How Bryan Casella made his office top ten list in his first year in real estate

Ren Jones00:01

It’s that time. Welcome to Roadmap, how to take three listings a week until you’re ready for more. Each week we interview a great agent taking two, three, four listings a week, and we have an exciting guest today. We encourage you to take notes and apply as much of their knowledge as quickly as you can, and then use the copycat principle.

00:22If you’re watching on the Vulcan7 Network or the Lead Gen Facebook group, you’ll have an opportunity to ask questions during the broadcast. So get those questions in early, folks. Let me introduce my co-host from San Diego, Carley Hathaway. That’s carleyhathaway.com. Hi, Carley. How’s the real estate business?

Carley Hathaway00:42

Hi, Ren. Hi, everybody. Thanks for joining us. The real estate business is amazing. There’s not a lot on the market, places are moving really quickly, so it’s definitely a good time to be a listing agent.

Ren Jones00:54

You’ve got a beautiful home in San Diego, huh?

Carley Hathaway00:56

Yes. Lovely.

Ren Jones00:57

All right. But today we’re marketing all the area north of you.

Carley Hathaway01:02

Right.

Ren Jones01:03

But tomorrow’s another day.

Carley Hathaway01:05

Yes, it is.

Ren Jones01:06

So before we introduce our guest today, I want to remind everybody that we are also simulcasting the show on the private Lead Gen Group on Facebook. They have 48,000 members, so we have a large audience there today as well. And we’ll be pausing for a commercial message during the show as a thank you to the Lead Gen folks.

01:23Let me welcome our guest today from all over southern California, servicing Orange County, Irvine, areas around Los Angeles. If you think Southern California, call him, Bryan Casella. Welcome, Bryan.

Bryan Casella01:39

Ren, Carley, thank you for having me. It’s going to be a great show. I’m excited to be here. I think what you guys are doing is great. I love what you have to offer. I love Vulcan7. So let’s get into it.

Carley Hathaway01:49

Great. Thank you so much for being here.

Ren Jones01:51

I’m looking forward to this. I mean, here’s a guy doing the best of all, knocking them out, calling people, fearless, fearless, and doing a lot of video, and that’s why we brought Storyteller so all of our Vulcan7 people have that Storyteller video platform too. And we’re going to learn today all the ways that being bold in prospecting and doing a little bit of video, or a lot of video in their case, is setting the world on fire in southern California. So what’s it like? What’s the goal for this year in, say, units or GCI or both, to give people an idea how things are rolling there?

Bryan Casella02:33

Well, the goal this year for the team, Ren and Carley, is 75 units, and we want to see if we can hit anywhere from 1.2 to about 1.3 in GCI.

Ren Jones02:43

That’s a great GCI. That’s the nice thing about being in your area. You don’t have to do 300 transactions to get there.

Bryan Casella02:53

I know. I remember when I got my first check, I was like, whoa, I can’t believe I made this much money from one sale. It was incredible.

Carley Hathaway02:59

Yeah, it’s a great feeling.

Ren Jones03:00

Yeah. Good, good.

Carley Hathaway03:01

So you say you and your team, so what does your team consist of?

Bryan Casella03:05

My team right now consists of myself, three agents. I just got a new one. One of them is a dedicated buyer’s agent. The other two I’m actually training to be kind of hybrids, doing listings and buyers, because I’m in the transition to where I believe in the next 12 to 18 months, I’ll pretty much be out of it. And my team, I want it to be self-sustaining. As I do more video and other things outside of just real estate, I find myself being pulled more that way.

03:30So I really jumped onto the model that Gary Keller put out with the Millionaire Real Estate Agent. I thought that was interesting. And for me to get to that level, the initial period for me was a little bit more difficult because I’m such a perfectionist, like many of us. And I wanted everything done my way, or it’s the highway.

03:48And really getting the first person on the team, the part time admin. Then I brought my girlfriend on, Loida. It spiraled from there and it really blossomed. But the first step for me was so difficult because I didn’t trust anybody else. I said, I have to do everything. It has to be done my way. And that’s kind of where I’m going with that. And my team continues to grow. And I think the next step for me would be to get an agent who speaks Mandarin. There’s a huge Chinese market out here, and if I can tap into that, I really think my business would go up 25, 30% like overnight.

Ren Jones04:20

Wow.

Carley Hathaway04:22

So you don’t think you can learn Mandarin on your own? We’ll get you Rosetta Stone or something like that.

Bryan Casella04:25

Oh man, I wish I had the time. I really wish I had the time.

Carley Hathaway04:29

Yeah. So do you feel like bringing on the team and letting go of a little bit of the responsibility and trusting people has really catapulted your business?

