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As she comes up on 42 years in the business, Debi Laue has been a top producing agent for decades. Tune in to hear her secrets that include:
-the advice she would have given to herself when she was first getting started
-what an agent can do to offer more value to their customers
-what she does to intentionally Think Bigger
Show Notes
Justin Stoddart 0:00
Hey, welcome back to the think bigger real estate Show. I'm your host, Justin Stoddart. And so excited to be here today with a friend of mine, someone who I admire and I think everyone in the Portland area, real estate industry admires this lady. And for those of you that are outside the industry, let me give a little background on Debi Laue and the treat that we have today. For me, first of all to have her here in studio. Thanks for being here, Debi. I know video is your favorite thing in the world. So this is this is really exciting for her to be able to impart her knowledge. And anyway, so background on her, been in the business Debi for 42 years, really that 42 years. And her team is still one of the very highest producers in the entire city. Just phenomenal, phenomenal amount of production that they do. And I think even more impressive than that isn't the numbers, but the people the way you guys go about doing business.
Debi Laue 0:47
Is that can I clarify, it's not my team anymore?
Justin Stoddart 0:49
Yes. Yes, please, please.
Debi Laue 0:52
Misunderstood proposition. Rick and Kiesha Brainard bought out on our team January 1, 2017. So what they've built from that point on is what we're doing now.
Justin Stoddart 1:00
Very cool, great distinction. So Debbie laid the groundwork for what Rick and Kiesha are now building, which is something phenomenal. And anyway, I'm excited to spend the time here with Debi and really try to extract from her, how she built what she built, it was really set the stage for what the team is doing now, which is really exciting. Super cool. So let's see any other bio points on Debi, I'm sure if anybody pops in here and wants to ask any questions that Debi, feel free to bring that up. But I know I've we've kind of pre-discussed a couple of different topics. So one of the things that I'd love to hear, Debi is if you were right now able to go back and talk to Debi Laue, it was just getting into the business. Now. Were you married to Bob at the time that you guys got in the business?
Debi Laue 1:43
No.
Justin Stoddart 1:43
Okay, so this was pre even pre-marriage you've been? You've been married to real estate long have you been married?
Debi Laue 1:50
That is true.
Justin Stoddart 1:53
if you were to go back and give advice to that person that's maybe a year in the business, like maybe they kind of give, What real estate is, but they haven't obviously built the career that you have. What advice would you give to yourself? So my first managing broker was lead Davies mother, Dorothy Davies mother, okay days.
Debi Laue 2:13
The best advice she gave me, she gave me a lot of advice. But the best advice was to surround yourself by positive people. And I understood very quickly why she told me that because in that era and continuing on, there's always office drama. And if you just avoid that, then you'll have a lot of time to spend with your family and your clients, which is what you should concentrate on. And going forward from that consistency has been the number one thing I would share with people. There's a quote out there by some entrepreneurial book writing Speaker I can't remember his name Darren Hardy, I think but he says because consistency is the one thing that achieves and continues the momentum. So in this is if you're not continuing the momentum, then you're stopped dead. It's called filling your pipeline, whatever you want to call it. consistencies, the number one target to achieve. And some of the ways almost that I'm hearing you say that people aren't consistent as they get caught up and stuff that doesn't matter. Right, right. You've got your clients to get the growth of your business, then you've got as you said, this office drama, stuff that's maybe not other stuff or other stuff, right Life Life drama, you can't avoid life. But if you can focus on the things that are productive, that that will help you be successful. So that consistency, I know that that is a big challenge for any of us that are entrepreneurial, right? We see shiny new ideas all the time.
Justin Stoddart 3:38
At what is that what is considered the consistency? How have you found to be most consistent? Is it certain by just having a calendar having a planning session? I mean, what's it look like for you or do you just have the discipline to be able to do it? Well, so this is this goes back to Bob. So Bob was a corporate guy, you know, he came out of the corporate world which most realtors didn't back in the day.
Debi Laue 4:00
He put systems together that kept us consistent. In other words, we had a CRM since 1983.
Justin Stoddart 4:08
Wow, that was pre-sales free CRM, wasn't it?
