Tony Ray Baker:
Thank you all for being here it’s super cool. This is, my love and passion is sharing this kind of stuff with you. For me, this is all about my beginning was working with no money. I jumped into real estate with no education. What was going to happen? Thought we all just got a check, 1994.
I jump in, no money, I have no savings. I have a refrigerator box and some [inaudible 00:00:43], that’s what I had.
Tony Ray Baker:
I had to start learning how to do marketing and advertising with zero funds. We didn’t have, how many of you were in business back in the 1990s? Wow. In the 90s, we didn’t have cell phones and pagers and we didn’t have fax machines.
We didn’t have any of this. All the technology, all the, we didn’t have internet. We didn’t have social media, we had none of these free platforms to play in, we had to do marketing and advertising without all that stuff. Print media was super expensive.
Does anybody remember how much it cost to run a classified ad or an ad in a magazine? It was, right, it still is. Did you get anything from it? You didn’t. You got your picture in a piece of paper, it was pretty cool.
Tony Ray Baker:
This class comes from that. Because I started my whole business just scrapping through trying to figure out how to make business work with no money and it all related for me right away with my center of influence. We’re going to go through that today.
First I want to introduce your sponsors, so we can give them some love and attention. Kristy Frank with American Family Insurance. Will you come up and say hi? Come on, you can do it.
Kristy Frank:
I’m going live.
Tony Ray Baker:
You’re going live.
Kristy Frank:
Tony Ray Baker. This is part of the whole speil today.
Tony Ray Baker:
It’s awesome. Kristy Frank also goes with me. Wait, don’t go. Kristy Frank also is in my downtown committee group where we meet on a regular basis to talk about marketing and advertising for small businesses. Another way that we network, right Kristy Frank?
Kristy Frank:
Yes.
Tony Ray Baker:
I want to give you some love right now because Kristy Frank, I was with one of the best insurance companies in the United States of America, I got the best rates and it was an exclusive club and you could not get into there unless you had married into the right spot.
Many years I was with this insurance company and I met Kristy Frank and it was very cool because she said, just let me look at your documents and we’ll check out it. Kristy Frank comes back and the price is the same, however, she’s included an insurance policy called an umbrella for $1 million and she’s covered something else for me, and it was all in that same price.
I thought I had the best. So, I switched over to Kristy Frank and then I started sending everyone of my clients to Kristy Frank, just check her out. Just see. Almost every time I sent a client to Kristy Frank they switched to her insurance company. One, because of service. And then two because she does offer a portfolio product that’s amazing. It’s always less.
Tony Ray Baker:
It’s amazing though because I get the phone call from the client thanking me because they got to meet Kristy Frank. I had an email I sent to you yesterday, by the way, that came into you about Kristy Frank and how they were excited that they had got to meet Kristy Frank and they just switched over their policies.
There’s the other piece of this, and that is, when you’re building your tribe and you’re really taking care of clients and you really want them to refer business to you, you have two objectives. Role model referrals to them.
Always refer the best people you can to your clients and then you are what? You’re the hero, the minute they call you and tell you that they’re so lucky to have got Kristy Frank. I want you all to consider working with Kristy Frank.
She has her business cards and everything here I’m sure. Let’s give her a big thank you for sponsoring today. And you’re all live. Kudos for Kristy going live.
Tony Ray Baker:
Next sponsor is Fidelity National Title. Who knows of Fidelity? We all know Fidelity. So I’ve been working with Fidelity, Tina Banks how long, I don’t know? Maybe 10, 15 years. I love Fidelity National Title.
For me, one of the biggest components of Fidelity was that we do a ton of relocation. Darren and I bring in people from all over the world to come into Tuscan and that big chunk of our business really, it became evident that we needed Fidelity at every component of that because they are actually everywhere to help us when our clients are not in Tuscan, Arizona, Fidelity has them signing somewhere else and they have them helping us.
Tony Ray Baker:
The service is impeccable. Tina Banks always knows what she’s doing. She handles stuff for me before I even know it needs handled. It takes a lot of pressure off of my file and processing the client files through. I don’t ever worry about anything, do I call you often?
I don’t even call her. There are so many title agents out there that you have, that you actually have to call and keep on top of. That’s not this group. So, I highly recommend you guys. I love you and you know that. Would you like to say some stuff? I think you can use this. We’re going to be really close.
Denise Wittman King:
Hello.
Tony Ray Baker:
Denise King by the way.
Denise Wittman King:
I’m Denise King with Fidelity National Title and I know I don’t know a lot of you people here, but if you wanted to know me and you looked at my Facebook page, you would see that I’m a runner and I like to go travel for running, do things running.