Bryan Casella04:37

Absolutely. Because it’s more than just real estate. We have to do that in life, as well. You look at anybody who’s created a big brand, or a company like Apple, Amazon, you don’t see the CEO sweeping the floors and taking in customer service calls. And I think it’s something that we’re not taught. We’re brought up being taught that, okay, be a good employee. You have to do it on your own, work the nine to five. We’re not taught this kind of entrepreneurial business mindset.

05:04And when I read that book, it really opened, it’s like, whoa, I’m thinking about this completely the wrong way because I can do the same amount of money, but work half as much, spend more time doing what I really want to do and not be a slave to the job, which I believe a lot of people become.

Ren Jones05:19

So you’re getting this delegation thing figured out a little bit then, hence the leverage.

Bryan Casella05:25

Absolutely. Leverage, there we go. That’s the word.

Ren Jones05:28

So there are people that can do it as well as you. You’ve found them and you’ve got them in place.

Bryan Casella05:33

Yeah, absolutely. I truly believe that you may not find people who are exactly on your level, but if you can find people and build them up to right below you, I think it’s just as effective.

Ren Jones05:42

Perfect. You have a boldness about, one of the things … I mean, you have a mindset and a boldness around. You’re fearless. You and Loida both are fearless on calling expireds and for sale by owners. Tell me how you got that way, and I know that’s a huge big source of your business.

Bryan Casella06:03

Sure, absolutely. Well, initially when I got into the business, even in the pre-licensing portion, I started looking up stuff on YouTube. And of course at that time all I could find was Mike Ferry. So I started really watching his stuff, and I really vibe with Mike Ferry because we’re similar in the sense that we’re very blunt and we’re just straight to the point. And he said, “You know what? Roll your sleeves up. Stop being a little wuss and work. Start calling expireds, FSBO, start knocking on doors.”

06:29And for me it was, okay, I don’t know any better. This guy seems successful. I’m just going to follow what he preaches. And then the same company that I joined, that Century 21 in Downey, Century 21 and Better Service, Nelson, who was the vice president at the time and a pretty big producer, he kind of took me under his wing and he said the same thing. He said, “Dude, show up here. Be the first one to show up, last one to leave, make calls, and make it happen.”

06:51And through mentorship and studying other people who were already successful, it became apparent to me that that was the way to go to not only build skills, but to start feeding my pipeline quicker, sooner rather than later. And I started seeing some success with it, and it just blossomed from there once I started applying other systems and growing my database and that kind of stuff.

Ren Jones07:12

And I know how successful that’s been for you because I saw your Lamborghini a couple days ago, and that’s just one of, how many exotic cars do you have?

Bryan Casella07:22

Well, that’s the only exotic. Luckily for my wallet and my bank account, I like more cars that aren’t as expensive. But the Lamborghini was on my wall when I was a kid, and it was a great feeling to take that picture off the wall and look in the garage and see that I have that car.

Carley Hathaway07:36

Good for you. That’s amazing. That’s incredible.

Ren Jones07:39

It’s quite something. You wouldn’t have believed it, Carley. We went to, I got a little tour of their operation on Friday, and wow.

Carley Hathaway07:47

Nice.

Ren Jones07:48

What a car.

Carley Hathaway07:49

Oh, fun. Good for you. So you definitely built your business calling expired and calling for sale by owners. Is that what you’re teaching these new agents that you’re bringing on to be these kind of hybrid, like you said, listing buyers agents?

Bryan Casella08:02

All the training that I do for them is circled around those two things, calling and door knocking. I believe that’s the foundation that if a lot of agents went that route, they would build a skill set that would permeate through the rest of their business and their life. And I think people want to skip that. They want to go straight to doing Facebook leads and that kind of stuff, which is awesome. And we’re doing it now. I mean, just in the last month alone, I think we’ve gotten six or seven new buyers off Facebook, and two or three new listing leads like this.

08:30But when you get on that call or you meet with that person, if you don’t have the skill set, the know-how, the comfort, the confidence, your conversion rate’s going to be really, really low. And I really predominantly have them cold calling and door knocking at least three or four hours a day. And the changes I see in these agents three or four weeks later is just incredible. And I believe it’s unrivaled. You can’t get it any other way besides the nitty gritty, put in the work. But we live in an age with this, where everybody wants everything instantly, and I think that it’s kind of almost swept under the rug, where they feel like it’s not necessary. Just give me something quick, give me something quick.

Ren Jones09:06

Give us a flavor of the door knocking.

Bryan Casella09:08

I think it’s essential that you really make them do the work.

Ren Jones09:11

Give us a flavor of what door knocking is like because you’ve done it, you’ve got your team doing it. What does that look like? What are the components, and what would they experience? How many would they have to hit? What kind of things are said? What kind of results do you see? How does that build?

