How Bernie Gallerani sold 49 homes in his first year knowing one person in town

Ren Jones00:00

It’s that time. Welcome to Roadmap, everybody. How to take three listings a week until you’re ready for more. Each week, we interview a great agent who’s consistently taking 2, 3, 4 listings each week. Actually, in this case, may be higher. We have an exciting guest today. We encourage you to take a lot of notes during this broadcast, and learn as much as you can by taking those notes and reviewing them, and then use the copycat principle. You’ll have an opportunity to ask questions during the broadcast as we go along here. First, let me introduce my co-host from San Diego, Carley Hathaway, carleyhathaway.com. Hi Carley, how’s the real estate business?

Carley Hathaway00:52

Hi. Hi, everybody. Thanks for tuning in. Real estate’s amazing. San Diego’s a hot market right now, great to take listing, so I’m excited for today’s guest.

Ren Jones01:03

Good. Good. Well, I’m going to go right into the introduction of our guest. We get him for a short period of time here, a little shorter than the normal broadcast, but it’s well worth it. This guy about 10 years ago moved from Las Vegas, Nevada to a very small town outside of Nashville, Hendersonville, Tennessee. He only knew one person in that town, and that person did not need to buy or sell a home. He couldn’t speak the language. If you come from Las Vegas and you moved to the Nashville area, you can’t speak the language. He had to take… What is that? Rosetta Stone or something, I don’t know, to be able to speak the local language.

01:47And then in his first year, he sold 49 homes, most of them sellers. He worked a couple buyers in there, but mostly sellers. He’s following a system, and he’s going to share with you the system and the origin of that system. He’s a very driven guy, very focused guy, but when it comes to looking at a system and saying, “Hey, this thing’s amazing,” and it was, and now he’s like sells eight times as many homes as that. So it’s going to be a real treat. Welcome, everybody. I’ll warn you in advance, Bernie, you’re not going to hear the applause even though there are a lot of people on here because they’re all on mute except for Carley. Give a warm welcome to Bernie Gallerani.

Bernie Gallerani02:27

Hey, Thanks, Ren. Appreciate it. I’m excited to be here even though I was kind of a fill-in.

Ren Jones02:33

That’s right. That’s right.

Bernie Gallerani02:37

No, Ren, here’s how I put my mind around this, is back in the day, there was a guy named Drew Bledsoe who got hurt. His backup quarterback, which is by the name of Brady, I think you guys have all heard of him, came in and stole the show and took that team all the way to the Super Bowl.

Ren Jones02:54

Yeah, that’s how that works.

Bernie Gallerani02:56

I’m okay being the fill-in because sometimes the fill-ins can provide some really cool stuff.

Ren Jones03:01

Well, you’re the fill-in because you sell too many homes; they might not be able to relate. We’re really going to just talk about your first, second, and third year in the business.

Bernie Gallerani03:11

Awesome.

Ren Jones03:11

But it’s exciting because you’ve taken it to the stratosphere. You really have.

Bernie Gallerani03:18

Working on it.

Ren Jones03:18

You really, really have. Tell me about that first year. You remember that first year? There you, you were having trouble talking to people and they were, “Hey, y’all, Hey, honey,” and you were listing property and you followed a wonderful system.

Bernie Gallerani03:34

Yeah. When I moved to Nashville in August of 2004, I don’t speak Southern, right? I mean, I’m a West Coast guy, and so I didn’t understand the whole Southern drawl. Somebody had said to me even before I got into real estate, as I wasn’t even a licensed agent here in the state of Tennessee, someone said, “Well, how well do you think you’re going to do over here being from the West Coast?” I planted this negative thing in my mind. Thank God it happened though, by the way, because it changed my life being involved with coaching, and I went, “Well, crap, I’ve got to learn how to be a Southern drawl salesperson.”

04:12So I went to search out coaching companies. Before I even started selling houses, I’m like, “Okay, well someone’s going to teach me how to talk.” So I started researching coaching companies and found The Mike Ferry Organization, which is what I ultimately ended up signing up for. I’ll never forget my coach, and he’ll say, “Listen, I’m not going to teach you how to talk Southern because I don’t know how to talk Southern, but I can teach you how to say the way it’s supposed to be said in the tonality and voice that you have, and you’ll be super successful. Okay, well, let’s do this thing.” I’ve been with Mike Ferry now for 13 years. It’s been really just wonderful experience.

Ren Jones04:48

Nice. Nice. Nice. Nice. Nice. Great. Great. Great. Just for fun, by the end of today, being the month of October, how many listings will you have taken this month?

Bernie Gallerani05:00

Well, that’s a good question. My listings are down from what they used to be because I actually run my company now a little bit more, but I personally will take somewhere right around 16 to 18 listings this month.

Ren Jones05:11

Okay, great. Great. Fantastic.

Carley Hathaway05:13

That’s great. So your goal, you just mostly call, that’s how you get your listings, is that right?

Bernie Gallerani05:19

Yeah. Carley, I get a lot of call-ins now, a lot of referral business. So a lot of that business is done there. I would say about 50% of my listings that come in every month are coming in from past client-centered influence.

Ren Jones05:35

Nice.

Bernie Gallerani05:35

I would say the other half comes from calling expireds, for sale by owners, withdrawns, canceled listings.

Carley Hathaway05:41

Nice. So can we go back to your first and second year and can you tell us a little bit about your routine and who you call and how your day looks?

Bernie Gallerani05:51

Yeah. I think it’s important to understand that any of the routines that I have today all came from stumbling and falling and doubting myself through the process of building a listing business. Because really, I’m a listing agent, that’s what I do. I don’t work buyers and haven’t for a lot of years. So learning that process. I think that I would say this, first is my coach would say to me, “You’ve got to spend at least two to three hours every day on the phone.” So that’s how I started. Remember, I wasn’t a real estate agent, so I didn’t know you weren’t supposed to be doing that. I was paying a coach. The coach told me to prospect on the phone two or three hours. It’s all I knew how to do. I mean, to me, that was the world I lived in.

06:31As I started doing it, I became un-normal in the office. This guy’s got a telemarketing room down there, he is a telemarketer. I had foam on the walls to try to keep the echo down. I wouldn’t bother my neighbors. So people were like, “Man, you look like you got a radio station going on in there.” And then I’d go to Mike Ferry events and I’d meet other agents that did really well in the phones. And so, what I would do every day is I’d get up and I’d get into my system and start calling my expireds, my for sale by owners. I typically would do that until about 12 o’clock. So I’d go from about 8:00 AM until about 12 noon.

