No Broke Months For Salespeople - Creating a Successful Work-Life Balance

Episode Date: April 11, 2024

Jacki Semerau Tait is a National Speaker, a Top-producing Real Estate Agent, and a Relationship Marketing Coach. She Lost her house and income sources, and Jacki decided that she NEEDED to recreate herself. Her ""$4 Story"" seemed like the lowest of lows, but it became the catalyst she needed to launch into her dream life. She is currently a top-producing Realtor® with a background in marketing and advertising.Jacki's been using her real estate and marketing expertise to coach agents nationwide to succeed in their careers.In this episode, Jacki will talk about how she created a successful work-life business in her business! To find out more about Dan Rochon and the CPI Community, you can check these links:Website: No Broke MonthsPodcast: No Broke Months for Salespeople PodcastInstagram: @donrochonxFacebook: Dan RochonLinkedIn: Dan Rochon

I genuinely worked myself into the hospital. And I really realized that the pace that I had created for myself was not sustainable. And here's the thing. When I took that step back because my body forced me to, I started to put boundaries around my time. I take vacations for myself. I've built a team of people so that I've got other people that I can rely on. And when I started doing that is when my business truly took off.

Welcome to the No Broke Months for Real Estate Agents podcast. Working as a real estate agent can be incredibly rewarding and fulfilling, but it can also be frustrating if you aren't making the money you deserve. So if you're ready to end the stressful cycle of working hard for no results, then get started with a proven step-by-step system

so that every month is no broke months. Jackie Semero-Tate is a national speaker, a top-producing real estate agent and a relationship marketing coach. She lost her house and income sources, and Jackie decided that she needed to recreate herself. Her $4 story seemed like the lowest of lows, but it became the catalyst she needed to launch into her dream life. She is currently a top-producing realtor with a background in marketing and advertising. Jackie's been using her real estate and marketing expertise to coach agents nationwide to succeed in their careers. In this episode, Jackie will talk about how she created a successful work-life business in her business. My name is Dan Roshan. I'm the host of the No Broke Months

podcast, which is a show for real estate agents to help you have no broke months. Thanks for joining me. Enjoy the show. Today, I am pleased to be welcoming Jackie Summeru Tate. Did I say that right? You're really close. So good job. Help me correct it. How do I properly pronounce the, is that your maiden name? It is Jackie Semerow Tate. Yep.

Semerow. Semerow Tate. And we're going to be talking about creating a successful work-life balance. Jackie is in Flagstaff, Arizona, and she's a national speaker. She's a top producing real estate agent. She's a relationship marketing coach, and she's going to talk to us about how she balances her life with work and without killing herself and have consistent, predictable income. Jackie, welcome. Thank you so much for having me.

I appreciate it. Looking forward to chatting with you today. My pleasure. So Jackie, so I know you've been doing this for a while. Walk us through the beginning. When did you get your license? I first got my license in 2002. So I was a young mom. I was 26 years old. I had a toddler and an infant. And when I first got into real estate, I had no intention of selling it or representing clients. My whole goal was my husband at the time, and I wanted to get into

real estate investment. And so we started working with an agent who just didn't get us. And so at some point we looked at each other and said, well, how about if I get my license? Cause at the time I was a stay at home mom. How about if I get my license and I can, you know, represent us ourselves and we can take that commission and use it towards some of the fix and flip things that we wanted to do. And so when I started real estate school, I fell in love with real estate.

Who knew, you know, the, the legalities, the intricacies. I found it really challenging. And I'm a creative by nature. My major in college was dance. And so, I mean, who knew I would fall in love with real estate the way I did, but I did. So when I got my license, I looked at my ex-husband, my husband at the time, and said, I think I want to do this. And so, you know, here I am. So Jackie, so you said you fell in love with real estate, but that's a

that's a pretty, I mean, there's, you know, there's so many different components to real estate. What is it about real estate sales that you fell in love with? I honestly fell in love with the fact that I learned all of these ins and outs. And like I said, the legalities of it just really, I went, okay, I now know how to help people. And again, I was fresh out of real estate school. I know we hear a lot of people who go, oh, well, I just love looking at houses. That honestly wasn't even it. If I just love looking at houses, you know, take a Saturday, go to some open houses, call it a day. You don't have to get your professional

