Ep008: Finding a Broker that Fits with Anne Sparks

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. Today I’d like to introduce Anne Sparks to the Connect Practice Track & Grow podcast. Anne is a realtor for ROOST Real Estate Co. in Springfield, Ohio.

Anne worked as a physical therapist assistant for more than 20 years before embarking on a real estate career in 2021. Anne’s story is interesting because she did not start her career at ROOST. Her first brokerage was not a great fit, but she never gave up. Anne knew she could succeed with the right support and coaching. I guarantee you will find inspiration, timely lessons, actionable tips, tricks, daily habits, and mindsets you can use in your business to generate more leads, book more appointments, write more contracts, close more deals, earn more referrals, and make more money. And now, here is my interview with Anne Sparks. Morning, Anne.

Good morning. Sounds like we both have a bit of a creeping cred today, huh? Yeah, I got a sign of stuff going on. You know, this weather is terrible. It is. I think there’s a lot of that going around. So, well, if you wouldn’t mind, why don’t you sort of tell us a little bit about yourself, introduce yourself, basically for the audience, and we’ll get started that way. Well, I’m Anne. I’ve been, I’ve lived in Ohio for almost 35 years. I’m originally from Michigan. I’ve been married to my husband Alvin for 35 years this year. We raised three sons who now have their own families, and we have an eighth grandchild on the way.

How many grandchildren? Number eight is on the way. Oh my gosh, congratulations. Thank you. That’s awesome. So how, what possessed you to make that career change to move into real estate? What caused you to make that decision? Well, back before I went to school for therapy, I was actually going to look into real estate, but I listened to people and I shouldn’t have. So, but I did therapy was good. I had a good career with that and I learned a lot and grew a lot with that. And it was just time to make the change. Why did you choose real estate? What was her real estate and a family or was it something you always enjoyed or what was the thought?

You know, I don’t even, I’m not really sure. No, no family history. I just enjoy working with people one on one. I’m more like, and I feel like that’s something that real estate is kind of like a one on one or small group, one on one kind of thing and helping them to find out what their needs are. So it’s not really a stretch to say that it’s kind of like the counseling you did as a physical therapist assisted. Only it’s a different. But the one on one is smaller. When I was younger, I probably wouldn’t be as good now at being able to listen and have empathy.

And, you know, I’ve worked with a very large diverse group of different people over the years. So I just learned to how to adapt to what they’re talking and what they need. And I learned to help, you know, there to help. So you had some key lessons, key things that you learned from your first career that that definitely are helping you in your second career. And I think what you said is very self aware because, you know, there’s a lot of agents who have come into the business and, you know, it’s their first career so they don’t have a lot of life experience. So they kind of struggle with that one on one counseling communication, empathy, understanding patients thing. God knows I didn’t still do.

Sounds like that’s something that has really helped you because you have done a great job these last couple of years. How did you choose your first brokerage? You I think you said something that the second ago that you had listened to the wrong people about something. What did you mean by that? Oh, well, you know, you always have naysayers. I mean, and people always have an opinion whether you want it or not. So it really states, you know, I mean, you do have to put yourself out there and it’s not like people are knocking down your door to use you. And I just. So did you have people you knew that were that didn’t think you going into real estate was a good idea? Is that what you’re saying?

Yeah, probably. I still did actually when I took the dive, I still had a little bit of, you know, that in the background, but I just didn’t listen to him this time. So how did you choose your first brokerage? Well, you know, in Ohio, you have to pick a brokerage before you can sit for your licensure exam. And when you first start your classes, you get bombarded with text messages and emails and all kinds of stuff from all kinds of different brokerages. So I had it was COVID. So I had a lot of zoom calls. I did meet one person in person. And I really wasn’t sure what to do. And then I had a friend, an ex co worker that her sister was with that brokerage. And I actually talked to her when I had went there, went over to my friend’s house and it just sounded like a good fit.

And with therapy, I was always autonomous and used to working on my own. And I really didn’t feel like I needed as much guidance as I really kind of did, you know, because once you actually get out of your classes, there’s a whole lot of other stuff to learn. No. Well, God knows that’s true. I mean, you know, I always tell people that, you know, it’s obviously a hurdle that you have to pass, you know, the clear in order to work in real estate, you have to get that state licensing test under your belt and you have to pass. There is absolutely nothing about taking the classes for the license exam that prepares you for being a realtor the classes you take, prepare you to pass the licensing exam. And those are two very different things.

