KGCI: Real Estate on Air - How to Become the Top Agent in Your Community With John Harrison

Episode Date: September 19, 2025

Friday Focus is your weekly mini-series from KGCI Real Estate On Air—a deep dive into one theme, broken into tactical, easy-to-implement episodes. Every Friday and Saturday, we unpack the strategies, scripts, and systems agents use to win more business—without the fluff.Catch every episode in the series to get the full picture, and put these moves into play by Monday.SummaryThis episode provides a powerful blueprint for real estate agents who want to dominate their local market. Featured guest John Harrison, a top-producing agent in New York City, shares his unique, mission-driven approach to becoming the go-to expert in a community. The discussion goes beyond a simple "hustle" mindset, revealing that true authority is built on a foundation of deep research, storytelling, and an unwavering commitment to serving your community with passion and curiosity.Key TakeawaysKnow Your Community's Story: Understand that to be a top agent, you must be a master of your community's narrative. The episode highlights the importance of going beyond basic statistics to understand a community's unique history, culture, and key attributes, which allows you to build deeper emotional connections with clients.Data + Storytelling = Authority: Learn how to combine data analysis with compelling storytelling to build your expertise. The discussion provides a blueprint for using hard numbers—like market trends and sales data—to tell a narrative about a neighborhood, positioning you as a knowledgeable and reliable resource.Build a "Command Central" Document: Discover a powerful tool for organizing your business. John shares his strategy for creating a "command central" document that consolidates all of your research, client information, and community data into a single, easy-to-access resource that empowers you to be an instant expert.Relationships Are Your Currency: Understand that your network is your greatest asset. The episode emphasizes that by consistently engaging with your community—both online and in-person—and providing value without a sales pitch, you can build a network of trusted relationships that will lead to a predictable and consistent flow of referrals.TopicsJohn HarrisonTop agentCommunity real estateReal estate marketingHyper-local expertiseCall-to-ActionReady to become the top agent in your community? Listen to the full episode on your favorite podcast platform and get started on your blueprint for success today! Ready for more? Subscribe to KGCI Real Estate On Air and grab the Always Free Real Estate On Air Mobile App for iPhone and Android. Inside, you’ll find our complete archive, 24/7 stream, and every Friday Focus mini-series—ready when you are.

Clarity, strategy, and step-by-step moves. Here's what you need to know from this week's Friday focus on KGCI, real estate on air. Right now, there's an agent out there who's totally dominating your market. The entire neighborhood, maybe it's the entire community, or maybe your whole freaking city. This agent is everywhere and everyone knows them. But have you wondered how they did that? Well, today's guest is John Harrison out of New York City, and he's been closing real estate for over a decade. Last year, he closed 50 transactions, which equated to 112 million in volume,

which is hilarious because my first year I closed 48 and it was 6 million in volume. You might know John from his appearances on HDTV, New York Times, maybe the Wall Street Journal, but today he's here to school us on how to become the top dog in your community. Expect to learn the most important step that most agents overlook, specifically what data to research, how to take that data and turn it into a compelling story, how to systemize the whole shebang, and if you're an agent who's basically anti-systems, not by choice, maybe you're just flying by the seat of your pants, well, stick around to the end for some tips that are specifically for you. Guys, you are listening to the Real Estate Rockstars podcast, the show for agents who've been around

the block and are finally ready to build sustainable, scalable, scalable. businesses. Learn the exact steps to build a business that runs like a machine when you don't secretly hate or want to escape from. My name is Shelby Johnson. I'm a former Army veteran turned real estate entrepreneur, and I've closed hundreds of transactions as a solo agent team leader and real estate investor before hitting complete and utter burnout and almost leaving real estate for good. But you know what? I'm back building my agent business from the ground up in a brand new city, Lexington, Kentucky. More on that journey coming soon. But for today, get ready to learn how to dominate your community. Rockstars, welcome John Harrison.

I'm the top agent in my community. Great question. My question is, how do you become the most passionate person in your community? I think one of the biggest things to keep in mind when you're wanting to become the top agent in any community, whether it's a new development building, neighborhood, or just, you know, you're starting out, is to figure out what is the story behind that community? Why is the community there? The community was probably built or formed to solve some type of problem. What is it? I think it is important also to look at the historical record of what's happened in the community.

So if there have been sales in that community, it's important to know what the sales track record has been. How long do homes typically sit on the market? You need to know some of the salesy stuff too. But I think you should also figure out how to find, you know, how to find. what the pattern is across all of the various homes that have sold quickly, and then what has the pattern been for those homes that have sold slowly? And if you can start to build this out, this is all Intel, then you're figuring out what the attributes are to successfully sell something fast,

and if you can start to identify the obstacles that made those slower homes sell, and then invent 10 to 15, 20 different ways to solve those problems, before you ever even have a listing in it, then I feel like you're coming to the community, not just with a lot of passion and ignorance, but you're coming with like well-thought-out solutions. You know, you're saying not only am I passionate about this, I've been introducing my, I know the, not just I've been introducing,

but like, oh, yeah, at this point, you know, I know that manager. I've been going there for some time and I've even worked out some deals with the manager, but you're also talking about how some of the slower homes that have sold why they were slower. And you can list out four or five reasons why that should have sold faster and maybe special things in your box of tools

that nobody ever even used before. So I think really getting to the science behind what type of speed and velocity has there's been in the volume of what has sold over the last few months to a year, I think it's important to take that in conjunction with the whole purpose of the community to begin with.

