Today we are looking at another way to combat this recession; expanding beyond your current market and your comfort zone. Whether that's expanding to neighborhood, city or state, get out of your comfort zone. It might be scary, but this is the perfect opportunity for you to expand your brand and your business.

Scott is the broker and owner of Finish Line Realty, an independent brokerage that serves the Greater Louisville area as well as Nolin Lake in Central Kentucky. He also produces Real Estate Distilled, host some of the biggest names in real estate.

Three Things You’ll Learn in This Episode

• Why you should go to events and conferences.
• How can you sharpen your skill set?
• Why you need to be investing in yourself.

Resource

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Transcript:

So how do you track new business, you constantly don't have to chase it. Hi, I'm Mike Cuevas to real estate marketing. And this podcast is all about building a strong personal brand people have come to know, like trust and most importantly, refer. But remember, it is not their job to remember what you do for a living. It's your job to remind them. Let's get started. What's up ladies and gentlemen, welcome another episode of the real estate marketing, dude, podcast, it is the end of the year, folks. We are long depending when you listen to this recording, you're at the very beginning of next year or the very end of 2022. And one of the things we always do around this time of year is figure out well, what are we going to do next year, this is a time where people get resolutions time where people make commitments, set goals, start planning, but actually, in actuality, very rarely does that actual initial goal get followed up on there's a lot of change in the real estate industry right now. So you know, I'm dedicating the next quarter did literally talking about what the hell you should be doing are we can you be doing because we've been spoiled the last five, the world's be honest, 10 years, we've had the longest running market ever, of just nothing but list sell lists out, it's been pretty damn easy, guys. Well, things are about to get rough if they haven't been rough already. And one of the things you're gonna need do is sharpen your skill sets. So one of the things we want to focus on today is why you should go and attend. Get out of your comfort zone, get out of your city, get out of your state, get out of people you see every day, because realistically, you need to surround yourself around people that know how to navigate this market. And I highly doubt it's someone even within your own office, you need to get outside of your office and start thinking outside the box. So who we have here today is he's all over social media. His name's Mr. Scott hack. He's the Creator. And he was the guy who built the real estate distilled Conference, which is really cool conference. In the Midwest, that happens each and every year. I spoke at it a few years ago, I think right prior to COVID. But we're going to talk about events and why you need to go to them and why you should. I'm a big fan of this. So without further ado, let's go ahead and introduce our guest, Mr. Scott hack. Scott, how are you today?

Very good, man. Thanks for having me on, I really appreciate the opportunity to share with your audience and talk about one of my passions and events and how you can make it a part of your business and actually, you know, implement things and make them beneficial to you. So I really appreciate the opportunity.

You have you started doing this event, because you were just like an event junkie, right?

I mean, part of it, there wasn't a conference that I really felt like that was a fit for, for me as an independent broker in the areas that I wanted to be in. And, you know, it's events are either put together by a coaching company, or a software company is already you know, the big maybe you guys company. Yeah, you know, but you know, it's, there's hard, it's hard to find one that's put together that doesn't necessarily have something that is, it's like a loss leader for right. So you're coming there to see, you're going to learn. And yes, there is definitely beneficial to go to ones where other people are using the same systems as you, you can find people that are doing the same workflows as you. But also just having something like you said outside the box, people operating their businesses differently, is really what I was trying to accomplish and put together a network of people that I could turn to on a random Tuesday with a question.

