The Sisterhood of the Red Balloon

Okay, so I have no Sphere.   John and I have no real family here and our friends are all back in DC, so I have no Sphere.  Well, I have a Sphere in the UK, but that is no use to anyone.  We were tasked with calling people on our phone during Ignite and telling them that we are no in Real Estate and asking if they know anyone who might be looking to buy or sell a home, but I had almost no one to call.   When I put all my contacts in my Contact Management System there were about 60 of them, but 30+ of those were in England, so, what to do, what to do?

I had an idea.  I started a group on Facebook.  Right now there is only one of me, but I think I can make this work!   I am surely not the only person to have moved from out of State to Central Florida, right?!  I mean, it’s a thing!  People come to Central Florida from all over the US and it’s insanely hard to make friends and meet people once your kids are out of Elementary School.  When your children are babies, there are Mom’s Clubs where you can meet with your babies and socialize.  Once they hit Elementary School you stand outside at pickup and there are a whole pack of Moms doing the same thing and you meet people and make friends.  Then Middle School rolls around and you are sitting in your car in the loop with all the other Moms staring straight ahead pretending not to see one another. Why does that happen?

So anyway, I started a group called “Coffee and Conversation” and it’s all about getting ladies together.  I’m going to start by going out for coffee and advertising that I’ll be there on some of the local groups.  I’m going to have a Red Balloon at the Table so that anyone coming knows where to look, because I’ve been to things like this before where I’ve walked in the door and not know which group of ladies were the one I was meeting, so I bought a cup of coffee to go and left!   I figure the balloon is a good idea.

I’m quite excited.  With John getting more and more adverse to going out of the house, it would be so easy for me to become a recluse with him, but I need to socialize to keep myself healthy.  It’s not mentally healthy to stay home all the time.  I need to make me some friends!

I’ll let you know how it works out!   Cross everything, because as well as friends, I need a Sphere!

Keller Williams IGNITE!

I sit here slightly overwhelmed.  The Keller Williams IGNITE training program is phenomenal, but I’m not sure where to start!  I guess at the beginning.

The cost of the training was $250, which when you’ve just spent a couple of thousand dollars on the course, fingerprints, exam, board fees, etc., hurts a little, but you get the money back in the form of a check when you close your first transaction, which is fair because the training is worth so much more than $250, and I imagine they want to do their best to make sure you’re not there merely for the training and then leave.

Before we started, we picked up a HUGE binder of course content, which I believe I will keep forever.  The first day I completed a form in the front of the book called “Get your Head in the Game,” and it asked if I have achieved my Financial Goals in the past and if not, why not.   My answer?  No, because of Lack of Commitment from me, and after listening to Cydnee, our trainer, the answer to the next question of “What is the one thing that makes one Real Estate Agent more successful than another?” is “Daily Lead Generation.”  Every.  Single.  Day.

The Class Mantra is “Lead Gen!”.  The answer to most questions is “Lead Generation.”  They drum it into you every. single. day.  I guess I didn’t realize when I started this journey that this is a job in sales, but it was something I realized very early on in this course.  The role of a Realtor is not to only to sell houses; it is to sell him/herself.  Ack.  Not a huge fan of sales, so we will have to see how this plays out!

During the first week, we had a Lead Gen segment where we had to take out our phones and find someone to call to tell them that you were now in Real Estate and ask them if they had any leads.  Oh lordy.  I hate that.  Absolutely not something I enjoy doing, at all.  Although everyone kept telling me that I’m smart and personable and vibrant and that I’ll do fabulous at Real Estate, I can’t see past the fact that its sales and sales is something I loathe.  Cold, or even warm calling, I don’t do, so I do wonder how successful I can be at this.   However, another thing we had to do was write down our one thing, our reason for doing this, and my response was, “Save John.”  I have a job to do, and I don’t have a choice, so I’m going to do this if it kills me.

Anyway, onto the course itself.  The course is broken up into four weekly topics.  The first week is about your business.  Setting up the business to be successful, building your Sphere, working on your Mindset, etc. etc. We had successful Agents come in and talk with us about how they got to where they are and what strategies work for them and do not.  One thing I have to say is that I thought Real Estate would be cutthroat, but everyone is so friendly and willing to share ideas and help one another out.  It’s wonderful!  I’m not sure if this is a Keller Williams thing or just my office thing, but it’s great!  The Winter Park office is very close-knit, and I am so happy that I chose to work there.

The second week was called “Win the Seller.”  They taught us about meeting with a potential seller and enticing them to sell with you.  They have a fantastic system in place at KW with marketing tools you can use to help you succeed.  They shared information on how to do a Comparative Market Analysis – CMA.   They talked about Staging, photography, etc. etc. and then the first weekend we were challenged to host an Open House.  I am pretty sure I was terrible at it, but I will learn!  I went with someone else from the course, and we did it together.  She brought Donuts.  Wheee!!!!!

Anyway, we also had a day with one of the KW Mentor’s called Barbara who sat with us and explained all about how to complete the Listing Contract.  Again, I’m overwhelmed by how I was supposed to know how to do that without this course!

Week three was “Win the Buyer,” which was about buyer contracts, etc., and again we had another day where we learned all about the Exclusive Buyer Broker Agreement and how to fill that out correctly along with “The Contract” itself.   I’m not sure how could I do this job correctly if I didn’t know how to fill out a Sale Contract?  The Buyers Agent completes the contract, which in Florida is the FAR-BAR AS-IS contract, and sends it over to the Listing Agent when the buyer makes an offer along with any necessary addendum (we learned about them too) and the proof of funds.  Pretty significant information to have, I think.

The rest of that week was again, all about “Lead Gen!”  Lead Gen. Lead Gen. Lead Gen.  Open Houses.  Door knocking.  Phone Calls.  Networking.  Yay.  Ack!

The final week was all about the deal; “Negotiate the Deal.”  More Lead Gen, plus scripts, funnels, etc. etc.

It was a lot.  It was also great.  I have made many new friends through Ignite and learned so much.  I hope to share some of it with you guys as I share my stories over the coming years, but ultimately, do I recommend KW Ignite?  Absolutely!  I did not know where to start before because I had no information and no knowledge.  I’m still not sure where to start, but now it’s because I have so much information I don’t know what to pick to focus on first, and I’d rather be here than where I was before.

Featured Photo by Jeremy Perkins on Unsplash