career around that. But just knowing that I had the key to help people plug the gaps. Again, I think it's because I was coming from a place where I was so frustrated with the agent that I was working with because he just didn't understand what we were trying to accomplish. So now all of a sudden I had that understanding and you know how it is when you first get out of real estate school, you know enough to be dangerous. So, I mean, there was definitely a long path ahead of me, but, but yeah, that was what I really liked about real estate sales. Okay. Your $4 story, what is that? Well, so the $4 story is what happened when, well, all right. So like I said, I started in 2002. So fast forward to the inevitable great recession of 2008. And it found me at this point now I'm a single mom. I'm divorced. I own my own home and I've got

two now elementary school age girls. And I can remember like it was yesterday, the moment when the market crashed in 2008, I had two transactions in escrow. Both of them were luxury properties. And both of them fell out due to that market crash. And I remember going, okay, it's no big deal. I'm going to get back up on my feet. And so then it became a struggle from there. It became a big deal. Yeah, it did become a big deal. And so the lessons I learned, I mean, honestly, I had ended up having to short sell my house. My house went into foreclosure. I had to short sell my house. I had to pack up my kids, all my stuff, and frankly,

my pride and move back in with my parents. And at the time, again, I'm driven. I'm a hard worker. I've got a good work ethic. And at that time I'm like, okay, it'll just be for a few short months. What I didn't realize it was going to take me two and a half years to get back up on my feet. And it was during that period of time while living with my parents and struggling to try and figure things out and trying to duck and weave and reinvent myself that I got down to my last $4 dollars I had a bank account that was zero I had another bank account that was overdrawn and I had four dollars cash in my in my purse and you were you were in Arizona at the time I was in Scottsdale at the time yeah yeah so that was one of the for

if you're not aware you know for the viewers and listeners Scot arizona in 2007 to 9 was one of the five artists hit hit markets the phoenix metropolitan areas and so i can understand like like jackie you were in like the worst of the worst of of the crash at that time yeah it was it was brutal. It was brutal. All right. So $4 in your purse. What do you do? You know, from that moment and what happened next is what changed the trajectory of my life. Because when I had to short sell my house and move in with my parents, I thought that was the low. And then you get down to your last $4 and that's really the low. And at that time, that day, I woke up with that $4. And that's really the low. And at that time, that day, I woke up with that $4. I had a

meeting, a coffee meeting with a networking partner. I was in a BNI group, if your audience is familiar with that, Business Networking International. Well, funny story, right before COVID, we were starting, I was starting a networking group with, with a bunch of people. Our very first meeting was March 7th. And then I don't have to tell you what happened a week later. So there was that networking, but at any rate, so I was in this networking group and I was meeting with one of the other people in the group and I show up at Starbucks, I get a cup of water, because I'm not spending my last $4 on an expensive cup of coffee. And I start to chat with this person who I had become friends with over the years, too. So they weren't just somebody in the networking, you know, aspect, they were also becoming a friend. And at some point, he looked at me and goes, okay, what gives what's going on with you?

So I couldn't even fake it on that day. And I got very real with him. My kids were about to start a new school. I didn't have money for their, you know, school clothes. And he gave me $300. He goes, listen, I've got this in my pocket. I'm going to give this to you. Go buy your kids some school clothes.

And I said, okay, I'll pay you back. as soon as some of these invoices got paid. At the time, my background's in marketing and advertising. And so at the time, I was helping people with some of their marketing as side gigs to try and keep myself on the feet. And I had invoices that were out. Just nobody had paid for them because everyone was struggling. And so I said, I'll pay you back. He goes, nope, I don't want you'll pay you back. He goes, Nope,

I don't want you to pay it back. I want you to pay it forward. And it changed. It changed the trajectory of things. By the end of the week, I had somebody who paid a significant invoice. So I was starting to get back up on my feet. That led to another opportunity to work with a tech startup. And you know, just things, things changed from there. Love it. So how did you use that as a catalyst in your real estate sales journey? And what did you do next? Sometimes you have to get down to the bottom of yourself before you understand what you're really doing. And I used that as the catalyst. So I will tell you in the very same time frame, I had somebody who gifted me a six CD set. So yes, this is back in CD days. Sorry, folks, you're going to have to Google that one.

