How Mike Litton Keeps Clients for 32 Years by Asking Piggyback Questions

Mike Litton00:00

What happens a lot of times with professionals in our industry is they will prejudge something and it’ll keep them from doing something. Okay? That prejudging causes fear. What you don’t know is what you fear the most. Here’s the thing. If all you’re doing is reaching out and all you’re doing is staying in curiosity, right?

00:17All you’re doing is picking up the phone and calling these people that you know and people you don’t know, and you’re saying, “Hey, are you familiar with what’s happening with interest rates?” All that is, is you’re… And we call it the power of questions.

Mike Litton01:09

Thanks. I appreciate it. It’s great to be here with you.

Mike Litton01:20

Yeah, so most people tell me, most of my friends tell me that it takes me 30 minutes to introduce myself, but I’ll do it as quickly as I can.

01:28So I started in the business in 1992. I got into the mortgage side of the business because I got turned down for the first home loan I ever applied for, and I didn’t really take that no very well, and the loan officer I was dealing with was not interested in turning the no into a yes or helping me do that.

01:46And so I ended up getting my license, got into the business, and the very first home loan I ever had approved, eight other lenders had turned down. And if we hadn’t gotten it approved when we did, they would have lost their house to foreclosure two weeks later. Their dream house they’d been building for two years.

02:02So after that, I was off to the races, right? And I’ve been doing this now, coming up in February, it’ll be 33 years. In 2000, I had an opportunity to be approved for a Keller Williams franchise. So I purchased a Keller Williams franchise and started it and owned it for 18 years in San Diego County.

02:24And at the time, it was one of the largest real estate offices in California and North America. We had close to 200 agents at several different spans. So I’ve been a broker owner, I’ve been an operating principal, I’ve been in the investment side, I’ve been a director of acquisitions for a flipping company, I’ve been obviously a loan officer.

02:45And so for 33 years, basically, I’ve been coaching and mentoring agents and loan officers. And so one of the things that we’re talking about right now is we’re talking about what 2025 is gonna look like. And after the election now, one of the things that we know is that the war on fossil fuels is over, okay?

03:06And so one of the things that’s going to happen is starting day one on January 20th of 2025, the newly elected President Trump is going to end the war on fossil fuels. He’s going to implement a number of executive actions that are gonna open up leases, it’s gonna open up all kinds of opportunity, and it’s also going to encourage energy companies to explore and add to supply and that kind of thing.

03:34Another thing that he’s gonna do is he’s gonna lift this ban that the current president put in place a couple of months ago, citing climate change or climate. And that was the export of liquefied natural gas to Europe, and so that’s going to happen again.

03:55And so one of the things that we’re gonna see is we’re going to see a lot more in the way of energy supply hitting the market. What that’s going to do, and what it’s also gonna do with traders, is traders are going to actually help us in terms of lowering the price of energy because they know that there’s more supply coming, if that makes sense.

04:14And so there’s a confidence in that deal. And one of the things that we were talking about earlier is I worked in a grocery store, full-time in a grocery store, and one of the things that I noticed was, and one of the things we’ve noticed the last four years, is the price of groceries have gone through the roof, right?

04:32Eggs are up 98%, 98% over what they were four years ago. What’s interesting about a grocery store is absolutely everything in the grocery store that you buy was trucked in there. So the actual cost of energy is the underlying support or foundation, if you will, for anything that’s potentially inflationary.

04:52And so it becomes this really terrible cycle, sort of never-ending cycle where prices go up, workers have to eat, so workers have to make more. So they go back to their employer and they need more money. Then employers, these companies have to raise prices even more. So we got into this really terrible cycle, and now that cycle is ending.

05:14So what a loan officer and/or realtor needs to be doing is they need to be having a conversation. And one of the things they can do is use Vulcan7 to do this. Reach out to the people you know. Reach out to the people you don’t know. And we have a conversation on our podcast, The Mike Litton Experience, we have this conversation going on a lot over the last 16 months.

05:37We’ve been doing this 16 months and three days, and we’ve done 261, 261 episodes, interviews. And what we talk about is the power of questions. So one of the things you wanna do is reach out to your sphere of influence, reach out to the people you know, reach out to the people you don’t know, and ask them this question: “Are you familiar with what’s happening with interest rates?

06:00Are you familiar with where interest rates are headed in 2025?” See, one of the things that we absolutely know is the Federal Reserve is meeting today as we tape this, and they are meeting on short-term interest rates. Well, there’s two sides to the interest rate market. There’s the short side of the market, which is what they’re meeting on today, and then there’s the long side of the market.

