Webinars

Dr. Lee Davenport: The 4 Laws For Follow-Up

Guests: Dr. Lee Daven Recorded: July 24, 2020 Excerpt Recognized by Inman News and numerous real estate organizations as one of the top 25 U.S. real estate coaches, Dr. Lee Davenport is a nationally-respected real estate educator, celebrated author, and blogger (with features in Inman News, Realtor Magazine, and Huffington Post to name a few). ... Read more

Guests: Dr. Lee Daven
Recorded: July 24, 2020

Excerpt

Recognized by Inman News and numerous real estate organizations as one of the top 25 U.S. real estate coaches, Dr. Lee Davenport is a nationally-respected real estate educator, celebrated author, and blogger (with features in Inman News, Realtor Magazine, and Huffington Post to name a few). She trains real estate agents and brokerages on how to work smarter with technology. MyOutDesk Founder & CEO Daniel Ramsey sits with Dr. Lee Davenport for a special interview. A short backstory –– During the recession in 2007-2008, Dr. Lee went against the flow and chose Facebook as her main mode of social media marketing, instead of the popular site Myspace at the time. This move boosted her business so much that she had to build a team later in the year just to keep up with demand and sales.

Transcript

00:00:05:23 – 00:00:26:21
Daniel Ramsey
Hey, everybody. Danny Ramsey here with my out. I am so excited. We’ve got Dr. Lee in the house today and yet. And she’s from hot Atlanta. And now if you don’t know who she is, she’s been recognized by Inman News and numerous other real estate organizations as one of the top 25 coaches in the real estate industry. Dr. Lee, thanks for joining us today.

00:00:27:12 – 00:00:36:00
Dr. Lee Davenport
Thank you for having me. It’s always good to see people. I feel like I’ve been quarantined and just away from everyone for so long.

00:00:36:08 – 00:00:57:05
Daniel Ramsey
But we’re going to we’re going to get you in front of a lot of people because we’re going to send this out to everybody. And if you’re listening today, we’re going to do the top four laws from Dr. Lee in follow up. And what I’m excited about right now is everybody’s trying to make this kind of crazy transformation from brick and mortar to everybody’s on digital.

00:00:57:05 – 00:01:05:11
Daniel Ramsey
Right. We’re all of it virtual right now. So we got an expert today, Dr. Lee, to share everything that she’s learned over the. How many years have you been doing this?

00:01:06:02 – 00:01:10:16
Dr. Lee Davenport
I will say my whole life, because I’m second generation, my parents. So my whole.

00:01:10:17 – 00:01:25:20
Daniel Ramsey
Your whole life, you’re we’ve got the doctor in the house. Okay. Well, let’s let’s start and just your story. Who are you? How long you’ve been doing this? I always like to introduce the guests so that the audience knows why they should pay attention.

00:01:26:10 – 00:01:50:07
Dr. Lee Davenport
So let me give you I’m going to give you a short, condensed version of just how I got to being a trainer and coach ten years ago. Well, so a little longer than ten years ago, back when the recession was going strong, like I said, I grew up in the real estate family. And I moved here a little bit before the recession, moved to Atlanta from Michigan thinking, hey, I’ll go ahead and get started.

00:01:50:07 – 00:02:12:08
Dr. Lee Davenport
My parents, that apartment buildings and communities. So I’m like, okay, I can do that. It’s like, I’ll, I’ll start it. So I get here. Things were going well until 2000, seven October, to be exact, the stock market crash. And now at that point I was in my twenties, my twenties, nobody else’s my young in them years so young and never miss it.

00:02:12:24 – 00:02:34:16
Dr. Lee Davenport
I’ll bet you did. Yep. We all know it got real, really bad. So bad that I would say 95% of the buildings I had because that tenants I was flipping, I was fine voting. 95% of them lost their jobs. And it for me, I couldn’t be heartless and just kick people out because I had going on. So I said, okay, I get it.

00:02:34:24 – 00:02:56:07
Dr. Lee Davenport
I got to figure out something else to do. So young and dumb me said, why don’t I get my real estate sales license and sell real estate even though the market is crashing because of real estate? So I get my license. At the time, my brokers, my trainers and managers, they said, Hey, you got to do the traditional thing.

