community are often most valuable when they are made or kind of reengaged with the people who are also working in our community that are going to have a direct effect or could have a direct effect on how successful our you know our careers. So think about it like this. If you are you’re considering a local event that you could go to there very well may be somebody there who you may have a five minute casual conversation with who is going to happen to mention because this is what real estate agents talk about when they get together. Hey, I haven’t have a listing coming up downtown. You know, it’s a four bedroom, three bath condo, I’ve never seen anything like it. But my seller is really anxious to get it on the market because they’ve got to be out of town by X, Y and Z, you may casually have the inside scoop on this once in a lifetime listing that you wouldn’t have if you weren’t standing at that event. Now, should you expect that? Probably not. But you can expect to make these connections and create some some networking that you might not have otherwise. And that’s in addition to the programming of the event itself, the kind of built in positive that the event itself is going to give you whether that’s professional development, whether that’s, you know, contributing to a good cause, whether there’s 100, different things that local events can do. But you have two levels of benefit here. And you know, if it works in your schedule, I always tell people that I’m working with consulting or coaching, local events are an opportunity for you not just to get plugged into your community, but to be a leader in your community, both professionally and otherwise.
D.J. Paris 11:05
Yeah, and I have a really specific practical reason why you may want to consider doing in person local events, meeting other realtors right now, if that’s being offered, or even if it’s only virtual, even still contributing there. Because especially if we’re working with buyers, right now, we know how difficult it is to get buyer offers notice. And I know if we just think sort of, from a human perspective, not an ethical perspective, and not in any way, talking about compliance or doing the right thing. But just as human beings, we know if we get 20 offers on a listing, and we recognize one of the one of the agents names that is going to stand out to us as i like i like that person, or maybe I don’t like that person. And when you engage in these in these local events with other real estate professionals, you can build those relationships. So maybe, maybe it just maybe gives you a slight edge, you know, when you’re working together in a cooperative situation. Now, maybe it doesn’t, and it certainly shouldn’t. But it may just help get your get your offers notice. So I’ve always thought you know, right now everyone’s saying, How do I get my buyer offers noticed? Well, you know, there’s an art and a science to that. But probably the best way is to build strong relationships with other realtors and attending local events is a really great way to do that.
Chris Linsell 12:30
Totally, totally. And you know, I think you’re right on the nose about wanting to make sure that we’re recognizing Where’s, you know, staying within ethical boundaries here. But I don’t think there’s anything out of line in just recognizing the fact that if I send an offer to you, and I follow that offer up with a text message, if my first name is in your phone, and you get that text message, you’re gonna be quicker to sit up and look at what I sent you. Versus if I send you a text message and it comes up as an unknown numbers. It’s just that that is just the reality of things. There’s nothing unethical about that. That is just an understanding of human behavior. So connect with the people that you’re working with. These are your competitors, but then also your colleagues too.
D.J. Paris 13:12
And what they might end up being is referral sources for you if you work in a particular area, and they in another and I you know, it’s funny, I was interviewing once a guy who serves on the Young Professionals Network board for our here at our local association, and I and I asked him, I said, boy, why did you decide to do that? He goes, Well, I really wanted to contribute. And he had all of these altruistic reasons, which is really the reason to get involved if you want to volunteer at the local level there. But he said, I have to tell you, the weirdest thing happened. He goes after volunteering for many years and being a leader in in this particular committee with his local association. He says, I guess people know who I am now. And he goes, I wasn’t my intention. Because I get so many referrals. I goes a third of my business are now referrals from other people who just happen to know me, because I’m at all these events. He goes, I didn’t eat, I would have never anticipated that that was not the reason why I got involved. But it just happened to be a nice sort of side side effect. And so another another good reason but But moving on from the local side. Let’s talk about some some of the more large event larger scale events.
