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So many agents walk past people that know them, like them and trust them to find strangers to try and convince to know them, like them and trust them.
Show Notes
Let me give a little background on the topic that you and I want to solve today and then I'll give some background on you to speak to some credibility of your story as to why you're the right person for them to listen to on this topic. So, I see agents, as I have a chance to be knee to knee with them all day every day, I see them spending a lot of time and a lot of effort walking past people that already know them, like them and trust them to spend resources, time and money to convince other people to know them, like them and trust them. And I really feel like they're, they're headed out into the diamond mine going down, risking everything, to go down to find these diamonds when they're walking past fields of diamonds right in front of them. Do you ever feel that way Jennie?
Oh, preach! That is, I mean that is so true. And that's been honestly my mission over the past years when I discovered that I truly love to empower agents. That is why, is because we already have all these people that know us, like us and trust us, and we're just not pouring into them more or squeezing them with more love to get referrals and recommendations out of them. So I'm with you on that.
Perfect. Well, we're going to dive into that topic and how agents, some real tactical strategies that you've employed to master this database topic in your business. So some background on Jennie. Jennie and her and her team last year had the privilege of serving 135 families. And that's exactly how she stated it to me, which again tells me a lot about how she feels about her people. She didn't say 'sell homes or houses.' She 'served families.' Okay. So there's probably a, a built in lesson within that. She's been in business for 18 years, but you actually got to a point, Jennie, where you felt almost a little burnt out, like this business is making me not like people. And you said that that's a problem. So talk to us about how with you being so relational, how even you said at times like, "I'm kind of burned out." What, what happened there?
Well, thank you for leading me up to that because I think that's an important part of the story because now people can see where I am or where we are as a team and they can make assumptions that we've just always been this awesome, right? That's not the case. We've had so many fail forwards during the process and like I shared with you in 2010 and 11 is when I took my first BOLD and got to a coach and my production doubled and I was a single agent still. And so what happens when your production doubles? Things start breaking, you start losing your mind and getting pretty stressed out. So I sloppily started building a team, not following any of the proper processes that are lined out for us. And by hodgepodging a team together, I was still, yes, I had some leverage and relief, which was awesome and at the same time, maybe I didn't hold them accountable correctly. I was still learning how to be a leader myself and so then I'm still hanging on to way too many things, not properly leveraged. What does that cause? Frustration and and really just getting to a point of like I shared: hating people, I hated people. I say it out loud in the classroom and people always laugh out loud and I know it is because they have been there and we cannot hate people in this relationship business that we're in. And so that's where I had to take a step back and reevaluate why in the world am I really doing this business? What do I love and how can I apply doing what I love to helping families buy and sell homes.
Let's talk a little bit about the root of this, of this hate and I'm not going to try and be a psychiatrist, but I would imagine, I know you're the loving mother of a beautiful little girl and I would imagine you had people that were imposing upon that time with her and they were demanding. And because you felt like, now this is pre team and I know some teams get a bad rap and that's probably accurate. Other teams don't deserve that bad rap that actually serve clients at a really high level. And I know based on what I've heard about you from Patrick and others and that you teach this business by referral at a high level, that's not you, right? But with these people, while you were just a solo agent you had on 15 hats at a time and the hat that you wanted to wear the most, which is that of being a mom was always on the sideline. Is that what caused the root of that hate?
How did you know all of that?
I am a dad. I get it. Right?!
That it, that is so true. And so many and dads are awesome as well. I can speak to the working moms because I am one. That is our struggle. You know, there's a book on it. It's called the ONE Thing, by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan. And by using that book as a tool, it really helps so much along with the Six Personal Perspectives, like we mentioned early on, the whole value of time blocking and knowing your calendar and family is on your calendar. So every day for the past four years, "Pick up Mia" is on my calendar and "Family time" at four o'clock. And so that was real easy for me to say, I'm sorry I've got an appointment at that time. Instead would noon tomorrow or you know, you pick the time that, that works for you. And I think that's it. That's the number one thing is taking control of your calendar. And that allows people to not stress you out. And so if you don't have a calendar, you will allow people in at all times that you get frustrated and you start feeling burnout. So that's key.
