Episode 406 - Conversation with Carp - Building Your Real Estate Roadmap: A Conversation with Sean Carpenter

Right.

Stephen Covey talks about in his Begin with the End in Mind.

He says so often, you know, we're climbing the ladder of success only to reach the top and realize we had the ladder against the wrong wall, you know, and so we want to be making sure we're going the right direction.

You're listening to the Real Estate Sessions, and I'm your host, Bill risser.

With nearly 25 years in the real estate business, I love to interview industry leaders, up and comers, and really anyone with a story to tell.

It's the stories that led my guests to a career in the real estate world that drives me into my ninth year and near 400 episodes of the podcast.

And now I hope you enjoy the next journey.

Hi, everybody.

Welcome to episode 406 of the Real Estate Sessions podcast.

As always, thank you so much for tuning in.

Thank you so much for telling the friend.

Today we have another conversation with Karp.

Here we are on December 31, 2024, looking towards 2025, and I thought this would be a great time to have Sean Carpenter on, because Sean does a lot of business planning, helping agents kind of figure out what their goals will be for the next year.

And he has a really cool way of setting them up for success.

And I thought, let's just talk to Sean about this.

This is.

Timing's good, even though it's kind of a little late.

Probably should have been doing this planning earlier, but I think we're going to find out.

It's really never too late.

So let's go ahead and get this started.

Sean, welcome to the final episode of the Real Estate Sessions podcast for 2024.

How are you doing?

How is Columbus, Ohio?

How was your Christmas?

Christmas was good.

Holidays are good.

The year coming to an end.

It's always that exciting, yet kind of mesmerizing time where you're like, wow, I can't believe we made it to the end of the year.

And it seems like it was just yesterday we were planning for this year, but everything's good.

The family's good.

The outlook for next year looks healthy.

The local home team, Buckeyes are still in the playoffs, so everybody here locally seems very happy.

And until maybe the next couple days.

Yeah, I was gonna say, well.

And the Bengals still have a shot.

Bengals are still alive.

Yeah, they're alive.

And the Browns are.

The Browns.

And the Browns are just do what the Browns do.

Yeah, that's.

That has got to change.

I mean, there's.

I mean, I saw that, like, Deshaun Watson's still The guy for the next couple years, that's kind of the plan.

This past week.

He is, he's willing to renegotiate some of the, some of the monies on the table.

Yeah.

Wow.

All right, good, good.

Let's, let's.

I.

What I'd like to do because we're here at the end and like every other piece of media in the world, they look backs and top 10 lists and all this great stuff of the year that just passed, but I think I'd get, I'd like to get more specific.

Right, because what you do when you help agents with a lot of different ways to be prepared in their business, ways to look at their business.

Let.

I, I know you handle business planning for people in that Q4, which is really important, like, what is next year gonna look like?

But you and I were chatting a little bit, and I would love for you to start with what.

How do you handle those conversations?

Whether it's one on one coaching or whether it's in a group, how do you handle looking back?

I mean, what does that look like for you?

Because it seems to me that's really important is to see how well you did in the past year instead of just jumping into 20, 25.

Is that, does that, does that sound right?

Yeah, of course, Bill.

And I think, you know, when I meet with, with agents that I coach with or, or, you know, any, any business planning person, you know, starts thinking about, you know, you're driving down the road, right?

You're looking at the future.

You got a destination in mind, and that windshield is big, and it should be big because where you're going is important.

But you got to have those rear view mirrors to know where we've been, to have a good indication of are we on the right path.

Right.

Stephen Covey talks about in his Begin with the End in Mind.

He says so often, you know, we're climbing the ladder of success only to reach the top and realize we had the ladder against the wrong wall.

You know, we want to be making sure we're going the right direction.

And so looking back, those, those rear views, I think is so critical because if you had a good year, you want to look at what you did to repeat, and if you had a challenging year, you want to look at where those maybe detours and obstacles came up.

Avoid them as best you can, whether that's through technology, whether that's through delegation, whether that's through maybe just not doing things that aren't working anymore.

And so, you know, when I sit down and do my business planning with my agents.