Oh, that's so interesting. So now that I'm doing all this research, am I compiling it in a certain place or am I logging it all in my mind? I ask, because you're the systems guy. I figured they're like an SOP for this. Yeah. So, okay, so you hit the nail in the head.

I am a systems guy. And let me tell you, it's not because I am just magically organized in my brain. I love SOPs or standard operating procedures because they solve a problem of mine, which is, you know, we take all of these ideas in our head and we try to keep them in our head. And even when I'm with clients, I encourage them to get things out of your head. So I'm a big fan of Google Docs and Google Sheets.

So one of the first things I would typically do is create a Google Sheet. It can be a blank Google Sheet. Once you start to get together all of the attributes that give you your superhero strength and knowledge of a community, then you can duplicate that Google Sheet and reproduce it. in other communities, but I would start to have all of the facts listed out. Maybe one section that has to do with high-level facts. How many homes are in the community? How many sales have there been in the last year?

What are the median prices? What's the average price? What's the high price? Low price. And then as you build all of these numbers out, then I would add another section and just start logging in some of the restaurants that you visited stores and then see if you can start to create some thread of what life is like there. I would 100% though stick it into a Google Doc or into a sheet.

I like sheets, I'll be because in sheets, you can then add categories next to them. And then, you know, if you want to give yourself a task for each one, you can write in next to the, next to the tat line on the next to the column. Like, oh, I've, you know, created another document that addresses this problem. But doing all of this and creating sort of a command central document for the community is absolutely. one of the best ways to start. And with that, I know you're also big on, like, being able to tell the story of a community. And I feel like up to this point, we've, like, gathered data points, potentially. So could you talk to us about what it means to be able to tell

the story of a community? Absolutely. So, for example, I have had the chance to sell Rockefeller Group's first ever residential tower in Manhattan. This is the same Rockefeller Group that built Rockefeller Center, nearly a hundred-year-old firm. And when I got the chance to get under this project, this sales director, I wanted to figure out what was the story behind this? Because it's such an iconic brand. My partner, Nicole and I were selling this and we weren't allowed to discount. We were selling this through the pandemic, you know, when we weren't physically allowed to show. So we had to go really deep on the story behind this. So for us, it was, why is this important? You know, what is the aesthetic that drives the design of the building. Why is this the perfect size? You know, we had no more,

we only, we had a couple of penthouses, but otherwise most of the apartments were two bedrooms. And so it was really serving the right size for who was purchasing in the neighborhood. It also had, you know, a number of amenities that were really unique for that price point. We had a squash court, a swimming pool. And so we had to imagine what's the avatar of the person that's going to buy here. Not in terms of like, you know, race or, or, you know, what country they're coming from, nothing like that, but more what is the sentiment that a person wants to feel when they come here? And why would they spend $3 million for one bedroom apartment? So if it's a community in, you know, suburban city somewhere else in the U.S. I grew up in Austin, Texas, so I'm very familiar with,

you know, non-New York City life, then it might be, you know, if you're near a lake, what's so unique about living near the lake. And it creates a certain lifestyle. And so what would you dream life would be like coming home every day to that community? I think that's part of where you go with the story of it. If there's history behind the land itself, that's interesting too. Like the land that the building Rose Hill is what it's called that I sold that's built by Rockefeller Group.

That used to be an old 130-acre farm up into the late 1700s. And it was called the Rose Hill Farm. So it's interesting to think about that. You know, this building stands where there was once a farm. So we want to design something that connects legacy with an enduring future. And so, you know, that's just part of the story brand that we connected with. And that's what people loved about it. If you're selling single family, you know, ranch style houses, then maybe it's something else.

Maybe it's something about creating history and tradition in a place that future generations can call home. And it's something that's going to be in your family forever. But whatever it is, we want to connect with what really draws a person to that specific community. And I think that you can do it, whether you live there or not. You don't have to start off as the expert to become the most curious person. I think it all just clicked for me in this moment. Like hearing you talk about painting the picture of why the history tied with like the future. And I'm just sitting here like, I think I'm ready to buy.