Yeah. Let's talk about this. You showed be a little something that you have on your desk that says E to P. Will you pull it out for the audience.
Yeah. My friend Missy Webb from Norman, Oklahoma, she sent this to me. I think it was after I taught a Six Personal Perspectives class and I said that one's my favorite. I love them all. I love all of the perspectives. The E to P though, every bit of our lives, personal lives, business, lives can be plussed and be better and we can have more focus and purpose with them.
Let's talk about what that is. There's probably a group of the audience that knows what that is, right? You and I do. In fact I was teaching it to a group yesterday, but going from like an entrepreneurial style to a purposeful style, and I want to parlay that into what you described, how you had this pivot. I would imagine before, when you were starting to dislike people, it was because you were working more entrepreneurially, right? Where it was like, "Yeah, like bring it on and I got this, I got everything." And there wasn't like a purpose behind it. You weren't being purposeful of like, "Okay, what matters most to my business?" Okay, this is on my calendar, this is what matters. Most of my relationships picking Mia at four o'clock, this is going on my calendar. That was that kind of where you started to to really embrace and implement this concept of E to P?
Yeah, I think so. And even the term counterbalance when that has been shared and if you really think about it as sometimes you do go extreme in your work life and you just have to know that it will come back together. You know, there's a straight line and you get extreme and work sometimes you may go extreme family and that's okay. So the goal is to really keep yourself balancing, counter balancing between the two. And that's where like Mr. Gary Keller says, as you start your year by planning out your calendar, starting with your family time, your vacation time first, and then all the rest gets filled in. And so I think that's key for keeping your head straight in this business.
Let's talk a little, I love that, and I couldn't agree more. I mentioned to you earlier, for those that don't know, I'm a father of six kids. Uh, that wasn't by accident. Yes, we've been asked by every elderly person we know if we know how that works and we actually started off wanting to have six. My wife comes from a family of seven and I always thought it'd be cool to have a big family. I did not come from a big family. So we went that path and we're grateful for it. There's certain times in the night, maybe last night about 1230, when I had a three year old who like having like a scary dream where I was like, "This is crazy." But nevertheless, that is when you have things that matter more than work and you and I both do, you have to move--If those relationships are important to you, if those other things in life are important to you, you have to move to purposeful otherwise business will eclipse all of it. I obviously have a responsibility for business development for a title company. I also have a new brand than a building. Think Bigger Real Estate. It's a movement to help real estate agents think bigger and it takes time and it can, it can encompass every waking minute if I were to allow it to and so I'm passionate about that topic because those relationships all matter more to me then do the business, or the businesses. So I get that. So thank you for sharing that.
I want to talk a little bit about your strategy, Jennie, that I think a lot of agents miss. They see other agents as their competition, right? It's a scarcity mindset of like, "Wait, you're a real estate agent, well I can't talk to you because we're going to be, we're going to be going for the same client. And I don't want to give you any of my secrets, because it's secret sauce. You've taken a different approach. Talk to us about that.
Yeah, absolutely. I, you know, right now, I shared with you a 25% of our business come from out of town, Realtor referrals. And years ago by accident I was using lots of video and my local market for my database, making a video about how maintenance, repairs or things around the community. And by accident one time my agent database accidentally got uploaded and so all my agent friends across the country got my local market videos and I was mortified. I could not believe it. I, oh, it was horrible. And then at the next big event that we had, people came up to me they knew me by name and by face. They knew where I lived and I got back to my room and I went, "Wait a minute, there might be something here." So I pulled up my, my video people and I said, "Hey, um, you know how I do that one blog from my local database? Could I do one of those for my agent database?" And they were like, "Absolutely." And so that's where "Your Journey with Jennie" came from. There's a website, there's a video blog, it's yourjourneywithjennie.com. Then I have a closed Facebook group as well. And that's just where my passion for sharing everything. And we do have a company at Keller Williams that we all share the top of the top of the top agents in our company, get on stage and tell you everything they do in their business and how they've become successful. And so I'm not one of them yet and I still love sharing. And so that's where I get so much. What happened was, Justin, remember I said that I had taken BOLD a lot in other cities outside of my area and it hit me one time when I was starting to feel some guilt because I was getting lots of agent referrals from agents around my area and I thought, "Oh, I'll never be able to repay them."
