Ep006: Strengthening Your Community with Tina Bleything

Transcript

Welcome to the Connect Practice Track & Grow podcast. Habits, routines, motivations, and mindsets from some of the most successful real estate professionals among us. Check out the show notes at ConnectPracticeTrackGrow.com. This show is brought to you by the Strategic Resource for Real Estate Professionals, creating and coaching business opportunities and strategies that support and add value to the lives of real estate professionals at the StrategicResource.com. And by ROOST Real Estate Co., today’s real estate agent doesn’t follow old rules. She makes new ones. Learn more at careerwithroost.com. Hello, this is Chris McAllister, and in this episode of the Connect Practice Track & Grow podcast, I’d like to introduce Tina Bleything.

Tina is a realtor for a ROOST Real Estate Co. in Springfield, Ohio. She’s a lifelong resident of Clark County. She retired from a 34-year career in county government and earned her real estate license in 2016. In addition to helping people buy and sell houses, she mentors new agents in the office as our agent success coordinator. Tina’s goal is to strengthen the overall health and happiness of her community one family at a time. I guarantee you will find inspiration, timely lessons, actionable tips and tricks, habits, mindsets that you can use to generate more leads, book more appointments, write more contracts, close more deals, earn more referrals, and make more money.

And now here’s my interview with Tina Bleything. Hello, Tina. Chris, good morning. How are you? I’m doing well. It’s a little early. It’s 8 o’clock. Yes. I appreciate you taking the time to do this. So if you don’t mind, why don’t you just give us a little background, tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got started in real estate. Well, I’ve been in Clark County all my life as far as my childhood group in South Charleston and then I moved to Springfield. Been married to my husband now for 40 years. We just celebrated our 40th anniversary. Wow, congratulations. 40 years. Yeah, it’s a long time.

We’re two sons, Matt and Tony. So, you know, we just, we settled here for right now. So this is what we’re going to do and we’re doing real estate and we like to be involved with whatever we can in the community. So I got licensed in July 2016. I was ready to retire from my county government job. And I think real estate has always been a passion of mine for, I don’t know why it just, it was just something that I just thought at about 15 years into my career in the county. I would really like to do real estate when I retire. So I had that passion for, you know, maybe 15 years, 16 years before I actually went and got my real estate license.

So you were thinking about it for a long time? I thought about it for a long time. I thought, you know, there was just something about the coolness of going out and showing houses, I guess, the time when I thought about it. And it is cool. So I went in and I got my license for Ohio and for Florida. So I’m licensed in two states. I guess I wasn’t satisfied with just the one. So I went and got the other two. I always had that passion of being, you know, one of those types that I could, you know, do referrals down to Florida or I could just, if I decided to go to Florida for the, you know, wintertime be a snowbird, I would have, you know, another career field down there too as well.

You’d be ready. What exactly did you do for the county? I worked in child support enforcement. Yes. So I did that for a whole 34 years. I worked in Clark County and in Madison County. And I worked in Madison County. Yes. So you had a lot of experience working with a lot of different people? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, you do meet a lot of people. How did you, when you, how did you find out about ROOST? How did you find out about our company? Well, I was in, Elliot, she is married to my nephew. She was actually getting back into it as I was getting ready to retire.

So I think it was probably a holiday or something we were talking and she said she was getting back into it with ROOST. And I thought, well, shoot, you know, there’s an informe right there. You know, to get started. So after she got in and like I said, I went and passed my tests and things and she got me connected with you and we took it off from there. And the rest is history. So Susan was actually the first guest in episode one of the Connect Practice Track and Power podcast. And she started in Ohio with me and then build a business on her own. And now she’s down in Fort Myers Beach carrying on.

So how did you find the transition from, you know, 34 years working for the government to, you know, basically being in business for yourself? That was a transition. You know, when you’re used to getting up and going to work every day to five or whatever, that, you know, that is something that is just, you just get up and do it. It starts to just be the model that you design coming into working in real estate. You are doing your own business. So it’s all about, you have to be accountable for your own business and what you make of it. So when you start doing, you know, working for yourself in essence, you’re working for yourself and trying to build your clientele and doing the things that you do.

It’s just, it’s accountability. You have to be accountable for doing. And, you know, I am a people person. I love to get out and do things in the community. I love to do, you know, anything that gets me out and going. So I, you know, I’d love to, you know, volunteer. I do a couple of things in the community too because that’s what keeps me out there and in front of people. Yeah. It’s interesting. You know, when you have a job, you have to be someplace at a certain time because somebody tells you to. But when you’re in business for yourself, you have to be someplace at a certain time because you tell you to.