Bryan Casella09:27

Well, it’s something that you definitely have to do consistently, just like calling. What I love about the door knock is I get out of the office. I’m a high energy dude. So for me, it’s great to burn some calories and get out there and smile and shake some hands. What I believe is a mistake that a lot of people make is they think when they door knock that suddenly someone’s just going to be like, “Oh hey Bryan, thanks for showing up. I want to list my house. Come on in, and I’ll pay you 10% commission.”

09:48That’s not the way it works. Even if you’re door knocking expireds and for sale by owners, it’s still going to take time. Your conversion rate may be much lower than random doors. But my focus was always, yeah, I want the now business, but at the same time, I’m going to collect people’s information. And I was getting two, three, four, five, six, sometimes up to eight or nine phone numbers and emails every day. And I built this huge database.

Ren Jones10:10

Nice.

Bryan Casella10:12

Not only was I doing it with homeowners, I was actually going to businesses too and shooting little videos with them, and saying, “Hey Mr. business owner, I love your restaurant. I’ve been coming here for a year. Can I do a quick video and promote it to everybody that I know, and on my Facebook and YouTube about your business?” What realtor’s doing that? They’re like, “Oh, absolutely.”

10:29Then I would send them a link to the video, and they’re like forever indebted, like, “Oh my God, I had three people come in last week because of your video. This is awesome.” So my focus was not just the now business, but feeding my future pipeline. And I saw that explode after about a year to year and a half.

Carley Hathaway10:42

Nice.

Ren Jones10:43

So you’re really building the database along the way. That is great. And then how are you guys managing the database?

Bryan Casella10:51

Well, we use a combination of the Keller Williams eEdge system and we also have Constant Contact as well, that we also send emails with, which we’re doing weekly. We send an email every week.

Ren Jones11:02

Okay, so they’re getting an email every week, your database. They get an email every, what else do they get, video from you?

Bryan Casella11:07

Let’s see, we do, out of those four emails, one of them will be a video. So one of them will be a video email out of the four. They’re also getting, we have two teams, an A team and a B team. The A team, they get a phone call and text message every month. So we split that up every two weeks. The B team is quarterly, so every six weeks they’ll receive a call and then six weeks later a text. And we also do one mail branded piece a month.

Ren Jones11:33

Okay.

Carley Hathaway11:33

And these calls and emails and videos, what do they consist of?

Bryan Casella11:37

Well, the video’s usually either a market update, a video we did about a featured listing, or some kind of new information that we have, whether one program changed for lending or maybe a new seller’s program, something informative to kind of be a little bit different. Because I know a lot of the people that are sending emails, it’s the canned company email, which there’s nothing wrong with, I just feel like you have to throw in some variety, just to spike people’s attention, because they’re getting bombarded all the time. And for the texts as well, if we do 12 texts a year to that A team, half of them are actually a video text.

Carley Hathaway12:11

Oh, cool. Okay.

Bryan Casella12:12

Yeah, so we alternate, regular text, video text, regular text, video text. It’s really cool.

Ren Jones12:16

Awesome.

Carley Hathaway12:17

So let me ask you this. So you’re doing that, your team’s doing the door knocking and you’re doing the calls. Are you guys on a regimented schedule, like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesdays you’re doing this? Or can you walk us through what your daily and weekly routine looks like?

Bryan Casella12:30

Absolutely. Yeah. So what I’ll do most of the time is I’ll have Loida on my team call the expireds and FSBOs right in the morning. The rest of my team in the morning, they’re door knocking. And then after that initial three hour period, we’ll switch. In the afternoon, we’ll be on the doors and then the two other agents will be on the phones in the afternoon.

12:49So there’s a time block of three hours in the morning, basically from 8:30 to 11:30 that we hit this. And then in the afternoon, again from about 3:30 to about 5:30, 6:00. So we have two portion regimented segments where we do prospect. And then in the middle, usually from about 12:30 to 2:00 or 2:30, I have my own personal training with them, and I also have everybody role playing on their own with a set partner from 7:30 to 8:00.

Ren Jones13:14

That role playing is important then.

Bryan Casella13:17

What was that, Ren?

Ren Jones13:18

The role play is an important piece then.

Bryan Casella13:21

A hundred percent. I role played about two hours a day when I started. So within about two months I knew everything. I could say the listening presentation backwards. And I hammered that into my team because I feel like confidence in this business equals competence, meaning if you know what you’re going to say, you know the process, you know what’s going to happen, and you can kind of anticipate, you’re going to be a lot more comfortable because then you can focus on your delivery and all the other things that we never focus on.

