KGCI: Real Estate on Air - The Influential Agent with Amber Joy - The One Thing You Should Have in Front of You at All Times

Episode Date: April 30, 2025

What is the one thing that you should have in front of you at all times to ensure your daily activities are more impactful? That's what we're going to cover on today's podcast. Welcome to the influential real estate marketing podcast, where agent entrepreneurs come to learn how to generate and convert more leads by using the latest in technology, social media, and lead generation systems. Here are your hosts, national speakers and veteran agents, Amber, and the rook. Oh, what's going on, guys? Welcome. All right, so today we're going to talk about the one thing that you should have in front of you at all times

to ensure that your daily activities are more impactful and getting you closer to your goal. Now, the reason this concept is so important to realtors is because we have aspirations to do so many things to get us further in our business, but we just find ourselves drowning in that never-ending to-do list. So learning this simple concept will really help drive your business forward. Now, today's episode is being sponsored by Sphere Influencer, the all-inclusive sphere marketing program that keeps you top of mind as the agent of choice for all of your sphere's referrals, and you can get more information at getspereinfluencer.com. All right, guys, let's get started. Jason and I can really relate to this one where,

gosh, you end the day, okay, and you just feel so accomplished like you've gotten so many things done on your to-do list. But when you really look at what you did, did any of it actually get you closer to your goal? Did any of it get you a new listing or a new buyer? Yes, it's like one of those things that when you get done, you've got like all this, all this, like you had a to-do list, like, where am I to-do people out there, your to-do list out there? The checklist. And you go through that checklist and you just nailed it.

You got like five or six things done. And then you're like, you're like, where did they go? Like, I got all this stuff done. but then it's like really quick to the feeling kind of fades fast because like, man, I got, I don't know what I did. Yeah. Like I seriously don't know what I did. I know I did a lot, but I really don't know what I did.

You know, that's one side of it. But on the other side of the fence, I think there's sometimes where, you know, as a rural tour, you, there's like a to-do list and is just killing you because here's another day that's gone and you didn't get what you wanted to get done. So I think there's like two sides of it. Which should be lead generation on me. So yeah, there's so many times where you're like, I have this list of things to do and I have to get these done, but it's preventing me from doing my to-do list. Or maybe you're hiding from your lead generation time in your to-do list.

Either way, the concept that we're going to teach you today will really help to prioritize will really help. It's very simple concept that we use on a daily basis to keep your eye on the prize, keeping your business moving forward, using the activities that really get you to where you want to be. and I want to start out with really talking about how the it's so important you guys to have your goals in writing and even though this podcast is not about goal planning it is a concept that has to do with goal planning wouldn't you say yeah I would I would agree with that it's we we're familiar with the business plan or the business planning clinic and then we go to it and like how much money do you want to make I'm like I want to make a million dollars and then you like go through the steps and then so often times and I remember doing this is that I would take those goals.

It was awesome. I was super excited. And then I'd file it. Never look at it again. Never look at it again. And while guys, I know this is not necessarily a full business planning podcast by any means, but there is something very important that you would pull from your business plan to, in order to make this concept happen.

And I think what you're going to love about this is we're about to make it really simple for you. But I think whatever your goals are, it needs to be in front of you at all times. I know here at our office, we have what's called a morning powwow every single day with our team. And the morning powwow, we're really covering on a whiteboard having in front of us this concept at all time. So Jay, kind of introduced to us this concept and where it came from. Well, the concept is called the MTO. And this is definitely not ours. I'd love to say that I was a genius behind if I'm not.

It's a brilliant marketer named Trey Llewellyn. and the concept, we'll go over it and you're like, okay, I got that. But when you dive deep into it, it really does change your perspective. So MTO stands for, do you want to go over to stand for? So the concept is MTO, and before you go into whatever it stands for, when we were discussed having a morning powwow in that morning powwow on our boards, which we have boards all over the walls. I'd like to call them white boards, those are kind of clear boards.

Yeah, that frosted glass look. We have our MTO in front of us at all times. And as we look at our day and prioritize, we're saying, what is our MTO? Where are we at? Where are we at in the gauge of the MTO? And what is the one thing we can do today to get us closer to the MTO? So what is the MTO? Kind of go into what does the acronym stand for and what does it mean?