I push my son, he’s in a wheelchair and we run races together. Recently we were in Carlsbad, California and I was looking for a place to eat the day before the race because you need to carb up, but I also have a lot of dietary restrictions and does he.
So I’m online looking, I’m on Yelp, looking, looking, trying to find a place to eat. I find a good place, Jay’s Gourmet. If you guys are ever in Carlsbad, California, great place. But what does this story have to do with anything we’re talking about here?
I spend 45 minutes online looking for a place to eat. What do you think people are doing when they’re looking for a house? They’re spending a lot more time than that.
Denise Wittman King:
If you have, first of all, pay attention to what this man is saying because he has great advice. Secondly, if you need help you can talk to anyone of our Fidelity Sales reps, that would be me, Denise King, Eugene Moore, Andrea Elvarez, and I also have two wonderful escrow officers Tina Banks and Paula Brown.
We are happy to help you with any aspect of your business. Thank you.
Tony Ray Baker:
Awesome. Thank you so much. Let’s give them and thank you for sponsoring us today and bringing us food and fun. Nova Financial are you in the room? You want to come up and say hi? Mr. Tom Heath is in the house.
Who has seen Tom Heath videos? Who doesn’t know his name is Tom Heath and thinks he’s called Flabio.
Tom Heath:
Flabio.
Tony Ray Baker:
Mr. Flabio right over there. Tom Heath Nova Home Loans.
Tom Heath:
I think I’ll have a chance to talk about Flabio a little bit later on today. I just want to introduce myself. Been with Nova Home Loans for about four years. I made that switch because they are a Tuscan based company and they support our community in ways that I have not seen anywhere else.
For me, the way I do my business, locally minded, being focused on our community are things that are very critical in my business and the way we build our business. I’ve chosen a great place to work. If you’re working with a loan officer at Nova, you already know that.
If you are not, I would love to sit down and just have a moment of your time, maybe grab a cup of coffee and share some of the things that we’re doing that’s making Tuscan a really special place for you and your clients. I’ll be here all day. Thanks.
Tony Ray Baker:
Thanks Tom. I’m going to have Tom come up in a little bit and then he’s going to go over some fun stuff with you. We have, I want to show you a little bit of something here. I’m going to give you a little video for just a second here. See if I can make this run.
Frank Garay:
Hey man. If you need to see if you can get a deal done, you’ve got to get some questions answered as a loan originator, Carl White has a new Facebook group. It’s a loan officer deal desk on Facebook. The banner for it is right here on your screen.
If you’re on your desktop just look to your right, but you may have to scroll down a little bit. If you’re on your mobile device, just scroll all the way down, you’ll see the banner down there past the comments and if you’re seeing us on social sites, like YouTube or something like that right now, somewhere there’s a link around here where you can connect with them.
Brian Stevens:
I really want folks to take this show seriously. It’s going to be real easy to make some jokes about it, but we’re deadly serious about what the message is here and there’s a logic that goes through it.
I want you to follow me because there’s a marketing opportunity for a smart real estate agent and/or lender. Let’s read the tea leaves of the market right now. Sales of new homes just fell 5.5% last month. To put that into perspective, that’s a two year high.
It’s also the fourth month in a row that home values, new home values, have dropped.
Brian Stevens:
Over that period, new home sales are down 13% or double digits. We all see what’s going on with the stock market as well. It’s dropping. Economists are talking about an upcoming recession, I don’t know if that’s going to happen, but the problem see, home values have gone up 50% while incomes have only gone up 10% over the past six years.
That’s information for you. 80% of millennials want to own a home. They just can’t afford them. We know that because only 15% of millennials actually own these homes. There’s a big divide between those who have a home and those who want a home.
There’s a lot of room for growth guys. Now, can we stir this all up and bake some type of marketing out of it? Frank?
Frank Garay:
Okay. Home values going down, inventory going up.
Brian Stevens:
That is supply.
Frank Garay:
The largest generation since boomers don’t own homes, but want to own homes.
Brian Stevens:
This would be the demand.
Frank Garay:
Right. Focus on millennials who want to buy homes. That’s often easier said than done, right.
Brian Stevens:
Okay, okay. Now here’s the part where we want you to focus on this. It’s easier said than done for those who lack some imagination. So, and I swear this would work and I mean every word we’re going to say here. We know where the sweet spot for your success can be found. Target millennials.
Frank Garay:
All right, okay.
Brian Stevens:
So we scouted the housing market. We read the market’s tea leaves. Where are these millennials? Those born between 1981 and 1996. Where can you find concentrations of these rare breeds for good hunting opportunities for real estate agents and lenders? What are they all doing?