06:21The long side of the market is 15, 30 year, your 20-year, 30-year fixed rates, right? And 80-some percent, almost 90% of the purchase loans in the US are 15, 20, or 30-year fixed rate loans. So they’re on the long side, okay? What the Federal Reserve is doing with short-term interest rates, which affects credit cards, auto loans, short-term mortgages, adjustable rate mortgages, that kind of thing, is they’re adjusting what’s called the federal funds rate.

06:50They’re doing that to accentuate or to slow down, if you will, the market and slow down the economy because it costs more to borrow. It costs more for employers, for instance, to pay their people, ’cause they pay their people off of credit lines that are actually tied to the prime. The minute that the Federal Reserve announces their adjustment to the target for the federal funds rate, the prime immediately follows suit.

07:16So if they lower by a quarter today, the prime will lower by a quarter. Does that make sense?

Mike Litton07:22

All of these increases that they’ve been doing systemically have been to battle inflation. Well, one of the things we know that’s getting ready to happen is energy prices are going to drop, and that’s going to have a negative effect on inflation. What that does is that puts the Federal Reserve in a place where they can now be offensive when it comes to lowering interest rates versus defensive, if that makes sense.

07:46And so what you’re gonna see is the Federal Reserve is going to continue… They’re gonna have to. As inflation drops, they’re gonna have to continue to lower the short side of the market. So the conversation you wanna be having with your clients and with your potential clients, and by the way, even people you don’t know, is: Are you familiar with where interest rates are headed in 2025?

08:06Are you familiar with the current inflationary situation in the US? Are you familiar with what the new administration is going to be doing starting on January 20, right, of 2025? What are they gonna be doing? The answer is, they’re going to be doing everything they can possibly do to drop energy prices.

08:24In fact, President-elect Trump’s promise or goal is by the end of the first year, so by the end of the first year of his term, he wants to have energy prices fifty percent of where they are right now. Okay? That is going to have a massive impact on inflation. Plus, it’s going to get bond traders and energy traders on Wall Street and in Chicago to basically buy into what’s happening.

08:52Once they start seeing fundamental numbers changing, you’re going to see energy prices futures start to drop. You’re gonna see oil prices start to drop. You’re gonna start seeing all kinds of different things that are inflationary. You’re gonna start seeing them drop. That will have an absolute effect almost immediately on what happens with inflation, which will also affect interest rates.

09:17The thing that’s happening with the long side of the market is the bond traders need to get to a place to where they believe that this is happening, that that’s not just talk, it’s actually action, right? And they start seeing the fundamental numbers. Once they see the numbers and they see the trends, interest rates are dropping, okay?

09:36And with the Federal Reserve dropping short-term interest rates, they’re following suit. Does that make sense?

Mike Litton09:41

Okay. So what we’re talking to, and we’re coaching and mentoring realtors and loan officers, what we’re telling them is get involved. Pick up the phone. Use Vulcan7.

09:54Get on the phone. Start using this technology to help leverage your time and talk to as many people as you possibly can. They don’t have to be clients. They can be people that own their own business. They can be people that you don’t know, but you wanna get to know, and you wanna share with them your expertise.

10:14Does that make sense?

Mike Litton10:17

So that’s what’s happening in 2025, and so what we’re doing is we’re coaching and mentoring loan officers and realtors to get involved, get up, get on the phone, and keep these people updated, keep their people updated, right? And get them to where they’re thinking in terms of, “Okay, interest rates are gonna be adjusting downward, so we need to be prepared for what we’re gonna do next.”

10:37Here’s what happens. When you’re a realtor and you get on the phone with a client that maybe owns a house, and they’re not familiar with what’s happening with interest rates. They’re not following it. See, we make an assumption in this industry which is dangerous. We make an assumption in this industry that everybody follows interest rates the way we do.

10:56They don’t. They’re too busy in carpools, right? They’re too busy doing what they do every day. Your job is to share with them what the updates are. Your job is to follow all that and be their economic advisor, right? Be their update, be their news source, so to speak, right? And so if you’re having a conversation with them, once you talk with them and they know that interest rates are headed downward, now they’re thinking, “You know what, honey?

