Welcome to the February edition of Coaching Moments with
Ryan D’Aprile!
In this episode Ryan spends a full hour on lead generation – the most important component of a broker’s business. Ryan spends time on the difference between lead gen and marketing, and gives the exact strategies his teaches his brokers on how to add more contacts to one’s database and how to stay in touch over time. Also, Ryan reveals that in every broker’s contact list, there are a minimum of 32-64 transactions per year (and how to capture those deals)!
Ryan D’Aprile can be reached at 312.492.7900 and execassistant@daprileproperties.com.
Transcript
D.J. Paris 0:14
Hello and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the only podcast made by Chicago real estate brokers for Chicago real estate brokers except I’m going to change that and say it is made by Chicago real estate brokers, but it’s for brokers all over the country. We do have listeners everywhere. So I’m going to teach myself not to say should just for Chicago brokers. Anyway, today is our monthly episode with Ryan Day, April. And this is called coaching moments. And Ryan is with us if you don’t know Ryan, you should, because not only is he the owner and operator and head coach of the April properties, they have 13 offices all throughout Chicago and the suburbs. He has hundreds of Realtors, lots of top 1% producers, and Ryan spends pretty much all of his time coaching and developing the careers of his realtor. So we’re so honored to have him on the show. He’s a legend in the Chicago market. And we’re really honored to have him today. So Ryan, welcome once again.
Ryan D’Aprile 1:10
Thanks, CJ, it’s good to be here. Oh,
D.J. Paris 1:12
let’s plug your let’s plug your company’s website. It’s deep, real deep, real properties.com. That’s it? All right, great. And if you’re a realtor out there and you want to study or interested in maybe joining Ryan’s team, go to do properties.com. And you can contact them and you can find an office near you and and schedule a phone call or consultation. Or if also if you’re a buyer seller or renter investor that’s interested in working with with one of Ryan’s brokers, you can do that there as well. So anyway, I’ll turn it over to Ryan.
Ryan D’Aprile 1:43
All right. Thanks, DJ. Well, thanks for having me appreciate I’m really looking forward to our our monthly meetings. And these are coaching moments that we’re doing. So let’s talk about what we want to cover today. And last month, we covered a morning routine, right? So what I’m going to do today is go over what I review with our agents and what we call our coaching one session. And so I have coaching session one at coaching session two and then we have workshops. And in summary what coaching session one is about it’s it’s kind of it’s like the game of real estate and life in general that we’re going to reveal and so workshop is we’re we’re sleeves are rolled up and we’re doing work. This is more instructive. And just showing everybody like let’s relate it to a board game Monopoly it could real estate board game. And so what we’re gonna do is we’re not going to play the game a nap and Napoli today we’re going to talk about it, we’re going to lay out the board or and show you the pieces, right, here’s go and pass, go collect 200. Here’s boardwalk, that’s a good one to own. And here’s JL and we’re gonna talk about all the different products of real estate. And we’re talking about mindset and attitude. We’re gonna talk about systems. And we’re gonna talk about skill set, and how it all comes into play. And basically give somebody like, you know, a 60,000 foot near view of the game of real estate and how to play that. How’s that sound?
D.J. Paris 3:06
Perfect, I love it.
Ryan D’Aprile 3:09
So let’s go over a couple of principles that so many famous authors and, and economists and gurus have told us over and over again, EMF, Michael Gerber’s, book eater, classic, classic, right 80% of small businesses fail within the first five years, and 20% stay open after five years. And I think he goes on to say, of the 20% that stay open, 50% of them should have shut their doors, right, working longer hours making less money than if they actually just had a job with the weekends off. And so the book talks about systems, and we’ll talk about systems. And what we’re going to do though, is we’re going to talk about the two different types of businesses, the ones that thrive and the ones that die or struggle. And the difference between the two of them. What do you think that get what would your guests be? DJ, the difference between those two types of businesses, the ones that thrive, versus the ones that die and fade away?
D.J. Paris 4:09
Well, I would think that the ones that thrive, figure out how to scale so they have systems in place that allow them to grow. As as new business comes in that
Ryan D’Aprile 4:20
scale, and systems systems are important, because then essentially, your company begins to work for you instead of you working for it. Right. Now, I grew up in a small entrepreneurial family and my father was, you know, an entrepreneur and he worked so hard for my mom and my four brothers. But my father always worked for his business, his business never worked for him. And he provided me a great example when I started reading E Myth to think about how important is to create systems and to scale and by the way, my father was one of my idols and most favorite people in the world. So that wasn’t like an underhand sleight against my father. It’s just that, you know, we all have to educate and learn Ernie and in, you know, you learn from people from what they did well, and what they didn’t do well, and my dad having small auto parts stores throughout the Southside Chicago, and how much he worked when it became an adult, and then I became an entrepreneur, I realized how important systems and scalability is. And so, yeah, so systems is is one of them. Another thing is our skill set. Right? You and your team work on skill set training, and a consistent basis, right?
D.J. Paris 5:28
Absolutely. And I’m just going to go back to scalability for just a moment, I just want to make this point, because it comes up in every single interview we do on this podcast, were usually the broker who is now a top 1%, producer and as a big superstar at some point in their career, or even they might be at this currently when we interview them, but they’ve all either are going through it or have been through it to get to a place and it seems to be around the 12 million to $20 million production number, which is a huge number. And where they start to go, Oh, my God, I’m working 120 hours a week, and they have to figure out a different solution. So sometimes it’s by necessity.