00:02:56:07 – 00:03:02:04
Dr. Lee Davenport
Door knock Coke wasn’t working for me. Yeah, I got going at the time. A little unknown thing called Facebook.

00:03:03:06 – 00:03:03:15
Daniel Ramsey
Okay.

00:03:03:18 – 00:03:26:02
Dr. Lee Davenport
When you hear someone saying to me, Facebook this is how long you go with you need to be on MySpace. Facebook is for teenagers. It’s going nowhere. And it’s like, are we all laughing at that now? Yes, we are. So I went with my gut, didn’t listen. I got on Facebook, my business took off, took off. So much so that by the end of 2008, I had to build a team.

00:03:26:02 – 00:03:50:14
Dr. Lee Davenport
I couldn’t keep up with all of the business. I couldn’t keep up with follow up, which is what we’re going to talk about. But from there, my brokers let me come in and do trainings and then from there, fast forward 12 years later, I’ve been training now across the world and it’s been amazing. So technology, social media and follow up are my favorite things to talk about and I’m excited we get to do it today.

00:03:51:00 – 00:03:58:06
Daniel Ramsey
Yeah. Yeah. So so technology, innovation and follow up, those are your three kind of favorite things.

00:03:58:17 – 00:04:01:21
Dr. Lee Davenport
Absolutely. So let’s talk Russian.

00:04:02:08 – 00:04:17:19
Daniel Ramsey
I love it. So let’s talk about disruption real quick and then let’s talk about technology a little bit, the innovation side, and then we’ll jump into the foreign law laws of follow up by Dr. Lee and hopefully add value what’s going on in the innovation space right now?

00:04:19:01 – 00:04:46:14
Dr. Lee Davenport
Okay. So with I’m sure a lot of industries, everybody’s seeing more use of video. We saw this before now before the pandemic. And as a result, it well, even with video, one of the things in the real estate industry which may or may not be happening in other industries but disruption, people were trying to say, hey, we don’t want to keep paying for your service.

00:04:46:20 – 00:05:06:16
Dr. Lee Davenport
Yeah, let’s try to cut you out. And that happens in a lot of industries, right where it can you what you provide, it can be threatened. So we were seeing that at an all time high and it was because of video and different things where people felt like, hey, we’ve got these platforms where we can do a virtual tour.

00:05:06:16 – 00:05:29:13
Dr. Lee Davenport
We don’t really need you to open the door for us. But what this means since the pandemic is that and this is what we is in our profession, we already knew. And this is most businesses, even though you may have different technology tools, which are great and they’re helpful, you still ultimately need someone to explain the process who does this every day.

00:05:29:22 – 00:05:58:01
Dr. Lee Davenport
If you don’t do this every day, who wants to spend two months trying to learn everything like it’s going to be your new career when it’s not, you’re just trying to do one transaction. So right, we’ve seen all of that just kind of come almost full circle in that the very thing that was disrupting us has now been the catalyst for us to get in front of more people and work with more people.

00:05:58:14 – 00:06:20:01
Daniel Ramsey
So much has changed. I just read an article about a mall, a major, you know, international mall opening drive thru movie theaters. So like there’s going to be 125 brand new drive thru movie theaters. And so COVID has really changed everything. Our pandemic has changed everything. What are you seeing in the technology space? Shit. What are you seeing like happening?

00:06:20:01 – 00:06:24:02
Daniel Ramsey
What’s innovative? What’s going on in that space? That’s kind of interesting.

00:06:24:02 – 00:06:44:22
Dr. Lee Davenport
Yeah. You know, the best thing that I’m seeing is that we are embracing video more. I know I keep mentioning video, but that’s been the piece for so many people and so many businesses where people have been slow to adopt it. We’ve seen people like I think he’s eight years old, that eight year old on YouTube who made last year like $20 Million.

00:06:45:02 – 00:07:08:07
Dr. Lee Davenport
We’ve seen that. It’s been around for a long time, but many people in business have been slow to embrace it. And as a result, we haven’t really reaped the rewards that come from embracing video more. So anyway, now that’s what I’m seeing. I’m seeing people that have been very timid about using video because now we’re all doing this zooming more.

