Joshua Smith: How Joshua Smith Became The Top 1% Real Estate Agent

Guests: Joshua Smith, Daniel Ramsey
Recorded: October 9th, 2020

Excerpt

Joshua Smith is a realtor in Phoenix, Arizona as well as a serial entrepreneur. Voted the 30th ‘Top Realtor In America’ By The Wall Street Journal and a “30 Under 30” finalist for the National Realtors Association,  Joshua got in the business in 2005 by accident. He was managing a health club and wanted to start one of his own, but needed capital.

Now a top 1% agent worldwide, Joshua owns and operates the #1 real estate podcast in the industry, “GSD Mode.” He is co-owner of a real estate software company “Perfect Storm.” He is also co-owner of many companies in other industries such as healthcare, supplements, health & fitness, and more.

Joshua successfully coaches and mentors over 1,000 realtors yearly all over the US and Canada.

Transcript

Daniel Ramsey
Hey, everybody. Daniel Ramsey here. And I’m really excited because Joshua Smith, the great Joshua Smith is here today. And I’ve known this guy and actually I’ve been your secret follower for like almost a decade, like just in the background and we got a chance to meet a couple of weeks ago and I’m like, Please, please, please come on our podcast.

00:00:24:15 – 00:00:31:07
Daniel Ramsey
And today’s edition is Dominate Your Real Estate Business. Top Tips from a Top Producer. Joshua, thanks for being here today.

00:00:31:07 – 00:00:39:22
Joshua Smith
Man Yeah, I’m honored, man. I truly appreciate your support. Kind words, but yeah, I love it now I’m I’m massive honored to be here with you.

00:00:39:22 – 00:00:58:17
Daniel Ramsey
Yeah. So we’re going to talk about building businesses. I know you’ve built an amazing real estate practice. Scuse me, but let’s walk through like your story first. I want the audience to know who you are, what you’ve done in the industry, and just kind of how you are in the world. Let’s start with your story, man.

00:00:58:17 – 00:01:23:10
Joshua Smith
Yeah, dude. So, you know, I got into the business in 25, says 23 years old. And just just like most things in my life have happened by accident, if you will, you know. Right? Like when I got in the real estate business. So again, I was 23 years old. I was managing a health club at the time, and I wanted to open up my own gym, but I was called drop out, you know, didn’t make good money that closed doors to my name couldn’t get a loan.

00:01:23:23 – 00:01:46:06
Joshua Smith
So I needed a way to just go out there and raise capital and Bain Capital. So 2005, we’ll see markets booming, very similar to like it is today. And this my you know, from an outsider looking into the industry, my perception was everybody in real estate is crushing it, making tons of money. And I just seemed like it’d be the right vehicle or I could just jump into three or four years, work my ass off.

00:01:46:06 – 00:02:07:04
Joshua Smith
I wasn’t married, didn’t have a family. So it’s like, man, I can just go out there and bank. They said, enough of a down payment, you know, right, to go out there and acquire a gem. And I always say that through that journey, real estate became my obsession and health and fitness is my passion. Yeah, right. So I just really just fell in love with this industry, man here.

00:02:07:04 – 00:02:32:02
Joshua Smith
And 15 years later, here I am, dude. So you had jumped in, though, and just grinded hard and had a great first year 40 deals. My first brought me to a capacity and this is 2005. So there’s no donkey side, there’s no smartphones. There was no yeah, you know, so it took longer to do deals. But I had my first assistant started my team go to my second year and now I’ve been running my real estate team for over 14 years and still loving every day of it.

00:02:33:00 – 00:02:49:17
Daniel Ramsey
Jeez. Jeez. Well, what made you stay in the industry? I mean, obviously, you’re passionate about the working out and exercising and staying fit. But, you know, once you got in there, what what was like, oh, my God, there’s an opportunity or what? What caused you to say this was my industry? Well.

00:02:50:01 – 00:03:11:12
Joshua Smith
There was like two things. And it had nothing to do with, you know, working with buyers or sellers and just loving helping people get into their dream home. Not that I didn’t enjoy that. Right. Yeah, but that was that was to the core. That wasn’t it, you know. Right. Number one. Yeah, I’ve never seen it industry in my life that there’s more opportunity out there.

00:03:11:12 – 00:03:29:02
Joshua Smith
I mean you can go from a zero like I was when I got in the business. Nothing to my name, you know, right to in six months, making more than doctors and attorneys, you know. Right. So it’s just endless. The opportunities are endless and it’s the most level playing field out of any industry, you know? Right. Like, right.

00:03:29:03 – 00:03:47:12
Joshua Smith
I’m a, you know, five, ten, you know, uncoordinated white dude. So if I had a dream and a vision of GoPro in the NBA, you know, maybe I’d make it, but it’d be it would be tough to do that for me, you know? Right, right. State man. It doesn’t matter how tall you are, how short you are, fat, skinny, how thick of an accent you have.

00:03:47:16 – 00:04:03:24
Joshua Smith
Like nothing at all is just based on your commitment, you know? Right. So, yeah, you know that aspect, man, just just I, I’ve always loved that aspect of it, you know, a number. But then the day, the time that it really clicked is when I started my team, you know, realizing the impact that, that I could have is, is a team leader, you know.

00:04:03:24 – 00:04:20:09
Joshua Smith
Right. Bringing in agents that I could mentor, that I could coach in really at a high level. Not only could I coach them on the health fitness aspects, that’s a huge part of our business are core values. And, you know, right, we can set a personal health commitment, our organization and you know, we really pushed out as well.

00:04:20:09 – 00:04:41:01
Joshua Smith
But I started having teammates come to me just in tears. They’re like, look, man, I’ve lost £30 in the best shape I’ve ever been. And I’m also making more money than I’ve ever made. And, you know, I just been able to have that impact, man. It was, you know, so combination of those, a combination of I could go out there, make the money that I wanted to make with endless opportunities, plus the impact that I could have.

00:04:41:08 – 00:04:48:01
Joshua Smith
I was much larger than the health fitness space, you know. Right. And I just the combination, those two, man, it was just game over for me after that moment.

00:04:48:24 – 00:05:03:21
Daniel Ramsey
That’s cool. You’ve you are known in the industry as having the number one podcast GSD mode. Why did you start that? You know, what do you focus on in that? And then I want to kind of dove into what you’ve been up to besides the real estate world.

00:05:04:21 – 00:05:31:02
Joshua Smith
Yeah. So, you know, it started originally I well it still me just kind of take a step back here with. So there’s really again, it’s kind of fold of, of how it started. You know, number one, I was asked to be on a lot of podcast. You know, I was I was a, you know, quickly became one of the top agents in the United States in the country and won a lot of awards, accolades and so forth, and got asked to be in a lot of other people’s podcast.

00:05:31:20 – 00:05:53:00
Joshua Smith
And I’m one of those where it’s just I’m a creator, man. I’m like, All these guys are doing good. I enjoy it. But like, if I’m going to if I’m going to listen to podcasts, why don’t I just have my own podcast, my handpick, my own guests and, you know, go and grow it. And I also, you know, I would love to interview has been interviewed on I just didn’t enjoy either podcasters talking over here or you know, whatever.

00:05:53:00 – 00:06:25:21
Joshua Smith
I’m just like do you know from from a top producer to a top producer? I just was calm for I could do a better job with with interviewing and pulling that content information out there. So, but when I started pushing a lot of content out there because I had pushed out about 400 videos before I actually technically started a podcast on downloads and, and that had started from, you know, when I first got into the business, dude, before I got licensed, I’ve always been one of those where I’m like, Dude, I’m, I can try to figure this out on my own, you know, I’ve always had a coach or trainer or whatever, so I knew

00:06:25:21 – 00:06:40:00
Joshua Smith
the power of having a mentor. And even when I was in real estate school, man, I started interviewing top local realtors and my more in. And then when I got license I just I’ve always been obsessed with that man. I jump on airplanes, you know, because when I started and it wasn’t YouTube, it wasn’t podcasts, you know. Right.

00:06:40:01 – 00:07:05:00
Joshua Smith
It’s a jump on air calls and go visit these. You know, we’re talking to agents in the top ten on the planet that would give me their time and take them out to lunch and, you know, so I always wanted, though, because so like so many people, so many top producers gave me so much of their time. You know, I think that’s why you see so many top producers also being willing to give their time because they know that they would have never made it if it wasn’t for that.

00:07:05:00 – 00:07:19:10
Joshua Smith
So but I got to a point where I was so busy and then I had my family and so forth, that dude, I couldn’t I couldn’t get to the point when people would reach out to me, Hey, can you can you take me to lunch? Can I pick your brain? And there’s such a massive amount of them of agents reaching out.

00:07:19:11 – 00:07:35:14
Joshua Smith
I wanted to be able to help them and answer their questions and so forth. But it was like, but with my business and with my kids was like, I can’t see my kids then. So I had to make a decision. So then it was just kind of like, Alright, we’ll just do similar questions and I’ll make you a video and then let me throw that on YouTube, you know.

00:07:35:14 – 00:07:43:23
Joshua Smith
Right. And Joe had several hundred videos on there before the podcast officially started and it’s just continue to explode from there.

00:07:44:22 – 00:07:52:20
Daniel Ramsey
That’s crazy. So when somebody asked you a question, you’re like, That’s episode 297 and watch this YouTube video. Is that is that kind of your move?

00:07:53:22 – 00:08:08:03
Joshua Smith
Yeah, I mean, that’s how it started, you know? Right. And and we’re still doing that today. We still get a lot of feedback with questions and still try to answer as many questions I possibly can on there and give tips and, you know, and give value. I mean, look, at the end of the day, real estate changed every aspect of my life.

00:08:08:03 – 00:08:22:12
Joshua Smith
And I do I feel 100% I feel that it is now my responsibility, like I owe it to our industry, the other realtors, to give back to them and it’s that I owe it to them. It’s that I owe it to my mentors that helped me.

00:08:23:10 – 00:08:44:12
Daniel Ramsey
Sure. Sure. When you look back at your journey, because you’re in the practice, you’re doing it every single day. You have a team, you’re you’re kind of in that top ten of people in the industry. When you look back, there’s always a turning point. There’s this moment in your life where everything clicked or everything change or everything got really good for you.

00:08:44:12 – 00:08:49:22
Daniel Ramsey
When was that and what did you learn in that moment and what would you share in terms of value for the audience today?

00:08:50:19 – 00:09:07:01
Joshua Smith
Yeah. So in this might be different than other guest answers that you’ve had on just because, you know, it’s one of those things where I’ve always done a lot of deals and I don’t want to seem cocky or arrogant with that look like I’ve worked my ass off, you know. Right, like a good agents said. Like, how did you get your first client under contract?

00:09:07:03 – 00:09:24:23
Joshua Smith
Within four days, the business like it was open house is in my first four days. The three open house to the dad work. You know, it was just I mean I’m not I’m not guy that I have no problem working 1820 hour days pulling all nighters like I love the hustle and all that. I still do. I don’t try to do that today with a family and so forth.

00:09:24:23 – 00:09:47:09
Joshua Smith
But at the time, you know. Right, so, you know, even when the market crash, that will pivot and go from being a top traditional agent to a top Oreo agent and so forth. You know, the big turning point for me was about four years into the business. I got to a point where I was making more money than I’d ever even fathom that I could be making in this industry, you know, because you don’t know what you don’t know what’s possible.

00:09:47:09 – 00:10:08:16
Joshua Smith
I mean, I was more miserable than when I was broke, me and I and what I realized at that moment that I set the wrong target and ever since then, once I’ve gotten clarity on the right target for me, that’s when the game changed. What I mean by that is in the beginning it was, as I mentioned before, like I just was here to start cash stick and tired of being broke and raise money.

00:10:08:16 – 00:10:23:10
Joshua Smith
And so I just focus on making money, make money, make money. Money is great. Yep. But when you get to the point when you’re working for him to midnight, you know, my wife and my at that point I had, you know, as Mary, now I had my first kid that half mile from the office. I’m going for five days in a row without seeing them.

00:10:23:10 – 00:10:46:00
Joshua Smith
And I’m in my late twenties, mid to late twenties at this point, and I have a fucking heart attack. You’re like just chest pains, so much stress and. But it was because I didn’t set the right target of why am I doing this? What what does this look like? And so now how I approach business and what that that moment in that learning lesson taught me is I look at a business is a vehicle like none of us lived at work.

00:10:46:00 – 00:11:02:18
Joshua Smith
We work so we can go out and live. So a business is a vehicle that allows you to live that life that you want to live. And it’s like, look, we look, if I’m willing to give this five, ten years of my life how long it takes to create a successful business where that business must eventually reciprocate and give back to me.

00:11:03:04 – 00:11:28:22
Joshua Smith
So I had to get really clear on that and it changed not just just knowing of every day what I’m building, why I’m building, and why it’s important, right? But then from a daily decision factor. So I had to like boil down like what are the things that are most important to me? Well, eventually, for a business to get back to me, man, like I don’t mind the work, but I want to have freedom, location, freedom of schedule as well as I want to make the money that I want to make to create the opportunities for my family and and ultimately make the money that I want to make and be able to do what

00:11:28:22 – 00:11:58:19
Joshua Smith
I want, when I want, with whom I want, you know. Right. That that to me, long term is, is what I want with the business. So I also had to start changing my lead generation marketing, how I set up like everything had to allow that future thing to become possible, become a reality. Yeah, right. But then once I got that clarity on again one that the end game goal is, yeah, right, I had the right target, but I could start making the right daily decisions because all successes at the end of the day is the right daily decisions made each and every day, all throughout the day.

00:11:58:19 – 00:12:23:03
Joshua Smith
That compound, over time and through the success you want to create value just the opposite. Wrong. Small decisions are made each and every day throughout the day. Well, how do you know if you’re making the right decision? Wrong decision? If you don’t have clarity on what that endgame vision looks like and I think that most people I mean, you got 90% of humanity that ends up dying on their on their death and they have this massive should have would have could a laundry list and they die with a heavy heart regret, you know.

00:12:23:03 – 00:12:39:06
Joshua Smith
Right. So got to spend time and reverse engineer life. Okay. Hey, look, when I’m on my death and I’m reflecting my life, how do I want that conversation to go? What do I want to accomplish? What are the things that I regret? Yeah, right. So when we start long term, big picture long term, well, now I can reverse engineer that.

00:12:39:06 – 00:12:58:23
Joshua Smith
So, you know, as we’re getting close to 20, 21, Will 2021 is a stepping stone that that year exists. To give you one step closer to that goal that I want to achieve your rights allows me to start kind of creating these building blocks down to a daily basis of, of, you know, and even a minute by minute basis of what I need to do to create that reality.

00:12:58:23 – 00:13:17:02
Joshua Smith
And, you know, I find that nobody has a motivation problem. It’s a clarity problem that the burnout doesn’t exist, man. It only it only exists. We don’t have clarity, you know. Right. And lack motivation only exists when you don’t have that clarity. And that’s why I say it became a game changer. That’s when it got a hell of a lot of fun.

00:13:18:01 – 00:13:37:14
Daniel Ramsey
Huh? Interesting. And is there another time in your career where you kind of redid everything and shifted? I mean, like after you had that first epiphany, like, I need to have the right goals. I want to have a right vision for my life. There’s probably is another time that everything shifted. What happened and when was that and what did you learn?

00:13:38:07 – 00:13:57:18
Joshua Smith
Yeah, I always said there’s a there’s two big mistakes that I made in in my career, which we just talked about. One of them, the second one was not investing the time to master the hiring process. You know, as you become a team leader, you got to understand, realize that your ability of being a great realtor has nothing to do with your success of being a team leader.

00:13:57:24 – 00:14:20:23
Joshua Smith
Like obviously you have success as a realtor to even start a team and so forth. That’s just kind of a given. Yeah, right. And I spent so much time mastering my listing presentation, fire presentation, digital marketing, you know, all these different things. But man, it was, it was close to a decade into my career before I got extremely intentional with mastering that hiring process.

00:14:20:23 – 00:14:41:05
Joshua Smith
And I got to a point where I didn’t even want to step foot in my own business like I didn’t enjoy it. I didn’t do it. The people I was with, I didn’t enjoy, you know, so many things about it. It just became a headache and a burden. And but mastering that process for any leader, man, I mean, it would have saved me or made me millions more if I would have mastered that earlier on.

00:14:41:20 – 00:14:54:01
Daniel Ramsey
I think if you’re listening and you’re a leader, every single person on this call listening right now identifies with exactly what you’re talking about. If you’ve ever hired people, it’s one of the hardest skills to master. It’s seriously hard.

00:14:54:24 – 00:15:11:13
Joshua Smith
Yeah. And most, though, I mean, most my friends or team leaders or business owners, whatever. And, you know, yeah, I mean, most people the same problem. But I can tell you there’s only a select few that that figured out the time to master the process. Somebody can figure it out, but it’s just what are you going to do to what they’re mastering?

00:15:11:13 – 00:15:30:22
Joshua Smith
And then people will, you know, because you get to a point where your success is no longer dictated by you, you know, like you can only carry the weight of, of the company on your shoulders for so long, you know, gets to a point where it’s all about your people and and and, you know, how do you identify those people finding the right people for, you know, their core value fit and so forth?

00:15:30:22 – 00:15:46:02
Joshua Smith
Man, it’s it’s it’s amazing to me. Well, I shouldn’t say it’s amazing because it took me so damn long to master it too. Yeah. You know, but going through that, if I, if I could have that man even before I started my team, I would have invested the time in that process.

00:15:46:24 – 00:16:07:08
Daniel Ramsey
Yeah, well, one of the funny things about me is I’ve hired over 6000 people to work for our company, and I still don’t feel like I’ve mastered it. And it’s just tough. Hiring people is just tough. Let’s dove into you mentioned digital marketing. I think it’s an important topic today because so many people are going through that transition.

00:16:07:14 – 00:16:26:14
Daniel Ramsey
They used to generate business from client events or referrals or their sphere of influence or networking at some, you know, group or events. And so the entire industry is going you’ve got people who are doing really, really well because they already had a presence online and they already had that figured out. And then you have everybody else who’s trying to catch up.

00:16:27:04 – 00:16:35:22
Daniel Ramsey
Let’s talk through what are the your best steps for people who need to get in that digital game like you did so many years ago?

00:16:37:02 – 00:16:54:19
Joshua Smith
Yeah. Well, I mean, the first thing that I wanted to see there is, is things that I know for sure a lot. A lot that I don’t know for sure. But there is one thing I know for sure is that it works and nothing does it right. So yeah, massive success without getting in digital marketing, you know. Right.

00:16:55:14 – 00:17:15:20
Joshua Smith
I mean, if you we lined up the top 100 agents on the planet, they’d all have different lead generation strategies and so forth, you know. Right. So, you know, but it’s about identifying what you want to do, what you enjoy doing, what you like doing, what your ideal client is and so forth. And that might be networking events that might be open house, that might be through or through repeat referral business, you know.

00:17:15:20 – 00:17:40:00
Joshua Smith
Right. But if it is digital marketing. Yeah, right. Because it just comes down to me. I’m like, okay, you’ve got tactics and strategy tact. You have you only focus on tactic. You’re going to have pain for the rest of your career. But if you learn to master strategies, you understand that you mass strategy, boom. It will create wealth for you throughout your business and it’ll be a game changer for you, you know?

00:17:40:00 – 00:18:00:16
Joshua Smith
Right. So now I’ll give you some examples of that. Like all the people that will come to me like, Oh, I copied your Facebook and it’s not working for me. You’re that’s is them trying to replicate the tactic itself, not understanding the entire strategy. So you’ve got tactics and strategy. So the first thing is, is identifying what is the tactic, what is the medium that I’m going to utilize.

00:18:00:16 – 00:18:20:19
Joshua Smith
So, you know, a tactic would be going out to by direct mail, YouTube, Facebook, you know, whatever that may be. Because, again, there’s not one facet to say, like digital marketing is almost like saying prospecting. Well, there’s a lot of different methods of prospecting, different methods of targeting. So identifying, you know, what it is that you’re going to go after.

00:18:20:19 – 00:18:37:21
Joshua Smith
So what I look at first with that is getting very clear with your ideal client, you know, this is where it really starts. You know, who is my ideal client, where they’re eyeballs at, what’s important to them and so forth, you know. Right. Because for you guys, because all sales is is pain and pleasure people. The pain that they’re experiencing a pleasure, they want to get to you.

00:18:37:24 – 00:18:56:10
Joshua Smith
Right. So you want to show up and be educate them through your marketing, through your messaging that you were the guide to get them from pain to pleasure. Right. So I’ve got to make sure I’m you know, if my ideal clients were 18 years old, I might be marketing on Tik Tok. My ideal clients years, they’re not on Tik Tok, you know.

00:18:56:10 – 00:19:27:00
Joshua Smith
Right. So I’m not there, you know. Right. So getting very clear, you don’t know who that ideal client. So an example, my client what we specialize, we specialize in, we’re already a client once, which is single family, detached real estate, people that are 20 to 42 years old that already own a home, they’re looking to move up. So second time move up buyer, 22 year old married couples that have young kids at home that, you know, live in the suburbs on that 250 to 450 price point, you know.

00:19:27:01 – 00:19:42:12
Joshua Smith
Right. So then we can start breaking down. Okay, well, where are they moving to? Where they live? Where they’re moving to. Right. And then getting to know their pain points. Well, I know that they’re living in a, you know, three bed, two bath, 100 square foot house. They have two kids now. They’re busting out of the seams. You know, they have no home office.

00:19:42:12 – 00:19:59:00
Joshua Smith
They have nowhere to put gas, you know, right. Right. And plus, you know, the kids are getting the age where they they want to build, let their kids go, roam in the neighborhood and ride their bikes like they did when they were kids. Maybe where they’re at now, they don’t feel quite confident with that. Plus, you know, they’ve more established in their corporate careers.

00:19:59:23 – 00:20:14:16
Joshua Smith
So there’s that ego kind of emotional component of they want to pull on their property that they can feel good about themselves with. Plus, they want to have that same thing show up to their parents, their friends and so forth. You’re right. So I know what their pain is and I know what their pleasure is, you know? Right.

00:20:14:16 – 00:20:38:13
Joshua Smith
They want a 2500 plus square foot home, three car garage, four plus bedrooms, you know, two an A-plus bathroom, swimming pool, you know, right. And right now, the price increase more that, you know, 350 to 450 price. So when it comes to digital marketing, then let’s you say paint book and when I say page Facebook ads, I’m speaking to Facebook and Instagram just because they’re ran out of the same platform.

00:20:38:19 – 00:21:00:07
Joshua Smith
I’m making sure that what they want. Right. That that style of the home is showing up though too. So its want but it’s showing eyeballs that are experiencing that pain, you know. Right. And then there we can I don’t know how deep you want to go in funnels and different things you know, with marketing funnels and so forth.

00:21:01:14 – 00:21:13:15
Joshua Smith
But at the end of the day them that’s when it comes to the strategy. It’s getting the ideal client. And then really all strategy is, is what is my effective plan for this tactic?

00:21:13:15 – 00:21:33:10
Daniel Ramsey
Yeah, I think the question is like examples of programs that you’ve built. So the challenge that real estate people have and I’m, I’m guilty of this too, is I needed to build a program, right? And I need to have a paid program, an email program, a text program, a call, you know, like I need a whole digital marketing situation.

00:21:33:10 – 00:21:50:22
Daniel Ramsey
So I just wanted you to talk through like what your program would look like for the audience so they could consider their own program, like a divorce program, a move up buyer program, a first time homebuyer program like the holistic approach to digital marketing is probably something that you could really add value to.

00:21:51:18 – 00:22:13:23
Joshua Smith
Yeah, yeah. I mean, so now I love this stuff you, right? So yeah. And you guys and this is where look, mastery happens. All eyes are on you, right? This stuff, it’s technical, which I know most of us that are in the space aren’t tech savvy. People look before going to say, I never had a computer. I didn’t you know, I’m a millennial, but I’m like at that very far and almost the cut off of not being a millennial.

00:22:13:23 – 00:22:32:08
Joshua Smith
So it’s kind of that foreign age where we’re like technology wasn’t quite infused yet. So this is stuff that I have to learn constantly out of myself. But this is why I said earlier to like, I want to look at things that I enjoy doing. Like here’s an example. I hate a cool calling, right? So I won’t like, I’m not going to read your book on cold calling.

00:22:32:08 – 00:22:51:02
Joshua Smith
I’m not going to jump on a training on cold calling, but I will for for digital marketing all day long because I love it, you know. Right. So I’ll jump on it while my competitors are watching, you know, I don’t know Cobra Kai or some bullshit on Netflix on a Friday night, you know. Right. Like I’ll be binging you free YouTube because here’s the cool thing about today.

00:22:51:02 – 00:23:15:12
Joshua Smith
You guys like all and all the information like between YouTube and then I a site like Udemy, UDP and Wacom where you can pretty much learn anything for ten bucks like it’s either free or ten bucks to learn any of this stuff, you know. But there’s a learning curve to it, you know. Right? So then from there, we got to reverse engineer before we start any type of marketing or any type of prospecting or anything, you’ve got to have the sales machine built behind it.

00:23:15:21 – 00:23:38:12
Joshua Smith
Yeah, right. Like I always look at like the marketing, the ads, that’s kind of like the pretty shell that goes on top of the call. Well, what’s underneath that shell, man? They’ve got the infrastructure. They’ve got the engine, they’ve got all that. Well, you got to have that. So, you know, one thing that we really push in our team is before we go out, let’s just say a branding agent that joins our team before we want them going out there and generating like there’s five things that we need them to do.

00:23:38:15 – 00:24:03:06
Joshua Smith
It might take three weeks to 30 days, you know, right. To get these down. But number one, they had to have a new tracking system in place, like you got to police source. You got to be tracking how many how many conversations, appointments, deductions, clients, closings, know what you cost. All of it is too much. Effort goes into it so tracking system set up and we’re old school like it’s all Google Drive it’s all free Google sheets just don’t know how to build Google sheets or Excel sheets.

00:24:03:12 – 00:24:21:01
Joshua Smith
Neither did I when on Udemy for ten bucks and a Sunday afternoon now I’m a freaking winds you know right yeah you got you got. If you can’t be resourceful enough to overcome that little obstacle, you price, you drop out of this industry. And I don’t mean to be a dick, but it’s got to be resourceful and it would work.

00:24:21:02 – 00:24:35:22
Joshua Smith
Right. So can number one, you’re tracking system. Number two, you got to have your CRM dialed in and setup. You know, right. When I sit down and set up your CRM, you should know per lead source. Okay. When that lead comes in, how am I working every lead per lead source? How am I working when they become a client?

00:24:35:22 – 00:24:51:24
Joshua Smith
How am I working them in this system right when they go into contract? How much work in the system? The past client? How much work in the system? Your CRM is the number one most important asset to your business. There’s not one top producer that isn’t a freak about their CRM that doesn’t know what use an it views it.

00:24:52:06 – 00:25:12:06
Joshua Smith
Yeah right then the best CRM is the one that you’re going to go out there and use. I’m a little biased because I own my own CRM company, which the cool thing with that is like all my follow up campaigns and drips and thousand default campaigns and emails and texts and autoresponder is already built into it. So perfect storm now dot com if I’m allowed to, you know, give it to you.

00:25:12:06 – 00:25:12:20
Daniel Ramsey
Yeah, totally.

00:25:12:22 – 00:25:34:01
Joshua Smith
But today it doesn’t matter which one it is and it’s the the one that you’re going to spend the time with. Invest Master is the best one for you, but you got to get that set up. Thirdly, you’re listing a fire presentation, you know, right? Like if that set up, get that dialed in. No, we’re going to present because if you look at those three, four, not tracking your numbers, knowing what’s working and what’s coming in, you don’t know how to scale up and so forth.

00:25:34:01 – 00:25:51:21
Joshua Smith
So you never have successful regeneration. If you can’t have a full CRM is not set up, you’re never going to have high conversion with those. Those things don’t have your buyer listening presentation set up. You might convert to an appointment, but you’re never going to convert them to a client. So like, look, you’re going to go broke or burn out or a combination of both.

00:25:52:03 – 00:26:05:12
Joshua Smith
So these things kind of make right. The four thing is your past client and spirit influence a strategy in place, right? Because that’s one of the biggest faults of real estate agents, but it’s you just need to get it out.

00:26:05:14 – 00:26:10:14
Daniel Ramsey
And you that’s a whole other podcast. That’s a whole other podcast.

00:26:10:23 – 00:26:28:18
Joshua Smith
And then the fifth thing is market knowledge, you know, right? I mean, spend time and jump in the US, validate in your MLS and our day driving neighborhoods and getting to know the neighborhoods, your product. And you got to know the area that you’re servicing and then the product that you’re, you know, getting a brand new totally green agent fresh out of school within 30 days.

00:26:28:18 – 00:26:46:11
Joshua Smith
We have those things dialed in, but you got to build that machine, you know, so so here’s an example. I got a Facebook ad that comes in our Facebook lead that comes in. They get an automatic autoresponder email, address, thunder text. You’re going to automatically get set up on a thousand day custom pre written email and text drip campaign.

00:26:47:03 – 00:27:03:21
Joshua Smith
Then we’re physically going to go in there and set them up on property alerts. Of course we’re going to call them in the first, you know, hopefully with as soon as possible. With that first day I’m getting calls. Over the first 14 days, they’re going to call every 21 days for the first year until we get them on the phone.

00:27:03:21 – 00:27:24:15
Joshua Smith
We establish a connection. We know what their expectations are, what they want, what their timeframes are. And based on that, then that wall will just want a follow up plan is you know. Right. But you’ve got to be like nobody has a lead generation problem. They have a lead conversion problem. You know, I’ve yet to meet a real estate agent has a lead problem.

00:27:25:07 – 00:27:44:09
Joshua Smith
I mean every human being out there that’s a potentially, you know. Right. Like not the issue. So so you’ve got to have that machine in place. It’s been 30 days interviewing every divorce attorney about to launch they possibly could bring out what are the pains that were the questions, where are the pain points, where they go and what’s keeping them up at night?

00:27:44:18 – 00:27:59:24
Joshua Smith
You’re right. Then I would go to everybody that I’ve known. We all know a ton of people that have been divorced. I go to everyone that I knew at a good enough level that I could ask those same questions to. And then I put together a guide, you know. Right. Of of that would help them answer those questions.

00:28:00:03 – 00:28:22:14
Joshua Smith
So I’m sorry about Facebook funnels. You’re right to be offered a free guy. Our phone calling. Hey, Joshua Smith. Yep. My home group. Just my home group. Just, you know, this is the sales call. Not here to sell you anything. I just. My records indicate that you’re going through a tough time, and I just want to reach out and, you know, first off, say I’m sorry that you’re experiencing this tough time and, you know, share your story.

00:28:22:14 – 00:28:42:20
Joshua Smith
I think it’s really important to attach like maybe you went through a divorce yourself or when you were in your parents divorce. So then I could sit there and say, you know, when I was when I was young, my parents went through divorce. I know how hard that is on families. And look, my heart just goes out to those that are going through the same situation and and I’ve got some resources that I think really help.

00:28:42:20 – 00:29:05:08
Joshua Smith
Again, I’m not here to selling anything. I know you’re going through a ton. I’ve got this great guide that I put together by interviewing 25 divorce attorneys, by interviewing, you know, 100 divorced couples on on what their concerns were, what their fears were, and their answers, responses, questions. And, you know, the feedback that I’m getting from a lot of people that are going through a situation, they find this really helpful.

00:29:05:08 – 00:29:19:19
Joshua Smith
So, you know, I’d love to send it to you if it’s something that you think of value. And I’d love the certainty, what’s the best email synergy or you can have them opt in at it. You know, right in the fall it becomes of a, hey, want to check in with you? Like I’m going to be a resource first.

00:29:19:20 – 00:29:34:17
Joshua Smith
So we do this one for sale by owners, right? Like so we know with for sale by owners and this is why you got to get to know your ideal client, you know. Right. So when we look at a for sale by owner for sale by owners different than expired different than a probate different than you know. Right.

00:29:34:17 – 00:29:57:20
Joshua Smith
So it is virtually impossible to talk anybody out of their belief system, you know. Right. Like if if you are a Trump fan and I’m a Biden fan, not seen, I am not political, I’m just using this as an example of I no matter how long I talk to you, you’re probably not going to change your belief system or vice versa, right?

00:29:57:20 – 00:30:13:20
Joshua Smith
Or if we’re different religions or whatever people, you know, people have to self discover this stuff, right. So for sale by owner, why are they listing their home on their own? It’s because they think the vast majority. It’s not because they don’t like realtors. The vast majority is because they are extremely confident they can do it on their own.

00:30:13:20 – 00:30:35:09
Joshua Smith
Not only do it on their own, they can do it better. Yeah, right. So they have to on average, it goes through about a 6 to 8 week discovery process that they have to go through as well. This is much tougher than I thought. Maybe I need a real estate agent. They’ve got to self discover that. Right. So we have a free for sale by owner resource plan that we go out for four banners with a we’ll do free open houses for me they always insure the house.

00:30:35:09 – 00:30:54:06
Joshua Smith
We give them that person and and they don’t always the commission, but we get all the leads that come through. And you know, of course we have an option. We can help them on paperwork and so forth. I think with our resource, like we give them things to be successful. Like we teach them how to write their own ads, we teach them open houses, we give them blank purchase contracts.

00:30:54:06 – 00:31:11:15
Joshua Smith
We Yeah, right. So we’re establishing herself as that resource, that trusted resource. You’re right here. And if you have any questions, if you have contracts mean that’s interesting. And look, I, I respect what you’re doing. I get that you want to pay commission. Look, when I sell my own house, I mean that big commission. I get it, man.

00:31:11:21 – 00:31:29:22
Joshua Smith
I’m just here to be a resource. Yeah, right. So if you have a question, just reach out, some check in with them every single week offering valuable insights when they hit that pain point boom. They’re thinking of me. Want to go with me, you know? Right. So just thinking about that, you guys are and really when it comes to digital marketing, that is the key is content, content, content, content.

00:31:29:22 – 00:31:46:21
Joshua Smith
Yeah. Right. It’s why you see podcasts like this. Yeah, right. Like why was Daniel doing these amazing podcast with give you guys free content because he’s you have an impact on your life and hope you’re able to go out their business and as you grow and expand and you need help in your business, you know, writing like I’m an assistant, you know.

00:31:46:21 – 00:32:02:18
Joshua Smith
Right. Well, it makes sense to to go with my desk and hire VA. It’s way cheaper, more effective than going out there and trying to do this on your own know. Right. Like he’s getting you first, you know, for boom. Right. And we see it and thanks to our industry like title marketing, sales reps, what do they do for us?

00:32:02:18 – 00:32:21:05
Joshua Smith
Realtors, they give us all these marketing materials. They teach us all this stuff. Yeah. You know. Right. So that they can impact you. So when you start getting escrows, you know, right? Hopefully it’s a lot of reciprocation and it’s the most powerful law of influence out of all the laws of influence. Yeah. You feel the need to give them back and you should want to support those.

00:32:21:13 – 00:32:36:23
Joshua Smith
Yeah, right. Like if you’re getting a ton of value out of this podcast and you’re get to the point where you’re want to hire somebody for system or you’re getting ready to hire the next one. And you know, Daniel’s podcast had a massive impact on your life, you know? Right. Like you should want to give back to him and go with them.

00:32:36:23 – 00:33:00:05
Joshua Smith
Plus, I’m not just saying this to most podcast. We’re also clients of my old desk as well. So like, they have an amazing, amazing service. So, so that’s where it’s content creation is about that. Yeah, right. It’s like same thing. Okay. And they’re all different beast with digital marketing, so it kind of gets clunky in your right, but like YouTube is a totally different beast then my social media paid ads, you know, right?

00:33:00:24 – 00:33:19:07
Joshua Smith
Same thing on there. Like my YouTube ads are not my YouTube ads with my are YouTube content. You got to you can pick up pick like don’t dabble this for most people statements go wrong is yeah I’m going to try these eight different things and I do have faster things. Yeah right. Like, okay well if I’m going to go to YouTube again, it’s a totally different concept, mentally different thing.

00:33:19:07 – 00:33:35:13
Joshua Smith
I got to know the right, the right titles like Have No Great Keywords. I’m going to write the right tags. I got to, you know, know the right call to action. That video, how to get the new engage and what that looks like. It’s a totally different beast, but they’re all extremely effective if you invested time to master them.

00:33:36:10 – 00:33:58:23
Daniel Ramsey
I think you you brought up a point that I think most business owners forget real estate, but most business owners don’t do. Is that 25 interview, 25 interviews with the attorney, the 50 conversations with somebody who’s been through it before, like the delivery of that content, the discovery of going through, hey, what are their fake? What are the pain points?

00:33:59:04 – 00:34:12:03
Daniel Ramsey
Understanding why somebody chooses somebody when they’re in that situation. That’s the piece that most people just fall flat on when they’re thinking about digital marketing. So I’m glad that you brought it up. I wanted to emphasize it because I think it’s important.

00:34:12:04 – 00:34:27:24
Joshua Smith
Yeah. And here is just to piggyback on that, because I think I love that you brought that up. It’s so important. And for most real estate agents, like how you identify your ideal client is who do you connect? Like, who are your people who you connect with the most? If you’re a brand new realtor, you might not like, Oh, well, I don’t have any realtor clients.

00:34:27:24 – 00:34:48:14
Joshua Smith
I real estate clients I’m connected with. Well, what about your past career? You know who your people in your personal life. You’re right at the gym, at your kids school is in your own inner circle. If you look at your, you know, ten closest friends, what are they? But those are your people, you know, right? Yeah. So when I was looking at my real estate clients and getting clear on this stuff, it was like, okay, okay, who did I connect with the best?

00:34:48:14 – 00:35:07:11
Joshua Smith
Who I enjoyed working with the most. Who did that work with that it didn’t feel like work? Who I become friends with after the transaction, they invite me to the weekend. Excuse me. Birthday parties who send me the most repeat referral business. You’re I start connecting those dots and the great thing is we’re working with our clients not everyone’s going to be your ideal client but as you find those ideal clients.

00:35:07:18 – 00:35:25:20
Joshua Smith
Right, just pay attention to the questions that they’re asking you, what they’re saying, you know, ask them right. Like, hey, before we met, you know, what were the biggest fears that you had, you know, when buying your next home or selling your home, you know? Right. You know, just asking those questions and they give it all to you.

00:35:27:03 – 00:35:48:03
Daniel Ramsey
Yeah. Speaking of digital marketing, I want to wrap up. You just wrote a new book and it’s a completely free book. So I know there’s a lot of value in that book. So I want to I want you to talk about it a little bit, give it away to the audience and just really appreciate you being here today and being with show and sharing, you know, massive value for people just because of who you are.

00:35:48:04 – 00:35:49:12
Daniel Ramsey
I just want to thank you for that.

00:35:50:10 – 00:36:09:04
Joshua Smith
Yeah, no truly means a lot, man. So yeah. Group wrote the book. It’s I’ve had it for a few weeks now and you know, I had resistance to a book just because, you know, not necessary a writer. Plus, you know, I don’t know. I don’t value books personally, you know, because of all the stories on the floor of most authors are like, this is it.

00:36:09:14 – 00:36:26:19
Joshua Smith
So I wanted to write a book the way I want to read. So, you know, first of all, most books are written to be sales, lead magnets and so forth. So I was like, I don’t do like I just it’s it’s a value give on, you know, I’m breaking down my top 40, just over 40 tips. I think there’s 47 tips in there.

00:36:26:19 – 00:36:48:03
Joshua Smith
My top 47 tips for real estate agents is to dominate and grow your real estate business from all aspects of goal setting to a daily routine time management to, you know, a CRM set up to setting up, you know, running Facebook ads, to doing successful open houses to, you know, expired physical scripts and so forth. There’s no there’s no fluff in there.

00:36:48:03 – 00:37:04:19
Joshua Smith
There’s no stories. I get right to the point. Each chapter is a different, in-depth, hard core tip for real estate agents. Again, just go out there and to the book. It’s kind of a lame title, I guess. But as you know, as like, well, what do I want people to be able do with read it and be able to dominate their real estate business and dominate real estate business?

00:37:04:19 – 00:37:27:21
Joshua Smith
Top Tips from top producer on, you can go to Joshua Smith, free booking.com and you guys, when I say it’s free, it’s 100% free. It’s not one of these paid plus shipping. It’s a digital download that you get right your email box as soon as you opt in. And again, there’s nothing being sold then there. So don’t worry about, you know, oh, I read this tip and then he’s like trying to sell this back in this product.

00:37:27:21 – 00:37:39:05
Joshua Smith
You know, this is just, again, this industry has changed my life and I’m just trying to impact and give back to to an industry that’s, you know, I had such a massive impact on my own life.

00:37:40:00 – 00:38:04:19
Daniel Ramsey
I love it. What I like also is that the no fluff approach and the checklist, I imagine downloading that book myself and then going, Yep, I’m doing this, yep, I’m doing yep. Oh, man, here’s a couple that I’m not. Okay, I’m going to implement these in this timeframe. And I feel like you can literally go through chapter by chapter and just check mark and okay, I’m gonna do this over the next 60 days and then completely transform your business.

00:38:04:19 – 00:38:06:06
Daniel Ramsey
Is that was that your intention?

00:38:07:17 – 00:38:27:15
Joshua Smith
Yeah. You know, I mean, it’s a not not necessarily. You know, I didn’t I didn’t write it with with that in mind of. Yeah, I want to look now if somebody just took three of those tips, it can massively grow. So now each one builds off the other and so forth. Because look, I give a lot of different lead generation tips and scripts and so forth.

00:38:27:15 – 00:38:46:07
Joshua Smith
And there I know that not everybody is going to do all those lead generation, you know, different strategies in the production. You know, if I’m an independent real estate agent, I’m going to identify to lead generation methods. I’m going to go all in to master those, you know. Right. I have more than that now, but I have a large negative where we have departments that can can go out and execute, implement on that stuff.

00:38:46:07 – 00:39:06:02
Joshua Smith
So right. We’re really writing with I mean, if everybody somebody did all the tips in there. Yeah, you can of course exposure business but even if you did a few of them, you’re right, it’s going to have a big impact on you. And then, you know, through there, you know, I kind of created it where you also get an email every day or just over a week and there’s is in it.

00:39:06:09 – 00:39:31:22
Joshua Smith
Because when I was writing the book, after I got done with the book, I started thinking, Oh, here’s another tip. I’m going to want to do gluten, you know, right in that or even more relevant to like the time that we’re in, right? Like one of the video tips, which is a 20 minute video tip outside the book that that you all it is you know which is a question I get especially now, you know, during coronavirus and stuff when people are struggling, which is, you know, like I go, I need deals now.

00:39:31:22 – 00:39:46:11
Joshua Smith
I had to not deal with like business right now. So, you know, one of those is the four quickest ways to two clients of you need a client the next 48 hours. Well, here’s the best way to go do that, you know, right and so forth. So, yeah, that was tension with it.

00:39:47:12 – 00:39:53:05
Daniel Ramsey
I love it. Joshua Smith, thank you so much for joining us today. Really appreciate your time and your willingness to share with the industry.

00:39:54:07 – 00:40:03:11
Joshua Smith
Yeah, no, it’s an honor, my man. Truly honored to be here. Thank you, guys. If for those of you here with us, watching, listening again, that truly appreciate you being here and this is an honor.