S8 E8: Formula For Success

Corey Daniel (00:04):
If we don’t get our mind right, this business will chew you up and spit you out, because when you get really busy, it’s very challenging to lead generate. We know that’s the one thing that keeps the business going. We took five listings this week for a total of 2.4 million in volume just this week alone. It was a good week.

Sarah Close (00:20):
Yeah.

Corey Daniel (00:20):
It was a good week.

Sarah Close (00:21):
Congratulations.

Corey Daniel (00:23):
Thank you, and they were all off expired listings. Just pick up the phone and ask for business. Just fail through it, ask for business, figure it out as you go, and you’re going to pick up listings here and there, and before you know it, you’re going to get this momentum and it’s just going to start popping. That’s basically what I did.

Ren Jones (00:45):
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 who’s consistently taking several listings each month 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 copy…

Sarah Close (01:07):
Not taking our principle.

Ren Jones (01:10):
Ledger, let me introduce my shy co-host. Camp Dennison, Ohio.

(01:17):
With home in the pastures, just outside of Cincinnati, Sarah Close. Welcome, Sarah.

Sarah Close (01:23):
Hi. Thanks for having me, Ren. This is a lot of fun.

Ren Jones (01:26):
Those of you don’t know Sarah, and many of you do know. Sarah has a real estate company in southern Ohio. Includes Dayton Ohio, Westchester Ohio, Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky, parts of Indiana…. Are you doing Indiana?

Sarah Close (01:42):
Our market centers aren’t in Indiana, but we do have a brokerage license there. We have some agents that cover all three states, which is fun.

Ren Jones (01:49):
Good, good. Good deal. And, Sarah and her team, the goal is…

Sarah Close (01:57):
About 200 units this year, yeah.

Ren Jones (02:01):
200 units. She’s going to have 200 sales and she’s making those calls. She’s calling for sale owners around listings and sales and her database I assume, and all that good stuff. And how many agents do you have now at the brokerage? All those…

Sarah Close (02:15):
The brokerage? The brokerages together are right about 560. So we brokers are some really fun people. It’s a lot of fun.

Ren Jones (02:21):
A very tiny company, I recall.

Sarah Close (02:23):
Yeah, so it’s good folks. So it’s a lot of fun for me.

Ren Jones (02:26):
I think you’re like number four or five in companies from what I see in this major metropolitan area. So that’s…

Sarah Close (02:35):
We’re at four right now.

Ren Jones (02:36):
You’re number four? Congratulations.

Sarah Close (02:39):
And then two, no.

Ren Jones (02:41):
That’s a major accomplishment.

Sarah Close (02:44):
Yeah, it’s exciting, it’s exciting. So, let’s forget about me. Let’s get to Corey.

Ren Jones (02:48):
Let’s get, yeah, yeah, that’s his name. Our guest today from Fort Worth in the surrounding area. Corey Daniel. Hi Corey.

Corey Daniel (02:57):
Hey Ren, how are you?

Ren Jones (03:00):
Good. Good, good, good.

Sarah Close (03:00):
Glad you are here.

Ren Jones (03:02):
Welcome.

Corey Daniel (03:03):
Well, thanks for having me, I’m looking forward to this.

Sarah Close (03:06):
So tell us a little bit about you. Tell us a little bit about your business and how you got to be in one of our Hollywood Squares here today and all that good stuff.

Corey Daniel (03:16):
You’re so funny. Yes. Thanks for having me. So, I’m originally from central Louisiana. I moved to Texas about 10 years ago and currently where I live now in Fort Worth, I’ve been here for about eight years. And I got in real estate just under six years ago, to a town I’ve never even heard of, didn’t know anyone here, met my wife. We’ve been married for seven, we have two little kids and she’s licensed as well. And this year we’re going to do about 44 units and just a little bit over 10 million in volume. And our goal for next year, we were setting our goals a few weeks ago, 71 closed units for next year. 15 million in volume is our goal for next year 2022. We’re already working on that right? We’re in October.

Sarah Close (04:01):
You got that right. Fourth quarter begins the new year. Well you’ve had a pretty successful run here since you’ve joined the big city of Fort Worth. You found your life partner, you got a couple of kids, you got a great real estate career that’s going. Talk to us a little bit about what you’ve done so far to create that kind of volume in a town where you didn’t know anyone and you got started cold.

Corey Daniel (04:21):
Absolutely. So, clearly it didn’t take long to learn from other agents who were ahead of me in the business that your database is everything and those numbers in your database will reflect your closed units. And I learned quickly, I didn’t have much of a database. I did have a phone and probably had about 50 contacts and just basically learned, I’m a very much a numbers guy and learned based off conversion rates and numbers in your database that it was not sustainable to pay my bills and things like that. So, of course expireds and canceled seemed like an easy way to go, and I’ve pretty much built my whole business…

(04:59):
Well, I’ve built my whole business off cold calling.

Sarah Close (05:01):
Wow.

Corey Daniel (05:01):
From there to where we are today, I can tell you my business is about 50-50 now, cold calling and now Sphere because, as people learn and expireds actually want to do business with realtors, they just maybe didn’t have a great realtor before and they’ll send you business over time as well, and so, we really have gone deep with expireds over years after selling our house and we’re getting referrals from them as well. But my whole business is built off cold calling, the whole thing.

Sarah Close (05:28):
That’s amazing.

Corey Daniel (05:29):
It is. It’s crazy when you think about it.

