Hustle Humbly Podcast

Your database is the most important system you'll ever build, so start there with our FREE Database Template: hustlehumblypodcast.com/starthere. Want the rest of the tools we mention? They're all on our products page: hustlehumblypodcast.com/products (and that's why there are no ads this week!). The humidity is finally breaking in Louisiana, and with it comes that fall urge to buy pumpkins, clean out the database, and get the holiday cards going. If you've been in survival mode all year, this is your sign to take a deep breath and take inventory. In this episode, we're sharpening our systems in preparation for the next year. We walk through the systems every Realtor needs, the ones that are nice to have, and the shiny things that try to derail you every fourth quarter. You enter your next season the way you leave this one, so let's tidy up now. Plus, Alissa shares the listing appointment that sent her into a comparison spiral (glossy brochures were involved), and what happened when she stayed true to her own process. Here's what we cover in this episode: Why fourth quarter is the perfect time to tidy up your business How to clean your database and reach out to people while you do it The must-have systems: intake, presentations, database, listing prep, contract to close, email templates, safety, and tracking Why your intake notes from a slow year could make next year your best one The listing appointment that almost made Alissa ditch her process Nice-to-have systems: closing gifts, Friday shutdowns, newsletters, office days, and vendor lists A fun, unexpected email idea for your list using your Realtor resume Shiny things: why new software, CRMs, and broker switches ramp up this time of year Polishing the details like headshots, bios, and online profiles Being intentional with volunteer commitments, expenses, and marketing budgets Taking stock of your happiness and fulfillment in this career Key Quotes & Takeaways: "Simple systems, stronger relationships. That's really all you have to focus on." - Katy "How I work with these people next year is only as good as the notes I took this year." - Alissa "If you find yourself writing an email over and over, write it well once and save it." - Alissa "Whatever you want next year to look like, that is going to happen now." - Katy "Sorry, my marketing dollars have already been committed." - Katy Products, People & Previous Episodes Mentioned: Episode 58: Why Systems Are the Answer Episode 166: Email Marketing/Real Estate Newsletters Episode 178: Spruce Up Your Biz Episode 188: Task Frequency/What To Do and When To Do It Episode 310: The Four Core Systems Every Realtor Needs Hustle Humbly Community Buyer & Seller Transaction Checklists Listing Agreement & Buyer Brokerage Cover Letters 3 Day Resume Trello ShowingTime NAR NXT (New Orleans)   Leave us a review at RateThisPodcast.com/HustleHumbly Get your FREE Database Template Email Templates 101 Agent Systems 101 All Resources Submit your topic ideas and toasts to [email protected] Music: Straight A's by Connor Price The Good Life by Summer Kennedy Be The One by Matrika  

Back in January 2020, we recorded Episode 23, The Three P's of Professionalism, based on NAR's List of Suggested Professional Courtesies. It's not the Code of Ethics, but a complementary, voluntary list, and real estate schools are still sending brand new agents to that episode today. With everyone talking about AI lately, we decided it was time to pull some of our favorites back out and remind ourselves why the human part of this job still matters. We start with a story about an agent who let AI write every single text and email during a transaction. 10/10 do not recommend. From there we walk through our favorite courtesies under NAR's three P's, public, property, and peers, with real stories from our own businesses. We cover everything from scheduling showings far enough in advance, to the seasoned agent whose remediation company connections saved our clients thousands after closing, to the referral call we turned down because the seller was $40,000 dollars over price and would not budge. Professionalism doesn't mean a fancy blazer or the glossiest marketing materials. It means talking to your clients about money, setting expectations with data, and being the boss of the transaction, even when it's not what anyone wants to hear. Here's what we cover in this episode: Why an AI-written text message is the opposite of professional, and how to spot one A refresher on NAR's Three P's of Professionalism: public, property, and peers Scheduling showings and appointments far enough in advance, even when it feels too early Why you should assume you're always being recorded How to handle it when someone tells you they already have an agent Presenting a professional appearance without needing to be fancy Being responsible for buyers, kids, and pets during a showing Getting permission before filming quirky listing content (standing on the kitchen island is a hard no) Following a seller's special showing requests, even the ones that feel unnecessary Prepping a divorce listing for every possible objection before it ever hits the market Why polish isn't the same as professionalism, and what actually builds client trust Key Quotes & Takeaways: "Polished doesn't equal professionalism." – Katy "I'm not here to just take a listing. I want to sell it." – Alissa "Tell people what you know, not what you think." – Katy "Real estate is a reputation business." – Katy "You are more professional than you may even think." – Alissa Products, People & Previous Episodes Mentioned: Episode 23: The Three P's of Professionalism Episode 129: How to Be a Good Co-Op Agent Episode 369: Where Communication Breaks Down Episode 371: Property Safety: When Your Listing Gets Robbed NAR's List of Suggested Professional Courtesies (nar.realtor) Hustle Humbly Community Want to toast someone on the show? Send us a voice or video message with your name, who you're toasting, and why! Email it to [email protected]. Leave us a review at http://ratethispodcast.com/hustlehumbly Get your FREE Database Template: http://hustlehumblypodcast.com/starthere Email Templates 101: http://emailtemplates101.com Agent Systems 101: http://agentsystems101.com All Resources: http://hustlehumblypodcast.com Submit your topic ideas and toasts to [email protected] Music: Straight A's by Connor Price → https://connorprice.shop/ The Good Life by Summer Kennedy → https://soundcloud.com/summerkennedy/the-good-life Be The One by Matrika → https://uppbeat.io/t/matrika/be-the-one  