Chris Linsell 14:23
Yeah, so there’s two things I’ll say here. It’s important for us to remember that real estate is this kind of tiered industry with levels of governance. So when it comes to your local level, you’ve got a local association that makes decisions on the ground level. More often than not, that local association belongs to your state association. So every single state in the United States has a a State Association of Realtors, like the Illinois Association of Realtors, the Michigan Association of Realtors, and these organizations have levels of governance through which you can participate. They have events through which you can utilize professional development and places that you can connect. So as an example, Michigan has a an annual conference, and expo every year, it’s in September rotates between a couple of major cities in the state of Michigan. And this conference is like a scaled up version of the sorts of events that your local local Association puts on and a scaled down version of the sorts of national events we’ll talk about in a second. So if you are not feeling like you want to take the plunge and jump into these major, you know, national or international events with 10s of 1000s of attendees, there’s definitely a state level that you can participate in that you can get some interesting professional development and enrichment on. And definitely you can connect with other professionals working in your state, just about every single state has their state level conventions, conferences and expos scheduled for the second half of this year. And I have noticed I’ve been doing some digging on this. Most of the conferences that I am seeing from the major states, as far as realtor population, most of them are live, and most of them are happening in that fourth quarter like September, October, November, December right around there. So you know, if you’re anxious to see what this is all about, you have an opportunity this year to attend an in person event, so you should definitely start checking it out.
D.J. Paris 16:40
And another good reason to consider the state events is that oftentimes, these are the people that are directly influencing our legislatures, legislators, with respect to things like rent control, or affordable housing, or just different laws that may impact home buying Home Selling realtor compliance, these are the people that are directly working at the state level to do that. And if you have very strong opinions about what you think the sort of housing compliance should look like, these are the people that that have the influence to and and they work for you. So you have the ability to to interact with them. In Illinois, rent control has been a big issue recently, and our state, our state realtor board has been very proactive in making sure that that the members know sort of how to get involved. And so by participating in these activities, I know our State Board even does trips down to Springfield, which is our capitol here in Illinois, where they actually visit with lawmakers and have conversations about hey, what do Realtors need? What do their clients need? And this is a way to directly influence that and also just building other relationships with realtors of other areas of the state, which again, maybe a referral source down the road to
Chris Linsell 18:05
definitely Yeah, absolutely. That’s that’s a topic that I think shouldn’t you’re right, that should not be taken lightly is the fact that not only do you have an opportunity for professional development and to enrich your personal career, but you have an opportunity at the state level events, to effect change on issues that are that are important to you. So don’t miss an opportunity to speak up, make your voice be heard, be a leader on issues that matter to you. You know, if we want to take this right back to the base level of business here. Being a leader on these sorts of issues, is an extraordinarily attractive thing. For people who are considering you as a real estate professional,
D.J. Paris 18:48
no question,
Chris Linsell 18:49
if you can add to the gravitas of your business by saying, you know, I take a leadership role in these these three issues. And I’m working actively with our state legislation to do X, Y, and Z. These are things that identify you, as somebody who is demonstrating activity, demonstrating knowledge and demonstrating success, the three pillars of real estate marketing, essentially, these are the things that are magnetic for your clients. So being active there, it’s not just an opportunity for you to get some good done, it’s also an opportunity for you to do well.
D.J. Paris 19:29
And also it allows you to market yourself in a way that isn’t all about you. And what I mean by that is, but really what Chris just said is is exactly the point I’m going to echo in just a slightly different way, which is to say that we know that Realtors self promote, right we see it all over social media print, we see it in billboards, we see it just everywhere. And we know that that that is very common. What is less common. Is a realtor being able to as Chris said, being able to say Oh, by the way, I hold these leadership positions, because it and what that does in the mind of the client, at least it would for me, if I was looking for a realtor, I would say, wow, this person is all in, in their career. And we know that not all realtors, you know, some, some realtors are part time, and that’s fine as well. But I wouldn’t be wanting a professional that is all in. And not only is that person fully in as a realtor, they’re doing something beyond their own needs, but be serving someone other than their own business. And I love hearing realtors that give back in some way. And I know that, as Chris said, very attractive, and it just makes stands, makes you stand out among the competition. And again, not the reason to get involved per se, but certainly a nice, nice benefit to be able to say, Hey, by the way, I’m so passionate about this, I actually, you know, serve on on these committees or boards. But getting involved at some of these events is really the first step meet some of these people see who you connect with. And, you know, it’s funny, I’ve never met somebody who’s gotten involved, who has then said, you know, that really wasn’t a good experience. You know, I just haven’t met that person yet. And I’m sure, you know, everyone could benefit from, you know, learning more at the local or the state level about what your associations can do. And just great, great fun in particular, as well.