Sarah Close (05:32):
Okay so, what I heard you say is that you started with the database of 50 and now you’ve grown your database primarily through outward going energy, prospecting wise to cancels and expireds. What do you think your database size is right now?

Corey Daniel (05:48):
I know exactly what it is. It’s 1,700, however, we have taken the approach that we go very narrow. So, we have about 350 people through cold calling, expireds, and we go very deep with those relationships there.

Sarah Close (06:02):
Okay.

Corey Daniel (06:05):
My goal each and every day is 10 contacts and two nurtures every day. Of course setting appointments is the ultimate goal, yet we know just from doing this every day that it’s not always realistic, especially now that almost everything’s selling, you don’t get all those new expireds. So where you call at eight o’clock in the morning and that very low hanging fruit. So, we market heavily to about 350 people and everyone else is just basically on some campaign through our CRM.

Sarah Close (06:33):
Okay, great. Let me ask you a couple questions if you don’t mind. Nurture. Define a nurture for us.

Corey Daniel (06:40):
Absolutely.

Sarah Close (06:40):
What does a nurture mean for you in your group?

Corey Daniel (06:44):
Perfect. That’s a great question. And I was just actually having this conversation with a new agent this morning. So basically we have a system, a system is just a script, and that script basically vets the conversation and we ask those questions, and based off that conversation, is it worth our time to keep following up with them? Basically we’re going to wear them out with the questions to either they’re going to hang up, tell us to stop calling, or they’re going to give me permission to keep calling back or, they’re going to give me the appointment, that’s really it. And based off of those questions, that’s how we determine our follow-up and we’ll just put them in a campaign and just keep following up with them until we get the listing.

Sarah Close (07:23):
Okay, gotcha. So do you have specific criteria that you use when you say, yep, this guy makes the campaign bucket, or is it fluid just kind of a, yeah, this feels like I can probably find something. What is that? How do you assess that?

Corey Daniel (07:37):
So, I’ll always ask. It’s a question I always ask is, do you have an agent that you feel comfortable referring family friends to? If not, even if they’re an expired, I’m always looking for an opportunity. So, maybe they don’t want to sell whatever that conversation may be. I still want to create a relationship, because I’m looking for an angle to get my foot in the door. And so if they’re not going to give me the appointment, which I’m going to ask for, then I’m going to ask, well, I would still love to partner with you even if you don’t want to sell your house.

(08:05):
I’d love to, any of your family friends that need some real estate assistance, I’d love to be that person. And so that’s really where we go. Because then that tells me if they have an agent or not and if they’re committed to the agent or not. And so those are some of the criteria we use. If they’re like, I have an agent, no matter what you say, dude, I’m still going to have an agent. I’m just not going to worry about that. I know a lot of realtors will try to beat that fence down. I’m like, cool, next I’ll just go to the next contact.

Ren Jones (08:29):
So you’re really drilling it down. You’re asking the question, yes or no. Do you have one that you’re comfortable with? They might as well get that off the table and find out, are they willing to send you business?

Corey Daniel (08:38):
That’s it.

Ren Jones (08:39):
And then they’re in the 350, otherwise they’re in the 1,700 right?

Corey Daniel (08:42):
That’s exactly right, yes.

Ren Jones (08:44):
So it sounds like with the database, you have A level and B level and A level, you’re talking to them two, three times a month and B level your computer’s talking to them, something like that.

Corey Daniel (08:55):
Yeah, so A level… Exactly Ren, you just hit it on the head. A-B-C’s, that’s how we do it.

Ren Jones (09:00):
Okay, you’re on A, B and C. Okay, you got three tiers. You want to explain roughly what A, B, and C, how that falls?

Corey Daniel (09:07):
So, basically every day I’m looking for B’s. That’s all I’m looking for. A’s are my past clients, referral clients, best vendor part .

Ren Jones (09:14):
They’ve graduated to A. They start as a B and they graduate to A.

Corey Daniel (09:18):
That’s exactly right. We’re up to…

Ren Jones (09:20):
Go down to C.

Corey Daniel (09:22):
Exactly. Yes. So, based off continuing vetting them over time, they will exactly go from a B to a C. But every day we’re trying to put people in that B category, and that B category, I didn’t want to go into a lot of detail, but that B category is our 350. That’s where we put all our effort and time and we call them at least four times a year. And it’s basically cancels and expireds. Honestly for the most part, or circle prospecting people that we met as well through.

Ren Jones (09:48):
Okay, and so the A’s are actually past clients or people that raise their hand and said, I’ll send you business or they’ve proven they’ll send you business, that’s the A’s.

Corey Daniel (09:58):
That’s exactly right. That’s it.

Ren Jones (09:59):
Okay. All right, all right. I got the picture that’s powerful. And what he’s doing here folks, is the ideal setup for a database. Because you can’t call all 1,700 equally. You’re going to miss a lot of opportunities, and if you stage it A, B, and C like that, if they’re proven they need a lot of your attention and B, they need a fair amount of attention, and C, you need to say hello every now and then.

Corey Daniel (10:23):
That’s right. Yeah. We’re actually… I’m calling through our C’s right now slowly but surely, about 15 of days my goal. And I clearly stick to a schedule and I follow that lead generation schedule in the morning and they’re at the very bottom of that in the morning, and I just go through that and I hand dial those because I don’t want them.

Sarah Close (10:42):
Yeah.