When back in 2006, Spot seven, right when the market started to turn, I was in this situation. We're in Chicago and these things, short sales started to come across my desk because I used to rent an office next door to an attorney and the attorney was too damn lazy to negotiate a short sale. So he gave them to me. And when you get your first short sale file, you're like, what the hell you're gonna do? Yeah, at that time in Chicago, in the Midwest is always a year behind the coast, right? It starts in California, then it just comes over if it goes from west to east guys, and this is where I think you're gonna see in this market, but at that time, no one knew in Chicago knew to fuck a short sale was, however, back in California at that time, they're transacting, they're coming big, you know. And I started going to these conferences. And I remember being the guy in the back of the room at the conference. And I remember, Jeff Watson was one of the speakers at him. I saw the short sale kit at one of the speakers at him. And I sat there in the back of that conference, I said, I'm gonna be fucking leading this conference with me, I'm gonna be speaking at this conference, I'm gonna have my own conference, I'm gonna get 300 people to come to it. Not only did I end up learning techniques, but it was because I was willing to step outside the box and we became the largest short sale team in the country at that time. 25 To 35 closed a month. We're negotiating all over the country, and we had several different streams of income lined up. It was actually the best years of my career before I crashed again. And it was only because I was willing to step outside the box. When I go to a conference. My goal is to go ahead and soak up the information that I get. But what realistically happens is other opportunities I'm living and seeing Diego right now, as a result of a $15,000 mastermind I signed up for in 2013. And the person I'm partners with now happens to live in San Diego. And that's why I live here today all started from a conference. So I'm telling you guys, I'm living speaking proof of why you need to go out and go to these conferences, to have the biggest stories of life changing stories in my life have actually come as a result of them. Scott, what's your experience?

Yeah, 100%. So the people who were putting together conferences, you know, I work really hard to get speakers like yourself to come and share their stories and put together actionable tips that attendees can can put into their business. But you have to remember, for every person that's on the stage, there's another 1520 30 people in the audience that also have information that they can they can share with you, and they can impart on you and you can put into your business and the conversations that are happening between the speakers that are taking place at happy hour and at dinners and lunches. Those are just as valuable. It's what's happening on the stage. So yes, definitely going into it with an open mind and not having any preconceived notions of what you're going to do or what you're going to learn. Just being willing to take it all in and then figuring that out as you're going through the process.

But how do you answer the question? Hey, Scott, things are getting tight. Right now, I haven't sold a house, the markets turning sales are down 40%. If I go to a conference, that's going to cost me by today's calculation, $450 for the ticket, six to $800 for the room, and then all the drinks, which depending on how big of an alcoholic you are, might be a big budget. So how do you answer that question to them? I think I know what you're gonna say. But go ahead, go for it.

Yeah, I think I think one of the easiest things right now is, keep in mind that every single person that's in the audience is a potential referral partner. So that's just number one, right off the bat, like picking up a transaction from someone else that's there. It's one of the reasons why I started real estate to steal is to build a referral network as an independent broker, I typically am pulling in five to six referrals into my little Louisville, Kentucky market where there's not a ton of people transferring in. So you know, if you're in a better city, or there's not as much competition on social media for those referrals, you're gonna do better than that. And your, your breakevens basically, you know, one good transaction and putting money in your pocket. So even if you pick up one referral, you know, over the next two years, you're you're back at breakeven on an event like this, not to mention all the other tips and things that you might put into your business, that's going to make it even bigger and better.

I this morning. So I'm, I'm going to, you're like talking me into it during this podcast. But so I'm debating joining this $30,000 year, mastermind slash coaching program. For our software companies, I want to sharpen my skills for sweet assist. If you haven't heard about this, you should go get suite assist. Or if you haven't heard about referral suite, you should go get referrals suite. But I want to grow my software company and I'm looking at the cost $2,500 A month, right? So I talked to a friend of mine, Trevor mock, and owner of carrot and carrot and he cocky text me back this morning. He goes, dude, I go Should I join this thing? Should I go to this mastermind? Right? texted me back. He goes, Yeah, tons of great resources, I one little tweak can easily add $30,000 their bottom line. And he's and he basically just goes, and they go on to say like, and you hear these stories all the time, guys, it's that one little thing, you get the goal of these conferences, like you're not going to retain everything you're going to grab. But if you retain that one or two things, it's not only going to pencil, it's going to provide a positive return on investment. So you got to look at this as an investment in your skill. Your broker unless you work for Scott hack is not going to give you business, okay? They're not going to lead you in the way most times, right? It's be honest, right? So you have you're an independent, you're an entrepreneur, dude, grow up big boy pants, this is the time to do it. Put on your big boy pants, or big girl pants, whatever you want to be. And whatever you are, I mean, and you got to invest in yourself, this is the absolute best time to do it.