I don't know what you're selling, but I think it's ready to buy it. And so just a recap for everyone, because I just had this moment. But basically we are, we're passionate and we're finding out the story behind the community and not just the surface level story, but like truly the depth in the history, the people that are there, the businesses are there. And then once you've compiled all this information, really, really taking the time and thinking through the story that it all tells together. So like John was saying with why it's important and making that person feel the depth of all

of the research and the passion that you have. And so with that, John, I think super cool, by the way. Like, we've never talked about that before on this podcast since I've been the host. But my next question would be, like, if I've done all this research and I really feel like I have this amazing story to tell. What's the marketing piece? Like if I have it all, but how am I, how am I getting it out to more people in order to share? Does that make sense and grow within the community? Yeah, absolutely. So you have this. Let's say you have this passion. You've done the research. Let's pretend that you are in your own mind, the absolute expert of this community. You are the mayor of all things, this community. Then the question is, how do I get other people to

know. You know, I think that this is where you can do, the goal is always to figure out, like, how to open the funnel, right? Like, what can we do to capture the people that are out there that care most about this so that as it, as it, you know, kind of boils down to a conversation with me that they will choose to work with me or not? Start big. I would definitely say that if you want to become passionate about the community, you're not just becoming passionate to sell on the listing side, but you're becoming passionate about life in the community. So it might be that you could represent buyers coming into the area. I might, if you were just to plot me down in the middle of some city and I wanted to do this for a community that I found, I might, first of all,

look at everyone who's hosting open houses. Could I start volunteering to help other agents in the community open houses specifically in those communities? Is there any type of newsletter that I could put together that has relevant information where there is very little sales in it, but it's really just about providing value. Could I start putting something like that out to members of the community and some type of monthly newsletter or quarterly newsletter? You've got to figure out whatever you're going to do, make sure that you can do it consistently. Right. So if you just do one newsletter and you think you've done something, you've really done nothing. I'd rather see you do one newsletter to a smaller number of addresses, but you're going to do it five or six times over the course of a year

versus, you know, several times more addresses, but only once. Then I would start to figure out what are the events that are already taking place in the community? Are there community events? If there aren't, could there be? Could you come up with a way to partner with an organization that serves the organization that maybe draws more attention there? And you're doing it because you want to love and serve the community. Maybe could you come up, find a restaurant that is near certain places and ask them if they have any type of loyalty program for their neighbors. And if they say, no, we've done this. I've done this. Then say, great, well, listen, I'd love to know. I'd love to promote you because I believe in communities where the residents can love their area, they're going

to be happier and it's going to be better for other people moving into the community. And I think that you'll love it too. Would you agree? And they say, yes. So, Maybe, look, could we put together something where you create a card? It's a 15% off discount card, you know, for lunch or dinner or on whatever day of the week. And then I will help distribute these. And maybe you could send that to the people that you've created a newsletter for. That could be a great way, right, to provide value. And then maybe at some point you end up hosting some type of seminar in the area.

You know, we've hosted buyer seminars. We've done all sorts of things. You could host a buyer seminar. where you're teaching people about the neighborhood and all the reasons why this is a great neighborhood, you could host it at one of the local restaurants, and you could invite people over social media, over, you know, the newsletter, over whatever means you have. But then this just there, it's an infinite number of things you can do to get exposure to people and for them to see you, both as an expert in knowing the community and as somebody that's passionate about connecting people

with what they really need. Dude, that's a great list. And I really like how you mentioned right at the top, you were talking about hosting open houses, because this is one that we hear all the time. It's like, oh, you don't have many leads, go host some open houses. But in your situation, it's very strategic. It's like, I want to become the best agent in this community.

I'm going to look at the open houses within my community and offer to do all of those. Therefore, I am the name, the face, and the brand within the specific market that I'm targeting as opposed to running all over. Yeah, those are awesome. As agents, when we start out, we sort of want to say like, oh, I can do everything, send it all to me. And we get spread so thin and therefore don't get to see the life cycle of building brand,

building expertise, building experience in the full transaction, because we're trying to get too thinly spread. So that's why I think if you can. find a niche and carve it out and go really, really deep there, some people think, oh, but it's not going to get me expertise and all these other places. I would argue the opposite of that. The more you can become an expert at one thing and become a really great expert, then people will see you as the type of person that can become an expert. And then I think it's very transferable. You can multiply that times all the other communities that are out there. Yeah. And to add on to that,

when you are building systems, if you are going to build a system, it's a lot more feasible to build a highly efficient optimized system if you are working in a niche because you're not having to readjust for a different type of fire or a different neighborhood or a different, you know, target, whatever. It's like if you are able to have your niche become an absolute specialist, build those optimized systems within it, you will be able to build a machine that you are passionate in love. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Question about socials. So with, we have, We have open houses. We have the newsletter.

We're partnering with restaurants, you know, potentially doing buyer seminars. Love all of that. Is there anything specific we need to do in social media or online presence for becoming the best agent in our community? You know, one strategy that I've seen people do before has been to create like a handle that is focused on that community. Like, give me an example of a community that you know. love. What's what's a community near you that would be you'd like to own? Waterford. I well, yes, Waterford in Lexington. So what if you, what if you were to create an Instagram handle that was called Life in Waterford? And you went around to all of the restaurants in Waterford

and you featured their deals, you know, the food, the people, maybe video of those people. And it was really not even a real estate handle, but it was just Life and Waterford. As everyone's Googling that to see if it's taken. By the time they hear it. this, it will be, it's been taken. I hope that you take it. But, you know, that could be a way where you could have somebody maybe even help you. Maybe you could get like a VA or an admin to help you start to follow all the other businesses in Waterford. So that would be thing number one. Now, that's sort of different because that's simply establishing you as a person that's connected to Waterford in a very unique way. And by the way, if you, if that gets off,

if that gets some traction and really takes off, when you're pitching yourself to a seller in Waterford, and you say, oh, by the way, I'm really plugged into Waterford, this is one of my, like, side things is like, I'm basically the mayor of Waterford. I run this page because everybody knows. That's not bad. I've seen people do this with like tens of thousands of followers.