Ryan D’Aprile 6:07
It is and then it’s also now this could digress, I won’t go too down this path short, regarding that what you’re talking about, it’s also understanding your why. Right? Willing, and so some people when they come to those forks in the row, some of them go and grow teams, because that’s, you know, what a lot of people do, and that’s what some stop the Analyze, and they start with why first a great book by Simon Sinek. And you have to ask yourself, why are you doing what you’re doing? And a lot of times we forget that. And sometimes we go down these paths of starting these teams where some people make sense, but a lot of people doesn’t make sense. And there’s a point of diminishing returns. And so I could talk forever about that. But yes, you’re right. I mean, they get to a certain point. And then you have to ask yourself, What’s the system? What’s the scalability? What do I want to scale it to? And then where’s my point of diminishing return? Like, where’s my sweet spot? And maybe it’s right there. Or maybe I keep going, I keep going, it depends on who you are. And it’s really important to know who you’re, you know, it’s boring to know yourself, and what you’re setting out to do and understanding that your y will change, you know, from year to year, if not week to week at times, for sure. So yeah, so So skill sets important, right? And has real estate agents or mortgage lenders, or insurance salespeople, or doctors or dentists, or professional athletes, we should be going in and working on our skill set to perfect our craft, right every single day, every single day. And then another thing is internal versus external. And what I mean by internal versus external, is, let’s talk about shifts in market for a quick moment. Okay. Sure. I don’t know what the year was, was before I was in real estate, I think it might have been 1997 1998. We went from we say we that was a real estate agent then. But they went from the books to the MLS service, right, it was a shift in the marketplace because of technology. You know, and then the disruptors came in 2001, and two, and that’s a shift, and then the great recession came. And that’s a shift. And when you look at the companies, and I’m just using the real estate business, for an example, there’s so many other industries that are as examples. But if you look at the companies that didn’t make it, it was really the internal factors that destroy them that the external factors, markets are always going to be shifting. And so when I say internal versus external, I’m talking about your mindset and your attitude, it’s usually the inside that’s going to make you thrive or make you die. So I think of the difference between the two businesses, the ones that thrive, or the majority that don’t make it. And real estate agents are small businesses. So you just have to take that to mean the numbers aren’t going to lie. And everybody who’s listening here, and whether you’re brand new in the business, you’ve been in it for a while, there’s a certain percentage view 20% or less, that are thriving are making it and the difference is is the foundation, what’s at the foundation of everybody’s business. And the three things I think should be at everybody’s Foundation is a their mindset and attitude. Be their systems, and three their skill sets. So that’s the difference between the two and outs. This is different, you know, this is I think, my third podcast with you as dever. Yep. And so I’m right now at a whiteboard, and then pacing up and down. So when I teach, I’m a very visual teacher. So you really can’t see anything I wrote on the board. So I’m getting used to talk in the radio and realizing people can’t see what I’m saying. So I’m going to just try to describe what I’m seeing here. And I have two triangles drawn next to each one upside down and one is right side up. And the one that’s right side up has that foundation of the mindset, this, the systems and the skill sets. And when the markets shift and change. These are the businesses because of the internal factors that they have, that are going to keep them thriving, versus being able to collapse when a simple market shift happens, which isn’t always happen.
D.J. Paris 9:55
So could this be to to illustrate an example so maybe this seer. If, for example, the sales market potentially could be softer right than it was in previous years, we see mortgage applications are down. So you may see, we may see brokers who are wanting to adapt to that shift switching over to do more rentals, for example, would that be an example of an adaptation?
Ryan D’Aprile 10:17
That’s an example or say, when the market shifts and it saw a softens, what you’ll find out is sellers, you know, who wants to sell their home, are going to do a flight to quality. So they’re gonna find agents that have the skill set, the agents that are top of mind which comes to your systems, and the agent, they have really good reputation and done good business for themselves. And that comes to the mindset and the attitude. So when these markets shift economically, when markets go from, from a hot seller’s market, to a normal market, or to a buyers market, whichever one it shifts to, you start to see if flight to quality, especially from a seller’s market,
D.J. Paris 10:56
to a buyers market makes makes perfect sense.
Ryan D’Aprile 10:59
And so we as real estate agents, we have to understand when that flight to quality comes, are we prepared for it? And then we got to look internally, we have to look inside, we got to look in the mirror and say, Am I doing the things that I need to do on a day to day basis, in and out to achieve more? I think to you know, this is something that I think I mentioned our last session, I love podcasts, I love coaching sessions, and I love seminars, and I think agents need to continually go to them, I heard a statistic, that when you go to a seminar, within an hour of leaving, you’ve lost already 50% of the stuff that you’ve heard, right, and within 24 hours, you lost up to 70%. And after a week, you’ve lost up to 90% Of course we have we have so much data going through our minds every single day with work and life and, and everything else that’s going on. So it’s not like you can, you know, go to one coaching session, one podcast or one seminar, and think you have it figured out yet to continually work on your craft and be passionate about what you do. So let’s look at these two businesses. I’m going to talk about the two foundations, and we’re gonna talk about the mindset and attitude for a little bit. Okay, I’m gonna talk about the mindset for about five minutes here. And then I want to jump into the systems if that’s okay with you perfect. So to talk about mindset, and how it relates to the systems, and what we have to do on a daily basis to be successful in real estate, to be successful in any business that you’re in, your primary objective has to be finding a client, would you agree?
D.J. Paris 12:36
Absolutely. 100%.
Ryan D’Aprile 12:38
Okay. And there are there is our craft and what we do on an on a day to day basis, right? Listing the home, marking it properly communicating with the client. And that’s very important, and you have to perfect that. But if you don’t have the client, you’re not going to have the business or the opportunity to perfect that.
D.J. Paris 12:56
Right. That’s, that’s the customer service side of it, which assumes you’ve already had the customer.
Ryan D’Aprile 13:00
It’s exactly right. And it’s a transaction management, which a lot of times comes naturally because we are not the party that sold the home. And I think it’s really important for our listeners to understand their value. And a lot of real estate agents don’t understand the value that they provide. And some think it’s actually access to the MLS or some marketing. And I really feel strongly that the value that we add is emotional intelligence, and not being emotionally attached to the transaction. And if it wasn’t, I don’t think we would be in business,
D.J. Paris 13:37
right? Zillow does a good job of providing all the information. Anyway, what they aren’t providing is, you know, the emotional side of it. You’re
Ryan D’Aprile 13:46
right, the life consulting, giving advice, there’s so much more. So anyways, let’s get back. So So we’ll talk about the mindset now and how it has an effect on our primary focus of finding the clients. So what we say is we say find someone who wants to buy or sell a home. And when I teach this class, I write that on the board. I’ll ask anybody in the audience if they could define lead generation. Are you familiar with the term lead generation? Of course, of course, right? Everybody’s familiar, the term lead generation, I want you to do. Do something for me next week, DJ Sure. When you come across 510 Real estate agents, ask them to define lead generation for you Sure. And we just watch and listen to the responses that you get. And I bet you will probably get 80% of the incorrect definition of it. And their current definition of lead generation is finding someone who wants to buy or sell a home right? And so why I’m talking about that now in the mindset is we have to understand as humans that like 95% of our day is ran on autopilot, right? What do you mean by autopilot? It’s ran by our subconscious mind. And I think you said earliest, when you and I were talking offline, it’s how you drive a car.