And before we get into details, you can use this for business and personal if you want to. It's just kind of a really good business model gauge. And ours includes both, right? Oh, yeah. So let's start with the M. So the M stands for what is the minimum dollar amount that you need to survive? And so what does that mean? We're not talking about I need to eat out seven times a day.

You know, I'm talking about like what's going to keep the lights on? What's going to keep the kids fed? What's going to keep gas in your car? I got to pay my real estate dues or whatever. And that's why it really does include personal and business because the reason you're in business and you have a budget is you know what you're going to pay yourself, meaning I know what my personal budget is

and I've got to pay myself this amount. But I also have business expenses. So when we combine those, we know what the minimum is that we need to bring in monthly. Yeah, because a lot of times, realtors will, they'll make their commission. Their commission is just like funneling straight through their business. it's like nothing stops at the business.

It goes straight through it and goes straight to their personal. Right. And we've been there, you know, where we were making money. But every dollar we made was to pay bills. There was, you know, nothing left for the business until we understood this concept. Right. So M out of the MTO stands for the minimum dollar amount I need to make this month. And but, and so when you have that in front of you and let's just pull a number out of the air.

Let's say it's like, give me a number. Ten. We'll just say ten. Ten thousand. I need $10,000 a month. your number could be higher your number could be lower i'm not going to you know discount it's like 10 i wish or you know it's like what 10 what are you spending um so whatever your number is we don't judge people based on numbers but it's going to so let's say 10 000 dollars we're using because it's

even uh if 10 000 dollars is the minimum i need to keep my lights on my business running my kids fed my bills paid my car working then that's your minimum and so the activities the daily activities that we need to do every single day as a real tour are going to be feeding that. But that's not where we stop. Right, because there is obviously two more letters. So the next letter is T. Tell us about that one. Oh, now T is your target because I don't know about you, but I don't want just the minimum because that is surviving. That is not living. And I was put on this earth and God bless me with a talent so that I can live. Not only do I need to live, but I need to thrive. Right. And so my target- You wake up to be mediocre. Exactly. You don't.

me minimum actually stands for mediocre. Like I did not wake up to be a minimum living kind of mediocre guy. You know what? I just just, yeah, that just makes sense to me. M is mediocre. We don't go for that. So the T is the target. What is your target that you need to make? And so if that is where you then start to budget, well, I need a, I need a monthly marketing budget, although minimum needs to be this. I need at least this if I'm going to. I should be setting aside 10% for advertising. I would actually like to hire help. I want to actually be able to go on vacations. Yeah, I need four vacations a year. I'm going to go to Fiji or Tulu, Mexico, and that trip is going to be a week or 10 days, and that's going to cost me, you know, $15,000 or whatever. Um, you can see, I can tell I just

don't travel. I have no, no concept of what vacation costs. Well, babe, you don't set those, those trips I do. Exactly. Well, no, actually, you think trying. But so that's where, that's where the fun kind of gets into because now you're going, okay, if I'm going to do this. and then I'm going to shoot for my target. And again, what's so important about this whole concept, guys, is that the target is then broken down into what are the daily activities I need to do to reach my target? Because if you're reaching for your target and let's say you don't hit it, well, guess what? You definitely hit your minimum.

Well, and I think that's the case with all letters. So minimum target. And then we're getting ready to tell you that, oh, not only do you have to know the number, but what is it going to take to get you there? I can break that down in a minute after you tell them what the last letter is. But you've got minimum, target, and then what's the last letter? The last letter is O. The O stands for outrageous.

Now, this is not where, you know, we get to, we get not even as a dream, but we get to think big. So if I say, what is your outrageous goal? Because if I hit this goal, we're all going to Fiji. Yes. You know what? Not only do we not wake up to be mediocre, but we don't want to just look at a target goal because many of you know that you have to think big. And so you've got to have an outrageous goal up or your mind is going to go where you tell it to. And so if you're only looking at a target or a minimum, then you're not thinking as big as you can. So that outrageous goal, I like that the word is used outrageous because we should.