Like I'm getting so many referrals and I was feeling bad because that's what most agents would want back is a referral back to them. And I said, well, what could I do that will still add value to their lives, to their businesses, even if it's not in the form of a referral. And so that's where you know, I decided to just start adding these local agents to this group. So maybe if they get an Aha or a system or a tip or a trick they can put in their business that would pay them back.
So interesting that you say that. I'm working on kind of a bigger project right now to help real estate agents get referrals from professional sources like wealth advisors, attorneys, etc. And in that process, I had this mentality that, okay, if I can teach an agent how to refer a financial advisor, that financial advisor, will refer back. And I had a mentor say, "Don't do that." Like, if that happens, that's okay. But if you set it up that way, it's going to be very limited. That real estate agent needs to go and start delivering value in resources that help make the financial advisor's role and job easier, not necessarily more business. That may not even be what they want. They may be like a lot of wealth advisors say, "I'm already capped. I'm done." So that might have been not even be an interesting topic to them at all. You could just help them improve the service to their existing client base, maybe that's what they need. And so I love that you've actually employed that strategy with agents, which really is an abundant mentality of like, "I'm just going to give it all away. And if they bring back referrals my way, great." If it just enhances someone's life, it probably aligns with your core values anyway. Right? Let's help make lives and businesses better.
Yeah, absolutely, that's the thinking behind it and so much so that like I told you, I went from E to P on it. That, I mean it's on my calendar every day is to make a post inside of that group, you know, whether it's a motivational post, or "Here's a system we use." It's a part of my 411 and my GPS for my business, which is making sure that I'm adding value. Another thing, talking about the counter balancing and doing what we love is that because I've become a Keller Williams University instructor this year, I now can travel, train and get paid, which helps generate referrals back to my team. So while I'm gone, the team is still working and being funded and fueled by me doing what I love. And now my daughter is out of school during the summer, so guess who's going to come on tour with me this summer? So, you know, I've been asked to teach in Tampa. I'm going to bring her with me and go to the beach. I've been asked to teach in California, Southern California. We'll go to Disneyland together. So now she'll just get to see mom at doing what she loves. I'm excited about.
I love it. That is, what a great life, right? That you're able to build that way. I want to point out something that maybe wasn't obvious to everybody, but you shared with me is, when you started taking BOLD classes, they were available in your town, but you actually chose to drive two hours away to a different town to take those because you knew that not only would you be gaining the insight and the help that that BOLD would provide, but you'd be in a room of a hundred other referral sources that maybe didn't have a resource in your town. Uh, like brilliant! Right? Absolutely brilliant. Like a little more of a sacrifice on the more work, but...
Well it was, it is a sacrifice for sure because I'm getting up earlier and getting home later. Two hour drive was about the average of the locations. It's more of a burden on my family. Yeah, my husband's got it, you know, taking care of Mia to and from school. It's exhausting, you know. If I'm playing "all-in" in the BOLD room, it's physically exhausting and I'm making calls on the way there or on the way home to get in my contacts for the day. So it is a commitment and at the same time while you're there, you have to be purposeful again. So on every break, I would take care of my needs real quick and then I get right back in the room and walk around and meet everybody, personally handshake and give them my card and tell them where I'm from. And every time I stood up in the classroom, "Hi, I'm Jennie and I'm BOLD. I'm from Tulsa." You know, it's just always saying and sharing. And the BOLD coach just thinks it is pretty cool too. So they help promote you as well.