Right. Exactly. And that’s a transition. I mean, that really is a hard thing to do sometimes when you think, oh, nobody will, nobody will know I’m not there or whatever. So you just sit there and think about it. And then you’re like, oh my gosh, yes, somebody will know I’m not there. So you got to get up and go. Well, a lot of people get in the real estate because they think they, you know, they have freedom of time and they do have freedom of time in that, you know, nobody’s telling them what to do or where to be at a certain time. But, you know, freedom of time means also the freedom not to, you know, show up for work. People sometimes forget you still have to show up.

It’s because you’re enforcing those disciplines on yourself. You’re deciding, you know, what I’m going to do what and holding yourself accountable, like you said. Right. Your freedom of time doesn’t come at, you know, before eight o’clock in the morning and after five, you know, your freedom comes whenever you can get it in real estate. You might be up working early and you might be working late. So it’s just, you know, you get it where you can get it at this point. Well, I think it’s to paraphrase, maybe it was Spider Man, but with freedom of time comes, with great freedom comes great responsibility. Is that how freedom of time comes? Absolutely.

Great responsibility. So, you know, I was going back and I was looking at your sales. Your first full year was, you know, 2017. And, you know, you’ve consistently done, you know, really well, you’ve done a couple of million a year on average, really every year since you started. It was just terrific, you know, the way that realtors classify or reward that kind of sales level is that, you know, in Ohio, it’s President’s sales club. So you’ve averaged President’s sales club level for one, two, three, four, five, six years now. But what I find interesting is, you know, you’ve actually, I don’t even know if you’re aware of this, but your business has gone up roughly 25% from 2 million in 2021 to two and a half million in 2022, which is pretty amazing since so many realtors are seeing their business starting to drop as the interest rates have gone up this year.

What changed for you? Do you think between 2021 and 2022, why is your business going up when others isn’t? Well, I think of course, the longer you stick it out to, you learn to be able to mentor your clients. So I, you know, I do the referral maker as well with Bethany and company. I have a personal coach that I’ve had for now, this is starting my third year. So the part about being in front of your clients consistently throughout the year, not just when you make the sale and you’re done and you close the deal and you don’t ever see them again. That’s definitely not me.

And you could probably ask most of my clients, what do you, why do you always show up here? So, you know, I, I try to consistently stay in touch with them and through that has helped me earn that respect from them and they understand that, hey, you know, she loves to do what she’s doing. You know, it’s not a chore for me to do it. It’s a way of me saying, you know, let’s go, you got somebody else. Let’s go. Let’s go and let them be in, you know, enjoy everything and see what it’s about having ownership, home ownership. And I, like I said, I think some of them sometimes go, what, you know, you’re here again, but that’s about the nurturing of it.

It’s about staying in front of them and making connections. Yeah, they’ll hopefully they’ll send you some referrals and I do get referrals that way. So you just said something. I don’t even know if you heard yourself say it, but you said, I mentor my clients. Yes. What does that mean? That’s, that’s a lot in that little three words. Because, you know, a lot of people call you and they have no idea what they’re doing and they start out and they, they, maybe they’re on Zolo, maybe they’re doing the things that, you know, they think is what should be done. They’re trying to learn everything that they can, but it may not be everything. It’s, you know, the right way, maybe, you know, you’ve got people who just want to jump out there and say, oh, I did this because this is what I thought I had to do, you know, they’ll go in those, you know, go look at all these houses, but they haven’t even been pre approved yet.

So it’s about taking them and saying, look, let’s start from square one. Come in, let’s have a fires meeting. Let’s do this. Figure out where you’re, you know, where we need to start. If you’ve already got your pre approval, great. Let’s move on to the next phase. But, you know, even with that pre approval, you know, somebody might be pre approved for $300, $500,000 and you’re, and they’re, and they’re sitting there struggling every day about how they’re going to, you know, listen to that when they, you know, give you conversation. You learn a lot about a person. So, you know, I tried to make them, you know, realize that look, just because you’re pre approved for that doesn’t mean you have to go and get that much.