07:08I heard Mike say probably about four or five months in the business, he said, “If you give me from 8:00 to 12:00, so 8:00 AM to 12 noon, I don’t care what you do the rest of the day, but if you give me those four hours of solid work on the phone calling expireds, withdrawals, cancels, and for sale by owners in and around listings and sales, if you did that, you could do whatever you wanted after 12 o’clock.”

07:30I thought, “Well that’s a pretty interesting gig. So I work four hours a day, become a millionaire.” The challenge with that, though, was once I started prospecting for four hours on the phone, and I would usually work mornings on Saturdays and then every other Sunday in the evenings, so after I started doing this, after a few months, next thing I know, I went from having no listings to having 30 listings on the board and closing eight to 10 properties a month. I’m like, “Wow, this crap really works. Mike tricked me.” He tricked me because he said, “If you give me till noon, you can have the rest of the day off.” Well, when I worked till noon, I had so much damn business; I was working constantly. But the good news is I was making a ton of money, and that was the knee of the game.

Carley Hathaway08:14

That’s great. That’s the goal, right?

Ren Jones08:15

But he’s a little more driven than he’s letting on with this 8:00 to 12:00 thing, because on a Saturday at 3:00 AM, he would get in his car in Nashville area, drive up past Cincinnati, up to Dayton, Ohio, five and a half hours on the road, on a Saturday morning, get there at 8:30 to prospect all day with another friend of his all Saturday until about 16:30 or 17:00, and then get in his car and drive home.

Bernie Gallerani08:47

Yeah.

Ren Jones08:47

I mean, think about that. If you talk about a strong mindset and discipline, desire to build a business, who does that?

Carley Hathaway08:57

Yeah.

Bernie Gallerani08:57

I’ll tell you what, when I found real estate in my life, I was 38 years old when I found the world of real estate, signed up for Mike Ferry. I realized very quickly within my fourth month in the business I had $30,000 of commissions pending. When I had made a decision with myself that day that this was my way out of all of the other things that happened in my life and that I could create a very nice family life financially for my family and myself by putting in time, the challenge that I had was there wasn’t anybody in my market doing the kind of business that I was doing. So I had to get in my car, and my first couple of years in the business, I would jump on airplanes, I’d fly and go see people, I would continually bombard agents saying, “I wanted to come shadow you.” And they’re like, “Nah, I don’t really like that.” I’m like, “I’m coming anyway.”

09:47And so, I probably saw about eight or 10 people that were outside of my local market. Not just our friend up in Dayton, but also people in California and in New York and in North Carolina. And so, I would jump on airplanes and go fly and see all these people. What I wanted to do was convince myself that there was a better way of becoming a millionaire other than prospecting. And so, as I went and saw all these top agents first year or two in the business, I realized one thing: that every single one of them were successful based on the time that they spent on the phone.

Ren Jones10:24

Isn’t that funny? You were looking for the magic answer, and the magic answer was, just get really good at the phone.

Carley Hathaway10:30

Yeah.

Bernie Gallerani10:31

Well, I mean, I can’t sing or dance, I’m not a computer expert or anything. My talent is somewhat limited. I was a very tenacious person and a very decent salesperson, so if I could combine the skills that I had, incorporate that with what I saw working the first few months, it’s amazing. I look at the business that I do today, and still today with the transaction number that I do with myself and my small team, every single day I’m still on the phones at least three hours, four hours a day, typically two and a half to three hours calling new business and about an hour or so doing some lead follow up, so I still have that quality time. I know that your listeners probably can’t, but you can see back here, Ren, where I’ve got my scripts on the wall. And so, this is just my prospecting center. This is where I work every day and pound it out and help people get their home sold.

Carley Hathaway11:23

Nice. Do you have people you like to call earlier than others, like from 8:00 to 9:00 you call FSBOs? Do you put them in order with importance?

Bernie Gallerani11:35

I always call expireds, and I call price point down, so always the most expensive to the least expensive. If I’m going to call somebody, I’m going to try to get paid the most I possibly can. So if it’s a 2 or $3 million property, I start with there, and then I just work myself down to the lower price points as the time goes on. I call all new expireds three times in the first four hours, so they get three different attempts to call.

Carley Hathaway12:04

Do you leave voicemails?

Bernie Gallerani12:04

I do not leave voicemails, only for the purpose of time, because I have other things that I’m doing. I only have so much time because, remember, I’m also running a small team. So this three or four hours on the phone is only time I have, so I try to cram as much as I can. And if I leave voicemail messages on there, it just eats up some of that other time.

Carley Hathaway12:22

Right. Okay. Good.

Bernie Gallerani12:25

I don’t think it’s a bad idea. I have done it in the past, I just don’t do it anymore.

Carley Hathaway12:31

Okay. Good. Good.

Ren Jones12:37

Let’s talk about accountability for a second, because I know that was a big piece in the beginning. Now I believe you do it still today at a higher level.

Bernie Gallerani12:47

As far as accountability?

Ren Jones12:48

Yeah, surrounding yourself with accountability so you do it on the days you don’t feel like it and you also take it to the next level and you create an intention for what you want to accomplish. What your thoughts on-

Bernie Gallerani12:59

Well, I think as my skill developed, Ren, and I became financially more independent, I think I looked at my life and said that the habits that I’ve had in the past are the results that I have created for myself, and that I had to change a pattern within myself in order to create the results that I had as on my dream boards and the things that I’ve written down on the goals I wanted to achieve.

13:29I’ve allowed myself to hang out with very accountable people, people doing more business than I am. Mike says this a lot, Ferry, and I’ve heard at other places, and you are the sum of your five closest friends. I heard one the other day, it says you’re the sum of the five people you hang out the most. And so, I wanted to hang out with really high producing people. So immediately at these events that I went to through MFO, here I was selling 40, 50 homes, and I was trying to attach myself to people that were selling two or 300 and having them talk to me about their income and how much they made and being a part of their life and going to their house and driving in their cars.

14:13I’ll never forget an agent that I met that I went and shadowed my first year in the business. He picks me up in his $200,000 Bentley and takes me to his 16,000 square foot house on the water and just seeing the lifestyle that this particular person had. I looked at this and went, “If this guy can have it, I can have it.”