So you, you said that you felt like you didn’t really need a lot of support, you didn’t think you would. And then what, what made you what happened that you started to think differently. Well, I mean, when you actually get out there, you have no idea how to write a contract or where to go next. So my first mentor was great. And that was my friend’s sister. And that’s one of the reasons I chose the brokerage too, is because I felt like her and I clicked pretty well, which we did. And she was very helpful. But if you don’t know the questions to ask, then you don’t really have a lot going on, then you’re not really able to get that knowledge. So she was always available for me, but I didn’t have a lot going on because I didn’t know how to advertise myself.

And I didn’t know what steps to take. And there’s all kinds of different things that you can listen to and podcasts and everybody’s got to sell realtor stuff, you know, and to make a deal. So, and I’m, you know, I’m cautious of that. I don’t really jump for the first thing. And I really want to make sure it’s going to be helpful before I dive into something like that. So it just didn’t work for me. And you don’t know what you don’t know. And sometimes you have to get into the business to figure out what it’s really all about. So no matter how much, you know, research you do up front, it’s, you really just don’t know what it is until you get in there. So what, how did you find out about us? I think that’s a pretty good story.

Well, I had actually emailed Bruce was one of my, was on my list of two contact when I was taking classes, but I never heard anything. So Bruce is local and I had, again, listened to podcasts and I came across yours. I listened to one of your books and listened to an interview that you had done with another agent. And I just felt like you’re very supportive of us as agents and want us to succeed. And so I reached out. Well, you know, that just warms my heart that somebody actually listened to what we had to say. So thank you very much. I just wanted to hear you say it again.

So I think you listen to how to make it in the new real estate business where we lay out, you know, sort of like our operating system for the brokerage, which is the best agents among us. They do three things. They connect, they connect with others, current and future clients. They practice their profession. They track their business. And as a result, they tend to grow. And the brokerage responsibility in the connect practice track and grow framework is that if your first job is to make connections, then it’s, in my opinion, brokerage is first job to help you promote those connections or the making of connections.

And if your second job is to learn the practice of real estate, then it’s, you know, it’s our role to help you enhance your practice. And some of that is, you know, the one on one, how to write a contract and so forth. And it’s absolutely true. You know, for that, you really need somebody who has the time and the patience to sit down next to you and show you. And there’s really no substitute for that. And God knows we struggle with that as well at our company, but that is our aspiration. And then if you’re tracking your business, you know exactly what kind of support you need from your broker. So your broker is going to support your individual business.

And if your outcome is growth, then, you know, it’s our job to coach for growth. And that’s basically connect practice track and grow. And it just thrills me to know in that you read the book. And then I did my first connect practice grow track and grow podcast with Susan Elliott. And that was so cool that you listened to that and we ended up getting to work together. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you for that. So from a sales side, so you’ve been with us for seven or eight months. Yeah, July 22. Okay, so August, October, November, December, January 1. So seven months. And you had your first closing with us on August 29. I saw that last year.

And I went through your numbers since you’ve been with us, you’ve already closed one and a half million dollars in sales. And, you know, I’m not one for personal look at me sales awards, but I always use the Ohio Association of Realtors Presidential Sales Club Award as a benchmark because, you know, not everybody by any stretch of the imagination even hits that. So the OAR Presidential Sales Club is basically, you know, 2 million in sales. And you’re three quarters of the way there. And you’ve still got really five months left in the calendar year. So basically, you know, roughly your second year in the business, you’re going to go from what did you have your first year? I think you said you had a couple of sales with family.

Well, my first year, I actually did one complete transaction. And it was a 200 and I think it was 245,000 maybe. And then in my second year and I closed one in May before I moved brokerages. Yeah. So basically, though, if you add those in though, it wasn’t the same calendar year, but you went from roughly two sides to six or eight sides. I don’t know which ones of these you actually had both sides. But I think it’s absolutely amazing and a credit to your perseverance that you’re at the President’s Sales Club level in this market this early in your career. And we’re all so proud of you. We can’t stand it. So congratulations.