Oh, and while you're Googling, Google the fact that my car had a six CD disc changer. Those things were fun. They always jammed up on you. And you can never get the right CD in the right slot. Oh my gosh. But I digress. I put those six CDs, they were Les Brown's Choosing Your Future. I don't know if any of you know who Les Brown is, but he is one of the greatest of all time, the GOAT of motivational speaking. And so I had that on loop. So as I'm going through this period of time, I'm also just completely shifting my mindset because of this messaging that I'm hearing from

Les Brown. And so I realized that number one, it was mindset. And number two, it was how I show up. I mean, I look at that time when I'm sitting at the coffee shop with this person and they're literally like, okay, what gives what's wrong. And the fact that I was so stressed out, and my mindset was so wrapped around what I didn't have what I couldn't do how hard I was working and couldn't achieve that I wasn't looking at where are the opportunities? How can I shift and and do some different things? And so it really did come down to the fact of, well, how are you showing up, Jackie? And it really had to, I had to realize I was showing up as a paycheck player. My entire career up until that point had been as a paycheck player.

And so I had to get real with myself. Why are you doing real estate? Why are you here? Why do you even care? And so through that period of time, I did, I started to show up different. I started to show up with, you know what, I'm not here to get that commission at the end of the, at the end of the deal. I'm here because I help people's dreams come true. You'd see my sign above my head says dream. I'm all about it. I'm here for it. Not my dreams, but other people's dreams. And when that shift happened

and you build the habits around it and things like that, that's what changed the trajectory. That's where you go from there. Excuse me for interrupting my own show. You are freaking amazing. And because you're amazing, I'm going to ask for a quick favor. It'll just take you 30 seconds for you to leave a favorable five-star rating or review on your favorite platform. Then what I'll do is I'll enter you into a raffle

where we can meet 45 minutes for a free coaching session. And I'll also give you a copy of the book, Real Estate Evolution, which is the 10-step guide to CPI, consistent and predictable income. Oh, by the way, I'm the author of that book. So if you'd like for me to coach you, give you some nuggets and help you in your business, go ahead and leave a review and you can enter into the monthly raffle to win. What's your life look like today?

I live my dream life. I really, truly do. And I believe that I live this dream life because I realize that my life is wrapped up in helping other people get what they need. And then you can't help but get what you need. So I'm remarried. We just celebrated our 11th anniversary. I have a beautiful marriage. We have a home in Flagstaff, Arizona, which is my primary market. And we have a second home in Clarkdale, which is an hour, just over an hour away. And

I've got my, my two little girls that I told you about in the beginning have both grown up to be amazingly wonderful adults. And, you know, I couldn't have designed it better. That's fantastic. Let's talk about work-life balance. So tell me, what is work-life balance and how do you get it? So I'm going to first tell you what it is by telling you what it's not. Okay, that's probably easier, right? By the way, what you're about to tell is probably going to be a familiar story to many, and probably a familiar story to myself as well. But go ahead. And it's why I'm here talking

to you today, because I have to tell you, I, you know, when you get down to the bottom of yourself like that, it does something to your psyche. And when you start to get into a good flow of business, you don't know when to turn it off because there's something in the back of your mind going, but what if it happens again? I gotta get it all right now. I gotta keep going.

I gotta more and more and more. And then you hear the culture of real estate where people, oh, well, I answer my phone. I answer my phone at 10 o'clock at night. I do this, I do that. And that's not healthy for anyone. But I was on that, I was on that trajectory hardcore. So I went from one extreme to the other. And now I'm, I'm successful and I am just not stopping at all. I'm not taking a break. I'm not turning my phone off at a certain time. I'm going hard seven days a week, you know, 24 hours a day. I still can remember laying in my bed, getting a call from, uh, getting a call from somebody interested in like it was a sign call and they called at like 1130 at night. I'm in bed. I did answer it in all honesty, because I had teenage daughters at the

time and I didn't recognize the number. And so there is a little piece of me that was like, if this is an emergency with my teenage daughter, I better answer it. But then when I realized it's just somebody calling about a listing and being like, oh, I'm sorry, I thought I'd get your voicemail. I didn't expect you to answer going like, okay, I'm getting up. Let's talk. You know, I mean, that's ridiculous. And the truth of the matter is, is I genuinely worked myself into the hospital. I ended up, yep, I ended up hospitalized, bedridden, hospitalized just for a day, bedridden for a week and a half. And then just trying to get back onto a journey of health. This was in 2018 and finding out what was going on, getting back into the swing of things.