The first, you know, 30, 45 minutes is talking about.

Let's look back at this past year, and I'll, you know, for, for our listeners, I'll, I'll walk through kind of the, the topics that we talk about, and I sort of ask them to grade themselves, right?

Grade their team, their business, their, you know, look, get outside of their business and look at, look from above and see where they're looking at.

So you want to go through the different little categories?

Yeah, I, I first, my first question to you is, do you ever have to struggle with someone maybe not being as honest as they need to be?

Because they need to be really honest in this process, right?

When they're going through this, they can't, you know.

Yeah, you sort of, you want to make it a safe space.

Safe space where they can kind of be honest.

And, you know, sometimes, you know, if I feel there's some excuses coming out versus some truths, I might, you know, Bill, I, I like to say, my son, when he was learning to play golf, I say, you, you.

You know the golf scorecard.

And I say, you know why they make the little boxes for your score?

Any toll so small?

He goes, why?

And I said, because you can't write excuses in there.

You can just write a number, right?

You can't say, well, the wind was blowing too hard or, or the golf cart made.

Made a noise or, you know, the, the rake near the bunker.

You just have to put a four or a six or an eight.

And so I think at the end of the day, business, business owners, which all real estate agents are, as business owners, is they gotta be honest with themselves and say, where.

Where can I be better and what can I double down on?

And, and so, you know, the first thing we talk about is, you know, on a grade scale is, how did you do on prospecting?

And sometimes that word prospecting, I think, intimidates some people.

So I say, don't, don't worry about the word prospecting.

I'm talking about lead generation.

And you know what's funny, Bill, is a lot of people and I work with mostly the top agents and teams in my Columbus and Cincinnati marketplaces.

But a lot of agents, they come off the bat and they say, oh, probably I'm a C or a D.

Now, these are the top agents doing 50, 70, 80, 150 deals a year, and they give themselves a C or D, because I think they're grading themselves on what they think prospecting is.

They're like, well, I didn't door knock.

And I didn't hold open houses and I didn't cold call people and they say, I don't care about that.

I said, when it comes to generating business, when it comes to putting seeds in the ground and growing your business on purpose, how would you grade yourself?

And I think what a lot of top agents realize is so much of their prospecting is social prospecting and just constant consistent communication.

And so when you think about your prospecting, once again, go back to that metaphor we've used in past conversations.

Putting seeds in the ground that could turn into business tomorrow, next week, next month, or next year.

And so that's where it begins.

The next thing we look at is time management, right?

The cool thing about real estate, it's different every day.

The bad thing about real estate, it's different every day.

And so time management is an area where a lot of agents kind of get off track because they react to the what's in urgent now and they focus on the urgency versus the importance.

And so we really look at time management and do they have a morning routine?

Do they have systems in place?

Do they have systems in place to put seeds in the ground?

Do they have systems in place to implement a 4H club or six channels of communication challenge or whatever it might be?

And so we look at time management, the next question is use of technology.

Now most of the agents, when I say use of technology, I mean we, we double check and make sure.

Do they know how to use all the company tools?

Do they know how to use the local MLS, DOT loop or DocuSign?

Do they know how to use the technologies available?

And then are they leveraging other sources of technology like social media, video, AI, areas like that?

And really just an analysis.

And as you can probably imagine, Bill, most of the agents can do the day to day tasks.

They're just not adding a lot of extra bells and whistles in, right?

Yeah, yeah.

And that's that, that goes with the, that goes with the business.

There are some people that are all over that and really excited about trying out new things.

And you got others who are just kind of set in their ways.

That doesn't mean one's better than the other, Right.

As long as you're doing those first two things you talked about that maybe it's not as important.

Yeah, look, the good news for a lot of people listening is old school still works, right?

I mean, old school still works the face to face, nose to nose, toes to toes, real estate relationship business still works, so does new school, right?

New school still works.

There's agents, Bill, that you and I both know that are very tech forward, tech savvy.

They do a lot of their business through social media and video and AI.

But some of those people that are at the far end of the tech spectrum don't have the relationship aspects.

