service

Service and Volunteering

samuelabbottiii, , , , , Leave a comment

Tonight I was talking to a woman, face to face, about how she’s thinking about downsizing, and it was a point of discussion that happened to come up.

I serve on two boards, one as the Treasurer and the other as the President. I’ve done various forms of non-profit/volunteer work since I’ve been in real estate. It’s been an effective way to meet and mingle with people that I otherwise wouldn’t.

What follows is referrals and direct business from people that I work with in these different volunteering roles.

When I was early in real estate, my mentors at the time instructed me to find things that I was interested in and to volunteer in those areas. An important caveat was to not volunteer for things I wasn’t interested in.

Coming into real estate, I was a writer and an avid reader. Still am. My broker looked at me and basically said, “Well, you’ll need to either find some other things you’re interested in that involve people, or maybe things that have to do with reading and writing.”

So, I proceeded to get involved with the local library which was, at the time, raising millions of dollars for the construction of a new building. That works.

I had one child in the public school at the time. So, I got involved with the PTO.

The town I lived in has a Welcome Team that greets new residents at their homes and gives them a hand-woven basket filled with local goods and pamphlets. Pretty neat service to have in a small rural town in New Hampshire. So, I joined the committee!

I have an interest in buildings and architecture as well as history. So, I joined the Heritage Commission in another town where I lived later.

Most of these were in alignment with what I valued. They all were, really. It was more in the doing of these things where I was able to learn what groups I felt more comfortable in, and weeded them as I moved and as I did different things.

A friend called a couple years ago (who I met through my service in the local Kiwanis Club, which I joined very early in real estate) and asked me to help his organization search for a building to buy. The organization is a local transitional shelter.

We found them a building and they bought it and we went our separate ways. But I later had the idea that it might be a good board to be involved with. Any future purchases they involve me in, while I’m on the board, I won’t be able to financially benefit from. That’s okay with me. I liked the idea that it serves a population that I can’t otherwise help in housing. It counterbalances my work such that I feel like I’m able to help everyone with housing in my community.

Kind of cool.

And finally, the Kiwanis Club. I have been a member since I got into real estate, and last year I formally joined the board. Now, I’m the President of the club and my term begins next month.

These things are good things to do as a community member, but they also help me to build more relationships and relationships with people from varied backgrounds. It was an invaluable suggestion early on that I’m grateful I heeded.

Service and Volunteering

Top Contacts

samuelabbottiii, , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

This is something I’ve yet to perfect but I have a belief in it because of how many people have instructed me to do it or something similar to it.

As a real estate professional, I’m in the people business, much as I hate to admit it. See, I don’t hate people, no not at all. But I don’t particularly love having to interact with them for my work.

I’m what is frequently referred to as an introvert. But, I get along well enough with others, so I’m moderately successful at real estate sales. This doesn’t help me though when it comes to spontaneously reaching out to everyone I know so I can be top of mind.

Yes, it’s not something I’ve been doing well lately. We participated in a coaching program earlier this year with Workman Success Systems and this is one concept they’re known for.

I identify my top contacts. This might be 250, 100, 50, or somewhere in between. The working notion here is that these people are the people most likely to refer me business. From here, I design a contact plan of how I want to keep in touch with them. At WSS, it was as simple as a phone call or a face-to-face meeting once per month.

A book that influenced me a lot earlier on is 7L – Seven Levels of Communication.1 Strongly recommend it. I may reread it now that I’m thinking about it. I could use some motivation around this.

The premise of the book is that trust comes as a byproduct of communication. When we communicate with people more and more, they trust us as professionals and become more and more likely to refer business to us.

So, how do we keep in touch with these people? WSS keeps it simple with a phone call or a face-to-face once per month.2 7L provides lots of ideas, an example of one is their emphasis on writing personal notes.3

7L also prescribes the task of grading one’s database. WSS had a similar suggestion. Most people think in terms of A, B, C, and sometimes D, and F. The point is that if I grade them, I don’t have to remember who’s at what stage, I just search for the categorical letter and see the list of people.

WSS used A is for leads that are expected to buy/sell/etc. within 30 days, for instance, whereas, A+ is an Ambassador in 7L — somebody who has before, and you expect to in the future, refer you more than 1 deal per year. Typically A (or A+) is the optimal grading, and people less likely to close or less likely to refer us business (depending on which model is used) would be graded as B, C, D, F, etc.

Some people make their entire careers just focused on direct referral. In order to do that, we have to be referrable. In order to be referrable, we have to behave remarkably when we’re dealing with clients.

Old Sam doesn’t always deal remarkably with clients. We all make mistakes. The important thing is to actually do our best so we can lay our head on the pillow peacefully, and so we can ensure that we’re going to be talked about positively by the people we’ve helped.

When it comes to this aspect of the business, we’re rewarded for being good at relationships. I sometimes feel that the effort makes it insincere, inauthentic. I have an angle, after all. So, I’m going to challenge myself to find a way to do it authentically for me.

Writing comes much easier to me. I could finally get serious about a work-related blog and send content out to my people once a month, once a week, bi-weekly, whatever. I could call the ones that I feel comfortable calling because I like them and they seem to like me.

