How Alex Bradshaw did $11 million from circle prospecting with long-term follow-up

Alex Bradshaw00:00

You need to set a game plan for two years and realize that it’s probably gonna take you two years to get there, and be consistent every single day and simplify it. Gamify the mindset of making calls. You’re only calling for four hours a day. It is not that hard. I mean, you have the potential to make half a million, a million dollars a year for calling four hours a day.

00:19Or you can work the same job you have been, which is fine. There’s nothing wrong with that at all. But it’s half a workday of calling, and you don’t have to do it forever once you build your database.

Aaron Wittenstein00:36

What’s going on everybody? It’s me, it’s Aaron Wittenstein, and I would like to welcome you all to Vulcan7 Roadmap. This is where we interview agents across the country, spanning from the West Coast to the East Coast, to the Northwest, to the Southwest, to just every nook and cranny in the entire United States of America, all right, on how to take one, two, three, four, five additional listings a week, okay?

00:58So as y’all know, I’m on the East Coast, okay? So all the way from Seattle, Washington. What do you say? Seattle to Florida is what? Six hours flight? Yeah?

Alex Bradshaw01:08

It’s a little flight.

Aaron Wittenstein01:09

Yeah. The question is, are you coming to me first or am I coming to you? Or what are we doing here?

Alex Bradshaw01:14

I think you have to come my way.

Aaron Wittenstein01:16

Yeah. I would if I… It’s only 75 degrees, and for reference purposes, it is January 28th right now, 2025. Okay. So my guy, Alex, he has been in business for five years, right? Five years. He’s in Seattle, Washington, all right? Now just get this, though. In his fifth year, he has done 21 million.

01:36That’s right, I said million, in production. All right? And what I find to be the best part about it is, what’d you say? Like, 10, 11 million of that comes from circle dialing, roughly?

Alex Bradshaw01:49

Yeah, yeah. Circle prospecting. Neighborhood prospecting.

Aaron Wittenstein01:52

Mm-hmm. Okay. So I know circle prospecting is known for kind of the long game, if you will, right?

01:59So would you mind, I’ve talked enough, okay? So would you mind walking us through maybe your system, your process, your mindset around it? Kind of what your thoughts are.

Alex Bradshaw02:11

Absolutely. And you’re 100% right. I mean, most of the deals that came from neighborhood prospecting were leads that I’ve been nurturing for one or two years.

02:20I mean, it’s a long game when it comes to the neighborhood and circle prospecting. But the thing I love about it is, unlike expireds, cancelled, FSBOs, which isn’t always necessarily bad, you just have less competition. So if you can out-nurture most agents, which is not actually that difficult to do, because a lot of people don’t follow up, and the fortune’s in the follow-up.

02:40Just watching those leads slowly come to fruition. But a lot of them did come slowly. I’ve been doing it five years, but I’ve been calling for four. And the first year was slow, but as I started to compile leads, and a lot of those being the circle and neighborhood prospecting, now I’m at the point where most of my day is spent following up.

03:00I’m not necessarily calling a bunch of new business. So yes, to answer your question, a lot of it’s long term, one to two year follow-up. But my script is extremely simple, and I’m just trying to find people that raise their hand looking to sell.

Aaron Wittenstein03:16

So I’m always game for a simple script.

03:17So there’s a couple pieces I wanna go back to on that, but I’m always game for a simple script. So why don’t you ring, ring me?

Alex Bradshaw03:23

Yeah. Ring, ring.

Aaron Wittenstein03:24

Hello.

Alex Bradshaw03:25

Hey, Aaron.

Aaron Wittenstein03:27

Yes.

Alex Bradshaw03:27

Hey, Aaron. This is Alex. I’m a realtor here in Federal Way. I just had a quick question for you, if it’s all right.

Aaron Wittenstein03:34

Yeah, sure.

03:34What’s going on?

Alex Bradshaw03:36

Yeah, man. Really just curious if, like, a year or two down the line, Aaron, if you had any plans at all of moving off of 14th Street.