11:23Maybe now’s the time to sell. Maybe now’s the time to buy. Maybe now’s the time to rent our property out and go buy something else. Maybe now’s the time…” You with me? And so that starts that idea process, right, and that conversation that they’re having behind closed doors about what they should be doing next.

11:42And because you were the person, you were the source that shared with them the intel of what’s coming up, they will turn to you oftentimes and have you help them get to where they need to be.

Mike Litton12:44

Well, that’s actually a great point. One of the things that we’re coaching and mentoring both loan officers and realtors about right now is this sort of fear, right? And they have a fear that they’re bothering them. They have a fear that they’re inconveniencing them.

12:58They have a fear that these people are gonna be upset because they reached out. I have to tell you, it’s actually the opposite, right? They are so appreciative that you reached out because you know something that you’ve been following, and you’re sharing with them what they need to know in order to go forward.

13:16And they covet that information. They absolutely covet that time. Understand this. And by the way, we talk about this on The Mike Litton Experience all the time, but I also have this conversation with my kids, okay? My kids are 24 and 26 years old.

13:34They’re now fully employed, they’re out of college, all that, right? One of the things I told them was, I said, “Listen, take your Microsoft Word processor, and in the largest font you possibly can, I want you to start a new doc, blank document. At the top I want you to write stay in curiosity, and at the bottom I want you to write stay out of judgment.”

13:54What happens a lot of times with professionals in our industry is they will prejudge something and it’ll keep them from doing something, okay? That prejudging causes fear. What you don’t know is what you fear the most, okay? Here’s the thing. If all you’re doing is reaching out and all you’re doing is staying in curiosity, right, all you’re doing is picking up the phone and calling these people that you know and people you don’t know, and you’re saying, “Hey, are you familiar with what’s happening with interest rates?

14:25Are you familiar with what the incoming Trump administration is intending to do? Are you familiar with how that’s going to affect the market?” Right? All that is, is you’re… And we call it the power of questions. I’m actually writing a book right now on the power of questions. It’s all about engaging, okay?

14:43All you’re doing is staying curious. Now, if you call and they say, “You know what? I’ve got this covered,” or, “You know what? I already know everything,” that’s probably somebody you might not wanna do business with anyway, right? But it’s also clarifying, right? You already know now that person already knows everything there is to know, and we’re probably not gonna be able to add a lot of value to them.

15:06What I would submit to you is very few of them are gonna be that way. Very few of the people you call in reality are gonna know anything about this. And if they do, they have just enough knowledge to be dangerous, right? And so it’s one of those things where you can call them up, ask them these questions, okay?

15:27And then ask them, “Hey, let me ask you a question. If interest rates dropped next year, would that change what your real estate plans are? Would that change what you decided to do with your current mortgage? If so, how would that change?” Right? Let them tell you because they may be in a place where they need your services now, and you don’t know it because you’re asking, right?

15:52So how would a change in twenty twenty-five in terms of interest rates and inflation and all that, how would that affect you? How would that affect your plans? What you may find out is they may say, “You know what? If interest rates start dropping, I’m selling my house in six months.” By the way, and you should write this down, anybody that’s listening to this, if a buyer tells you that they’re looking to buy in six months, you better stay in touch with them.

16:20Why? Because typically, that six months is way less than that. I’m gonna tell you a real quick story. Do we have time for a story?

Mike Litton16:28

I’m gonna tell you a real quick story that happened earlier this year. Earlier this year, a friend of mine referred me to his sister and his brother-in-law. They were in a process where they needed some help, they needed some clarification.

16:43So I got on the phone with them, and we talked for a little over an hour. And what we talked about was what their current situation was, which was really bad, by the way, and they were renting, and they wanted to own a house. And they’d been thinking about it, talking about it, planning for it for fifteen years, and they just were at a point now where it was time to do it, okay?

17:03What they told me in that conversation was that they were not looking to buy for another year. True story. They were not looking to buy for another year. Okay? And one of the things that I told them was I said, “You know what? Let’s do this. Let’s have you talk to a lender that we know, right, that we trust, and let’s have you guys get pre-approved.

17:25Just for fun. We’ll just get you pre-approved. At least then you know what you can afford, and we’ll see how things go.” Right? Because one of the things that I knew from doing a detailed needs analysis with them and asking them a lot of questions was their current situation was untenable.

17:42Absolutely untenable. They rented a place, sight unseen. They came from the East Coast. They came out here, and one of the things that happened during COVID was the wife came down with COVID, and COVID affected her olfactory system, her smelling.