D.J. Paris 15:12
That’s the reason we could drive a car is we don’t have to pay attention to all of the subconscious things we’ve just mastered, so that we can pay attention to the road, but also remember to brake and hit the gas and, you know, hit the turn signal, etc.
Ryan D’Aprile 15:26
That’s right. And so when we have moments of consciousness and clarity, which is typically in a coaching or training session, for the moments that you are conscious and clear, we have to define and talk to our subconscious mind, we got to talk to our autopilot, and say, our number one priority has to be finding somebody who wants to buy or sell a home, and understand that we have habits that are going to continually bring us back to our starting point. So when you take when you when you look at yourself, and you look at life, and sometimes life keeps bringing us back to the same place over and over and over again, that’s just our internal GPS or auto system. And it’s our habits that are leading us back to where we need to be. So when we are taking moments to work on our business. And we think about mindset and attitude, we got to say what is the primary thing is actually find somebody who wants to buy or sell a home. And then I have to do 60 minutes to 90 minutes a day of activities that are going to help me find somebody who wants to buy or sell home. If I could do that day in and day out five working days, you’ll be a superstar, you’ll be a superstar. And then what will happen is, after a year, you’ll continually do it, but you won’t even realize what you’re doing. It’s just like you’re driving a car. But you just get that. Oh boy, Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book I can’t remember, was it outliers?
D.J. Paris 16:48
Yes, you just get your book your 10,000 hours,
Ryan D’Aprile 16:52
your 10,000 hours. That’s exactly right. So if you can, when you start that me, it’s perfect. It’s the beginning of a new year. If you can’t commit to being conscious, you know, a half hour a day to plan out what you want to do. And be very specific and direct with yourself. That my job is to find somebody who wants to buy or sell a home, throw away the word lead, generate, right, find someone who wants to buy or sell a home and then focus on those activities. And then you do that day in and day out for five days a week, you’ll be lightyears ahead. So now let’s move off of
D.J. Paris 17:27
well, I want to make one point about lead generation, because I think oftentimes, brokers like you were saying, maybe think about lead generation in in a more myopic sense, or maybe not as full. For example, what I, what I was going to mention was, here’s what I think lead generation is not, I’m going to send out a Facebook post, announcing a new listing right? Now, you may end up getting a new client as a result of that. But it really is sort of accidental, because you’re not necessarily looking for people specifically who need your services, you’re just announcing kind of throwing a wide net out and seeing if any fish land in, and maybe they will, maybe they won’t, but I wouldn’t consider that a lead generation activity, you’re not proactively going out and saying I need to find somebody specifically, who needs my services.
Ryan D’Aprile 18:14
Well, okay, so and that’s, and that’s extra, I’m going to talk more and more about lead generation. Now what I was gonna transition off of is the mindset part and the habitual and the auto body. Okay, I don’t. But you’re exactly right. And what’s as you’re seeing this, I’m writing on the whiteboard right now, because I just can’t help I, you know, I’m used to having a classroom of people. And I asked agents, and they have to understand the difference between these two categories. What is the lead source? And what is marketing? And I’ll hear agents say to me, I don’t do that. And let’s throw in an action. I don’t do postcards, or I don’t do email marketing, or I don’t do what, right, because I haven’t gotten a lead from it. And I asked him, I said, Do you know the difference between the lead source and marketing? So I don’t know if I’ve done this podcast before. But can I Sure. Can they do this? Yes. Second. So let’s go over lead sources. Okay. So lead source is your network? Correct? Right. That’s one lead source. Another lead source is a referral from your network, right? The two different things right. One is your network. One is a stranger that your network referred you to? Sure. Another lead source is a farm, right? A neighborhood that you say market to consistently or an open house and open houses a lead source or your For Sale sign? That’s a lead source, correct? Yep. All about a cancelled listing. Expired listing. Or for sale by owner. That’s a lead source, correct?
D.J. Paris 19:55
Yeah. Those are people that need your service.
Ryan D’Aprile 19:58
Hey, I might got to find somebody who wants to buy or sell a home. Yep, here. They live. Yep. Okay. Those are lead sources. Now, let’s talk about marketing. Two different things. Marketing is a tool that you use to communicate with the lead source. So marketing is a postcard. Marketing is email marketing, like an email blast, it’s called spam. Marketing is digital marketing. A lot of people are using stuff like AdWords right now. It’s a great platform to market. And by the way, let’s just let’s, let’s digress. So that platform, and they’re gonna get some good free advertising space here. Ad works will give you three different ways to advertise. Are you familiar with AdWords? Okay, and it’s okay to talk about,
D.J. Paris 20:48
of course, well,
Ryan D’Aprile 20:49
so you have three ways you can market your listing, okay? To an area, you could market yourself to a zip code, or you can market yourself to what they call a sphere of influence, sphere, sphere of influence network met database, it’s like Kasaa. And house, it’s the same same thing, just a different name. Be with me. Okay. So we’ll talk about the lakes are where we find buyers and sellers here. But I point out to everybody, you have to understand, you are gambling, your time and your money, no matter whatever business venture you set out, and you’re gambling, your time and your money. And you have to in marketing, you have to spend money, you have to invest money, but you should know the statistics and the return on investments. And we’re going to get and I’ll tell you right now, if you are looking at AdWords, you hit your sphere of influence. That’s what they call it, your network first before you go to the farm, right. But anyways, let’s come back to the marketing sources. I apologize. So you have postcards, you have email marketing, you have digital, what else? Oh, you have this thing called social media, right? And social media is Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and whatever else might be out there. Correct. Okay, so I hear people say I got the sale, I got this lead. I have this buyer as well. Where did you get him? I got him from Facebook, to know you did it? Most likely, it’s a friend of yours on Facebook, they came from network marketing, you might put a advertisement on Facebook. But then where are you directing? Is it to people who like your page? Or typically your network, right? Or is it a zip code, which is a farm, but you have to understand what the tool is? It’s a marketing tool. So what you do and and again, I wish you had the whiteboard, or you could see it here. But I have my 12345 different marketing tools. And now you get to pick where you want to put them Do you want to put towards your network? You want to aim it towards your farm? Do you want to send it to like purchase web leads or whatnot? Does that make sense? Okay, so let’s transition over to systems right now. We’re gonna talk about systems and how we have to focus on marketing to become essentially the agent that number one agent in your networks mind, right? So. So our primary focus to be successful in this business when repeated again is to find somebody who wants to buy or sell a home. So I’m going to draw a triangle again, okay. And I’m going to draw two horizontal lines in the triangle. So that essentially I have three. I got three pools, I have the top of the triangle, the middle of the triangle, and the big base of the triangle with me. Okay, so the top of the triangle now these are now we’re gonna go fishing, okay. And in these three different lakes, that’s what these are. These are three different lakes, buyers and sellers live and it’s our job to find them. So the first lake which is at the top is what we call purchase web leads. What’s a purchase web leads
D.J. Paris 23:54
does it be a Zillow lead Trulia realtor.com, that sort of thing.