I would encourage, whether you're a Keller Williams agent or not, real estate agents have a tendency to go to classes, If they're good. They're growing themselves. And typically we look for the ones that are the most convenient, the easiest. And what a great idea is to choose ones that are maybe in a different town because that opens up a whole new set of opportunities.
Last topic here I want to cover Jennie. In fact, I was going to go into, you have a very small sliver of your business that comes via online leads and referrals and I'm just going talk about that quickly, because I actually want to get to another topic that I think would be even more valuable for the audience. And your philosophy with that is like "You're open to that but you embrace those people and bring them into your database and so they get the same--like they don't get the redheaded stepchild treatment--because they came in through some other source. You love on them just like as if they were someone you met at Mia's school, right? So it allows you to grow your database in a big way. Do you want to add anything to that before I got to go into the last question?
Yeah. I think that wherever the lead or referral comes from, whether it's a personal referral, an online lead from a source or an open house guests, they all come into our world and have similar touches right off the right out of the gate, which is call follow up, leave notes and those are standards for our team and it is always there. Another thing, I'm actually going to be at spring masterminds coming up and I'm on a panel about interrogating your pipeline. So how are you staying on top of who comes into your world and then making sure that they're put in the right place so that they're taken care of properly in your pipeline and not dropped like you said. So a new, a new piece that we've added is whenever that action plan gets applied to that new person by our lead coordinator, there is an action item for me as the leader has the agent connected just a few days out so that no lead is left behind, because the worst thing ever is to go back through your database and find people that have bought or sold with other agents.
That's the worst... ever!! So let's eliminate that.
So, last topic, and this is going to become part of my show, but I want to hear from you Jennie. Obviously you've done some great things, but at the core of your accomplishments has been an inner transformation, I believe, that has been a journey for you to become a better person. Talk to us about maybe a habit or a practice that you think is fundamental to you thinking bigger and becoming more, which has then resulted in the business growth.
Wow, that's a big question--To think bigger. And I would really think that it has everything to do with trainings and mindset. And honestly, what you think about usually happens. So think the very best of yourself. Put yourself in the way of smarter people that make you think bigger. Put yourself, like I shared with you. I went to this training through Keller Williams that's very expensive. It's $4,000 to attend. It's a lot of money. And most agents would say, I'm not paying that. And the value that I've gotten out of it over the years of the relationships that I've made have gotten me where I am. So that's a huge piece of that. Continue to grow every day, every day, every day.
So, just to kind of recap what I took from that, because I learn best when I, when I speak and teach. So what I'm hearing you say is you aren't afraid to invest in yourself, like courses being around people. You surround yourself with material and people that help grow you. That's awesome. And you audit your thoughts, "How am I talking to myself? "What am I saying about myself?"
And then one more thing I'm going to throw in because this has changed everything for me is have a coach. I have a coach. I've have had a coach since 2011 and I'll never not have a coach of some form because, with having a coach, you must be a coachable person. Yeah, being open to receive. I remember saying that to a coach one time. I'm not going to waste any time and that valuable coaching call that I'm spending money that I'm investing in myself in that time. I'm not going to waste time with excuses or reasons as to why I didn't do something. I either am committed to it or I'm not, and let's choose and let's go or not go and reset because I'm not going to waste any time. Let's get busy.
I love it--so good. Jennie, you've offered more than enough value to make everybody say "She's amazing." So I'm going to do something really quick here. I'm going to put up on the screen and I want to invite everybody to go on Facebook, search the Facebook Group--there's a page that's "Your Journey with Jennie", but more importantly is the Facebook Group. That's where she puts all of her goodies. So I'd encourage you to go find that and I would also say that if anybody has business in or around Tulsa, now you know who to contact. Obviously a dynamite person who will give back to you in very big ways by all the good stuff she shares. So, Jennie, what a pleasure this has been. Thank you so much for taking the time to pour in to the Think Bigger audience. I appreciate you and it's fun to get to know you even better. And I could see why Patrick speaks so highly of you.