It also like it's good to know both sides, it's good to know what you want to do. And it's also great to know what you want no interest, you know, no part of I've had people that have been telling me you know, about, you know, flipping flipping profit properties or being you know, accidental landlords, you know, buy hold, or, like investing for me, right, like two years ago wasn't something I had any interest in. I was definitely focused on home life. We were putting together some personal goals. I'm starting to get a little bit more interested so I can open my ears to those type of things. But at the time, I knew it wasn't something I wanted any part of. So I think you have to go into it knowing what you're you're interested in doing what you want no part of just like when you're taking a client to a house, you walk them through. You learn things when the house isn't a fit just as much when you walk through your house it is if it and you're getting exposed to all those things. From things as quickly as possible, and, quote, failing forward with an idea, like it's, it's easy to pick up an idea and say, Okay, I don't want to put any more time into that idea right now, like someone's already shown me why this won't be a fit for my business.

I think when you look at it from No, from an investment aspect, I get it sad that we don't view ourselves because we're such an A, we don't view our mindset or skill sets as an asset many times and I'm guilty of it, too. I'm not sitting here preaching to everybody, right? I do this all the time, I'm guilty as charged. But we really need to like, the sharper your skill set gets more value becomes but instant gratification is bad, nasty drug, especially in this business, like we buy leads for leads we don't even follow up on just because it feels good. Like that has got to change, like you know, and just the you are the brand. And the more and more this turns into an individual agent, business and an individual, like what you do is you know, the technology the last year, your brokerage and a lot of the team, it's going to be your skill sets that ultimately makes a difference. And people hire you not the brokerage anymore. I mean, that's to the tune of 98%. So invest in yourself, folks.

Yeah, and prioritize yourself. I mean, I was talking with an agent the other day, and they were, they were telling me, and they're here locally, so they have no excuse not to make it and that was like, she's like, I wish I could do those type of things. And I'm like, Well, what's keeping you from doing it? And she's like, well, I'm actually busy doing you know, showings and I have a staging company, and I'm thinking to myself, so you just told me that it's not a priority, you if it was important, you'd prioritize it, you know, obviously, you can tell I'm a little bit overweight, going to the gym is not a priority to me. If it was a priority to me, I'd be there. And I think that you have to make the decision to invest in yourself prioritize, you know, being a learner, my MLS, or my Board of Realtors always has this thing on the board. And it's like, those who learn more, earn more. Yeah, you know, it's true. Like, I always teach my agents, one of the very first things I teach them is like, as soon as I can get you to confidently tell someone you don't know the answer to a question, the faster everything else is going to fall into place, you have to have that confidence to know that you can go find the resource and the answer to report back to him. And that's really, what we're trying to do is just spread spread knowledge. So you can be more knowledgeable about a bunch of different things and be able to answer questions faster.

Where do you eat been around a while? What do you think the market is going to hit? Like? What type of? I'll get my opinion in a second. But what do you think the market? Like? What type of knowledge would you be seeking right now? What type of strategies like what are you planning on doing? What do you plan on learning this year?

So actually, three, three kinds of things that I put into my plan, we're doing a little bit more of physical mailings. So we're trying to get back in the mailbox, feel like digital has got some saturation going on, people are doing some ignoring just a bit really? Say it again,

just a tiny bit. Yeah.

I mean, you definitely if you can get eyeballs on things, great news, the price points will make sense, then, you know, have at it. But really, there's a lot less competition in the mailbox. So we're, we're trying to dial in on some geographic farming concentrate on a little bit closer to home, and price points that we're trying to pick. So that's the first thing. Second thing is I feel like they're going to buyers are going to reengage in the market, there's a little bit of shock that happened when their buying power, you know, got cut by a third or almost a half by some of them. But people are still having babies, they're still getting married, they're still getting divorced, all those transactions are still taking place, and people are just gonna have to readjust what their buying power looks like. And I think once that initial shock wears off, and hopefully, interest rates actually kind of settle closer to, I don't know, hopefully, five, five and a half percent, that market I think will continue to move forward. And we might have a little bit of a lower transaction count just a little bit, but I don't think it's gonna be a long term, personally.