Corey Daniel (10:43):
I don’t want them in there, and it’s so funny, I’ve actually moved several of those up into my B category that I thought, oh man, they’ll never do business with me. But I think what it really boils down to is my scripts have gotten better and my skillset has gotten better. So now I know what questions to ask, whereas before, I didn’t know what to ask and I wasn’t aware of that.

Ren Jones (11:00):
How are you sharpening your skills? Is it just from doing it a lot or actually, are you studying and looking for best practices or any thoughts that?

Corey Daniel (11:08):
Absolutely. So I’m, I’ve been part of the Take 52 group and I plug into every training that I possibly can with that group. Meets Tuesdays and Thursdays here. It’s amazing opportunity to connect with other realtors who are really crushing at a high level. And also, I surround myself around here with realtors that I’m trying, I’m holding onto their coattail and they’re dragging me into my next level of production. So I surround myself with people who I want to be like.

Ren Jones (11:35):
Are you shadowing them or how does that work?

Corey Daniel (11:36):
Yes, yes, I do shadow.

Ren Jones (11:39):
You are doing shadowing, okay.

Corey Daniel (11:40):
Yes, absolutely. I’ll go and I’ll sit on a team, the Locum group that we’re all familiar with.

Ren Jones (11:44):
Oh yeah, Lance and Karina, yes.

Corey Daniel (11:49):
Yeah, they’re just three or four hours south of us and…

Ren Jones (11:51):
Right, and so they’re not really competition because they’re way over in Houston. So they feel safe enough to let you shadow.

Corey Daniel (12:00):
Absolutely.

Ren Jones (12:01):
Well, and the point I’m making here, Corey, is that we encourage a lot of people to go shadow. But a lot of times that means you have to drive three or four hours, or get on an airplane and spend a half a day to a day. For somebody to shadow them, learn as much as you can. They’re up at this level, learn everything you can, come back, do that eight times a year and you’re doing it, you’re just driving to Houston, spending time with them because aren’t they like the top 10 in the world now or in the nation in sales or something like that.

Corey Daniel (12:31):
They’re incredible. They’re incredible. And the other thing Ren is, now everyone’s getting on Zoom calls and you can shadow people on a Zoom call and just sit like a fly on the wall and just listen as people make those calls.

Ren Jones (12:38):
There are a lot of Zoom groups where people get together every morning and they prospect.

Corey Daniel (12:46):
Yes.

Ren Jones (12:47):
They’re all making calls, you listen to them and whatnot. And if they walk away from where they are, you’re like, hello Debbie, get back on the phone.

Corey Daniel (12:55):
And it’s immediate feedback too. Those agents, they’re listening to you and they’re like, Hey Corey, in that situation I would’ve said this here. And so I’m just sitting there taking notes. My script is literally in front of me every morning. I mean I have it so internalized, but I don’t want to mess up. I want to make sure I ask the questions and I don’t have it all figured out.

Ren Jones (13:14):
So, I ought to keep honing our craft and our skill and get to where we’re asking very well crafted questions to get a better result in a shorter amount of time, which is basically what you were saying in this.

Sarah Close (13:25):
Absolutely. Corey, do you mind sharing with us some of those questions that you go through and the anatomy of your script?

Corey Daniel (13:31):
Yeah, sure. So hi, this is Corey Daniel here with the Daniel Real Estate Group. I see that your home was on the market sometime back and didn’t sell. Just out of curiosity, Sarah, did you have a change of plans or do you still have interest in selling and I just basically pause.

Sarah Close (13:46):
Okay, couldn’t get it sold, just don’t know what the problem was.

Corey Daniel (13:53):
Hey, I understand and I’m sorry to hear that. Well, I specialize in homes that didn’t sell, that failed for the first time for some reason. When would you be available to meet with me so I can show you a different way to get your home sold? And I just go straight, I just ask for it, I don’t beat around the bush.

Sarah Close (14:05):
You do, very direct. Yeah. Yeah, very direct. That’s terrific. So when you…

Corey Daniel (14:07):
If they say no… go ahead.

Sarah Close (14:09):
Go ahead, I’m sorry. No, I didn’t mean to interrupt you. Go ahead.

Corey Daniel (14:11):
No, you’re fine. And I just have switched it around those, there’s different scripts out there. If they say no, I just say, “Hey, I understand. Let me ask if you received an offer in the next 30 days, would you reconsider?” And then they’re thinking and they’re like, no. Hey, what if it’s a full price cash offer, would you reconsider? And then it really gets them thinking and I can hear them thinking. And when they say that, they’re like, well, if an all cash offer in the next 30 days, I’m like, oh good, so there is interest in still selling. Well, then I go into, well, why did you put your house to market? And I go through all that right there.

Sarah Close (14:39):
Okay.

Corey Daniel (14:40):
Find their motivation again.

Sarah Close (14:42):
Right, excellent.

(14:44):
No, that makes a lot of sense. What about the follow-up calls? So, the people that you’ve got in your pond, but then you’re going to try to move them up and maybe you’ve talked to them four, five, six times now. And I guess twofold question, how often will you follow-up? How many times do you follow-up?

Corey Daniel (15:00):
It really just… Sorry.

Sarah Close (15:02):
No, go ahead.