Yeah. So let’s, if we can, let’s think about, you know, your business this year. Let’s just kind of talk through for the benefit of some of the agents listening to the to us. Where did your business the past seven or eight months come from? It came from the closest people to me actually, my kind of extended family, my sons in laws. And I actually I had a referral, which was one of my past sales, which was a referral from a friend. And then they then referred me to someone else. And then I had a just a random real geeks that actually closed. And then again, another son from his past experiences.

Like friends in the community. So pretty much from people that know me. Yeah. Yeah. So these people that you’ve extended family and all that have are these people now in your database? Absolutely. Okay. So how many people at this point do you think you have that you’re mailing restraint links to every month? Oh, I don’t know. Around 40 or 50 maybe. 40 or 50 at this point. Yeah. So the idea is that, you know, when we talk about, you know, personal connection standard when, you know, calls, notes, pop-bys and additions to your database. The ultimate goal we’re trying to get to is we know that if we can get an agent up to 150 people in her database and these 150 people, I mean, better to have 50 perfect people than the other.

And 150 people you don’t really know, right? So the standard is we want to have people in your database that you would recognize if you ran into them at the grocery store. Right. Right. That’s sort of like the criteria. And sometimes we got to get out of the box a little bit and we’ve got to sort of think through who did we interact with and, you know, who could we drop a thank you note to even just to open up a conversation. But, you know, 4050 people is incredible because that’s going to get you to that base president sales club level. The cool thing is you keep pushing, you know, maybe your standard is I’m going to add at least two people to my database every week or whatever the number is, you know, when you get to 150, you know, you’re closing in.

I won’t say easily because nothing’s easy, but you get close to that 100 to 150 people in your database of people who already know you know of you that you would recognize each other at the grocery, you’re going to be pushing that $100,000 a year gross business number. And that’s the number I much prefer to use as a benchmark for our agents than president sales club because, you know, president sales club is great. It’s wonderful. It shows where you are amongst your peers. But this business is way too hard to, in my opinion, to accept anything less than six figures these days. So that’s the goal. When you’ve got that many connections, that many relationships that you’re interacting with on a monthly basis, you’re going to be pushing that under grand a year number. No problem.

Have any of the… Well, let me ask you this. So how do you generally connect with people? How do you run into people you don’t know or how do you find people that you could potentially work with? Honestly, I keep in touch with most people through social media. Okay. Yeah. So I don’t really, I mean, I speak to everyone I know that I do run into out, but, you know, I’m more of an introverted person. I’m more of a stay at home kind of person. So I’m not really out there around a bunch of people. I feel like I would have more people in my database if I was just throwing people in there.

But I feel like the people that are in there are actually people that I feel like would refer me to someone, you know, that know who I am as a person and actually would work with me if they had real estate needs. So I could, I didn’t grow up here. So there’s a lot of connections that I do have that aren’t in this state. So they’re not in my database just because it really, they knew someone that was in my area. They would definitely refer me without being in my database. So yeah. So what I do actually keep in contact with people through I message from time to time.

And I, most of my communication is actually through social media. The other thing that’s been listening to this is I, it makes perfect sense that you’ve got, you know, 4050 people, whatever it is that you’re mailing a hard copy of ROOST Ramblings every month, which is terrific. But the other thing that you could do, maybe you already do this, but even these folks that you know from Michigan people that aren’t local, you know, you could still build out your referral maker database and set them up as getting the information. And then you have the email version of ROOST Ramblings every month just as a way to stay in touch ROOST Ramblings isn’t about sales. It’s not even about the market per se. It’s just fun.

You know, it’s just a way to stay top of mind. So, you know, you might consider expanding the reach that you have for the email version of ROOST Ramblings, you know, as you go forward. But this was never, you know, working by referral has never been a get rich quick scheme. Right. So, you know, quality relationships, nurturing those relationships. And as it continues to grow and build, we know there are milestones where you can expect to make X amount of money. The great thing that I personally love about working by referral is that it’s sustainable. You know, you’re not going to do, you know, get lucky and do 100 grand one year and 40 grand the next, you know, people who build their business using the framework of Connect Practice Track and Grow and you know, you can do that by referral and that business becomes sustainable. You can count on it year after year.