Chris Linsell 21:26
100% 100%. So we’ve talked about what I would consider kind of the be the, the the plains and the foothills of real estate events, let’s talk about the mountains, which is the big events, the big ones. Now. The first one, we got to kind of try to get a call out here because it’s it is the it’s not just the elephant, it’s like the herd of elephants in the room here is the National Association of REALTORS annual conference. If you’re in the United States, this is the biggest real estate event of the year. happens once a year, it’s in usually in a big marquee city, you know, I’m really pleased to be able to say that I was offered a spot to speak at this year’s conference, which is happening in San Diego, second week of November this year. So please, if you are making your way to San Diego, we’d love to see you too. I don’t have specific times and dates as to when exactly I’ll be speaking but please keep an eye out for me. I would love to have you guys there. But this is just an example of one of the events that’s going on on a big national level where you’re getting a ton of people together to who are all passionate about the same thing. So a lot of realtors asked me when they’re talking about these big events like Okay, so why should I go to something like this? You know, real estate happens kind of belly to belly? How can I how can I get, you know value from something where I’m just another face in the crowd? And there’s a couple of things I tell people, the first thing is you have to appropriately set your expectations for events, what do you want to get out of an event? Something I suggest to people as far as the things that they’re looking for is you should be looking for sessions to listen to people who are thought leaders in the industry, who are speaking about topics that either a, you know nothing about, or you are already a leader in in your local community. And what you’re looking for here is to either round out your skill set, grow an area of your business where you don’t have a lot of reach, you don’t have a lot of strategy. Teach Yourself a skill so you can get better at it. Or behind sour though the flip side of that coin is go to a session that is about a topic where you are already you already have an advantage or a leader on because you’re looking to press that advantage. And most specifically here, like let’s say you are you crush Zillow leads in your local community. You need to find an expert on Zillow leads, get to their session and most importantly, hang around afterwards. So you can engage them in a one on one conversation. Get yourself a free coaching or consulting session with that person at the tail end of their session. That’s the sort of thing I charge hundreds of dollars an hour for. This is the sort of thing I give away for free at conferences. So go get belly to belly with somebody get that sort of one on one interaction, even though there’s 10s of 1000s of people at these sorts of things. You have an opportunity for one on one interaction with really specialized individuals.
D.J. Paris 24:43
Absolutely. And we should mention the gnar event is this November I think it’s the 12th through the 15th it is if you want to learn more about it it’s really easy website URL it’s conference dot realtor. So conference dot realtor Think Realty, the National Association I think owns that, that suffix. So they’re using it. Conference dot realtor. And you if you look through the conference schedule there, and Chris that is so first of all, congratulations. I know, I know, it’s not the first time you’re, you’re there. But um, congratulations on being a presenter this year. But there are literally hundreds, hundreds of sessions, certainly more than 100. And it is so impressive. So any skill that you want to develop, and you know, that is there, and nor is going to attract that top talent to teach these sessions. This is big to get you know, so this is why Chris and the close being invited to present there is such a big deal because they don’t, they don’t accept most most everyone gets in fact, I’ve even offered to speak there a couple of years about recruiting and I do not hear back. So maybe I could talk about podcasting or something. But but the point is, is there’s so many great sessions by literally the very best in the industry. And how often do you get access to those people? It’s basically you don’t, and this is an opportunity to do it.