Corey Daniel (15:03):
I’m excited. So, it depends on the conversation. If they’re super hot lead and they say, yeah, we’re interviewing agents now, I’m calling them the next day. I put it in my CRM immediately and I put hot in all caps, exclamation mark, hot, hot, hot. And I immediately call them. That’s clearly where I start in the morning in my pipeline, and then I start with expireds and other things. I call them immediately. If not, then I will follow a system of an eight by eight campaign. And we have a specific eight by eight campaign that we use specifically for expireds.

Sarah Close (15:36):
Can you tell us what an eight by eight campaign is exactly?

Corey Daniel (15:40):
It’s eight touches in eight weeks. Ours is actually nine or 10. And what we will do is, as soon as I get off the phone, the very end of the day, I’ll just start pulling my handwritten notes, send the business card, and then I will actually send him a text video as soon as I send it. Just saying, Hey Sarah, this is Corey Daniel, spoke to you earlier, yada yada, yada, sending you my business card. Hey, great talking with you.

(16:03):
I’ll follow up with you down the road and I’ll follow it with them in then in the next three weeks, send them a postcard or something in between and just keep following up with them as well. And so I’ll talk to them three times or four times in that eight weeks plus they’ll get postcards and other stuff in between all that. And then from there, at the end of that eight weeks, we’ll determine if we want to keep following up with them or not and maybe cost us $3 or $4 to send those postcards. So, our return on investment is way greater than just that little $3.

Sarah Close (16:32):
Yeah, that’s fantastic. What service are you using for your video texts? How do you do that?

Corey Daniel (16:37):
I just do it on my cell phone, I don’t…

Sarah Close (16:39):
Just the regular?

Corey Daniel (16:40):
Yeah. Yet I just simply just put their number in, send it, send the text, and then they will sometimes start texting me back and I’ll keep that conversation going. And so that’s really my goal is to keep that conversation going in.

Sarah Close (16:51):
Sure.

Corey Daniel (16:53):
And then, clearly when I’m in appointments and stuff, I can take my phone on the go with me and keep that going in the car in between appointments and even once I get home.

Sarah Close (17:00):
That’s great.

Corey Daniel (17:01):
Yeah.

Sarah Close (17:02):
That’s awesome. So you’re looking to speak with 10 contacts a day and you’re looking for two nurtures and of course an appointment. When you set up your lead gen for the day, how much time are you setting aside for that and how many dials do you think you’re making to get those results?

Corey Daniel (17:16):
Absolutely. Every day’s different clearly. It ranges from about two to four. Clearly I would prefer the four. So, I would say we’re at least hitting, and I’d have to go back and look, at least a 100 dials in a session at least maybe 200 at a time, it just really depends. It just depends, it really depends. So yeah, you’re going to work for it. You’re working for those leads, you know?

Sarah Close (17:45):
Yeah. It’s not just all on HGTV where you show up in the Mercedes and get the big check, is it? There’s this part of the show.

Corey Daniel (17:51):
Exactly.

Sarah Close (17:52):
Yeah.

Corey Daniel (17:53):
So, we work for that business. Yes.

Sarah Close (17:55):
That’s awesome. Gosh, you’ve built a really successful career from a very specific source.

Corey Daniel (18:01):
Thank you.

Sarah Close (18:02):
That’s really fantastic, it really is. How have you adjusted your business with the tighter inventory? Because obviously they’re not as plentiful right now. What does that look like for you?

Corey Daniel (18:13):
Yeah. The past two years, I did the same amount of transactions, 26, both years. Last year though, we focused on higher volume. So we actually closed a lot more volume last year. And so we shifted that. It really, honestly, I’ve just plugged into Take 52 in groups like that and surrounded myself with like-minded people who’s like, Hey, it’s going to be okay, just dig in and keep doing the activities that you know will produce the results because… I’m not… I still have fears as well, I’m human just like everybody else so I still had those thoughts going through my head like, oh my gosh, what are we going to do?

(18:51):
Last year when COVID hit, we were up 400% the first quarter, I think we took three or four million in volume, yeah it was a really good quarter, like crazy good. And then it just all crashed and we were like, ah. So we stuck it out. And I would say by June of last year, I ended up having my best year and then my fourth quarter last year was my best quarter ever. And this quarter we’re going to close to three or 4 million this this fourth quarter coming up. And so I just dug in and as the market has picked up, I use that as an opportunity to adjust my script when I’m calling and say there’s tremendous opportunities right now for sellers. And that little change with the old expireds has gone a long way.

Sarah Close (19:33):
Now that’s… Can we go back to where you say you dug in? So you talked about first quarter being up 400% and then you hit a wall, sounds like, and then there was this trough with the gap if you will, and then you got back after it. So, talk to us a little bit about what were you doing in your head space? What does digging in mean? Because, sometimes when you’re in that trough it can feel a little scary when you don’t know what’s going to be on the other side. How did you tough it out? What was going on in your mind?

Corey Daniel (20:02):
So, I’m sure most people, we’re pretty familiar with the book, Miracle Morning. And so, I’m really big on affirmations, quiet time. I stick to the schedule and then I made my schedule. So when I set my schedule the day before, it’s easier for me to come in and execute. Whereas if I have to come in the morning of and do that, and I’m guilty of that sometimes, yes, I’m not saying I’m perfect, yet last night I set my schedule for today, it’s so easy to come in and just turn the dialer on and go because it’s less brain power. Because when the market’s down, I mean let’s face it, you have to work harder so it takes more energy. So, I try to put things in place where I don’t have to use as much energy coming into the office in the morning. Listen to my affirmations, get pumped up and I just jump on the calls.

