When I first got my real estate license, I went to work for a small brokerage not far from my home. Our little office was made up of my broker, who was a great salesman; an administrative assistant; and supposedly another agent. I never saw him, and he never sold any homes, but he was rumored to have his license with our brokerage.
My broker also owned a printing business in addition to the real estate company. The two operations shared office space, and there was no sign on the door for the real estate company. Also, he didn’t have his real estate business listed in the phone book. Nor was he a fan of marketing. His entire business was built on referrals.
I believe this broker would meet the definition of “old school.” He never once ran a lead-generation ad while I was there. He never sent a customer newsletter. He never promoted his business to the public at all, in fact. He simply waited for referrals to roll in from friends, family, past clients and his large network of fellow business owners.
His setup was similar to most agents because he handled the listings and gave his buyer referrals to me. I improved my skills and became very good at helping buyers find and buy their homes.
This was going well until …
One morning he stopped in the office and said, “Cancel any meetings you have today and grab your golf clubs!” We left the office and played 18 holes of golf. As always, we had a few beers as we played. My broker was an excellent golfer and he always beat me by a wide margin. I didn’t really care because golf was never that important to me.
When we finished our round, it was still pretty early so we headed to a bar. This bar had an outdoor boccie court, and we continued drinking and began to play some hotly contested boccie. I couldn’t believe it, but I was actually beating him. I won the first game, and he challenged me to another, which I again won. He got a bit peeved because he never liked to lose, especially not to me.
I was trash-talking a bit, since I was finally beating him at something. The alcohol must have been kicking in about this time, because he said to me:
“Who changes your kitty litter?”
This changed my life forever, one sentence becoming a life-defining moment for me. This broker was telling me that he was responsible for all my sales and commissions, since he provided me with buyer referrals. And he was right. I was 100-percent dependent on him.
I was pissed to say the least. I vowed to start my own company and show him that I didn’t need to have my kitty litter changed by anyone.
I immediately started looking for my own office. I found an ugly old office and rented it at $425 a month. I had a meeting with him and re-negotiated my commissions to a higher commission split because I would no longer accept his referrals and I would no longer use his office, supplies or administrative assistant. I was going to change my own kitty litter!
I began to study marketing and slowly but surely began selling homes on my own. Within a few short months, I finished the required classes to obtain my brokers license and started my own real estate brokerage.
Fast forward…
When I sold my real estate business, we were selling an average of 30 homes a month. This was the same number of homes my broker would sell in a year. My company had been ranked 4th on the fastest growing companies in Northeastern, Ohio. I proved that I didn’t need his referrals and that I could build a business on my own.
As I look back, it’s easy to see how important the kitty litter comment was to my personal development. It made me go off on my own and make things happen for myself. Had this broker not uttered those words to me, I probably would have continued my dependency on his buyer referrals. Who knows where that would have gotten me? But I probably would be working at a spare desk somewhere in his printing office. More likely, actually, I probably would be out of business because his business model just wasn’t sustainable.
I truly believe now that we all have “life-defining” moments such as my “kitty litter” moment. In fact, we can all probably describe the recent real estate crash as a life-defining moment for us. Moments like these are critical to our long-term success because they force us to do things we probably wouldn’t do otherwise. My desire for success, for example, my need to “beat’ my broker and prove myself, forced me out of a comfort zone and moved me do things I had never done before.
Pertaining to this recent market crash, some experts are saying we probably have hit our bottom. This is where you now get to decide how you are going to handle your life-defining moment. If you have survived this crash, you are working your business with a clean slate now. The market is at or near the bottom and will improve going forward.
Will you come out of your comfort zone and do whatever it takes?
Will you prove to everyone you can build a great business?
I hope you answered “Yes.”
Don’t let somebody else change YOUR kittly litter.