13:47We think it’s just the words when we speak to people. That’s just what, seven percent of our communication? We have to really focus in and hone in on everything else. And once you have that kind of all together, I believe you can walk around with a little bit of swagger to you.

Carley Hathaway14:01

Nice.

Ren Jones14:01

Yeah, tell us a little bit about that, a little further on the energy on the call there, because I picked up a piece of that when Scott with Storyteller was interviewing you on Friday. A little bit about the energy when you’re getting ready to make that call, the mental preparation, the energy. I can’t put it in your words, but I know you could put it in your words.

Bryan Casella14:19

Right, the BC mentality, I remember you-

Ren Jones14:22

BC mentality. Yes. Hashtag BC mentality.

Bryan Casella14:25

There you go. Well, it’s something that I’ve always been interested in. We know that we have a set of techniques. We’ll get a listening presentation, scripts, and all that. Why is it that one individual has so much success with it and the next individual struggles so much?

14:40And I started looking into that and I started seeing all these layers beneath what we just perceive as the words. And one of them was your mindset coming into a call, a presentation, or a door knock or whatever it is. The question I always ask people is, “Who’s showing up to do that? Is it just the average Joe? Or are you envisioning a warrior? Or a better version of you, the five year version of you who’s already a millionaire in a sharp suit, showing up with that level of confidence. Can you see that? Can you embody that?”

15:09Because if you bring that to a phone call before you pick up the phone, now you’re going to have a different tonality to you, a different way of speaking. You’re going to have a smile on your face, you’re going to have the confidence already, and be able to project that through the phone, especially, where all we have really is our voice and our tonality, and you’re going to get completely different results.

15:28Imagine the person who’s a little hesitant to pick up the phone. They’re almost asking permission and kind of apologizing when they’re calling people. That’s going to come across in your tone. Versus the other guy who’s like, you know what, I’m here to help somebody. I’m the best one to help him. Picks up the phone, he’s going to come off completely differently and get a completely different result. But we can’t quote see that.

15:48So people are like, “Why is this guy doing so well and this guy isn’t?” Well, it’s that X factor, that’s what I call it. And one of the biggest things is your mindset, but we don’t put any time into that. Everyone’s just like, “Oh, I don’t want to hear that. Just teach me the script.” It’s like, “Well, I could give you the scripts on a silver platter, but if you’re not delivering it from the right place mentally, you’re not going to get the same result or anywhere near what you could possibly get.”

Ren Jones16:10

I think this is one of the number one challenges that a lot of our customers have. Tell them, I remember what you said when you were being interviewed by Storyteller, the piece about standing in front of the mirror.

Bryan Casella16:22

Yeah, remember that? Well, okay, for everybody watching, I challenge you, this is what I said on the video. I said, “I challenge you to go look in the mirror and then share.” You don’t have to share it right here, but think to yourself, what do you think immediately when you look into the mirror? Is it you’re pointing out your flaws, or can you actually look at what’s in front of you in the mirror, smile, and appreciate what’s in front of you? Something so simple, yet that permeates into every other area of your life.

16:51If you look at yourself in the mirror, you cannot smile or look at yourself confidently and proudly, and say, “Man, I’m proud of you. Oh, you’re a go-getter. You’re doing this, you’re doing that,” and you don’t appreciate yourself, how can you expect somebody else to appreciate you if you don’t appreciate yourself? It starts and it ends with you, with self, all the time.

17:09That is why I can pick up a camera and record myself like this without a problem, and put it out to the world, because I appreciate the person in front of the mirror and behind the camera. I know who that individual is. I know what he’s doing every single day. He’s earning his keep. He’s working hard. He represents change, a force, power, great communication, inspiration, whatever you want to call it. And I embody that.

17:34Now, the other person who’s having a little bit of trouble with the camera, I recommend that they do that exercise. I guarantee you, you’re going to be pointing out your flaws, “Oh man, one of my eyebrows is a little bit longer than the other. I don’t like this tooth. Aw man, I’m gaining weight.”

17:47You have to accept where you are, first and foremost. Change can be had, right? We always hear about people going to Alcoholics Anonymous. What’s the first exercise? You accept the fact that you’re an alcoholic. Then from there, the change can begin. And I think a lot of people want to avoid the mindset stuff when I truly believe it’s the foundation for you to really have success, and it requires people to confront their insecurities, which is probably one of the biggest fears and struggles for a lot of people. And I think that’s what we have to focus in on. That’s what I did with my new guy, and within three, four weeks, he’s already a completely different person. It’s crazy.

Carley Hathaway18:21

That’s amazing.