Ryan D’Aprile 23:58
Perfect. Exactly. So you could take your time and take your money, you can invest in it, you could put your picture up your your, your picture is gonna be next to other real estate agents, listings. It’s gonna look like your listing and Zillow selling you it so you can pick up the lead, in short, right? So that’s one place that we can go and fish for a buyer or seller. Another part, the next lake down is called Lake prospecting. It’s a little bit of a bigger lake. So it’s going to have different channels in it. Okay, so I’ll name some channels of prospecting. One is open houses, right? Who goes open houses, buyers? wires, right and who else goes open houses, sellers, and also people you can meet in your network. Now I don’t have the time and I don’t want to just eat into all our time here. But I this is for anybody who’s going to come to my coaching your regular insight lateral get set up with this question, okay? Because I see who comes to who comes to open houses. I’m going to ask it to you again. I’m gonna set you up with that Okay, DJ who comes open house buyers? All right, who else comes
D.J. Paris 25:05
neighbors? Sellers? Gosh, other realtors? Maybe?
Ryan D’Aprile 25:13
Yeah. See you past a lot of dead. You did a good job. I tell you what to do, but a lot people use the word nosy nature. Or they use looky loos I want.
D.J. Paris 25:25
looky looky and that’s great.
Ryan D’Aprile 25:29
I know, what can you use? If you had a gas? There’s 10 Real estate agents in front of us how many say they can’t stand the looky loos and the newspapers, right. And this is the internal thing that will kill your business. It’s your mindset. You know, I tell my children, you know, watch your thoughts, your thoughts become your words, right, your words become your destiny. And when you hear yourself speak, and if they come across negative, that’s how you’re thinking, and it’s gonna bring you right back to where you don’t want to be. And so there’s this matrix that I draw, right, that I’ve seen before. And we talk about your, your BS, you know, Bs stands for systems, right? Your belief system, right? A lot of people when I ask them what BS stands for, they say that oh, shit, of course. Right? And I see, well, you know, a lot of people’s belief systems aren’t bullshit. So you’re kind of right. Because your belief system leads over to white, or your actions. Man, you know what I’m talking about here? Right? Right. So I have the actions will then give my results, which will go down or reinforce my belief system or my bullshit. So you draw the red, right? You draw the green plus, or the red negative next to be right. And nosy neighbor or looky loo, does that get a negative?
D.J. Paris 26:44
Or does it get a pot, a lot of people gets a negative,
Ryan D’Aprile 26:47
negative, which then takes negative action with negative results. And then next day, you’re out. So sorry about that. But I always tend to digress back to the mindset. Because 80 percentage success, there’s no way of escaping it is going to be on your attitude and your mindset. Because if you don’t have the right attitude, and mindset, you’re not gonna do
D.J. Paris 27:06
and also, it’s the one thing you have control over, it’s about the only thing you have control over is actually your response to things, not the thing itself. Like, you don’t have control who walks in the door and an open house, but you do have control about how you perceive them and how you act towards.
Ryan D’Aprile 27:24
Right, and the beauty. I think the beautiful thing about our business is it’s just life in general meeting people. I mean, the most purposeful fulfilling part of our business, I feel is the clients that become my friends, and the relationship. Money is just a byproduct of this stuff. I’ll have another coaching session where we talk about starting with why and why we do what we need to do. But there’s a great exercise and as individuals, why are you in the real estate business? And some say for freedom, some say for money, and so on and so forth. And then I go to them, and I say, Well, I’m in it, because I have three daughters, and I would like to pay for the wedding day. And I’d like to be paid for them to go to college. And you know what, I love to travel with them. And we go to you know, we’re going to go to Vancouver ski as a family spring break. We just came back from Punta Cana and we’re, you were so lucky that we have a summer home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, and that’s why I work but it’s for the experience life experience. It’s not for the money, but they take butter. I really want to focus when I’m in this business. My first and for my first focus is people it and who do I meet? Because it’s, it’s not what you know, DJ, it’s Yeah, too. You know, it’s who you know, and it’s a cliche for a reason. And if you could come into this game, playing this game with the right mindset, and understanding, I’m just looking for adventure through people and meeting people, this business becomes easier and easier, and money just tend to follow. Okay, so let me come back to my triangle. Okay, we’re going back. We’re fishing again. Okay, we’re, we’re Huck Finn, we got the fishing poles out and we’re looking for buyers and sellers. We’re in Lake prospecting right now. And one channel is that open house channel, the other channel is a farm. Now what’s a farm? Most people know what it is, but it’s a neighborhood you live in, and you’re gonna send a postcard every month you’re gonna farm the community, maybe you’ll do an eight by eight strategy, and everything else that’s out there to farm. Another prospect. Technique is, you know, marketing to cancel and expireds and for sale by owners correct. But what’s a cancelled listing? Well, it’s somebody who’s no longer on the MLS. Describe that seller for me and I point right to the definition of regeneration. Someone who wants to sell their home for Yeah,
D.J. Paris 29:41
which is which is different from how most people would describe a canceled would be an angry, upset person who had a bad experience with a realtor which may or may not be true, but it is it is the automatic almost everybody in America automatic assumption we make.