00:07:08:07 – 00:07:27:18
Dr. Lee Davenport
We’re doing so much more with video. People are embracing it and it’s now becoming a part of marketing that is really, again, the catalyst for increased business, even at a point where we’re really in a recession. But people a lot of people are experiencing business growth.

00:07:28:14 – 00:07:49:18
Daniel Ramsey
What’s crazy as you’re as you’re talking about that, I mean, our whole company has transitioned to virtual. We’ve been virtual for 13 years. Video has been a big part of what we’ve done in this interview is video. This is going to go on YouTube everywhere. And yet when I see other entrepreneurs, they’re like, I don’t know if I want to be on camera.

00:07:49:20 – 00:08:00:24
Daniel Ramsey
I don’t know if I want to talk about what I do. And so there is definitely some opportunities for people who want to be innovative and really push the boundaries of digital marketing. Today.

00:08:01:20 – 00:08:24:00
Dr. Lee Davenport
Apps lately. And I’m just so thankful that because now we are using this to even just simply communicate with loved ones, people are getting more and more comfortable with video. So I’m hoping that what we’re going to see come from this is, again, business growth for so many people that hadn’t experienced it before.

00:08:24:09 – 00:08:43:11
Daniel Ramsey
Let’s go. All right. Well, let’s dove into our main topic, which is the four laws. A follow up by Dr. Lee. So I’m excited because I’m a sales guy and more consistently getting questions from from clients. How do I build up a follow up team? How do I get Issa’s to prospect for me? How do I make it?

00:08:43:19 – 00:08:59:02
Daniel Ramsey
You know, can I just buy some phone numbers and put them in a screen and then call? And I’m like, No, you’ve got to build a system. So let’s let’s dove in. What is the system look like, according to Dr. Lee, too, for a company to really grow through a follow up process?

00:08:59:23 – 00:09:21:24
Dr. Lee Davenport
Great. I love it. And I really do think these four laws are universal. I call them evergreen. So again, I’ve seen it outside the pandemic. In the pandemic, they were and they tripled from industry to industry. So the number one law and these are not in order of priority because off or important, I just put them numbers next to it.

00:09:21:24 – 00:10:04:05
Dr. Lee Davenport
So the first one is to make sure everything you’re communicating is an item of value and what that item of value does is it says to people, to consumers, to prospects, hey, this is the trust trusted professional in this industry, in this with this topic. So I got it and I were talking about this briefly earlier, how I’ve seen people who again, for example, may be a real estate sales agent, but they’re always sharing recipes on how to bake banana bread, which is like, great if you want to have a cookbook, but not so great if you’re trying to position yourself as an expert in another industry.

00:10:04:07 – 00:10:05:03
Daniel Ramsey
Right, right.

00:10:05:16 – 00:10:26:01
Dr. Lee Davenport
So having an item of value, every single connection. So even if you’re doing a quick text message or a five minute phone call having something that you can offer them, it could be a link, it could be video, it could be a download, it could be an article. But having an item of value is so critical.

00:10:26:14 – 00:10:31:15
Daniel Ramsey
How many items of value would you say that one company ought to have?

00:10:33:00 – 00:10:56:07
Dr. Lee Davenport
Good point. So again, because I really believe it needs to be every single contact you can really truthfully here, this is the part where people feel like, oh, this is overwhelming. Honestly, you may only have one item of value, but you take this one item of value and you repurpose it until it is.

00:10:56:07 – 00:10:58:06
Daniel Ramsey
Just it’s.

00:10:58:07 – 00:11:19:14
Dr. Lee Davenport
Almost I think I picture a car where the wheels are falling off, but that’s okay. It can be one thing whether again, it can be one video or it could be a e-book. You have it could be an article, something. But the point is you can pull snippets and excerpts from it, right? You don’t give them a data dump every single time.