Another thing I wanted to touch base with you on is you mentioned a lead from Real Geeks. So, for the audience, so we have, I have this idea that, you know, every once in a while, even the best agents among us need a boost to their database. And that’s why we started to partner with a vendor called Real Geeks to put some marketing muscle behind the basic search pages that we have on the Bruce Drill State Company website. And we’re getting, it’s probably 50 or 60 leads a month in the Springfield area alone that are, you know, split up around maybe 10 agents or so.

And from everything that we’ve seen or everything I’ve seen as we’ve tested this the last few months, they are definitely, overall, a better quality lead than we’ve ever seen from any other purchased lead vendor. So, you know, we’ve done some, we’ve tried things in the past with Zillow and Realtor.com that these seem just, I won’t say marginally better, but they’re more than marginally better. And my whole thing behind these is, you know, if somebody signs up through Real Geeks and is working with you and getting communication from you, one of our agents, if they happen to buy something now, what a gift, right? Right? But most of these folks are, you know, they’re in this, they’re in the thinking stage, search stage, and, you know, they’re not really ready.

They’re not looking for a lot of pressure. They a lot of times want to be anonymous, but many of these folks are going to be willing to engage with you. And this is where a lot of agents fall short because they feel like if they can’t sell them something today, it’s a waste of their time. Where our philosophy is let’s engage for the long term because if they don’t do something this year, they probably will next year or worse the year after. So, you know, in these Real Geeks leads, the real value is anybody who actually engages with you, if it’s through text message or email or even willing to pick up the phone, I want the goal for our agents to be, hey, can I get you on my mailing list?

I want to send you something fun every month. It’s not high pressure. It’s just something that’ll bring a smile to your face and help you remember me. And it’s called ROOST Listings. And, you know, any of these leads that come through Real Geeks, if we can get those transferred to somebody, somebody referral maker who’s going to get that monthly fund from you, whether actually in the mail or even via email, I think that’s the real win. So, having said that, congratulations. I’m thrilled that you got some now business out of it. And we’ve had some success with that, but it’s still a long term game. You know, I would never tell anybody that somebody’s going to get, you know, rich quick on Real Geeks leads, but for a newer agent or somebody who doesn’t have an extensive database yet, it is a place to start.

And that’s why we’re making that available. And the other thing I just want to say, and I know this sounds like a commercial, so forgive me, but you know, these leads are free, you know, to our agents. We’re not charging any additional referral fees. We’re not charging any monthly fee. It’s just a way that I think is going to help give our agents a database boost. So I guess that’s the end of that commercial. I’m sorry. All right. So social media is an amplifier. You’re using that to stay connected. That is awesome. Oh, I know the other thing I wanted to mention. Aren’t you doing something with one of your grandkids’ sports teams? What’s that about?

Yeah, so we sponsored ROOST and I sponsored or were one of the sponsors for my grandson’s football or baseball team. He’s on the travel baseball team. So I’m excited to see the banner that they’ll put up. So look at that as under the guise of, you know, we want to be the brokerage that supports what our agents support. So we support what you support. And, you know, there’s a lot of things that we need to be doing and want to be doing to support, you know, the communities we do business in. And then our philosophy is we want to support the causes, the activities that our agents care about, right? So I would much rather put, you know, some of our marketing dollars along with yours towards things that are going to support you individually and ROOST collectively.

And, you know, stuff with the grandkids is just absolutely perfect because there’s just no nothing wrong with, you know, when you’re out there at the game, especially when you’re an introvert like I am, you know, and you’re at the grandkids game and, you know, somebody’s, oh, you’re the realtor on the banner, you know, it’s a connection. That’s something that happens because you’re all there for the kids and there’s nothing wrong with a little cause marketing to support the kids and get your name out there and make it that much easier to connect one on one with these folks. So I look forward to seeing pictures of that banner on your social media page on Facebook.

All right, so connecting and promoting, you know, we’ve talked about how we’re doing everything we can or as much as we think we can at this point to promote the connections, but we’re always looking for ways to do more and real geeks. I’m thrilled that you’ve embraced that and that something actually happened in the short term. That’s a wonderful, wonderful bonus. So as we move into practice, you know, you’re fast. You know, I don’t even think of you as a newer agent at this point. But, you know, we have not had this conversation before. I think I asked you this question when we first met, but I think it’s kind of a good time for us maybe to kind of do it again as we think about your practice and the overall business.