Ryan D’Aprile 29:58
That’s exactly how we’re ready springs and they definitely that’s their emotion. But their desire is the home. Your job is to find them. So that’s another channel. Okay? And there’s there’s many channels in this this bigger Lake Lake prospecting. Now let’s come down to the base. Okay? This really big lake. It’s like the size of Lake Michigan. It’s called your network. You could call it your sphere of influence. You caught your met database, like I said, house in casa, right? Different name, anything your network. So these are the three places that we can find people who want to buy or sell a home. Now, do you see the triangle and you see the three different lakes TJ Can you see that? Now they’re no longer lakes. Okay. They’re now blackjack tables. Okay. Yeah. Okay, so now we’re gonna go gambling. And we’re gonna gamble two things, we’re gonna gamble our time and we’re gonna gamble. Our money. Is your money valuable yet?
D.J. Paris 30:54
For me? It I think it is.
Ryan D’Aprile 30:56
Right is your time? Absolutely. And our clients have more time than money. In fact, there isn’t anybody that I know that has more or should be more money than time I said it backwards, they have more money right than time. Time is more valuable than money. You can’t get time back. And our clients hire us no matter how many disruptors come in, because we fill a need. And one of these is we offset we give them time back in addition, emotional intelligence and whatnot. Now we got to look at it for ourselves. And we’re going to look at these three different lakes that were fishing in. And we’re gonna convert them now to blackjack table. Okay, and we’re gonna gamble we ever blackjack tips, or blackjack chips are our time and our money. And we’re gonna look at the first blackjack table, which is called purchase web leads. And your conversion rate, your chances of winning on this blackjack table is about a one to 5%
D.J. Paris 31:54
and five for you. It might even be a little high. But that’s yes. If you’re a absolute wizard, those leads 5%.
Ryan D’Aprile 32:02
Totally is I’m actually giving them the benefit of the doubt right? Here. Let’s go. Let’s take out the 5% one to 5% chance of converting. Okay. Now our next our next blackjack table, open houses and farming and calling cancels and expires about a five to 15% chances of winning a
D.J. Paris 32:21
few great sounds about right. Yep.
Ryan D’Aprile 32:24
These are pretty big, you know, Delta isn’t my percentages. But again, I’m just trying to make a point to the listener here. Then your network, your networks about a 75% chance of winning or more. Would you agree with that? Okay, cool. So you and I were at a casino together, and we have our chips, we have our chips of money and we have chips or time, where are you going to put your chips network. That’s where I’m gonna put my money. And so many agents in this business put their chips on the one to three 5% and to five to 15%. And that doesn’t mean there aren’t agents that can have success in doing that. Because I’m not sitting here right now saying, this is the only thing you should be doing. I have a cancelled expired strategy. I have a farm and Open House strategy, I have a purchase web lead strategy, I have a strategy for each of them. I might personally not execute on every one of them. Because there’s a point of diminishing return. But I do have a strategy built out for each one of these. But I’m going to start first with the one has highest rate of return, which is our network. And it sounds like you agree with that. Alright, so then let’s talk about that. Okay. So there says we’re still on the system’s here, okay, we’re not going to talk about skill set in this coaching session. Okay, skill set is buyer presentations, competitive pricing strategies, you know, your average days on market, your average list, price of sales price, the cost of carrying a home all those really important things that go on to, you know, growing your business. We only have like a one hour segment here. Right. So I’m just talking about the middle pillar, I talked a little bit about mindset, but I’m just talking about the systems today. And the sources of where we find people that want to buy or sell a home is that okay? So we are going to talk about our network. And we are going to look at the average person. And we’re going to pick a random number, which I don’t think is the number that’s on the line, or it’s too hard to achieve. So and I encourage anybody who’s listening to this, that is local, or shoot me an email or whatever, if you have any questions about what I’m about to say here, but I think on average, the average person knows 200 people in their community basically in there in Chicagoland they know, they could find at least 200 people you could find 500 friends on Facebook, that doesn’t count. But what we have to do is we got to start with a system. We call it our dashboard. Word, people have CRMs they have databases, but you have to lay out a plan. And you have to label out and you have to list out 200 people that you know, and you might not be best friends with these people. But over the course of two years and beyond, we’re going to take action to become closer to them. Does that make sense, CJ. And the what we’re trying to achieve is market share. And when I say market share, I don’t mean market sharing a community as a real estate agent. I don’t mean well, I’m a real estate agent, I got 10% of the market. That’s not the market share I’m talking about. I’m talking the market share of that, those 200 people or more that you have the market share of their brain. And so I think I did this last time DJ, and I apologize if I’m repetitive, but I don’t think it’s too bad to be repetition is a mother. Right? Okay, great. So let’s do this. Name of fast food, hamburger restaurant domain. Name a soft drink. Name and just to name a real estate agent, right. So you have to do that exercise now. Now, every listener here, just do that thing, you guys. So hamburger place McDonald’s, soda pop Coca Cola, gym, shoe, Nike. Now,
I want you to in your mind, ask your group of 200 people, your network, name a real estate agent? And are they naming your name. And so many real estate is when agents come and join our company, we have beautiful brand, we have beautiful product, but I’m going to empower you and coach and train you. There’s so many people are saying it’s the company brand that is so important. No, it’s you. It’s your first and last name. And it is the market share that you have amongst your network. Because consumers don’t hire real estate companies. I mean, they do technically, according to the law, but they hire a person, they hire a real estate agent. And if you are going to find somebody who wants to buy or sell a home, if you’re going to capture that percentage of business that’s coming out of your network, every single year, which I’m gonna tell you what that is in a minute here. You have to be the McDonald’s, Coke or Nike in those 200 people’s mind. And I’m telling you, that is not hard or expensive to achieve. Now, if I want to become McDonald’s or Nike, across the country, I’m in trouble. I don’t have a multi million dollar budget. Right. But for 200 people using marketing tools that I know are not lead sources, a lead sources and network lead sources, a farmer lead sources open house, I’m going to use the marketing tools, I’m going to use these marketing tools, I’m going to make them very concentrated, I’m going to hit that network properly. All right, you bet your ass after two years, those 200 people are gonna say, right. And the statistics are this 16% of your network transact every year. And a lot of them transact twice. Because if you sell a home, let’s say you buy a home. So if you have those 200 people 16% of 116 16% of 232. So if you have 200 people, and you have a complete database, and what I mean by a complete database, their their name, primary contact, secondary contact, and secondary contact is their, their, their spouse, or their partner or whatnot, right? Their home address, and their email address. And why we want these things is because we need a way to deliver our marketing tools to them, so that we become top of mind. Okay. So if you do this properly for two years in a row, on the second year, alright, the second 12 months, you stand in front of 32 buyers and sellers every year, and they transact twice. That’s a potential 64 leads, and what’s a lead somebody who wants to buy or sell a home? And who are these people from a network. They’re the people that know like, and trust me, and 85% of sellers call one real estate agent as coordinator of realtors. I just want to be that one, right. And then in future coaching sessions, we’ll work on skill set, so that when I am in competition, I’m going to blow the person away, because most people aren’t going to take time to work on their craft. But if you get in front of me, I’m going to have everything in line date, show you and articulate to you my value. Does that make sense? Now here’s another cool thing. So 16% of your network transacts every year so I’m going twice. But everybody in your network on average knows for people
D.J. Paris 39:52
who want to let me pause for just one second I want to make I want to make sure we really hammer this point. What Ryan just basically said is Do you know 200 people, we know that everybody knows approximately 200 people every year 16% or 32, or 64 transactions, because some of them will transact twice. That is how many transactions are in the people that know you the best, and who are obviously most likely to use you. They are also likely to forget that you’re a real estate agent. If you are not staying in constant communication. We’re talking about developing a strategy to stay keep, you know, front of mind. So you become their Nike or their McDonald’s. But that is how many transactions are have. I mean, I would think most people listening if they could do 32 to 64 transactions from their existing network a year would be very, very happy. So I just want to make that point. That is a huge, huge thing Ryan just said,
Ryan D’Aprile 40:46
You are sitting on a goldmine. Most people are not mining or gold mined, and they’re going after other people’s gold. Nice, and it doesn’t make sense. And that’s the thing that I love about this business, too. Is there’s more than enough for everybody. There really is. I mean, how many people at cash? I really don’t really answer this DJ. But how many people live in the United States? Is that 303 50
D.J. Paris 41:06
Millions living?