Debi Laue 4:11
I bought my first computer, which was this big and cost $5,000. But I had no idea how to use it until Bob came along. And he figured out a mail merge system where he put all of his clients into the system. And we started sending out these anniversary letters. Congratulations. This is the seventh year since you bought or sold a home with us, we hope you're doing well, etc. And always asking for business, of course, but that was our first attempt at being consistent. And then you move forward with client events. Yeah. And just staying in touch with pop buys, which our team now does because we have this lovely person named Melissa Nichols who said,
No, listen. So she's made it really easy for us to achieve that consistency on a whole new level.
Justin Stoddart 4:54
Like it's funny. I saw Melissa and Justin Nichols in the team picture and I was like, What did they do? Now I know the role very cool, good quality people, you guys have just done such a good job like everybody that joins the last one like, Oh my god, it's just another amazing person, you know? Well, that's you can have that direct indication they have built the business in the last two years. And I'm a very special way. So we have four producing agents, okay, and for support people, okay, which is a pretty, pretty amazing sort of ratio of support to producing brokers, you don't typically see that right? You see, very few support people or fewer support people and lots of agents. So what does that allow you guys to do by having almost like a one to one support to producing agent and allows you to do the stuff you're talking about? It allows us to spend our time with our clients, which is exactly where we need to be.
Wow, lots of profound wisdom there is whether it looks like people or what it looks like and or systems or tools. But whatever you can do to reinvest time back in your clients, right? is key, right. So we have gentlemen in our place.
Debi Laue 6:00
We go office that I don't know if he has a CRM now. But for years it didn't except he had his phone, which was his brand new form of Rolodex. And he said he would, you know, we had 10 minutes before a meeting, he would just go through and look at people's names, and you'd call somebody, it was that simple. Who Have I not talked to recently pick up the phone column. So in this era, when people are a phone at first, maybe go back to something as simple as picking up the phone and calling somebody you haven't talked to in a couple of weeks or a month or a year. But I do think that technologies take an interesting turn. And a lot of people use technology to be the contact with people. Right? It almost takes the place of contact with people. What I hear you saying is that that that technology should empower people, or it should empower us to spend more time with people, not less time with people, right, right. Our mantra is always been high tech, high touch. You have that both because you get left behind if you don't have the high tech piece, but people want to hear from you. Yeah.
They want to be personal.
Justin Stoddart 7:01
And again, the tech should allow you to be freed up to where you can spend more time with people. Right? As opposed to, I see a lot of people spending so much time on drip campaigns as if that's going to be the cure. All right. And it's like, I know, for me when I get to put on someone's drip campaign, it doesn't make me feel overly special, right? It helps me remember the person, right? And it makes me feel special when they reach out because now that trip has some sort of meaning behind it. But if it's just someone's email campaign, I don't know that anybody gets disappointed at the end of the day, because they didn't get enough emails that day. Like, maybe like letters in the mail in the mailbox, I feel.
But emails like man, I just, I only got 100 today, like it's kind of a bum day, right? We all get inundated with emails. And so I love what you guys are saying that although you embrace the high tech, you also have high touch and that becomes the sole focus, right? does good stuff. So kind of wrapping up. The advice you give yourself is the consistency piece consistency that that has and obviously, the systems you guys have put in place now has allowed you to be consistent. By having great people. So I love it. Let's talk about the next question, right one that we kind of
are that I suggested, right? And I'm actually there's actually kind of two questions less left you to want to cover but for maybe before I get into that, in case some of you don't make it all the way to the end, I want to, I want to put something up here on the screen, which is an event that Debbie is going to be speaking at. So if by chance, you are loving the advice that she's giving, and you'd love to be able to spend more time with her. You're saying like Debbie wanting to do more videos, you're so good at them. May 9, from 10 until 1130 there's going to be an event called it's the masters of real estate event. And she's gonna be on a panel with Heather Robbins, Amy Savage, Terry Sprague Joe Fustolo. I'm missing anybody?