Aaron Wittenstein03:44

Well, three and a half years from now, my daughter graduates high school, so we may entertain it at that point, but not right now.

Alex Bradshaw03:52

Right on, man.

03:52And honestly, I’ll probably still be selling houses three and a half years from now, believe me or not. So I guess I’m a little bit curious, when that time does come, do you have a realtor helping you out, or would you be open to interviewing agents when the time comes?

Aaron Wittenstein04:04

I don’t. I mean, there’s like three on my block, but I don’t…

04:08I can’t even think that far ahead right now.

Alex Bradshaw04:10

Hey, I get it. You throw a rock in a crowd in Seattle, you’re probably hitting a realtor. So let me ask you this. When that time comes, I’d love to be considered. What I’d love to do is maybe a year or two down the line, just give you a ring, see if that’s still the plan.

04:22I’ll send you a postcard in the mail, that way you can put a face to the name, and we’ll just stay in touch, if you don’t mind. Is that okay with you, Aaron?

Aaron Wittenstein04:27

Perfectly, sir.

Alex Bradshaw04:29

Perfect. Sounds good. So that’s how I run it.

Aaron Wittenstein04:32

So what then are you sending, and what is your… because this is about a follow-up system, right?

04:39Right. Like, this is follow-up. What are you sending?

Alex Bradshaw04:42

So two things. I didn’t get it in that role play, but if I can get the email, I get the email, and I just send an intro email, and then I put them on a weekly email, which is not too difficult to set up and automate. And then I send a mailer, as I mentioned, so it’s just a handwritten thank you note.

04:58Now, in Vulcan, you can set up folders for your follow-up. So depending on if they’re a year out, two years out… Usually, if they’re more than two years, I will put them in there, but it’s more like, I’m gonna touch them in probably two years from now. I’m not gonna worry about them too much.

05:13But I create a folder system where the ones that are six months or sooner, I’ll throw them in that folder. If they’re a year plus, I’ll throw them in that folder. If they’re two years out, I’ll put them in that folder. And then depending on the month, when they start coming closer to fruition, maybe they’re a month or two out, I just move them up to a hot lead folder.

05:29And I’m just touching the folders when the time comes that they need to be followed up with.

Aaron Wittenstein05:36

Okay. So then the next people are gonna be like, “What does the follow-up conversation look like?” So why don’t we just totally walk down this path? So basically, just to recap, you’ve called me, you sent me a card, you got the weekly email, and let’s say that I’m at that three-and-a-half-year point, and let’s just say we’re two and a half years in and we’re a year away.

05:54What does that conversation look like?

Alex Bradshaw05:55

Yeah. So I’m just like… Shall we role play it?

Aaron Wittenstein05:59

Yeah, let’s do it.

Alex Bradshaw06:00

So ring, ring.

Aaron Wittenstein06:01

Hello?

Alex Bradshaw06:03

Hey, Aaron?

Aaron Wittenstein06:04

Yes.

Alex Bradshaw06:04

Hey, Aaron. This is Alex Bradshaw. You probably don’t remember me. We actually spoke a year or two back, just about your place off 14th. You mentioned your daughter was gonna graduate school here in three and a half years from when we last spoke, and I know it’s getting closer to then.

06:18Is the plan still to move when she ends up graduating school there?

Aaron Wittenstein06:22

Yeah, I mean, yeah. I think probably a little bit afterwards. We gotta figure out if she’s staying local for college and that type of stuff. But I definitely think it may be in the cards.

Alex Bradshaw06:31

Yeah.

06:31Right on. And out of curiosity, do you know where you plan on moving next, or is that still up in the air?

Aaron Wittenstein06:36

We just want something smaller.

Alex Bradshaw06:37

Yeah. So looking to downsize, it sounds like, but stay in the area?

Aaron Wittenstein06:40

Yeah.

Alex Bradshaw06:41

Perfect. Well, I work with people just like you all the time, and I know again, you…

06:46Did you ever get a postcard from me, or emails? Do you remember me by any chance?

Aaron Wittenstein06:50

Oh man, I get so many emails.