It's an honor to know you and let me know how else I can help.
Awesome--I appreciate it very much.
Oh, preach! That is, I mean that is so true. And that's been honestly my mission over the past years when I discovered that I truly love to empower agents. That is why, is because we already have all these people that know us, like us and trust us, and we're just not pouring into them more or squeezing them with more love to get referrals and recommendations out of them. So I'm with you on that.
Perfect. Well, we're going to dive into that topic and how agents, some real tactical strategies that you've employed to master this database topic in your business. So some background on Jennie. Jennie and her and her team last year had the privilege of serving 135 families. And that's exactly how she stated it to me, which again tells me a lot about how she feels about her people. She didn't say 'sell homes or houses.' She 'served families.' Okay. So there's probably a, a built in lesson within that. She's been in business for 18 years, but you actually got to a point, Jennie, where you felt almost a little burnt out, like this business is making me not like people. And you said that that's a problem. So talk to us about how with you being so relational, how even you said at times like, "I'm kind of burned out." What, what happened there?
Well, thank you for leading me up to that because I think that's an important part of the story because now people can see where I am or where we are as a team and they can make assumptions that we've just always been this awesome, right? That's not the case. We've had so many fail forwards during the process and like I shared with you in 2010 and 11 is when I took my first BOLD and got to a coach and my production doubled and I was a single agent still. And so what happens when your production doubles? Things start breaking, you start losing your mind and getting pretty stressed out. So I sloppily started building a team, not following any of the proper processes that are lined out for us. And by hodgepodging a team together, I was still, yes, I had some leverage and relief, which was awesome and at the same time, maybe I didn't hold them accountable correctly. I was still learning how to be a leader myself and so then I'm still hanging on to way too many things, not properly leveraged. What does that cause? Frustration and and really just getting to a point of like I shared: hating people, I hated people. I say it out loud in the classroom and people always laugh out loud and I know it is because they have been there and we cannot hate people in this relationship business that we're in. And so that's where I had to take a step back and reevaluate why in the world am I really doing this business? What do I love and how can I apply doing what I love to helping families buy and sell homes.
Let's talk a little bit about the root of this, of this hate and I'm not going to try and be a psychiatrist, but I would imagine, I know you're the loving mother of a beautiful little girl and I would imagine you had people that were imposing upon that time with her and they were demanding. And because you felt like, now this is pre team and I know some teams get a bad rap and that's probably accurate. Other teams don't deserve that bad rap that actually serve clients at a really high level. And I know based on what I've heard about you from Patrick and others and that you teach this business by referral at a high level, that's not you, right? But with these people, while you were just a solo agent you had on 15 hats at a time and the hat that you wanted to wear the most, which is that of being a mom was always on the sideline. Is that what caused the root of that hate?
How did you know all of that?
I am a dad. I get it. Right?!
That it, that is so true. And so many and dads are awesome as well. I can speak to the working moms because I am one. That is our struggle. You know, there's a book on it. It's called the ONE Thing, by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan. And by using that book as a tool, it really helps so much along with the Six Personal Perspectives, like we mentioned early on, the whole value of time blocking and knowing your calendar and family is on your calendar. So every day for the past four years, "Pick up Mia" is on my calendar and "Family time" at four o'clock. And so that was real easy for me to say, I'm sorry I've got an appointment at that time. Instead would noon tomorrow or you know, you pick the time that, that works for you. And I think that's it. That's the number one thing is taking control of your calendar. And that allows people to not stress you out. And so if you don't have a calendar, you will allow people in at all times that you get frustrated and you start feeling burnout. So that's key.
Yeah. Let's talk about this. You showed be a little something that you have on your desk that says E to P. Will you pull it out for the audience.
Yeah. My friend Missy Webb from Norman, Oklahoma, she sent this to me. I think it was after I taught a Six Personal Perspectives class and I said that one's my favorite. I love them all. I love all of the perspectives. The E to P though, every bit of our lives, personal lives, business, lives can be plussed and be better and we can have more focus and purpose with them.