So, you know, let’s get someplace where you feel comfortable. You know, what are your goals? What do you want to achieve and let us work on that? You know, so it’s about really taking them before we even get started and figuring out what it is that their, you know, their goals are and what they want to do. The other thing you said that, and I agree with everything you said, that’s why you’ve been so successful. But the other thing that you said was, you know, you’ve been at it for a while. And I always tell people that this is a long game. You know, this working with other working with in real estate and helping people buy and sell houses is not a get rich quick scheme.

You know, it’s not easy money. But if you do stick with it and you’re consistent in your behaviors, you know, making connections like you just described, it’s really hard not to be successful when you focus on, you know, other people, what’s in it for them versus, you know, what’s in it for us. So that’s fantastic. So in a typical year, Tina, where does your business come from? Since I’ve been coaching and really working the referral maker program that we use, it’s definitely from past clients and referrals from them. I’m not really sure if I want to guess, because I didn’t bring it up in the last couple days.

I’ll be honest, she’s getting a little bit hectic, but you know, it’s whatever. But I’ll get all those that updated. But I get on referral maker, I try to get on it every day, and make my calls, notes and pop-bys and you know, things that we do to keep in touch of keep in touch and be in front of our clients. So I probably have an eight, I’m gonna say over I think the last time I looked it was like 84%. Business comes from referrals. Yeah. Yeah, that’s great. When you first got started back in 2016. Do you remember who was your first client? Who did you start with? How did you get going?

The first client, I know exactly who it is. But I got that it was funny because they moved from Florida up here. And they, I think they actually called into the office. And I got that referral from the office. Oh, wow. Yeah. And they were looking for a rental, but then ended up being that they weren’t going to rent they wanted to buy instead. So yeah, I got connected with them. That was my very first deal. It was a $35,000 house. It was $35,000. But it was a good one to start with because I thought, okay, this is not something I can really screw up that, you know, quick.

Yeah. So that was your first addition to your database then maybe not the first edition, but the first edition from actually helping somebody. So that’s fantastic. How did your relations have your relationships in your prior career help you get traction? I have sold a couple homes to some people that I knew from my previous employment. And I have one that was, you know, their son that I sold the house to. And so it, you know, I there, of course, I worked in London for a long time. So, you know, my business, I mean, I go anywhere as far as, you know, the business area down to, you know, I just want to say that’s London, Ohio.

Yes, London, Ohio. So it’s, you know, so I do have a lot of contacts that are still up there. You know, there’s a lot of them that have retired since too. So, you know, I’m not as close to any of them as I used to be, but, you know, they’ve all gone to their own ways. Most of them went to Florida. So I’m, but whenever, you know, that somebody calls it, you know, it’s usually from one of those connections. Right. So you still have relationships from your past career that you stay in touch with people you stay. My hairdresser, she’s in London, so she gives me referrals too.

Is that your top referral source, your hairdresser? Yes, actually, I think she is. She’s getting a Christmas card this year. Yes, actually, I just saw her the other day and she got quite a Christmas present. So yes, I took care of her. Very cool. Very cool. Well, as we always say, great agents connect and, you know, you’re a natural at interacting with people and relating to people and making people feel at ease. It’s a gift that you have. I want to hear more about, you know, how you’ve been working with your Buffini coach. But let me ask you this. Do you have what we like to call a personal connection standard?

Do you have a, do you hold yourself accountable for, you know, staying in touch, getting in touch and so forth? I know you said that people, I don’t want to say they get tired of seeing you, but they always say there you are again, which is perfect because you’re top of mind. What is your standard for holding yourself accountable for staying in touch? Do you have one? Well, I think the referral maker helps me stay in touch because, you know, you get your calls, your notes, your pop-bys. And honestly, building that referral basis on, you know, our connections and putting those in there onto the referral maker is very key because, like I said, sometimes I feel like I am contacting the same people, you know, over and over again.

So the more people you have in there, the more contacts you’re going to be making, of course. And it’s all about being able to, you know, we try to do client appreciations. We try to do things throughout the whole year, you know, your pop-bys especially when you’re making that face-to-face contact. And if you don’t have, you know, some people to put in your database and be able to do that, you’re going to end up having the same people over and over again. Yeah, something that frightens people that I don’t have. They think I don’t know that many people. I don’t want to bug them. So I guess what I do too is when I get to that point where I’m, oh my gosh, I just saw them a month ago and here they are again on my pop-bys.