Alex Bradshaw06:52

So what I’ll do is I’ll send you another postcard in the mail. It’s a business magnet card, so you can throw it up on the refrigerator. I love when people do that. And what I’ll do is I’ll give you a call.

07:01It sounds like you’re still a little bit far out. If you don’t mind me asking, is it a 2025 plan for you, or more like a 2026 for you guys?

Aaron Wittenstein07:09

I gotta tell… I don’t know. I really don’t know yet.

Alex Bradshaw07:12

Yeah. Great. Well, what I’ll do is I’ll send you that postcard. And again, I know you’re getting bombarded by a bunch of people.

07:16I don’t wanna be a bother to you. Curious, when do you think it makes the most sense for me to follow up with you in the future?

Aaron Wittenstein07:23

You can follow up with me towards the tail end of the year. That’s fine.

Alex Bradshaw07:25

Perfect. I’ll go ahead and get that postcard sent. We’ll talk closer to the end of the year. So that’s-

07:31Yo, sorry, I didn’t mean to cut you there. That’s how my follow-up goes. And I’m just trying to stay top of mind. So I’m even in the works right now with my assistant, working on a monthly mailer to my hotter leads that are maybe six months out, so that they’re getting touched and top of mind.

07:44But I’m just trying to figure out when should I call them next, to start getting closer to booking that appointment. And if they want an appointment earlier, I’ll shoot for it, but ideally closer to when they’re ready to make the move.

Aaron Wittenstein07:56

Okay. So you’re a patient person.

Alex Bradshaw07:59

Yeah, I’m very patient.

08:00I’m not a super pushy guy, surprisingly.

Aaron Wittenstein08:04

Oh, I can tell. I can totally tell.

08:08That’s fine. So how did you get started with this? Because you hear people doing this. I have a very good friend of mine that does this at a very high level as well. He’s been doing it for 10 or 12 years with this. But you’re gonna tell the average agent, “Hey, Joe agent, you’re gonna start lead generating, but you’re not gonna see anything for the next year to three years.”

08:28How do you properly… The word pitch is… How do you properly share that with an agent? Because I think it’s a great part of a business, so.

Alex Bradshaw08:39

Yeah. And that’s what I tell anyone that asks me for any tips of anything. It’s just, it comes with time, and it’s so hard to get that because you’re not making a ton of money when you start out.

08:50People are telling you, “Stop calling me. Don’t ever call me again.” It’s discouraging, right? So you have to get used to being discouraged and continuously show up and make the calls. And The Compound Effect, my favorite book of all time, that’s literally the definition of this business: you’re gonna slowly fill that pipeline with leads, and those leads are gonna mature into deals, but it takes time.

09:11So you have to get into the game understanding that. Expires and canceleds, they’re the lowest hanging fruit, so still call those. They’re great, ’cause that’s now business. But these nurtures, there’s a lot of value in them, and I think if you’re patient enough and you follow up consistently enough, there’s a lot of deals to be done for sure.

Aaron Wittenstein09:28

Oh, yeah. I mean, there’s a lot of deals to be done. You did 11 million in them. So I mean, there’s definitely a lot. It just took time to get there. So, all right, so how many hours a day right now are you doing actual future lead generation with circle?

Alex Bradshaw09:44

So right now I’m only spending about an hour a day doing it.

09:48And the reason being is, one, I’m spending about two hours on follow-up, and I’ve sort of created a system with virtual assistants, so that it’s me and virtual assistants that are making these dials. But right now I’m still in the business. I’m still making the calls every day.

Aaron Wittenstein10:03

So you have people calling on your behalf as well then, correct?

Alex Bradshaw10:07

Exactly. Right.

Aaron Wittenstein10:09

Okay. How many… ‘Cause I mean, the thing is, people are just like, “I want someone to call for me. I want someone to call for me. I want someone to call for me.” Right. All right? Where we know that calling… It’s hard enough for me to call an expired or cancelled or for sale by owner or whatever, let alone someone overseas or that’s not, whatever.

10:25What type of results do you expect from your callers?