Let's talk about what that is. There's probably a group of the audience that knows what that is, right? You and I do. In fact I was teaching it to a group yesterday, but going from like an entrepreneurial style to a purposeful style, and I want to parlay that into what you described, how you had this pivot. I would imagine before, when you were starting to dislike people, it was because you were working more entrepreneurially, right? Where it was like, "Yeah, like bring it on and I got this, I got everything." And there wasn't like a purpose behind it. You weren't being purposeful of like, "Okay, what matters most to my business?" Okay, this is on my calendar, this is what matters. Most of my relationships picking Mia at four o'clock, this is going on my calendar. That was that kind of where you started to to really embrace and implement this concept of E to P?
Yeah, I think so. And even the term counterbalance when that has been shared and if you really think about it as sometimes you do go extreme in your work life and you just have to know that it will come back together. You know, there's a straight line and you get extreme and work sometimes you may go extreme family and that's okay. So the goal is to really keep yourself balancing, counter balancing between the two. And that's where like Mr. Gary Keller says, as you start your year by planning out your calendar, starting with your family time, your vacation time first, and then all the rest gets filled in. And so I think that's key for keeping your head straight in this business.
Let's talk a little, I love that, and I couldn't agree more. I mentioned to you earlier, for those that don't know, I'm a father of six kids. Uh, that wasn't by accident. Yes, we've been asked by every elderly person we know if we know how that works and we actually started off wanting to have six. My wife comes from a family of seven and I always thought it'd be cool to have a big family. I did not come from a big family. So we went that path and we're grateful for it. There's certain times in the night, maybe last night about 1230, when I had a three year old who like having like a scary dream where I was like, "This is crazy." But nevertheless, that is when you have things that matter more than work and you and I both do, you have to move--If those relationships are important to you, if those other things in life are important to you, you have to move to purposeful otherwise business will eclipse all of it. I obviously have a responsibility for business development for a title company. I also have a new brand than a building. Think Bigger Real Estate. It's a movement to help real estate agents think bigger and it takes time and it can, it can encompass every waking minute if I were to allow it to and so I'm passionate about that topic because those relationships all matter more to me then do the business, or the businesses. So I get that. So thank you for sharing that.
I want to talk a little bit about your strategy, Jennie, that I think a lot of agents miss. They see other agents as their competition, right? It's a scarcity mindset of like, "Wait, you're a real estate agent, well I can't talk to you because we're going to be, we're going to be going for the same client. And I don't want to give you any of my secrets, because it's secret sauce. You've taken a different approach. Talk to us about that.
Yeah, absolutely. I, you know, right now, I shared with you a 25% of our business come from out of town, Realtor referrals. And years ago by accident I was using lots of video and my local market for my database, making a video about how maintenance, repairs or things around the community. And by accident one time my agent database accidentally got uploaded and so all my agent friends across the country got my local market videos and I was mortified. I could not believe it. I, oh, it was horrible. And then at the next big event that we had, people came up to me they knew me by name and by face. They knew where I lived and I got back to my room and I went, "Wait a minute, there might be something here." So I pulled up my, my video people and I said, "Hey, um, you know how I do that one blog from my local database? Could I do one of those for my agent database?" And they were like, "Absolutely." And so that's where "Your Journey with Jennie" came from. There's a website, there's a video blog, it's yourjourneywithjennie.com. Then I have a closed Facebook group as well. And that's just where my passion for sharing everything. And we do have a company at Keller Williams that we all share the top of the top of the top agents in our company, get on stage and tell you everything they do in their business and how they've become successful. And so I'm not one of them yet and I still love sharing. And so that's where I get so much. What happened was, Justin, remember I said that I had taken BOLD a lot in other cities outside of my area and it hit me one time when I was starting to feel some guilt because I was getting lots of agent referrals from agents around my area and I thought, "Oh, I'll never be able to repay them."