Chris Linsell 26:11
Yeah. And that’s, that’s totally true. And DJ, I’ll just say they’re missing out if they’re not of your expertise, shame. Well, thank you. You know, the other thing I wanted to mention, too, is, you know, one of the things that I hear from real estate agents frequently, especially when they’re shopping for new tools, or technology, maybe they’re looking for a CRM, maybe they’re looking for a lead gen platform, one of the things I hear from agents on a regular basis is, you know, I feel like, I feel like I need to know more about this, I just don’t have the, they’re just the way that customer service is set up. I feel like I’m always being sold rather than being taught about this tool. Before I actually sign on for it. Well, conferences are a really interesting opportunity to flip the script here. And let me tell you what I mean, I spent a lot of time at these conferences on the expo floor, because one of my jobs with the close is as a technology analyst, it’s up to me to be up to snuff on all of the different tools, the different platforms, the different places that real estate agents go to, to, you know, build into their business. And so I talked to just about everyone on the floor, have these sorts of events. And conferences are a unique place for real estate agents to be able to literally get shoulder to shoulder with the customer service reps with the sales agents with the actual people who in some cases, founded and bone, the company’s like Zillow, Premier agent, like bold leads, like property base like sink, like I mean, I literally I can, I can name you a dozen different major real estate platforms that I’ve spoken to the CEO of at these conferences just standing at their booth. You can go to these expos. And you can get a hands on teach me, give me a tutorial, answer all of my questions, free session with these people, shoulder to shoulder, they will walk you through the clicks standing next to you and answer all your questions. And you’ll often get conferences specific special pricing just for going and showing up and talking to these people. So if you struggle with that sort of onboarding process, or you’re just not sure how it’s supposed to feel, or you’re just not comfortable with the way you get sold over the phone on the sorts of thing, go to a conference, these expos are jammed with people who want to tell you about their product, you’ll have a chance to try it out with them before making a decision. It really is a win win.
D.J. Paris 28:54
Yeah, I am such a big fan of the expo floor. Because even if you’re not there to purchase any new technology or new services that might impact your business, you might even just by walking around get a good idea. And you know, I will tell you that this podcast was not an original idea of mine. I was this is about 11 years ago, I believe. I was at a blog conference, I used to be a writer. This is prior to being in the real estate industry at all. I was I had a personal blog back when personal blogs were a lot more popular than they are today. And I was at a blog conference Writers Conference and we were talking and somebody was doing a podcast session and I said oh, that’s kind of interesting. And so I sat in on it and he was a this kind of I just think it’s kind of a funny story. He was a roof sale, a roofing shingles salesman, and he worked for a roofing shingle company and that he said, and he was presenting and he said this is the most boring topic that you could ever imagine that nobody would ever want to live Psalm two, nobody would choose this unless you were in the roofing business. Nobody would choose to listen to my roofing shingle podcast because nobody’s going to care about this. Unless, unless that’s your line of work. And he goes, and that’s exactly why I created one. And he created this podcast and he interviews different people in the roofing industry. And he said, You know, it’s never going to be as big as, you know, Joe Rogan’s podcast per se, but, but he has a nice niche. And anyway, I walked out of there thinking, Oh, that’s really, really interesting. And so this podcast was, was born many years later, from a reminder, a memory I had of sitting in there going, I could figure out some kind of podcast to do. And it was all because I went to a conference. And I will tell you that you know, in look, this is a very specific example. But there I mean, there are so many opportunities of a great ideas that are going to be shared at these conferences, like Inman, like the National Association of Realtors, that you really should consider attending. And I’ve always thought if you go and you get just one or two good actionable ideas, or maybe a relationship with another realtor, and you start referring business to one another, you know, it pays for itself, it gets you away from as Chris, you were saying, it gets agents away from their daily grind, which can be taxing and tiring, allows you to recharge, refresh, maybe step away from the craziness. And also not only improve your your your skills, your professional development skills, but also maybe find a new service provider for your business, find a new marketing, you know, angle, or just build some better relationships or more relationships with other realtors. And yeah, so I see it as a win all the way around.