But from a general social media perspective, you know, you've got to figure out like who your real audience is. I have seen people that are focused on finding buyers where they will go to various open houses. And this is one of my favorites, tour the open house as if they are there with their buyer, saying, look, hey, you know, let's pretend you're my buyer. You're coming with me today. We're going to explore this house and literally take the camera with permission through the open house as if you are representing a buyer and showing all of the things that maybe they wouldn't see on their own while giving a little bit of explanation. And then you could wrap it up back on yourself, say, hey, listen, you know, if you're curious about this or any other properties in the Waterford area, I am so passionate about seeing every single house on the market here. And I'd love to get you in.

Like, I feel like you could do a campaign like that. And people would, if they were following you, would see if you're thinking about moving to the Waterford community, oh, my gosh, this is our gal. Like, we need to, we need to reach out to her because she's probably been in every possible, location. Now, I do track what people are doing on social media. And one of my big questions is, you know, if they are boosting, if they have a strong social media presence, how much is that converting to actual deals? And sometimes it's hard to know, right? You know, sometimes there's nurturing that takes place over social media, but the person already had our email address, or they already had our phone number and they don't contact us through social media first.

But then we later found out they did it because they've been following us for a while. So there's that nurturing element. But I think that if you were really wanting to go big in a community, then you should go big. And you should do everything you can to connect with people in the community and share it openly on social media. Yeah, that's really cool. I like also how you didn't say to just post, just listed, just sold, and tag, you know, because those, yeah, you have something to say. It's okay to do that. You know, at some point, I feel like we vacillated too far in either direction to where we're doing.

all this cool stuff like look at me you know on the lake look at me in the beach look at me skydiving and then people forget the you're a real estate agent and so you know you don't want to be the secret agent but at the same time if all you're doing is posting just listed just sold and that's the only thing but i feel like people are going i feel like people are going to kind of disconnect because it's going to feel too salesy but if you can take it behind the scenes and do a little bit more like of how things are done that that I find that interesting. Like when I'm watching and people are showing kind of like behind the scenes, we're about

to set this up and we're going to have all these brokers here and this is what we're doing and why. You know, that's kind of interesting to me. But I'm an agent. So you've got to put yourself in the shoes of the person that's not the agent, you know, the actual person who is thinking about moving into an area. And so that's where if you really want to focus on becoming the absolute leader in a neighborhood, then figure out what the things are that people in that neighborhood care about.

And if you start posting all of that stuff, I feel like it's going to give you, you know, it's going to put you at least in the same conversation with everybody in the area. Yeah, identifying the target audience and speaking directly to that audience, I feel like it's so important. And it's definitely something that I did not do in my first initial years. I was just posting whatever I wanted, not thinking it all who was the person who was watching and what I wanted that person to do. And so it's a lot different now where, yeah, if you're an agent and you're posting, you know, agent things, but then you also want clients, it's like your audience.

it's like your audience is kind of confused. It's like, oh, are you talking to agents? Are you talking to me? What do you want me to do? That's right. You know, and you've got to get creative too. Like one of the things that we did during the pandemic in New York City, you know, the headlines read 90,000 people leaving the city.

And so not a lot of people were blind. But I had this new development. And I needed to continue to at least stay in touch with the local agents. You know, I wasn't allowed to really reach directly out to buyers at the time or certainly wasn't appropriate. But the agents, I could. could. And so, I remember Nicole and I were calling the agents on a regular basis, not to try to say, hey, when is your buyer going to buy? But just to say, like, hey, what are you doing? Have you taken

up knitting? Like, are you, I'm really curious. What are you doing? Just to stay in touch. And then, we found this bakery near the building we're selling. You know how brokers love to go to, like, broker open houses? Because that's when you get, you know, like coffee and croissants in the morning or wine and cheese in the evening. You got to, you got to like, you know, open up the, the flow a little bit to get people there. Well, we weren't allowed to do that. But what we did do is we connected with this local bakery called Burke Street Bakery. And we started hosting these virtual broker open houses. There's a picture of me in cranes because we were one of the first ones to do these virtual open houses in the city. But we started hosting broker virtual open

houses where we call up the various brokerage offices and say, hey, listen, anyone in your office that can log on to this webinar that I'm going to host over Zoom, we're going to share a little bit of information about the building just so you can kind of stay in touch with what's happening in the market. But we're also going to donate money to this bakery called Burke Street Bakery for every person that shows up. And their donation is going to go to these care packages that they're sending out to the frontline workers, hospital workers, nurses, anyone that's serving in the city at the time. So we had all these agents who had nothing else better to do with their time because it was illegal to show. And they said, yeah, sure, I'll log on and learn about