Ren Jones18:22

It’s fun to watch you mentor your folks there. If a lot of people watching right now are like, gosh, I want more of that, how do they reach you? Whether they have a referral for your area or they want to learn more about BC mentality or whatever it may be, what’s the best way for them to reach you?

Bryan Casella18:38

Best way would be to either contact me on Facebook or just email me. My email to the team is teamBCsold at Gmail. We check all those emails, whether it’s me or somebody else, and if it’s directed towards me, I’ll make sure that I read it. I do my very best to read all of them. So that would be the best way.

Ren Jones18:55

Or they can look on Facebook, and if they wanted to see other things that you have out there, that’s okay. I just want to make sure we cover every way you want them to find you.

Bryan Casella19:03

Absolutely. Yeah. Everything, I’m everywhere. If you look on Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter. I’m also in Ren City, I’m in Carley City, I’m everywhere. You’ll see.

Carley Hathaway19:16

Nice. So I love your confidence. I love the attitude, the mindset that you have. I think it definitely does translate through the phone and through videos for sure, and it makes people confident in you. So let me ask you this. What kept you going in the beginning? Why did you keep pushing? Why’d you keep calling? How did you get to where you are? Why didn’t you just go get a nine to five and relax?

Bryan Casella19:42

Great question, Carley. I think Anthony Robbins calls it being sick of your sickness, and I had just come off a basketball career. Because of injuries, I stopped playing. I was about 24, 25, and I was lost. I went through a period of a year where I was practically depressed. I didn’t know what I wanted to do.

20:01And I remember those moments, and I made a decision after that year and I said, that’s it. I can’t feel sorry for myself anymore. I have to do something. I’m not going to be another statistic. People my whole life have been telling me I’m not going to amount to anything. They told me I wouldn’t make it in basketball, and I played in Europe, which is basically one step under the NBA.

Carley Hathaway20:21

Definitely.

Bryan Casella20:21

And they told me I wouldn’t even play on my high school varsity team. So I’ve always had that chip on my shoulder too. And I said, you know what? I’m not going to be a statistic, but for me, not for anybody else, for me and everybody, my legacy, my last name, my family, I’m going to make something of myself.

20:37And I started looking around, interviewing for nine to fives and saying, this just isn’t for me. I would get the position, but I would tell the guy, “You know what? Thank you, but no thank you,” because I just can’t see myself working this nine to five and being happy. Then I remember driving by the real estate building where I started, the Century 21, and it said, make $100,000 your first year. And I thought, I didn’t get excited, I said, okay, there’s probably one guy that did that, and he’s the example, but I’m going to find that guy and do exactly what he did.

Carley Hathaway21:09

Nice.

Bryan Casella21:09

So I took a lot of my strengths that I acquired through athletics, which is persistence, mastering fundamentals, showing up every single day, being the first one to show up, last one to leave, and I said, how can I take this now and apply it to something to get me to the top. And what better way than real estate? It’s cheap to get in. You don’t have to climb a ladder. You get paid in proportion to your production. Beautiful. I said, this is the dream come true. Is no one else really seeing this? I was like, whoa.

21:38So I go and I see how the average agent is so, for lack of better words, lazy. I said, “I’m going to kill it here.” I walked up to the front of my original office, I said, “Excuse me, everybody. You see this top 10 list? I’m going to be on this by the end of the year. Watch me.” Everybody laughed. I said, okay, they don’t know who I am. By the end of the year, I think I was number six or number seven. So I did it.

21:57But it was the fact that what was on the other side of it, right? Freedom, success. Having clarity of what that thing is what kept me going. I said, “Nothing’s going to stop me.” You could put, we think of Greek mythology and all the gods. I was like, you could put Aries, Zeus, and all those guys in front of me to shoot the powers of the universe against me, I’m still going to get ahead of them. I’m going to create a shield to stop, and I’m just going to keep walking.

22:20That relentless commitment to, okay, the life that I want on the other side of this is worth whatever I have to go through. If I have to be out on the street, shacking up with a bum in a cardboard box for a couple weeks, I’m willing to do it because this is so important to me and dear to me, I’m not going to let anything stop me. There’s no plan B.

22:38And with that, I just carried through with it. And I was tested. Believe me, I was in tears two or three times my first year. I was constantly being doubted. I remember people around me being embarrassed to tell other people that I was a realtor because they felt that it was a low end job. They were like, “Oh yeah, he’s still trying to figure out what he wants to do.” And I just remember, I’m going to make everybody just sit back in awe later, once I’m successful. So hopefully that answered your question.

Carley Hathaway23:03

Definitely, definitely answers it. Thank you so much. That’s incredible.

Ren Jones23:06

How do you go from million and a half in income now to three million? What’s the next, is it just more people, efficiency, skills? I mean, what’s the roadmap? What’s the roadmap to doubling?