00:11:19:14 – 00:11:40:06
Dr. Lee Davenport
We’re just taking out small charts every single time to make people say, and this is what I say about an item of value. It’s truly an item of value. If they say to you, Tell me more about your business, tell me more. That’s how you know it was an item of value. That’s how it piqued their interest. If people are not saying, Tell me more.

00:11:40:11 – 00:11:47:11
Dr. Lee Davenport
If you have crickets when you send out an email blast, then you know that wasn’t truly an item of value.

00:11:48:02 – 00:12:08:20
Daniel Ramsey
Hmm. So the feedback loop in that step one is so important. You’re your potential clients and the people that you’re contacting need to say thanks, this is cool, or This is awesome, or it has to be something that people actually want. I’m thinking like, stats are probably good. Like, what’s going on in your industry or profession or service?

00:12:09:15 – 00:12:13:02
Daniel Ramsey
What other kind of item? Let’s give let’s give the audience some some examples.

00:12:13:13 – 00:12:41:16
Dr. Lee Davenport
Okay, so here’s what I believe in. So I mentioned I like technology. I like automation, and I don’t like the other piece. Why I like with the four laws of follow up. I do not like spending a lot of hours on one thing. So instead of you racking your brain about what would be an item of value, I’ve got some resources I use my favorite resource is called answer the public dot com.

00:12:41:22 – 00:12:42:15
Daniel Ramsey
Yeah.

00:12:43:01 – 00:12:45:05
Dr. Lee Davenport
I get you that of course.

00:12:45:09 – 00:12:46:15
Daniel Ramsey
Yeah.

00:12:46:15 – 00:13:12:13
Dr. Lee Davenport
So you can type in whatever your item is, your service, your product and see what our people searching for on Google. What are they asking about this particular service good or product? Now get the guess where you know exactly now what are some items of value you can deliver based off of these questions and these these answers?

00:13:12:13 – 00:13:32:24
Daniel Ramsey
So what what a cool thing. I would also suggest using answer the public to create video, to create your blogs, to get your emails all set up. And so yeah, I think item of value based on that is a really good. That’s pure gold. Dr. Lee That’s pure gold. Okay. What’s step number two?

00:13:33:24 – 00:13:52:04
Dr. Lee Davenport
So step number two is to now automate. So going back to the fact that we just talked about, hey, you might you might have a lot of content or you might only have one thing that you’re going to break up into segments. But regardless, how are you going to get this out in a way where again, you don’t go crazy because.

00:13:52:06 – 00:14:16:08
Dr. Lee Davenport
Right. Have to manually send emails or videos or mailings or go door knocking, all of these things that you can do to grow your business. But if you have to do it manually, I dare say you might go crazy, you know. So I really the next step is to automate everything. You can’t we can’t automate relationships. We know that.

00:14:16:08 – 00:14:16:17
Dr. Lee Davenport
Right?

00:14:17:00 – 00:14:18:02
Daniel Ramsey
But there’s a lot.

00:14:18:11 – 00:14:39:12
Dr. Lee Davenport
In the relationship process that we can automate. So we can automate text messages, we can automate, of course, emails, although again, it’s got to be an item of value. People actually open it, read it. You know, I made our social media, we can automate those on our website, we can automate even the video content we’re going to provide.

00:14:39:12 – 00:14:48:09
Dr. Lee Davenport
So there is nothing in 2020, thankfully, that we do to market that can’t be automated, at least a piece of it.

00:14:49:02 – 00:15:10:05
Daniel Ramsey
So I’m let’s let’s pretend I’m medium at business like I’m in that half 1000000 to $1000000 range where 96% of all businesses are in that below $1,000,000 range. I’ve never really automated much. What are the things that you believe would be step one, two and three of automation?

00:15:11:19 – 00:15:34:20
Dr. Lee Davenport
So I would say, I guess for me, I always like to have people look at a few things I like them to look at. So, number one, what are your shrimps? Okay, I know a lot of us define shrimps and the things that we do well, and that’s not true. Shrimps are the things that not only we do well, but we enjoy it.

00:15:35:05 – 00:15:56:01
Dr. Lee Davenport
So I would like people to identify that in this process, the marketing process, once you identify that, you know, you shouldn’t automate their goals because the thing that you do the best, that the thing that people are like, Wow, I really want to work with you. You don’t do that. You don’t automate that.