Some of the people that are at the old school relationships, they can't really leverage it and explode it using technology.

It's the agents that can put their feet in both camps, I think, that really have the best opportunity for growth in this business.

Be really good with your technology, but be able to look up from your screens and have conversations and remember stories and people's names and, and then take those stories in people's names and conversations and put them into your technology.

Right.

Like you've talked about years ago, with your database is your data bank of when I'm done having a conversation with Bill and Cindy Risser, am I going into my database and putting in a conversation about Kevin, their son is engaged and getting married and his, you know, in laws living, you know, Miami, and am I putting those things and then when am I following up with Bill?

The next time.

Right, Right.

Yep.

That's awesome.

Look, the next one on our conversation, which is a big one for top agents, because the business can really consume you as you know and as you've seen in your years in the business is, is the question of life balance.

Now, a lot of people just, when they hear that word life balance, they, they say, oh, I work too much or I, my, my life balance is horrible.

And first of all, let me just say this to the people listening, I think when it comes especially to, to a, a career like real estate, I think the word balance is, I'll just say it, it's right because it implies that you're half working and half not working.

Right.

And because you're in real estate, you're kind of always working, right.

When you're the kids ball game, you're potentially listening for an opportunity to maybe not write a contract or list a house on the sidelines, but you're listening for opportunities.

When you're at church, you're looking for opportunities.

When you're at the ball game or playing golf or at the grocery store, you're looking, you're, you're kind of on the clock, right?

We don't get to clock out like someone that works at Walmart or a doctor's office does.

So I challenge people.

I say, what about your life harmony?

Let's take the word balance, put the harmony Love it.

Like, does your family understand that you work your butt off so you can provide a nice lifestyle and vacations and, you know, decent living and all those types of things?

And I think when people change the word from balance to harmony, they say, no, it's my partner or my spouse or my kids.

They know that I might take a phone call, you know, now and then they, they know that I might be on the, you know, on the telephone, in the car on the way to a doctor's appointment.

So that, that, that's just something to think about.

And, and people that do challenge or do struggle with that, Bill.

I, we try and say, like, what can we do to build your business next year to maybe alleviate some of that anxiety or stress or concerns?

And let me just maybe point this, maybe a good time to bring this up, Bill.

You know, a lot of times when I do these business plannings, not every agent I meet with wants to do more business next year.

I think a lot of people just think they, well, if I did 50 deals this year, I got to do 60 next year.

And that's not always the case.

Sometimes people say, look, my price point's going up.

I got kids, you know, last two years of school, you know, before they graduate and move on, I want to spend more time with them.

Maybe my, my, I'm getting older parents, whatever it might be.

And they say, if I can do 40 deals at a higher price point, I'm okay with that.

Right.

Or.

Or 35 deals or 20 deals or 60 deals, whatever it might be, it doesn't always have to mean more.

It just might mean better.

The next one is truly remarkable service.

Right.

Are you, you know, and, and call it whatever you want, but what are you doing to make sure your clients love you and will tell other people about you?

Right.

If you're going to get repeat referral business, which we've talked about the last time we talked, is you got to earn that repeat business first.

Yep.

So what are those little things that you can do?

Once again, if you're listening to this and you say my clients love me, I get lots of referrals.

That's great.

What more can you do?

What's that little thing you can do a little bit more?

What's that purple cow, as Seth Godin says?

What's that.

What's that extra little thing that's going to make someone bring you up the next time someone in their world brings up real estate?

And so I've really been talking about with agents this year implementing a one one one plan in 2025.

Let me tell you what a one, one, one plan is.

A one, one one plan is when you close a deal with a buyer, you're going to contact them one day after possession, one week after possession, and one month after closing.

See, so many agents, Bill, in our industry, we get the deal to the closing table and then we move on to the next deal right next up.

And we kind of forget about the client who we've been working with for three, four, seven months.

And we hope that they remember us and we're going to stay in touch with them.

We're going to put them on our mailing campaigns and our drip emails.