Ryan D’Aprile 41:10
Okay, 350 million people. Okay, fine. Do you know how many Realtors there are in the national?
D.J. Paris 41:14
Many there are in Chicago and the suburbs? Because just a few hours ago, I did a huge dump. Of all of the realtors there are just under 40,000 In Chicago, including the suburbs alone. So 40,000 just here locally.
Ryan D’Aprile 41:30
All right, yeah. But your calculator out by chance. Cool. All right. So there’s 1.5 million real estate agents. In North America. There’s 350 million people. Now, can you do the math divide? 1.5 million divided by 350 million?
D.J. Paris 41:50
See? 233.
Ryan D’Aprile 41:56
So yeah, one and a half million divided by 300? million.
D.J. Paris 42:04
Let’s see. That is point 004.
Ryan D’Aprile 42:09
Yeah, percent. I hear so many real estate agency to me, there’s so many agents and less than
D.J. Paris 42:16
less than half of 1%.
Ryan D’Aprile 42:20
There is so much for everybody. But the thing is, when I hear people I saved myself, oh. And I said, I’ll say this, I think it, you poor thing. You got a negative mindset. Because I look at you and you’re incredibly powerful. You just don’t see it. Yeah, I think that’s my job in bringing that out of real estate agents, but you understand how powerful you are, you have got a wonderful personality, whether you realize it or not, there are people that like you, it’s called your network, you just got to be in front of them and create relationships with them, you got to go into this business, understand that your passion is about meeting people and learning and helping people, everything else will fall into place. If you do those things, there’s four tenths of 1% of the population.
D.J. Paris 43:04
And what’s funny is I did the calculation backwards. But it actually illustrated an interesting point. Because what it’s saying is, for every 233 people out there, there’s one real estate agent, which by the way, corresponds to Ryan’s, you know, 200 people. So really, there is so much business to go around, because there’s only one realtor for every 233 people.
Ryan D’Aprile 43:25
Regardless of the market, you’re talking to person, right, and I’m just I guess I’m talking myself in the third person here. But this is weird. But you, you know, I grew my business, I was a real estate agent in the Great Recession. 2008 910. Those are great years. For me, it was terrible to see what people went through. So don’t get me wrong. But as a real estate agent, I was crushing it. But I did do something in 2007, by the way in summer, 2007 and 2008. And what I did is I stopped watching the news. Now the problem with that is I’m probably the most ignorant guy you’ll ever meet. I’m not into politics anymore. I’m not very familiar what’s going on. And I’m not telling the listeners, you have to do what I’m doing. I’m a little bit of an extreme. But I’m a very sensitive person. And I understand my subconscious mind has an effect in my life. I’m living the life of my dreams. Not everything’s perfect, but I’m having a blast, okay. But I can get very depressed. If I hear about a drive by shooting, I have wobble, I can’t take it. And if I become numb, it doesn’t mean it’s not having an effect on me. It’s affecting my subconscious mind. But let me get off that I’m a freak about mindset. So let me get off that for a second. Let’s come back. Let’s come back to the 1.5 million real estate agents North America out of 350 people that live in North America. And the people that say well, you know, there’s so many real estate agents there’s not. And on top of that, of the 1.5 million real estate agents in North America, half 50% Don’t sell I mean,
D.J. Paris 44:51
it’s probably even bigger than that are part time like you were saying, you know whether they’re part time or full time so maybe even maybe half of those are even full time agents. Maybe
Ryan D’Aprile 45:02
Don’t sell a home, right and transact. Now you’re at 750,000 agents that are actually in it to win it. So there isn’t any competition except for yourself. There really isn’t. And there’s more than enough to go out. But what you have to do is you got to control the controllables. And that’s yourself. And that is your campaign. And that’s your marketing campaign, to these individuals. So that when you say Naima, hammer, drank and say McDonald’s and throw Pepsi, coke, name a gym shoe, they say Nike name, a realtor, they say, DJ, that’s your job. And once we perfect that, and we got that down, then let’s start looking at the other strategies, which we’ll talk about in later sessions. They’re phenomenal, right, and they complement your business. But let’s build on a foundation first. And the foundation is your network. Because your network is your what TJ
D.J. Paris 45:53
is your, that’s your
Ryan D’Aprile 45:57
I never said this to you before your network is your net worth. And that’s what I want to teach my three daughters, and anybody who comes in front of me when I’m going to work with them on real estate, your network is your net worth. It’s not what you know, it’s who you know, and these are all cliches for a reason, because they’re true. So let’s build a business off of those fundamentals. And let’s focus on our day to day activities, the rest will fall into place. So let’s get into the marketing campaign. Okay, and these are, we’re going about 45 minutes here, and I want to be conscious of your time, so you just don’t want to stop. Okay, so we’re gonna look at, we’re gonna look at two methods that we have to perform to become that number one real estate agent, in our networks, mine, the one is auto marketing. Okay. And honestly, this should be the easiest at our company, we do this for our agents, we did it in the beginning. And then we came to the realization, we actually are going to let our agents do the second part that I’m going to tell you about, and focus on that will handle their campaign. And the campaign is the