KGCI: Real Estate on Air - What's Your Breakfast? The Power of Daily Choices for Success

Episode Date: July 22, 2025

Summary:Beyond just a meal, "What do you want for breakfast?" serves as a powerful metaphor for the intentional choices we make each day that shape our lives and careers. This episode explores how seemingly small daily decisions, from morning routines to financial habits, compound to create significant success. Learn to ask yourself empowering questions, cultivate structured freedom, and make deliberate choices that align with your ultimate goals and personal well-being.Bullet Point TakeawaysThe Metaphor of Choice: Understand how the simple question "What do you want for breakfast?" symbolizes the daily opportunities we have to make empowered decisions that influence our path.Intentional Morning Routines: Discover how setting a clear intention and making deliberate choices about how you start your day can profoundly impact your productivity, mindset, and overall success.Structured Freedom & Self-Belief: Explore the concept of creating disciplined routines that paradoxically lead to greater freedom, and the critical role of self-belief in manifesting your goals.Financial Awareness & Growth: Learn how conscious decision-making, including aspects of financial literacy and mindful spending, contributes to long-term stability and empowers your life choices.The Impact of Questions: Grasp the power of asking yourself (and others) the right questions to gain clarity, inspire action, and uncover deeper insights into your desires and motivations.Topics:Daily Choices for SuccessMorning Routine for EntrepreneursIntentional LivingPower of QuestionsPersonal EmpowermentCall-to-Action:What will your "breakfast" be tomorrow? Listen to the full episode on your favorite podcast platform and start making more intentional choices for success!

So, what do you want for breakfast? What? Whoa, there's slick. Can you imagine someone saying that to you on the first date? Rude? Now, most people would be instantly turned off and rightly so, but let me ask you this, is your marketing guilty of this very same tactic? Today, I'm talking about how powerful relationship marketing can be and simple steps

to overcome the difficult shift a lot of us are having in taking it slow. 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. Well, dang, that intro got me really interested in this topic. So today's episode's being sponsored by sphere influencer, which is, which is the single most effective sphere marketing strategy to build relationships and get more referrals than ever before. And you can get more information on that at get sphere influencer.com. Now this may come as a shock to you, but I didn't date like at all, hardly. I think building computers and perfecting.

Oh, we dated. Well, we dated. I'm just saying like back in the day. Oh, back in the day before I knew you. Yeah, exactly. I thought building computers and perfecting my juggling slash magic act was far more important. So this led to many years in the friend zone. That's okay, I'm not better.

But I would hear like these horrific stories about first dates. Now, if we fast forward to today, because I was talking about when I was like young. We still hear friends that are single talking about their nightmare stories. Exactly. So it got me to thinking about this thought process. Because I think about marketing constantly, so I'm relating this to the idea, the concept that we are used to. You know, the person on the first date that asked what they want for breakfast. And we're horrified.

And we're horrified. But that's how I see a lot of the marketing that some of us were taught to do that we still haven't evolved. And I just want to welcome you guys through the wonderful age of relationship marketing. So tell me what, give me an example of what you mean, what you see some realtors doing that's similar to this. Well, we were taught, at least I was. I'm not speaking for you all.

They're listening. But I was taught when I first got in, and this was 2009, that don't be a successful. secret agent. You've got to plaster your name and face everywhere and every conversation should end with, you know, so who do you know, looking about ourselves? Who do you know looking by our cell? And it was that constant barrage that kind of led us to this concept of aggressive transactional marketing. And then you couple that with the fact that, you know, we never have enough business. And therein lies a almost a desperation marketing to where we're so aggressive. of going after it or why because in the back of my mind I've got to get this and this leads to a whole

cornucopia of thoughts of why we take listings we really don't we know we shouldn't why we deal with clients that we really don't want to I think all that plays do a part but I just want to focus on the concept of relationship marketing yeah because what I think of when you give this example of what do you want for breakfast tomorrow and our agents are doing the same thing I think of how we were all taught who do you know buyer and selling you know buyer or selling and we're meeting someone new and rather than really getting to know them first, we instantly go to the, hey, who do you know that's buying or selling? And I was guilty of even doing that. I'd meet somebody at Starbucks and they'd say, what do you do for a living? And I was always taught,

you tell them what you're due for a living. And then you say, hey, who do you know that's buying or selling? And it seems so innocent because that's what we're told to say. I could always use more referrals. I could always use more referrals. But when you think about it, it feels so icky. And I feel like that's why a lot of agents, including myself, didn't like lead generating because it had that icky feeling to it because we were doing exactly that, that whoa, whoa, just met you there. This is why you hate making phone calls. This is why you don't ask any friends for business. This is why we're right here, because it is not in our nature to meet someone for the first time or to see a relationship that we've had for a long time and say, hey, what can you do for me?