I'll be moderating. I won't be on the panel. But yeah, just some amazing lineup of people. Give you great insight like Debi's given today. So if you're, if you're hungry for more, again, we've got a few more questions here that we're going to offer up to Debi. But I would encourage you to sign up for that event. You can find it on Eventbrite. If you're reading through the comments afterward, I'll put the link in there. It's gonna be an awesome event. Again, I feel honored to be able to, and a little overwhelmed to take only have 90 minutes with all of you. I'd like to have 90 minutes with each of you. But it's going to be a pretty exciting event for sure. It's a fundraiser for Youth Music Project. Yes. Which is a wonderful nonprofit in West Linn for anybody who has musical aspirations? Yeah. If for those of you who aren't familiar with it, it's an organization that gives kind of reduced price, music lessons, scholarships, to help the youth get musically inclined, which I know as I look at my own kids, and music does a lot for people really does a lot for people. So anyway, it'll be a great cause the ticket prices for Low, like $10 I believe so please come I think they're seating for 130. And we're moving towards every day getting closer and closer to sold out. So please register. Now it's going to be a fantastic event. So carry on now back to our regularly scheduled interview questions here I broadcast, you know that the in addition to this component of having, like the best advice you'd give to yourself, and I'm gonna have to apologize here, Debbie, I forgot my second question. You probably remember it better than I do. Give me a sec here. The second question was, Oh, yes. What is what are two things that an agent can do? to offer value to their customers, right? We're living in a time in an era when customers have more choice than ever before and more power than ever before, right? Whether it be through reviews, whether it be they're just socially connected as they've never been before. At the end of the day, the consumer having the best experience is what
Where the consumer is going to end up going? And so what are what is one or two items that you would recommend to agents that they should do to increase the value of their clients?
Debi Laue 11:10
Okay. So what works for me, I can speak to that is knowing the market I work and forwards and backward. So if you're doing an open house, let's say, and it's in a neighborhood, and there are five homes for sale, go see every one of those homes and then when that person comes through your open house and your home doesn't match that home, in particular to their needs, you've got five others you can talk about intelligently, you can say that one's really well priced, that one's got the floor plan you want, you're adding value to your client and all of a sudden, well, they're not in your client yet, but they want to be your client. So know your market and provide value on helping them do something they can't do by looking at raw data. Know the inventory. The second thing is, we have so many opportunities for education in this business, and the more you can attend things like Pat stones, economic update or just your staff meetings where you're learning something every week, and you can pass that information along to your client, you're adding value to them because they don't know the real estate market. They're trusting you to know it.
Justin Stoddart 12:11
Good stuff. So interesting with this, the open house concept, do you think that going on virtually doing similar that similar research does that? Does that provide the same value as you need to go walk through the house?
Debi Laue 12:24
It's like, Okay, this is a female thing. It's like trying on a dress might look great on the rap. So when you walk through a home, it has a feel it has an aura, you know, it's just different when you walk through it. And if you can share that with your customer, you can save them a lot of time of you know, rolling out the dogs and the good ones.
Justin Stoddart 12:45
So what is your practice look like? Do you take like Tuesday tour and go do that in your area? And or on the weekends? Do you spend some time just visiting open houses like what, or do you go visit bacon homes, they can home
Debi Laue 12:59
bacon homes are easy. So if you pop in and of course, call the agent first, but pop in and take a look, get a feel for it. But tours very valuable. I don't make it every week, you know, nobody does. But if you can get three or four homes, like even every other week, that just gives you more broad knowledge. If I'm working in a particular area that I'm not super familiar with, I will spend more time looking at homes and trying to get a feel for the market.
Justin Stoddart 13:23
And I can see the value for clients who again, are seeing very limited data based on what the agent put online. Right, right with a publicly recorded data. And what you're saying is to be able to go walk through a house and really see and feel and get a feel and be thinking through the eyes of your customers. Right, What do they want? That's probably the difference to some degree is you know your clients well enough and what really their lifestyles like and what they're looking to accomplish. You can do that. While looking through these homes. You can start making matches, right? You feel like I got a place for you or when you meet with someone you're like, you know, I just saw places past week that sounds like what you're looking for.
Debi Laue 14:00
Yeah, I had a client that was trying to force fit themselves into a house that they thought they really wanted. Fortunately, I knew about ones, I just knew it would be better for them. And I took them away that wasn't on the market yet. And they went, Oh, my goodness, how did you get into it almost bought that. Just friends of yours. It was a client admit two years ago, and then they put everything on hold. And so I thought about a bad house for these people. Oh, yeah, bring them over, not thinking that would be anything. It was a perfect match. So it just kind of that having that inventory in your head, that you can try and move people towards if they're making kind of a mistake over here.