Ren Jones (20:50):
Are you doing SAVERS? What is that, Miracle Morning? Are you doing S-A-V-E-R-S? Are you doing that whole process?

Corey Daniel (20:58):
I don’t know if I know that acronym exactly. So, what my morning looks like specifically is, I wake up, drink coffee and read something spiritual for me, and then after that, get ready. I don’t work out as much as I should, honestly, probably not at all right now. And then I just spend time with family, I guess I’m hitting these acronyms. And then from there I come in the office listen to my affirmations. I’m really big on Eric Thomas, love him. And then from there I turn my phone off, I have a different cell phone, put this on do not disturb and it’s away from me and just start dialing.

Ren Jones (21:34):
Okay. And if you didn’t go through that pre-lead generation routine, what would it be like if you didn’t do it? What’s it if you do it, how important is that? Can you quantify that? So people looking, well I don’t want to do that. I’ll just go straight in and help them understand why that’s such a critical piece.

Corey Daniel (21:55):
We’re all human, and it’s easy, and I know I’m guilty of this. It’s easy to see shiny agents who are doing really well and just think, man, they just got there, didn’t do anything to get there, it just naturally came to them, yada, yada, yada. And the more I’ve plugged into organizations such as this and surround myself with other agents, they all struggle with mindset. And if we don’t get our mind right, this business will chew you up and spit you out. Because when you get really busy, it’s very challenging to lead generate.

(22:23):
And we know that’s the one thing that keeps the business going. And so we have to stay in a positive mindset to keep ourself there. So when I don’t do that, to answer your question, I struggle a little bit. I do, I struggle. I feel like I don’t have something inspire me, I don’t have a purpose, and so those things give me purpose. My spiritual life is directly tied to my family. Because I want my kids to live by spiritual principles and things like that so, I have to be that person for them. And then my why is my family. So I have all my stuff on my board in front of my computer…

Ren Jones (22:53):
I was about to ask if that… OK, you have a dream board, you have…

Corey Daniel (22:56):
Oh yes.

Ren Jones (22:57):
The things you want to have, places you want to go, things you want to do on some sort of, okay. And if you didn’t have that there versus having it there, what’s the impact?

Corey Daniel (23:09):
It’s huge, because if I don’t start with that, I have nowhere to go and it doesn’t give me a why I’m doing what I’m doing. And it’s clearly not about the money anymore. Even though when I first started I was definitely in lacking mode. But now it’s just like I just want to be a better person. And real estate helps me to be a better person. It challenges me and it just gives me direction.

Ren Jones (23:33):
And when you go through this whole process, you’re doing everything to get your mindset in a good place and you have the dream board in front of you and all that, and the energy is way up here, because this is the transference of energy, then you’re on the phone talking to these people. Do you notice that you’re actually able to connect a little easier, a lot easier?

Corey Daniel (23:54):
Yes. Because I’m sitting there looking at pictures of my kids and we have paintings over here with their feet. And so I feel like it humanizes me and people feel that humanization, and they’re like, this is a real person. And that’s our goal. Me and my wife, we’re a husband wife team. That’s our goal, is to create long-lasting relationships. And so when I’m on the phone, my goal is to connect with someone and make them feel comfortable enough to want to talk to me first and then do business with me as well. That’s ultimately our goal. I had an expired, just call me before I got on this call and I had to let her go. Her name was Sharon and she called me and she said she’s had tons of agents call her. And the reason why she was calling me is because she felt like we cared, like we listened to her, and that’s what this business is all about, listening and caring because we have a family as well.

Ren Jones (24:38):
Well it sounds like you’re coming in contribution. So some of the things that you’re saying, she must get the idea that you are coming to help, coming in contributions, somewhat.

Corey Daniel (24:46):
Yes.

Ren Jones (24:46):
It sounds like it.

Corey Daniel (24:47):
Yes.

Ren Jones (24:48):
So I hear mindset, I hear skill, because you’ve put a lot of energy into skill and crafting the perfect questions and statements, I hear mindset’s a fundamental piece and then everything else falls into place.

Corey Daniel (25:02):
It really does.

Sarah Close (25:02):
That’s awesome. You’re letting your habits pull you through your morning and then you’re in the right head space to deliver to the people that you need to serve, it’s pretty cool. It’s really cool.

Corey Daniel (25:09):
Yeah.

Sarah Close (25:10):
So you mentioned that you and your wife work together. Talk to us a little bit about how you guys handle maybe some of the opportunities and benefits of working with your significant other.

Corey Daniel (25:23):
So, that is definitely a work in progress. Clearly, if any of us have a significant other and you work together and there can always be challenges, my hat’s definitely off to those folks who never have conflict. She would be okay with me saying that, by the way. So, she came on about a year and a half ago. She was an HR recruiter for the restaurant industry, and clearly when COVID happened, restaurants shut down, she got laid off immediately. I’ve been wandering on for years, so I’ve always seen the opportunity, that little leverage piece right there.

(25:53):
So I feel like the reason why we have, we’ve grown over 70% this year. And the reason why is because, now I can take those leverages such as transactions and marketing off my plate and she handles all that and she’s licensed. And so now I’m able to make more calls and talk to more people and be more out there. So, really it’s been the transaction part. I still do the negotiating from beginning to end, but she handles all the communication and then marketing, she handles all that as well. And it’s really helped us to get more purposeful with our database because now we can get more creative with our touches and go deeper with those touches as well. So, huge blessing, huge blessing. So she’s in the office right now. I’m in the other room.