Frank Garay:
They’re getting divorced.
Brian Stevens:
Seriously, that’s right. That’s right. They’re getting divorced.
Frank Garay:
Remember when all you and your friends were getting married in your early 20s?
Brian Stevens:
Yep.
Frank Garay:
You’re having kids in your mid-20s? And then everyone started getting divorced in their early 30s.
Brian Stevens:
It’s true.
Frank Garay:
Look, I don’t mean this to hit too close to home, but the numbers bare it out. Millennials are getting divorced right now. Don’t believe us, let’s have a look.
Brian Stevens:
Okay, here’s the supporting evidence from what Frank has said, 73% of third marriages are ending in divorce. You don’t want those guys. That’s my generation who’s getting married for a third time.
That is the Xers, 60% of second marriages flame out. That’s on the cusp of the Xers, my generation, and these millennials. We’re getting hotter, aren’t we? 41% of first marriages go up in smoke.
Frank Garay:
Wow.
Brian Stevens:
42%, those are smack dab in the middle of gen-men. Get this. The average age for that first divorce is 30 years old. Smack dab in the middle of gen-min. A hundred of these millennials are untying the knot every single hour of every single day.
These are all real numbers.
Frank Garay:
Wow.
Brian Stevens:
It’s a flood gate of millennials doing the exact same thing and meeting, Frank, in the exact same places. This means we can track their behavior.
Frank Garay:
Interesting.
Brian Stevens:
So where do these newly minted singles go? Again, let’s think about it.
Frank Garay:
They go looking to join the ranks of the 60%ers.
Brian Stevens:
Right.
Frank Garay:
The number of second marriages that failed.
Brian Stevens:
It’s true.
Frank Garay:
People don’t like to stay unhitched too long. In fact the time between first and second marriages, check this out, is only three years.
Brian Stevens:
Oh man, they’re rolling.
Frank Garay:
Pretty darn fast. Got to get right back up on that horse.
Brian Stevens:
You’ve got to meet them, get to know them, date them and marry them, three years.
Frank Garay:
Three years. Okay problem is after spouse number one and a couple kids later, not to mention a receding hairline, a couple of notches to loosen the belt and a healthy dose of market inactivity, these millennials need a little dating help.
So where do they find this dating help Brian and is this show just a big joke today?
Brian Stevens:
No. Deadly serious. Now all you have to do is just Google it if you want to see if we’re serious. I did. I Googled single’s groups in little Old Solano County, and I only found 274000 results.
Only 274000, in fact, in a search of the results I found a multitude of sites and actual physical locations, that’s where you want to be, where these singles groups meet. Concentrations of good people who are in search of the one universal emotion that binds humankind together, and that’s love.
Okay. You can stop, stop the music.
Frank Garay:
Okay realtors and lenders, be bold. Be smart. Do what nobody in the entire real estate community has thought of.
Brian Stevens:
No, no one.
Frank Garay:
I’m 100% serious here. Go to one of these single group meetings and offer to host it.
Brian Stevens:
Host something.
Frank Garay:
Host it. Buy the first round of drinks.
Brian Stevens:
Why not.
Frank Garay:
Appetizers on you. Or rent the space. Or do what you need to do to infiltrate the group.
Brian Stevens:
Because they have someone running it.
Frank Garay:
They do.
Brian Stevens:
Think about it for a second.
Frank Garay:
Offer values for just a few minutes to talk about why you’re the expert on their very specific housing needs. Perhaps help them listing their home in the event of their separation, or in their purchase because they recently found themselves needing housing.
Or if you stick with it and stay in touch with these new lovebirds, sell them a house that they want to buy as a sign of their newly minted affection for each other. For all their housing needs, because these singles groups.
Brian Stevens:
Millennials.
Frank Garay:
These singles groups are the millennials that we seek.
Brian Stevens:
Yep.
Frank Garay:
These are the millennials that are going to buy homes when the pending Black Friday on houses begins to hit. You need to be there man.
Brian Stevens:
And who knows, hosting these singles parties you might be able to trade in that old Jetta for a new Passat, if you know what I mean.
Frank Garay:
Fascinating idea.
Brian Stevens:
The market calls for targeting millennials. Where can we find them? We have to understand what their collective behavior is doing. There’s a lot of them, 42% are getting divorced. Take the whole divorce thing out of the equation and just start looking at the numbers and it bears out that you need to be here because this is where huge concentrations of millennials will be.
Frank Garay:
That’s where they are and they want to buy, 80% of them want to buy, but only 15% of them own. There’s a gap.
Brian Stevens:
And property values are dropping.
Frank Garay:
Finally. So things are coming down.
