When I first became a licensed real estate agent, I went to work for a very small brokerage. Our office consisted of my broker, who was a fantastic salesman, an administrative assistant and some mysterious agent whom I never saw. I heard about him, but he never seemed to stop into the office or sell any homes.
My broker also owned a printing business. His real estate company shared office space in his printing business. There was no sign on the door for the real estate company. In addition, he didn’t have his real estate business listed in the phone book. In addition, my broker wasn’t a fan of marketing. His entire business was built around referrals.
During my years with him, he never once ran a lead generation advertisement. He never sent a customer newsletter. In fact, he never promoted himself in the public. He simply waited for referrals to come in from past clients, friends and his large network of business owners. I believe he would meet the definition of “old” school.
This setup was similar to other agents — he handled the listings and gave his buyer referrals over to me. I improved my skills and eventually became very good at assisting buyers find and purchase homes.
This was all OK until …
One morning he stopped in the office and said, “Cancel any meetings you have today and grab your golf clubs!” We left the office and played 18 holes of golf. As always, we had a few beers as we played. My broker was an excellent golfer and he always beat me by a wide margin. I didn’t really care because golf was never that important to me.
It was still early after we finished, so we headed to a bar that had an outdoor boccie court. We continued drinking and began to aggressively play boccie. I couldn’t believe it, but I was actually beating him. I won the first game. So he challenged me to a second and I won again. He became very irritated because he never liked to lose, especially to me.
I was trash-talking a bit, since I was finally beating him at something. The alcohol must have been kicking in about this time, because he said to me:
“Who changes your kitty litter?”
This one sentence changed my life forever. It was one of my life defining moments. He basically was saying that he was responsible for all of my home sales and commissions because he gave me his buyer referrals. To be 100% honest, he was right. I was completely dependent upon him.
I was pissed to say the least. I vowed to start my own company and show him that I didn’t need to have my kitty litter changed by anyone.
I immediately started looking for my own office. I found an ugly old office and rented it at $425 a month. I had a meeting with him and re-negotiated my commissions to a higher commission split because I would no longer accept his referrals and I would no longer use his office, supplies or administrative assistant. I was going to change my own kitty litter!
I began to study marketing and slowly but surely began selling homes on my own. Within a few short months, I finished the required classes to obtain my brokers license and started my own real estate brokerage.
So, to fast-forward …
I would go on to sell my real estate business when we were selling an average of 30 homes a month. This was the approximate number of homes my old broker might sell in a year. By the time I sold it, my company won an award for being among the fastest-growing companies in Northeast Ohio — the fourth-fastest in fact. I believe I proved that I didn’t need my former broker’s referrals and that I could build my own business.
Looking back, it’s easy to see how important the kitty litter comment was to my personal growth. It forced me to go off on my own and make things happen for myself. Had my broker not said those words to me, I probably would have went on with my dependency on his referrals. Who knows where that would have gotten me? I might have still been working at a spare desk somewhere in that printing office. More likely, honestly, I probably would be out of business, since his business model just wasn’t sustainable.
I now believe that we all have “life defining moments” like the one I shared within this article. In fact, I believe the recent real estate market crash has been a major life defining moment for many in our industry. Life defining moments are critical for our success because they force us to do things we wouldn’t have done otherwise. I desperately wanted to beat my broker in the number of homes sold. I wanted to prove myself.This desire forced me to get out of my comfort zone and do things that I had never done before.
Many experts are now reporting that we have probably hit our market bottom. This is where you get to decide how you are going to deal with your life defining moment. You have a clean slate with your business right now. The market is at the bottom and will slowly but surely improve month after month going forward.
Will you come out of your comfort zone and do whatever it takes?
Will you prove to everyone you can build a great business?
I certainly hope your answer is “Yes.”
Don’t let somebody else change YOUR kittly litter.