Sarah Close (26:37):
That’s fantastic. So she’s handling the operational side of the business and she’s handling talking with clients about inspections and that stuff. And then you’re doing the sales end, is that a fair…

Corey Daniel (26:49):
Absolutely.

Sarah Close (26:50):
And then how do you two communicate to stay in sync with what’s happening with those clients that you’re both serving?

Corey Daniel (26:57):
So that’s always… So my method on that is simply we meet maybe once or twice a week. I mean, we’re always there together, but when you’re so busy, I struggle slowing down and listening. That’s something I’m working on. I just want to go, go, go. And so today we met after my appointment this morning and just talked about where we are and with client follow up and things like that. And I have to communicate to her, hey, this client wants to be communicated like this.

(27:31):
This client wants to be communicated like this and so, we know our profiles of our clients and I have to communicate that to her because I’m the one basically who has the relationship with them and we want that relationship to be felt all the way through the end of the servicing of the contract. And so she knows how to follow with them and service them, and we’ll meet maybe once a week to talk to transactions. And at any time we have four or five, I think we have six or seven transactions right now going. So we’re a little busy, not too busy, but a little busy.

Sarah Close (28:01):
Oh, that’s awesome.

Ren Jones (28:02):
How far can this go five years from now? How big do you want to get? What’s it going to look like five years from now?

Corey Daniel (28:08):
I love that question. Thank you for asking. I want to net a million dollars, that’s my goal. I don’t need a million dollars. We’re super blessed, however, when I got in the business, I was surrounded by a millionaire real estate agents and they would always say, Corey, it’s not about the money, that’s my Texas accent because everyone’s country here. And I’m like, how can it not be about the money you’re making a million dollars a year? And I realized once you start making really great money, which we do, we’re so blessed that it’s not about the money anymore. I got everything I could possibly want. Now I want to net a million dollars because it’s going to make me a better husband, a better employee, an employer to people that I’m going to be hiring. It’s going to make me a better father and I just want to get better, and it’s just chipping away at Corey more than, it’s a million dollars.

Ren Jones (28:54):
You can build into a lot of other people around you. You don’t have to put it in a warehouse and count it.

Corey Daniel (28:59):
That’s right.

Ren Jones (28:59):
I mean you can do a lot with that in a lot of ways.

Corey Daniel (29:03):
Yeah.

Ren Jones (29:04):
That’s fantastic.

Sarah Close (29:05):
That is fantastic.

Ren Jones (29:06):
So have you worked up a roadmap? What do you have to do at each level to get there? Or is that next?

Corey Daniel (29:13):
Yes. Yeah, we have. We’ve done the different levels, level one through seven type deal. I know that’s a KW thing. We’ve tested the water with some ISAs and gone through the hiring process through that and just, I have not had a lot of luck, and mainly I take blame on that, yet we know we’re going to have to leverage in order to hit those high numbers, we’re going to need more leverage.

Ren Jones (29:40):
It sounds like shadowing’s next for that, isn’t it?

Corey Daniel (29:43):
Oh, okay. Yeah.

Ren Jones (29:45):
I mean, that’s what it sounds like to me. If you’re running into some roadblocks. Now as you hit those roadblocks, you’ve got that in your mind, go out and go, what do I need to do? And to somebody that’s doing it and then they’ll say, ah.

Sarah Close (30:01):
I love that, I just wrote that down. Thank you so much. That’s great.

Ren Jones (30:07):
I think shadowing solves everything for fast growth, it probably does.

Sarah Close (30:12):
I think you’re right. I think you’re right. There’s nothing like being in the trenches with someone while they’re doing it. Because I think, at least for myself, I know that I always have a perception that it is error free and they have a clear runway when they’re getting these great results and it’s really a relief. At least has been for me to be in a position where I’m shadowing and to watch someone experience similar things that I have experienced and then see their solution.

Ren Jones (30:38):
And our belief system as a human, we can hear it on stage, we can read about it, we can watch video on it. But when we literally go there and we’re watching a human that is just like us, our belief system, we take it in, they put their pants on the same way I do. They were where I was five years ago, this is what they’re doing exactly, then all of a sudden our acceptance is so much higher.

Sarah Close (31:01):
Yeah, makes a lot of sense. Corey, talk to us about what you’re doing to stay engaged with what you called your A clients, your affiliates, and your past clients. What kind of a communication can they expect from you on a daily, weekly, monthly, whatever it is basis?

Corey Daniel (31:18):
Absolutely. So that’s bringing me pretty deep. So let me go deep on this. So, clearly the call, I just received a call today. They sent me a referral, I mean immediately, this is just one instance that I give other instance as well. I go into our CRM, create a task immediately for my wife, send a Starbucks gift card, thanking them just for thinking about us, things like that. If anything closes, we clearly take care of them and maybe take them out to dinner, do something, which is just great. We are working on starting having events, I’m a little gun shy on that, I don’t know why we were just talking about that today. But we do pop-ins every once in a while and I call them often. We’re all connected on Facebook, we’re very purposeful and engaging them on Facebook and in their lives.