Carley Hathaway14:31

Yes.

Bernie Gallerani14:32

So I was very driven to be a successful as I possibly can. Today, my goals are huge. I don’t even know how it’s all going to happen, but I see myself at a $10 million personal income a year. People are like, “Well, how are you going to get there?” Doesn’t matter. It’s a matter of creating the discipline, hanging around with the right people, and that path will eventually show up. So yes, I think I’m driven enough that I look for the accountability so I can put down those pavers so I can walk that path to be successful.

Ren Jones15:05

Your closest friends are really just the people you started to shadow in the very beginning. You shadowed them, you became friends, and literal friends. And then, of course, you have to travel around to see them, but hey-

Bernie Gallerani15:19

You know what’s interesting? When I was selling 50 homes a year, I’d go see people selling 150 and 200. I remember just being totally blown away by not only the income, but also the success that these people had, the mindset, the attitude. This year I’ll close nearly 400 properties, and I look at that going, “Man, how much more can my life be? How much greater can my company be?” And so, once you reach the milestone of catching the person that you’re idolizing, you then have to find somebody else to go idolize. And you get to a point where you start working past, who do you go catch now? Who do you go see now? Who do you go talk to now? I heard Les Brown say, “Try to focus on being on the top because the bottom is overcrowded.” As you start to climb up, you’re like, “Okay, now who can I go hang out with?”

Ren Jones16:11

Plenty of room at the top, that’s for sure. I remember one time I went down to visit him. We met for a quick bite to eat, and he had been on three listing appointments earlier, maybe 20, 30 minute, three of those, and then he had a bite to eat with me and he was going on his fourth appointment for the day.

Carley Hathaway16:29

Nice.

Ren Jones16:30

I think he had taken a couple of them. How long is your listing presentation?

Bernie Gallerani16:37

As long as I choose to stay there, and I mean that honestly. If I’m enjoying the conversation, and some people I just really enjoy talking with, it can be as much as an hour between looking at the property, getting the contract signed, and then talking to them. Yesterday, I went and took a listing. The house was dirty, the conversation that I had really wasn’t all that stimulating. I was in and out of there in 30 minutes, by the time I left. The great thing about being a Mike Ferry agent is, when you know what to say, how to handle objections, create the length in what you want, and if you have enjoyment in the people you are around, you can make it a little longer if you want to. Another thing, Ren, is it depends on what I have after that. I mean, if I have a 14:00 and a 15:00 or 14:00 and a 15:30, depending on what my drive time is, I got to get in, get out, and move on.

Ren Jones17:34

Well, I mean, who goes on, has four listing appointments and dinner with somebody.

Carley Hathaway17:40

That’s right. Do you-

Bernie Gallerani17:44

Listing’s the name of the game, right?

Carley Hathaway17:44

Yeah.

Bernie Gallerani17:45

I mean, that’s all I do, I don’t have to really do anything else.

Carley Hathaway17:48

What’s your percentage of closing at the listing appointments?

Bernie Gallerani17:51

90%.

Carley Hathaway17:52

90%. So that means you’re pre-qualifying people.

Bernie Gallerani17:56

I cancel about 50%… Well, let me back up. I used to cancel about 50% of the people I’d set appointments on. Now I’m probably canceling about 20%. Here’s why. I’m doing a better job while I’m prospecting to not set appointments with those particular people. When I first started out the first four or five, six years, this stuff takes time, and training some agents on my team, I can see they’re same pattern they would run too. And that is, “Hey, I set this appointment.” I’m like, “Great. Did you pre-qualify yet?” They’re like, “No.” And then they’ll go to pre-qualify and they’re like, “Ah, gosh, I’m not going to go because of this.” Well, those are things that I typically found while I was talking with them.

Carley Hathaway18:39

Right. What are a few things or simple questions you can ask to pre-qual people?

Bernie Gallerani18:44

For example, if somebody says to me, “Hey, I really want to sell the property for 500,000, I’m not taking a dime more.” Well, we know that the property just expired at 500,000. We find out why they’re moving, so what’s the importance about moving, and what’s important about the 500,000? “Well, I need that money to put down on the house.” “Excellent. If you don’t mind me asking, how much is your balance payoff on your mortgage?” “Oh, my balance payoff on my mortgage is 480 or 475.” You can’t help it, it’s a condition I can’t control. Do you understand?

Carley Hathaway19:14

Right. Yeah.

Bernie Gallerani19:15

So they want to have X amount of money put down. Now, if they say, “I want to have X amount of money to put down because I want 20% to put down.” But we’ll handle that objection. Maybe they would consider putting 10% down, allowing that opportunity to move, showing them an advantage of moving into the new home and making that up in an equity position where they might be focused on 20%, but we might be able to make it happen another way.

19:36Maybe one of my agents is just saying, “Hey, if you’ll let me come over at 16:00 or come over at 16:00.” With all that being said, I think it’s important to listen to the client, really, really listen to the client. And when you’ve been doing it for 13 years, I mean, I’ve sold well over 2,000 properties in the last 12 and a half, 13 years, so when you sell that much, you start to learn what they’re saying is truthful or if they’re just saying what they’re saying because they want you to hear what they’re saying. As a skilled salesperson, you start to learn that you’re reading through their BS.

Carley Hathaway20:10

Mm-hmm. Completely. I totally agree. Do you send a listing package before?

Bernie Gallerani20:17

I send them a listing contract, and I send them a listing package, but I do not send the comparables. I personally don’t do that. I’m not saying you shouldn’t. I just haven’t done that in probably 10 years, and it has worked out in my favor pretty well.

Carley Hathaway20:36

Okay. Good. Good.

Bernie Gallerani20:38

I guess what I would say to your listeners is this: it’s never a bad thing to send it out. It’s never a bad thing not to send it out. I think it’s going to be a personal preference with whatever they want to do. If you don’t mind, I’d like to explain why I don’t.

Carley Hathaway20:51

Okay.

Ren Jones20:51

Please.

Bernie Gallerani20:54

I used to send it out the first couple years that I had it, and I would get a lot of people that would call me and cancel the appointment. They’d talk to my assistant, and then I couldn’t get them back on the phone because they didn’t like my price and they didn’t like my $500 broker fee that I charged. They would call and cancel. Well, then I would call to try to get the appointment back. My assistant couldn’t handle it the right way. So then I’d get back, and I would lose opportunities to get in front of people. What I thought was, “I’ll get there and be able to handle that personal objection myself.” And so again, not saying it’s the wrong way or the right way, I’m just saying that’s the way I’ve done it because it’s given me an opportunity to actually present, handle the objection at the table. Again, my percentages are all still really strong at closing, so it still works.