I don’t go out and bombard people like that. I mean, I have to come up with a different system. I have to come up with ways with, you know, different alternative things to do for them. Okay, so one of the cool ways too that, you know, that you do and a lot of the agents would ever do is, you know, yeah, you can’t call everybody every week or every month. You can’t do a stop-by or a pop-by every day, every month. But I think one of the ways that you do stay top of mind is via social media. You know, what you do for yourself on Facebook and what we do to promote your connections on Facebook.

I think that helps stay in front of a lot of these people that you know too. Correct. I also, I’m sorry to interrupt. I just want to say our listeners, me and company has a customer relationship manager, a CRM that’s called Referral Maker. And at ROOST, we provide Referral Maker, an individual Referral Maker account to every one of our agents. So when Tina talks about adding all of her contacts and activities and so forth in Referral Maker, that’s what we’re talking about there. I just want to, can I just talk a little bit about the personal connection standard? Because I think you’re selling yourself a little bit short.

I think that you do hold yourself accountable for connections. You just may not be top of mind. But, you know, personal connection standard, you know, if the best, if the ways, the easy ways to stay in touch are making calls, writing personal notes, stopping by with a, you know, a gift, a ROOST swag or a holiday or something. You know, we always try to coach our agents and is to, you know, over the course of the week or of course of the month and I’ll use an example of the week that, you know, you may say to yourself, okay, I’m going to make at least two calls to past clients this week.

I’m going to write three personal notes. I’m going to do four pot buys. And I’m going to one way or the other find a way to add at least two more people to my database. So that’s a goal. That’s a personal standard. And every time you make that standard, you know, you wake up Monday morning, you say I make these eight, nine, 10 contacts. And on Friday, you know, at three o’clock you realize, hey, I did it, you won the week. And that’s the wind, right? It’s not about, you know, waking up on Monday and saying, I don’t know where my next closing is going to be and celebrating on Friday.

And that’s the one you celebrate that those activities, those connections that that ultimately end up as transactions and money in the bank and that personal connection standard and staying in touch. That’s the difference that separates the team of life things of the world from everybody else. Yeah. And it does it takes a commitment to do that stuff and it’s, you know, it’s about just being aware of it. I think sometimes, you know, you can get caught up in life and you just don’t think about it. You know, freezing. I haven’t been on a pearl maker for a whole week, you know, so you got to go and then you might not realize that you talk to several people, you just think of cracks.

So you got to try to, you know, keep up on that. Yeah, but that’s cool too, because, you know, hey, I did pretty good this week when I go back and think of it, because in the heat of a busy day, you don’t realize all the people you connected with. Take a little bit of time during the week to think about who you actually got in contact with. You know, you feel really good about what you did. You did the job. And then the other cool thing is when you think back to, oh my gosh, I saw, you know, that’s a good time to make a note and say, okay, I need to do a quick personal note to them and say, oh, great, I felt to connect with them this week.

You know, there’s always reasons if you think about it to, you know, express gratitude or thanks or, hey, it was just great to see you and that that is that behavior. Those activities are money in the bank. They just simply are. So community involvement, that’s another way I think that you’ve been very successful making connections and adding people to your database. So I know you’ve been super involved with the Springfield Arts Council. What are some of the other things that that you stay active with in the community? I also do leadership Clark County, as far as that I do a lot of volunteering with them to I think for the most part on that too is just going out and being involved with the community and being visual.

You know, when they call or say, hey, we need volunteers for this or that, you know, to me, that’s just part of who I am anyway. So I’d like to go out and do that. I like to be seen. I like, you know, as far as showing up and showing that ROOST is involved and being community involvement that way, you know, I get a lot of people who call me and say, hey, Tina, you want to, you know, advertise in this thing or you want to put up a banner for this thing, which, you know, we just did the holiday in the city banner, which, you know, the banner looks awesome.

So, you know, this is just about being involved for me. I’d like to show that we’re out there. We’re there for the community. We want, you know, everybody to know we’re there and don’t forget, you know, that ROOST Real Estate is in Springfield. So, you know, I do a lot of that stuff. Yeah. And I think that’s helped you a great deal and it’s helped us a great deal. So thank you. One of the things that I want to highlight as a benefit for agents who joined ROOST next year when we get the new career with ROOST site launched is the way I think about it is we support what you support.

