What To Say Now: Episode 20—
Planting Seeds, Harvesting Leads

What To Say Now Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/whattosaynow

Dan Stewart (00:15): Hey everybody. It is Tuesday October 6th, and it is time for the, wait for it, 20th episode of What to Say Now. The 20th episode of What to Say Now is starting right now. So if you're here, give me a, "What's up?" Let's see a comment below. Love to engage with you. Thank you to so many of you who've joined our Facebook group at facebook.com/groups/whattosaynow, where we tackle the communication issues that you're having every day. Now, today we're doing something very special, something I'm very proud of, so I raced in here. I turned this on.

Dan Stewart (00:55): You might notice my normally perfect hair is a little different today. The reason for that is because I just drove home in my convertible, my hair blowing in the breeze absolutely crazy and wild. I rushed in the door. I turned on the camera, and I was super excited to start sharing with you this very special session, because today we're talking about two things, planting seeds and harvesting leads. Two things. That's what you need. One, plant the seeds. Two, harvest the leads, right?

Dan Stewart (01:29): I'm a Floridian. It's about a thousand degrees outside right now. Pretty sure that's accurate if you check WeatherBug. I don't know what it's like to have the fall crisp air greet me in the morning. We haven't experienced that yet this year, but theoretically it can happen. For a lot of people around the world right now October means harvest time, and many of us are starting to have that moment where we're looking at our calendars and we're going, "Hey. 2020 was weird, but guess what? It still sucks not to reach our goals."

Dan Stewart (02:01): We are just now starting the fourth quarter of the year. It's time to really harvest those crops. It's time to go back and look at all those seeds you planted, and turn them into opportunity. So let's talk about the kind of opportunity that's here. Right? There's a lot. If you think about all the people that you have in your life that could potentially send business your way, it gets kind of staggering. Right? Especially for those of you who sell real estate, because everybody has to live somewhere. People love to talk about real estate all the time. So if you're a real estate agent, and your business is peaks and valleys, and peaks and valleys, the quick solution for that is to make sure you have regular communication going to all the people that you happen to know. Right?

Dan Stewart (02:52): Once you do that, let's talk about some of the things that happen. It smooths out that peak and valley. You can get off that feast/famine rollercoaster and just forget about that, and instead, enjoy steady opportunity coming your way. I'm really a big fan of having that in my own life. I think you'll be a big fan of having it in yours. For those of you who don't know, this is a cool thing. Happy Grasshopper, my company, is now officially 10 years old. 10 years old. That's crazy. Along the way I happened to have started six other companies. Right?

Dan Stewart (03:27): Some were great successes. Some were catastrophic failures. The one truth in all these businesses has been that relationships make the difference. Right? They absolutely do. Once you commit to really nurturing those relationships, every time you meet someone, knowing that you can turn that little seed of a new relationship into a massive tree of prosperity, life gets different in really big ways. To tap into this what you really need to have as a framework, right, because saying it doesn't just make it happen. You have to have a paint-by-number system to help this make sense. I'm going to lay that out for you right now.

Dan Stewart (04:06): The first thing that you've got to do is have a mindset of adopting people. I want you in your daily life to think about adopting the people you meet every day. Did you just have a great server at a restaurant? Why not adopt that person? Right? Do you have people in your life that you talk to regularly? Adopt them. Right? What I mean by adopt them is that you want to have some ongoing, meaningful communication with them that deepens the relationship. Okay? It's a mindset shift. It goes from, "Hey. This is just a person I know," to "This is a person I'm cultivating a relationship with." Right? That's the shift. That's what it means to adopt someone. So step one is to adopt people." Right? Grab that mindset. You want to go ahead and put that into place.

Dan Stewart (04:56): Then the very next thing that you have to do as part of this process is set expectations with them. I'll go back to this example of being at the restaurant. You had a great experience. Someone took great care of you. You need to go ahead and say some things to them that change the dynamic of your relationship in their mind as well. Right? So get used to saying things like, "You know what? I really enjoyed getting to know you. This has been a really fun conversation. Would it be okay if I kept in touch with you?" Right? When you say that to someone, it's almost impossible for them to say no. Right? Almost impossible. Then the thing I want you to do immediately after that is open your phone and grab their information. Right? That's a super simple, easy thing to do.

Dan Stewart (05:47): I'm just going to show you here. My example, I keep my phone ready. I log into my Happy Grasshopper account. I grab that person's information, and then I know for sure that they're going to get ongoing communication with me. That is the third step in the framework. First, we adopt people. Second, we set expectations with them. Then third, we keep in touch with them in a meaningful way. What is that meaningful way? Well, for people that you know, people you're building these relationships with, it can't be a sales relationship yet. Right? You've got to show them you care enough to keep in touch with them without having a sales agenda. My recipe, and you've heard me say this before guys, 17 emails per contact per year that are not about sales.

Dan Stewart (06:35): They're not about your business. They're not about the market. They're not about real estate. They're simply about you caring enough to keep in touch with them. Second, text messages. You want to send 12 per year. One birthday message. One transaction anniversary message. Four quarterly lead-harvesting messages, and then six holiday messages of your choosing. So that's six text messages on top of the 17 emails per contact per year, and we still have one more layer. That layer is voicemail drops. Right? Think about a voicemail drop. It is a ringless voicemail. To them it looks like they missed a call from you. They simply either read it, they listen to it, or they just click to call you right back. Okay? You can prerecord these and then have it go out automatically throughout the year. Right? You record one birthday message, and it just goes out. That is a huge time-saver for you. Right?

Dan Stewart (07:32): Let's recap this. Okay? Here's what we're talking about today is a three-step framework that's super simple. First, is a mindset shift where you're adopting the people you meet so that you can cultivate meaningful relationships with them. Second, you're setting expectations with them so that you can continue to follow up and build that relationship, your conversation. Third, of course, you're actually following up. That's where the work happens. Now, if you'd like my help with that, I did start this little company called Happy Grasshopper. Today we serve thousands of real estate professionals, and we have a communication plan that does exactly what I've laid out for you. It's called Chirp. If you go to our website, https://happygrasshopper.com, you're an agent click the Agent button. If you're a broker or you have a team, click that button. Learn how it is that we can help you.

Dan Stewart (08:24): Before I wrap up, there's just a couple of other really cool items of business to share with you. I'm announcing a webinar series today that I'm extraordinarily proud of. So if you enjoy these little What to Say Now sessions, we need a little bit more time to go really deep on the good stuff. So beginning October 20th I'm laying out a web series called, The Martial Art of Achievement. Okay? Now this isn't all Cobra Kai goofiness. Right? This is about efficiency. If you really think about what martial arts is, it's about conserving your motion.

Dan Stewart (09:01): It's about a small effort producing an outsized results, and throughout my life I've always looked for those sorts of opportunities. How can I do something such that I get a monumentally better result for the least amount of effort? We're going to dig into that beginning on October 20th. In the meantime, I really just want to thank you for your participation in this group. Again, my name's Dan Stewart, and it's an absolute privilege to serve. If you haven't already joined our Facebook group, it's facebook.com/groups/whattosaynow. I will follow up with links for you about the webinar series beginning October 20th.

Dan Stewart (09:45): Then the final item of business today. On Wednesday, this week, tomorrow, at 3:30 PM, we're hosting a free training about that communication plan that I've just described. That training plan is going to be broadcast live at happygrasshopper.com/training. Right? Super easy. We'll certainly want to share that with everybody, and I'll look forward to seeing you guys there. So until next week, take care of yourself, get out there, adopt some people, set those expectations, and then whatever you do, make sure you follow up with them. Take care everybody. Bye now.

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