Ooh, because that's really what that translates to. Exactly. So you know this. You feel it. Like how many of you just, man, I hate calling people. I hate that. I hate doing that. The reason why is it's not natural. And I think that's why Sphere Influencer program is going so well is because our very first marketing piece is about helping them. Right? And that's and that's kind of true throughout the whole program. And we call that relationship marketing. Yeah. So let me just give you the definitions. This is according to Forbes.com. Forbes.com defines relationship marketing. as a strategy designed to foster customer loyalty, interaction, and long-term engagement. It is designed to develop strong connections with customers by providing them with information directly suited to their needs and interest and by promoting open communication. Sounds way better than, hey, what can you do for me?

Hey, what can you do for me? But here's, so let's associate this with business because there's a lot of that attitude you that when we focus on what's important to them and what's in it for them and we take ourselves out of the equation, we'll actually get more business. This is something we focus a lot. The law of attraction versus us chasing people, you know? And by the way, you cannot adopt this strategy if you have not organized your database. So if you haven't already, our previous podcast right before this one was, you know, what's the best CRM and how to organize your contacts? Make sure you go back and listen to that if you haven't already because you can't properly. You can't

properly do relationship marketing unless you have your database segmented. If our marketing is stays transactional, this is the horror stories that we hear from realtors who are scared to death of stop their pay for lead campaigns, that they don't feel they can stop because they're so afraid that they have built their business on this transactional marketing that if that goes away, my business goes away. Or to the realtor who doesn't care about his clients or doesn't care about keeping those people, they're just looking for the new person. I don't have time to deal with their lives. I just want the new transaction. And by the way, let me just say something pretty bluntly because I care about you. If you're doing that kind of

business, let me tell you you will probably be out of business in the coming years. And the reason being is if you're transactional only and not relationship based and value based, then those companies that are trying to cut the agent out, open door. Zillow, Redfin, I could go on and on and on. If you're just transactional, then why wouldn't they go to one of them and save thousands of dollars? So you must be relational and come from value so that you have a place in the coming years. I want you to think about it this way, is that if you are going to stick with transactional marketing, then your commodity.

And when it comes to our commodities, we base our judgment on price. It was got a heavy, heavy hand on the scale of price. If all I need is transaction, if all I need is get some thing, I don't care where it comes from. I just want the cheapest one. And if you're competing that way, you guys, somebody will always go lower than you. Those companies have millions to back them up. We do not.

So if you're in that kind of model and that kind of marketing someone will always beat you out. You, in order to when, need to be relationship-based and bringing tons of value. So talk to us about that. Okay. are at now in our industry right here and now is inside of a relationship marketing era so it is all about focusing on what's important to them it's all about becoming the digital mayor uh and the face of everything that you want to focus on it's all about uh that how we get you know most business

when we're no longer making it about us and it's translating into actual business so i got this from HubSpot and they said that as little as a 5% increase in customer retention can result in an increase to your revenue by 25 to 90%. That is huge, huge. So I mean, so understanding that when we start to focus on this, it is, it is a game changer. And it really does boil down to a single word, emotion. Emotion. It is probably the reason why we, wasn't amazing at selling houses. And I went back to the lead gen side was when I would take people out, I didn't understand that. I'm like, let's check the boxes and that's the one you're going to buy, right? Nope, it was about emotion. Yeah. It's not emotion and about connecting. And it's just,

it's why people are willing to pay more for something when there's a value attached and when there's a relationship attached. So when you're doing this marketing, you're talking about the law of attracting versus chasing. Yeah. And the mental shift from one to the other. So how do they do that? Well, it's, it's all about, um, kind of shifting gears. Again, I get it, guys. It's hard. When you are in doctrine to say what you do all the time. What can do for you? It's a really hard focus and sometimes scary to wake up and go, huh, what if I made today about the people in my sphere or the people that I meet and how can I provide value? How can I be of service? It is that servant mentality.

is at the foundation of relationship marketing. Because let me tell you, when you wake up in the morning, if you're thinking about, which I was, how do I get another sale? How am I going to pay my bills this month? This is what I felt like when I got in the business. And when you wake up thinking that, you will become burnt out and you will hate your job, right?

Whereas when you make that shift of not just mentally, but in what you, mental is the first shift, but you actually have to do it in order to stay that way. you wake up and go, man, who can I meet today where I can make a difference in their lives? Then you start attracting business and start providing value. I can tell you it's as simple as this. What's the fastest way to get a referral is to give one. And when you wake up to give people business to help others, it will come back.

And then you gain energy instead of getting burnt out, instead of making it about us, by helping others, I promise you, you guys, it will come back to you and you will have energy. You will love what you do and you'll be making a difference in the world. And the byproduct of that will be that you have sales. It's what you're tapping on is to the law of reciprocity, which is one of the strongest laws when it comes to marketing. I'm going to help you out and then you will feel naturally obligated to help me. Not obligated, but you have a joy.