be thinking outrageous. We should be thinking big because what you focus on expands. And if I'm focusing on something small, I'm never going to hit anything above that. So I love that that number is out there because we want to be hitting those outrageous goals. We want to be thinking at a grand scale. Well, yeah, because if the activities drive you to try to reach those goals, then if you're really shooting for something outrageous, that's where the mastermind is coming to play. That's where I'm thinking of what if I did X and just tried this? Like what if I held a you know, first time home buyer seminar at a hotel and I advertise that we got, you know, 200 people in there. I mean, that's where you, I think it's important that we as real tours

allow ourselves to think that way. Because if we don't, then we're going to get stuck doing what's comfortable. We're going to get stuck kind of doing what we think works. We're never going to go outside because, you know what, I want to have those big dreams. Then you may not hit anything more than minimum if that's what your brain is focused on. So what's funny is we did listen to we were at the click funnels event last year i remember russell brunson was talking about how we need to really be thinking uh bigger and he did a whole presentation about if you only had what was it 14 days or 30 days if you only had 30 days to make x amount of dollars or you would die die what would you do and even though that's a lot of you do and even though that's

extreme, I realize it's very extreme. Man, you're going to get creative and your brain is going to start to go and think about things because it has to. Because it has to. And if that number is not out there, our brain will never have to focus on what that takes. I remember talking to a realtor on a consultation and, you know, they were laying out their plan. Like, okay, well, I'm doing this part time because in, you know, in 10 years I'm going to do this. and then I want this set up.

And I was like, 10 years. And I was like, hey, I said, here's what I was taught. And this is a big shout to my mom. You know, she always told me, hey, tomorrow's promise to no one. And so, you know, we're sitting there making plans to I'll think big later. What happens, you know, later never comes, God forbid. So my question is, you know, what are we doing today to hit the goals that we want to hit? And there's so much shame, I think, involved with that because sometimes, like, we do the business,

plan and then when someone asks hey what are your goals i don't want to share that because you might call me unrealistic or god forbid i don't meet those goals and then i feel dumb so i'm protecting myself by setting minimum or mediocre standards so that i can hit them when in reality you're just hurting yourself guys you've got to think big in order to do the activities to get where you want to be so if you're minimum and your target and you're outrageous or dollar amounts what you have to put to them Jason already mentioned is what is the activity that is required to make that dollar amount? Because if the reason why most people do business plans and just throw them on a shelf is because it's a number. Right. And if you don't, if you're only focused on a number and you

don't know how to actually get there, it means absolutely nothing. It's kind of like getting in the car and getting your opening up your GPS or ways as we would use. And just because you know where you're at, if you didn't actually know the address of where you were going, you would not actually get to your destination. So an MTO is pretty much a, it's a navigation to what the activities are that you need to do in order to hit those goals. So in realtor speak, what that means is minimum, I want to make XYZ dollar amount. So therefore, how many contacts do I, or how many appointments do I need to have in order to do that? How many closings do I need to have? Let me back up. How many closings do I need to have to get that minimum target and outrageous?

And then how many appointments do I need to go on in order to have that many closings? And then in order to get that many appointments, how many contacts do I actually need to make to get that many appointments? Well, because I like what you say about, you know, we can't control if we're going to get a listing. We can't control, you know, if we're going to get, you know, to work with a buyer. All we can control is the amount of tries we get at that, the amount of appointment. because this is a numbers game. But here's what you're, I like that you're talking about the practicality of it because oftentimes, you know, we listen to the podcast,

just like you guys are listening to this one. And it's mostly big picture thinking, but I like the fact that you go that one level deep. I like the fact that you're, the practicality of not only is this a good idea, but okay, well, what does this mean to my day to day? You know, like, what's in it for me? I'm a realtor listening. That sounds great.

What's it? What do you mean? Well, because if there's no practicality, there's no implementation. So the MTO is the minimum target outrageous. The minimum amount I want to make, this is how many closings I have to have to minimum. This is how many appointments I have to get that many closings. And this is how many contacts I need to make to get that many appointments. So you guys understand that it's the dollar amount.