I’m going to ask you my favorite loaded question. Are you ready? Ready. All right. So if we were sitting here three years from today. So what is that 2026 February something 2024 2026. What has to happen when you look back over those three years and your personal professional life for you to feel great about your progress. What has to happen. Over the next three years. Making more connections and having not necessarily sales, but just a more consistent things going on with the real estate. So maybe more people reaching out to me just in general and just growing my business as a whole and How is your self confidence these days when it comes to writing contracts and things like that.

Good. More self confidence. Yeah. So again, I’m somebody that I mean I have to do it in order to learn how to do it. So I did do it like said a couple times I had a listing and a two listings prior to coming to to Roos. So but I still want to make sure that I do the right thing. So Tina’s been great. I just reach out and say, Hey, what would you put here? How should I do that? But I feel pretty confident about it’s not as it’s not as scary as I thought it was going to be. Plus our system that we use is great because with my other company, nothing auto populated. So I was really spending a lot more time with the contract. So it’s been a lot easier to load the information and it’s there.

And you’re referring to Tina Bleything. So Tina is kind enough as a veteran agent at this point to help our newer folks who come in with some of that one on one contract day to day stuff. So shout out to Tina and she loves working with you and you guys have done great things together. So it’s a nice thing that happened. So if I’m hearing you correctly, your self confidence is getting better. You’re feeling good about that. You’ve had some sales under your belt. You’ve done some things. Some of them were harder than others and you’ve learned things. I applaud your goal to more and more connections. If I was going to put some numbers behind it, I would say, you know, I would say hopefully before the three years, but within three years, I would really be focused on what it’s going to take to get to that magic and 50 number in your database of people you’d recognize at the grocery store. I think that’s a fair goal that’s consistent with what you said.

And I guarantee you as you do that and as you slowly build that out with quality connections, quality people, your incoming business will even out. And the other cool thing that happens with our agents because they are 100% working by referral is, you know, in those months when other agents aren’t busy, because they tend to, you know, sort of ride the seasonal business, you’re going to be busy 12 months out of the year. You’re going to have a steady base of business. Yes, during the springtime, you know, just like Christmas comes every year, spring and real estate comes every year and you’re going to have more opportunities coming your way.

But the beauty of working by referral is it’ll even out your incoming over the course of the year and you’ll get to the point where you can count on and be able to forecast exactly what’s going to happen over the next few months and build your, you know, your personal budget around that. So it’s interesting that you say it’s not about sales, but yes, we all want to have food with our meals. So I have to say that the sales and the income will be a natural byproduct of just continuing to make those connections. But I think you’re well on your way to a absolutely sustainable business and people are going to continue to come because they’ve learned about you and your reputation and they want your advice and counsel.

So I think those are great goals and my guess is we can supercharge those for you. Is there anything else you can think of that we should be doing right now that we’re not doing to help you get to these get to that three year mark? No, not at all. I feel like the balls in my court as far as what I need to do to grow myself a little more. You know, they advertise for me and are there to support and have personal connections with people through the company. And I just feel like it’s up to me to put myself out there a little bit more and I enjoy every transaction and some of them are a little bit different than others.

They’re all different actually, some are a little bit more challenging, but I do enjoy it and being there for my clients and actually the interactions with the other agents on the other side. I enjoy that too. Yeah, well, that’s terrific because it is a great business and once you find that match for how you approach the business and the brokerage you’re working with it, it does get easier. So we’re thrilled to have you and I’m glad it’s working out. It’ll be interesting to watch too over the next few years how you get deeper and deeper into using Referral Maker in your CRM and you know, at some point we need to have that discussion about springing for a Buffini coach too.

Yeah. So many of our agents that have made that investment and absolutely supercharged their business. So the next time we talk, we’ll start moving towards those types of things. All right. Well, I have to tell you, and I think you epitomize the new real estate professional, you know, you understand the power of relationships. You’re always looking to create greater and greater value and you’re committed to your personal growth. So you are the poster child for Rooster Real Estate Company and you’re an inspiration. I’m so grateful to have you on the team and thank you for being a guest on the Connect Practice Track and Grow podcast.

Well, thanks for having me. 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.