But what if we contacted them one day after they moved into the house with a phone call or a text saying, hey, Bill, I just want to make sure you and Cindy got in okay.

Did the sellers leave by the garage door openers and all the keys that they promised?

And you know, is that, is there any issues that can help you with?

Then maybe one week after the closing, I might stop by and drop off, you know, some paper towels and some tape and some little things that, you know, and then one month after the closing, because here's, here's the, here's what the buyers have been thinking about real estate for the last 12 weeks, six weeks, eight weeks.

Every day they wake up and hit refresh on their email and hope that today's the day an email comes through with a listing that we might be able to buy.

Yeah, after closing, they're still thinking about real estate because they're driving to a new house, driving a new route to work.

They're finding a new veterinarian for their pet.

They're finding a new park to take their kids to play in.

They're finding new shops and restaurants.

And guess what?

Everyone at work and in their families ask them about, how's the new place?

Are you undone yet?

Are you unboxed yet?

And what if we can keep showing up in their lives, in their heads of, yeah, my Realtor stopped by last week to make sure everything was good and dropped off this packet.

And they say, we were going to ask you, you know, we want to buy a house this year.

Would you recommend your agent?

And what a great way to stay in touch with those people.

Yep.

And the great thing, Bill, is If you do 40 or 50 deals a year, that's going to be 40 times three more touches on purpose right after the closing.

Right.

Plus then all the other implemental birthdays and anniversaries and marketing updates and Check ins and client events you're doing throughout the year.

So that's just one little added thing.

We talk about attitude, we talk about team leadership, and we talk about overall.

How did you grade your year?

Right?

And if they had their best year ever, I almost make them give themselves an A.

Now it can be an A minus, right?

That means there's still room to grow.

But you know, this is where you really start saying to people, looking back, how did you do overall?

And I think sometimes people, when they step back, they're like, you know what?

I didn't do as good as I thought I was going to do.

But I still am happy with where I'm at or I realize that maybe this happened or I had this challenge in my life or I had this obstacle where my kids were sick or I was sick or my parents were sick or my parents died or I got divorced or these little things that you can look back and say, okay, so three, four years from now, when we look back at that little window where things didn't happen the way we wanted to, there was a clear outlier of why it, why it went that way.

Last question.

It's, is it too late to work out what I'm doing for 2025?

Is it?

Because here we are at the very end of the 2024.

Is it too late?

No, not at all, I think.

And once again, I mean, obviously, you know, if you're just starting a plan now, you're probably, you know, 60 to 90 days in arrears, so to speak.

So the, you know, the people that are the, that are going to close deals in January, put those things in contract in November and December, right.

And they put seeds in the ground earlier.

It's not too late to be a farmer.

Your harvest just might come a little bit later.

There you go.

But once again, it goes back to the old basic focus on the activity, not the results and you have a good chance of getting started.

Well, another conversation with Carp.

You know, I've been a little lax on these.

I'm going to make sure that we step up the timing on these, John.

Probably for the next month, every month, for the, over the next six months.

But yeah, that's all.

It's wonderful.

I love, I love hearing you talk about your business.

The passion is there, the information is there, the power is there.

It's just fantastic.

So look, anyone listening, you know how to get a hold of Sean.

He's all over social.

He's got karps corner.net and that his, his looking in his looking in review kind of scorecard.

His grade card is available.

We're going to put it in the show notes.

There'll be a link back to his his blog where you can actually see that and grab it yourself.

So Sean, awesome.

Thanks so much.

Can't wait to get you down here.

But I, I don't know if you know this but you're bringing temperatures in the 40s and 50s to FL Florida when you get here.

One way or another I'm going to find that cool weather somehow some way.

But I can't wait to get you back on the golf course.

Westchase is waiting for you.

So thanks for your time again today.

This has been great.

We are looking forward to best wishes to you and everyone out there listening in the new year ahead.

It's very exciting.

Some great opportunities for all of us.

Thank you for listening to the Real Estate Sessions.

Please head over to ratethispodcast.com recessions to leave a review or a rating and subscribe to the Real Estate Sessions podcast at your favorite podcast.

Listening Applause.