It's the closings. It's the appointments. It's the contacts. And you want to know your conversion ratio. So you know how many appointments do I need to go on to actually get a listing appointment. How many of my listings actually sell? I mean, these are all important things because I have to track the activity. So I want to challenge you guys to really be thinking about the MTO for your business, your minimum, your target, and you're outrageous. Now, here's the thing. If you're

sitting here and listen to this, you're in your car, wherever you're at, you're listening to what we're saying, the minute you start breaking down numbers, like how many of you guys are having your eyes glaze over because you're like, I see a spreadsheet and I'm not as spreadsheets. I am. I'm just saying, I love spreadsheets. But, but, you guys are going to be. I love spreadsheets over. But if you're sitting there and so what do you say to that because you're you're a deep personality you don't like spreadsheets even though mine are amazing but I don't like spreadsheets but I like results and it we must inspect what we expect and so if I expect to get results I need to know what are the numbers that make those results happen so I can appreciate breaking those down so that I can get to where

I want to get to I think that if we don't break down our numbers this is just from from all the conversations I've had is that when you stop breaking down numbers, then you start to make emotional decisions for your business. And so whenever I say, well, you know, why are you sending out calendars or, you know, football schedules, you know, how many leads have you gotten from that? There's a personal attack almost, you know, type scenario because we're like, well, I don't know. And I think that when we track numbers, it's not really an emotional, like, I do this because I like it or because I've done it forever, is I do this because it's effective. Because it's tied to a result.

Correct. So I think that while we might really not dig the spreadsheet aspect of it, I think that, well, I know that there is a massive correlation between top role tours who are consistently top role tours and who have confidence in their numbers. Because we were doing a class not too long ago where we talked about how top realtors, they just know their numbers. And the conversations that when you get around these roll tours is vastly different because they start whipping out their. MTOs. I had to hurry up and finish that sentence. They start whipping out their MTOs or numbers like they're showing you pictures of their kids. I don't know where that conversation was going there. Yeah, they know. They even know what a listing costs them to take. They know if they make a certain amount of contacts, it'll get them appointment. They know how many appointments it takes

to get a listing. They know what percentage of their listing sells so that they know how to reach the MTO every month. Now in those morning powwows, we are revisiting the MTO on the board. and we have written on the side where are we actually at compared to what those goals are. And so not only do we have to write down what it is, we have to track each day as a team, where are we at in comparison to the goal? Because if you don't add that step, what's the point of having the goal up? Because if we don't know the actual versus the goal, how can we readjust our daily activities in order to make impact?

Well, and why should, and I mean, is my question you're thinking about, but why should I look at this every day? I mean, I know what I did the day before. You know, can I just look at this a week or why don't I just look at my MTO every month? Well, it's too late to adjust if we're looking at it. Even for sure, it's too late to readjust if we're off track monthly. But even I would challenge you to say it's too late to look at it even weekly. Because if you're behind a week's worth, you already are moving on to the next week's activity. Or you're going to be able to do two weeks worth of activity in one week. It's unlikely. So we really need to be readjust. and looking at it daily.

But the other reason we need to look at it daily is something else I want to talk to you about. And that is, and Jason and I even struggle with us on a daily basis. The reason we're doing this topic today of podcast is because it was a conversation we had in our own business today, where there are certain days or weeks or seasons in your business where you're just looking at what you're doing. Your day is full. There's not any time left to do activities and you just feel like you're drowning into two-list things that are not getting you any closer to your goal, but yet they have to be done. So if I know what the MTO is, if I know what the activities are that I need to do to get me closer to my goal, then all you have to do is ask yourself every single morning in your morning powwow because there's so many things on your plate and how do you prioritize them? you would just ask yourself, what is the one thing I could do today that would make the biggest impact for me to reach that MTO, for me to reach that goal?

That's so good. I think you need to repeat that. So every morning you would just ask yourself, because you have to revisit it morning because the to do list keeps getting longer. So you just keep looking at it. Okay, what's the one thing I could do today to make the biggest impact on my goal, which is the MTO? And then you're going to prioritize things based on that. Now, I will say we do know that goal, but then we still felt like we were drowning in tasks. So sometimes you're going to have to add a second step, which is as you're looking at your to-do list that you feel like you're drowning in, ask yourself, is this a task that's actually

getting me closer to my goal? Is this task making me money? That's a hard one. It's super hard. And, and, you know, honk your horn if you agree, and freak the people out around you. But whenever you get, I would say even moderately successful or you're at a really awesome level, you know, this gets exponentially harder, you know, because there are things that you want to do and you have this because you've been practicing outrageous thinking and you like think loftly goals,

then I could do this, we could do this, we could do this. But that's when you really got oriented in. and this is it was so cool about this concept is we're going to have to talk about this later because there's so much I was just thinking We could unpack so many different things right here