Like why should I have you come sell my home? when I haven't heard from you in years. Or you've never asked me how you can help me in my business, but yet you expect me to help yours. Exactly. We get so frustrated. We get so bothered when someone doesn't remember what we do for a living. But the question I'm always asking that frustrated realtor is like, what do they do for a living?

So many people go, I don't believe them. They said they forgot I was a realtor. I don't believe them. And it's like, no, no, seriously, what Jason just said, could you list what every single person in your sphere does for a living and have you ever helped them? And if the answer isn't yes, then we got to take a look in the mirror, you guys, and we can't expect them to be helping us when we're not out actively helping them. Now, we're not doing it to manipulate. We're doing it to actually give back. And it will,

that's what will attract. Well, I like what you said. And we definitely recommend that you start off with your sphere because you already have some semblance of a relationship with these people. It could be a little bit shallow. We just met them. Or we could have known these people for years. Those are the easiest people to convert into sales by focusing on relationship marketing, but I want to dive a little bit deeper into what it means to relationship market to someone. And it's all about the depth, not the width of how we go. It's all about engaging with them about what's important to them. And here's a kicker. It might not always be about real estate. Yeah, because I know unless you're in real estate or buying real estate or selling real estate at that moment, that's probably not what's important to you in your life.

I love, we just got back from a conference where we talked about marketing and relationship marketing. And the analogy that was given was imagine watching nothing but commercials. Like that would be devastating. And I just keep beating that drum of if you do nothing but give real estate marketing tips. and real estate this and market update this and data that, all you're doing is giving someone commercials. What is the story of your business? What is the show that is your real estate life?

It is not always about real estate. It is about the interactions and the stories that we get to be a part of with people looking to buy and sell homes. It's good. So good. All right. So what do they do? What do the people do not just in your sphere,

but let's go a little bit broader. Your ideal client, the people that you would love to get business from, what do they do? What's important to them? And how could you lend your value to the one? A quick idea is, what would it look like if you were to have a meeting with the school superintendent and start a program to really start to promote the schools that are in your ideal area? Right? I mean, just one thought where it's not going to be about real estate.

I'm going to, yeah, I'm going to be in the videos. Yeah, I might mention my company, but the whole point of the video is to talk about this amazing school, or the whole point of me to blog about that school is to showcase just how wonderful it is. Now, this school happens to be connected to the neighborhood I want to be a part of, but do you see how I don't have to focus directly on that neighborhood? I can focus on other people, provide them, help them, showcase them, but it's still going to attract business to me. That goes back to an episode we did about Kyle Whistle,

who's an agent that does East County Eats or Everything East County. He's really just talking about what his audience loved to talk about, which was food. And how many people love to be foodies in an area that they live and to know what those restaurants are? And people are like, well, how does that relate to real estate? Well, because his branding's all over everything. But he doesn't talk about real estate. He talks about and features restaurants in the area that he's, He is the expert in it's selling.

So what is your ideal audiences likes and dislikes? And how are you helping them with that? And if you've never done relationship marketing before, you definitely want to start with your sphere before you start trying to figure out what you're not metts or your farm area wants to know. That's a whole other marketing strategy. You've got to always start with your sphere of influence. And even if you're starting with, like we call it the reconnect script inside the sphere

influencer program, which is really just the I'm sorry. script is I haven't I haven't kept up I haven't asked you you know what business you're in and it's about hey what do you do and how can I help you and your family and your business and could you benefit room referrals and if so what does that look like and how can I help and and when you start to have those kinds of conversations wow the the dynamic just completely changes between you and that person and it's so cool to see what happens when you start doing that relationship marketing. Now here's the thing. And because you're listening to this, you're like, oh man, Amber, I, I've known these people for years. If I go back and ask them what they do for a living,

I'm going to get, I'm going to feel dumb and embarrassed. And you know what that is? That's the enemy. And the enemy comes to Rob Seel and Destroy. And don't let pride, don't let the fear or embarrassment prevent you from building a relationship because that's what's on the other side. Yeah, really cool things happen when you put yourself out there like that. Exactly. So, and whenever, I mean, I can't tell you. how many questions we get, how can I get more leads, how can I get more business? And it was like, well, when's the last time you really spoke to your sphere, like really got to know these people? Oh, man, it's been forever.

Perfect. Go after them. Start to relationship marketing. Start to relationship. See what they need in their lives and see how you can make a difference today. I like the way that Russell Brunson, another amazing marketer, talked about it, where he talked about digging your well deep. No matter where you're going after, you keep going after it, and you keep targeting these people and you provide. value to them in a ton of different ways. I want to just share another idea, another concept that if

you're targeting someone in a neighborhood, I'll shake a neighborhood. We live in Star Creek, Allen, Texas, in this really amazing neighborhood. And I could go after them based on so many different things. Like, what kind of value could you provide to Star Creek moms? You know, what's important to a Star Creek mom? How about their kids? What if I was to provide value? Like, Here are the top five summer camps that your kids will absolutely enjoy. I like that. Now, does that have to do with real estate? No, but I am the neighborhood expert and I know the area.