And I really realized that the pace that I had created for myself was not sustainable. And here's the thing. When I took that step back, because my body forced me to, I took that step back, talked to my husband, we go, okay, listen, you know, what you're doing, you can't sustain, how are we going to adjust things, I started to put it put boundaries around my time. You know, so now I'm that person that I'm going to, I'm available to talk to you between 9am and 6pm. And never on Sundays, unless you know, a house comes on the market that we're looking for. And I let my clients know there's always an exception. But I stick to that. I mean, to the point where if somebody calls me at five minutes to nine, I will let it go to voicemail and call them back in five minutes

because I stick to that scheduling. I take vacations for myself. I've built a team of people so that I've got other people that I can rely on. I have a business partner now, four team members, and I don't hesitate to let some things go. And when I started doing that is when my business truly took off. I mean, before that I was doing a good book of business, but I wasn't in anybody's top producer list. I made a good living, but nobody, you know, I was like, yeah, you're right. Fine. You know, like I said, that was in 2018. And in 2019, I hit our brokerages top 1% nationwide for the first time and have been top 1% every year since. And I truly believe it's because you create that work-life balance and put boundaries around it and prioritize your family, not your commissions. You know, Jackie,

as you were sharing that, and thank you, you know, prioritizing your family and your health and yourself, right? right you know some of us don't have families i mean we all have people right but right my perspective is health yourself first make sure you're squared away and then those around you and and you know and you're able to you know you're able to help others when you can help yourself but as you were sharing that jackie i was thinking about the paradox of i have to work 80 hours a week. And this is metaphorically. So I have to work 80 hours a week because I've got no commissions. I'm chasing the check. Or on the other side, I've been there on the other side of that is I have to work 80 hours a week because I got so many clients that I can't keep up with it. And so in either case, I can't take the time off

because I got either, either I need to figure it out or I'm getting driven into the dirt, you know, on one side or the other. Right. So it's like, wow, like, how do you like, how do you win in that situation? Right. And so I think that, you know, you saying, Hey, look, nine to six, that's my schedule. You set expectations of others. And I think that that's really, truly, really not only is the only way to really make it work, but I think it's effective and it's healthy. Yeah. And you know, the other thing about that, Dan, and this is an unexpected consequence from me personally, but I want to share it with your audience is that people take you more seriously. When you set that boundary around yourself, I mean, let's face it, if you

need an attorney, are you going to call them at 11 o'clock on a Tuesday night? No. If you need to go see your doctor, are you going to be texting him Sunday morning at 5 a.m.? Absolutely not. And so when you put those boundaries around yourself, it actually up levels your professionalism in the eyes of the client on the other side. Yeah, I had a listing that we were getting offers in two nights ago. And agents is calling, you know, hey, did you get my offer? Hey, I got questions on this, et cetera. And I was receiving offers. I knew I was receiving offers. It was like seven 30 at night. And I did send them a text. Hey, thank you very much.

I received your offer. I'll give you a call tomorrow. Right. And it's freeing to sit there and say, look, I'm going to get to this. You're going to be a priority of mine. You're going to be highest priority of mine, but right now I'm watching football, which is what I was doing at the time i didn't say that i was watching football right but i did say i had i had another engagement that i that i that was taking my attention right yeah and but the reality of it is was not only did those uh did my own client because i told that my own client say hey look i know we're getting offers, this evening. I'll give you a call first thing in the morning and I'll help you sort through, through it for now. I'm going to say, let's do nothing because what