Justin Stoddart 14:34
But that's again, looking at the where the industry is going. Obviously, there are billions of dollars in venture capital money being invested in real estate right now, to try and eliminate to reduce or eliminate what a real estate agent doesn't get paid. Right? We see it happening all around us. And the stuff that you're describing Debi would be very difficult for a computer to write an algorithm for right where you have, like, specific neighborhood data that isn't even on the market.
But just based on people that you know, homes, you've been to that were once on the market, like you really start to set yourself as a part as a specialist that somebody would aspire to work with. And you couldn't replace that, that you and your team are actively doing with pulling publicly recorded data or data from the MLS, right? Well, these technologies are all the more than the data. Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. That's such a great insight on how to add more value for your clients. Now as we move on to the next question, okay. So obviously, we have kind of this theme of thinking bigger, pretty apparent means that's what that means. Think bigger. It's a constant reminder of how important it is to be to expand your possibilities. And obviously, Debi has done some pretty impressive things that are career and is now finding success through other people by continuing to mentor the team now that she's on, that she wants founded. So Debi, what does it look like? Or what has it looked like for you to help your self to continue to think bigger and think beyond maybe where you're at or the limitations that you want set.
Debi Laue 16:06
So I love to travel. If you're in a foreign culture, you start to see how different people think. And then you translate that into your own local tribes, so to speak, because there are tribes within your sphere of influence. I love our clientele. We have a fabulous clientele that knows a lot more than I do about things. And I just listened to what they have to say, I learned something new, nearly every day from our clients,
Justin Stoddart 16:36
because you're asking questions and listening questions. So this travel concept, I don't know if you have an example I'm trying to think so you go to like visit Europe for a set, for example, and you see something there. that inspires you to be able to bring value to your clients. Is that right? Just helps you to see the world just,
Debi Laue 16:53
it just opens your mind. And once your mind is open, then you can learn a lot more no matter what it is. You're interested Tokyo was where I was, okay. And Japanese people, they have such a different way of handling themselves. They're polite, they don't talk on the subway because it's so crowded, they don't eat on the subway, they're just polite to each other. And it's just it was a culture that if you have a chance, I strongly suggest you spend some time in Japan. It brought me back to America thinking, boy, if we implemented some of their behaviors, we'd be so far ahead of where we are now. That's probably not gonna happen. But you know, that sort of idea of opening your mind to new concepts, new cultures, new ways of doing things? I just think it translates to your business as well.
Justin Stoddart 17:41
Well, that's it's really interesting that it's almost kind of an indirect translation, right? It's like you learned something in Tokyo. Specifically, you go teach your clients right but by you seeing like, Boy, that's a big world out here. And people do things differently. You come back, and now you learn even from up from the same sources you learn differently, right, huh?
Debi Laue 18:00
changes your mind.
Justin Stoddart 18:01
Yeah. What a powerful practice. I would imagine. I would imagine everybody would love to accept Debbie's invitation to go visit Tokyo. Yeah. So maybe that's the takeaway for some of you, or to travel more, but whatever it looks like for you expanding your possibilities, or seeing other cultures and how other people do stuff. That's awesome.
Debi Laue 18:16
So on the local level, for example, the people we're going to be learning from at the event. Yeah, I learned things from Terry Sprague. Heather, I mean, everybody on that panel, I've learned something from so that's the collaborative effort of working with people locally and listening to them, and what can you learn from them? So there's a little plug for the event. But yeah, let me put it brings it down to reality.
Justin Stoddart 18:42
Let me put it up here again because I think, hopefully, we've convinced some of you to clear your schedule and, and, and make way for this event. The thing I love about the people that have been chosen is that they really do see other agents not as their competitors, but as their allies, but it's teammates. It's teamwork, and it takes the
And I think, again, the way the industry is going, it's more and more important that agents come together to see how we can collectively bring more value to the consumer. Right elaboration.
Debi Laue 19:12
Yeah, it's very important.
Justin Stoddart 19:13
It's going to be such a fun event. So we hope to see you there. And w thank you so much for spending some time. Just such a fan of this lady. She has just such a great reputation and has done so many great things. And again, her legacy continues on through Rick and Kesha and I'm excited to see their future super bright as an A Rick's a big thinker as well. So anyway, thank you again for being a big thinker being on the show today. Thanks, everybody for tuning in. And we'll look forward to seeing you on the next one.