This week we're doing a little podcast therapy of our own, because burnout comes for all of us. We started this episode because we needed it, and if we're honest, we figured a lot of you needed it too. So instead of just handing you a list of quick fixes, we decided to do the harder thing first: name it. Burnout, it seems, can come at us for a lot of reasons. We're breaking burnout down two ways. First by where you are in your career: seasoned agent, new agent, or part timer. Then by the universal types that don't care about your years in the business at all: market related, personality based and situational. We even confess our own personal "burnout cocktails" so you know you're not alone. This one is part pep talk, part permission slip. You don't have to quit. You just have to learn to rest. Here's what we cover in this episode: Why we're starting with "name it to tame it" instead of jumping straight to tips Seasoned agent burnout: seeing the process and consumer get more difficult New agent burnout: rejection, comparison, and the overwhelm of trying to learn everything at once Part time agent burnout: the honest conversation about whether your goals actually match the effort you're able to give Market related burnout: rising interest rates, affordability struggles, and a real client story about a buyer's max budget dropping almost overnight Feast or famine burnout: the cycle of busy to crickets to panic, and why real estate paychecks are always "future" money Comparison driven burnout and why social media numbers are just a vanity metric Systems failure burnout: chasing shiny new tools instead of building repeatable systems Financial stress burnout, and why we think it's the most dangerous type of all Practical ways to rest without quitting   Key Quotes & Takeaways:   "You have to name it to tame it." -Dr. Daniel Siegel "Learn to rest, not to quit." -John Greenleaf Whittier "Don't kill yourself for a job that would replace you in a week." -Alissa "The goalposts do continually move. No matter how well you do, you're constantly climbing the mountain, and you're never at the top." -Katy "Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change." -serenity prayer Products, People & Previous Episodes Mentioned: Episode 3: Mindset Meltdown (hustlehumblypodcast.com/3) Agent Systems 101 (agentsystems101.com) Hustle Humbly Community (hustlehumblypodcast.com/membership)   Want to toast someone on the show? Send us a voice or video message with your name, who you're toasting, and why! Email it to [email protected]. Leave us a review at http://ratethispodcast.com/hustlehumbly Get your FREE Database Template: http://hustlehumblypodcast.com/starthere Email Templates 101: http://emailtemplates101.com Agent Systems 101: http://agentsystems101.com All Resources: http://hustlehumblypodcast.com Submit your topic ideas and toasts to [email protected] Music: Straight A's by Connor Price → https://connorprice.shop/ The Good Life by Summer Kennedy → https://soundcloud.com/summerkennedy/the-good-life Be The One by Matrika → https://uppbeat.io/t/matrika/be-the-one  