this building. And because I logged on, money's getting donated to feed people. So, you know, we did it with a bakery that was like two blocks away from the building. We were staying connected to the building and the neighborhood and the location. We were doing something that was sort of creative because our hands were tied and we couldn't do the typical showings, but it was a lot of fun. You know, we just found a way to align with what people's needs were. And at that time, agents, we were able to give them information on what we were doing. We were able to then ask them information about like, hey, your buyers, what are they doing? You know, how are they faring through all of this? And we had a really tight, sensitive touch on the pulse of the community. So the moment

things started shifting and people started moving back, we were the first ones that people were calling. They're like, hey, listen, I remember the virtual thing that you did. Mike buyers are coming back. I want to get them in before everybody else comes back because I'm sure that, like, as everyone returns to the city, it's going to be more difficult to buy. So what can we do? So we did some deals. We did some deals like during the shutdown period when it was illegal for us to physically take them to the building. But you can do almost anything. Like, you know, sometimes having constraints and all of the excuses, that we give ourselves as agents.

I give them to myself all the time. Like, I've got to look at my excuses and realize, okay, this excuse could be a superpower. I'm not physically allowed to show. I don't know anybody. I can't, you know, come up with all the excuses and then ask yourself, and what can you do? You know, what are the ways that you can connect with the community? What are the ways that you can provide value?

And not so much, well, how am I going to get paid for this event that I'm hosting? you know, if I'm volunteering this Saturday at this community because they need the help, how am I going to translate that into a sale right away? I think that's very short-sighted. I think that's where you have to ask yourself, do you really want to be the person that is the most passionate about this community, which will likely lead to long-term business? Are you a farmer?

Or are you only hunting? Are you only looking for the quick deal where you'll get quick recognition and a deal that you can close right away and move on. And I think that those that sustain the most success are the farmers over the hunters. Totally. That long game. It's all about the long game. And I think a lot of people are saying that right now, too, you know, about tough times in the real estate industry,

especially if you got into the industry anytime, you know, I feel like a lot of people got in around 2016, 17, and they've only seen up. You know, it's only been like this. one direction and then time's got really hard and there's people who are just dropping like flies or being like, oh, this is so hard, woe is me. But there's also those people who sounds like similar to you where it's like if you can work hard to find the creative silver lining and really commit to the long game that when the tides do turn, then you will have consumed, you know, so much more market share relationships and, you know, emphasis within your community that when anything shifts,

It's like you just explode. Yeah, I think so. I think that it's getting in, getting yourself positioned. Like, this is all why you really have to take a look at this as a long game. Years ago, there was a show called Selling New York that followed our firm and a couple of other firms in the city. And during that time, you know, we got to do a few different episodes. It was a lot of fun. But, you know, on TV, it was one of the things where you show up and people,

people are watching this and it was on HGTV, like in the corner, it shows the potential commission people can make. Like, oh, you know, this is the total commission that can be made on the sale. And I remember, you know, we have this beautiful storefront office. I remember talking to a few people that came in that they were curious about joining the firm. And I was talking to one and I was like, glad you're interested in getting into real estate. I'm just curious, like, you know, what makes you decide that real estate is the thing? And the response is like, oh, because of all the money, like I can just show a property and get paid like, you know, $200,000 or $30,000 or whatever it is. I'm like, oh, that's not quite how that works.

But I think that, you know, there is the desire, of course, to monetize your work as quickly as possible so that you can afford to pay your bills so that you can afford to keep doing the work. But I think figuring out the long game and having a lot of strategy. in it. I always like to share with the team. We should be playing chess not checkers, but sometimes part of the chess game is figuring out what you can do to get a little bit of income up front so that you can afford to play the long game. Because to play the long game, it does take a little bit of staying power. But I think that ultimately that long game doesn't mean that it has to be intentionally stretched out. I don't think it's about making it longer. I think it's just about playing the strong game. I think that it's the strong game. I think that it's the

strong game just feels like the long game to people, but it really does lead to, I think, the fastest growth. And with the long, strong game, I know that a part, we've hypothetically in this scenario, we've done the work to learn our community, be buy in and have paint the story, like embody it all. And then we've done the work to market ourselves and get into as many opportunities as possible. And I think to tie back to the long, strong game, I think part of that, too, is being able

to maintain those relationships over time and remember them. And so I was curious, in your CRM, you know, how are you when you're building out these relationships in the community? How are you staying in touch with them and building those relationships for the long run? Yeah. So, you know, in the new development world for the couple of different new development projects I have, we have one specific CRM we use. And then the rest of my regular business, we have another one. that other one, I kind of incorporate every, I sort of feed everything into the other one. I use follow up boss right now for my regular business. But I'd say regardless of what CRM you're using, you know, finding ways to tag or group

people together so that you can know who they are to you, meaning what, like some way so that you can quickly categorize people based on the type of relationship they have to you is one thing. and then the other is what is the frequency that you should be connecting with them. So if we, I don't necessarily have a permanent category for buyers. I have a tag. I'll add buyer, but a buyer may also be a seller. But what I do put people in that's like a singular category will be a category based on the frequency that I should talk to them.