Hey, welcome back to the think bigger real estate Show. I'm your host, Justin Stoddart. And so excited to be here today with a friend of mine, someone who I admire and I think everyone in the Portland area, real estate industry admires this lady. And for those of you that are outside the industry, let me give a little background on Debi Laue and the treat that we have today. For me, first of all to have her here in studio. Thanks for being here, Debi. I know video is your favorite thing in the world. So this is this is really exciting for her to be able to impart her knowledge. And anyway, so background on her, been in the business Debi for 42 years, really that 42 years. And her team is still one of the very highest producers in the entire city. Just phenomenal, phenomenal amount of production that they do. And I think even more impressive than that isn't the numbers, but the people the way you guys go about doing business.
Debi Laue 0:47
Is that can I clarify, it's not my team anymore?
Justin Stoddart 0:49
Yes. Yes, please, please.
Debi Laue 0:52
Misunderstood proposition. Rick and Kiesha Brainard bought out on our team January 1, 2017. So what they've built from that point on is what we're doing now.
Justin Stoddart 1:00
Very cool, great distinction. So Debbie laid the groundwork for what Rick and Kiesha are now building, which is something phenomenal. And anyway, I'm excited to spend the time here with Debi and really try to extract from her, how she built what she built, it was really set the stage for what the team is doing now, which is really exciting. Super cool. So let's see any other bio points on Debi, I'm sure if anybody pops in here and wants to ask any questions that Debi, feel free to bring that up. But I know I've we've kind of pre-discussed a couple of different topics. So one of the things that I'd love to hear, Debi is if you were right now able to go back and talk to Debi Laue, it was just getting into the business. Now. Were you married to Bob at the time that you guys got in the business?
Debi Laue 1:43
No.
Justin Stoddart 1:43
Okay, so this was pre even pre-marriage you've been? You've been married to real estate long have you been married?
Debi Laue 1:50
That is true.
Justin Stoddart 1:53
if you were to go back and give advice to that person that's maybe a year in the business, like maybe they kind of give, What real estate is, but they haven't obviously built the career that you have. What advice would you give to yourself? So my first managing broker was lead Davies mother, Dorothy Davies mother, okay days.
Debi Laue 2:13
The best advice she gave me, she gave me a lot of advice. But the best advice was to surround yourself by positive people. And I understood very quickly why she told me that because in that era and continuing on, there's always office drama. And if you just avoid that, then you'll have a lot of time to spend with your family and your clients, which is what you should concentrate on. And going forward from that consistency has been the number one thing I would share with people. There's a quote out there by some entrepreneurial book writing Speaker I can't remember his name Darren Hardy, I think but he says because consistency is the one thing that achieves and continues the momentum. So in this is if you're not continuing the momentum, then you're stopped dead. It's called filling your pipeline, whatever you want to call it. consistencies, the number one target to achieve. And some of the ways almost that I'm hearing you say that people aren't consistent as they get caught up and stuff that doesn't matter. Right, right. You've got your clients to get the growth of your business, then you've got as you said, this office drama, stuff that's maybe not other stuff or other stuff, right Life Life drama, you can't avoid life. But if you can focus on the things that are productive, that that will help you be successful. So that consistency, I know that that is a big challenge for any of us that are entrepreneurial, right? We see shiny new ideas all the time.
Justin Stoddart 3:38
At what is that what is considered the consistency? How have you found to be most consistent? Is it certain by just having a calendar having a planning session? I mean, what's it look like for you or do you just have the discipline to be able to do it? Well, so this is this goes back to Bob. So Bob was a corporate guy, you know, he came out of the corporate world which most realtors didn't back in the day.
Debi Laue 4:00
He put systems together that kept us consistent. In other words, we had a CRM since 1983.
Justin Stoddart 4:08
Wow, that was pre-sales free CRM, wasn't it?