Chris Linsell 31:51
Totally, totally. So if you are thinking about a conference or an event, here’s a couple that you should consider. The National Association of REALTORS annual conference is in since excuse me, it’s in San Diego this year. That’ll be a great one to attend. I if I were you, I would start thinking about your travels sooner than later. Hotels are expensive in San Diego right now. And it’s not going to get cheaper. I haven’t Imagine I have to imagine. You should also you know not to necessarily shout out one of my competitors here but they put on a good event you should consider one of the Inman events. I’m going to be attending the Inman Connect in Las Vegas. It’s in October this year. They always have lots of I mean really, you know, triple A, you know, high quality eight plus speakers, including major CEOs of huge real estate brokerages, lots of really interesting sessions you know like our Haytham, him and has a major presence in our industry, they put on a good event, and we had to close just want to you know, see what’s going on there and see what we can do to continue to up our game to so you should consider an Inman event. And you should also consider an event that is put on specifically by your brokerage, you know, Coldwell Banker has a big Gen blue event every year, I believe it’s in New York City this year, where you get together all of the agents in the years in your specific brokerage, from franchises from across the country and in some cases across the world. So a really cool event, an opportunity to you know, connect with folks in your industry and within your brokerage, learn some stuff you know, get motivated that sort of thing. Coldwell Banker century 21 Keller Williams exp, Exit Realty, all of these Better Homes and Gardens I kept the list goes on and on all of these companies have their own annual events, you should check it out. Even if it’s just once in your career, you got to go and see what it’s all about. See, if it’s something that matters to you and your business, there’s going to be some value for you there. Just got to figure out what it is and get the most out of it.
D.J. Paris 34:01
Yeah, and I think Chris said it best earlier by saying, you know, I really identify what I have found with conferences and I’ve been to many many conferences in many different industries over my career. And there were times where I would walk away disappointed there were times where I walked away feeling like I got so much incredible value. And I realized that the difference between the times I was disappointed and when I walked away feeling really good about spending my time and money at these conferences was setting the correct expectation and really going through and saying okay, why am I attending here? What do I hope to get out of it and be really honest with yourself because what you what you don’t want to happen is you know, you get to the end of the event it’s now Sunday you’re on your way home and go Well that was a waste of time and now I’m it was a waste of a weekend and now I’m you know behind on my clients. And if you can, what I encourage is look through the schedule of of sessions events, look at the expo As the expo participants, the companies that are going to be showcasing their products and services, and if you see anything in there that really attracts you to either learn a new skill or connect with maybe, you know, a type of agent that might be presenting or a company that might be presenting or showcasing a product, you know, I would say go, but but do your research ahead of time so that you know what you’re looking for. And you know that I always just say that because, again, I used to just go just to go and then I’d sometimes I’d walk away going well, what why did I go that wasn’t really a great use of my time. But the good news with these conferences that Chris mentioned, is they there’s so much amazing content there, it would be hard, you’d be hard pressed not to find something that’s of interest to you. But the good news is you can just go online and see all of the different sessions and see, I say if you could find three sessions that you want to attend, it’s probably worth going to
Chris Linsell 35:51
totally and just a reminder, all of these events, I mean, this is this is business travel. So while it’s not free, it is tax deductible, it is something that is a business expense for you. So, you know, I tell this to agents all the time, you need to be investing in your business, if you expect it to grow. And that includes in yourself to invest in your own personal growth, these sorts of events are great opportunities for them.