(32:07):
We stopped by just a few weeks ago and it’s a house divided. She’s a Buffalo Bills fan and he’s a Dallas Cowboy fan. Yeah, I know, and when we closed on him a couple of years ago, we got him a closing gift. One side said, Buffalo Bills and Cowboys. And we just popped in the other day and they were out working in the yard doing something and they were like, oh hey. And so, we just want to have a… Just like here, I can pick up the phone and call them anytime. And it doesn’t even have to be about real estate, but they always think about us, because we send them flower seeds in the mail or some goofy cocoa thing for Christmas, something quirky. And we call them and we comment on their kids’ birthdays and stuff on Facebook and I’ll message them or something.

(32:52):
Or if I see they have a baby, clearly I’m going to send them a free meal or something since they just had a baby or something like that. So, we’re very purposeful on following them. And when that data shows up in our newsfeed or something, we immediately put it into our CRM and create tasks because sometimes we can’t do it right then. And so we know when we’re busy, we don’t create that task or reminder, we’ll forget. But we’re super purposeful on being in their lives versus just hovering as their realtor, so to speak.

Sarah Close (33:25):
A lot of one-on-one.

Corey Daniel (33:26):
Yeah. The other thing is this. So, we were talking two days ago about a client who hasn’t given us a review yet. We have all five star reviews. And if they don’t give us a review, I will call them personally. I’ll be like, Sarah, hey, it’s Corey. And she’s like, Hey, what’s up? And obviously they know it’s me because they happen to have my number saved. And hey, thank you so much for doing business with us. We need your review and if there’s something you didn’t like feel free to put it on there. That’s what this is for.

(33:51):
We need the opportunity to grow. And immediately we’ll get a review right after that. And because we want them to know it’s important to us that we did a good job for you. That relationship is important to us, and I feel like when we make those calls like that, because they won’t respond to my wife, but they’ll respond to me that they know we care. And so we’re very purposeful on, hey, I’m going to see this through Sarah until the day we die. I’m your realtor for life. I’m not going away.

Ren Jones (34:22):
In the world we’re in, in the last 10 years people live and die about those reviews.

Corey Daniel (34:28):
Oh my gosh, you guys are looking great. So I can imagine.

Sarah Close (34:31):
Absolutely. That’s awesome. What do you do normally in your process of closing out with a client in a transaction to ask for a review? Is there an automated service you use? Is it just part of, what do you guys do on that? How do you make sure that happens normally?

Corey Daniel (34:43):
Yeah so, we’ve gone back and forth on automation on that thing. However, if we want the relationship to be there, then I think it’s important that I pick up the phone and have the conversation with them. It’s a two-minute conversation.

Ren Jones (34:57):
It’s probably better, I mean it probably helps the review a little too.

Corey Daniel (35:06):
It does. So, we pick up the phone and we ask for the review. We will text them the link. Yet it’s from our phone.

Sarah Close (35:09):
Where are you sending them? What link are you providing?

Corey Daniel (35:12):
We focus on our Google review page. And so if you want to find us, that’s where we are.

Sarah Close (35:17):
Gotcha.

Corey Daniel (35:20):
And that’s another tool we use with expireds when we’re calling. I’ll just send that link and say, hey look, I’m no fly by the night realtor. I sell real estate. Here’s testimonials, go look. Here’s our website, go look at our reviews. We legitimately will sell your house. But…

Sarah Close (35:37):
Just understanding there’s so many places to aggregate reviews, it’s always really interesting to hear where a top agent will be pointing their review source. So it sounds like not used to getting it, but using it which is great.

Corey Daniel (35:49):
We think Google’s the best because it’s the most used search engine. So we decided to use Google for that.

Ren Jones (35:56):
I mean when you think about it, people are going to often go to Google and just type in your name. They know they can go to Zillow and maybe you’re there, maybe you’re not, but they know they can type in Google and find something on you.

Corey Daniel (36:08):
Yes.

Sarah Close (36:09):
Yeah, it’s a good point. That’s a good point. That’s awesome. So the goal next year is going to be 71 transactions? Did I remember that correctly? So when you guys think about changes you’re making in the fourth quarter to go from your unit goal of 44 this year to 71 next year, what particular tweaks, where are you guys leaning into what you currently do or what you want to supplement for that? That’s a big increase. I can’t do the math that fast because it’s not 3%. But I mean that’s a big jump. So what does that look like?

Corey Daniel (36:39):
It’s definitely more than a 30% increase. We know it’s a stretch goal, however we know if we’re not pushing ourselves, we won’t grow. And I definitely want to continue to grow. I know it’s a stretch goal and yet we’re going to push ourselves. So, one thing that we’re doing is we’re going deeper in our area. Now that we got a lot more systems in place, we’re going to focus more on just little small advertisements in Google and just different layering effects in our area right here. Probably average sales price we’re at, it’s around half a million, we’re in a great area.

Sarah Close (37:11):
You are.

Corey Daniel (37:12):
Yeah, it’s West Fort Worth. And so, my goal is to increase my contacts and so, excuse me. We’re going to continue to go deeper and just get our systems better as well. And this quarter we took five listings this week for a total of 2.4 million in volume just this week along.

Sarah Close (37:34):
Wow. Holy mackerel.

Corey Daniel (37:34):
It was a good week. Yeah, it was a good week.

(37:38):
Thank you. And they were all off expired listings. Every single one were expired listings. And this year alone, 19 of our closings have been from cold calling and we’re going to close 44 this year if everything closes that we have right now.

Sarah Close (37:51):
So nearly half.