00:15:56:05 – 00:15:59:04
Daniel Ramsey
Because that’s what drives revenue. That’s what drives revenue typically.

00:16:00:00 – 00:16:21:07
Dr. Lee Davenport
Absolutely. So we keep that. But now we’ve got several other things where we may say, hey, I don’t I’m good at doing this. I don’t like doing it. Let’s get it off your plate. And it almost leads into law three. I combine law three and law two where some things we’re going to need to automate and other things we’ll need to give away.

00:16:21:07 – 00:16:23:20
Dr. Lee Davenport
And I’m going to give you a shameless plug here.

00:16:24:11 – 00:16:28:08
Daniel Ramsey
Right. Delegation, my favorite term. Yes. Okay.

00:16:28:17 – 00:16:48:04
Dr. Lee Davenport
We’ve got to give it away. And you have such a great company to help with that. So when people have things on their plate that they can do, but it’s a poor use of time and drains their energy, they wake up like, I can’t believe I got to do that today. Get rid of it. Get it out. Yep, yep.

00:16:48:12 – 00:17:07:16
Dr. Lee Davenport
Those would be the things that I would want people to identify. What are you good at? What are you good at and you like? And then what are the things that you don’t do? Well, you don’t have time to learn or you just don’t like doing because those are the things you need to get off your plate. Those are things that evaluate.

00:17:08:06 – 00:17:32:01
Daniel Ramsey
I love two and three combining it because there’s this process, you know, go in there kind of revolutionize the process, meaning you’re optimizing that process, then you’re trying to automate as much as you can in that process. Then you delegate it to someone else. And if you follow those three steps, typically you can hire a virtual assistant. You can get leverage in your life and focus on the things that grow your business and that you really love and enjoy.

00:17:32:01 – 00:17:36:04
Daniel Ramsey
That’s my whole world. I love this. I love it. Okay, what? Step four?

00:17:36:20 – 00:18:08:17
Dr. Lee Davenport
I love it. Okay, last step. Of course, after you have given things away and you’ve automated things and you’ve got this really well oiled process, there is some things for you to still do, right? So now the last step is I want you to be a time block blocker. And what I mean by that is I want you to protect the time you’ve set aside to do your work in a in a relentless, ruthless way.

00:18:08:17 – 00:18:33:09
Dr. Lee Davenport
Because many of us it’s not that we don’t know how to use a planner. It’s not that we don’t use Google calendar. That’s not it. We know how to get through our day, but it’s the interruptions that drag us away from what we needed to get done or the fires right? We end up focusing on or being reactive versus actually being proactive in going after new business.

00:18:33:09 – 00:18:41:10
Dr. Lee Davenport
So I want you to ruthlessly guard the time you’ve set aside to work on your follow up piece.

00:18:41:10 – 00:19:04:11
Daniel Ramsey
Yeah, I mean, so let’s talk about that because I’ve seen some of the best business entrepreneurs like in that up and down roller coaster of revenue where they get a lot of business, then they’re busy, then they’re not following up or prospecting or driving more revenue. Right? And so now all of a sudden they have no revenue and then they’re scrambling in this.

00:19:04:11 – 00:19:24:19
Daniel Ramsey
And this is the we call it the revenue roller coaster. Right. So how do you help somebody understand that they’re in that and that it’s something that’s in their control? Because that’s a challenge that we’ve had is, you know, people come in. I’m just don’t have time to train a new virtual assistant. And we’re like, Well, but do you like being on that roller coaster?

00:19:25:01 – 00:19:33:21
Daniel Ramsey
And they’re like, Yeah, I love it. And I’m like, Are you sure? Are you sure? You know? Are you sure? So how do you help somebody through that mindset?

00:19:34:11 – 00:20:14:16
Dr. Lee Davenport
Yeah. So and this is the coaching, please. Yeah, I like to get into how oftentimes like you see it because we’ve been doing it for so long, we almost think it’s normal. We almost say, I don’t have an option, this is the only way it can be done. So this is where we’re going back to the where we started with disruption has to come into play and I like to a lot of times give examples of people in the industry doing it, yet not doing it in a way where they’re on that roller coaster that sells roller coaster.