Debi Laue 4:11
I bought my first computer, which was this big and cost $5,000. But I had no idea how to use it until Bob came along. And he figured out a mail merge system where he put all of his clients into the system. And we started sending out these anniversary letters. Congratulations. This is the seventh year since you bought or sold a home with us, we hope you're doing well, etc. And always asking for business, of course, but that was our first attempt at being consistent. And then you move forward with client events. Yeah. And just staying in touch with pop buys, which our team now does because we have this lovely person named Melissa Nichols who said,
No, listen. So she's made it really easy for us to achieve that consistency on a whole new level.
Justin Stoddart 4:54
Like it's funny. I saw Melissa and Justin Nichols in the team picture and I was like, What did they do? Now I know the role very cool, good quality people, you guys have just done such a good job like everybody that joins the last one like, Oh my god, it's just another amazing person, you know? Well, that's you can have that direct indication they have built the business in the last two years. And I'm a very special way. So we have four producing agents, okay, and for support people, okay, which is a pretty, pretty amazing sort of ratio of support to producing brokers, you don't typically see that right? You see, very few support people or fewer support people and lots of agents. So what does that allow you guys to do by having almost like a one to one support to producing agent and allows you to do the stuff you're talking about? It allows us to spend our time with our clients, which is exactly where we need to be.
Wow, lots of profound wisdom there is whether it looks like people or what it looks like and or systems or tools. But whatever you can do to reinvest time back in your clients, right? is key, right. So we have gentlemen in our place.
Debi Laue 6:00
We go office that I don't know if he has a CRM now. But for years it didn't except he had his phone, which was his brand new form of Rolodex. And he said he would, you know, we had 10 minutes before a meeting, he would just go through and look at people's names, and you'd call somebody, it was that simple. Who Have I not talked to recently pick up the phone column. So in this era, when people are a phone at first, maybe go back to something as simple as picking up the phone and calling somebody you haven't talked to in a couple of weeks or a month or a year. But I do think that technologies take an interesting turn. And a lot of people use technology to be the contact with people. Right? It almost takes the place of contact with people. What I hear you saying is that that that technology should empower people, or it should empower us to spend more time with people, not less time with people, right, right. Our mantra is always been high tech, high touch. You have that both because you get left behind if you don't have the high tech piece, but people want to hear from you. Yeah.
They want to be personal.
Justin Stoddart 7:01
And again, the tech should allow you to be freed up to where you can spend more time with people. Right? As opposed to, I see a lot of people spending so much time on drip campaigns as if that's going to be the cure. All right. And it's like, I know, for me when I get to put on someone's drip campaign, it doesn't make me feel overly special, right? It helps me remember the person, right? And it makes me feel special when they reach out because now that trip has some sort of meaning behind it. But if it's just someone's email campaign, I don't know that anybody gets disappointed at the end of the day, because they didn't get enough emails that day. Like, maybe like letters in the mail in the mailbox, I feel.
But emails like man, I just, I only got 100 today, like it's kind of a bum day, right? We all get inundated with emails. And so I love what you guys are saying that although you embrace the high tech, you also have high touch and that becomes the sole focus, right? does good stuff. So kind of wrapping up. The advice you give yourself is the consistency piece consistency that that has and obviously, the systems you guys have put in place now has allowed you to be consistent. By having great people. So I love it. Let's talk about the next question, right one that we kind of
are that I suggested, right? And I'm actually there's actually kind of two questions less left you to want to cover but for maybe before I get into that, in case some of you don't make it all the way to the end, I want to, I want to put something up here on the screen, which is an event that Debbie is going to be speaking at. So if by chance, you are loving the advice that she's giving, and you'd love to be able to spend more time with her. You're saying like Debbie wanting to do more videos, you're so good at them. May 9, from 10 until 1130 there's going to be an event called it's the masters of real estate event. And she's gonna be on a panel with Heather Robbins, Amy Savage, Terry Sprague Joe Fustolo. I'm missing anybody?