Corey Daniel (37:56):
Yeah. Half my business is from cold calling. And so if I could tell anyone, just pick up the phone and ask for business. Just fail through it, ask for business, figure it out as you go, and you’re going to pick up listings here and there and before you know it, you’re going to get this momentum and it’s just going to start popping. That’s basically what I did. I didn’t know what I was doing, I just…

Ren Jones (38:11):
Oh, so can they fly into DFW and watch you for a morning?

Corey Daniel (38:17):
Absolutely. I have an agent coming Tuesday morning.

Ren Jones (38:19):
There you go. And it serves both sides. One of the nice things, when somebody comes to shadow you, you’re going to use the show-off factor and you’re going to do stuff you normally haven’t been doing. It’s all good.

Corey Daniel (38:31):
That’s right.

Ren Jones (38:31):
All Good.

Sarah Close (38:33):
It’s really refreshing to hear you talking about that kind of a growth plan with doubling down on a fundamental as opposed to looking for an expensive, shiny thing to grow the business. And I think it’s really easy to get distracted and I think that’s a really, just super solid plan for you guys.

Corey Daniel (38:55):
Yes.

Ren Jones (38:55):
I mean, the analogy is athletics, you know, take any sport and you just keep honing it, and honing it, and honing it and honing it, and honing it, and honing it, and your batting average keeps going up and then so does your income.

Corey Daniel (39:07):
That’s exactly right. And I feel like the more leveraged items that we have and we have more prominence, I don’t know if that’s the right word I’m looking for, people will see how bonafide we are as a small team, and my conversion rate’s about 75% at the dining room table sitting there, want to get that up. So I have lots of room for improvement.

Ren Jones (39:32):
When you go on 10 appointments, you’re taking seven to eight listings, is that batting average?

Corey Daniel (39:38):
Yeah.

Ren Jones (39:38):
Okay. Which is probably right where you don’t want to be because, occasionally you don’t want them and occasionally they don’t want you.

Corey Daniel (39:46):
Yeah.

Sarah Close (39:47):
That’s right.

Ren Jones (39:49):
So to get to 75%, it sounds like you’re doing a lot of pre-qualifying ahead of actually arriving there.

Corey Daniel (39:56):
Yes, I use the question, when I come out and meet with you and everything sounds great and you feel comfortable in coming out and sell your house, Ren, are you prepared to list your home with me if they can’t even give me a small percentage of hope in my heart, I am not going to that listing appointment, I’m not wasting my time and I’m going to keep moving on, but I’ll follow up with them though.

Ren Jones (40:19):
You have a series of questions you’re taking them through ahead of time to make sure that there are no surprises?

Corey Daniel (40:25):
Yeah. Net G, how much owe your mortgage? Are you interviewing other agents?

Ren Jones (40:29):
Right, will both of you be there, blah, blah, blah and all that?

Corey Daniel (40:35):
And realistically, what do you think your house is worth so I can overcome that objection at the table. So it’s always price and commission honestly, when I sit at the table.

Ren Jones (40:44):
This is beautiful information, this is powerful stuff.

Sarah Close (40:46):
Absolutely.

Ren Jones (40:47):
This is something somebody’s going to want to watch three or four times to absorb because there’s so much material here today.

Corey Daniel (40:54):
Oh my god.

Ren Jones (40:54):
Corey, this is a treat and we’re very, very grateful for that. Appreciate it a lot.

Corey Daniel (40:58):
Thank you for having me.

Ren Jones (40:59):
And we appreciate your time, taking the time and again coming in contribution to help some people out here that would love to get to where they’re taking several listings each month and keep building that business.

Sarah Close (41:11):
Yeah, it’s really exciting. It’s a lot of fun to see what you’re doing and it’s just so purposeful and so skill-based that no one can ever take that away, which is great.

Corey Daniel (41:20):
Thank you.

Ren Jones (41:20):
Now here’s an interesting thing. A lot of people move to where you are and a lot of people have a listing that they’re going to move somewhere else. What’s the best way for them to reach you, to send you a piece of business?

Corey Daniel (41:30):
They can email me at coreydaniel@fathomrealty or just look up Corey Daniel, Fort Worth. The Daniel Real Estate Group is our brand and just look us up, we’re there. Find us on Facebook, find us on Google. Those are really the two best places to find us.

Sarah Close (41:47):
Awesome.

Ren Jones (41:47):
Wonderful, wonderful.

Corey Daniel (41:48):
Take 52. Find me on Take 52.

Ren Jones (41:51):
I know. Go to take52.com. Go to take52.com, sign up and you can talk to Corey, you could have a live chat with him.

Corey Daniel (41:59):
That’s right.

Sarah Close (42:00):
Very cool.

Corey Daniel (42:00):
That’s it.

Ren Jones (42:01):
Good.

Sarah Close (42:01):
Corey, this was a treat. Just a treat today. Thank you so much for your time.

Corey Daniel (42:05):
Thank you.

Ren Jones (42:06):
We appreciate it so much, Corey. Thank you.

Corey Daniel (42:08):
Hey, appreciate you guys.

Ren Jones (42:09):
And thank you Sarah for being here, and thanks everybody.

Sarah Close (42:12):
My pleasure.

Ren Jones (42:12):
We’ll see you everybody next week.

Sarah Close (42:14):
Take care, thanks again.

Ren Jones (42:16):
Bye everybody.

Sarah Close (42:16):
Bye-bye.