Bryan Casella23:20

Well, that’s what I’m in the process of creating, Ren. More people, obviously more sales, higher price point, but you hit a word that I focus on consistently. It’s efficiency. So I’m always looking at how can we maximize more what we’re already doing before we add anything else?

23:34And I think that’s where a lot of people make a mistake, is they want to continuously add, add, add, add, add. When you look at what you’re currently doing, there’s room for a 10, 20, 30% improvement. And if you keep doing that every step of the way, you’ll make that jump without even adding anything new.

23:50The addition of Facebook, I believe over the next six months will add a huge, huge spike to our business. I mean, we probably have, like I said, three or four sellers we’re about to list right now and seven or eight active buyers that are about to hit the team. All minimum price points, 600 all the way up to three or four million. So that’s going to happen very soon.

Ren Jones24:09

Yeah, there’s a lot of luxury there. You could really go wild. There’s some questions. Let’s look at some of the Q&A. Neil is trying to get a better idea of around the door knocking. Are you taking business cards, flyers, or anything, or providing local data to get a conversation going? What is that process? From what I hear, you’re asking them a lot of questions and getting contact information, developing a relationship.

Bryan Casella24:37

Absolutely. There’s two ways we can look at this. To Neil, you said, is the person who asked the question?

Carley Hathaway24:43

Yes, Neil.

Bryan Casella24:44

Hey, Neil. When I started, because I was just monkey see, monkey do, I took business cards with me, but after a while I realized, okay, a lot of people are not ready now. I need to figure out something more long term. So what I did was, and this tactic will help you tremendously because of plausible deniability. I would take one flyer with me with market data, and in the end a lot of people would want a copy. I’m like, “You know what? This is my last copy. Let me email it to you. What’s your best email?”

Carley Hathaway25:17

Oh, that’s smart.

Bryan Casella25:17

Yeah, I’d get their email, and then since they’re already in the, we all know the second sale is easier than the first one. So I’d say, “You know what? What’s your number just in case?” Now if you want to take it a step further, when you ask for the number, depending on what area you’re in, you know the area code, start the area code, and then be quiet and watch how they finish it. You’re assuming the sale.

Ren Jones25:36

I love it. I love it.

Bryan Casella25:39

And they do it.

Carley Hathaway25:41

Nice.

Bryan Casella25:41

So understanding a few basic principles in sales and psychology, and then adding on plausible deniability and all these things, you really make a strong case to be successful.

Carley Hathaway25:50

Love that.

Ren Jones25:51

Now there’s a little strategy to put on the list. Just get the area code and say, “Just keep going.”

Bryan Casella25:57

I did that with Ren at the party. He didn’t even notice.

Carley Hathaway25:59

Oh really? You got his number?

Bryan Casella26:01

I got you, Ren, I got you.

Ren Jones26:04

And it worked. Yeah, you did do that. That is right.

Carley Hathaway26:09

You didn’t even know.

Ren Jones26:10

Yeah, he had his phone out. I’m just going to text you. And then rolled it and started the number. Yeah, fantastic. Good deal.

Carley Hathaway26:20

So do we have any other questions?

Ren Jones26:23

I don’t have any other questions on here. We had that happen once before where everybody’s just so absorbed, they’re-

Carley Hathaway26:27

Do we have time for a quick role play?

Ren Jones26:30

We could, yeah. Yeah, maybe he’s at the door. How are you marketing Facebook? Nadine wants to know how you’re marketing Facebook.

Bryan Casella26:41

Well, what we did was we linked up with this company called Agent Leads University, and they will create a little boosted post for you. They know all the verbiage and they create basically a, for lack of a better word, a funnel, to get people to click. And then it gives you their information.

26:59And from that point, we get texted their information, their name, their phone number, their email, and all that stuff. And what people think, though, is they believe that everybody’s going to be ready now, just like when you call or door knock, but it’s going to take time. We’ve been doing it for three months now and we’re now seeing a wave, but the first two months, we didn’t get anybody who was ready.

27:19Now, I think we got one person who just happened to be ready and we listed their home and sold it. But the majority is going to require follow up. And it’s a great way to add more people to our database. I think now in the database we’re well over 1100 or 1200 people, and we’re getting a ton of business from that.

Ren Jones27:34

All in the lead follow up there, most of it. Yeah, not everybody’s ready to go the first second.

Bryan Casella27:39

Absolutely. And then the fact that I’m also doing stuff on social media and video, when now people see the account associated with it, there’s even more credibility because they see all the following it has, all the posts, all the videos. They see the team, the pictures, and they’re like, okay. To me, it seems like it’s created so much more credibility that when we get them on the phone, there’s a lot less resistance than if we were just some random new business Facebook page with no picture that’s just doing a boosted post.