Brian Stevens:
And they have disposable money.
Frank Garay:
What a storm.
Brian Stevens:
So what are they all doing? 42% are getting divorced, 60 some-odd percent on their second marriages still in the millennial group. These singles groups are just a concentration, a hotbed of potential activity for a smart real estate agent.
I want to point this out, seriously, marketing is great when it’s built on scarcity. Do what your competition isn’t doing. We are an industry that just follows the leader and everyone does the same type of marketing and then your message gets drowned out.
You want to be a blue M&M in a bowl of greens. Do what other people are not doing. You will be the only realtor and/or lender team who is doing this. So you will get a disproportionate benefit from not having to compete against others.
Again, I know it sounds hair brained and crazy, but this is your profession. How serious are you willing to take your profession? There’s a great opportunity here for a smart marketer.
Frank Garay:
It’s almost like you got some of that artificial intelligence swimming around up there. You guys have a great one, man. Leave us your comments down below. Do us a favor, forward, share and subscribe and jump out into those singles groups. We’ll catch you later here at the Natural State Post. Bye.
Brian Stevens:
Later.
Tony Ray Baker:
National Real Estate Post, how long has that been on? How long has that show been running?
Brian Stevens:
11 years.
Tony Ray Baker:
11 years. Ladies and gentlemen, Brian Stevens is in the house. Stand up, say hi. Super excited. I was like a giddy little child when I found out Brian was going to come see us today. Brian is my friend. We met last year?
Brian Stevens:
Yeah
Tony Ray Baker:
Last year because I ranted on a post.
Brian Stevens:
[inaudible 00:19:03] we were all top produces, A type personalities and so I’ve done this for now for a couple years. We get together for three days. I wanted to have a real estate agent’s perspective for lenders.
If we’re [inaudible 00:19:18] your business, we certainly better know what you guys are thinking and what you’re looking for. Tony Ray, I saw a couple of his posts, and they were super clever, gave him a call up and started talking to him about marketing in general and realized there’s a whole bunch to this that was bigger than what I was looking for.
Tony Ray was courteous enough to come to my little home town and sit in the lion’s den with a bunch of loan officers and let them know how he viewed marketing. I have to tell you, I have a bunch of astute marketers and Tony Ray is fantastic.
Tony Ray Baker:
Thank you. I’m so excited to have you. Brian is going to actually do some class for you guys a little bit later, so that’s really awesome. Thank you so much. All right, so let’s get down to it. Everybody has this bubble diagram.
Anybody know what mind mapping is? Anybody, raise your hand, that knows what mind mapping is? Mind mapping. So this is my brain right here. Everybody got that? Do you have the little one. Yeah you got it? It has a lot on it. Yeah, yours is flipped.
You got the better version, I actually did mine wrong. You got the easier to read version. It says your website, being yourself and you stats. You guys have it this way. If it will help, let me get one and I’ll, thank you. I have this one.
There you go, now everybody got, we’re all on the same page? Awesome.
Tony Ray Baker:
We’re going to do three sections today. We are going to talk about your COI and how to get in front of them. We’re going to do social media, internet and video websites. Which is the blue section down the center here.
Then we’re going to go onto listings and have a plan for what we do when we get a listing and how to actually make the listing produce more buyers and sellers, right. Let’s start today, we’re going to start out with your COI. This is where I started.
I started here because I had what, no money. Hi Chris. So no money. I remember, I had a business coach, and the business coach said to me, Tony Ray, let’s go ahead and design the life that you want and let’s fit the business in there.
I said, okay, that’s exactly what I want. At this point, it was my first year in real estate, I hadn’t sold a house. I was one year in. Rosie Coverloin called me into the office at Long Realty and asked me to leave. No, I’m not kidding.
She said, I love you, you’re so sweet and she just kept escorting me towards the door.
Tony Ray Baker:
I couldn’t get it, I just could not figure out real estate, I couldn’t figure out how I was supposed to be this trusted advisor guy who was going to take my client through the process, and they were going to give me business, and they were going to be impressed and all those things you think of when you’re brand new.
I couldn’t figure out how to do it. Then, back then in 1994 they wanted us to cold call. Did anybody do the Coles Directory? We used to have a big book called the Coles Directory and it have everybody in the United States phone numbers in it and you had to take the Cole Directory, flip it open and then you called every number on the page you opened until someone answered and then you tried to get a listing.
Just an appointment. You couldn’t leave the office until you got an appointment. Does that sound fun to anyone?