D.J. Paris 36:15
Yeah, and just a great way to to recharge and who doesn’t want to go to San Diego for the national convention where it’s, you know, 78 degrees and sunny every single day of the year. It’s just a perfect, perfect time to get away. Unless, of course, you already live in an area with great weather. But Chris and myself, we we have limited great weather. So we so I Chris, I think you’ve actually, it was funny, I was talking to Chris, before the show, I said I don’t think I’m gonna go to the National Association. And Chris actually just did the event this this November, I think Chris just talked me into it. Because this is how silly I am, oh, by we have a podcast too, I have a podcast, I should probably walk around and spread the word and talk to other vendors who may want to advertise on our show, or may want to find some great guests on our show from you know, top realtors, and, and so I should be there too. So Chris, you just talked me into it. I will now be booking my travel and my accommodations for the realtor event this November. So the national association rather. So definitely, I guess the point of this, this episode is just get involved, get involved at the local level at the state level if you’re so inclined. And then also the national levels really where the magic kind of the really cool stuff happens. And it’s only happens once a year with the National Association at least. Of course, there’s other conferences I’ve been to the admin I’ve been in before it is it is remarkable what they can do, what the speakers they bring in are great. And there’s, you know, lots of lots of great ones. And then of course, you know, if you are part of a larger national or international or real estate firm, like the ones you mentioned, or compasses is I think they have one as well. They all have these events. And you know, they’re they’re probably worth attending, or at least worth streaming virtually, if that’s all you can do. But anyway, I
Chris Linsell 38:10
find yourself in San Diego in November, my session is five bold predictions from the desk of a real estate technologists for 2022. We’re going to be making some predictions. Some of them are going to be provocative, some of them are going to be spicy, and you’re not going to know what they are unless you come. So come Come Are you with me about them afterwards. I would really like to hear from you.
D.J. Paris 38:31
Well, I think all of our all of our listeners and viewers should consider attending. And again, yes, it’s there’s an expense. Yes, it’s time away from the office and from your clients. But if you come back with just a couple of good ideas, or even just a better way to communicate with your clients, there’s communication strategies, I mean, imagine going and seeing Chris’s, you know, five bold predictions for the following year. And being able to incorporate that into your pitch when you’re talking to buyers and sellers. That seems like a really good idea. Right? So even just coming for that would be obviously great. So we encourage everyone to check out the National Association of REALTORS conferences this fall and also your local and status and also your brokerage conferences. It’s time to start doing stuff in person again, it feels good, it’s good for the it’s good for the soul, I think and and by the way you don’t I want to make this final point you do not have to be an extrovert to attend these events. These events, you know the population is such that a certain percentage of the population are extroverted, which you might think is the only type of people that attend these events. But that is just not the case. There are introverts there I used to go to a lot of writers conferences, and writers tend to be more introverted. The data suggests and we still had a great time and you don’t have to be a party animal who just wants to go and hang out and have drinks after after For words in the in the suites that that exist at these conferences. This is a place where introverts and extroverts alike can interact can mingle can get to know each other. And you know, there’s even if you’re somebody who doesn’t like to go at these events exhausts you, you should still consider attending and then just setting up, you know, some time where you can recharge, because I’m the same way when I go to these events, I get exhausted. And and I have to sometimes run up to my hotel room for an hour to take a nap.
Chris Linsell 40:30
Yeah, that’s true. Gotta pace yourself lot going on. But I’m telling you drinking from a firehose is worth it, because you’re gonna get a lot of good stuff.
D.J. Paris 40:38
Great. And Chris, we should probably I want to finish it. And we always I always forget to mention this. And it’s such an important thing. The clothes.com is such an incredible website, and you guys come on every month, the articles that their editors write, their contributors are so amazing, they really are some of the best content for realtors to learn how to better their business. It’s professional development stuff, it’s marketing, it’s just every part of the business that they think would be helpful to you to grow, not necessarily the sensational headlines of look at the cool gossip of the day with this particular company, which other news organizations in the real estate world focus on? The close is really unique here. And they really hyper focus, and they’re hyper vigilant in one thing, how can we help our readers become more successful, and 99% of their content is totally free, which is really super cool. They’re very unique organization. And we couldn’t be more honored to be affiliated with them. And to have Chris on every month, so everyone should absolutely go to the clothes.com on the regular, I always say, you know, subscribe to their newsletters. So you get emailed every time or if you’re an RSS feed reader like me, I don’t think people much do that anymore. Add them to your to your RSS feed, so you get notified. But Chris, let’s talk about the clothes Pro. We don’t talk about that enough, I think and that’s that’s sort of the paid model for the clothes which provides additional benefits.