So if I know that I should speak to somebody every month, I will put them in a category that essentially is like a monthly category. And the reason is that I want to be able to see of everybody that's in my monthly category, who have I not connected with in over 30 days? And my CRM, probably many others, you have the ability to create filters to say, show me everyone in this category

that I haven't connected with in the last 30 days. And then that becomes your to-do list, you know, figuring out who you need to connect with and contacting them. that is literally part of your daily task. The other piece I would say is, and I know that it's hard to swallow for a lot of people, but I would say it's probably pretty important, is to carve out a little bit of time periodically to do that,

not just wait until you're way past due. A lot of people call this sort of like the hour of power. If you want to call it something else, because you've heard that name too much, fine. But, you know, if I want to stay physically in shape, I'm not just going to wait until I am almost having a heart attack and then go work out at the gym 24 hours straight. I've got to keep going to the gym or keep exercising periodically. I can't wait until my car has already stopped moving before I fill it with gas.

I need to check before it's empty to fill it with gas. Same thing with everything else. There's maintenance stuff that you do, and we need to do that with our relationships too. We've got to find ways to figure out how often I should connect with the person, and then what I should do or say. And there are a lot of cool things you can do in almost every CRM 2 that, you know, like create custom fields. What's their favorite pizza?

You know, what's their favorite drink? What's their, what's their birthday? You can do all of these types of things and then connect with them. And when you do connect with them, pull up your notes and share details about when you last spoke to them and they will say like, that's amazing. Of course, they know that you probably have it written down. but it's impressive when they know that you've also taken the time to care about writing it down and then reading it. That's so funny. I've been in that experience where I'm, so I haven't always been like an avid CRM in the official manner, but I have, this was my OG way of doing things, like literally a word document on every single person I've ever spoken to that I still have, but I have many of my serum now, not the point.

But it is cool. Like back, you know, for my very first days in real estate, I can search the name of the person, pop it up and when they're calling me. And then I can literally reference exactly what we time. And they're like, how do you remember that? They do. You know, they don't always know that it's written down. They just think you're magic. It's crazy.

Totally. Well, you know, and the big, this is also a very, maybe over said, but never listened to enough saying the best CRM is the one that you use. You know, we, like when we've started off on projects where maybe we don't have the CRM implemented yet, I create a Google sheet. And I just create date, who the person was that met with them, me, or if it's my partner Nicole or one of our other showing agents. The person that came or the broker name is contact information, whatever, and then some notes, and then just turn it into a log. And you can do the same thing with your own clients, you know, with your own prospects, with your own database. you can just create a list of all of them and create a column in Google Sheets that has to do with the heat level and frequency. And then every single time you talk to them, you can add another note.

And then you can create a column that says last connected. And whenever you talk to them, add a note and then change that last connected to today. So like, you know, we should never be paralyzed for moving forward just because we don't have all of the perfect tools in place. And by the way, I'm telling myself this because it's such a tool junkie, that was like my background. It's so tempting to wait and to play with the tools to get it right. But at the end of the day, you need like this and this. Like, I mean, really, that's all you actually need. And so everything else is gravy.

Yeah, man, you're speaking to my heart here because really with my word documents, I also had my Excel spreadsheet that correlated because I couldn't have all my notes in my Excel spreadsheet. So in my spreadsheet of all of my potential leads, all in very similar, like, last contact date right in there. And then I had my little corresponding word document. So I spent my first three years of real estate living that exact life. And you know what? It worked. So you know what? Hey, listen, right here for everybody listening, if you want to start with something like that, do this. Create a Google sheet and put every single person's name in one column. And then put their contact information, other things, maybe last contact date.

And then create a Google Word doc that is for that person. If you really want a lot of free space, copy the URL and paste it into one of the cells on their line item in the Google sheet. There, you've created a billion dollar CRM. And you can put photos and everything else you want in that standalone document, but you've essentially created a database that you can, that has not just the line item detail, but something that opens up a bigger, a bigger sheet with more details.

Yeah. And so smart that you said that too because one of my issues with my first three-year CRM is that it was not able to be accessed on my phone. Or at least I didn't, I hadn't figured out a way. Whereas if you do the Google sheet, Google Doc, you can do all of that super easily on your phone as opposed to saving a word document to your desktop. Totally. And I will say you're right.

I mean, that is one thing that is important about what we do. as real estate agents is make sure that you're mobile. Whatever you need to do to have access to things on your phone. That is important. So, you know, carrying around a piece of paper, like if you have a notebook and you want to do it that way, great, as long as you can carry it with you. But yeah, that's the, that's a good point about the sheets. And you can, you know, if you are doing this through Google, something like Google, then you can create offline access so that it synchronizes and downloads so that if you ever are offline for whatever reason. Like in New York, you know, if you're writing the subway, you aren't online.