18:04So if there’s an odor of any kind, she gets a migraine.

18:07Well, there were odors every single day in their current rental. So she was getting a migraine every single day, and they had three kids. Okay? So I talked to the lender, and the lender said, “Hey, I talked to them. They’re not looking. We’re gonna put off the pre-approval because they’re not looking to buy for a year.”

18:26And I said, “You know what? Do the pre-approval now because I’m gonna bet you that next week they’re gonna call, and we’re gonna be out looking at houses.” Do you know that he got the pre-approval done, this was on a Friday. He sent them the pre-approval letter Monday morning. They called me 20 minutes later and said, “Can we go look at houses tomorrow?”

Mike Litton18:47

Okay?

18:48Here’s what I want you to know. The only reason that I knew this was because of all the questions I asked. I stayed in curiosity, and I stayed out of judgment. Okay? We literally got them a house. They canceled the lease on the other house. She’s not having migraines every day anymore.

19:06Okay? They’re happy. They’re incredibly ecstatic, and he is actually with the Navy SEALs, and I’m going out there to teach the Navy SEALs how to buy a house. Okay? That’s how impressed he is with us. So that’s what I’m talking about. You want to be in a place where you absolutely stay in curiosity because here’s the thing, motivation.

19:31So if you’re in our industry, loan officer and/or realtor, okay, and you’re having a conversation with people, and you’re staying on the surface on what’s politically correct, you ask somebody how they’re doing, what do they say?

Mike Litton19:47

I’m fine.

19:49Right? Okay. If you take that as the only answer, if you take that and you just walk away, where are you gonna get?

Mike Litton19:59

Nowhere. Where’s their motivation? It’s down here. Okay? So you’ve got to get down here. You’ve got to dig a little bit, right? So the question that you wanna ask them is, “Okay, so let me ask you a question. You said you’re fine, right? On a scale of one to 10, one being completely unacceptable, 10 being grand slam home run out of the park, how are you?”

20:23“Well, a six.” “Okay. So what makes it a six?” Right? What makes your current situation a six? How could we get it to a 10? Okay? And all of a sudden now they’re like, “Well, something’s happening with my job, something’s happening with the kids. One of the kids just got in a fight at school.

20:43We need to improve the school district they’re in. One of our kids is failing.” Whatever, right? It could be anything, you guys. It could be anything. But you gotta stay in curiosity in order to get there, right? And you can’t just take fine for an answer because that’s not where their motivation is.

21:01The next person that comes along that’s in our industry that digs a little bit will find that motivation, okay? And then when they find out why that motivation is important to them, they will lock that person in, and that person will use them for the rest of their lives. That I can tell you from experience, okay?

21:20So it’s all about the power of questions, and it’s all about staying in curiosity and helping these people get to where they wanna be once you have an opportunity to discover their motivation. By the way, if you’re showing property, I have a million things to share with you, but if you’re showing property and you don’t have a clipboard and a piece of paper in front of you with a pen, and you’re not walking into each kitchen that they walk into and saying, “Tell me one to 10, 10 being a grand slam, one being unacceptable, what’s this kitchen?”

21:54And they walk in and they go, “It’s a four.” “Okay, what makes it a four?” You better start writing it down, right? Because if they don’t like pink countertops, pink granite countertops, should you be showing them more properties that have pink granite countertops?

Mike Litton22:09

Right?

22:10What else happens when you ask them these questions and they see you writing down the response?

22:16Any idea?

Mike Litton22:23

You’re validating them.

22:25Okay? You’re validating their response. You grow closer when you validate people’s responses. You grow closer when you stay in curiosity and you ask questions to them about them.

22:40Okay? You mind if I give you a real quick example?

Mike Litton22:45

So about 20 years ago, I know I’m dating myself, but about 20 years ago, I was in National City, which is a suburb of San Diego, just south of San Diego, at the adult education center, and I was teaching a class on real estate practice.

22:59There were 45 people in the room. And I started teaching, and about five minutes into it, I noticed that back in the left corner, there was a kid sitting there with his hat on sideways, and he had his arms folded like this. Okay? And every time I said something, he said something to his neighbor, right?

23:17And I’m really patient, so about 30 seconds of that, I got all I wanted. So I went back there and I stood over him with my arms folded just like his. And I said, “I get the impression that you don’t think that I know what I’m talking about.” He said, “I think you’re full of it.” I said, “Great. Do you mind if I give you an example right here, right now?”