Because I was thinking about ideal client I was thinking about okay well if I broke down my numbers And I need $10,000 a month to survive That's you know depending upon your price range That could be I'm looking at you know A $300,000 listing Would put me at roughly $9,000 What I'm just saying I'm looking at numbers

And bringing it down then we can talk about that but the reason why this task thing you're bringing it up is you know we have people reach out say hey we want to do a collaboration with you and it sounds cool on the surface sounds great but then you go that's cool and all but is this getting getting me closer to my goal but that's what's so hard because it's like oh but that's cool oh but this is great oh I'm going to love doing that oh I have so much interest in that and it's like yeah it doesn't mean it's that you don't want to do it means is it getting you one step closer to your goal? Is it getting you one step closer to another

listing? Is it making new contacts? Is it meeting new people to add to your sphere? Because if it's not, then really the answer to that should most of the time be no. And it's so hard to say no, especially to things that we actually want to do because realtors have shiny pennyitis is what I call shiny pennyitis. And when we get frustrated with our daily lead gen, a brand new concept comes out of something that we should do to get new leads and we drop all of our models and systems for our sphere and go to something new because it's a shiny new penny. But really, were we consistent with what we had in the first place?

Was it as we... Like if you were to continue down the path you were on, would you even need that new thing? I kind of see this as a battle of the spirit and the flesh. Like, you want to try something new. And we're getting biblical, let's go. Let's go. You got all excited.

I'm just, but I do think that. that that has something to do with it because we are naturally going to be drawn to the things that we like. And sometimes the things that we like or want to do are going to be taking us away from things we should be doing. And it's... You mean lead gen isn't fun every day? Right. But I was thinking of like you said, the daily task asking yourself, is this getting to be closer to my goal or is it not? And you will instantly hear if you want to call it your gut, if you want to call it the Holy Spirit, you're going to hear this voice go, no. And then the flesh side of you is like, no, but I really want to learn that thing. It's really cool. I

really think it's really thinking to help my business. And then if you keep hearing that nagging voice, no, you know the right thing to do. I think that's one of the coolest things about is that you have this innate direction, this innate compass that leads you to the right way. Yeah, because sometimes our to-do list is more fun than actually doing what we're supposed to be doing. And that's pretty bad because to-do lists to me are not fun at all. So I think that if we hide in it sometimes. And maybe that's why we don't look at these numbers on a daily basis. Maybe that's the reason because it's too painful. But here's the thing.

We're trying to teach you a concept that is absolutely working for top real tours. And I want you to definitely just pour yourself into it. But at the same time, you're not your number. You're not the numbers that you're seeing. So if you're getting discouraged, like, man, I'm never hitting this. Another month has gone by, didn't hit my MTO, I must be horrible. No. The numbers are there to guide you.

They're there as a path to get you to go down and adjust accordingly. I'm so glad you said that because so many people would start with an MTO and a few months in. They're like, well, I'm behind. This must be unrealistic. So I'm going to go ahead and change all these numbers. So I'm not so behind. Guys, we don't need to change our numbers. We need to change our activities.

We need to change the behaviors that we're doing to get those numbers. We don't change the number. We change the activity to reach the number. I love that you said that. So remember, when you get up in the morning and you have a powwow and you say, what's the one thing I can do today to get me closer to my goal, my MTO? And then when you find yourself in the minutia of tasks, here's what I want you to do, you guys. I want you to say, is the item or the task that I'm about?

about to do on my to-do list making me money. Or on the opposite side, if I don't do this, is it costing me money to not do this item? Because if the answer is yes, that you need to do that item, then you need to prioritize it or ask yourself, can I resource this out? Can I give it to someone else? Because maybe I've got to do it, but somebody else can do it for me. And then lastly, ask if the answer is no, it's not making me money. In other words, I wanted to organize my database.

That's an example. Or I wanted to make my flyer prettier. I want to make the graphics better. Well, that may be something that's great to do, but is it making you money or costing you money by keeping it the same? Not necessarily. So there's certain things on your to do list that you actually need to give up. And that's really hard for people to do. It's called the purging process.

Sometimes you need to either give it to someone else or purge it. I think that's so good. So good. So here's what we want. I want to know what is your MTO? You know, we'd like for you to challenge you to put yours in writing and to get it in front of you at all times. All right, guys, thanks for joining us today. If you've liked what you've heard, remember to subscribe to the podcast to listen to future episodes.

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