And so sometimes that's when I'm catching up on email or making notes to myself. And so occasionally the thing I want to connect to, I can't connect to until I'm above ground. But, yeah, if you are going to use a tool, just make sure you figure out how to do it from your phone. Because you don't want to give yourself something that has to be done like later, you know. because later, by the way, is always later. Or if you start with a notepad on your phone and every day you add the today's date using just the notes app on your phone and give yourself all the things that you have to do later, but then make sure that then you go home or to your office and you look at all the notes you give yourself and then you transport them over to whatever tool you're using. Okay, John, there's people out there listening and they want to be systems people. they want to build out processes.

They don't want to just be flying by the seat of their pants every day, but they really struggle in creating anything or sticking to anything. Do you have any advice for those people? I do. You are in the most beautiful place because you are recognizing the pain of just flying by the seat of your pants and feeling utter confusion. and you 100% rely on all sorts of scripts or plans or procedures throughout your life that you've just learned really, really well. All we have to do is take some of those concepts that you already know, they're already in you, and apply them to a few, not all, but to a few key areas in your business to figure out how to move you forward.

So I've talked about this in other settings and podcasts and presentations in the past, but I like to come up with systems that I can potentially either delegate to somebody else or delegate to my future self. If I'm doing something that is really complicated and I don't want to do it, if I don't want to do it now, then I'm probably never really going to fall in love with doing it. And so why do I not want to do it? Maybe because there's decision fatigue. You know, like too many decisions, too many things,

that I've got to do to figure out. Ah, so I'll do it later. So then we procrastinate. But if I can come up with a standard operating procedure or SOP that articulates very simply with pictures, like make it, you know, kid friendly so that a kid can understand it, that makes it so super simple of how to do, then not only have I articulated that now so that I can give it to somebody else to do, but I've also made it easy so that if I'm the only one that does it, then next year when I do the same thing, I don't have the same fear about stepping into it

because I can just go straight to the SOP for like if you do your finances or your taxes in a certain way and you hate it and you regret it, you just don't want to do it. But you can jump right in. Then what you're doing is you're sort of, you're taking out any decision making fatigue and you are just jump. All you have to do is open the document. And the document says step one, do this. And now you're just following simple directions. What I'm I would say is if you're frustrated, if you feel like you're all over the place, then start to look at your ideal work week. What would that look like?

What could it look like? And you're not going to jump there right away. But what are some of the things that if you could hand to somebody else to do, even if it's just one or two things during the week, would just somehow magically lift some of your burden? I would start to list out what some of these things are. Start with a Google sheet. List out in a sheet, maybe all the different. tasks and then come back and highlight or rank the ones that are most important that you do most

frequently, that would be great if you could just hand them to somebody else. Then for each one, go to like item number one and create a document, you know, like a Word document or a Google doc that steps through with photos, with pictures, with an explanation, all of the stuff, how to do it. You're creating an SOP, take that URL and then stick it in a Google. to the cell next to on your Google sheet, that particular task. If you could do this with just two or three tasks in a week so that you could potentially delegate it to somebody else, even if you are the person delegating it to, even if you're just doing it to clear mind so that you know how to do it again in the future, then I think it starts to alleviate a lot of pressure.

Because now you can insert something into your schedule and then it's already figured out, here's the step, this is what I do, and you don't have to like reinvent the wheel every time you're doing it. Or let's say, let's say you have a massive CRM, but it's a mess and you know that you wanted to get better. What if you created a weekly SOP on cleaning up your CRM? And because every week, you're just so far behind and you have 50 bazillion people and you know you spent some time on it last week, but I don't know what I'm going to do this week. Then great. What if every week you came up with a step, like a checklist that says, look for just, let's keep it high level. Like let's look for all of the.

the people that are untagged, let's look for all of the people that have been added into my CRM for the last, over the last 10 days so that we're capturing some from last week. Make sure that all of them are in a stage. And then add one other thing. Let's look for people that I am supposed to have communicated with this week and I didn't. Then let me add that to a to-do. That alone would be one great weekly check-in. You could create the SOP for it, stick it in your calendar, you know, put it on your Google sheet or whatever you need to do to make sure that what you can do that will lead to success is captured and you're not having to figure out what to do. Then, you know, if you start, if you're really looking at expanding and you want to get into

the world of hiring a virtual assistant or, you know, an admin or hand things off to a junior agent on your team, then at least you have a source of easy to follow steps that you can give to them. And then here's the magic. If things aren't getting done or they aren't getting done right, the very first thing you can do is go to the SOP. Am I doing them according to the SOP? If they're not getting done, but there is an SOP, then that's good information. Maybe the person doesn't know about the SOP. If they're not getting done right, but they are following the SOP, then the SOP needs to be fixed. you know, when we are in the new development world, you know, when we're constantly trying to figure out, like, how can we continue to tell this, the best story about this product, whatever this project is, you know, that we're working on, we kind of have a few things that we go through to constantly make sure that we're telling the best story and we're trying to see whether or not that's landing. And so we have people that will help us, that will look at, you know, impressions that are generated.

and if there's social media, how many of those social media clicks are going based on when we send out a newsletter? Like that's data. Well, they have all that stuff listed. They know to look for all that stuff so they can provide it to us in a report. I'm not doing that.