campaign to their network, and its auto marketing. So for example, I’m going to draw two stick figures on this wall. Okay, one’s a real big stick figure with a big bubble ahead, right. And that’s your network that’s representing 200 people, or more. And then all the way to the left, want to draw a little stick figure, and that’s me, okay. And then I’m going to draw a wall, like a lunch right down the middle separating me in my network. And that line is a wall between myself and those 200 people. Do you know what that wall is called? DJ? Yes, life. Everybody has life happening to them? Right? Everybody’s dealing with something dramatic, tragic, exciting. And we are the center of our own worlds. But we’re not the center of their worlds. And we never will be we never should be. And so that wall between you and your network of life, we have to figure out how can we automatically penetrate it. While we can do things that as a real estate agent that we do, that will build trust, because people hire people that they know, like, and trust. So that is like, so remember, I got these two stick figures, right. So now I’m gonna start throwing arrows. It’s kind of a silly drawing that I’ve came up with in my coaching, but I’m throwing arrows at this wall to break through. Okay, and come number one, and my big stick figure, I draw like a little brain at top of that other person’s head, I want to become number one, in their mind share. So I’m gonna throw arrows, what’s an arrow that I’m going to throw at them? It’s a postcard. It’s every other month. Ideally, it’s
D.J. Paris 48:48
just possibly talking about postcards, because it’s so interesting, because there’s so many ways to do them. And I will tell you, I live in a condo building in River North and a building that I would think would I would be getting postcards daily with 40,000 realtors in Chicago, you would think that I would be getting constant communication, I get maybe one postcard a month from one realtor, and then I never get another postcard from them again. I certainly don’t get anything weekly or monthly from even the same person. Nobody does this and everybody should consider doing it. So I just wanted to make that point.
Ryan D’Aprile 49:24
Well, it’s called a campaign. You know, and you have to have a campaign, because none of them are foolproof. And I’m going to give you a choice. Okay, we’re you and I, you know, we’re trying to break down a wall together, okay. And we’re throwing arrows at it. You gotta throw one arrow you got postcards, one of the arrow is one arrow in your quiver. We got others we need to head. Now there’s people that say I’m going to do social media and it’s all I’m going to do you know, it’s not 2018 Ryan, you’re a dinosaur. I’m like, Well, the problem was social media. It’s great. It’s a wonderful tool, okay, and it’s free. But algorithms that are built. And there’s people that just are not on it, I mean, everybody’s on it, but they’re not on it every single day, they’re not.
D.J. Paris 50:11
Also on pages, if you have your own page, you the people who like your page, only on average will see somewhere between 20 to 40% of your posts, it averages about 30% on the current algorithm, so even people that have signed up to get your, your notices on Facebook, are only seeing about 30% of those.
Ryan D’Aprile 50:32
And that’s the biggest thing. And that’s what people have to understand. It’s like signing up is key DJ, see, let me meet me. When people decide to follow you on Instagram or Facebook, they’re deciding to follow you. So though it might be free, but to provide content. Now, I’m not telling you, you guys spend all your time worrying about the content. But I’m giving you a description of the difference of marketing tools. And what the these people are deciding to follow you only 30% of them are going to see it. But you know what? I don’t think you’ve decided to follow Coca Cola, did you? But you know what, you see them at a time. And you don’t even realize it. They McDonald’s the same with Nike. And their objective is to be number one in market share. And by the way they are. So all we’re doing is learning from the past. Okay, and taking their business practices and putting them into practice for us with our network. So a postcard is one and you have to do it.
D.J. Paris 51:26
Absolutely. You just
Ryan D’Aprile 51:28
do it. And you know, you could do it 12 times a year I think your best if you’re doing anywhere from 17.
D.J. Paris 51:33
I was real quickly I did an interview with a gentleman. I’m gonna redo it because I accidentally deleted it before it went live and he wanted to kill me. He’s a nicest guy. He works for Keller Williams in Lakeview. His name is Steven Hannah. He told me what his first year this is the best story ever. He said that he provided two assumptions. When I first started number one that my the two and he had 100 people in his database. That’s all he had. He said I assumed those 100 people were the most likely to use me as a realtor. And my second assumption is they are going to forget that I am a realtor. So because those are my two assumptions, so I had to figure out how do I not let them forget the Coca Cola example. Even though I didn’t sign up to follow Coca Cola, his tweets, how is it that I thought Coca Cola right away when Ryan asked me because of course I see them constantly at eight times a week, right? So he’s he would he did, he sent out a postcard every single week, every Friday for 52 weeks. And he said it was it was almost insane. He goes but it was so silly. He said you couldn’t forget that I was the realtor. And he said he made them funny, random, cute and everything. But he said that was he was the smartest thing you ever do. After two years. He said 60 of those 100 People use
Ryan D’Aprile 52:45
it by the way, I’ve never met him. But I’ve heard his name. And I know.
D.J. Paris 52:49
One of the top top people Absolutely.
