Planting Seeds
You Are A Real Estate Agent!
Those 6 words have made me cringe for the last 16 years and I’ve tried to define what it is that I do, because being a ‘real estate agent’ put me into a box that I wasn’t comfortable.
When people ask what I do, being a ‘real estate agent’ doesn’t fit my vision of myself.
Don’t get me wrong there are many things of the ‘job’ that I enjoy. I absolutely LOVE the relationships that I have with those that put their trust in me. I LOVE solving the problems of the real estate transaction, TRUST ME, they all have some problem. I THRIVE in negotiating for my clients. And it is uber SATISIFYING when you have clients break down at settlement because they never thought they’d be able to buy a home.
But the nasty little secret is that I HATE. I DESPISE. My skin crawls at the SALES aspect!
I tell everyone that I am the worst salesperson that there is.
So, how do you overcome being horrible at Sales, in a business that is 100% about Sales?
You become a Gardener and you plant seeds.
A gardener is the one that takes the time to find the right soil to plant. A gardener picks out just the right depth to dig the whole for the seed. And before the seed is even planted, a gardener makes sure that the hole is absent of any weeds, any rocks, any debris that could stunt the growth of that seed. Then that seed is carefully planted, and the dirt is reapplied, then day after day after day that gardener NOURISHES and cares for that seed by watering that seed. The gardener puts a fence around the garden, so no deer come and eat the seedling before it blooms. The love and commitment that the gardener has for each seed that is planted, the end result is a beautiful ripe red tomato.
Salespeople, they are only looking for ripe tomatoes.
They build their entire business looking for ripe tomatoes. And because they are only looking at ripe tomatoes to pick they don’t feel that they don’t have that deeper connection. They weren’t their every morning at 6am to water the seed just before the sun comes up day after day after day as the optimum time to nourish that seed is the hour before sunrise.
But being a gardener is tough. You must show up day after day after day after day.
This boils down to the 3 C’s that I always speak about. And by doing these 3 C’s and showing up every day, every week, every month over the course of a year, 3 years, a decade the growth of what was planted.
Six years ago, I learned how to become a better gardener. I started writing. I used Storytelling through the written word to nourish and grow our relationship. And through this Storytelling, first each month in my newsletter and now through the daily Musing using story has been Miracle Grow.
The repetitive nature of writing each day and watering that seed is what separates the ‘salesperson’ from the ‘gardener.’
A salesperson is viewed as someone that is just there picking the ripe tomato, while the gardener is seen as a protector, as a caretaker, as a nurturer.
You, as a result of being in my audience, are a seed. You learn each day who I am and what struggles and breakthroughs occur. You know what we are doing with ImpactClub®, how the Podcast is growing, how our 2nd book, Beyond The Mic, was just released, and how the real estate process is always being fine-tuned for Client Experience Optimization (CEO).
Everything that we do is engineered on the back of Story and properly telling your story and ‘framing’ your point so that everyday you get an ah-ha moment.
Just last week I received this message from a life-long friend and fellow entrepreneur, “Dude you have helped me with my business and to become more professional so f….ing much. THANK YOU!!!”
It is these messages that if I was a ‘Salesperson’ would never, ever receive. If I was only looking for ripe tomatoes and not growing the relationship (ie: planting seeds) everyday that the byproduct of these Stories is a relationship, is an ongoing conversation.
So, thank you for taking the time each day.
Cheers!!!