Alex Bradshaw10:31

Yeah. So for me, I’m looking for someone to make, ideally, 12 contacts an hour. And you can’t always count on that, so my minimum for them is try to hit 10. And obviously numbers and all that, it’s all dependent on that.

10:46But I’m looking for 10 dials an hour. They’re calling six hours a day. I don’t have anyone calling longer than that. And so for every 60 contacts, my goal is to get one lead. So for every virtual assistant, my goal is to get one lead a day from them, that’s someone that wants to sell within two years, that gives you a motivation.

11:01That’s my goal when they’re calling.

Aaron Wittenstein11:03

All right. So that was the question I forgot. Thank you for answering that. So basically, now for you, do you have the same goal for yourself, one lead for every 60 contacts?

Alex Bradshaw11:14

For me, it’s a little bit less. So this last year, ’cause I do track my numbers, every 27 people I call is a lead for me.

11:21So I know that they’re not as skilled as I am. They might have a stronger accent, maybe not be up to date with just American social cues. And sometimes that’s what turns leads off, as we know when we call. So I don’t expect them to be as good as me, but I just want them to be half as good.

11:39And I don’t think you should ever hire anyone until you actually get in the business and do the calls yourself, ’cause if you don’t have the skills to convert, you’re just wasting your money. You know what I mean?

Aaron Wittenstein11:49

Oh, totally. Totally understand. All right. So when a lot of people start prospecting, the thing is called expireds.

11:57Call for sale by owners. And, I mean, the skill set just isn’t there. I mean, it takes a while to get to the numbers you need to get to. So how did you get into this?

Alex Bradshaw12:07

So it’s so funny. Vulcan got me into it. So I actually… I saw you guys had like, I believe it was like 30 days, if you don’t take a listing, then I believe it was like the month is free.

12:22And so I was like, “All right, let me sign up for it.” And this was like three, four years ago. And God, I kid you not, I mean, I was making my calls for the first week, and I didn’t know what I was doing at all, but I was leaving voicemails for a lot of them, and I had someone with a piece of land call me back.

12:38And she was like, “Hey, yeah, you called me about my land. We’re looking to sell it.” And I took the listing in the first week. It was the luckiest thing in my entire life. Like a $100,000 piece of land in South Seattle. And so that’s what got me into it. Now, obviously, I’ve had coaches, Steve Powers is one of them.

12:56But just Vulcan was really the start of getting into the calling game, and watching a lot of YouTube and hiring coaches, of course. That’s been a ton for me, so.

Aaron Wittenstein13:05

Got it. So you got the one sliver of a land deal, and then you started just YouTubing around, right?

13:11And the next thing you know, you’re doing 21 million a year in business.

13:14Yeah. You know, it’s definitely something that I… And by the way, just so everybody knows, okay? He is only 23 years old, all right? All right. I know, I know you didn’t want me to say anything, but that baby face right there just… Look at that face.

13:29Look at that face. 23, 23 years old. That was… My God. Doing 21 million. You should have done 23 million at 23 years old. This is unacceptable behavior.

Alex Bradshaw13:38

Man, I know. I’m fired.

Aaron Wittenstein13:39

This is just un… You’re done. You’re done. Please leave. Please leave. Okay. So as I digress here, okay? Now, do you do any expired, for sale by owner calls at all, or do you just focus on the circle stuff?

Alex Bradshaw13:53

Yeah. So as of January 2025, I was still calling expireds and canceleds, and calling them on the weekends too, and a lot of people don’t know that. That’s when you’re gonna have a lot less competition, so Saturdays and Sundays are actually the best days to call expireds and canceleds.

14:08Maybe not at 8:00, but at 9:00. Anyways, for me, I don’t call them anymore. I’m more into pre-foreclosures, probate leads and circle prospecting follow-ups. I do a lot of fix and flipping now as well, so I’m not hitting the expired and canceled, but they were lucrative for me.

14:25I was doing four or five deals a year from them, and over here, that’s great GCI. I wasn’t dominating with them, and part of it’s because I’m not super pushy, which is probably my downfall. But I did call them for a long time, and I do recommend everyone, if you’re newer, to make the calls on them, because they want to sell.