Tony Ray Baker:
Yeah, after day two of that, I got really sick. Just not good for me. Then they took us in minivans, to cure my phone call problem, they took us in minivans and they dropped us off into neighborhoods and they said knock on every door, your street, your street, your street, until someone lets you in, and you get a listing appointment.
Anybody think that sounds fun? I had a guy chase me down the street with a shotgun. That was my last day. Not liking anything that’s going on in real estate business as that time and of course we don’t have social media, we have nowhere to hide.
I can’t hide behind my computer. I can’t think I’m doing something, because you have to either be out there or you can’t.
Tony Ray Baker:
It was a great lesson because what I learned was, I had to be out there. What I had was, a telephone. I didn’t have a cell phone, we didn’t have those in 1994. We had, remember when the brick came out.
And the car, you were all cool if you had a wire and you purposely took calls in the parking lots facing the street, so you could be there talking. We would like, I’m on my phone, I’m a successful real estate agent, right. We did that. That was an era.
Then the brick came out after the attached one and you could carry the brick on your side and you could knock into things and take out door jams and stuff when you hit it? The brick. We didn’t have that.
Tony Ray Baker:
In 1994, we had landlines and we carried a roll of dimes in the car because you had to run to payphones and call in and you would call the secretary at the office and say, has anybody called for me? No, okay. That was our day.
The phone, the landline became my best friend when I realized I could call who? My COI. Yeah, my Center of Influence. I could call them and I could talk to them, but I didn’t know what to talk about. Okay, who knows what to talk about when you call them?
Who has it? The weather. Who calls their friends and talks about the weather? Anybody heard this before? Who knows what that is? Family, number one. This one you’re going to write down. Family. What’s the number two? Occupation.
Number three, recreation. Got it. Way to go Caroline. What’s the last one? Your dreams. Now you know the formula for any phone call you need to make.
Tony Ray Baker:
You pick up the phone and you call me, by the way this is not anything scripted. This is very natural. This is what you do every day. You just don’t know you’re doing it. Who talked to their friend yesterday?
Somebody talked to their friend yesterday? What did you talk about? Don’t tell me personal stuff, just tell me general. Let’s not out your friend in some way.
Speaker 7:
Each other, our likes, our dislikes and [inaudible 00:26:15]
Tony Ray Baker:
She talked about family. This is a normal conversation. Did you talk about occupation at all?
Speaker 7:
Yes.
Tony Ray Baker:
You did. Did you talk about recreation or dreams? You talked on all four levels of that yesterday with a friend. Did you see how normal that is? This is what we do naturally. My suggestion to you, because when you pick up the phone, who gets sweaty?
We don’t know what to say. But you don’t have to know what to say. Just know you’ll know. Just trust yourself. You’re talking to your friend. They already like, love and trust you. They’re in your circle. You pick up the phone, you call them. How’s the kids?
How was the soccer game? This is family. Ask them about their occupation. How’s work going? Are you still up for the promotion? Are you still thinking about moving into another area? That’s all occupation.
Tony Ray Baker:
Ask them about their recreation. Where are you going this year? What vacations are you taking? Does all this sound normal. Dreams, talk about their dreams. There’s nothing more deep down inside to get to than someone’s dreams. Dreams are personal.
If they’re talking about their dreams with you. You’re going into the red area, because dreams you share with someone you trust. You don’t want a person that you don’t trust to knock down a dream before you get there.
So dreams, if you’re in the dreams section, you’re going way down into the red section. Red section is where you really want to get to when you’re having any conversation with somebody, when you go into the red, you’re in a personal space.
You’re in a space where you might hit something and emotion comes out.
Tony Ray Baker:
If you put this formula family, occupation, recreation and dreams on a little card by your computer or by your cell phone or wherever you make calls, you now have the formula to look at.
You pick up the phone and you call Mary and she answers the phone and you start a conversation and you ask her a question about her family. Just start talking. What happens with the law of reciprocity when you pick up the phone and you call Mary and ask her about her family, what will she ask you next?
Exactly. So when you ask her about occupation, she will do what? About real estate. It happens. It’s automatic. It is the law. It’s the way the universe works. It’s the yin and the yang. It is nothing you have to worry about. It’s going to happen.
Tony Ray Baker:
They’re going to ask you about these things and if you don’t share, then what happens? You disconnected. What did you do? You actually disconnected something really powerful. If I walk up to you and you say, and I say oh my gosh I really love your jacket.
Law of reciprocity say she’s wants to say to me and I love your shirt. If you’re having a conversation and I ask you questions and I allow you to give me information about your life, but I stop that and don’t share my life with you, what just happened?
I just sent a signal that I don’t really trust you in some way, or I’m not really involved with you as you thought as I was because I’m not willing to share back. Does anybody here have a problem with sharing with others because you don’t want to talk about yourself?