So I am going to provide you value to what's important to you. Here's the newest yoga spot right by Star Creek. Here is the newest coffee shop that you must check out by Star Creek. Here's the babysitters that help in Star Creek. It's right. The top five pediatricians within five miles of Star Creek. Do you see where we're going with that? Just value, value, value, not selling, selling, selling.

They're automatically going to see you as the expert because your branding is on there and you're the realtor that must know the area because you know everything there is to know about Star Creek. The idea of relationship marketing really boils down to who are you going to build a relationship with and what is that relationship going to be founded on? Is it transactional or am I really going to care about you. Here's another benefit from handling your marketing. This is coming from, I think, marketing school.org. It says that, again, if we can have, and for their study, they did a 2% increase in customer retention will also lead to a 10% reduction in your marketing costs. That's insane. Like, I don't know what your marketing budget is, but what could you do if you save 10% of that?

Like, where would that extra 10% go? What if you put that 10% that you're saving on your marketing, because you're retaining more people and into spending on their sphere of influence. We handle with so many realtors who want to spend money on a contest to get new leads. And it's like, what if you took that money that you wanted to spend and focused on your sphere? Yeah. And spend the money there. And we always say in the world of real estate, when it comes to your sphere of influence and you want to have a relationship with them, that's why it's relationship marketing. At minimum, you should be having a personal contact with them quarterly.

And the more of those quarterly contacts you have, the more notes you can take in your CRM as to what matters to that person. So in the beginning, we give our sphere influencers a contact script in case they just don't know what to say. But eventually, if you're actually contacting them quarterly and having real conversations, then you'll know what's important to them. For example, I had reached out to one of my sphere. And I knew after talking to him for four times in a year that golf was like really important to him. Like it was his favorite hobby. And as I was, I knew what area that he lived in and him and his wife. And I drove by and I saw this sign on the side of the yard that one of his favorite golf courses was having a special.

And I'm sure he already knew, but I don't know. Maybe he didn't. I pulled over and I did a video text with that sign in the background that they had buy one, get one free golf the entire month. on certain days. And even though he may or may not have known that, because he did work a lot, how cool was it that I sent him a video text? I'm not trying to pat myself on the back,

but he loved it because I'm like, hey, just wanted you to know it's your favorite golf course and you may or may not know this, but they're having a special right now. And as soon as I drove by it, I thought of you guys because I know how much you love to golf. So hopefully you're getting some golf in

and having a, you know, being able to take some time off work and blah, blah, but you get the point is like he was so, elated with that text because he thought it was so thoughtful, right, that I would think of them. Yeah.

Right? And I wouldn't have known that if I wasn't having quarterly contact with him and his wife after I sold them a house. The shift has to be from, I'm just going after another transaction to, I really care about people. Because, you know, we're always afraid when you go on a listing appointment

with someone that they're going to ask a question, okay, what do I do if they ask me to cut my commission? Well, I do it to ask my commission. Well, guess what? If you're targeting in relationship marketing to your sphere or in building that, you don't have to, right? And so here, let's talk about building loyal customers because that's what this is all about.

And it's coming from Referralrock.com, loyal customers are five times as likely to repurchase and create a customer lifetime value, which means they're going to keep using you for as long as they can. They're also five times more to forgive a negative experience. That's our fear, right? Well, I got my friends, but what if something bad happens? Well, guess what?

They're more likely to forgive you if you've got a relationship with them. They're four times likely to refer friends and family to you if you've got a relationship with. There are seven times we're likely to try something that you're offering this brand new. So let's say that a part of your listing, you want to start to tack on, you know, drone footage or, you know, having your home stage or all this other stuff that normally, you wouldn't do, but they're more likely to do it. Why? Because they trust you. And that's where it's all about, that if you want to go into relationship marketing, there's so much less I have to worry about that someone who doesn't care about me is going to make a big deal.

Love it. Love it. Man, that's so good. Sorry. You like your own stuff. I like my own stuff. I get passionate about it. I just... And really, guys, this isn't our stuff. This is marketing that's working across the country. We're just delivering the message. All right. So who are you going to celebrate today? Like what past client are you going to reach out to with value that's going to change their business for the better? And how will your business change when you begin to attract and stop chasing? All right, guys, thanks so much for joining us today. If you like what you've heard, remember to subscribe to the podcast to listen to future episodes. Hey, we'd love it if you leave us a review or share with a friend today.

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