You Must Have a Personal Philosophy
Last email we discussed the “deathbed dilemma”.
Now we need to begin planning the big picture (with the end in mind) so that we can prevent end of life regret.
This is when and where the Real Estate Good Life becomes your guiding light to personal greatness.
For it is in the pursuit of personal greatness that the good life actually exists.
The Good Life acts as Yoda to your Skywalker. Here if you need it.
The Good Life is a philosophy guided by Rules and Principles designed to have your back when stress, ego, societal norms, and the Monster try to tear down your defenses and invade your Castle of Love.
In Good Life Rule #1 we can all nod our heads in agreement with: Real estate sales is the greatest small business opportunity in the world.
That’s why we got licensed in the first place.
However, in Good Life Rule #2 you get a peek at the problem that must be recognized before it can be solved: The “job” of real estate agent kinda sucks.”
If you read these emails and blog posts carefully, if you listen to the podcast and intently read through the book notes – what you will discover is THE BEST way to live and think as a real estate agent.
Now as Morpheus said to Neo in the Matrix,
“I can only show you the door. You’re the one that has to walk through it.”
In the next email I’ll spray mace in your face and have you crying buckets of tears when I pull the rug out from your reality.
Until then, make sure to check out the audio recording, read the book notes, and apply the lead generation tactics found on this page.
Have a great day my friend,
Bart “Your best friend in real estate” Vickrey
Below you will find my book notes along with the complete book E-Myth Revisited. You cannot have a lovable lifestyle business without understanding and applying the strategy you will learn in this book.
Please make sure yo ALWAYS read the book notes that are included with the Inner Circle. The book notes are funneled through the lens of the real estate agent in pursuit of living the Good Life and Personal Greatness.
Book Notes for the E-Myth Revisited:
Complete Book pdf:
The only business to build is a lovable business.
Deploy the Newsletter.
“We must suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret.”. – the great Jim Rohn
If you’ve never heard my late great friend Jim Rohn speak, go to Youtube right now and give the ole boy a listen.
If you wait one more second to deploy your newsletter (which takes discipline). If you wait one more second to deploy your newsletter… you will regret it.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah… Bart, we’ve heard it all before… the boring ole newsletter!”
Yes, the boring ole newsletter. As boring as the roof on your house. Hahaha. Not sure that’s a good analogy. But if your list is considered the foundation of your business, then the newsletter is as important as a proper roof.
Why?
So many levels deep is the importance of the newsletter.
The newsletter checks all the most important boxes when it comes to communicating with your list. First and foremost it is One to Many. Which is the most lovable type of marketing.
You create one newsletter each month and deliver it to many people.
Next, the newsletter charismatically checks the consistency over time box. Your obligation to yourself, your business, and the financial stability of your family is steeped in making sure that your list knows what you do for a living, and the ways in which to do business with you and refer business to you.
You cannot expect your list to figure it out on their own. They owe you nothing. You owe them everything. When you deliver your newsletter to their mailbox consistently over time, you create a psychological connection with the recipient.
One of the connections made over time, is that you’re reliable. People want to work with reliable real estate agents.
The newsletter provides a vehicle for One to Many marketing, consistent communication over time. Communication that includes clear instructions on how to do business with you and how to refer business to you.
The newsletter is the linchpin in your no bootysmooching based business model. You have no choice but to embrace the life altering concept of one to many marketing into your life or you will smooch booty forever.
In this conversation I wanted to share my newsletter related business statistics with you… so that you can judge for yourself.
The statistics I’m about to share with you are the number of homes sold and percentage of those homes sold that were sphere of influence transactions.
Sphere of influence, database, ya know… the list.
Let’s dive right into it.
The year before launching the newsletter we sold 151 homes – 37% of which were sphere of influence.
First full year after launching the newsletter, we sold 208 homes – 59% of which were sphere of influence.
Second full year, 263 homes sold – 67% of which were sphere of influence.
Third full year with the newsletter, 468 homes sold, 63% sphere of influence related transactions.
Here’s another entirely important point.
List size. In year one of the newsletter launch my mailing list for the newsletter was 500 people. Year two, one thousand people. Year three, twenty four hundred people.
Hello… do you see the magical magnificence in these miraculous mumblings?
Here’s the life changing proclamation, from my honest and accurate opinion…
With a printed monthly newsletter, you can expect to achieve a two percent transaction return in year one. Five percent in year two. And if you’re playing your cards right… drumroll please… a ten percent return in year three.
“What in the world does that mean Mister Bart?”
It means this. Mail your printed monthly newsletter to your list of let’s say 100 people for an entire year, consistently month after month – and you can expect two transactions from these efforts.
“Uh, Bart two homes sales ain’t worth all the effort!”
Hold your horses for a moment my bosom buddy.
Keep you abacus active and let’s continue the math.