Like I'm getting so many referrals and I was feeling bad because that's what most agents would want back is a referral back to them. And I said, well, what could I do that will still add value to their lives, to their businesses, even if it's not in the form of a referral. And so that's where you know, I decided to just start adding these local agents to this group. So maybe if they get an Aha or a system or a tip or a trick they can put in their business that would pay them back.
So interesting that you say that. I'm working on kind of a bigger project right now to help real estate agents get referrals from professional sources like wealth advisors, attorneys, etc. And in that process, I had this mentality that, okay, if I can teach an agent how to refer a financial advisor, that financial advisor, will refer back. And I had a mentor say, "Don't do that." Like, if that happens, that's okay. But if you set it up that way, it's going to be very limited. That real estate agent needs to go and start delivering value in resources that help make the financial advisor's role and job easier, not necessarily more business. That may not even be what they want. They may be like a lot of wealth advisors say, "I'm already capped. I'm done." So that might have been not even be an interesting topic to them at all. You could just help them improve the service to their existing client base, maybe that's what they need. And so I love that you've actually employed that strategy with agents, which really is an abundant mentality of like, "I'm just going to give it all away. And if they bring back referrals my way, great." If it just enhances someone's life, it probably aligns with your core values anyway. Right? Let's help make lives and businesses better.
Yeah, absolutely, that's the thinking behind it and so much so that like I told you, I went from E to P on it. That, I mean it's on my calendar every day is to make a post inside of that group, you know, whether it's a motivational post, or "Here's a system we use." It's a part of my 411 and my GPS for my business, which is making sure that I'm adding value. Another thing, talking about the counter balancing and doing what we love is that because I've become a Keller Williams University instructor this year, I now can travel, train and get paid, which helps generate referrals back to my team. So while I'm gone, the team is still working and being funded and fueled by me doing what I love. And now my daughter is out of school during the summer, so guess who's going to come on tour with me this summer? So, you know, I've been asked to teach in Tampa. I'm going to bring her with me and go to the beach. I've been asked to teach in California, Southern California. We'll go to Disneyland together. So now she'll just get to see mom at doing what she loves. I'm excited about.
I love it. That is, what a great life, right? That you're able to build that way. I want to point out something that maybe wasn't obvious to everybody, but you shared with me is, when you started taking BOLD classes, they were available in your town, but you actually chose to drive two hours away to a different town to take those because you knew that not only would you be gaining the insight and the help that that BOLD would provide, but you'd be in a room of a hundred other referral sources that maybe didn't have a resource in your town. Uh, like brilliant! Right? Absolutely brilliant. Like a little more of a sacrifice on the more work, but...
Well it was, it is a sacrifice for sure because I'm getting up earlier and getting home later. Two hour drive was about the average of the locations. It's more of a burden on my family. Yeah, my husband's got it, you know, taking care of Mia to and from school. It's exhausting, you know. If I'm playing "all-in" in the BOLD room, it's physically exhausting and I'm making calls on the way there or on the way home to get in my contacts for the day. So it is a commitment and at the same time while you're there, you have to be purposeful again. So on every break, I would take care of my needs real quick and then I get right back in the room and walk around and meet everybody, personally handshake and give them my card and tell them where I'm from. And every time I stood up in the classroom, "Hi, I'm Jennie and I'm BOLD. I'm from Tulsa." You know, it's just always saying and sharing. And the BOLD coach just thinks it is pretty cool too. So they help promote you as well.
I would encourage, whether you're a Keller Williams agent or not, real estate agents have a tendency to go to classes, If they're good. They're growing themselves. And typically we look for the ones that are the most convenient, the easiest. And what a great idea is to choose ones that are maybe in a different town because that opens up a whole new set of opportunities.