You can be honest.
Tony Ray Baker:
Right. So I’m going to challenge you this week that I want you to talk about yourself with somebody not in a weird, braggy way. Because you’re not giving me that benefit. If we’re friends, I want to know about your pain and I want to know about the great things going on in your life, and if you don’t share that back with me, but I give it to you, we’re not in that relationship you think we’re in.
Does that make sense? So those of you who are afraid to share, I want you to let that go. It’s a gift you’re giving and I think all of you in this room want to give that same gift to your friend that gives to you.
Correct. Yes so can everybody say yeah, we’re going to do that from now on. Everybody shares. Yes Tony.
Tony Ray Baker:
So FORD, there’s your magic formula. That works perfect on a phone call. If Mary calls you, FORD works again because it’s there write it down, memorize the four words because it will become normal in your head just recognizing what to talk about.
I’m in a room, I’m networking, I’m walking around and I walk into somebody who I think is pretty cool and I like their energy and what do I have to talk about? If I can get them into this, into FORD, I’ve already started a relationship.
If you start asking people questions and get the to start talking and responding and you’re not talking about yourself, but you can get them into FORD questions, you will have a connection very quickly.
What happens when it’s about them and not you? Right. When they leave that room, even if it’s a five minute speed dating, what happens? They remember you because they think you cared. Right. Okay.
Tony Ray Baker:
The reality is this, it’s all about caring and if I’m asking you questions and you’re sharing information with me, I care. People don’t care how much you know until they know you care. You heard that. They don’t care how much you know.
They don’t care what you know about real estate, don’t care anything about anything you have to tell them until they know you care. Now, I’m going to jump into this later, but I want you to think about that as far as when you meet a seller.
We’re going to talk about that too.
Tony Ray Baker:
All right. Did I drop my paper somewhere? There it is. So these are the fun little things we do in our business for our COI. Let’s start with newsletters. Anybody here doing a newsletter? How many, can I have hands up high? Yeah, monthly newsletters.
In the mail. Sorry, snail mail newsletter. Okay. How many snail mails? Okay. Anybody remember back in the day before internet how much you hated to receive mail? Right, we all hated it right. Why did we hate mail? What came in the mail? Junk mail and bills.
It was a very negative box. We went out and we pulled it and a lot of us stacked it and ignored it for a week until we got a little bit worried that we might be missing paying a bill on time. But we didn’t like snail mail.
Then the internet came to be and what happened? Junk mail. Tons of junk mail. Spam mail, junk mail, and what also started coming in the emails as we set up all of our account? Bills.
Tony Ray Baker:
What’s in the snail mail now? Very little stuff comes in my mailbox anymore. I used to take out piles of mail, I maybe get two pieces of mail maybe. So, the mail is, if and anybody who’s opted out of the lists and stuff like that, we get very little mail.
Now when I get mail and it’s something, it’s probably more relevant or more exciting for me. So where do you want to be when everybody else has gone to email? Brian Stevens just talked about it on this video, and by the way, I hope you saw that I picked the love one, because tomorrow is Valentine’s Day right, isn’t tomorrow, what’s today?
There you go. So I had to go through and I saw that one I’m like millennials in love, it’s the perfect one.
Tony Ray Baker:
Newsletters for me, when my clients get a newsletter, it’s a bright yellow newsletter. Anytime mail arrives in their mailbox because I’ve been doing it for 20 years, I’ve been sending them a newsletter, bright yellow paper, black ink.
Every time they see yellow now in their mailbox, even if it’s not from me, they think of who? Me. I’ve programmed them because I send out a yellow newsletter. In 1996, I started interviewing, this is right before I was fired.
Before I was going to be fired, but I begged my way back in. Rosie tells me, go on and I’ll give you one more year. Like rolled her eyes, like I love you but this isn’t going to work. She said, go interview some top realtors. Take them to lunch. Find out what they’re doing.
Tony Ray Baker:
So interviewed Diane and Diane says, I said to Diane, now 1995 Diane is going 10 million in real estate a year. What? Think about this, 1995 she was doing 10 million. I said to Diane, I said tell me what you’re doing?
What’s the one thing that I should do that is your biggest money maker? She said, a newsletter. I said what? I hand write, she hand writes a newsletter. She writes a letter to everybody, a personal letter on one side of the paper and then on the other side of the paper, it has to be folded so she has a little more space so she writes something about what’s going on in the market in the areas.
Sends out the newsletter to her COI and she’s sending them out to a neighborhood and she’s doing $10 million a year in business. My brain, just that clicked. Okay. I can do a newsletter.