Carley Hathaway21:38

Good. Good.

Ren Jones21:41

And now you build up all this great past client business, that’s fantastic. How do you stay in touch with them?

Bernie Gallerani21:47

It’s getting more difficult right now. I got to be totally truthful with you. With the time that I have, it’s really tough. I have them on a 90-day follow-up. I have my A clients that I call every 30, my Bs that I call every 60, and my Cs that I call every 90.

Ren Jones22:00

Gotcha.

Bernie Gallerani22:01

I also do mail outs four times a year-

Ren Jones22:06

Good.

Bernie Gallerani22:06

… to those people. But it’s getting challenging though, I got to tell you. With the time that I have to stay on top of them, there’s lots of my C clients that, I hate to say it this way, that are not getting the calls they desire or they deserve. My As are getting called, my Bs pretty much getting called, my Cs are floundering because of my effort. What I’m going to do is I’m going to hire an inside assistance, a telemarketer person that works for my team. I’ll have them make probably a majority of those calls for me other than my A clients because it’s getting difficult.

Carley Hathaway22:39

Yeah, that’s good. So you’re super busy right now. Do you work with buyers? Do you have time to work with them, or how do you handle that?

Bernie Gallerani22:50

The last buyer I worked with was three years ago, and then I hadn’t worked a buyer for five or six years before that.

Carley Hathaway22:58

Good for you.

Bernie Gallerani22:59

The real question is, why did I work with this person three years ago?

Carley Hathaway23:03

Yeah.

Bernie Gallerani23:03

They were-

Ren Jones23:04

They walked into your open house, right?

Bernie Gallerani23:06

Well, no, I don’t do those either. They were a celebrity client. It actually came from a referral from Mike Ferry.

Ren Jones23:17

Oh yeah.

Bernie Gallerani23:17

They were a celebrity client. They moved here and they wanted to just work with the agent. Ren, you’ll love this one. We had one or two conversations on the phone. They flew in, they said, “I want to see this particular property.” I picked them up at the airport, we took them to that particular property. They wrote a contract on the property. We went to lunch, we went to dinner, had some drinks, and I took them back and they jumped on a plane and took off. So it was a full day of fun, a little bit of house, and it worked out really well in my favor because I sold them the property.

Carley Hathaway23:51

Nice.

Ren Jones23:52

Fantastic. That is great. We should practice a couple scripts. I mean, I’ve listened to you on the phone before, and it’s a lot of fun. You hang in there with them if you should, and you let them go fast if you should. Want to do a little expireds?

Bernie Gallerani24:06

Sure.

Ren Jones24:06

Yeah. Good, good. You want to call Carley?

Bernie Gallerani24:07

Sure. What is Carley? Is Carley an expired?

Ren Jones24:09

Yeah.

Carley Hathaway24:10

I’m expired.

Ren Jones24:16

Yeah. Yeah.

Bernie Gallerani24:18

Okay. Before I do this, because you understand-

Carley Hathaway24:22

Oh-oh.

Bernie Gallerani24:22

… I’d probably go for a regular for me? Or do you want me to go through the script because there are going to be two ways I typically approach it? I very rarely get all the way through the script. I usually get about halfway through it. So-

Ren Jones24:37

And then what happens? Oh, and then you’re in a-

Bernie Gallerani24:40

I set the appointment.

Ren Jones24:41

Okay, you just go ahead and set the appointment. Gotcha. Well, if you’re that dog gone good, let’s do a half of an-

Carley Hathaway24:46

I don’t want to hear it.

Bernie Gallerani24:48

Well, okay, well, let’s just see how Carley responds. Let’s do that.

Ren Jones24:52

Yeah, here we go.

Bernie Gallerani24:52

Well, I don’t want your listeners to go, “Well, crap, this guy does this every time, I wouldn’t listen with him.” But they do, so bear with me. Ring, ring.

Ren Jones25:00

It different.

Carley Hathaway25:00

Hello?

Bernie Gallerani25:01

Hello. I’m looking for Carley.

Carley Hathaway25:03

Speaking.

Bernie Gallerani25:04

Carley, my name is Bernie Gallerani. I’m actually a real estate broker here with Remax, and I was reaching out to you. I’m sure you’re aware that your property has just expired off our MLS system today.

Carley Hathaway25:13

Yeah, I realized that. And honestly, you’re like the fourth person that’s called, and I’m over it.

Bernie Gallerani25:19

Yeah, I’m sure you are, right?

Carley Hathaway25:21

Stop calling, yeah.

Bernie Gallerani25:22

Probably wondering where all those agents were while your home was on the market, right?

Carley Hathaway25:25

Yeah, pretty much.

Bernie Gallerani25:26

Good for you, Carley, I’m curious, how much time are you planning on taking before you consider hiring the right agent for that job of getting your property sold?

Carley Hathaway25:36

I don’t know. I’m just frustrated with the whole process at this point.

Bernie Gallerani25:39

Yeah. And rightfully so. I mean, you should be. As beautiful as the house looks, can I ask you where are you planning on moving when the home sells?

Carley Hathaway25:47

Moving to New York.

Bernie Gallerani25:49

New York. Wow, that’s exciting. What’s taking you out that area?

Carley Hathaway25:51

Work.

Bernie Gallerani25:53

Work?

Carley Hathaway25:54

Yeah.

Bernie Gallerani25:55

Wow. Great. Is it job promotion?

Carley Hathaway25:57

Yes, it is.

Bernie Gallerani25:58

Congratulations.

Carley Hathaway25:59

Thank you.

Bernie Gallerani26:00

Carley, quick question for you. I’m looking at this great property, it’s been on the market for 173 days. I’m just curious, what is stopping your home from selling?

Carley Hathaway26:10

I honestly don’t know. It’s a lovely home. I think it’s priced right. I really don’t get it. It’s just concerning, and it sucks, to be honest.

Bernie Gallerani26:20

Well, I don’t blame you at all. I mean, 173 days in the greatest real estate market we’ve seen is like an eternity, isn’t it?