23:34“Oh, I’d love to see this.” So I walked up front. I picked out the most attractive girl in the room. No joke, the most attractive. All the guys had been checking her out, the whole thing. I walked up to her, stuck my hand out. I said, “Hi, I’m Mike.” She said, “Hi, I’m Missy.” I said, “Have we ever met before?”

23:49She said, “No.” I said, “Missy, can I ask you a question?” She said, “Sure.” I said, “Where were you born?” She said, “Chula Vista.” I said, “Great. Did you grow up in Chula Vista?” She said, “Yeah.” “What was your favorite thing about growing up in Chula Vista?” She said, “The beach.” I said, “Great. What was your favorite thing about the beach?”

24:03She said, “The ocean.” “What was your favorite thing about the ocean?” “Swimming in the ocean.” I said, “Why is that?” And she said, “Mike, I never feel as free as I do when I’m swimming in the ocean.” And when she said that, she got this euphoric look on her face, okay? And I asked her, I said, “Missy, we’ve never met before, right?”

24:22And she said, “Yeah.” I said, “We now have known each other less than a minute. Do you feel closer to me?” She said, “Closer? I’m ready to marry you.”

24:33Okay?

24:34We never heard another thing out of that kid back in the corner, okay? He was all ears then. And she came up to me afterwards and she said, “You know, Mr.

24:43Litton, I was sort of joking, but I was sort of serious.” And I said, “Well, I’m happily married, Missy,” right? And she said, “Do you know that I’m 18 years old and I’ve stopped dating?”

24:56And I said, “Why is that?” And she said, “Because all the boys my age, all they care about is themselves. They don’t care about me.

25:04They don’t ever ask me the questions that you just asked me.” Now, on The Mike Litton Experience, our guests come on and we get their life story. We start with where they were born, and we go all the way up to today, and then we talk about what they’re currently doing and what they would like to promote.

25:23Like, they’re bestselling authors-

Mike Litton25:25

They’re business CEOs, that kind of thing, right? But that’s literally what we do. What we do on every single episode, all 261 so far, and we have a couple more today, is we literally connect on a deep level with every single guest. The one thing that I’ll leave all of the realtors and all the loan officers that are listening to this, the one thing I’ll leave with you, is if you do that, you will get to where you find the motivation, okay?

25:59And you will bond with the people that you potentially wanna do business with in a way that you cannot imagine. I just had a realtor who used to work with us at our Keller Williams office reach out to me, and she said, “You have this podcast.” And I said, “Yeah.” And she said, “And I wanna start my own.”

26:19I said, “Great.” She said, “I wanna be a fly on the wall when you do a podcast episode, when you do an interview.” I said, “Okay.” And she said, “And I’ve got an escrow company that will allow me to use a studio.” They get credits to use a studio. “This escrow company will allow me to use a studio in order to…”

26:40Right? And I said, “Well, we need to go walk through it, because we need to make sure that it’s equipped the way we need it,” because I’m a little unique, right? And I’m kind of a lot to deal with, right? And so if you look up high maintenance in the dictionary, there’s a picture of me.

26:56Just kidding. Right? So we go to do the walkthrough. We met the owners of the escrow company. So instead of using a studio and she’s sitting next to me, and it’s just her and I in the studio, it morphed into, we’re gonna have 25 agents watch us do this. And her first response was, “I just wanted it to be me.”

27:20And I’m like, “Okay, but there’s agents that work with this escrow company, right? That are interested in what we’re doing.” Does that make sense?

27:30And so we turned it into a training event.

27:35Instead of a… Right, instead of a one-on-one kind of thing.

27:38Here’s the thing. It only happened because I walked in there and stayed in curiosity, okay? I had a chance to talk with the owners of the escrow company. I had a chance to talk with this realtor, right? And sort of dig and figure out where everybody’s coming from, and we figured out a way to create a greater solution for something that needs to happen for them.

28:02Does that make sense? So if you stay in curiosity, you cannot imagine how much success you can bring into your life, and you can’t imagine the types of relationships that you can form. I have clients that have been with me for 32 years. They wouldn’t dream of using anybody else.

28:28Why? Because I stayed in curiosity where they were concerned all those years ago.

Mike Litton28:44

Yeah. Absolutely. But-

Mike Litton29:45

Yeah. And the best thing about it is, so when somebody says to you, “I’m gonna wait until interest rates drop,” okay, then you need to ask them a question.