Aaron Wittenstein14:45

So currently, right now, you’re a numbers person, so I’m assuming you track just about everything, right?

14:51How big is your pipeline?

Alex Bradshaw14:53

Yeah. So like how many leads do I have, or how many-

Aaron Wittenstein14:56

How many leads do you have between today and two years from now?

Alex Bradshaw14:59

I have 1,097 in my folders.

15:04So these are all people within two years that wanna sell, that over the last four and a half years I have compiled. Now, I don’t win them all, again, but a lot of it is I literally have too many people to follow up with now. I don’t have enough time to make the new business calls, you know?

15:19So that’s how many people are in my pipeline. I don’t have a number as far as how much that is in listing volume, but my conversion is low. It’s not like I’m gonna convert 1,000 of those, but those are all people that wanna sell within two years with the motivation.

Aaron Wittenstein15:35

But even if you do 10% of that, you know what I mean? That’s still 100. You do 5% of that,

15:43that’s 50 listings. And I’m assuming your average sale price is what? Like a million bucks, 500,000?

Alex Bradshaw15:49

Yeah, it’s a little bit lower ’cause I’m like 35, 40 minutes south of Seattle. It’s like 500, 600,000, so.

Aaron Wittenstein15:55

So you have 50 times 50.

15:56That’s a lot of money right there, man, you know? That’s a square business you’re running right there. So with these phone calls, what hours are you calling?

Alex Bradshaw16:08

Yeah. So I was calling 7:30 to 12:00 PM for the last three, four years.

16:14Now I’m starting to call at 9:00 AM. I’ve kind of switched up my schedule just ’cause I’m not calling expireds and canceleds, but you do wanna be the first on those, so I started calling at 7:30. But I was, am, very strict between 8:00 to 12:00 PM, or now it’s 9:00 to 12:00 PM. These are my hours of prospecting.

16:31My phone’s on do not disturb. If you wanna reach me, you can text me, but I’m not picking up any phone calls, even from my mom. I love you so much, but unless it’s an emergency, it’s gotta be after 12:00 that I’m picking up the phone, so.

Aaron Wittenstein16:41

So when you’re focused, you’re focused.

Alex Bradshaw16:46

I’m locked in for those hours.

16:47After that, if I don’t have any appointments, yeah, maybe I do some more prospecting. But I still do fun things and enjoy my life, so yeah.

Aaron Wittenstein16:59

Like snowboarding or skiing, right?

Alex Bradshaw17:02

I just went last weekend.

Aaron Wittenstein17:04

Exactly. I remember you told me that. See, I got a good memory.

17:08All right. There you go. So when you’re zoned in for those four hours, okay, let’s just say, I don’t wanna say a normal, but your typical agent, during that period of time they get a phone call from a seller, all right? And the seller needs to speak to you right now, ’cause it’s an emergency.

17:28What happens with you?

Alex Bradshaw17:30

If it’s a very big emergency, like it’s something that might kill a deal, I will pick up the phone call. If not, I have an automated message: “Hey there. I’m so sorry I can’t pick up right now. I’ll give you a call after 12:00 PM.” So I literally will hit them with that message, and you do it enough where they understand that you’re not gonna call them back until after 12:00.

17:48But if it’s an emergency, I will pick it up. It’s gotta be, the deal’s about to break. But other than that, it’s after 12:00.

Aaron Wittenstein17:56

How often, of the phone calls you get, is it an actual emergency?

Alex Bradshaw18:01

I mean, it’s like 5% of the time. I mean, it’s a small amount of those calls, you know what I mean?

18:07It’s very low.

Aaron Wittenstein18:09

And how did you… You know? ‘Cause again, what I’m trying to get at there is that most phone calls you get are not emergencies, right? Prospecting time is the time that we focus in and we get ready and we do what we have to do, right? So how did you get yourself in such a good habit?