Tony Ray Baker:
Now a newsletter back then, we didn’t have internet and all that fun stuff so newsletters were pretty much a handwritten letter and then you had to make copies and then you had to fold it in half and do all that fun stuff.
They weren’t slick and fun like they are now, but we did the newsletter. Newsletters started immediately putting me in front of my clients, even though they didn’t like mail, I was still the bright yellow piece of mail in the mailbox and newsletters were getting seen.
What I did do right with my newsletters is I wrote personal stuff and I reciprocated with my clients. I wrote a Tony Ray letter. I wrote about my pain, my struggles, my wins, my happiness, my family, my occupation, my recreation and my dreams and I wrote that in my newsletter.
The phone started ringing.
Tony Ray Baker:
People would call me and identify with something I wrote and we’d have great conversations and we became closer and they went from top 200 in the circle and they got closer and closer to the top 50 in the circle because they raised their hand and wanted to be part of my life and they started connecting with me on a deeper level.
My newsletter did that. So fast forward, I’m at a conference in Georgia, I was in a conference with top realtors around the United States and I’m listening to them and they had a panel and they said to the panel of six, they said, if you could only do one thing in your business, if I took everything else away, you can only do one thing right down please what it would be that you would tell this group of realtors what that one thing is you would do for the rest of your business life.
They all flipped the piece of paper and every single one of the six had written newsletter. Very interesting.
Tony Ray Baker:
When they talked to them, the actual interesting thing that really came up was, every single one had the same total. How much money do you equate to your newsletter every year and everyone said 75 to 85, $90000 income every year from a newsletter.
They all had the same number. They all had the same answer and it’s exactly my answer. I always, always when we’re doing our newsletter, we always bring in about $3 million direct from newsletter in sales. Crazy. It’s so easy. Anybody use Microsoft Publisher?
So Microsoft Publisher has newsletter templates. You just click and fill in the blanks. Anybody else have another program that does automatic newsletters? Microsoft or Word or something? Okay.
Fidelity actually does your newsletter for you. What. Here’s another no brainer. It’s about free, right.
Tony Ray Baker:
Can I edit the front page? You fill in the content. Can I add anything? So here’s what you can do. So you take the Fidelity newsletter and you’re going to pull her newsletter and you’re going to take that, is it one page double sided?
Going to take her newsletter and then you’re going to take another piece of paper and you’re going to write a letter to your clients about your next vacation or your last vacation or whatever you want to write about.
Or the market, or whatever and you’re going to add it her piece of paper and then they’re going to get folded in half and you put the cute little sticky and a cute little stamp and you send them out. But she just gave you content.
What’s the hardest part about writing the newsletter? She’s got the content and it’s already written for you. Are you available after the class? Are you staying all day? Somebody from Fidelity will be here to get a phone number and a name or something and I would highly suggest you get that content.
That’s a newsletter already done.
Tony Ray Baker:
Let’s talk about price because I told you this was marketing on a dime. You have 100 people in your COI that are your top. Everybody have that? Anybody here not have a database? Anybody not have a CRM? What are you using to track clients? Got it.
So you have a cell phone, a smart phone. Do you have people’s phone numbers and information in there? So you have a little mini-CRM running right now. You’ve got one. So everybody should have names, phone numbers, email addresses, where they work, what their favorite wine is, what their kid’s names are, what their pet’s names are, how many pets they have.
Do they have a dog? Do they have a cat? We all have that, right? No or yes. Please put that on your to do list. I want you to make sure you have a CRM. It can be your cell phone. I’d highly suggest you move out of cell phone at some point, into a desktop version of a CRM, but you need a CRM.
You cannot manage clients and take care of them the right way unless you know all this information.
Tony Ray Baker:
Every time a client calls, and you have this conversation, what’s going to end up happening? You’re going to find out that they just got a new puppy named Jack. And you’re going to put that down on your file and then when I call I’m sitting at my desk and I have the CRM open and I look up Suzie’s name and it says new puppy jack on February 13 and I am going to say to Suzy, oh my god how’s Jack?
Because I see a note I remember Jack now.
Speaker 8:
He died.
Tony Ray Baker:
Okay, that’s funny, however, probably one of the most authentic moments you’ll ever have if that happens because you’re going to be there for someone. Being there for someone in pain is amazing. Not only does it fill your heart, but it fills theirs.
We know Jack, we have a puppy named Jack and as we’re having these conversations, we want to be filling in notes on our CRMs so that we can actually have more conversations that are deeper level when we call our friends, family and people that we love and like and trust.
Tony Ray Baker:
I want to make sure everyone understands you have to have a CRM. It can be on your computer already. It could be our cell phone temporarily. I’m not trying to spend your money.