I'll be moderating. I won't be on the panel. But yeah, just some amazing lineup of people. Give you great insight like Debi's given today. So if you're, if you're hungry for more, again, we've got a few more questions here that we're going to offer up to Debi. But I would encourage you to sign up for that event. You can find it on Eventbrite. If you're reading through the comments afterward, I'll put the link in there. It's gonna be an awesome event. Again, I feel honored to be able to, and a little overwhelmed to take only have 90 minutes with all of you. I'd like to have 90 minutes with each of you. But it's going to be a pretty exciting event for sure. It's a fundraiser for Youth Music Project. Yes. Which is a wonderful nonprofit in West Linn for anybody who has musical aspirations? Yeah. If for those of you who aren't familiar with it, it's an organization that gives kind of reduced price, music lessons, scholarships, to help the youth get musically inclined, which I know as I look at my own kids, and music does a lot for people really does a lot for people. So anyway, it'll be a great cause the ticket prices for Low, like $10 I believe so please come I think they're seating for 130. And we're moving towards every day getting closer and closer to sold out. So please register. Now it's going to be a fantastic event. So carry on now back to our regularly scheduled interview questions here I broadcast, you know that the in addition to this component of having, like the best advice you'd give to yourself, and I'm gonna have to apologize here, Debbie, I forgot my second question. You probably remember it better than I do. Give me a sec here. The second question was, Oh, yes. What is what are two things that an agent can do? to offer value to their customers, right? We're living in a time in an era when customers have more choice than ever before and more power than ever before, right? Whether it be through reviews, whether it be they're just socially connected as they've never been before. At the end of the day, the consumer having the best experience is what
Where the consumer is going to end up going? And so what are what is one or two items that you would recommend to agents that they should do to increase the value of their clients?
Debi Laue 11:10
Okay. So what works for me, I can speak to that is knowing the market I work and forwards and backward. So if you're doing an open house, let's say, and it's in a neighborhood, and there are five homes for sale, go see every one of those homes and then when that person comes through your open house and your home doesn't match that home, in particular to their needs, you've got five others you can talk about intelligently, you can say that one's really well priced, that one's got the floor plan you want, you're adding value to your client and all of a sudden, well, they're not in your client yet, but they want to be your client. So know your market and provide value on helping them do something they can't do by looking at raw data. Know the inventory. The second thing is, we have so many opportunities for education in this business, and the more you can attend things like Pat stones, economic update or just your staff meetings where you're learning something every week, and you can pass that information along to your client, you're adding value to them because they don't know the real estate market. They're trusting you to know it.
Justin Stoddart 12:11
Good stuff. So interesting with this, the open house concept, do you think that going on virtually doing similar that similar research does that? Does that provide the same value as you need to go walk through the house?
Debi Laue 12:24
It's like, Okay, this is a female thing. It's like trying on a dress might look great on the rap. So when you walk through a home, it has a feel it has an aura, you know, it's just different when you walk through it. And if you can share that with your customer, you can save them a lot of time of you know, rolling out the dogs and the good ones.
Justin Stoddart 12:45
So what is your practice look like? Do you take like Tuesday tour and go do that in your area? And or on the weekends? Do you spend some time just visiting open houses like what, or do you go visit bacon homes, they can home
Debi Laue 12:59
bacon homes are easy. So if you pop in and of course, call the agent first, but pop in and take a look, get a feel for it. But tours very valuable. I don't make it every week, you know, nobody does. But if you can get three or four homes, like even every other week, that just gives you more broad knowledge. If I'm working in a particular area that I'm not super familiar with, I will spend more time looking at homes and trying to get a feel for the market.
Justin Stoddart 13:23
And I can see the value for clients who again, are seeing very limited data based on what the agent put online. Right, right with a publicly recorded data. And what you're saying is to be able to go walk through a house and really see and feel and get a feel and be thinking through the eyes of your customers. Right, What do they want? That's probably the difference to some degree is you know your clients well enough and what really their lifestyles like and what they're looking to accomplish. You can do that. While looking through these homes. You can start making matches, right? You feel like I got a place for you or when you meet with someone you're like, you know, I just saw places past week that sounds like what you're looking for.
Debi Laue 14:00
Yeah, I had a client that was trying to force fit themselves into a house that they thought they really wanted. Fortunately, I knew about ones, I just knew it would be better for them. And I took them away that wasn't on the market yet. And they went, Oh, my goodness, how did you get into it almost bought that. Just friends of yours. It was a client admit two years ago, and then they put everything on hold. And so I thought about a bad house for these people. Oh, yeah, bring them over, not thinking that would be anything. It was a perfect match. So it just kind of that having that inventory in your head, that you can try and move people towards if they're making kind of a mistake over here.