Alex Bradshaw18:25

For me, it definitely took some time in the business to realize that the world is not gonna collapse by not picking up someone’s phone call. And it took me time. It took me a solid, probably, year and a half to realize that. But once you realize, and I now, after I get the listing signed and I’m sitting across from the seller, sometimes I’ll even set the tone with them, like, “Hey, between 8:00 and 12:00 you guys can reach me if it’s an absolute emergency, but I’m looking for buyers and sellers for not only your place, but any buyers that might come across for anything in the marketplace.

18:56And so I do best for anything after 12:00.” And I’ll say that to them after I get the listing signed. But I’ve started to kind of set that standard so that they realize that it’s hard to reach me unless it’s an emergency. And I’ve noticed they respect it.

19:12They get it, I’m working. And sometimes I definitely come across sellers where you have some that, they wanna reach you, and they will not be happy, and sometimes you just need to cut it loose if it’s really not worth your time. So I’ve even had a couple clients that I fired down the line just because of it.

19:28So yeah, I guess it’s just taken me time to build that habit in coaching.

Aaron Wittenstein19:33

No, that’s a phenomenal habit to have, because the reality of it is, people work the way we need to work, because the way that we’re working is the way to best service our clients. And people that don’t respect that, they don’t fit the mold, that’s okay.

19:48There’s nothing wrong with that. All right, my friend, so let me ask you this. So you’re sitting in your office, a brand new agent, knock, knock, knock at the door, and they come in, they’re like, “Alex, I hear you’re awesome. Give me one piece of advice.” What is one piece of advice you would have for a brand new agent?

Alex Bradshaw20:02

You need to set a game plan for two years and realize that it’s probably gonna take you two years to get there, and be consistent every single day and simplify it. Gamify the mindset of making calls. You’re only calling for four hours a day. You’re only calling for four hours a day. It is not that hard.

20:20If you weren’t doing this… I mean, you have the potential to make half a million, a million dollars a year for calling four hours a day. Or you can work the same job you have been, which is fine, there’s nothing wrong with that at all, but it’s half a workday of calling. And you don’t have to do it forever once you build your database.

20:35So set the next three, four, five years and understand it’s gonna be hard, it’s gonna be a grind, but you need to keep putting in the work and make the calls. That’s really where the learning comes from, is making the calls and just continuing to grind. That would be my biggest thing, is just set it as a long-term plan, so.

Aaron Wittenstein20:50

Yeah. I agree. I think that’s phenomenal advice. All right, my friend, let’s tie this up in a nice little bow here. All right? What are your final last words for Vulcan7 Nation?

Alex Bradshaw20:59

Yeah. I mean, if you guys aren’t already calling, I mean, sign up right now, Vulcan7. They’re the way to go. Sign up with them, start calling the expireds, cancelled, and they give you neighborhood search data if you need it.

21:10So you have everything in one place. I’d give them a ring when the time came. And yeah, if you ever need anything, I guess reach out to me or Aaron.

Aaron Wittenstein21:19

There we go. Reach out to him. Reach out to him. All right, my friend, so let’s say, for example, someone from somewhere has a referral for your Seattle, Washington area.

21:29How does one get in touch with you?

Alex Bradshaw21:32

Yeah. I mean, I guess, is it okay to plug a phone number and Instagram here?

Aaron Wittenstein21:35

Give the… That’s why I asked.

Alex Bradshaw21:37

I appreciate you. Yeah. Great plug. So Instagram is Bradshaw Sells, it’s pretty simple. And then my phone number is 253-250-7520. So give me a ring or a DM on Instagram, we’ll make it happen.

Aaron Wittenstein21:48

Beautiful, baby. All right, man. All right. I appreciate the call. I wanna thank you so much. This is great, and I’m just excited to see what happens for you in the future. So thank you very much for being here, okay?

Alex Bradshaw21:55

Thanks, Aaron. Appreciate the invite.

Aaron Wittenstein21:57

You’re very welcome. Now don’t forget everybody, go make some money.

21:59And don’t forget to, where is it? Right there. Trust the process. Y’all take care of yourselves. Be good now.