So what I want to be known for with our agents at ROOST is, you know, whether it’s the Arts Council or Leadership Academy or, you know, we’ve got a lot of agents whose kids are in sports like Rena down in Florida. Her kids are in every sport imaginable and she makes a lot of connections, you know, just being at the school and the kids sports. And the idea behind we support what you support is, okay, you know, Rena’s got the volleyball tournament this week and there’s an opportunity to put a banner up with ROOST. And if you put a banner up with Rena’s name on it and the ROOST logo, I want to seize that opportunity because it supports Rena and supports her connections.

If you’ve got something going on with Leadership Academy, you know, the golf tournament or whatever, I want to make sure that, you know, with a, you know, ROOST logo there someplace is out front and center just to promote your connection. So we support what you support is something I really want to want us to start building out next year and being known for. So the other thing that, you know, great agents connect, practice, track and grow. So your connection work is just incredible. And you also have a very professional practice, let’s say, you know, you know what you’re doing, you’re competent, people trust you. What is there anything that comes to mind that sets your practice apart from what other agents do?

Well, I’m not real sure what a lot of other agents do. But I guess my, I mean, I just do my thing. I just do my referral maker. I just make sure I do my calls, notes and pot buys. I make myself a visible out in the public. You know, I attend events. I do things that, you know, help the community. So, you know, mentioned though, in terms of practice though, you mentioned a buyer meeting. What is that the buyers meeting. So any new referral I get or any new clients that I get, I first have a buyer’s meeting, which we I meet either in the office.

Or someplace else, whatever more convenient, but especially if I do not know who this person is, there’s, you know, there’s a lot of scary stories out there. So I always make sure that we have a buyer’s meeting. We go over everything from the beginning from getting the pre approval, working through the act or going through, you know, houses and doing all that stuff. Getting in the contract together, getting it accepted to telling them how it works through the title process and then eventually getting to closing. So when they understand the process, they’re not calling you every day saying, well, what’s next? What’s next? You give, we have her worst yet calling somebody else.

Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Or how, you know, why does, you know, is this supposed to be happening? You know, so one thing, one thing I always tell them to, you know, it’s not always a smooth process. You know, people, I mean, even though we try to make it smooth because we do have our, you know, our brochures that we give for buyers and sellers, we have our checklist, we have everything that we can put in front of them on paper and say, this is our process. We go over that, you know, not everything’s always going to go that way. So what I tell them all the time is, you know, you got to let them know that you’re going to get discouraged at some point in time.

And a lot of times it’s through the financing part. It’s going to be ups and downs. Oh my gosh. So, you know, if you plan that and know it’s coming, and I even sometimes I’ll even tell them, hey, we’re this far. So now we’re starting to finance. Finance, you’re going to kill me. You’re going to, you’re going to wish that, you know, because it’s not even me that’s involved. It’s the bank, but they get so frustrated. But who do they call? They’re going to call me. So I put that up front. I’m just like, you’re going to call me. I know you will. So just know that it’s not a fun process.

But once you’re through it, we’re clear to close. And that’s what you look for. You look for those three little words, clear to close. And then you look at that. Well, just the fact that you actually do a formal buyers, buyer presentation sets you apart from the competition, believe me. You know, you say you don’t know what other agents do. I can tell you they don’t do that. And if they’re not, that’s a disservice to them because they really need to know how that process works. Well, and Mark, being a professional is that, you know, you do a consistent presentation, you follow through what you say you’re going to do.

And you, most of us, I mean, at least I did every, I didn’t care who it was. I always brought the list with Roos presentation with me to remind myself, you know, I want to make sure I cover each of these points. So I didn’t forget anything. And, you know, that’s one of the ways that we try very hard to enhance our agents practices is you can even go to our ROOSTRealEstateCo.com.com website. And right on the front page, anybody can download the list with worse presentation and the buy with Roos presentation. So we put that information out there and in front of buyers and sellers everywhere.

So if they want it, they can grab it. I think it’s awesome. And it’s one of the things that sets you apart that you actually consistently use those presentations. So congratulations and thank you. I just want to say, you know, from my point of view, the other thing that sets you apart is your patience, your empathy, your understanding, you’re a great teacher. You’ve got great life experience and people, they trust you, you know, they like you and they trust you and they seek you out. And, you know, that doesn’t happen overnight, but congratulations at this point in your career. You’re there. Do you mind just telling us a little bit about your experience with your personal coach from Buffini and Company?