Chris Linsell 42:08
Yeah, yeah, close Pro is your opportunity to really take your investment in your your business development to the next level. Like you said, close 99% about what we’ve got there is totally free articles like you know, the best free real estate CRM is the best website builders 10 safety practices to protect you and your brokerage, that sort of thing. You’re gonna find all that stuff on the close. But if you want to take it to the next level, you can get in on the close Pro. This is where we offer one on one and small group coaching every single week. Come get coached up by myself by another one of our coaches, Shawn motori, who’s a 25 years that Keller Williams franchise owner, really knowledgeable in the business. We’d run boot camps every single week, we offer specialized courses that our original to the close, you can’t find this anywhere else. We also offer a huge resource library that includes all of our past boot camps. It includes literally dozens and dozens and dozens of templates of checklists of strategy docs on things like lead gen on nurturing email templates, text templates, phone scripts, I mean, honestly, it just goes on and on. There’s so many resources there. And we’re adding to it every single week, to be part of the closed Pro, it’s 35 bucks a month. If you want to bill monthly, there’s no contract that you can just, you know, check it out for a month. See if that’s what you’re looking for $35 for the month, if you want to commit to the year, it works out to $25 a month. Really nice and easy option. And honestly, the annual cost of that is what one of these courses would cost you just wanted to buy it outright. So really affordable there. And we have like I said, we have a ton of interesting stuff happening every week, including boot camps. Now, also being offered from a couple of our rockstar contributors. We’ve got a boot camp with Beverly Ruffner whose nickname is the conversion Queen talking all about lead conversion strategies. That’s going to be kicking off next week. Super excited about that. That’s June 7 For anyone who’s listening afterwards. But if you if you come into close pro after that you can get the back sessions in the resource library and get yourself caught up. There’s just so much opportunity here to level up your real estate experience. We want you guys to be a part of it. 35 bucks a month for a monthly 25 bucks a month if you want to commit to the annual and can’t wait to see you there. I’ll talk to close pro members every single day and I want to talk to you guys.
D.J. Paris 44:49
Yeah, and guys, the easiest way to really get hooked in is just start checking out the clothes.com as often as possible, read some of their articles. You’re gonna get hooked you No, I will tell you that every tape our producer, I’ll pull back the curtain just just for a moment, then I’ll, we’ll we’ll end the episode because I know Chris has to has to go. But every day we go online and try to find articles written, specifically designed to help real estate agents grow their business, I will tell you that it is such a difficult task to find an article every day that actually has good content. We literally struggle with this every single day, except on the days where the close publishes a new article, because it is actually the only content that I know for sure, I don’t even have to read before promoting, because it is 100% going to be detailed. It’s not, you know, I just am so impressed by your writers. And I’m a writer, myself, and I will tell you, they have just incredible content. And it’s the best content I’ve seen from and I’m a marketer, as well, from a marketing perspective, or just professional development perspective, the closed.com is where you need to be reading, because you will just learn you will learn at least one good tactic or something that you wouldn’t learn elsewhere. You know, online, every time they publish an article, and they do deep dives, it’s not just, you know, here’s five ways to be safe at your next closing. And it’s, you know, the obvious ones that you already know, it’s going to be things that you hadn’t thought about. And that boy they are, they are, as I said, closing I met I met showing, hopefully you’d be safe at closing. But anyway, the point is, is they have great content, so please check them out the clothes.com Chris, thank you so much. Once again, for being on our show, we are so excited that you guys take time out of your busy day to, to come on once a month and share this, these these insights with our audience. So on behalf of the audience, we want to thank Chris for again coming on. He’s been with us for years and hope to be with us for years to come. And also please visit the clothes.com and subscribe, you know to either their just their newsletter or check out their pay model. It’s worth it and it’s month to month and it’s $35 Gosh, that’s a pretty reasonable price. I just paid $35 to test out a video that I’m going to be trying to recruit Realtors with I paid $35 for 110 second video, and that probably won’t even work that well. So I should have probably saved given that money to the close and I would have learned better strategy. So guys, go ahead and check it out the clothes.com Chris Thanks again and we will see everyone on the next episode.
Chris Linsell 47:26
Thanks guys. Have a good one.
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