Carley Hathaway26:26

Yeah, it really is.

Bernie Gallerani26:27

So, Carley, quick question before I let you go. Are you planning on selling the property if you had a buyer for it, or you’re just going to throw in the towel altogether?

Carley Hathaway26:34

No, I mean, I want to sell it. I don’t want to rent it out, I don’t want to deal with anything like that, but I don’t know, I’m just frustrated with agents that just can’t get it done.

Bernie Gallerani26:43

Well, that’s the reason why I’m actually calling you, Carley, because I wanted to reach out and ask you this question and then set an appointment to come see you. If you knew that with the right marketing plan and exposure you could drive the buyers in that you need, get the money that you need out of the sale and have all that happen in the next four to six weeks, would you want to hear how we can make that happen?

Carley Hathaway27:02

Well, yeah, but what’s different about you than the other agents I’ve worked with? You guys all say the same thing.

Bernie Gallerani27:07

Well, I appreciate you saying that. I can’t comment on what the other agents have done because I didn’t know what they do or don’t do to sell homes. What I can say, though, is your agent that has listed your property over the last 173 days has left the door wide open for great agents just like myself to give you a call. Here’s a question, if you knew I could sell it, I could take 20 minutes and walk you through that path and show you exactly what I’ve done to already sell 311 homes this year just like yours, would you give 20 minutes so we could figure out how to get that household for you?

Carley Hathaway27:41

I suppose I can do that.

Bernie Gallerani27:42

Great. I have sometimes around 16:00, or is 18:30 better for you?

Carley Hathaway27:45

16:00.

Bernie Gallerani27:48

Awesome. I’ll see you then at 16:00, and I look forward to seeing you then.

Ren Jones27:50

Good deal.

Carley Hathaway27:50

Yay.

Ren Jones27:52

Good job, Carley, you got him all the way through the script. That works. Peggy Bruce wants to know, you mentioned a $500 broker fee.

Bernie Gallerani28:02

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I charge $495 for broker fee. That’s on every buyer and every seller pays that $495 on our transactions. If you’re a buyer on our transactions, that’s typically paid through closing costs from the seller, so the buyer asks for that. And on the listing side, it’s a marketing fee that we charge the seller.

Ren Jones28:25

Just a little more commission. Leslie Vargas says, “Was that a Tom Ferry script?”

Bernie Gallerani28:30

No, that’s a Mike Ferry script, the original.

Ren Jones28:32

Okay. All right. Well, it’s all in the family. There you go.

Bernie Gallerani28:37

Anything that is original sales scripts on the phone coming from the original man Mike Ferry.

Carley Hathaway28:41

Okay.

Ren Jones28:42

Chris Camacho says, “Do you pre-qualify right after setting the appointment, or do you have someone from your staff call to pre-qualify?”

Bernie Gallerani28:49

Good question. I do a lot of pre-qualifying when I’m setting the appointment. One thing Carley said just now is I knew she was moving to New York, right?

Ren Jones28:57

Mm-hmm.

Bernie Gallerani28:59

Now, if I was concerned about her value or her price, I would’ve asked her right there. But I will pre-qualify them after I pull the comparables just so I have better knowledge of the price that is the actual price. And then I asked her what she owes on it for reality. The great thing about Carley was her motivation was so high. She has a job. She’s going there for a job transfer. She wants to be there. Had you not lay down on me there, Carley, and made it more difficult for me, I’d have went into the motivation of that.

Carley Hathaway29:29

Okay.

Bernie Gallerani29:31

Does that make sense?

Carley Hathaway29:31

Yeah.

Bernie Gallerani29:31

So she gave me an appointment, and so because she gave me the appointment, I could go in just for the close. But had you not, I would’ve gone on to talking a little bit about you moving, about your motivation, about your job more. I would have hit those hot points. I do pre-qualify about 70% of the time on a second phone call.

Ren Jones29:52

Gotcha. All right. Fantastic.

Bernie Gallerani29:54

If it’s a call-in, if it’s a, “Come list me, client center influence,” someone that calls me from other things I’m doing, my assistant does all that pre-qualifying work.

Ren Jones30:04

Okay. So one of your past clients here, they call in and they take them through that.

Bernie Gallerani30:10

If it’s a sign call of any level, something that comes in, let’s say they say, “I see Bernie signs all around town,” anything like that, she says, “Great. Bernie’s has available tomorrow at 16:00.” “Excellent.” “Bernie wants me to ask you a couple quick questions so he’s better prepared for that appointment. Can I ask you those now?” She runs down those particular questions and hands it to me with the comparables already done. I then look at it, make a decision whether I’m concerned about it or not, I’ll call them. If I’m not concerned and everything lines up, I still call them, confirm the appointment for tomorrow at 16:00, and then I go out.

Ren Jones30:44

Perfect. Questions, folks, come on, questions. Where are those questions? That’s strange. Okay, “Your script on the point. How long before it rolled off your tongue like that?” How long did it take to internalize scripts?

Bernie Gallerani30:58

Well, I’m a believer in writing. I’m a writing person, so I probably hand-wrote that script, I’m going to say the expired script, I don’t know, 500 times maybe, hand-wrote it. The first time I was in coaching, my coach did the script, and he did it like this, he went, “When he sells the home, where are you moving? How soon need to be there? What do you think stopped your home from selling? You listed the home, but what are the things you liked best? What do you feel they should have done? What do you expect for the next day? If you choose, I’d like the opportunity to apply for the job and get your home sold. Are you familiar with the techniques that I used to sell homes? You’re kidding, what’s a good time to show you? Monday, Tuesday at 16:00.” When I heard that, I’m like, “Holy crap, how did you do that?” He goes, “Hand-write your scripts, record it, listen to it.” So I did that for about the first two years on every Mike Ferry script I could.

Ren Jones31:51

Perfect. You chanted them, you wrote them, you internalized them over and over and over and over and over. Lot of practice.

Bernie Gallerani31:57

Listing presentation pitch. Here’s what I did on the listing presentation, I’ve done this twice, Ren, I had accountability partner with a Mike Ferry agent up in Colorado. We wanted to get better on the listing presentation, so we decided we were going to write it 90, the listing, Mike Ferry listing presentation, you know how long it is, right? It’s not long, but it’s not short. When you’re handwriting, it takes about 35, 40 minutes. We made an agreement that we would hand-write the listing presentation 90 straight times. We wrote each other a check for $5,000. We switched the checks in each other’s hands, and then we were going to see each other 90 days later, we had planned this whole thing out where we were going to meet again.