Ren Jones28:06

Mayran wants to know, and a lot of people struggle with this, they’re calling expireds, fresh expired, and they’re calling and getting a lot of negative feedback. You’re the fifth or sixth agent to call me. How do you stand out and get past the intro? That’s probably the number one challenge a lot of people have. 42 people call, but sometimes it’s the same three, four, five agents that get through each time and it’s the same 35 that don’t get through. How do you be one of the four, five, or six that get through every time?

Bryan Casella28:36

Well, the key, I think, for a lot of people is make sure that you’re the first one to call. If you can be the first one to call, you avoid that. The best thing I can give you guys, at that point, it’s not going to matter so much what you say. There’s a concept that we learn called mirroring and matching. It’s going to be tremendously helpful for you. So if someone’s like, “Man, you’re the fifth or sixth today,” I’ll be like, “Oh man. Yeah, I’d be frustrated too. I mean, I’m sure this is making you go crazy.” And they’re like, “Oh yeah,” blah blah, blah. And they’re going to go off into their little talk.

29:02But the fact that you mirror and match them on a subconscious level, it’s basically you’re saying, “I understand what you’re saying. I understand your position. I get it.” So what I do normally is I’ll mirror and match and say, “Look, I don’t want to waste your time. I only have a minute too. Then I’ve got to hop on another call.” And then I might ask them one or two questions to see if I can keep going. But what I do is I try to interrupt their pattern. They’re already complaining about it. So I’m going to say, “Look, how did you expect this to happen versus what actually happened?” Or, “What were your expectations coming in, and how does that compare to what just happened?”

29:36And they’re going to be like, “Huh?” Because what are other agents trying to do? They’re just trying to go for the close or follow the script. I want to throw a curve ball at them, to get them to think for a second. Now, does it always work? No. But I would just come up with questions or dialogues that will get them off of complaining. Because at that moment they’re complaining, with every right to do so. I would be too, if I was getting my phone blown up. I’d be like, “Dude, why are you calling me?”

Ren Jones30:00

Absolutely. So you’ve to got to get a little creative there. And those are two or three really good ideas that could help her out into making that happen. From Facebook, Maria Rivera wants to know some of the different sources of your business, obviously expireds, for sale by owners, your database that you’ve been building up, door knocking, Facebook, other, and YouTube I know very well, and a lot of video sources. What else? Any others?

Bryan Casella30:30

We get a ton of referrals, and we give out a ton of referrals from social media for sure. We received, like I told you last month, three that we closed, and we gave out three that have already been listed and closed too.

Ren Jones30:42

That’s a lot of referral business.

Bryan Casella30:43

Yeah, just referral business. It’s crazy. I would say another big one for us, another two big ones, is absentee owners are huge. We call them a lot. And we get a ton of business from them. We just listed one three days ago, four units here in LA. Absentee owner, straight up cold call. We called him a month ago and we already listed him. Crazy.

Ren Jones31:01

So you’re seeking out the, you’re checking, going through the tax records, seeking out the owner who is out of town, contacting that owner, which is a much better, it’s just the odds of getting business with that is huge.

Bryan Casella31:16

Absolutely. Because that conversation, Ren, is not so much emotional as it is logical. So I can present a very airtight, logical case, faced with this market especially. So if they’re on the fence, a lot more likely for them to say yes. And I’m not in this battle between maybe husband and wife or this emotional thing about, oh, I’m so attached to my house. I might even say, “Look, if you’re not interested in selling, have you considered doing an exchange into a property that gives you more cash flow?”

31:41“Well, what do you mean?” Boom, that’s another conversation. So understand that with these people, it’s all about the numbers most of the time. There’s no or very little emotion, and you can create a lot more opportunities from it. Because this guy’s doing an exchange with us. So we’re getting two deals from it.

Ren Jones31:54

And the biggest piece is, okay, so they own the house in Orange County, but they live in Dallas. You’re the only one from there talking to them. If they lived in Orange County, they see real estate agents all over the place. They’re surrounded by them. But it’s just you. And they’re in Dallas and they’re like, “What’s the market like?” You’re their liaison. You’re their one liaison, one or two. And so the odds go way up to work absentee. Absentee is a little gold mine, and people aren’t taking advantage of that. And they should.

Bryan Casella32:25

Absolutely. Yeah. And then I would say the next one under that is probably just a straight up old school just listed, just sold. That’s really, really good for us. It’s very rare that we put up a listing and not at least get a buyer or another transaction from that one listing because of doing an open house event, and then calling and door knocking around it, sending it to our database. I mean, we just generate so much more buzz and contacts and leads from it that it really just opens so many more doors for us.