How’s that worked out for you? Oh, it’s been great. You know, like anything else, you know, you end up, you know, to pay for it’s to be able to have success. You have to sometimes pay for it. Okay. So, you know, it’s the Buffini coaching is, you know, it’s not cheap. It’s not expensive either in the same sense that it takes that to get you get you sometimes not just in real estate, but to balance your own life. And you have to have that balance. And sometimes she’s got to bring me back in and say, you know, you’re offset here. You’re worrying about something you should be worrying about.

You got to do this. You need to get back into focus about what the main goal is. And we do that every beginning of the year, you know, set our goals. And, you know, so I think that she is a wonderful person and does, like I said, it keeps me not only with real estate, but in life in general, balance being able to stay focused about what is what’s important and what needs to be done. And it just revolves then. Do you worry about where your next sale is coming from? I would be lying if I said no, you know, I probably do only because that’s just me.

Yeah, I’d like to be out there. I like to end and when I’m, you know, and that’s really the ultimate goal is to get a, you know, get your sales and, you know, and be able to do what you do. But I think it’s naturalism entrepreneur when you have obligations to worry about business. But, you know, you’re one of the few agents that I don’t worry about where your next closing is coming from, because I know you’re doing the things every day that are going to naturally allow your business to continue to grow and prosper. So I worry less about you than others. How’s that?

Well, you know, and here’s my thing. And this is really kind of my little motto as far as that whenever I don’t have or feel like I don’t, I’m going to go worry about it. I plan vacation. Oh, there you go. So you try to take care of yourself. Not only that, but when I plan vacation, the phone always rings. And my sister will vouch for me on that. She cannot believe it. I always say, you know, hey, I need to go on vacation. I don’t believe it. She’ll go, oh, good. So we’ll go on. And then it’s without a doubt. She’s like, I cannot believe you saw house every time you’re on vacation.

I mean, it’s just the way it does sometimes work. And it’s funny. And I know that’s kind of. Well, there you have it, folks. You want to boost your business on the vacation or plan vacation. You only have to do is plan it. You just have to play it. You just have to play it. So I think that’s great. Great. So the other thing that great agents do is they track what they do and where their business comes from. What does tracking mean to you? What this is always sort of like a next level thing for us. But if I were to ask you, how do you track your business or what does it mean to you?

What would you answer? Of course, everything’s on the referral maker because I can’t make it easier. I can’t remember all that. So I make sure everything’s in referral maker. You can track it from when you start your new clients as a and you can move them into an active client. You can move them into a closed client and so forth. So I track them that way. So when I go on my 2022 or even prior years, it’s all broken down into my years. So if I say, when did, you know, this person buy a house? I can look at my referral maker and go, okay, they bought their house in 2018.

Well, it’s 19, you know, or 2021, you know, for all I knew. But, you know, so it’s about keeping those, those are all accountable for and I have everybody in there. You know, their names or phone numbers or addresses, you know, their birthdays, they’re blah, blah, blah. You just keep a whole list of that. Do you add your transaction details in there too? The actual dollar figure at the houses you sold. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So it’s all in there. Yes. Yes. So if I needed, you know, and it’s like I said, for me, you know, when I go back and track it, at the end of each year, getting ready to, you know, like tax time for next year, I look and make sure do I have, I can get my receipts from my stubs and I just make sure I have every house that, you know, I have, I mean, I count for all of them just to make sure.

And well, and the other cool thing is you’re, you have the best tool in the world for tracking your business, which is referral maker, because you get to track your calls, notes, pop eyes and database additions. You get to track your transactions. And that’s why you know the answer to what percentage your business comes from past clients and referrals. And you said it was like 85%. So well, that, that is absolutely incredible that you’ve got your arms around that because that’s another thing that’s going to make it so much. Not that this business is easy. I don’t mean to apply that, but having that base and having those habits and routines that you’re putting all that in referral maker.

And then you can track your numbers and make a plan with your coach for, you know, where you want to double down what you want to do less of and so forth. That is the essence of a true professional. I’m so proud of you. I can’t stand it. Nice job. That is incredible. All right. So what does the next phase of your career look like for you? Well, I guess it’s probably what probably everybody says is still to continue to, you know, meet more people, get more clients, get more referrals and make more business. So my goal is to, well, I shouldn’t say my whole goal because really I’m working on goals right now with my coach.