29:56“Great. Can I ask you a question?” “Sure.” “What is it about interest rates dropping that makes you feel like you’re gonna get back in?” Okay? Now, what do we know about the market when interest rates drop? What do we inherently know?

Mike Litton30:17

So when you stay in curiosity, you can do this, right?

30:21You can say, “Okay, let me ask you a question. The interest rate’s dropping, right? How does that affect you and you buying?” “Well, it’ll be more affordable.” “Okay, great. Would it be more affordable for everybody else, too?” Okay? The last time we worked together or the last time you were looking for a house, you mentioned to us how stressful it was because everybody and their brother was buying a house, and interest rates were at 3% fixed, right?

30:54Do you wanna go back to that? Is that something that you wanna… And all of a sudden, they’re like, “Well, not really.” Okay. Well, let me ask you a question. If you bought something today before interest rates drop, and then later came back and refinanced, but you were in your place, right?

31:13Is it possible that you could get a better deal now and have less competition now than when interest rates drop to 5%, 4%, whatever the number is?

Mike Litton31:28

Yeah. Right? And so you keep asking, right? You keep asking. And just ask them, “Hey, do you have any questions about what’s coming?

31:36Do you have any questions about what we think the market is going to look like?” Okay? And you can use lots of different examples. One of them in particular is Barbara Corcoran. Do you know who that is?

Mike Litton31:49

Okay. So Barbara Corcoran’s been on Shark Tank. She’s pretty famous. She’s what people consider a real estate expert.

31:55She’s on Good Morning America and a bunch of these big network shows and all that kind of thing, talking about what’s happening with interest rates. Well, in real estate in particular, right? And one of the things that she says is as soon as interest rates start to tick back down, real estate’s going through the roof.

32:12You’re gonna see massive amounts of people get back into the market, and it’s gonna be a very, very crowded place. So let me ask you a question. Would you rather buy before values take off, like Barbara Corcoran is saying they’re going to, or would you rather own now and ride that trend up?

32:31Ride that… Right? All of a sudden, it changes the way they’re thinking, okay? Now, they may not make a decision right there, right now on the spot, but you at least plant the seed, and you at least ask them so that they go home and talk about it, and they’re like, “You know what? We really should do this.”

Mike Litton33:20

Well, we coach agents and realtors and mentor them, but we’ve been doing that for a very, very long time. You can reach out to me anywhere.

33:29I’m on Instagram at The Mike Litton Experience. I’m on Facebook at Litton Realty. You can reach out to me just about anywhere, right? I’m on TikTok. I’m on X, right, @LittonRealty. So you can reach out to me just about anywhere. The thing that I wanna make sure that I leave you with, though, is think about it this way.

33:58When you’re talking to a prospect, when you’re talking to somebody, even if it’s somebody you’ve worked with in the past, when you’re talking with them and they’re telling you things, you’re asking them questions and they’re telling you things, remember the principle of the piggyback question, okay?

34:15And what a piggyback question is, is I’m talking to a prospect, and I ask them, “How would your plans change if interest rates were to drop?” And they say, “Well, actually, if I knew interest rates were coming down, and I had some sort of a certainty there, I might consider buying now.”

34:34“Okay. Well, let me ask you a question. If you purchased now, what would that look like? What would need to happen? What is it that you would need to have happen in order for you to buy something now?” Right? “Is there anything that potentially is standing in the way? Have you had an opportunity to talk with a lender?”

34:52“Well, no, I haven’t asked.” “Okay. Well, do we have a lender we could introduce you to? Would that interest you?” Right? All of a sudden, you’re asking them about the answer that they just gave you. That’s what we call a piggyback question. And by the way, if you listen to The Mike Litton Experience, that’s all I’m doing, you guys.

35:10That’s all I’m doing is piggyback questions. That real estate practice class that I did in National City, that example, I asked her where she was born. She said Chula Vista. I asked her if she grew up in Chula Vista. That’s a piggyback question. I just asked her about the answer, right?

35:30And she said, “Yeah.” I said, “Great. What was your favorite thing about growing up in Chula Vista?” These are all piggyback questions. “Well, the beach.” “Great. What was your favorite thing about the beach?” “Well, the ocean.” “What was your favorite thing about the ocean?” “Swimming in the ocean.” “Why?” You with me? All that is piggyback questions, and all I’m doing is validating her and getting to know her, okay?

35:51If all you do is do that with every single prospect, you’re gonna have more business than you know what to do with.