Ren Jones32:53

Maria Rivera was asking, can you touch on your value proposition to a for sale by owner, who they think they’re saving some money. What is that value proposition that you do to a for sale by owner?

Bryan Casella33:06

Well, what I’ve been noticing lately is everybody wants to focus on the bottom line for them. And when you first talk to a for sale by owner, their logical mind is shut off to you. They already look at you as a nuisance. And even if you want to, what people will do, I think in sales it’s called frontloading. You’re just saying, “Well, 93% of the time, FSBOs don’t sell. Well, seven percent of the ones that do sell on their own, half of them sell to somebody they know.” You’re frontloading with too much fact, fact, fact. They’re not hearing it right? They still have you shut off. Until they’re open for you to influence them, they’re not going to listen to you.

33:39So what I focus on a lot of times now initially is peace of mind. “I know you’re getting 20 calls a day, Mr. FSBO. How has that affected your day, whether negatively or positively? Okay, cool. Now with that free time that you could get back from hiring an agent, what would you do with it?” See, I’m already talking about that.

Ren Jones33:56

Wow.

Carley Hathaway33:57

That’s great.

Bryan Casella33:59

I don’t just talk about that. But again, what is that? It’s a pattern interrupt and a curve ball. Because nobody’s talking about that. They’re like, “You know what, list with me, I can net you more.” And that’s all great.

Ren Jones34:08

That’s fair.

Bryan Casella34:09

Because in the end, in the closing portion, that’s a great line. But up front, that’s not going to get you anywhere. You need to understand the difference.

Ren Jones34:18

Because they’re probably going crazy, and you come along and say, “Hey, I take the agony away, and you can enjoy yourself.”

Bryan Casella34:24

Absolutely. Yeah. One of the things that I learned, because I’ve studied a lot of like NLP and hypnosis too, in the mind, there’s something called the critical factor. And when that’s activated, which FSBOs have activated 24/7, you can’t influence somebody. They’re shut off because they’re resisting you. But real estate agents don’t see that, and they just keep trying to hammer them and hammer them and hammer them. That doesn’t work. That’s why if you’re the sixth one to call that FSBO that day, they’re just like, ugh. And they hang up on you and they won’t even talk to you.

Ren Jones34:48

I know. You’ve got to call him back. This has been amazing. And everybody, you can type in Google and type Bryan Casella, and find him in many places. Start getting connected. He and Loida are doing some amazing things. And it could be a good connection for a referral, to do business, to learn something. So thanks again so much, Bryan. This has been a real treat. And can we do it again in the fall?

Bryan Casella35:18

Absolutely. We can do it again tomorrow if you want.

Ren Jones35:22

I appreciate it. Well yeah, when you buy that next fancy car, that Lamborghini was something. Oh my God, you wouldn’t have believed it. But anyway, I have to do our little thank you to the Facebook group. If you’re watching on Vulcan7 and want to get involved with Lead Gen, with 48,000 members, they are at facebook.com/groups/gotobjections. And I want thank Aaron Wittenstein, who runs it. He runs a program called expiredmasteryelite.com.

35:52And finally, if you’re watching on Facebook and you’re not yet involved with us, Vulcan7, make sure to sign up at vulcan7.com/leadgen for a very special deal. And then of course, if you have done your job like Bryan, and you have been door knocking, you’ve been calling expireds and for sale by owners, and you’ve been getting all this business and just enjoying this amazing life of talking to people, and it’s time to take a little break, go to the freezer and get some delicious Graeter’s mint chocolate chip. Enjoy yourself, spoil yourself. Either that or go buy a Lamborghini, and have an amazing time. So I appreciate everybody being here.

Carley Hathaway36:31

Thank you so much, Bryan. It was very inspirational. You have an amazing mindset. Great show.

Bryan Casella36:36

Thank you guys. Really appreciate it.

Carley Hathaway36:37

Yeah, thank you.

Ren Jones36:38

See you guys again next week. Every seven days, we’ve got a rockstar. And today was no exception, was it? What a great show. Thank you again, BC. We’ll see you. I’m coming to show up at your door again. I’ve learned a lot. Thank you.

Bryan Casella36:52

Picking you up next week.

Ren Jones36:53

All righty.

Carley Hathaway36:54

I think I need to come drive the Lambo.

Ren Jones36:58

Carley, you’re not too far away. You can show up.

Carley Hathaway37:00

Nope.

Ren Jones37:00

Get up there this afternoon pretty easily.

Carley Hathaway37:02

Yep. Bye, guys. Thank you.

Ren Jones37:05

Thanks, everybody. See you again next week.

37:05