32:37And we did, and we handed each other’s books with the dates in them, and we had hand-wrote them. Now, I’ve done that twice. I did that with another agent in my office who wanted to get better listing presentation, and I said the same thing to her. We bet four grand that we could write it 60 times, and we did that. So I’ve actually done that twice over the 13 years in the business.

Ren Jones33:00

Wow. Wow, wow. I mean, what discipline, what accountability, what practice, and involving your accountability partners, that’s huge. That’s huge.

Bernie Gallerani33:10

But here’s my take on this deal. We get paid a lot of money to sell houses. I know your viewers can’t see this, but you see the grin on my face right now. We get paid a lot of money. They’re paying us to be a professional. They’re paying us to show up looking professional. They’re paying us to give them the right information. And I think that unless it’s natural and unless you can really talk to them… I’m a believer you can’t really listen to them unless you know the scripts internally, because you’re so focused on what you are going to say, you’re not paying attention to what they’re saying. Because of the amount of income we earn in this business, I knew that the more time I spent doing this, the more money I would ultimately end up making. That’s why I’m a believer in internalizing it all and just becoming better and better each day no matter where you’re at and how long you’ve been in the business.

Carley Hathaway34:07

That’s great. That’s a really good attitude to have too. I think people really appreciate the professionalism.

Ren Jones34:12

Yeah. You talked about dressing professionally, so you put a little bit of effort into that too.

Bernie Gallerani34:18

Yeah, I mean, one of my coaches said to me, we were visualizing what a millionaire real estate agent looks like, and he did this little close-your-eyes visualization. He asked me what I thought was a successful real estate agent, I said, “A million dollars.” “What kind of car do they drive? What kind of clothes do they wear? What kind of office do they work in? How do their staff treat them? What kind of home do they have? What’s the furnishings of the home?” So we went through this 20-minute detailed visualization of what my perception of a millionaire real estate agent was.

34:56And then after I was done with this visualization, he asked me, he goes, “Okay, let me ask you a very important question. Is that real estate agent you today?” I said, “Well, no, it’s my mind that’s thinking this is what’s a successful person, but no, I’m not there, right?”

Carley Hathaway35:14

Yeah.

Bernie Gallerani35:14

He says, “You’ll never be there if you don’t adapt that that’s who you are today.”

Carley Hathaway35:22

Oh, that’s cool.

Bernie Gallerani35:23

I went, “Wow, that’s pretty cool.” I then went and made changes. I bought all custom suits. I bought a new car. I had my car washed every day. I bought like a car wash ticket, washed my car every day. So I just-

Ren Jones35:34

And you moved into a new home.

Bernie Gallerani35:35

I moved into a new home. I bought a really nice home. What’s interesting is my first year I made a couple hundred grand, which was pretty good in my business I guess, but today I’ll make $3 million, and I’ve surpassed this idea of what I thought a successful agent is. And even today, where I’m in financially, I look at it and go, “Man, I haven’t even come close to the visualizations of the things that I see today as a successful business owner.

Ren Jones36:06

What is a $10 million a year real estate agent look like?

Bernie Gallerani36:17

Here’s my thing, as Mike Ferry always says, “You got to visualize private jets and beautiful cars and nice vacations and all those things.” I realize, “Well, wait a minute, I need more than a couple million bucks to have this kind of lifestyle.” Now my mind’s going, “Well, if I really want to achieve the great things, the retirement portfolio that I want to have… ” I don’t want to retire on 300K a year, I want to retire on a million dollars a year. I want my retirement to be like I live my life today.

Carley Hathaway36:46

Right.

Ren Jones36:47

Yeah.

Bernie Gallerani36:49

And I love my work, so now what I focus on mainly, Ren, is I can have whatever I choose to have. There isn’t anything that is in my way but myself. I have this great thing, it’s on my computer, I’ll show you, it’s cool, right here, change or die. Change or die, right? I love this one right here, these are all hanging out my thing, struggle is perfection in progress.

Carley Hathaway37:19

Nice.

Ren Jones37:19

Wow. Wow, wow. I like that one too.

Carley Hathaway37:23

Yeah, that’s a good one.

Ren Jones37:24

This is so exciting. I can’t wait for this to be over so I can play it over and over again. It’s getting exciting.

Carley Hathaway37:30

Very inspiring, for sure.

Ren Jones37:31

It’s very inspiring.

Bernie Gallerani37:34

I mean, I’ve got some crazy… Look at this one, hold on. I’ve got this one, this one hangs in my office. See this right here? This is a $20 bill.

Ren Jones37:42

I have seen that. I know what that is. I know what that is.

Carley Hathaway37:45

What is that?

Bernie Gallerani37:45

This one I probably-

Ren Jones37:47

Tell them the story. Tell the story.

Bernie Gallerani37:49

So the story behind this is my coach told me to kept to rip up a $20 bill. I’m like, “I’m not going to rip a $20 bill.” He’s like, “Rip up a $20 bill.” I said, “Tell me why.” He said, “Do you trust me?” I said, “Well, I’m not ripping up a $20 bill, so I guess not.”

38:04This went on for months, and he kept saying, “Rip this $20?” “No, no, no.” “Do it.” So I finally ripped it up, I took a picture of it, and I sent it to him. I’m like, “Here’s my $20 bill. Now what?” He says, “Okay, we’re going to work on your income.” Now remember, this is a few years back. He says, “This is what I want you to write down. I want to write down how much money you make per minute. I’m like, “Whoa. Okay, this is interesting.” Because you have no idea how much time you waste with all the crap you do because you don’t take every minute seriously that you’re working. I’m like, “Okay, this is interesting,” so here’s what I wrote, “Is what I’m about to do for the next hour going to get me to another listing appointment? If not, should I be doing it? I make $850 per hour. That’s $14 per minute. Is this activity worth it?” So here’s the question, somebody knocks on my door and they say, “Hey, I want to talk to you,” and it’s during my prospecting time, every minute it costs me $14 to hear this conversation.

Carley Hathaway39:00

Oh, interesting.

Bernie Gallerani39:03

Now, that number’s considerably larger today because my income has grown so dramatically. What I would say to you now is, when somebody pulls me aside, I make so much per hour that if I am not doing the job that is in my schedule to do, that has to be more important than making, let’s say, $25 a minute. Does that make sense?