I'm going to be doing is, is working hard to be able to, you know, to solicit offers from everybody that has shown your home. And tomorrow morning, we'll go ahead and we'll review those together. And she's like, all right, no sweat band. And so my client respects me, the other agents. I think that, you know, it went well with them. I mean, you know, I think setting expectations of the other agents is smart. I think sometimes other agents may get frustrated, but nobody's going to get super pissed off if you're like, hey, look, you know, it's nine o'clock at night, let's pick this up in the morning, or just not answer your phone or answer the text at all. So I think setting those boundaries, it does elevate your game big time. You already know, 87% of all real estate agents

fail in this business. And you also know, it doesn't have to be that way. If you're a real estate agent and you're looking for consistent and predictable income, I invite for you to get your free copy of Real Estate Evolution, The 10-Step Guide to CPI, Consistent and Predictable Income for Real estate agents. And you can do so when you visit www.therealestateevolution.com. I'll share with you your book that I authored to show you the way. Thanks. So tell me, Jackie, so if you're a, let's say you're a seasoned agent And you mentioned earlier about that roller coaster, right? I've got a transaction, one or three. Once upon a time, I owned a real estate brokerage. I was an operating partner at Keller Williams Realty Brokerage. And we used to study the industry. We would study the agents. And what we would find is the patterns of, I have a client, or one or three. And in January, there's one or three closings. In February, nothing. March, nothing.

April, one or three. May, nothing. June, nothing, et cetera. And so that's a very, very typical producing agents outcome. That's the second of the patterns we used to watch. The first pattern was zeros. They'd be in the industry for two years. The second pattern was what I just described.

The top pattern was those top producers. And the top producers, their challenge was they had no time, right? And then the regular producers, the seasoned agents, their problem was that inconsistency. So talk to us about the top producers and the ones riding the roller coaster. What do they do, first of all, to get off that roller coaster? We already sort of talked about, you know, for the top producers, what to do to, you know, about your time. How do you get off the roller coaster? Great question.

So the first thing is, do you guys read, are you a fan of Atomic Habits, the book Atomic Habits? Okay. This is like, oh, so if you haven't read it yet, go to Amazon. You have to spend like 15 bucks. It's best 15 bucks. Hold on, Jackie. Right after you go to Amazon, get Real Estate Evolution, then get James Clear's book. I'm just saying. There you go. I agree. But I have to tell you that there's a line in there that just resonates with me where he says, you do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. So the very top thing I can tell you that if you want to get off that commission roller coaster, you got to fix your systems because I promise you, if you get real with yourself and you really look at, okay, what does my day-to-day life look like? Your systems

are broken. Either they're non-existent or they're not working on your behalf. And what that looks like is going to be different for everyone, but you have to have certain priorities, certain habits that you send. I coach our new agents with our brokerage. And one of the things that we just talked about is we broke it down to the ridiculous in terms of, well, what do you have to do on a daily basis? And based on the statistics, and I won't get into the whole thing, but based on the statistics, if you make a hundred phone calls, you're going to set two appointments. Okay. So there's a, you know, there's the breakdown of, okay, here's how, here's the percentage of people that I'll answer. Here's the percentage of people

you'll have a conversation with. But if you make a hundred phone calls, you'll get two appointments from those hundred phone calls. So for a new agent, I said, okay, well, let's say I'm not telling you to make a hundred phone calls every day. You can go listen to other coaches for that. What if we break it down to say, all right, you're brand new, you've closed one, you've closed three, you know, maybe you're on that roller coaster that you just described where you closed three, nothing, nothing, closed two, nothing, closed four, whatever that looks like. But if you could make 10 calls a day, it'll take you two weeks to get to a hundred calls. Cause that's the other thing I tell you, if you're going to do the habits of

real estate, do them five days a week and give yourself two days off. Don't try and do the habits of real estate seven days a week. You will have to be responsive, but you don't have to do the habits where you're making, you know, proactive phone calls, you're prospecting, that kind of thing. So you're making 10 calls a day, it's gonna take you two weeks to get to two appointments. So what does that average out to be? One appointment a week. So how many appointments are you gonna have?