Last topic here I want to cover Jennie. In fact, I was going to go into, you have a very small sliver of your business that comes via online leads and referrals and I'm just going talk about that quickly, because I actually want to get to another topic that I think would be even more valuable for the audience. And your philosophy with that is like "You're open to that but you embrace those people and bring them into your database and so they get the same--like they don't get the redheaded stepchild treatment--because they came in through some other source. You love on them just like as if they were someone you met at Mia's school, right? So it allows you to grow your database in a big way. Do you want to add anything to that before I got to go into the last question?
Yeah. I think that wherever the lead or referral comes from, whether it's a personal referral, an online lead from a source or an open house guests, they all come into our world and have similar touches right off the right out of the gate, which is call follow up, leave notes and those are standards for our team and it is always there. Another thing, I'm actually going to be at spring masterminds coming up and I'm on a panel about interrogating your pipeline. So how are you staying on top of who comes into your world and then making sure that they're put in the right place so that they're taken care of properly in your pipeline and not dropped like you said. So a new, a new piece that we've added is whenever that action plan gets applied to that new person by our lead coordinator, there is an action item for me as the leader has the agent connected just a few days out so that no lead is left behind, because the worst thing ever is to go back through your database and find people that have bought or sold with other agents.
That's the worst... ever!! So let's eliminate that.
So, last topic, and this is going to become part of my show, but I want to hear from you Jennie. Obviously you've done some great things, but at the core of your accomplishments has been an inner transformation, I believe, that has been a journey for you to become a better person. Talk to us about maybe a habit or a practice that you think is fundamental to you thinking bigger and becoming more, which has then resulted in the business growth.
Wow, that's a big question--To think bigger. And I would really think that it has everything to do with trainings and mindset. And honestly, what you think about usually happens. So think the very best of yourself. Put yourself in the way of smarter people that make you think bigger. Put yourself, like I shared with you. I went to this training through Keller Williams that's very expensive. It's $4,000 to attend. It's a lot of money. And most agents would say, I'm not paying that. And the value that I've gotten out of it over the years of the relationships that I've made have gotten me where I am. So that's a huge piece of that. Continue to grow every day, every day, every day.
So, just to kind of recap what I took from that, because I learn best when I, when I speak and teach. So what I'm hearing you say is you aren't afraid to invest in yourself, like courses being around people. You surround yourself with material and people that help grow you. That's awesome. And you audit your thoughts, "How am I talking to myself? "What am I saying about myself?"
And then one more thing I'm going to throw in because this has changed everything for me is have a coach. I have a coach. I've have had a coach since 2011 and I'll never not have a coach of some form because, with having a coach, you must be a coachable person. Yeah, being open to receive. I remember saying that to a coach one time. I'm not going to waste any time and that valuable coaching call that I'm spending money that I'm investing in myself in that time. I'm not going to waste time with excuses or reasons as to why I didn't do something. I either am committed to it or I'm not, and let's choose and let's go or not go and reset because I'm not going to waste any time. Let's get busy.
I love it--so good. Jennie, you've offered more than enough value to make everybody say "She's amazing." So I'm going to do something really quick here. I'm going to put up on the screen and I want to invite everybody to go on Facebook, search the Facebook Group--there's a page that's "Your Journey with Jennie", but more importantly is the Facebook Group. That's where she puts all of her goodies. So I'd encourage you to go find that and I would also say that if anybody has business in or around Tulsa, now you know who to contact. Obviously a dynamite person who will give back to you in very big ways by all the good stuff she shares. So, Jennie, what a pleasure this has been. Thank you so much for taking the time to pour in to the Think Bigger audience. I appreciate you and it's fun to get to know you even better. And I could see why Patrick speaks so highly of you.
It's an honor to know you and let me know how else I can help.
Awesome--I appreciate it very much.
Creators and Guests
Host
Justin Stoddart
What is Think Bigger Real Estate?
The road to success for real estate agents is well-marked. The road to significance is not. Here, we help you to Think Bigger than just your business. We inspire you to seek success AND significance, income AND impact. We do that by interviewing the biggest thinkers and highest achievers in the real estate industry, extracting the secrets to having it all.