Those Who Can't Do, Teach
As someone that once aspired to be a teacher, it pains me to write the title of this post. As a member of the real estate industry, though, I find it necessary to point out some things that bother me about our industry.
The best - the VERY best - in the mortgage and real estate businesses clear $1,000,000/year income. The good make 6 figures. While that's a generic statement and doesn't capture the complete pictures of ups, downs, personal experiences, those new to the industry, those close to retirement, etc, the point remains clear - if you're good at what you do and you know how to run your business, the real estate industry can be lucrative.
So when I see a crop of professionals that have never earned at those levels teaching the next generation of professionals, or professionals struggling to get to those levels, I find it disheartening to see the amount of money being dumped into teachers that aren't teaching reality. Those teaching you how to do more real estate business that have never sold a home or navigated a client from prospect to home owner. The mortgage "gurus" who haven't done a loan since before the real estate crash in 2008, and have no idea how to get a loan done in an era when a client needs more than a pulse to get approved.
Are you paying thousands of dollars for someone to robo-post social media content for you? Are you paying someone overseas to provide you with content (that, like the agent I sued, was doing for content that was being pirated from other real professionals)? Are you struggling to close a minimal number of transactions, but paying to get more "likes" on social media, or more of an audience?
Well here's the secret (I'm giving it to you for free). Most people are focusing on the wrong things when they want to grow their business (or heck, even find that first taste of success), and the 'gurus' and teachers out there will never tell you this. Take a look at the pyramid here. From the bottom up, you have what I've learned over a dozen years to be the most important things for business growth, with the least important being at the top. Has the industry changed? Yup. Has social media become more important? Yup. Do some people run entire businesses off of purchased leads? Yup. Does that change my mind? 
Nope!
Bottom line, there's no magic potion, silver bullet, or easy shortcut to success in the real estate industry or any industry. For those making money off the tip of the pyramid, the message is the opposite: For just $99, we'll teach you how to use Instagram to grow an audience! For just $149/month, you'll have access to over 1,000 classes that you'll never implement anything from! For just $5 $10 $15 $80 per lead, you can use Zulia to run your business! That's what you'll hear from the tip of the pyramid, but the success truly lies in everything below it.
If you're not a seasoned pro making a good living, turn your pyramid upside down. If you don't know how to successfully navigate a client through the process, leaving them with happy feelings and appreciation for your services, don't worry about your database marketing - you won't have a database and people darn sure won't be referring you and coming back with their future business. If you don't have a process and workflow in place to manage incoming leads, follow up with them, and convert them to new clients WITHOUT taking up your entire week's focus, then don't worry about buying leads. You won't be able to close them.
Most teachers today - the latests and greatest trying to dip into your pockets via their facebook ads and calls to action - aren't going to tell you that the true secret is to get really good at what you do and how you do it, and THEN you focus on the tip of the pyramid (that's what takes a successful, good earner to the top of the mountain). That stuff is important, but it's important proportionately to it's place in the pyramid. You can't get to the top without it, but you can't get away from the bottom without the other pieces to the puzzle.
Shift your focus, ignore the gurus, the teachers, and the latest bells and whistles. Get to work. Put in the time to learn, and know you'll need time to grow. But while you're building your foundation, ignore the bells and whistles. Turn away from the shiny objects. Keep focused. Build your pyramid from the ground up, and when you get to the top, you'll see performance and profit you may have only dreamed of.
Note: If you can't see the pyramid content here, it is (in order of importance from bottom to top): Knowledge & Skillset, Processes/Workflows, Database Management, and then all the other "stuff" (shown here are Social Media, 3rd party services/vendors, and paid leads)
Note: If you can't read the pyramid here, the layers (from bottom up in order of importance) are: Knowledge and Skillset, Processes/Workflow, Database Management, and then the rest of the "stuff" (shown here are Social Media, 3rd Party Services, and Paid Leads)
Note: If you can't read the pyramid here, the layers (from bottom up in order of importance) are: Knowledge and Skillset, Processes/Workflow, Database Management, and then the rest of the "stuff" (shown here are Social Media, 3rd Party Services, and Paid Leads)
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