Justin Stoddart 14:34
But that's again, looking at the where the industry is going. Obviously, there are billions of dollars in venture capital money being invested in real estate right now, to try and eliminate to reduce or eliminate what a real estate agent doesn't get paid. Right? We see it happening all around us. And the stuff that you're describing Debi would be very difficult for a computer to write an algorithm for right where you have, like, specific neighborhood data that isn't even on the market.
But just based on people that you know, homes, you've been to that were once on the market, like you really start to set yourself as a part as a specialist that somebody would aspire to work with. And you couldn't replace that, that you and your team are actively doing with pulling publicly recorded data or data from the MLS, right? Well, these technologies are all the more than the data. Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. That's such a great insight on how to add more value for your clients. Now as we move on to the next question, okay. So obviously, we have kind of this theme of thinking bigger, pretty apparent means that's what that means. Think bigger. It's a constant reminder of how important it is to be to expand your possibilities. And obviously, Debi has done some pretty impressive things that are career and is now finding success through other people by continuing to mentor the team now that she's on, that she wants founded. So Debi, what does it look like? Or what has it looked like for you to help your self to continue to think bigger and think beyond maybe where you're at or the limitations that you want set.
Debi Laue 16:06
So I love to travel. If you're in a foreign culture, you start to see how different people think. And then you translate that into your own local tribes, so to speak, because there are tribes within your sphere of influence. I love our clientele. We have a fabulous clientele that knows a lot more than I do about things. And I just listened to what they have to say, I learned something new, nearly every day from our clients,
Justin Stoddart 16:36
because you're asking questions and listening questions. So this travel concept, I don't know if you have an example I'm trying to think so you go to like visit Europe for a set, for example, and you see something there. that inspires you to be able to bring value to your clients. Is that right? Just helps you to see the world just,
Debi Laue 16:53
it just opens your mind. And once your mind is open, then you can learn a lot more no matter what it is. You're interested Tokyo was where I was, okay. And Japanese people, they have such a different way of handling themselves. They're polite, they don't talk on the subway because it's so crowded, they don't eat on the subway, they're just polite to each other. And it's just it was a culture that if you have a chance, I strongly suggest you spend some time in Japan. It brought me back to America thinking, boy, if we implemented some of their behaviors, we'd be so far ahead of where we are now. That's probably not gonna happen. But you know, that sort of idea of opening your mind to new concepts, new cultures, new ways of doing things? I just think it translates to your business as well.
Justin Stoddart 17:41
Well, that's it's really interesting that it's almost kind of an indirect translation, right? It's like you learned something in Tokyo. Specifically, you go teach your clients right but by you seeing like, Boy, that's a big world out here. And people do things differently. You come back, and now you learn even from up from the same sources you learn differently, right, huh?
Debi Laue 18:00
changes your mind.
Justin Stoddart 18:01
Yeah. What a powerful practice. I would imagine. I would imagine everybody would love to accept Debbie's invitation to go visit Tokyo. Yeah. So maybe that's the takeaway for some of you, or to travel more, but whatever it looks like for you expanding your possibilities, or seeing other cultures and how other people do stuff. That's awesome.
Debi Laue 18:16
So on the local level, for example, the people we're going to be learning from at the event. Yeah, I learned things from Terry Sprague. Heather, I mean, everybody on that panel, I've learned something from so that's the collaborative effort of working with people locally and listening to them, and what can you learn from them? So there's a little plug for the event. But yeah, let me put it brings it down to reality.
Justin Stoddart 18:42
Let me put it up here again because I think, hopefully, we've convinced some of you to clear your schedule and, and, and make way for this event. The thing I love about the people that have been chosen is that they really do see other agents not as their competitors, but as their allies, but it's teammates. It's teamwork, and it takes the
And I think, again, the way the industry is going, it's more and more important that agents come together to see how we can collectively bring more value to the consumer. Right elaboration.
Debi Laue 19:12
Yeah, it's very important.
Justin Stoddart 19:13
It's going to be such a fun event. So we hope to see you there. And w thank you so much for spending some time. Just such a fan of this lady. She has just such a great reputation and has done so many great things. And again, her legacy continues on through Rick and Kesha and I'm excited to see their future super bright as an A Rick's a big thinker as well. So anyway, thank you again for being a big thinker being on the show today. Thanks, everybody for tuning in. And we'll look forward to seeing you on the next one.
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.