Yeah, the stats came out. Most of the market, it was like, the transactions were down 37%, November 21, and 22. But the agent count was much greater, down, like to the tune of 40% of the local agents are already out of business. So like, there is opportunity, but I think you hit on the head, I'm focusing on learning a lot about seller motivation, motivated sellers is where our prospecting efforts will be in 2022. And I'm talking about motivated sellers. God's mentioned a couple of really big tips, you guys. You can buy data from anywhere, okay, as long as you own the data, you can target people but we're creating a, a multiple options solution, because we know based on upon data, that distressed is coming, and it's already here for many people. And those sellers are going to have life changes. They're gonna lose their job. Yeah, they're gonna also get married. Okay, so not all doom and gloom. But yeah, we're focusing all around life situations, and doubling down on cost. otter,

and also multi generation housing. So I was reading something the other day when they were talking about there's a lot of 35 year olds that are moving back at home. So I mean, and you got parents

after their after their $40,000 a year college education, right that they can't afford to pay the monthly bill on

student bill. And you got parents, the boomers that are starting to, you know, they're wanting to age in place, but not all of them can. So you know, some of them are moving in with their kids. And, you know, that's starting to take place some so you've got both ends of that spectrum. So people might need different types of housing to accommodate the with the family dynamic looks like, yep. You know, those are opportunities. I don't know. It's not as popular here. And you were talking about how things kind of started on the coast and then work their way into the Midwest. And the, you know, the accessory dwelling units, you know, we're starting to say, no, well, we're starting to hear some zoning rumblings about people. They're trying to work on getting the market ready to, you know, some sort of things like that to take place. It's not a big thing here yet, but I see it starting to take shape. So it started I mean, it's bigger out there already, right?

Oh, yeah. I mean, they pass a lottery basically build anything. There's not even like rules, I guess. I don't know the zoning laws out here like it did in Chicago. But yeah, it's huge. Everything is related living here. It's just so expensive. It's an affordability issue out here, not a housing issue. Strictly affordability. So yeah, they've been in that seat, guys. What we're talking about here, though, are just trends. And the riches are in the niches if you're just realized everything we just talked about, those were all niches. Okay. And in a recession, I could promise you the riches are in the niches, they are always, but more so in a recession. And when you go and you focus on that one thing that you own, you'll actually, I believe, do way more business, I've done it before. I've seen it in several markets, it's you know, several people. The riches are in the niches, it's the generalist who's gonna get their ass kicked this season. You can't just be a real estate agent, it's a lot different to be a problem solver for people who have house problems. I can just be a real estate agent, I can be an estate specialist and help you liquidate your property.

And part of that comes from the consistent messaging. Because when you're a generalist, you don't have enough opportunities to be in front of people often enough to build the brand and deliver a message that's consistent. So when there's an opportunity for a transaction, they think of you and not one of the other agents that you're competing with for their eyeballs.

100% agreed all of this stuff that requires you guys again, it's the point of, we're just giving you guys talking points, you know, at the end of the day, requires you to go out and get it the informations out there. People are doing it and like, why are you trying to recreate the wheel? We do, like so many videos with people all the time. And, like, I would guess 25 to 35% of people try to recreate the wheel. And I'm like, Dude, we've done three to 4000 videos, scripted it edited and distribute over the last 18 to 24 months 3000 videos, I've done the most videos in the United States in real estate off of anybody. I can tell you what works and what doesn't. Don't recreate the wheel. Just fucking follow the plan, right and will lay off the plan. And you won't follow the damn plan. Okay, biggest lesson I've learned ever, ever, ever, ever was just don't recreate the wheel. Make it your own. And I learned that at an event. And it's so damn true. Because I used to want to recreate the wheel because of my ego was so big, that if I didn't own the idea, I didn't want it. Yeah, it's crazy.