What does Trader Joe's know that most Realtors don't? We went down a rabbit hole this week pulling data from the American Customer Satisfaction Index and the results surprised us. We also sourced stories from Trader Joe's, Chick-fil-A, and Disney. So we started asking, what do these brands actually do that makes people love them so much, and how does that apply to our real estate businesses? Turns out it's not fancy. It's not expensive. It's mastering the basics and doing them the same way every single time. As AI takes over more of the automated, robotic parts of this business, being the most human Realtor in the room is about to become your biggest competitive advantage. We're talking about the difference between delivering what you promised and giving someone an actual experience, and why so many agents skip straight to the closing gift instead of doing the boring, consistent work in the middle of the transaction. We share real stories, including a seller who wanted to pull her overpriced listing after two weeks with no showings, a buyer family with two kids under five who needed way more than an MLS printout, and a Hustle Humbly Community member whose vendor list mailer turned a football magnet into something people actually looked forward to getting. Here's what we cover in this episode: What the American Customer Satisfaction Index says about our favorite businesses Why the two questions Trader Joe's cashiers always ask are designed to get you talking Why being the most human Realtor is about to matter more than ever as AI use increases Why simpler, less produced content (a phone video walking through a house) beats a glossy production every time A real story about sending a video instead of a text when a seller wanted to pull her listing Why handwritten notes with a sheet of stickers slipped inside get remembered The "nervous gift" basket built for a buyer family touring ten houses with two little kids Why listening for small clues, like an offhand comment about a favorite baseball team, matters more than a big gesture What goes in a pre-listing gift basket to help sellers actually prep for showings Why looking at 27 houses is a customer service failure, not a badge of honor The attract, convert, deliver framework and why most agents skip straight to marketing without delivering A Hustle Humbly Community member's genius vendor list mailer campaign Which industries scored the worst on the customer satisfaction index (hint: you already know) Key Quotes & Takeaways: "The best thing we can do for customer service is our job." Katy "It's free to be transparent, responsive, to listen, to have urgency." Katy "The customer experience isn't about you. It's about that person." Alissa "You can't do the fancy, fun, frilly stuff if your clients haven't heard from you in three days." Alissa "Your face and your voice being part of that transaction is the thing that's you, that no one can take away from you. That's what sets you apart." Katy Products, People & Previous Episodes Mentioned: American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) Episode 370: Whatever Your Business Is, The Fundamentals Are The Same (hustlehumblypodcast.com/370) Hustle Humbly Community (hustlehumblypodcast.com/membership)   Want to toast someone on the show? Send us a voice or video message with your name, who you're toasting, and why! Email it to [email protected]. Leave us a review at http://ratethispodcast.com/hustlehumbly Get your FREE Database Template: http://hustlehumblypodcast.com/starthere Email Templates 101: http://emailtemplates101.com All Resources: http://hustlehumblypodcast.com Submit your topic ideas and toasts to [email protected] Music: Straight A's by Connor Price The Good Life by Summer Kennedy Be The One by Matrika  

It's Realtor Safety Month, and this year we're taking a different angle: property safety. We've covered personal safety plenty of times before (episodes 317, 216, 161, 112, and 6 & 7 with Carl Carter), but this time Alissa is sharing a story straight from the trenches: the time one of her vacant listings got robbed, mid-listing, appliances and all. Repeat clients moved out of state and handed off a vacant house with an alarm code buried in a five-month-old text message. The camera system looked impressive, eight angles of surveillance, but it hadn't actually recorded anything in two and a half years. Somewhere between painters, cleaners, and showings, the alarm never got set again, and it was never on Alissa's radar to ask. Then came the Saturday phone call every agent dreads: a showing agent reporting a kicked-in back door, a stolen oven, a missing washer and dryer, and a fridge the thieves gave up on halfway out the front door. Police, fingerprints, dead-end cameras, and a seller relationship that went from grateful to accusatory in the span of a few days. This one is a real, honest look at what happens when property safety falls through the cracks, what Alissa changed in her process because of it, and why y'all need a plan for your vacant listings before something goes wrong, not after. Here's what we cover in this episode: Why Realtor Safety Month usually focuses on personal safety, and why property safety deserves its own spotlight What actually got stolen (and what the thieves gave up on) How Alissa handled calling police, meeting them at the property, and coordinating repairs for out-of-state sellers How her broker helped negotiate a fair resolution tied to closing Why you are not your seller's property manager, and how to set that expectation early The new questions Alissa now asks every seller about alarms, cameras, and monitoring Why virtually staging vacant listings can be a safety move, not just a marketing one A past story about a garage door left open, and why "who showed it last" matters more than you think Key Quotes & Takeaways: "You're not a property manager. When they hired you to sell the home, they didn't hire you to be the lawn company or the security company." Katy "I trust no one and nothing." Katy "It's just proof that even when you have good systems, things can go wrong. It's really about handling it professionally and learning from it." Alissa "I virtually stage all my vacant properties for safety. I don't want them to appear vacant." Alissa "It's Realtor Safety Month. Be careful. Take your safety and the property safety seriously." Alissa   Products, People & Previous Episodes Mentioned: Episode 317: Realtor Safety Month: Scams, Showings, and Survival (hustlehumblypodcast.com/317) Episode 216: Important Safety Stories & Tips for Realtors (hustlehumblypodcast.com/216) Episode 161: Realtor Safety Tips from a LEO (hustlehumblypodcast.com/161) Episode 112: Safety First (hustlehumblypodcast.com/112) Episodes 6 & 7: Realtor Safety with Carl Carter (Beverly Carter Foundation) Hustle Humbly Email Templates (new security checklist) Want to toast someone on the show? Send us a voice or video message with your name, who you're toasting, and why! Email it to [email protected] Leave us a review at http://ratethispodcast.com/hustlehumbly Get your FREE Database Template: http://hustlehumblypodcast.com/starthere Email Templates 101: http://emailtemplates101.com Agent Systems 101: http://agentsystems101.com All Resources: http://hustlehumblypodcast.com Submit your topic ideas and toasts to [email protected] Music: Straight A's by Connor Price The Good Life by Summer Kennedy Be The One by Matrika