Carley Hathaway39:27

Yeah. So a lot of times you’re not going to have that conversation.

Bernie Gallerani39:30

That little baggie that I just showed you sits right next to my door in my office. My door’s always closed. It always sits at my door, so when I walk out I have to pass that baggie on the door.

Ren Jones39:42

I’ve passed that one. I’m like, “What the hell’s going on here?”

Bernie Gallerani39:46

You’ve seen the baggie, right? You’ve seen the baggie.

Ren Jones39:50

Yes. If they want to have a life that’s moving in the direction that yours did, what’s the next step for them? Where do they go? Where do they go?

Bernie Gallerani40:01

So here’s what I would do, I’d like to go a different direction. And by the way, I moved my listening appointment to later so I’ve got a little more time for you.

Ren Jones40:07

Okay, good.

Bernie Gallerani40:08

All right, so here’s what I would say to you, to all people that are listening, you have to have a goal that’s strong enough to get you past your bad habits. Because we all have habits, but are the habits getting us to the goals that we’re setting for ourself? These habits have been ingrained in us for so long because it’s how we’ve been behaving that you have to identify that that’s a bad habit and that you’re going to work on making that habit better. It’s not going to lay down for you. It’s not all of a sudden just going to go away. It’s something you’re going to have to conquer in time. How you conquer that in time is develop a goal that you want to achieve. It might be a smaller goal, might be a bigger goal, that’ll be completely up to your listeners.

40:49The goal has to be deliberate on time, because as you well know, if you have a goal that doesn’t have an end date, it’s nothing but a dream. So you have to have an end date in mind. It might be, “I want to list two properties this week.” It might be, “I want to list two properties this month.” It might be, “I want to list 30 properties this year.” Whatever it is, it doesn’t matter, but focus on that goal.

41:10Number two, control the controllables. This is one of the most important things I actually learned from one of my daughters who was in college. She shared this with me, I thought it was really powerful. As an agent, I used to say, “I’m going to get three listing appointments. I’m going to get three listing appointments. I’m going to get three listing appointments.” And then if I wouldn’t get three listing appointments, I’d go, “Crap, I didn’t do my job. I didn’t I get three listing appointments.” My daughter actually said to me one day, she was in college, probably a sophomore, junior in college, and she says, “Why don’t you work on the controllables instead of focusing on the things you can’t control?” I’m like, “Well, tell me what that means.” She says, “You can control what time you get up. You can control what time you’re going to go to the gym, if you’re going to go to the gym. You can control what time you’re going to show up to the office. You can control how long you’re going to prospect. You can almost control the people you talk to. If you want to call 30 people and it doesn’t happen in three hours, you might have to put four hours in. But you can actually control that. “You can’t control how many people are going to list with you. You can only control how many people you’re going to talk to.”

42:13Now, this is powerful, right?

Carley Hathaway42:15

Very.

Bernie Gallerani42:16

I’m realizing, okay, well, my goal no longer is how many listings can I take? What I’m going to do is I’m going to back out how many contacts I have to make in order to take five listings a week. And then I’m going to dedicate that time to that number. If I dedicate that time, then the listings will come. And if they don’t show up, here’s my win. You got to count your little wins every day. So if I show up at the office at seven o’clock, I just won. If I get on the phones at 7:45, I just won. If I make 30 contacts today, I just won. If I do the things that I can control and I win, the listings will always show up. So that is how I’ve lived my life the last few years, which by the way, has exploded by business. So control the controllables. That’s the key thing, control the controllables.

43:04As far as the goals go, find things that excite you. About three or four years in the business, I was feeling like I knew it all. I was tired of prospecting. I wanted to make a lot of money but didn’t want to work that hard for it, right?

Ren Jones43:23

Mm-hmm.

Bernie Gallerani43:23

How do I become a millionaire and not have to prospect on the phone all day long? It’s one of those conversations. I actually had considered getting out of coaching, a lot of people don’t know that. Not only had I not decided to get out of coaching, but I started creating an ally for other people that believed like I believed. I was the ringleader saying, “God, aren’t you tired of this crap? Aren’t you tired of doing this all the time?”

43:46And so, one day I stuck in an audio tape, Mike Ferry was talking on this audio tape, and it talked about this same issue, about how your mind will prevent you from being successful based on all the ways that you typically think and that you have to keep conditioning yourself. You need to get bigger, more desirable goals. So I cut out a picture of an Aston Martin because at that particular time I wanted an Aston Martin. So I cut a picture and I put it on my dream board. I looked at that thing for about four days, and I pondered this Aston Martin. “Do I want to work that hard to have it? Why is it important to me?” I started thinking about the $200,000 car that I wanted to buy. I thought, “The only difference between me and me sitting in that car is the crap that keeps going on in my head. If I can remove that crap out of my head, I’ll have that car.”

44:44So I made a decision that day that I was the problem. From that, my business took off. Of course, I love cars. I never even actually bought that Aston Martin, I ended up buying a Panamera. I drive-

Carley Hathaway44:54

Nice.

Bernie Gallerani44:57

… a Mercedes and all sorts of other things, and I just bought a Range Rover and stuff like that. But my point is that I realized that all of the issues I had in my desire to grow were all in my behavioral problems. Then success created an issue where, “Gosh, I’m making a half a million bucks a year. How much more do I really want? How much more do I need? Why don’t I sit back and throw my feet up and just enjoy my life?” And so, well, that’s not going to get me to a million bucks. I mean, these are things that loser say, in my opinion.

Ren Jones45:29

I know. And you make a lot of money now, and I know you enjoy your life. I see it.

Bernie Gallerani45:33

Oh, I have a great life now. Actually, it’s interesting, is I make a lot more money than I used to, and I don’t work really any more time.

Ren Jones45:40

True.

Bernie Gallerani45:41

Well, I got my mind right, my balance right, my focus right, my energy level was right, my attitude is right. And so, I’m working on, what I tell myself every day, is total domination. And that is, unless I own total domination in my marketplace… This is my mindset, no, this is not an ego statement… But unless I have total domination… My wife said to me on something we’re working on, she goes, “I don’t understand, when is enough enough?” Here’s what I said, “The dream was given to me.” I don’t expect her to see it because the dream wasn’t given to her. The vision was given to me, and in my vision it’s, why can’t I make $10 million a year? I’m not working any harder to make three. I worked harder to make two than I do to make three. In other words, 200,000-

Ren Jones46:42

I’ve seen that so much. There’s a direct correlation between the more you sell, the less you work, in some ways.