Ryan D’Aprile 52:52
Right. So everybody, we’re here to help you. And you said, Steve right now, Right? Steve a hat now myself, we’re here to help you. And by the way, I can’t speak for Steven. But I’m not a rocket scientist. This is nothing that is like we’re not splitting the atom here. Very simple, most complicated thing is the attitude, the mindset to get over to execute these things. So the arrows, we got the postcards, we have email marketing, we have a digital campaign. And then we have a social media campaign. Like I said, we do that for our agents so they could focus on really the most important part. Okay, so we just took some time and we talked about marketing, auto marketing consistently every single month your network to capture those leads, but there’s something else you have to do. And this is the work. This is the agents business and what they have to do five days a week. And what you have to do is you have to create four quality touches, I’m talking about you reaching out and saying hello, how are you? once a quarter, four times a year, you need to send four items of value, and an annual real estate report every year to all 200 individuals. You’re talking about maybe an hours a day. If that’s it, you’re talking maybe an hour’s work a day. And if you get into it and you realize all you’re doing is making friends, like again, I’m gonna call you like DJ What’s going on man? I heard this new restaurants in River North. I know you live at such and such place. Have you been there? In our I’ve seen that haven’t been there. Alright, I’m gonna go check it out. I’ll let you know what it is. But hope all’s well man. And by the way, I haven’t seen you in three years, but I just communicated with you. And I did it via text or did it via instant message you know on Instagram or Facebook message, or maybe I called you. But check, check. Right, you’re done this first quarter. I’ll see you next quarter. Because people hire people they know like and trust. My auto marketing is done set it and forget it. Now there are people that really want to dissect their marketing and really focus on the message. That’s fine. If you have the time, I never have had the time I have my company just do it for me. And I forget about it, and it works. And where I put my time is building the relationships or
D.J. Paris 55:13
relationships. Absolutely.
Ryan D’Aprile 55:16
Yes, that’s exactly. And so, you know, the quarterly items of value are very simple. You know, they could be, you know, a beers magnet. I know, it sounds silly, and someone can be cringing out there. But it works. It’s an item of value. It could be calendar events, I’m not talking about email, I’m talking by the way, this is a physical thing. Or
D.J. Paris 55:37
it could be the fina always uses the example of the ketchup, relish and mustard, the I forget the puns you use, you guys can Google it. But but you know, it costs like $4 for all three of those, and you drop it off. And there’s a cute little pun that goes along with saying I relish your referrals. And from a broker that cuts the mustard and let’s catch up or something like that. Yeah.
Ryan D’Aprile 55:57
Right, right. So just something like that. Again, those are like, look, I will never tell you to call your clients for referral. There are those out there that completely I will say call them out. But in your direct mail, in your items of value, the dollar sneeze, it’s fine. That’s doing the sales for you. You know what I mean, you don’t have to be an acronym. It just gets it. They know what it is the respect that they grab it, and they throw it on their refrigerator, throw it in their garbage, it’s at your top of mind. The annual the annual item of value is an annual Real Estate Report. And it’s a tool that you can use, you could use RPR resources, you could use a CMA, I’m not going to get into the details of it. We can maybe in a later session, but is a beautifully bound Real Estate Report that you send to all 200 people in your network once a year, I always tell my agents the magic really happens. The second and third year they received it in a row. Because what happens is, you’re taking yourself serious, and you’re treating your business seriously. So all of a sudden, they take you serious, and you know you are we are judged all the time. And if you’re inconsistent in your marketing, and you’re inconsistent, your follow through, you’re gonna be judged. And if you’re consistent, you might be worried they’re gonna throw it away. But remember that game of life, everybody’s dealing with life, you’re not the center of the world, they’re going to see it, they’re going to throw it away, don’t worry about it, it works. It’s that it’s magic. And they’re not going to sit around and ridicule you all day long. Because so many people are afraid about selling out marketing Stop, stop thinking about it. It’s a narrow second front of these people’s eyes. But it will consistently for two years in a row and you don’t skip a beat, you have laid a foundation, and you’ve sold your network, I take myself serious, I take my business serious. So when you’re ready to sell or buy a home, take me serious and they will and they’ll reach out to you. So it’s a process, right? All this is a process. It’s something that you have to work at day to day on the majority of your time, and not the majority, excuse me, but about an hour a day, you got to focus on those relationship touches, you should have some type of system, a dashboard, or CRM that tracks it, because tracking is just as important as doing it. And geez, I think that’s it for today.
D.J. Paris 58:24
So many good takeaways. I would say, you know, if you’re listening, and you’re a realtor, if you don’t have a strategy around what we talked about a lot of different areas, whether it’s whether it’s adding to your database, or deepening the relationships of your existing database, or just marketing to your existing database, this is the time you know, it’s the beginning of the year, you can now do that you can now say I’m not going to send out one postcard this year, I’m going to send out 12, or I’m going to send out an annual, you know a housing report. And I’m going to call at four times a year and make sure that my my database knows I care about them. And I’m going to look on Facebook to see what’s going on in their lives have something to talk about, and all of that. So it’s all amazing.
Ryan D’Aprile 59:10
And if you don’t think in your neighborhood, in your network, your friends that are financial planners, your friends that are accountants, your friends that are doctors, they’re not doing this. Right, you have to do it. Your customer, your client, because of the profession you chose is your network. So let’s mark it to them.
D.J. Paris 59:29
Awesome. I love it. Well, I think that is a perfect place to pause. As as always if you’re listening and you say boy, I want to you know work at a firm like Ryan’s do pro properties.com You can learn all more about what they offer brokers also if you might be a buyer or seller, renter yourself and you might be interested in working with one of Ryan’s team. These are the kinds of trainings that his team goes through. And obviously he has a lot of great success with his with his brokers to back it up so you can reach out to him directly as well. Just visit deepl properties.com You can find them on social media, Facebook, Instagram, etc. Anything else? Right?
Ryan D’Aprile 1:00:07
No, that’s it, DJ, thanks for having me, man, I really enjoy these. Well, I
D.J. Paris 1:00:10
know the audience shifts as well. And one last point, if you are listening and you say, Oh, I wish Ryan would have gone into more detail on x, y, or z or I wish, I have a question for him, I want him to go over this in the future. Send us your comments and questions. We always love the compliments, but we love questions even more. So send those to us. You can can find us at keeping it real pod.com We have a contact form there on Facebook keeping it real pod, you can send us a message there too. And let Ryan let us know what you’d like Ryan to talk about or go over and we will answer your questions in future episodes. So on behalf of Ryan and myself, I thank you for listening, please, as Ryan would probably suggest to everyone listening, tell a friend if you have other realtors that are in your office. We do this Ryan does this I do this. We do not make a living doing this. We do this to legitimately help the 40,000 Realtors here locally and across the country. Many more than that, so please tell
Ryan D’Aprile 1:01:11
TJ the question that we all decided we
D.J. Paris 1:01:13
love so definitely pass the word we we appreciate it and on behalf of Ryan and myself we say thank you for listening, and we will see everyone on the next episode and Thank you Ryan.
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