If you do that math, you're gonna get 52 appointments. If you are a horrible closer and you only get 50% of the people you meet with to actually sign a listing or a buyer broker agreement with you, how many clients do you have? 26. And if you as a new agent or an inconsistent agent

can truly say to yourself, if I can close 26 deals this year, does that change what your life looks like? For most people, the answer is yes, because the average, the average realtor with the National Association of Realtors closes six deals a year. So I promise you 26 is going to make a big difference in your world. And then if you're already closing 26 and you need to do more than we can talk about how to get you on a better

trajectory from there. But you know, that's, that's where it starts. It's getting into those little habits, 10 calls a day, something like that. The challenge that most agents have, and I agree with you a thousand percent, the challenge that they have is they'll do the, they'll do the calls, they'll do the calls and do the calls. They'll get a client or three and then they'll stop doing the calls because they, they misprioritize. I need to pay attention to these clients

without understanding that you're setting yourself up for future failure. Because if you're paying attention to your clients today and you close those one to three that we talked about and you're not doing the 10 conversations, the 10 conversations, the 10 conversations, then what's going to happen four months from now is you're going to have zero clients.

Now the clients that you're serving at that point, you're coming from a perspective of desperation. Like, like now it's not about their needs. Now it's not about helping them. Now it's about helping you. So anybody that says that you should be working with the clients rather than taking your 10 calls a day. Yeah, do both. But the 10 calls is your priority because you care for your clients. What type of care can you give your clients when you're closing, like Jackie says, 26 deals a year? You're not worried about paying your bills. Now you can pour into your clients. But to do that, 10 conversations a day or whatever it is that is your prescription. Would you agree with all that, Jackie? I 100% agree. You just described exactly how people get themselves on the commission rollercoaster in the first place

is because you don't, and again, it goes down to habits. And so this is where your systems come in is that you're like, oh, but wait, now I've got all these things coming in and let's admit it, real estate can get very reactive. Something happens, you have to respond, you have to react, you have to, it is a priority, it's urgent. But you can take care of the urgent and still pay attention to the important because your habits are important. So this is what it looks like when

you start to get up to, you know, if you're looking at, okay, if I want to close 26 deals a year, then let's back into at what point do you hire a transaction coordinator? At what point do you hire a showing assistant? At what point do you hire a marketing company to do your social media? I mean, there's all sorts of things that you can systematize and outsource. What you can't systematize and outsource are your personal relationships. And so that's where you making phone calls come in. I know you can hire systematize and outsource are your personal relationships. And so that's where you making phone calls come in. I know you can hire an ISA and things like that. And sure, if that's what your business practice looks like, that's a whole nother thing we can talk about, but it

doesn't change the fact that at some point you personally need to get on the phone with this person so that you are making a connection and they like you because they're not going to hire your isa or your marketing person or your transaction coordinator they're hiring you and so that's where that's where you can kind of fall to the level of your systems is by having other people in in place and in line love it jackie i know you do some coaching how could somebody find you online the best thing you can do now, listen, here's what I'm going to tell you. My name is not that easy to spell, but if you even get close, you're going to find me. So if you go to, I don't even pronounce it. Nevermind. Well, and you know, I've had people go, why don't you just

Jackie Tate is easy, but I'm like, yeah, but then nobody knows how to spell it. They spell it with ease. There's no E in Jackie, no E in Tate. None of your names are easy to spell. None of my names are easy to spell. So that's why I'm like, if you just get close, the Simeral is kind of a defining factor. So you go to Instagram and you look for Jackie Simeral Tate. You're going to find me. Send me a DM.

And if you send me a DM with just the code relationship24, then I'm going to respond to you. You're going to get some of my free stuff. I'll take care of you. Again, we've got our systems in place. So you'll be all set and we can connect that way. Jackie, thanks for sharing your story today and your advice. Everybody, have the best day of your life.

Be grateful. Make good choices. Go help somebody. And go find a listing. God bless you. Thanks so much for listening to the No Broke Months podcast today. Until the next show, I invite for you to be grateful, make good choices, help someone, have the best day of your life and go find a listing. I'm very excited about the conversation we're about to have. I want to introduce you to Dan Rochon,

who is the owner and co-founder of Greetings Virginia. I am so excited to introduce my next guest, Dan Rochon. He reads, he writes, he does improv. A frequent speaker and often quoted about the real estate market i'm gonna bring on a guy that is a winner we had some really cool conversations before going live with this show we have dan rochon so i'm gonna encourage for you to think big i'm gonna encourage you to think big and then multiply it by two and then take huge action because whatever you want you're only five years away from that