Bernie Gallerani46:48

No-

Ren Jones46:48

Once you get there.

Bernie Gallerani46:52

I work at least 25% less now selling almost 400 houses than I did selling 50, because I was starting, I was launching, I was getting off the launchpad. People will tell you, rockets, when they go in the air, they burn 70% of their fuel getting off the launch pad. Once they get into a different altitude, the rocket soars at a faster speed with a lot less fuel needed. That’s what’s happening right now, is when we have increases on our team, we’re increasing by 50, 75 transactions a year. We’re not trying to do 10 more deals. Do you follow what I’m saying?

Ren Jones47:30

I know.

Bernie Gallerani47:30

It’s critical mass is starting to build, and it’s starting to show up. And so, I want to inspire just to this question is this, everybody can have everything they ever want, but it’s not going to show up without you getting kicked in the face, frustrated, angry. I love… What’s his face? Steve Harvey has his video out, and he talks about you’re never going to soar until you jump. And when you jump, sometimes a parachute doesn’t open when you want to. And sometimes you’re going to get hit by rocks and beat up and kicked in, but eventually it’ll open and then you’ll soar. Your goal has to be strong enough that no matter how bad you think it is, it’s what… Look at it, I said right here, struggle… See that? Can you see it? It says struggle is perfection in progress.

Ren Jones48:30

I love it. I love that. Love that.

Bernie Gallerani48:32

Without the struggle, you can’t have the success. It’s impossible. It will not happen.

Ren Jones48:36

It’s all right here, all between those ears, and what’s going on in our head. Like you said, you had all this crap you had to get out. And the more linear you get and the higher you get, once you’re there, once you’re there, you never go back down unless you’re not paying attention.

Bernie Gallerani48:54

What’s interesting is I remember thinking about the millionaire real estate agent, got to that point, and then I remember thinking about how to make 3 million bucks, then I got to that point, right?

Ren Jones49:08

Yeah.

Bernie Gallerani49:09

I’m not at that point today. And then I look I’m going, “How do I make 10 million bucks?” Now, to me, 10 million today seems so far from where I am. It was a lot farther when I was at 200 to think of 10 million.

Ren Jones49:20

Well, Bernie, you could just do it in volume.

Bernie Gallerani49:25

It’s all volume. It’s all in helping other people grow now, right?

Carley Hathaway49:27

Yeah.

Bernie Gallerani49:28

It’s leveraging our talent to help other people see what it is I was able to see and then coach them through that. That’s the key to it.

Ren Jones49:36

Good. Good, good, good. Well, if you want to see Bernie, you go to a lot of events. You’ll be at Mike Ferry’s event in January, right? Production retreat in San Diego in January. Good.

Carley Hathaway49:48

My hometown.

Ren Jones49:49

There you go.

Carley Hathaway49:50

So I’m going to hang out with you.

Bernie Gallerani49:51

Yeah. You’re spoiled, San Diego.

Carley Hathaway49:53

I am very spoiled.

Ren Jones49:55

Especially in January they’re spoiled.

Carley Hathaway49:57

Yeah.

Bernie Gallerani49:58

Well, if you want any cold weather, you just come up here to Tennessee; it’s nice and cold up here.

Carley Hathaway50:02

I don’t even think I have the right clothes for that kind of weather.

Ren Jones50:07

This is such a treat. I know I’m going to play this over and over and over for the mindset piece because it really is what drives everything.

Carley Hathaway50:13

It’s very inspirational.

Ren Jones50:15

It’s unshakable belief and your willingness to be beat up a little bit to get to that next level. And once you’re there, wow, it’s huge. I got to do a couple commercials. I want to thank the people that let us simulcast as well. This goes out over the Vulcan 7 Network and all of our subscribers. It also goes out on a simulcast right now over the Facebook group called LeadGen. For those of you that join that, they have 40,000 people, and they just talk about lead generation. That’s facebook.com/groups/gotobjections. Aaron runs a program called Expired Mastery Elite. Anyway, we’re glad you’re here. Catch up with Bernie. He does mike Ferry, get involved with that, mikeferry.com. I want to thank everybody for being here today. It’s been a real treat. Gosh, I-

Bernie Gallerani51:12

Can I read one more thing before we hang up?

Ren Jones51:14

Please.

Bernie Gallerani51:14

I thought this was awesome. I actually took a picture of this. I was listening to something on TV, and I thought this was cool. It says, “Somebody once told me the definition of hell. On your last day on earth, the person you become will meet the person you could have become.”

Carley Hathaway51:30

That’s good. And that would be hellish.

Ren Jones51:37

All righty. Thanks, everybody.

Bernie Gallerani51:38

That’s when you drop the mic and go, “I’m out.”

Carley Hathaway51:41

Just dropped it.

Ren Jones51:44

Oh.

Carley Hathaway51:44

Thank you, Bernie. I think everyone’s so inspired and so excited. You’ve been a really great guest. Thank you so much.

Ren Jones51:50

Do what Bernie does. After you spent four or five hours doing your lead generation prospecting and calling people, go have some nice, delicious Graeter’s mint chocolate chip.

Bernie Gallerani51:59

You brought me that when you came up one time.

Ren Jones52:02

There we go. I know, it’s the best.

Bernie Gallerani52:03

Is that the yogurt?

Ren Jones52:05

Pardon?

Bernie Gallerani52:05

Is that the yogurt?

Ren Jones52:07

No, is our local Graeter’s ice cream here, but you can buy it all over the country. You can buy it at Kroger’s in Nashville, mint chocolate chip. Go over to the Kroger’s in Nashville and get some.

Bernie Gallerani52:17

Well, you guys are the best. Thank you, Carley and Ren, for having me on.

Carley Hathaway52:20

Thank you so much, Bernie, we really appreciate it.

Bernie Gallerani52:22

Not a problem. Have a great day, guys. All right, bye-bye.

Ren Jones52:24

Thank you so much. Bye, Bernie, and bye to you, Carley Hathaway. We’ll see everybody next week with another exciting guest who’s taking 2, 3, 4 listings a week. See you then, everybody.

Carley Hathaway52:41

Bye, everybody. Thank you.

52:41