You could go to your company, whoever you work for, a lot of them have CRMs for you. You could get a product called Realty Juggler which is $100 a year as far as a temporary CRM to get you going and then you could jump up even into bigger products like Top Producer has one or By Referral Only, which is the CRM I use.
They actually have one which is all round dedicating your whole life to take care of clients. To take care of the COI. Their CRM is a little bit different. But you have to have that database and you have to be collecting notes every single day you talk to someone.
Tony Ray Baker:
Sorry, we veered. Want to make sure you have CRMs. Okay. So we get into CRMs. Newsletter. Does everybody here have a list of 100 people? Anybody not have a list of a 100 people? Anybody not have a list of $100 people?
Tell me why you don’t have a list of $100 people. Are you new to the city, are you new to, tell me what’s going on? It’s better to hide behind a computer and have a Facebook post. Nice. For you, because, we’re all here to learn how to get business and leads.
My suggestion would be, is you take and clear out your schedule for the next few days and you put a do not disturb sign on your door and on one gets to talk to you. You spend every waking moment calling everybody, reconnecting, finding out that, make sure you have the right home address, make sure you have their phone numbers and emails correct, their birthdays, anniversaries.
You have forward conversations a lot. You’re going to pick up business because of just that. Just because of it.
Tony Ray Baker:
Yes. Yes. There is always a way and you have super cool energy, so I can’t imagine anybody not taking your call. There’s always a way to find somebody. We all have instant messenger on Facebook, most of us, and we have email, or we have something.
Reach out. You also have data you can research. I can call Priscilla and say Priscilla, do you have Joe’s phone number? I can’t find it. And she’s going to say yeah, absolutely. Gives me Joe’s phone number because I know she introduced me to Joe, now I can call Joe.
So you get to be a detective too, which is really fun. Some stuff you don’t want to find out though, just saying. Don’t make noes on that stuff.
Tony Ray Baker:
Okay so everybody, yes? Good question. One of the things that realtors are always faced with is, what do we with our folks not in Tuscan? They are potential referrers. Darren and I do, probably we did five million probably last year in relocation.
We’re looking at a lot of people coming in and you know where a lot of them come from? Actually people who moved to another city and found that they were coming, their friend is coming to Tuscan and refer us.
It’s really funny because folks in other cities, one they’ve moved from Tuscan, and they’re your advocate, the become bigger advocates. I don’t know what that is. It’s really cool because I meet you in Chicago, and when we meet all of a sudden she says, oh I’m leaving for Tuscan, Arizona have you heard of it?
My advocate says, oh my god, if you’re going to Tuscan you have to meet Tony Ray, that’s your realtor. They get very hyper over it. It’s really cool, but here’s a connection that happens and they want to help them and they want them to meet me.
Tony Ray Baker:
The same will happen for you. Send your newsletter to everyone that you like, love and trust. Does that answer that for you? The information in my newsletter, and by the way, I have Darren, can you help me?
I’m going to give you, in about two minutes I’m going to give you, I’m going to put copies of my newsletter on the table. You are welcome to take them. I probably have only 50. I don’t know how many people we have in this room right now, but we can also maybe get copies for you if you don’t get to take one home.
In my newsletter I always right about Tony Ray’s stuff. What’s going on with Darren and I, our vacations. We travel six times a year. So we like, people know we like to travel. They like to hear about Europe and stuff. I talk about the new puppy.
I talk about all the stuff around us and then I talk about fun stuff I get, my assistant is a pet sitter. So she pulls puppy article, or a kitty article off the web and then we always note who wrote it. We put those in.
Tony Ray Baker:
We create content based on what we think our clients will love, we write about teenagers and the blues and we write about events coming up that we’re going to so they can join us, we write about puppies and kittens.
We write about kids Halloween safety tips. Whatever is happening that month, we pull it from the internet. We grab the content and give the author credit and we put it out.
Darren Jones:
People love [inaudible 00:48:42]. People love to hear about what’s going on [inaudible 00:49:03].
Tony Ray Baker:
Write about what you know and grab content that you know your clients will like and it works really well. That all being said, newsletters are arriving at the table right now. Kristy got you. Kristy got your back. So newsletters are fun content.
I would recommend that you steal one of those newsletters and take it home with you so that you have it. If somebody wants a newsletter copy and you didn’t get one, you can email Tom, they all have your email or do you want me to send them to me?
So, just really quick guys Tom Heath, you all had a reservation, RSVP to Tom, to Haley, so use that if you want anything that I don’t get for you today. Email them and we will compile it and get it out to you. Does that sound good?