Like, that's somebody else that's doing that because there's a process in place. Whatever it is that will help you drive your business or carry forward your business building, like a lot of that stuff, you can just create your own system. submit SOPs. John, that just spoke to my heart and soul. I love systems and processes. Thank you so much. And listeners, if you're geeking out as much as I am, or maybe you're the first who's still like,

now I have to take notes on everything he said and go back to this podcast. Don't worry. John submitted two tools for you guys. The first one, how to document a standard operating procedure. It's very meta. It's like it's an SOP on how to create an SOP. I was a lot of fun making that one. Dude, it's great. And then the other one is how to create a system of SOPs. So it guys go over to Real Estate Rockstars Network.com and our toolkit and you can get that for free from John. And John, what did we not talk about today that's important for our listeners? You know, I think that one of the other things that I'm very passionate about is despite becoming the expert in a building or a community, that's never about me then forcing somebody

to buy the wrong thing. I think that if anything, you know, me becoming an expert in a building or a community is about learning to be ultra curious. And that curiosity, by the way, is also what drives a lot of the great relationships that I have with people and with prospects when they come in, because they realize I'm not trying to push them into a particular product. And I lead most of my conversations with people by asking a lot of questions because I really, really want to know. Like, what is it that's driving this decision? And so I'd say that's a good, that's given me a lot of success.

And you can use that when you're talking to somebody that's thinking about selling, as well as somebody that's thinking about purchasing. Because it shouldn't be about you just forcing them to do your will. It should be figuring out what is the essence of what they need to do, because then maybe if I really understand what they need, I can craft some type of solution that will help them. And I think leading with that, you know, a little bit of humility and that earnest curiosity, it'll just make your life, I think, so much more peaceful and exciting. But then you develop this true passion and this true curiosity about people in general. So I'd say that's, if there's anything else, I'd really

leave it would be that. Like just learn to become really, really curious about the people you're talking to because that is the best way to serve. And if you want to feel great about what you do and you know that you're serving people and really exploring what their needs are and finding a way to help and connect, then guess what? The success is measured based on how well you do that. And it's irrelevant. It's not that it's irrelevant, but regardless of how many deals you actually close or income you make, that is something that you have 100% control over. And so if that's the type of agent that you want to be, then that part is entirely in your control. And then the hope is that as you're doing the right thing and as you're learning, then you also become the inevitable person that

can help guide a person through that transaction. You pump me up, dude. Love it. Okay. Quick, quick wrap of questions. Favorite app or tool? I mean, I've touched every tool out there, every project management tool out there, and I keep coming back to, I love a lot about all of them, but I keep coming back to like rebuilding some of my own things in Google Sheets. So I'm even like all my Dill tracking, I've even built formulas and pivot tables and all sorts of other things in Google Sheets. So I'd say that's that's what I've used more than almost anything else. But I do use follow up boss quite a bit as a CRM because what I need for it to do, it does, I think, better than any of the others that I've tried. They're not paying me to say that.

You should get an affiliate. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So what can our listeners do for you? What can your listeners do for me? I want to see people just getting excited about serving their clients, getting pumped up about jumping into things that are scary and in facing their ignorance about a community

or a product or a project, facing that head on and seeing the irrelevance. Because, you know, no one is an expert in something before they're an expert in something. So I think jumping into this world and finding ways to serve our clients, regardless of how old a person is, regardless of what their past career has been, just knowing that you are, one decision away from being ultra curious about somebody or the community or the market or whatever it is. That's exciting to me. I was selling, we were onboarding like a new agent on the team. And, you know, and I've asked this of new agents in the past, like, at what point will you feel confident talking to clients? And sometimes I've heard this response of, well, when I know that I know

all of the inventory. And I thought about that, I thought, it's impossible to know all the inventory. But what if we could be, what if I could be the type of person that constantly learns about the inventory? I can become the type of person that constantly learns about the inventory and 30 seconds. All I have to do is decide every day I'm going to learn a little bit more about the inventory. Now I am the type of person that is learning about the inventory. And so I make the destination of like procrastinating and saying, well, I'm going to put it off until I'm the expert. That is a, that is a destination that you never reach. but you can be the type of person that does a particular thing by making that the very next thing you do.

So seeing people out there doing that. And of course, anybody that has questions about New York, moving to New York, what's going on in New York, I'm always happy. We talk to people that are moving to the city all the time or people that are visiting. I love connecting with agents all across the world. I've been fortunate enough to talk to agents all over, not just in the U.S., but abroad. And so I'm always excited to connect with people and hear what's going on. Which is a perfect segue into my final question, which is where can people find you? So I am, you can, we, my team and I, you know, we have a couple of team links, but I'm on Instagram and LinkedIn.

You can find me there. My handle is my full name. It's John Wesley Harrison. And that is my handle on Instagram and on LinkedIn. Love it. Okay, guys, go share all the love with John. John, this has been so fun. Thank you so much for coming and hanging out with me today.

My absolute pleasure. Yeah, this is a lot of fun. So much fun. Love it. And guys, that is all we have for today. John, thanks again. And real estate rock stars. Thanks for listening.

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