Another way I could increase my SOI activity is by visiting people. I’m always so busy like every other real estate professional claims to be. 4 Getting out, intentionally, and visiting with past clients and friends in the area where I work is much more up my alley than the phone call. The visit, as opposed to the call, feels more meaningful for them, and it’s more fulfilling for me.

So, there I go! Win/win.

  • Begin a blog for my company and email the post however often I decide.
    • I’ll begin with a monthly newsletter with a market update and whatever other ancillary things that matter that I can think of.
    • I’ll post that as a blog post on our company website.
    • Maybe I’ll read the market report to a video screen and call it a YouTube video.
    • I’ll link both in our MailChimp account and send them out monthly to our subscribers.5
  • I’ll challenge myself to visit with one past client/member of my sphere of influence (SOI) every week.

For me, this feels both authentic and effective. It’s something I can get behind doing because it suits my personality and preferences more. Many people I know don’t mind making phone calls—it comes easily for them. Great. I think the important thing is mapping out a system and actually executing it for an extended period of time.6

  1. I’m a guy who’s had a considerable amount of my business come from people I know personally and from direct referrals from people I know personally. I believe this is due in large part to this book and the things it teaches. ↩︎
  2. I merely skimmed the Ninja real estate book you may have heard of. One concept that jumped out at me was this one. Very similar, they recommend a call every seven weeks to set up a meeting every eight weeks. Something like that. The approach is altered slightly everywhere but is otherwise ubiquitous. ↩︎
  3. Writing personal notes can be an effective and touching way to communicate. It feels very personal to see someone’s handwriting. A good rule of thumb with this would be to commit to writing X per day. In the 7L book, there’s an in-depth formula for how to write the cards. Use the formula if it’s helpful. If it deters you from writing them, it’s not serving you and you should just write notes. ↩︎
  4. But I’m rarely too busy for lunch with my business partner at the drop of a hat. ↩︎
  5. This will be distinct from the newsletter we’re already sending out, for this will actually be news! ↩︎
  6. Holiday cards, thank you notes, thinking of you notes, blogging, phone calls, client events, visiting them at their home, inviting them to visit you at your office or an open house, getting lunch/meals, play dates with their kids and yours, birthday parties, housewarming parties—the list goes on. ↩︎
Top Contacts

Living for Others

samuelabbottiii,

A friend of mine recently reminded me how important it is to live for others. He sent me this mildly religious inspirational video that talked about living for the big “YOU” rather than the little “you.” The implication being made was that we’re all connected through a sort of universal consciousness, and that when we intend our actions to be beneficial for others, they’re consequently beneficial for us.

When one is as hopelessly self-centered and terminally narcissistic as I am, it’s sometimes necessary to develop motivation to be thoughtful, considerate, and especially helpful regarding other people. Somebody tells me that I’ll benefit from it though and I’m all in.

Counterintuitively  for a guy like me, this has in fact proved true. Fortunately, it’s not a brand new idea, and despite my default of gazing into my own eyes in the bathroom mirror for longer and more frequent intervals than I’ll allow myself to admit, I’ve been afforded many regular opportunities to be useful to other people.

It’s easy for me to tell when I’ve spent too much time with me. Mind you, I’m my favorite person in the world to spend time with, and I really love when I get me all to myself. Still, there’s a limit where even the best of things begins to be harmful. At this point, I’m able to refresh my spirit by actually taking one of the phone calls I’ve trained myself to ignore. Really though, I could use that as an opportunity to call one of the friends I tell myself I’d love to catch up with. Best of all, I could call someone I know that has difficulty going on in there lives, try to lift them up and even just wish them well and let them know that I’m thinking of them.

While these seem like little endeavors that don’t carry much significance, they actually have the potential to make my day, and frequently do. I get caught up in the grind and forget that this kind of stuff – human interaction and spontaneity – are the zest of life, and that they are what essentially make me happy.

Another good example is getting out of my own way enough to play with my five-year-old son. I love him to pieces, and he loves me similarly. No less, I still struggle to become willing to play the little games he comes up with. We spent one hour this afternoon going from downstairs to upstairs with his Woody and Buzz Lightyear dolls, resuscitating his other Woody doll when this Woody doll would strangle it by the other Buzz Lightyear doll getting the latter Woody doll with his imaginary laser. I was the Buzz’s. He was the Woody’s. After each of these episodes, the two “good” guys would go hide and go back to sleep somewhere in the house. Then, the two “bad” guys would go find them again, repeating the action in different parts of the house for an entire hour. This may sound adorable, and it really was. Remaining present throughout was real work on my part though. It was service. I don’t say that to sound self-congratulatory. It really was. While that may come naturally for some, it certainly doesn’t for me.

I’ve gotten better at this kind of thing – both helping and interacting with people and actively engaging with my son. It’s amazing how it can really lift us up and set us back on our feet when we feel down and off the beam. When we begin to feel irritated at trivialities, it’s usually a good indicator that we’re getting tired of being around ourselves. Being with and for others reminds us of how small we and our problems sometimes are. And when our problems aren’t small, we can rely on those close to us in a similar, reciprocating way.

Finishing here, I’ll end with a quote from Marcus Aurelius I was just reminded of.

“Remember:

Matter. How tiny your share of it.

Time. How brief and fleeting your allotment of it.

Fate. How small a role you play in it.”

Living for Others