In my marketplace, the average transaction side is about $5,000. So two deals would equal $10,000. Sending 100 newsletters a month for a year will run you about $1,200. Would you trade twelve hundred dollars for ten thousand dollars? Of courrrrsssseeeee!
Keeping with the same list size of 100, year two should yield five transactions. That’s $25,000 with the same twelve hundred dollar investment.
Year three, 50 g’s returned from the same twelve hundo.
Now, two things to keep in mind. The transactions produced by your newsletter will be a combination of direct deals and referrals. The other consideration to make is the stone cold reality that – results may very.
You may be the most boring person on earth and thus, write the most boring newsletter on the spinning rock. You may decide to write about hot water heater efficiencies instead of your weight loss struggles. People don’t give a rat’s bootay about water heaters. They give lotsa keister about your real person struggles.
Keep them apples in mind when you finally get off your duff and deliver the newsletter to your hungry list. A list hungry for real communication from a real lovable person. Be that lovable person and commence the launching.
If your abacus is still near you, listen to this…
What if your list was a thousand strong? It would cost you approximately twelve thousand dollars in year one… and return an estimated one hundred thousand dollars.
Year two, same twelve thousand dollar investment should serve you up two hundred and fifty thousand clams. And year three, if you are lovable, entertaining, consistent, and dial in your copywriting skills… your twelve thousand dollar investment should yield half a milly money papers to your appreciative pockets.
So if you don’t know… now ya know… Neo. (Matrix reference, again)
Well… you’re only Neo if you walk through the door, tame the malicious monster and launch the lovable newsletter. Remember this is all only Theory until you put it into Practice. I can only show you the door, you’re the one that must walk through.
Now let’s hatch a handsome platform for paying every last penny of your priceless publication.
This is a very simple, proven, and powerful plan to pay for the expense of your newsletter.
You simply invite vendors, small businesses, and sales professionals to advertise in your publication.
A simple plan would be to have one page of your newsletter dedicated to advertising. Advertising that directly benefits the newsletter recipient.
Require your advertisers to offer your regal recipients coupons and discounts.
A one page ad section in your newsletter leaves room for twelve business card sized ads. Say you want to simple offset the expense of your 100 person monthly mailing.
Our example math says that your newsletter will run you one dollar per person. So 100 people equals 100 hundred bucks a month.
You can charge your twelve advertisers nine dollars each – per month and not only will you cover the cost of your mailing you will profit eight dollars each month. Because nine dollars a month times twelve advertisers equals one hundred and eight bones a month.
And who in the world wouldn’t want to spend nine bucks a month to enjoy a done for you direct mail advertising sent to real people?
If the lightbulb has luminated above your hairy head… hopefully you’re thinking strategically, with leverage, and long term… in doing so, you know you can build a list of a thousand people and find twelve advertisers willing to happily hand over $99 bucks a month for the privilege of appearing in your publication.
Now you’re mailing to a bunch of people each and every month, your cost is not only completely offset – but you are also profiting $188 a month… and you will experience a one hundred thousand dollar commission windfall by the end of year one, five hundred thousand shekels in year two, and half a million dead presidents in year three.
So if you had an excuse not to launch your newsletter… it is now OVER!
Move Towards Independence and Away from Dependence
Next, here’s a two part preface to continue with that I want you to persistently ponder:
One, wealth is not built as a real estate agent helping people buy and sell homes. No. Wealth is built by investing the money you have leftover after helping people buy and sell homes.
The very reason I bought our first rental property at 4412 Flint Lake Gateway in Valparaiso Indiana BEFORE we could afford it.
My gut told me that the sooner I get started investing in rental real estate the sooner I wouldn’t have to be dependent on buyers and sellers.
As a member of the Inner Circle, you have driven the stake into the ground and proclaimed yourself a Lifer. As a Lifer you know we live by strict doctrines that guide us to the Good Life.
One of those doctrines is we step closer and closer to Independence as we fight hard against dependence.
Put that in yer corncob pipe and smoke it!
The second part of the preface is this, Income comes from what you do, make, and sell. Wealth comes from what you own.
Let’s continue with the newsletter because I’m not convinced you fully understand the importance of this asset in your business.
“Houston, we have a problem!”
We have a serious topic to discuss. A murderous elephant is armed and ready for rampage in a room full of innocent unsuspecting agents. This is a topic that not nearly enough real estate agents are talking about, considering, or taking seriously.
The industry is under attack. On many fronts. The most aggressive is by the tech disruptors coming for our cabbage.
The Zillows, and OpenDoors, and Redfins, and you name ‘em… they’re all lining up because our industry is vulnerable and they smell blood. And like all sharks, when they find the blood… they feed.
Feeding on our innocent necks like a famished vampire.
Do not take any of this lightly. These guys are all gunning for the dough ray me.