Well, you were talking about, you know, someone in an event. It's awesome. I've made so many friendships and so many mentors that have helped me across the country. And it's random Tuesday, I have an idea and I shoot off an email and get a response back that says stop being an idiot, either, like don't do that or do that. What are you waiting for? So it's awesome when you're able to generate those friendships and people who've been there, done that seen it already, you know, like you said, there's no reason to recreate the wheel. Most of the people that have you have a resource that someone that's done it that you can lean on. And people do business with people they know like and trust. And I think it's the same thing like mentors, people. They like you, they're willing to open up and share their experiences with you and make you a better agent.

So you think I like Tony Robbins and all these people that we all aspire to be like and whatnot are like, don't give back there where they are because they do like you just be amazed. Just talk to him to be like, Hey, what's up, dude? Oh, bah, bah, bah, that little conversation is that one thing you sometimes get. Folks don't hold back. This is the season to invest in yourself. Like the transactions will be slow but it's gonna be how you react to the market. It's gonna make a difference between you and them. I'm going to promise you something I can promise you that 85 90% of markets not going to react right now but that alone is your opportunity. You have to get Jesse we saw Jesse Itzler to mastermind once he said you have to get comfortable being uncomfortable. Bill, and if you're not in the most uncomfortable situation, you're not growing always and that always sticks with me. So I want to be the dumbest person in the room. I want to be the most uncomfortable person in the room because when I am, I am never stopped growing because the biggest enemy of an entrepreneur is complacency. Scott once you Tom a little bit about your event you got coming up.

Yeah, so real estate distilled happening for the fifth time coming up at the end of February, February 28. And March 1 and second. So we're going to be meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, the home of bourbon conference is called Real Estate distilled. We have a spirits theme. We invite people to be thirsty for knowledge and show up. We've got a what we consider a winning recipe for the conference. One part industry experts, two parts networking, stirred over three days a little bourbon tourism and served up with Southern hospitality.

So yes, it's a cool city man. Actually, I when I spoke there, if I'm not mistaken COVID happened the next day. I remember being in the airport and we left Louisville, and I saw someone wearing a mask and I was like, the hell's going on? Why is that girl wearing a mask? I'm like, well, there's another one. Oh, hey, there's another one. And I remember talking to this girl next to me like this, like so I'm gonna happen here and boom. Next, you know, the NCAA Tournament was shut down. And we all know what happened from there on. But yeah, it was wild. Absolutely. But enjoy. You guys. If you guys aren't going to check out real estate to still check out all the conferences, just the stuff you learn there. It's not just the education. It's the people that you meet and you have drinks with that you go out with that night and you have dinner with like, those connections are priceless. I'm telling you, I'm living that half the people I do business with today, I actually I'd say 75 to 80% of them as a result of people I've met at conferences or masterminds. It's the only reason I got the hell out of Chicago. Thank the Lord. For that. Scott, we appreciate you dude. appreciate you sharing your insight and whatnot. Any closing thoughts you want to go out

I really appreciate you letting me come on and share these I feel like you said whatever event you're going to doing events is important getting outside of your comfort zone. It's important. Meeting new people is important. Learn don't stop learning. Stop learning you stop growing you stop putting effort into your business and I think that there's there's a million different ways that you can do the business and I think that finding something that you're passionate about is what's important so go out there and learn something find something you're passionate about

love it i folks balls in your court Get your ass out there do some different start getting very uncomfortable start get comfortable being uncomfortable, as Mr. Jesse Itzler would say appreciate guys listen, another episode of real estate marketing dude podcast. If you have any additional questions, let us help you with your content strategy or Let us at least help you generate more referrals. We have a software that helps you script that well. We could give you all of our scripts so we get video email, direct mail and stay in front of your database on social media no more thinking about what to say or do on social or email or direct mail. It's all done for you all you got to do like I said before is follow the damn system. Have a good one. Merry Christmas. Thank you for watching another episode of the real estate marketing dude podcast. If you need help with video or finding out what your brand is, visit our website at WWW dot real estate marketing dude.com We make branding video content creation simple and do everything for you. So if you have any additional questions, visit the site, download the training, and then schedule time to speak with a dude and get you rolling in your local marketplace. Thanks for watching another episode of the podcast. We'll see you next time.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai