Wendy Griffis: Recognize the Difference

REE #246 Wendy Griffis: Recognize the Difference

[00:00:00] Wendy Griffis: real estate is not sales.

I am not selling anybody anything. I am helping a consumer either, get their property sold so they can move on or whatever, or I'm helping a buyer identify the property and then procure it. Right. 

[00:00:32] Tracy Hayes: Hey, welcome back to the Real Estate Excellence

Podcast, great show in store for you today. I have a 25 year agent who has won countless awards of recognition. She's a five star award winning realtor. She is an ambassador for the Buffinian Company. She is an author. In reading that book, watching her videos on YouTube, I have prepared a great conversation today.

Let's welcome this top producing agent with better homes and gardens, real estate lifestyles, realty, Wendy Griffiths to the show. Hey, Tracy. Thanks for coming on today. Thank you for having me. This is going to be fun. 

I am too, because hopefully we can compact it in and anyone listening today, get out your notepad.

I'm trying to try not to go beyond my normal time, but, with your book and I was, you know, diving into it. And as we were talking pre show talking to [00:01:20] all the great agents, we touch on one or two things in your book, but I want to go through it in depth. in depth from the standpoint, you know, you've got some quotes in there and we'll talk around it because you've evolved your chapters around and obviously some of the case studies, in there and just expand on it because I think it's really a tool.

like you said, sometimes you got to hear it in your life, five, 10 times. And how many times we, we've been told to eat better, exercise, whatever. And then at some point we're like, you know what, That's what we're going to 

[00:01:47] Wendy Griffis: do. Yeah. I shared with you. One of my favorite thing is we don't always need more training.

We just need to be reminded. And that's been my journey, right? Like I've taken training and taken little pieces here and there. And then I'm like, Oh yeah, that's what I'm supposed to be doing. And then I add a little bit more and a little bit more. Yeah. So we 

[00:02:03] Tracy Hayes: finally make that step and take that journey.

So, you've been on other podcasts, so I think a lot of people, if they've, if they've Follow you. I don't want to spend too much in the pre real estate cause there's so much in your real estate career that I want to dig into. But, you went to Bishop Kinney. I 

[00:02:17] Wendy Griffis: did. So I've been a native here since 77.

Okay.

Seen

A lot of change. Met my husband while I was in college at UNF. Okay. and, Ironically, we were just doing some, statistics and in 1993 when we met, Jacksonville had 635, 000 people. We now have 1. 7 million. Oh, 

[00:02:36] Tracy Hayes: wow. Almost three times. So it's 

[00:02:38] Wendy Griffis: really grown quite a bit. [00:02:40] I've been here through it all.

[00:02:41] Tracy Hayes: That's just Duval County? 

[00:02:42] Wendy Griffis: Nope. That's Duval, Quad County. So, Nassau, Duval, St. Johnson, Clay. Right. Yeah. 

[00:02:47] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. and probably within the next few years we'll be breaking the 2 million. It's going to be amazing. Yeah. Yeah. going to UNF though. 

[00:02:54] Wendy Griffis: Yes. 

[00:02:54] Tracy Hayes: Real estate probably wasn't, even though they, they would, did they even offer real estate?

Cause that's, that's actually a major right at UNF? It is now. 

[00:03:02] Wendy Griffis: so, you know, go back in the late eighties, early nineties and love math So I was going to be a math teacher. That was actually my dream. and then I realized I went 

[00:03:11] Tracy Hayes: down that route,

Yeah, and 

[00:03:12] Wendy Griffis: I was like, Okay, math

teachers don't make quite as much as I want to. You're kind of capped there.

Right. And so I kind of floundered a little bit trying to figure out, okay, well, what do I do? Cause I got a degree in statistics with business and, you know, It has some applications, but it was kind of tough. And so anyway, I kind of floundered a little bit, had several jobs just trying to figure out my path, started doing project management, which I excelled at and quickly moved up the ladder.

but then, Y2K hit. In 2000 and everybody was losing their tech jobs including me and I had just bought my first house So I was 29 years old

Newly ish married and I loved my realtor like I think I drove her crazy like after every showing we'd stand out in the driveway And talk for 20 minutes in the next house, right?[00:04:00] 

So I remember calling her and saying, Hey, I just lost my job. It was January of 2000.

2000.

can you make it? What was going on? I keep 

[00:04:06] Tracy Hayes: trying to remember and I don't understand why it's okay, but why were they cutting the tech jobs? 

[00:04:10] Wendy Griffis: So the biggest thing is there was a huge ramp up up to 2000 to get all the computers.

We had the. com. 

[00:04:17] Tracy Hayes: You had the. com boom going on these. So the 

[00:04:19] Wendy Griffis: company I worked for over a course of a few years got bought, bought, bought, and then eventually. They're gone. They were just, the services they were offering 

[00:04:27] Tracy Hayes: weren't, they no longer needed. 

[00:04:29] Wendy Griffis: And yeah, I would say that that company closes stores within three months of me getting let go in January.

And I remember what was crazy about that is I took it very personally. Like what could I have done differently? And what I learned during those times is, you can't take it personally. Right? Like at the end of the day, that's just the reality. So, anyway, long story short is, I called my realtor and said, Hey, can I make any money in that real estate thing?

I need to replace the salary. And she said, come on in the water's warm, you know, and it was fun. and daughter brokerage. and to this day, I'm so grateful for that opportunity that they gave me because you know, new agents, that's really tough, right? Like, okay, what do I do now? You know, and I was really lucky the broker, she mentored me in the beginning.

So that was, you know, it was a nice way to, to get started. 

[00:05:14] Tracy Hayes: Did you have any inclination that it could come what it's become today for [00:05:20] you? 

[00:05:20] Wendy Griffis: Great question. back, when the Northeast Floor Association of Realtors had an office off the south side, they were selling bricks. And I want to say this might have been 2006.

So I'm like five, six year, I'm still getting my momentum going. And I bought a brick and I wrote the word possibilities on it. So not so much, nobody has a vision of where they're going to be in 25 years. I mean, you can, but, I just knew in my heart that there was possibility, for growth that I, didn't feel like I had anywhere else in corporate America.

So, right. Yeah. 

[00:05:53] Tracy Hayes: So talk about because I think it's important especially for any anyone Well, and it's not necessarily new we use the term new but to me someone for you It sounds like the first five or six and having You know listen to you talk to others and so forth that first five or six weren't stellar years.

you know, where, you know, you just exploded, you kind of trudged your way into the, you know, through the business initially. so there's a lot of agents, I think are in that category, either that or they're out. Yeah. Right. Cause you know, obviously we know, many of them don't renew the first.

Time

first two years.

Everybody thinks 

[00:06:26] Wendy Griffis: it's so easy and so glamorous. Yeah. And they're like, we got to work. But you 

[00:06:30] Tracy Hayes: kept, you, and we're going to talk about grit a little later on, but you had the grit to stay in it and you, there was something, what was your kind of like [00:06:40] your carrot? There's like, I can do this, I can do this because five or six years go by, most people would have been like, well, I've seen her there, she's only been doing it two years and she's.

Tripling my business. Yeah, you know, I can't she's good. I'm not type of attitude. I 

[00:06:54] Wendy Griffis: appreciate that So it's you know, it's always a journey right and it's always great to look back on your journey and go Oh, yeah, that's that makes sense. I connected those dots While you're going through it, you may not be seeing the dots, right?

So, I actually, my first year, I think I sold like six houses, right? I didn't know what the heck I was doing. still 

[00:07:11] Tracy Hayes: good for actually for a first year

right?

for many. Yeah. 

[00:07:14] Wendy Griffis: but once I started to really understand what the consumer needed, I was easily selling 20 homes and more, more a year by my second year.

Okay. But what happened for me is it's, it was less about, like the production, like, okay, here's what I want to do, or that I can do it, is that, How do I frame this? I just went to work. Like I was just, I was looking for income, right? So I just went to work, went to work, went to work. The reality is though, nobody really told me, you should stay in contact with your past clients, do all these kind of things, until about 2006.

You didn't even know the 

[00:07:48] Tracy Hayes: definition of a CRM. Right. That wasn't even like a We 

[00:07:51] Wendy Griffis: didn't really even, electronically, like I had a Christmas card list, right? That was on a Word document, that was the extent of our CRM. Yeah. you know,[00:08:00] 

So you have to date yourself a little bit. Technology has changed quite a bit. I think it's just helped us be better, servers, you know, for our consumers, keeping up with everything.

But, I just felt like I just needed to work and I just kept showing up. I think, one of the things that, A newer agent struggles with is where do they get their information? And what do they do every day? What does that look like? And I just went to work and so, didn't even really think about it.

And I was really lucky because a lot of my clients did refer me in my early career. and I didn't know there was a difference between, you know, by working by referral versus like they want to teach you on calling expireds and for sub owners. And I did not want to do any of that. So it was either relationships.

Or I'm out, you know, 

[00:08:45] Tracy Hayes: one of the things you bring up in the book. there's a section in their salesy, you talk about that. And when you just said that no one, I never even, that you didn't even really think about, or no one ever said, Hey, you should stay because you didn't grow. You didn't grow up with a sales, mindset.

You were wanting to be a math teacher and then you were a project manager. according to doing those types of things. And now you go into a sales world, which is a totally different thing. A good friend of mine, we were at a dinner with some people and he said, you know, the [00:09:20] disconnect between I. T. and sales is so huge because I.

1. has All these, you know, things that they can do, but they don't know what the sales people need to do. There's this disconnect. So you, you make this leap into sales and it's like, oh, I didn't realize that. Oh, my technology guys could be keeping track of all these people for me and all that kind of disconnect.

And obviously it's so important today, a company that has sales that their back office understands what the salespeople need, the ammunition they need out on the street to do their job. 

[00:09:51] Wendy Griffis: Well, it's interesting cause I did not want to be. like at all. And I remember, thinking, that real estate is not sales.

That's how I've, I framed it in my head. I am not selling anybody anything. I am helping a consumer either, get their property sold so they can move on or whatever, or I'm helping a buyer identify the property and then procure it. Right. And there's a lot of steps that go along in that. But really. and that's why I had that uncomfortable feeling of like, I don't want to be considered a pushy salesperson.

So I really dove all in on being a professional, like trying to be the most professional that could possibly be to differentiate myself from being a salesperson, which is how the consumer perceived real estate. You know, we're down there with this, you're thrown under that 

[00:10:39] Tracy Hayes: [00:10:40] category. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right.

Right. 

[00:10:42] Wendy Griffis: But I mean, you could talk and now let me back up and say this. There probably are people that go into this with, you know, they bring the listing paperwork and sign here and they do those hard sale tactics and I never wanted to do anything like that. So it worked out great. They didn't have to.

Yeah. And I think that the consumer resonated with that in my early career because they're like, She's good at what she does and she cares about me 

[00:11:03] Tracy Hayes: taking more of a consultant role. 

[00:11:04] Wendy Griffis: Yeah, 100%. that's really been on my heart is, how our industry is perceived, which is how I ended up writing the book because I really wanted to break that mold.

Of course, it's one little voice out there. Mm-hmm . but there are quite a few, really great professional agents out there. And, one bad apple. You know tarnishes the whole bunch but it shouldn't be that way. 

[00:11:28] Tracy Hayes: Sure. I want to mention our sponsor as my regular people know Remy graphics Makes these nice mugs.

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[00:12:01] Wendy Griffis: yes 

[00:12:02] Tracy Hayes: So what I'm hearing is like many of us We've been to all these trainings now. Were you involved in buffini at this time? 

[00:12:09] Wendy Griffis: So it's great Yeah, because I think let's jump to that. Yeah, I'll explain the books. Yeah Ultimately what ended up happening is I kept hiring business coaches and I would say this started about four years into my journey mostly because I was like I I don't know everything and where do I I need some help.

I just knew I needed help. I need some direction. And I remember I hired one company and they just wanted me to do option contracts and how to do that. I'm like, no, no. That's not the kind of training I want. Right. And then I went with another training company and they tried to teach me other stuff And none of it resonated.

And so I randomly, on accident, or however you want to call it. That's how I call it. January of 2006, I'm sitting there at a Brian Buffini conference in, Orlando and it's the first session and he's talking about building a relationship based business. And I'm like, ding, ding, ding, that is how I am aligned.

You're speaking my language. I'm signing up. And I immediately signed up for his, training programs, his coaching programs, you know, all of the marketing stuff he did. So, and [00:13:20] so this is 2006. My book is 2019. So there's a 13 year gap in there and a lot happened during those times, particularly just in time for the great recession, am I learning these concepts, right?

so now I am, you know, hosting client events. I'm doing all these relationship based marketing, things, and falling in love with my customers. Yeah. But now I'm having like really painful difficult conversations that they're losing their house or losing their job Like we went to that short sale between 2006 and I would say 10 It was really it lasted to for me.

I didn't really see a change We flattened out around 10 and our loving but you know, it really wasn't till 12 that it really started to go back up again but those were hard hard conversations to have but I think it created some loyalty because I would You I would work for somebody, sometimes for a year, and never get paid.

Right? But I still showed up. And, you know, we went through some very difficult times personally, also. my husband lost his job. He was unemployed for a couple years.

You know, real estate was not doing so great and I wanted to quit truthfully, you know, we talk about people lasting, and I, this was around 2010, I think it was 11 and I'm like, I can't do this anymore.

I can't feed the family, right? Like this is not working. But nobody would hire me because I've been a realtor for 10 years. Right. So they're like, what skills do [00:14:40] you have? I'm like, I have a lot of skills, but it didn't translate. And so I'm like, all right, well then

i'm

[00:14:45] Tracy Hayes: that's one of the things that mind boggles me in life.

how someone else out there who's not in our industry or it could be any parallel industry has no idea what you do 

[00:14:57] Wendy Griffis: and 

[00:14:59] Tracy Hayes: has no way to put themselves. At least in some way in your shoes in some way, shape or form. Hey, what is a real estate agent do? Well, she must be calling on people. She must be having conversations with people now.

Today with the internet, you're seeing all the social media showing what real estate agents, the podcast, your agents talking about what they're doing. So people are like, are actually getting real life. But the fact that you could go through life as an individual and not realize that what the person next to you is doing on a daily basis.

basis, at least in some sort of 30, 000 foot level, what their day is like. 

[00:15:39] Wendy Griffis: Yeah. 

[00:15:40] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. 

[00:15:40] Wendy Griffis: Well, it's interesting because I did have somebody approach me to, follow me video camera, a day in the life of a realtor. And I'm like, it would not be that interesting of a show because all you're going to do is see me on my phone texting, talking, emailing, like, uh, That's the majority of my day.

Being a therapist. Right. And then I might show a house or two [00:16:00] a couple times a week, or I might meet with a seller a couple times a week, but you know, what you see on TV and the Instagram world, is not necessarily the reality of what we're doing. And so, cause of course it's always the highlight reel.

What about the low light rail? Does anyone want to see that? Probably not. They want 

[00:16:16] Tracy Hayes: to see you going and cleaning toilets and vacuuming people's homes. I will say that. I 

[00:16:20] Wendy Griffis: don't do that. I got a guy. But they don't see the emotional stress that this industry will put upon someone who really is wanting to serve.

And sometimes, not all, but sometimes the consumer on the other side, they haven't broken that trust barrier yet, right? So they're still thinking you're trying to sell, 

[00:16:41] Tracy Hayes: right? 

[00:16:41] Wendy Griffis: And there's a difference there. 

[00:16:44] Tracy Hayes: You know, that's, you bring up a, you just gave me a thought in mind. Every real estate agent should have a camera set up basically in their kitchen, 

[00:16:50] Wendy Griffis: right?

[00:16:52] Tracy Hayes: we're at most of the time doing, and the calls that you get after six o'clock Oh 

[00:16:57] Wendy Griffis: yeah. 

[00:16:57] Tracy Hayes: and the, the conversations you have. 

[00:16:59] Wendy Griffis: Yeah. 

[00:16:59] Tracy Hayes: some are business. Some are right there. Many times it's therapy and pulling people off the ceiling and that sort of thing. But yeah, people don't realize that these, if you're going to be a good at your business relationship, you've got to answer the phone after six o'clock because that might be the right time for that person to focus on the mission at hand, [00:17:20] buying or selling the home.

[00:17:21] Wendy Griffis: So, you know, it's interesting you say that because I actually learned over the years

to, What's the word I'm looking for put boundaries on my life now Do I answer the phone after seven absolutely have I had like that? I'm gonna be really tired when we talk but I'll talk to you if it needs to happen tonight

I'll circle back around and say, you know sales versus running a business Right and that difference and a lot of agents get into the business and they're just thinking about making sales, which was me I just need to make sales make sales.

Yeah, but really 2006 is when I started to shift. I own a business. How am I going to run this business? How am I going to have a sustainable business? for the rest of my life. Cause now I bring my ships. I ain't going anywhere. You know, 

[00:18:03] Tracy Hayes: you've been in the business long enough. You've seen so many people come in and out.

I personally believe that a lot of agents only barely look 90 days in advance if it that far, And, because I'm sure your, your business would have been different. If someone told you from day one, Hey, that first customer, you need to be calling them 70 times saying hi birthday, whatever. And right from the beginning, cause I've had some great people to say their actual, one of their regrets, you know, George with Christina Welch's team, he said one of his biggest regrets was not.

not nurturing that circle of influence or that, sphere of influence, earlier in his career, [00:18:40] you know, and which should be is, you know, a lot of people teach that for day one. Okay. How would, what's your list? What clubs are you involved in? What are the things let's start nurturing those people?

[00:18:48] Wendy Griffis: Yeah, I was really lucky, because I did, you know, get exposed to these concepts. six years in gosh, I would have loved it. Year one. Right. But truthfully, did 

[00:18:59] Tracy Hayes: it mean something to you? Now you had some, you had sales under your belt that you now knew where to stick it. 

[00:19:06] Wendy Griffis: Yeah, maybe. So it's weird. So the interesting thing about this industry is we want to say, I did this, so I got that.

Yeah. It doesn't work like that. That's human nature. It's human nature. Right. To say that. So, I've been really fortunate to be part of the Buffini Company organization because they do provide the foundation for building a real estate business or any sales service business, but they also have a personal growth arm.

That I would have never been exposed to had I not been with that, that group. And, I think that is one of the key things everybody talks, okay, let's talk business, but we are not linear business. Um, you know, whatever. but to your point, we are, we say, how are you doing? Oh, I had a good month. How are you doing?

I had a good month. So I recently just did a post cause we're starting the new year and I always, do screenshot of. All the homes I sold in the previous year. [00:20:00] And so 43 homes from 2024. Yeah. I'm trying to figure out.

we are in, right? But

that says, okay, now I'm done and moving on to start over. But the reality is, if you build your business correctly, that's just compounding to the next year.

It's a snowball. It's a snowball, yeah. And so I don't look at it as, okay, this is my year. Even though we do, that's our industry. We're going to have a good month, we're going to have a good quarter, we're going to have a good year. Of course, that all matters. But am I building a business? For the long term.

Mm-hmm . That's my focus. And so if you look back at my career now, I'm 850 plus sales in my career, and that to me is like a lifetime achievement. Mm-hmm . That I'm going for, not What did you do this year? What did you do this month? 

[00:20:45] Tracy Hayes: Alright, so you started with Buffini in roughly 2006. Six. Mm-hmm . Okay. 

[00:20:49] Wendy Griffis: Then we lost everything.

Yes. During the Great Recession

 I

I just over that. That could be, hold on, because I 

[00:20:55] Tracy Hayes: do want to. get in, into the deep into the book because I've made some, you know, good dozen marks in here that I want to talk about because I really think it's a great educational podcast for those listening.

But you, so you're, you've been listening to Buffini for a dozen years at this point, doing his stuff, which I assume you're getting results because you stayed with them, right? You're getting something there.

What brought you about to say, Hey, I need to put this on the paper. As you said earlier, 

[00:21:19] Wendy Griffis: for [00:21:20] sure.

So, with Buffini, we have, this, you know, foundation of, of help, you know, to get coach and those kinds of things. and around the time I was writing my book, say 2018, 2019, that wasn't when a lot of the tech, companies were just, I mean, putting, millions and millions of dollars into, trying to capture, we'll call it, the dirty behind the scenes secret is, you know, you go online and you click more information on this house and you're really signing up to someone who paid, to capture, to get your information and then to sell you, right?

And I never wanted to do anything like that. And the consumer did not know. They just see this great website with lots of pretty pictures and great information like, Oh, this is great. Oh, I want to get more information. And so they just End up working with the first person that they clicked on. Now that first person may be a legitimately a great agent, but the consumer didn't know the difference, right?

Like, could I have a better experience? And on the, outside of looking at X, I didn't follow those practices. I had many people, say, Oh my God, I had the worst. I had the worst experience and I'm like, how do I get the word out that you can have a better real estate experience? And that's kind of what started me down that path.

I was part of multiple masterminds that talked about how [00:22:40] important, as a, uh, Authority once you have some experience, give that information back out to the world, right? So it's kind of an authority marketing piece. so you wrote a book, you know, you must know something. but it was really, several people in my life at that time.

You said, yes, this is good information. 

[00:22:55] Tracy Hayes: You and I are on the same page from in that standpoint, because I started the podcast, we talked about earlier, you know, why would, what was the premise of actually getting day one? But as, as time has gone on now in, you know, three and a half years in at two and a half years, we're hearing about the NAR settlement, right?

NAR, this lawsuit and all the brokerages, the big brokerages involved. And I feel the collateral damage is, the fact that social media is out there and they start downplaying real estate I'm sure you've had Clients, you know call on your listing now. I don't want to be represented. I know what i'm doing and you know Just that real estate the value of real estate agents were degraded here.

And so i'm like i've Said well actually, I mean part of my podcast and what i've been doing for three years now is getting the stories and why? People should be using real estate agents. This is not, I don't care how many times, actually the pros still use real estate agents. They don't bother getting into the weeds, so to speak, with what the real estate agent is doing for them.

You know, keeping them out of the [00:24:00] weeds. so yeah, so what the value in being, putting that out there, and I think agents need to be, more, Transparent for the betterment of the industry to say, hey, this is what we're doing. I mean, this is, you know, from a financial side on the loan officer side.

Yeah, we pull some people out of the deep weeds to, you know, unfortunately we might get too personal that we don't, you know, want to share someone's personal information. per se, or, you know, mentioned someone that someone might know that person, talk about how bad their credit was, how messed up their finances are.

You know, they may make a lot of money. That doesn't mean their, their stuff is in order, you know, 

[00:24:35] Wendy Griffis: and it's interesting you would say that because, the first chapter of my book and Brian Buffini always says it's first for a reason, right? Talks about emotional intelligence and the reason why I put that good 

[00:24:46] Tracy Hayes: segue, we're segway and right into it.

All right, let's go. 

[00:24:49] Wendy Griffis: The reason why I chose that. is, and nobody wants to talk about, the consumer doesn't want to talk about that they may have stress issues or they may have, emotional stuff wrapped around this house, right? Like, cause people always think, you know, we're just, I don't want to show my weakness.

I don't want to show my Achilles heel. So

so

But buying and selling real estate is a very emotional process. Whether you are the seller, and my, two favorite examples is, you know, you get a seller who gets their home [00:25:20] inspection report that a buyer just did on their house, and they take that very personally.

But it's just a third party objective view of, yes, there's a leak, and yes, there's a crack. But because people are, they live in these homes, and as It's almost like a child, right? That then they are insulted that they got this report, right? And then on the flip side, you get a buyer who does this inspection and they're like, Oh my gosh, there's a crack in the wall!

And they get over emotional over something generally fairly mild, right? And so I think, The value of a real estate agent is to put some, let's calm through this and perspective and find a solution. 

[00:25:57] Tracy Hayes: How many times you think about all the different things that we do in life and we decide to do, it could be going to a movie.

We ask other people what they thought about the movie before we even go see the movie to make the validate our reason to go to the movie. 

[00:26:11] Wendy Griffis: Right. 

[00:26:12] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. 

[00:26:12] Wendy Griffis: Yeah. 

[00:26:13] Tracy Hayes: and I think what the real estate agent comes in. They are the person who's done 850 transactions and are going to guide you through this home buying process because they've done it 850 times and they still don't know everything.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

[00:26:30] Wendy Griffis: In fact, I was driving over here today and. So I have a transaction manager. She's been with me 20 of my 25 years. I'm so grateful. but I'd sexers that we have to add a new task because [00:26:40] we have a closing today and I shouldn't say this on film, but here we are. and we always give a closing checklist to our buyers to say, here's the things you need to do, turn the electricity on for the day of closing.

And they didn't. And so now we, I'm like, okay, we have to add another test to remind them, Or follow up and just say, did you turn it on? Right. I mean, you wouldn't think you would have to do that. We're all adults, but at the end of the day, 

[00:27:03] Tracy Hayes: that's what a real estate agent does. Make sure you, you know, to, to, Take that weight off your shoulders, the weight off your mind and remind you of something as small as 

[00:27:13] Wendy Griffis: calling the power 

[00:27:15] Tracy Hayes: company and telling them, I'm closing, turn it over to me on that day.

Yeah. so the first part, and just going in order in your book, and I suggest If you are, I guess you can get this on Amazon. Is that where, or, I mean, you have some copies, I guess, or you have it, but I think everyone should read this book. yes, no, it's really good. It's well written. it's very simple read.

You can read it in one night. but it really, it's like that thing you're hearing all the things, but you're also relating that you've been doing these things and you've obviously seen a return on investment. 

[00:27:47] Wendy Griffis: For sure. You know, for 

[00:27:48] Tracy Hayes: some of these things, which is, you know, the importance, like you said, of writing it down because now, now it's, you're not losing that thought.

You've actually put it in the book now, which is great. You know, part of your learning process, right? We take notes in [00:28:00] class, you see it on the board, we write it down, we hear it and you take it. So the first thing we were just talking about a few minutes ago, the online and Omics, I worked 12 years. The first, eight and a half years were with Quicken Loans, which now Rocket, and then Loan Depot working in the call center.

taking all those types of leads. If the lead came directly to, either on an 800 number from an ad on television, or, you know, came directly through the website, they went directly to Quicken's website. Those were considered priority, not prior. Those are prime leads because the customer's obviously going directly to versus lower my bills or rate, or, you know, all the different, click.

Things that these people have and people don't realize how many times, we got called because they were paying prime dollar quick and was anyway, and I, I'd get on the phone and go, Oh man, I haven't even finished filling this thing out. The information's already being transferred before you even hit submit.

Yes. Yeah. and then the, the big thing they got, recently trigger leads, obviously from Marley, another mortgage lender pulls your credit. It's going out to a bunch of other, I think they're trying to stop it. It's been in legislation. there was some defense spending bill a month ago. I guess they dropped it out.

But there's a push to stop allowing the credit bureaus to sell your I 

[00:29:17] Wendy Griffis: do realize that. Yeah, that too. And if we framed [00:29:20] it, we're in business. To generate business and we need, I hate the word leads. I call them potential clients. Yes. Words matter. but our industry calls them leads, right? So again, we're already cheapening the relationship.

Hey, I got this lead, you know, whatever. but, That is an okay thing to do if you're trying to generate business and you're just trying to get started. Back when I first started, we didn't have online because it was too, that didn't exist. So I did open houses, right? Just to get my name and get myself out there where the consumers are.

So I understand that desire for the leads, but I don't think the consumer really understands. That when they're clicking, they're being watched. And maybe they do. I think we're actually coming into a time period now where people are starting to realize, Oh yeah, maybe that's not the best way to go about it.

And I personally, as much as that NARA lawsuit was like, are you kidding me? I'm actually a little bit grateful for it. Because I think it brought to light that, our industry had gotten away from some of the professionalism, right? I think I want 

[00:30:21] Tracy Hayes: to use the term lazy. It's got a little lazy. Well, and it's 

[00:30:23] Wendy Griffis: really easy to click on a thing.

I want to see this house, and I'll just use that agent. I don't know if that agent's good or not, but it doesn't matter. And if that agent flubs up the deal, You don't know any better. You don't know any better, exactly. So that's really where that came into. 

[00:30:38] Tracy Hayes: What do you say, [00:30:40] because I think there's a lot, you know, we know there's some brokerages that's, you know, working off those online leads is how their business model is.

There's others, but, I think, would probably be the majority of agents, I would guess, have your kind of, they want the relationship, the relationship, business model. They want to live off referrals. Where literally, you know, each week they're getting a call from somebody, Hey, Sally referred me, she bought a house from you, whatever.

Right, right, right. You know, type of thing. I mean, that's, that's like the ideal. That's the, You know, when I first got out of school, I actually went into car sales and the story was about the old guy who sat at his desk all the time in the dealership and people just came to him. He didn't even get out of his desk, off his chair, and business kept coming because he had been in it so many years.

So many people knew him and everybody, you know, wanted to buy a car from him. 

[00:31:28] Wendy Griffis: So, and I heard, you know,

heard

You, I think you interviewed Kim Knapp. She's one of my favorite people on the planet. And she said this early in my career. So I grabbed this and it was in your business. You can be a hunter or a farmer.

Sometimes you're gonna have to hunt. Yeah. I need to get out there and get business 

[00:31:45] Tracy Hayes: tonight. 

[00:31:45] Wendy Griffis: But if you are taking this as a career, right, then let's be a farmer. Let's plant those seeds. Let's.

You are a

a little bit of a slower process, but then over [00:32:00] time it just compounds and compounds and compounds. 

[00:32:03] Tracy Hayes: So, the question that I wanted off of that is you got the, yeah, I'm sure you've mentored new agents before, or you're, you're, I'm sure over at better homes. Yeah. 

[00:32:12] Wendy Griffis: Yeah. They have 

[00:32:13] Tracy Hayes: you come in and speak to them anyway.

how do you help them get started? Because, farming is great. If you've got really super fertile soil, you may be able to produce crops pretty quickly. Others, their soil is not so, maybe they're very young and don't have, you know, whatever it is. Yeah. they just moved here from out of state, doesn't, don't know anyone here locally, that kind of thing.

To keep them in that mindset, even though they may still have to actually go out and hunt and bring back a carcass today. 

[00:32:42] Wendy Griffis: So I think the biggest thing on something like that is to know.

that

I think, and I made this mistake too, just so you know, I go get my real estate license February of 2000 and I'm like, I'm here to sell a house, right?

I'm ready to go. And then I'm like, I'm like, I started serving people. I'm like, Oh, I'm not getting paid. Oh dear. You know, and six houses a year is not going to pay the bills. So I actually had to go back to corporate America for about six months to have some money so that I could build my business. And what I learned from that is people think I'm going to get in, I'm gonna start making money and it doesn't happen.

Yes. Right. The excitement of it all. But the reality is you have to think this is a longterm [00:33:20] game. And the reason why most agents don't last more than about a year or two is cause they don't. know that it's a compounding system over time and you have to be social. You have to get out there and meet people.

You can't do it all online. You have to join networking groups. And I know that open houses are one of those like, I don't want to open houses. They don't work. That's what I've heard. Right. but I think that's your best chance of getting to where the consumer is. Buyers are coming through or they're not.

Right. and then you have the neighbors of the sellers, right? So you have people who. Want to buy and sell houses right there and open house. So to me, I feel like that's a great way, but you can absolutely get in networking groups and your church and you know, all the other things. but I think the key point is you may be very well connected, but if you are also not competent, And none of that matters because people will like you, but they may not do business with you.

Right. So you really have to develop your competence skills also. And so to me, they say the first two years are your learning years. And then from there it's your earning years. So, and I know that's a long time to say, okay, I'm going to build this business for two years, but you got to have some money and reserves.

[00:34:29] Tracy Hayes: All right. We talked about the internet thing and then the. Emotional intelligence, you write in here, and that covers a lot of actually things from, how you're doing [00:34:40] negotiations, and so forth. Expand a little, because I think, And I brought it up. I bring it up on the show each time. So it's, it's tough for me cause I've had all these conversations, but it's so important that, when I hear the stories and I'm reading what, what you've written in here, you know, just, you have to, you have to be the adult in the conversation and sometimes.

Your person, maybe buyer, seller, whatever it is, is talking directly to you. You need to be the filter, not a pass through, right? You need to be a filter. And sometimes you might want to wait an hour before you actually say something else, you know, because you need to be that professional and have that emotional intelligence.

[00:35:23] Wendy Griffis: Yeah. So, great kind of segue on that is. I don't know if I always had emotional intelligence. It was something I developed over time. So I made a lot of mistakes early in my career. And I, again, I'm just going to, reference the Buffini organization. Not so much because he's like, here's what you should do.

Here's what you should do. But that community is a community of givers. And personal growth people, right? And so I would find myself going to these conferences, kind of quiet, sitting in the back, not really talking to anybody or whatever. but anytime I talked to someone who was successful, they would say, what book are you reading?[00:36:00] 

And I'm like, Stephen King.

And so I remember, and it was about

2011, maybe

2011, maybe 2010. I have to go back and look, maybe it was earlier in that other track. I'm like, you know what, I need to start reading books and if I'm going to get to that level, that's what I need to do. But I wasn't a reader except for nonfiction. So I started audible was my first book and my first book was, power of ambition by Jim Rome.

And then that book just, I love listening 

[00:36:27] Tracy Hayes: to him on like YouTube, they've recording so good. Right. And so the 

[00:36:30] Wendy Griffis: next book and the next book and next book. And so that's how my emotional intelligence journey. I started to really understand success principles by Jack Canfield. And boundaries by, I can't even think of his name now, but he's the emotional, intelligent dude, right?

anyway, Godman, something like that. Anyway, So I got to a point where I read 

[00:36:50] Tracy Hayes: the books too and can't remember all the authors. 

[00:36:53] Wendy Griffis: But, so what ended up happening is I started, I committed to reading a book a month, right? That was my goal. Now I read like four a month, right? So to me, that's where the emotional intelligence comes in.

may have it naturally, but if you go to work on it, right? And say, how can I better myself? self. what can I read? What can I learn to have that emotional intelligence so that the biggest thing is to not take things personally, right? Like that's so important. and to be able to let [00:37:20] go some, my favorite example, I remember pulling up to my driveway, I've got a 1.

5 million listing and, 2.5 million dollar purchase and not just so you know, that's not my average salesperson, you know, right? So these were two big sales. One was contingent on the other and I'm in my driveway and the buyer of the one I was selling backs out of the deal like a week before closing. Which means that sales not happening and therefore the one they're buying is not happening and I gave myself 30 seconds to like say some things out loud and scream my car and then I'm done Yeah over it and getting on the solution side.

Okay, what can I do if anything? Maybe you can't do anything, you know, but to me that would have do ten years before would have derailed me I've been gone for a month. I'm gonna just stay in bed for a month, right? And so my goal is to just shorten the amount of pain that I allow myself to have 

[00:38:14] Tracy Hayes: That story actually fits into one of my other questions I've been adding because I told you I'm trying to put this book together with a premise under grit by Angela Duckworth and I call it everyone needs to create their LLC and Love Laughter and consistency is their grit.

So 

[00:38:32] Wendy Griffis: yeah 

[00:38:32] Tracy Hayes: You just gave me the laughter. 

[00:38:35] Wendy Griffis: Okay, 

[00:38:35] Tracy Hayes: because You've done this before You were thrown a [00:38:40] curveball, that obviously because of the price point was even more dramatic to you because you get, everyone gets excited with the, the bigger sale that they've got. in that, in, you took that moment to scream and yell in the car and then you probably laughed like you just did 

[00:38:56] Wendy Griffis: about 

[00:38:56] Tracy Hayes: it because you, what 

[00:38:57] Wendy Griffis: can I do?

Yeah. 

[00:38:58] Tracy Hayes: What can you do? And to me, I, you gestured towards faith earlier. That's the way he's throwing me a curve ball. I can get upset for 30 seconds a minute or whatever, you know, you need to do, go hit a punching bag or something. and then you laugh about it because you've been here before you're the sun's going to come up tomorrow and you laugh about it So i'm going to take that part out because we just answered the laughter part of it Because you have the reps in to know Okay Yeah, that guy backed out.

There's some reason to it because maybe there's a better buyer coming in, whatever it may be, something better is going to happen and that's your attitude and we laugh about it. 

[00:39:38] Wendy Griffis: Yep, for sure. I could speak to the love piece too, if you'd like. 

[00:39:41] Tracy Hayes: why you love real estate? Yeah, go ahead.

[00:39:43] Wendy Griffis: Actually not love real estate. 

[00:39:44] Tracy Hayes: That's where that's the premise of that question. But yeah, so 

[00:39:48] Wendy Griffis: love also was not, a big part of who I was, or how I expressed it, I guess would be the way to put that. Of course, I love people, right? But in my early career, I [00:40:00] was so worried about being considered a salesperson that I just went all in on being a professional, right?

Like, okay, I memorized the contract, I know the numbers backwards and forth. What you need to do. What you need to do. Don't miss a deadline. Yeah. Very important. Thank you. But it really wasn't until the Great Recession and Brian Buffini being part of that organization, one of the things he has us do is write personal notes.

And I know that sounds like, okay, you're writing a personal note, but what I found in that journey of Committing to personal notes is that you don't write a personal note that says, I hate you, you're the worst person in the world, right? You're usually saying something of gratitude and thankfulness and how much you appreciate that person for whatever reason.

And I found doing that consistently actually worked on me. It kind of cracked open that love, that heart piece of it. So, and I have these customers right now I'm working with, I don't know, we're probably in their fifth sale or something like that. And it doesn't matter what happens in my day when I go to see them.

I'm so happy because they love me. I love them. We just have this wonderful love. But I don't know early in my career I could have showed that cause I was a little nervous, like, Oh gosh, they're going to screw 

[00:41:09] Tracy Hayes: this up. And yeah, they don't 

[00:41:10] Wendy Griffis: think of me as a professional then, you know, I'll be a salesperson, but it is not unusual for me to leave a client and say, bye, I love you.

[00:41:20] Well, 

[00:41:20] Tracy Hayes: we, we talked about the imposter syndrome, right? You know, am I good enough? Yeah. You know, type of thing. And if you're doing the things that you're, you know, we're talking, yeah, you need to know the contract. You need to know, you're hitting, you're, you're doing all the things right. And you've shown yourself doing it, you know, a half a dozen transactions already.

You need to start having some confidence that, that you're probably pretty good at this. 

[00:41:40] Wendy Griffis: Yeah. 

[00:41:40] Tracy Hayes: You know, you're active in the industry and you're having these conversations. And, know, when those, those people are not giving you accolades just because. You know, I know sometimes we like to think, like, our neighborhood's the best neighborhood, so we want everyone to move into our neighborhood.

You know, there's other great neighborhoods, that you are doing a good job. Be proud of yourself and be confident and expect that relationship and go after it. Like you're saying, go and start creating it because you know that person's going to say great things about it when the transaction's over too, just like the last one.

[00:42:10] Wendy Griffis: And I would also add this little tweak to that. Don't hold tight to the results. If you just give and give. And one of my favorite sayings is never grow weary doing good, right? Because sometimes you can grow weary. But what I found, especially when I feel like sometimes I want to give up, just keep going, keep giving, keep loving.

Right. And so I'm going to, I'm going to hold that clip 

[00:42:31] Tracy Hayes: because every time I do a podcast, Alright, so we talked about emotional intelligence. that was that thing. Let me just flip the pages. I got all these markers in here. 

[00:42:38] Wendy Griffis: I love that you did that. It's so [00:42:40] fun. Um, 

[00:42:40] Tracy Hayes: well, either, whether it was the title of the chapter or your bold sections in here where you kind of make a quote, and some of this is, you know, if I want to use common sense or anything, but, but I think it's, it's stuff that, that, you know, I want to hear you kind of expand on, and, this one here, whatever chapter this is here, you're talking about spending the time, which I think goes into the buyer broker agreement.

Now agents, you know, for the most part, yeah, they might've been meeting, but they weren't going in depth like they are. And I'm finding agents tell me they're making more money now on deals than they were prior to the buyer broker agreement, because they are sitting down in, in really explaining their value.

And you talk about just consult with the client and give advice and guidance and the best possible solution, because you're taking the time now to actually talk about your value. Now you've got to listen to them and what they're going through. Challenge, you know, what is it they want need and all that kind of things that they're actually spending the time to actually then spit out an intelligent plan.

This is what we're going to do, or this is why I'm going to show you this house because, you know, that kind of thing. but yo, tell us how were you doing buyer broker agreements before 

[00:43:47] Wendy Griffis: and how are 

[00:43:47] Tracy Hayes: you doing differently Yeah, great question. 

[00:43:50] Wendy Griffis: So, my buyer Journey is an interesting one because I remember early in my career, saying, I love this so much.

I would do it for free. And I [00:44:00] really did. I mean, I meant that it was easy because we did a lot of new construction. You put a deal together. It closed, you got paid, right? Like there was not that drama in the middle. and so again, back to Brian Buffini, he's always taught to do a buyer consultation. And so I developed a consultation package and I've been using that one.

Gosh, since 2007, so, and, and every year, like, or, like, at one point I had a piece of paper about buying short sales and foreclosures, right? And there was a whole document in that that we would talk through because that was an option. Now, I took that piece of paper out because we're not seeing that anymore, right?

But I would always encourage my buyers to meet me at the office and let's just spend an hour together going over what I call strategy session, like, okay, what are your goals? Here's our process. How do we put those together? So, yeah, I've always believed in not always since buffini, to do a buyer's consultation.

So the buyer broker agreement, I will tell you, I went through some post traumatic recession disorder in the last couple of years had been a little harder, right? And I thought, oh gosh, we're going to lose it again. You know, and I had to do some work on that. But, I will say I was fearful when the lawsuit came.

Actually, the first, emotion was I was angry because I took it very personally. They're like realtors. They're all [00:45:20] colluding and whatever it is that the lawsuit was about. And I have, had always been and still am the type of agent that if a buyer needs my help or a seller needs my help, I don't think about the money.

I'm like, okay, let's go to work. Let's help these people. The money will follow, right? And because of this lawsuit, now I have to look at the money. And I never did. I never really cared like what the percentage was or whatever. I'm just like, I mean, 

[00:45:42] Tracy Hayes: you weren't getting zero, but I might've 

[00:45:44] Wendy Griffis: cared if there was a big zero, but yeah, but I would say you just browse 

[00:45:48] Tracy Hayes: over it.

So that's good. we're getting this deal done and move on. Actually, there would 

[00:45:51] Wendy Griffis: be many times where, not many occasionally would come up where a client would find a house that wasn't listed. So it didn't have a compensation. And I would contact the seller and see if they would be willing to compensate.

And they said no. And so I would go back to my buyer and say, I'll still help you for free. And I did. I helped, I called it my pro bono work, right? You're putting good energy out there. but now I have to look at it, and explain it. But, to your point, I believe that this is the opportunity Did you ever 

[00:46:16] Tracy Hayes: do any of the pro bono work?

[00:46:18] Wendy Griffis: I do pro bono work all the time still to this day. 

[00:46:23] Tracy Hayes: Cause the buyer broker agreement now actually, you know, inserts that situation to go back. Cause I imagine now you're thinking, okay, they don't have money to compensate me. So you tell them, Hey, okay, to make this happen, they don't want to pay me. So we need to offer a little bit more to compensate.

So they can pay [00:46:40] your side. That conversation now, I imagine, evolved for those who weren't thinking through it before the buyer broker agreement. So I'm gonna 

[00:46:45] Wendy Griffis: change the language just a little bit about that, because when we say pay me, that's actually not what's happening. The seller's reimbursing the buyer for their cost, if that makes sense.

The buyer does have to pay me, so yes, that is a true statement. Yeah, they're taking a higher loan amount. But the seller, I've been using the words What I'm not saying, what is the buyer compensating me? I'm s or what does the seller compensate me? I'm saying, what is the seller reimbursing the buyer for their BBA?

Yeah. Right. I mean, that's really what they're doing is they're covering that. So I'm just switching that language just a little bit. But, typically once I've signed a buyer broker agreement and I've established my value, we really haven't had much problems with that. Occasionally you'll get that seller who says, I'm not doing anything.

And I have a letter to the seller. That I've written explaining the importance of having, what's the word, seasoned, excellent, a buyer agent on the other side and why they're worth what they're worth, right? And I, I'll send that over to the listing agent and I'll say, please present this to your seller.

So I've done that a few times. if I get a seller who's pushing back on, Not offering anything. 

[00:47:50] Tracy Hayes: So, just for the audience, because there's different,

yeah, because there's different angles on this part. as a list, if you're representing the seller, your listing agent, [00:48:00] are you, Broadcasting that and in the ways that you can, what the seller, cause I meant when you have that seller, the seller consultation, you're talking about, Hey, are we willing to put some money to side to compensate the buyer?

Cause we know that's going to come. Are you broadcasting that? Are you, telling the buyer's agent make an offer and we'll work from there, 

[00:48:18] Wendy Griffis: do the makeup, make an offer. I think that's bad for industry. And I think that it ties the agent's worth.

To the offer

And those are two separate conversations. but I will say this, and this is a, kind of spin.

We're in a market where it's more of a buyer's agent market. We're in that four to six months of inventory. Right. That could shift if we were back in 2022, let's just say that 21, right? Where everybody was paying more than asking, covering appraisal gaps, buying it as, as they were throwing it at everything that might be a market where buyers agents don't get paid from the seller because a buyer is going to have to step up and say, I want that house.

I'm willing to pay my own agents compensation in order to get it right. But that's a seller's market. And that was extreme seller's market. We're going to be balanced or more buyer for now. So the approach I'm taking now is, to encourage my sellers to offer. And yes, I absolutely use it. Think of it as an incentive and a marketing [00:49:20] tool.

You know, what do builders do when they need to sell their property? Right. they're, you know, listings or whatever, they're like offering, to pay their closing costs. They're offering to buy down their rate. They're offering incentives. Yeah. And that's what sellers need to do in this market environment right now.

[00:49:35] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. All right. Chapter three, analysis and promotion, position yourself to win. Yeah. Talk about that. All right. 

[00:49:44] Wendy Griffis: so again, it's, kind of pulls back to my statistics background, but, When a seller is hiring an agent, generally the old school thought processes, this agent's going to sell my house, but the reality is that's a smaller likelihood.

Like if you really look at all the sales happen because of the internet and the availability of people to look online, most of the time, a lot of time, the buyers find the house before the agent even knows about it. Right now. Yeah. I know in 21 and 22, I sold a lot of my own listings to my own buyers because you know, beautiful thing, right?

It was good because it was low inventory. And so when a house that I knew about was listed, you had a buyer 

[00:50:26] Tracy Hayes: waiting in line for this. Yeah, 

[00:50:27] Wendy Griffis: exactly. So, but in general, it's probably less than 1 percent of agents that Find the actual buyer. Now, when you get into, like, high end, you know, 20 million properties and [00:50:40] stuff, that's a different dynamic.

Right? But I'm just talking about the everyday agent and the everyday, buyer and seller. so. When I get a listing opportunity, and this is the other kind of switch, a lot of, heavy listing agents, they just want their signs in yards, and they're like, okay, if I get ten listings in two sell, that's great, because my signs are in yards.

I look at it as one listing, one sale, like how can I help this seller accomplish their goal? And so the analysis and promotion, I have a very, very detailed, Statistical view on pricing. Pricing is like your number one marketing tool. That was actually 

[00:51:15] Tracy Hayes: my segway because I got it marked right here. Yes, price matters, 

[00:51:18] Wendy Griffis: right?

And, now do I get the seller who says, but I want to price a little high. Do I have a couple of those now? Yes, right? Like, so it's that emotional intelligence. I'm not going to take it personally. I've given you my best data. If you choose to ignore it, that is your choice. But, you know, here's where I think we need to be, right?

So I really do that. And then understanding trends. And this is, I learned this during the Great Recession. When, I actually sold a lot of short sales during that time, because I saw the trend going down. So I would tell a seller, if you price just below where it's going, You'll be the next sale that happens and they would get it and who wants to tell a seller you have to price Just a little bit lower than what everybody else is doing [00:52:00] Usually it's like I want to price higher than that because my house is better, you know, whatever But if you have their trust and you are truly doing it to help them accomplish their goals and have the facts and have the facts Like it's a statistical analysis.

Then you just figure out where to position yourself, right? So when I say position it could be a little lower Or if the market is like it was in 21 and 22, I'm like, we could probably push this up 50 grand. I don't know. You know, let's play with that a little bit. 

[00:52:24] Tracy Hayes: Well, you use, you use the phrase, elephant in the room and having, you know, having that, intelligent conversation using your emotional, Intelligence.

Yeah. cause I, I see it on a daily and I'm not on everybody's email, but I will get, when someone's at, Oh, price reduction, I get two or three a day coming to my email and that's just whatever handful of agents that whatever got my email and is in their database or whatever. And you know, with the 12, 000 agents in the area, obviously listings are growing or we have plenty of inventory back now.

it's happening. All over the place, price reduction, price reduction, price reduction. And I mean, of those, every, if we looked at the last 90 days of everyone who did a price reduction, you would say that 90 percent of them probably didn't price the home correctly upfront. 

[00:53:11] Wendy Griffis: So that's a great question. And first of all, I said the elephant in the room to reference that is, I always say no amount of marketing is going to sell an [00:53:20] overpriced house, right?

So a seller wants. To see what marketing you're going to do, right? And yes, do we have a very robust marketing plan? Yes. Do we use a lot of social and get to expose the property? That's very, very important, but if you overprice it, you've just killed all the marketing that you just did. And so, you know, back to your question, at the end of the day, You know, I'm trying to help a seller be the next sale that's going to happen.

And when you do have a lot of inventory, you've got to compete, but price is a range. So I'm talking very statistic, it's a science and a little bit art, right? And so the art piece is where you might have priced it a little high and then you have to make it a reduction and make a reduction to get it right.

Because You still don't know exactly what any one buyer is going to do, right? And so whenever I do a price analysis, it's always a range. Here's my, what I think is worst case middle. And then we might be able to do go here. Right. but if we try here within three weeks and we haven't gotten any showings or offers or whatever, blah, blah, blah, we're making a reduction because we need to get it, to sit on the market.

The only, caveat to this, and I had this happen, it was in, Deer Creek, lovely home for sale. range of what it should sell for. It didn't have a pool and didn't have room for a pool. So other houses were selling [00:54:40] that had pools and rooms and ours did not, but I still think we were priced right. So it could be price, right.

But you know, you got to analyze it and look at it. And then one of my last favorite sayings is, Price isn't always the problem, but it is often the solution, right? So, you know, if it was on the market for a dollar, would it sell? Yes. Right. Yeah. So you just got to figure out that price that is going to make it sell.

[00:55:08] Tracy Hayes: Right. What

is your, Attitude, ideology, plan, especially now, I think, you know, every agent probably has or has had in the last year a home that is in a community that's still got construction going on. So we're competing against these builders that are, you know, buying blocks of money to buy rates down.

they're putting a lot out there, which is being built into the price of the home. But now you got this person's got this year old home and they've got to leave and they're trying to sell that house Are you?

Just give pretest why one reason why house but anyhow sitting on the market Should are you going out there and saying hey seller?

Okay, we can list it at this price But here's what we need. We need to make sure that we're at with there's the buyers compensation in there. There's value to the buyer there We're offering a buy down incentive of 10, [00:56:00] 000 whatever being all these things being built in there because you've got to match up a lot of times with these builders and all the things that they're offering.

So if you want to offer this higher price, you better be advertising that you're offering all these incentives along with it. 

[00:56:14] Wendy Griffis: So I'm going to say that I take An opposite approach, because buyers, this is, if you're a buyer, you type in your price range first, then maybe location, then maybe number of bedrooms, bathrooms, right?

Like price is the first thing. And if you see a house that's priced higher, you're going to do one, two things. You're going to go, what makes that one so great? And you're going to try and look at the pictures and figure it out. And you may just ignore it and say, that seller's overpriced. Right. You're not reading the details.

Right. Right. You're just moving on. Or 

[00:56:43] Tracy Hayes: even understand. 

[00:56:43] Wendy Griffis: Right. What it all means. Right. So, when I work with buyers, one nice thing about my business, even though I've grown to the level that I have, I still work about 50, 50 buyers and sellers. mostly because someone who's selling is also buying. So I got, you know, both of those, but because I get to see both sides of that equation, I can help my sellers cause I know how buyer behavior is, right?

So to be just a listing agent, you might lose pulse over the touch of what's going on with buyers. And same thing when I'm consulting with a buyer, I'm like, okay, I've been with a lot of sellers. I know where they go like and how to manage that. And so, Typically, I [00:57:20] would say, let's get the price right and then we can negotiate the other things, right?

They want those incentives or whatever, let's negotiate them, but the key thing you just said, though, it's really important is the ability to have hard conversations, and that emotional intelligence piece. And I've had two listings. they're still in my heart in pain, over the last two years because they bought, um, The peak in 2022, excuse me.

New construction. So new construction's still going on, and now two years later they're being relocated, one to Virginia, one to Utah, and their house is worthless than what they paid for it at the peak of the market. And 'cause of what the builders doing because of what the builders are doing. Yeah. And they're just incentivizing.

Incentivizing. And so those have been difficult, painful, long-term things and I think as a listing agent. You have to not take it personally, but also give as best advice you can, I think you're, 

[00:58:12] Tracy Hayes: you agree with what I'm going to say. If you're newer to the industry, but you still already know more than the buyer that enlisted that you're likely working with 99 percent of the time, they don't know more than you do.

And don't think, don't let them think they do. 

[00:58:26] Wendy Griffis: Right. 

[00:58:26] Tracy Hayes: just cause they've bought and sold some home and you're only 25 years old, but if you sold a dozen homes already, you've already been through. A lot more than they have because you've seen the inside the back office, so to speak that the tough conversation.

[00:58:40] Maybe early on, you've got to practice it because maybe you, one, you don't have the confidence that you have the credibility yet. You do have the knowledge and to sit down with a senior person in the office like yourself and say, I need to have this hard conversation with my buyer. Will you role play with me and practice that?

So when you go in, you can have that conversation and feel confident about it and your confidence is going to sell. The solution 

[00:59:06] Wendy Griffis: that and I would always say no this five stages of grief denial Anger frustration disappointment and acceptance. So if you're having a conversation with somebody who thinks this but you know it to be this They're still in denial, right?

And it is our job to gently and gracefully help them Get through disappointment and frustration and to acceptance, right? Like that's ultimately our goal. And sometimes I can do that in a weekend. Someone's like, okay, we're gonna do this and nothing happens. Like, all right, I'm ready now. Listen, sometimes it takes six months, right?

To get through those stages of grief. And I speak in terms of grief because We're in a tough market right now, and so you have to have those harder conversations. Obviously, when things were going great for sellers, right, in the heyday, then the grief was with the buyers. Right? Am I ever going to get a house?

This is my fourth offer. Right. How many deals that, yeah, 20 

[00:59:58] Tracy Hayes: offers in and they're not [01:00:00] I'm just going to 

[01:00:01] Wendy Griffis: quit, you know, all right, so don't be in denial. Let's get through this frustration. We'll get you to the acceptance. Yeah. 

[01:00:06] Tracy Hayes: We all know a few of those that went back to renting or whatever. well that segues into the next in chapter four, negotiating with expertise.

No drama. 

[01:00:16] Wendy Griffis: Yeah. 

[01:00:16] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. 

[01:00:17] Wendy Griffis: That's my favorite. Save the drama for your mama.

So with negotiation, and I've studied a lot on negotiation taken Chris Voss. He's an excellent negotiator taking his course. I'm actually, is that the 

[01:00:31] Tracy Hayes: FBI, uh, yeah, the masterclass or whatever. Is that right? 

[01:00:34] Wendy Griffis: So good.

And actually he has, Brian Buffini is doing a three hour, Zoom webinar with him next Thursday. Oh wow again. I'm like 

[01:00:42] Tracy Hayes: yes Share me that link or show me that whatever that added I can put it out and make sure everyone on the Yeah. Yeah. 

[01:00:47] Wendy Griffis: So, but I say that because it's again, just like emotional intelligence, you may be an okay negotiator, but our culture generally isn't, you know, when you go to buy some milk, you pay whatever the asking price is, right?

And then you're checking out, right? We're not a culture of, Hey, will you take 5? We don't have that. And so. For most people, that's kind of uncomfortable, right? To have that. And so you said earlier about, you know, being that buffer, right? Like drives me crazy when I see an agent and they just send me, but I don't know, whatever, right?

They, there's a lot of drama associated with that or [01:01:20] ego, which I didn't really talk about in my book, but we've got ego and drama. And so being, knowing like, okay, how do I approach this person and, and understanding Buffini does a lot of training on

the different

types of negotiators, recognizing how, what their type is, recognizing my type, recognizing what the listing agent's type is, you know, you can kind of get a sense of where you need to do that.

But I would say if there was one skill that a, an agent could work on, it would be It would be their negotiation skills, because we're just not used to that. 

[01:01:51] Tracy Hayes: Well, and understanding the cultural differences that you're talking about. We have a lot of, of our Indian friends here and they are hagglers.

they're going to work you. 

[01:02:00] Wendy Griffis: Yeah. 

[01:02:00] Tracy Hayes: And you got to understand at some point you have to say no. 

[01:02:03] Wendy Griffis: Right. 

[01:02:03] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. 

[01:02:04] Wendy Griffis: He who can walk away first wins.

There's

There's another little, you know. 

[01:02:08] Tracy Hayes: That's in the book. 

[01:02:09] Wendy Griffis: Drop. Right. Exactly. It is. 

[01:02:11] Tracy Hayes: I'm just going to read what I had marked this, but ultimately professional real estate agents should use a balance of assertiveness and cooperation when helping clients approach a negotiation of their real estate transactions.

[01:02:26] Wendy Griffis: Yes. So, being that, so there's two types of, personalities, you've got the motivator and then you've got the facilitator, right? So a motivator is someone who can come in and be like, okay, this is what we should do. And you know that type, right? I'm wired that way. [01:02:40] Like these are my, this is my advice.

but then you have the facilitator type personality and believe it or not, our population is more facilitator heavy than it is motivator heavy. Who wants to give options and let the client choose, right? There's nothing wrong with that, but the client came to us for advice, right? So if you're like, here's your options, what would you like to do as we move forward, right?

Here's my advice. Here's what I recommend. And so sometimes if you're the facilitator personality, you've got to work on being a little more motivator. if you're more motivator, you actually have to work on tapping that down a little bit, because sometimes that could come across too pushy or like, don't tell me what to do, you know, whatever.

So, so 

[01:03:18] Tracy Hayes: with all the sales training, cause I've been in sales pretty much my entire life, you'll give them an A or B option. They're very rarely should be a C option. It should be hit, but you want to premise that question. Do you want a, or B by, your facts, your knowledge, what they're hiring you.

I, my recommendation based on what you told me would be option a, but you know, here's another option just to give you another option, and I think that's 75 or higher probably still going to go with what you actually recommend. 

[01:03:49] Wendy Griffis: Absolutely. Yep. And then you just got pros and cons, like every decision in a negotiation, there's pros and cons and being able to spell that out.

So one of the things I do, [01:04:00] I don't know if it's the right way to do it, but I will have a conversation on the phone. But often I will type it up in an email first because sometimes when you're having a Negotiation conversation there's emotion tied to it and to be able to push that down a little bit and then give you some time to Read it Digest it.

Get your full thought, get your full thought, and then react, right? Mm-hmm . So often I'll say, Hey, let me send you a detailed email of what we're gonna be discussing. Then once you've read it, then we'll jump on a call and discuss it. Mm-hmm . And then that way I feel like that helps people. 

[01:04:34] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. And it helps me when I get into situations with loans.

'cause you're looking at numbers saying, well here's your numbers here and this is your costs and so forth, and this is what your payment will end up being if you go with that type of loan. And versus some they something you have to put it. in writing. 

[01:04:48] Wendy Griffis: Yes. 

[01:04:49] Tracy Hayes: So they can see it. Then you can get on the phone and talk about it.

You see that there are two different options. Oh, yeah. And you highlight, obviously, the important things they need to know. Yeah. And then they can make a decision that they feel confident about. 

[01:05:00] Wendy Griffis: Yep. I always like to say my job is to give them the information they need to make an informed 

[01:05:04] Tracy Hayes: decision. All right.

Chapter

five is skilled transaction management, smoothing a bumpy ride. And I want to actually segue that into, something we had gestured earlier. you built your team and I heard you on one of the other shows talking about, you know, you [01:05:20] got to, I think it is a transaction coordinator to help you, leave.

Because I think that's kind of part of. smoothing out the ride. you're going to do a number of transactions, you know, and then still live a life, you know, you've got all these things going on. You need that assistance. So talk a little bit, in this kind of outside the book, cause we're talking now just real estate business for agents that are, there, or we'll eventually be there where they're just so busy.

They've got to start leveraging, other people to help them, so that they can keep moving forward. You're not just stuck with, 

[01:05:50] Wendy Griffis: I 

[01:05:50] Tracy Hayes: can only go for this far every year. At what point did you come to that, come to that decision and what were some of the, you know, decisions that you made and the options that are probably there's probably more options today.

then of where they could go first than when you had, but how your whole thought process and what it's done to your business and how you've been able to grow. Obviously you're paying a little bit at that to that other person, but it's grown your financial because you'll be able to, you're able to do more transactions.

[01:06:15] Wendy Griffis: So there's a great book called E Myth Revisited, I don't know if you're familiar with it. Yup. I somehow, I don't know how I got that in my hands early in my career. I want to say by 2004 within. You know, well, it was 20 years ago, or, yeah, cause that's, my girl's been with me for 20 years. and when I read that book, it was like a light bulb moment.

I'm like, yes, I can do all the tasks, but if I'm gonna run a business, [01:06:40] I need to figure out the highest and best use of my time and delegate the rest. and so I remember, And the other thing I'll say about hiring a transaction coordinator is you can hire someone who, has their own business. and they're, they're helping many agents.

Right. 

[01:06:56] Tracy Hayes: Pay for, I call them pay for play. Right. And I 

[01:06:58] Wendy Griffis: think that that is a good first step to, cause a lot of times, this is my journey anyway. No one can do it as good as me, right? actually they do it better. So that's the reality is when you find someone who is actually really good at transaction management and they can sit behind a desk all day and make sure that all the paperwork is exactly right.

If you're in sales, most likely that's not your highest skill admin type work or So I remember, hiring her, but Because I hired my own person versus, and I did have a company for a while, right? But I'm like, I really want to customize. My process with my clients and this other transaction manager has their own process, right?

So I think as a stepping stone, that's a good place to kind of be comfortable letting some of the details. let someone else, you want, you want 

[01:07:47] Tracy Hayes: to know what their job is too. You want to feel, see what they're actually doing. You might tweak it to your personality, but if you've never been done it, been a transaction coordinator, you don't even know where to start writing the instructions.

[01:07:57] Wendy Griffis: Yeah. well, that year I remember she would come to my [01:08:00] house and we would, I would teach her everything. She'd write notes. We'd create operations manuals. We did everything. So I guess what I would say is if you hire your own person, one, it takes time. So no agents like, I don't have time, right?

No, that's why you need a transaction coordinator. but the second is, that you will get better at your systems because you're teaching them to someone else. Right? Like here's how I do this and here's how I do that and they're like, Oh, maybe we should do this a little different. Oh wait. I skipped a step there.

Hold on a second. 

[01:08:26] Tracy Hayes: We need to do this first. Yeah. Exactly. So 

[01:08:28] Wendy Griffis: I found it actually made me a better agent. Having a transaction manager. But the biggest thing to your point, it gave me bandwidth to sell more homes. So I was like at a plateau and I just kept hitting this like wall. I couldn't do more than 20, 25.

And I was like, I'm out of time. and I think it was. I can't remember what year it was, but January is one of those kickoff, you know, everybody's like, all right, I'm ready to buy a house and I couldn't serve everybody because I just did not have the time. And that's when I knew I needed to hire someone because I was missing out on opportunities.

so that was my first hire. And then what I found as my business grew, and it's a compounding business, so you could literally. So you 

[01:09:04] Tracy Hayes: have someone on payroll. Now for you. 

[01:09:07] Wendy Griffis: Yes. They're not 

[01:09:08] Tracy Hayes: through. I mean, they're not with Better Homes as part of their greater team. They're yours 

[01:09:14] Wendy Griffis: just for me. Yeah. So initially when I first started, I hired somebody, she's in North Carolina or something like that.

And that [01:09:20] worked. Okay. Right. But I really wanted my own person. She's been with me for 20 years. but about 10, 11 years ago. So she basically helped me get from 20 deals to 30 pretty good where I could handle 30 fairly well. but then when I found out when you're doing about 30, 35 deals a year, then you are out a lot, right?

And you're not behind a desk. And so I'll be showing house. They wouldn't make an offer, but I'm not going to be back to my desk until 7pm. And. Then, you know, doing it at night. So I hired an operations manager, who sits at behind the desk and that's her whole job is to be like my at a desk person while I'm running around.

And she helped me be able to scale from about 35 30 to about 40, 45 deals a year because now I've got someone typing up the paperwork because type typing paperwork, as long as I tell them what needs to be in the blanks. They can type it. Yeah. I've got someone, who can pull a listing. Now are 

[01:10:13] Tracy Hayes: they licensed?

No license. These are 

[01:10:15] Wendy Griffis: all staff. So I really followed the, E Myth Revisited. Right. I took that, very seriously, like I'm trying to hire off the low dollar person or lower cost. my hourly rate versus what that work should be done, right? and so Transaction coordinator, operations manager, not need to be licensed.

But then I found, okay, now I'm starting to do 50 deals a year, 60 deals a year. Now I can't, be [01:10:40] everywhere. Right. And so that's when I got a license. I'm getting licensed help being there, helping like showing agent, opening doors is really the biggest one, but even getting my lock box and sign or meeting an appraiser or sitting at a home inspection for three hours.

So I, like, I don't need to be doing all of those things. and so I have a license. I have multiple licensed people and what I've done in my business because of

um, you

Where I am in my career, it's kind of a trade. I will mentor, right? If you'll help me, right? So for free, I'm not trying to coach you. I'm not trying to, I don't have a coaching business, right?

Brian Maffini does that way better than I ever would. Right. but in trade. I'll give you everything I have. Here's all my buyer consultations. Here's my seller consultations. Here's the email that I write. Well, the 

[01:11:25] Tracy Hayes: systems that you've evolved over 25 years, and you're still tweaking them all the time and making them better.

And I think that's where that new agent to be able to come in and You know, apprentice under you, because that's what, that's really what they're doing. I've talked about this with other agents, you know, because there's such a low bar to get in, pass a test, you have a license. Okay. Now you can, they can sell a house for the same amount of money that you can.

There's no, you're not getting paid by how many CE credits you have or anything. You, although you need to take some for the, keep your license. There's some of these people have [01:12:00] all these, you know, because they enjoy. educated and confident and stuff that they have all these Endorsements, I guess you go, but they don't get paid anymore.

Yeah. No, it's just part of your business, but the Words I'm gonna go with X I had to throw that little I do what Trump does I throw the was it? He calls it. I forget what he calls it. We're talking about on Joe Rogan. he goes out and brings a story back. But, 

[01:12:24] Wendy Griffis: you're talking about license to help trading in the well, just 

[01:12:28] Tracy Hayes: that to get in.

If you want to get in this business right now, and I think my last question I'm gonna end with you is just what? What should you know? Agents be doing or even, you know, new agents be doing right now today with this market? That's gonna be my last question. But, if you could find someone like yourself, um, who is doing 30, 40, 50 deals or more that is willing to let you come in as, as an apprentice, you're not making as much as if you sold a house, but you're going to see many more transactions that a year or two of that apprenticeship, you're going to be spinning off on your own.

[01:12:59] Wendy Griffis: Yeah. Yeah. One of my, I've helped many agents over the years and this kind of steps into my leadership journey, a little bit, cause I did not want to be a, You know, salesperson and leadership. Those two things, I don't need any of that, right? but I have found that as you get more skills, like people come to you, what are you doing, what are you doing, what are you doing?

but what I would, say is, and I have someone in mind in [01:13:20] particular I'm thinking of, She'll say, I'm just doing what you're doing, Wendy. I'm just doing what you're doing, right? I'm not trying to recreate it or do, you know, fix something that's not broken. Now, do I do it perfectly? No, definitely not, right?

but I have good foundation and I can get someone jump started. And if they just do the things and then have the faith, right? And she's killing it now, right? And I'm just like, I just love when I watch someone do that versus there's some resistance. I want to do it my way. I want to do it my way. Which of course absolutely do it your way.

We all are different. 

[01:13:49] Tracy Hayes: Do you find they do that because they're uncomfortable? Like for instance, there's some people who can go into an office as we know, there's some brokerages, that's what they go in and you know, from eight, nine to 11 or whatever, they're making all these phone calls. That's their structure.

Those people like doing that. They're struck, for whatever reason they like doing that. There's others, obviously that's despised that. Part of it. So there's something that you're doing that they don't feel comfortable doing so they want to recreate Something else to replace it. That's theirs and they're comfortable doing 

[01:14:16] Wendy Griffis: that and Again, I'm just look back at my journey.

I for example one of Brian buffini's

uh, Things who says host a client party, right and I didn't want to host a client party I'm like, no one's gonna come, you know, I'm like so nervous But that's what he said you need to do to keep those relationships, right? and so I remember out of just faith, all right, I'm going to do it, right?

and so [01:14:40] then I'm like, okay, people did come. I'll do it again and I'll do it again. And more and more people, more and more people. Yeah. but let's say you don't want to do client parties, right? Or you're very uncomfortable with that stepping on your own comfort zone. so one of the things I've noticed with agents is I'm like, well, what if we could do it in community?

Yeah. Right. Like, okay, you don't want to do your own client party, but what if there were two other agents with you and we, all three of you did or something like that. Right. same thing with business mixers. Same things with a lot of the tenants that you can be doing, but some people are just so uncomfortable and I'll just be, it's the 80 20 rule, right?

Like at the end of the day, you can get a license, you can do okay in the business, but if you really want to make it a career. You know, getting that 20 percent time 20. 

[01:15:25] Tracy Hayes: This has been a great episode. this has been jam packed. I personally, I think you ought to put this on your website. I I would be just flattered to actually, if you shared it, with all your people, better homes, especially the new agents coming in and these people were asked to say, Hey, watch my, cause I think we covered a lot, which hopefully will lead them to actually read the book and get between the lines and yeah.

Let's finish with this. Just your recommendation right now, the current marketplace, we've got listings are growing, interest rates are, there's no real sign of them dropping anytime soon. It is what it is. What should [01:16:00] every agent be doing right now? 

[01:16:01] Wendy Griffis: So. I'm gonna tell you it's been, 

[01:16:03] Tracy Hayes: or two or three things maybe, right?

Yeah. It's 

[01:16:05] Wendy Griffis: been a hard couple of years, right? Um, I say that I had a great year last year. Mm-hmm . Which is really funny because it doesn't Well, 

[01:16:11] Tracy Hayes: well, I wanna say because that, that was the question I've seen, you know, looking at agents' numbers, you know what, some people didn't 23, you know, or down a little bit.

They're still doing good 'cause they're good agents, but they're down a couple million or whatever. where other agents have excelled in this market. 

[01:16:26] Wendy Griffis: Yeah. And so I think that, It's all back to mindset again because 2023 was a tough year for me because I my mindset got off this that Lawsuit everything was just like 

[01:16:38] Tracy Hayes: oh my god.

What's gonna happen? You know, I just really 

[01:16:40] Wendy Griffis: and you know, they put the brakes on interest rates, right, you know Whatever and so like it just it happened very fast and it was scary, especially when you're not You don't have reserves or income. And luckily I've had, I've been in the Buffini system long enough to work through all that.

But, to answer your question specifically, the mantra that I have been saying is go deeper, go deeper, go deeper. And what I mean by that is, When the market's going well, you can stay at a high level and be successful, right? But, when it gets, when you got the current 

[01:17:13] Tracy Hayes: and the wind behind you, you can swim fast or fly fast.

Yeah. So, 

[01:17:17] Wendy Griffis: so what I'm doing [01:17:20] is, in for 2025 is to look at my client list and say, who are my very best advocates? Who are they? Right. Make a list, remember them all the time. Now. I always do remember them, but I also have 850 past clients, right? So I have to really go deeper with the ones who I know. A little extra love.

Yeah, I know are out there fighting for me, like even if it doesn't turn into a deal, because that's the reality, no matter how hard we try, we can't create demand, right? that's not our job. Our job is to facilitate the demand. but we can put ourselves an opportunity that when this market shifts and it will, We're going to be the one, right?

and that's the way I looked at during the great recession. I didn't do it purposefully. Now I look back. I'm like, that's how this happened. More intense showing up, kept showing up, wanting to quit. It was the hardest thing I could do during those times to show up. I just want to stay in bed. Um, but because I did all of those relationships that I poured into during that five year period, when the market started to get better again, I couldn't see straight.

Well, I was so busy. Right. And so that's the way I look at it right now. We can't. create something that doesn't exist, but we can really deepen our relationships. Use this as an opportunity to, to set yourself up for when it does shift. 

[01:18:32] Tracy Hayes: Well, it's a really good time to read your book 

[01:18:35] Wendy Griffis: and, 

[01:18:35] Tracy Hayes: and start inputting some of the things that you're talking about.

And again, this is not rocket science. You're [01:18:40] just putting it all on paper. This is stuff that works. Maybe follow Buffini if that's who you choose to follow and start implementing their plans because you have time. You know, you're not running around signs in the yard. Got multiple offers. You have some time now to start putting your systems in play.

[01:18:57] Wendy Griffis: Absolutely. Thank 

[01:18:58] Tracy Hayes: you. Making everything, you know, giving that great foundation. So when it's there you're ready to take off. 

[01:19:03] Wendy Griffis: You talked about earlier in the very beginning about setting your goals And just thinking in terms of the month or the next quarter every year I sit down and and we do a very extensive not just goals I don't like the word goals so much as what's my vision for my life, right?

Five years from now back up three years and then how am I gonna implement that this year, right? So now is a great time to be Putting those, implementation ideas in place. 

[01:19:31] Tracy Hayes: Because the one thing we, on the LLC, we didn't talk about, and it's really sums it up, 

[01:19:36] Wendy Griffis: consistency, 

[01:19:37] Tracy Hayes: consistency. Sure. You've got to put these systems in play and you got to stick with them no matter what.

[01:19:42] Wendy Griffis: My favorite example on that was, one of my very first client parties I ever decided to do was a pumpkin patch. it was like 2007, I think was my first one. And.

Then

Or in the great recession and I didn't have the emotional energy [01:20:00] in 2009 to host it. So I think I hosted it once, twice, maybe three times.

And then it was like, took a year off. I just didn't have the emotional energy. It was just like really, really tough times. And my customers were calling me, are you having your pumpkin patch this year? I'm like, okay. I will never miss the pumpkin patch again. And so now I don't think we're on a 17th year, 18th year, something like that.

And I have clients who came when their kids were, they didn't have kids, little baby kids, teenagers, college age, you know? So it's that consistency. They can count on that every October I'm going to be hosting a pumpkin patch, whether they come or not, doesn't matter. 

[01:20:32] Tracy Hayes: And one year it rained and one year was colder.

Some not so many showed up, whatever was going on that weekend. But you kept going. And the key 

[01:20:40] Wendy Griffis: thing is, it's not necessarily about the event itself is that the fact that you have an opportunity to reach out to your database in a giving way. That's, you know, 30 days before and then 30 days after thanking them for coming, you know, so it's a, so I do at least four client parties a year, sometimes five.

[01:20:57] Tracy Hayes: Well, like I said, you have, you're putting out all the invitations, you're, you're contacting them, social, whatever it is, content. And then post, you're posting the pictures and everybody having a great, you have two months worth of content right there, just planning before and after your, your hosting party.

And 

[01:21:09] Wendy Griffis: it's a giving system. Right. So, and I can't tell you how many times this has happened. I get the phone call, Wendy, it's been 10 years and they've not talked to me. God, isn't that just like, [01:21:20] and then they go, but thank you so much for staying in contact and inviting me to all your things over the years, but now I need to sell my house.

I'm moving to California. Right. Yeah. Well, hopefully not. Like at the end of the day. You can't hold so tight to the result. Yeah. You just got to come at it with an open hand. Like it's 

[01:21:37] Tracy Hayes: that call it, um, You know, the leap off the cliff and figure out how to fly on your way down.

And when you start building up that momentum that you're talking about, And it's that time. It's like, Oh man, I don't have any, I haven't had a call in a couple of days. I don't know what's going on and what's my next client. You make that leap of faith. And the person from 10 years ago calls you out of the blue.

You have, you're like, Oh my God, how they've been actually reading my stuff. 

[01:22:00] Wendy Griffis: I 

[01:22:03] Tracy Hayes: appreciate you. Come on. This has been a great, great show. There's a lot of content. Thank you. I appreciate that. those are listening. Please like, subscribe, all those good things. Wendy shows today is, Friday. the audio will go out on Monday.

I should have the Facebook video. I'm in the Facebook. The YouTube video is already, of course, a streaming there now, but the formalized one should go by Monday morning as well. And then we'll see some reels next week. But, just solid content for the entire time. We could probably talk for another couple of hours.

But I like 

[01:22:33] Wendy Griffis: talking about it. Thank you. Thank you. [01:22:40