Zillow is already turning on us with the blatant in your face Zillow Offers that cut out the middle man. Me and you… are the middle man. And yes, Zillow comes from a long line of creatures that will bite the hand that first fed them, if they can grab more of the feast even if that leaves us a starving like an Ethiopian child in the 80’s… the shark will always bite you.
If you get into the business bed with Zillow, you had better sleep with one eye open.
“Sleep with one eye open… Gripping your pillow tight… Exit light… Enter night… Take my hand… We’re off to never-never land!”
You will soon be off to never never land if you don’t heed this advantageous advice. If you still sleep on all of these sweet success served sermons that I send to your earholes and eyeballs… you will soon be eradicated!
So we have the bloodthirsty tech disruptors chasing the booty. And now, we have a class action lawsuit to lose sleep on each night. If you pay attention to the real estate agent world, I’m sure you’ve heard about the lawsuit that has been filed against several prominent companies and some of the larger MLS boards.
If the court rules in favor of the plaintiffs, Realtor associations may very well evaporate, the MLS likely be killed off and the entire infrastructure of residential real estate will have to be rebuilt.
“Okay, Bart… now you’ve done it… I’m shaking like a leaf on a tree with frenzied fear… you got any good news?”
Yes, I do. Yes, my fine feathered friend… I have very good news.
“Well, what is it?”
Build the moat.
“You and that moat, what in tarnation are you even talking about?”
My Mission with the Real Estate Good Life is clear and important: help real estate agents reach financial independence.
Why? Because there is no better way to live. And… you never know. One of these tech companies may strike a nerve with the consumer and render our services no longer needed. Just saying… so why in the world would you not immediately begin working towards financial independence?
So with that Mission I strongly encourage you to build a protective moat around your business and a financial moat around your family.
You build a protective moat around your business by building your list and effectively communicating with your list. You communicate best with your list with a printed monthly newsletter.
How?
You deliver your unique lovable, entertaining, and expert personality consistently over time to your list with the owned asset of the newsletter. In doing so, you create a necessary differentiation with the recipient of your list.
Remember, on an ongoing basis we must be answering two very persistent questions that exist within the ego mangled mind of our potential clients.
One, “What’s in it for me?”
And two, “Why should I do business with you instead of the thousands and thousands of other real estate agents within the marketplace?”
As an industry we do a horrific job differentiating ourselves from the herd of run of the mill mediocre agents that exist as competition.
Differentiation is becoming increasingly more difficult to accomplish, a mountain made much steeper and challenging by the Facebook, the Twitter, the Youtube, and the Instagram.
Any clown car full of phoney agents can slide up on the social media and make themselves look amazing. How’s the public that only buys and sells a home every seven years or so… how are they to know the difference?
You, my Good Life friend must start getting this right immediately. Being just like or no different in perception than the run of the mill bozo agent does not provide firm footing for the construction of the moat.
Only by being You, in a category of your invention, with a media and asset that you own… can you create and then sustain any real success in this business. There’s not much point in building any other kind of success.
The newsletter is a media asset that you own. As far as I can predict, the mail will continue to be delivered in snow, rain, heat, and the gloom of night.
Your message on Facebook can be deplatformed at any time. You have no control. Zillow can bite your hand that feeds it and then rip your arm off and beat you with it… hahahahaha!!! You have no control.
Your email may or may not show up in your list’s Inbox. Maybe skirted to Junk or Spam. And even when it is delivered, what is the open rate compared to real, tangible, delivered to the least crowded inbox… the mailbox… open rate? That mail, ALL gets at least a once over. Not your email.
I’ll leave you with this thought… we have no real longterm security within the real estate sales business these days. Big time Wall Street money is placing bet after bet that someone soon will figure out how to extract the money from our pockets and vacuum the dead presidents directly from our dungarees.
The only thing we can do is to position and differentiate ourselves so that if agents begin to face extinction we will be the last to go.
All the while we are completing the financial moat around our family with the foolproof fundamentals of financial independence.
Please take these words seriously. Do not bury your head for one more sedentary second.
Deploy the newsletter now.
Beat That Dead Horse!
Just in case this horse isn’t dead… let’s beat it some mo! Hahahaha!
Before we move on to the next lead generation tip, let’s discuss the spinoff benefit of the newsletter. This is for those Lifer’s who will launch the newsletter and offset the cost by creating an advantageous archive of advertisers.
Those advertisers will be added to your newsletter mailing list. So by incredible insight you will wrap them in rapport with your words and encourage their participation in the construction of your moat surrounded lovable business.
As a Lifer you build your list… continuously over time. Who better to build your list with?
Unemployed cousin Billy living in your aunt Debbie’s dark dank basement? Or a small business owner, sales professional, service provider… that is the leader of their own list? A specialized influential person that is already programmed to produce referrals.
“Hello… is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me…
Is there anyone home?”
Okay, let’s move on to the email newsletter… hahahaha!!!
“Bart, please! Are you really gonna drone on more about newsletters?”
You bet your sweet ass I am!