So, but it’s just about keeping, you know, pushing forward and creating the new leads, trying to get things, you know, to different ways to connect to people. You know, it’s always about finding a different way as well. And so I’m finding that, you know, if something’s not working, then I want to switch it up and do things that are different. So I’m working on, you know, of course, I hope to double my business. You know, but your business. Wow. You heard it here first folks. Well, I would really like to increase my sales, like I said, and double that. And, you know, one thing about, I think maybe I think that’s entirely doable, by the way.

I, you know, I think that’s a worthy goal. You know, it’s a question of just continuing to double down and doing the right things and doing less of the things that don’t help your business. So anyway, I’m sorry to interrupt, but that’s a wonderful goal. And, you know, it’s, and it’s about, you know, I think when I first started, like I said, my first house was 35,000. So it’s like, you’re going to get some of those here and there and down the, you know, and you’re. It’s about the, it’s about the relationship. It’s not about the value of the home. That’s exactly right. You could sell a $35,000 home to somebody who refers everybody they know for the rest of your career, which is an incredibly valuable relationship.

So, you know, it’s, I always like to count. I don’t like to count. Well, let’s put it this way. I like to count units better than I like to count dollars because every unit leads to a relationship and every relationship has the potential to create a huge referral source. So, and that’s correct. And that’s what I was going to say is this that 35,000, my first transaction, but through that, I did get a referral from her. So it’s more like, you know, it doesn’t, that’s what I was going to say. It doesn’t really matter the price of the house, you know, but in the end, I hope to take that average of that year or the second year even because, you know, if you start in the middle of the year, but you know, get my, you know, you start to increase your home sales, you know, by dollar value, which is a good thing, you know, because I feel like, you know, if I have a unit year that’s not as much as I did the previous year, but I made more money than I increased my, you know, my cost per home, I guess maybe is what you call it.

And we all like food with our meals as Mr. Buffini says. Yes. Absolutely. So, you know, so no, I don’t, I love the transactions, the number of transactions because that way I feel like that tells me I’m getting out there more, I’m getting to see more people, you know, so. I’m also personally and selfishly excited about the work you’re doing as our agent success coordinator, you know, you’ve been gracious enough in your spare time, so to speak, to agree to help us, you know, mentor and embrace and take care of new agents and I want to invite Ian Sparks to be on the podcast next month, but how, and Ian’s a new agent with us this year, how has it been with you working with the end this year?

How has that gone? Ian is doing awesome. We talk a lot, but it’s usually a lot of us not about real estate, but it’s still having that connection with her. So, you know, when Ian is, you know, she’s a little seasoned as far as, you know, being an agent, and so she understands the business. What she’s learning is how to do it through the Buffini and Company referral maker. So what we work on basically is we talk about that. She wants to know how, you know, how she should be doing things, you know, that kind of stuff. So it’s more about it’s, you know, or she has a question like when she does transactions, if she’s got to need something wrote in a contract that she’s not ever, you know, added something into a contract, you know, she’ll call me, we’ll go through it just to make sure she’s covered.

So, you know, it’s the little things that, you know, sometimes you haven’t dealt with yet that you need a little bit of, you know, hey, little guidance and just being able to say, just help me with this, make sure I can do this and get it right. So, yeah, having that person, yeah, having you as that person that she knows that a formal relationship that somebody she can go to, and she can come to me, she can come to anybody, but she knows that, you know, you have a formal relationship where she’s absolutely free and encouraged to interact with you and ask questions and so forth.

That’s been invaluable to her success. So thank you for that as well. Yeah, she’s doing well. Well, any other words of wisdom before we sign off today, this has been a great conversation. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it. No, like I said, I, you know, it’s getting toward the end of the year. So it’s just about, you know, reorganizing again for another year and setting some new goals and being able to obtain them, keep getting out there, seeing people do your calls, notes and pop-wise and let the magic happen. There you go. Well, Tina, thank you for being my guest on the Connect Practice Track and Go podcast today and thank you for your support and commitment to ROOST these last few years.

It’s great to watch you move from, you know, your county government career to being a very successful realtor and you’re an inspiration. So happy holidays and I’ll talk to you soon. Thank you. And there we have it. Thanks for listening in. If you want to continue the conversation, go to www.ConnectPracticeTrackGrow.com. That’s Connect Practice Track Grow.com where we have additional information about the podcast, archived episodes and an option you can select to be a guest on the show. We’d love to hear from you. So that’s it. We’ll be back next time with another episode of the Connect Practice Track and Grow podcast. Thank you