00:20:14:16 – 00:20:39:22
Dr. Lee Davenport
So I like for people to once see that there are other options because again, we don’t know it. So I’m trying to disrupt the thinking, disrupt that thinking. Then I’d like to ask people to identify what would it look like if you could get these pieces off your plate? Like you said, if you feel like, Oh, I don’t have time to train this extent, but what would it look like in the long run?

00:20:39:22 – 00:21:01:05
Dr. Lee Davenport
So not just next week but a year from now. What would this really look like? How much time would it really ultimately save you? And a lot of times when we can quantify the time, the energy, maybe even the additional income will now make, when we can quantify those things. I feel like that gives people a light at the end of the tunnel.

00:21:01:05 – 00:21:26:10
Dr. Lee Davenport
So. Okay, yes. The next week, two weeks, three weeks, maybe even the next month. Sure. Because we’re trying to get a new system going, but it’s worth it once we have quantified these numbers. And we can see in the long run, I won’t even say long run in the mid-run where you know, just three months out. Yeah, give it a couple of months and you will have a breakthrough.

00:21:26:10 – 00:21:30:24
Dr. Lee Davenport
So quantification is a big deal for me. I didn’t make up a word.

00:21:31:03 – 00:21:31:14
Daniel Ramsey
I don’t know.

00:21:31:14 – 00:21:34:12
Dr. Lee Davenport
The quantification of the word, but I’m going to use it. I’m going to.

00:21:34:12 – 00:21:56:18
Daniel Ramsey
I just I have a I see a doctor in your name. So I just assume you’re smarter than everybody else that’s listening, including myself right here. So, okay, this has been great rattle off to the four laws one more time for for the audience, and then we’re going to jump into how you coach people, what you do, and how somebody might actually get a hold of you.

00:21:56:18 – 00:21:57:06
Daniel Ramsey
Is that cool?

00:21:57:20 – 00:22:27:24
Dr. Lee Davenport
Sure. All right. So law number one is to have an item of value that you give every single time you connect with people to the point where they say, tell me more. Remember if they don’t tell me more, that was an item of value for them. Number two, automate everything. You can not do relationships, but a lot of little paperwork and the little administrative things they need to be off your plate, which goes into law.

00:22:27:24 – 00:22:55:03
Dr. Lee Davenport
Number three, give it away. Yep. Your inefficiencies. And for many of us, that absolutely means virtual assistants because that gives us an opportunity to not be responsible for if someone’s 40 hour a week livelihood and benefits all of those things. Yeah and work law is be a time block blocker could set this time to do follow up.

00:22:55:19 – 00:23:07:18
Daniel Ramsey
There you go there you go Dr. Lee Davenport, thank you so much for being here. If our audience wanted to get a hold of you, find you, stock you, maybe hire you, how would they do that?

00:23:08:16 – 00:23:23:18
Dr. Lee Davenport
So for me, everything is just my handle. Learn with D.R Lee the website Learn with Dali Broadcom at the end of it. But you can find me on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, even Tik Tok that’s just dance.

00:23:23:18 – 00:23:27:20
Daniel Ramsey
And we’re like, You’re dancing on Tik Tok, you’re dancing on TikTok.

00:23:27:24 – 00:23:31:13
Dr. Lee Davenport
I’ve got my whole office and we got it. It’s crazy, but.

00:23:32:08 – 00:23:53:13
Daniel Ramsey
Know I love it. All right. Well, Dr. Lee, thanks for joining us today at my desk. You know, we created this show so that people who actually needed real strategies had a place to go. And you’ve obviously added to that. So I just want to thank you and thank the audience for listening today. My name is Daniel Ramsey, the CEO and founder of My Artists.

00:23:53:14 – 00:23:58:20
Daniel Ramsey
We help companies save money, time and scale their business. Thanks for joining us today, Dr. Lee.

00:23:59:11 – 00:24:03:03
Dr. Lee Davenport
Thanks, Daniel. Bye, guys.