Summit Insider 2021: Top Takeaways from the First 2 Days of Success Summit

October 7, 2021 Summit

I was pretty stoked when I got to fire a t-shirt cannon on Tuesday at Day 1 of this year’s Success Summit into a crowd of 4,000 dedicated real estate professionals who joined me in Dallas.

Then on Day 2, we took it up a notch and loaded that thing with cash and shot it into the crowd.

But really, none of that compares to some of the crazy talent we’ve all experienced in this room over the last two days…

A Dream Come True

I’d always dreamt of having Seth Godin speak at one of our events, and I’ll just say his speech yesterday so mind-blowingly good, it’s an understatement to say he was well worth the wait.

Here are just a few gems that come to mind:

Trust is far more precious than attention.
You can no longer be a well-paid clerk. Sorry, time’s up. What are you going to do instead?
I don’t care about your logo. But I do care about your brand.
The goal is to be missed if you were gone. Be great at one thing and ignore the rest.
Ask yourself why someone would possibly search for you by name. The answer is because you are remarkable. The lesson: Be so good that people can’t help but tell others about you. In other words, be remarkable.

Rockstars on Display at TOM X

We kicked off Summit on Tuesday with TOM X, where nine Rockstar agents shared success stories, personal triumphs and insight into how they excel.

Everyone was phenomenal but it’s impossible to share them all here. A few highlights I recall:

The importance of authenticity has come up several times already at Summit, but perhaps no one hammered it home better than Miami’s Sarah Desamours when she said, “It’s more stressful to try to be someone else than to be who you are.”

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Beverly Hills luxury superagent Christophe Choo leveled a great one-two punch to the crowd:

CHRISTOPHE: Who wants to create more video content?

CROWD IN UNISON: Yeah!

CHRISTOPHE: Do you have it in your calendar?

Crickets.

As I’ve often said, “If it’s not in your calendar, it doesn’t exist.” Christophe gets it. Hopefully you do too, now.

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Boston-area broker Lisa Chinatti schooled everyone on how to attract talent to grow your team with lots of great analogies to things agents do to attract clients. I loved this one: “Be their broker before you’re their broker.” Basically, show ‘em you care and how you treat people, and if they like what they see, they’ll gravitate to you naturally.

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NoVA Expireds Queen Carolyn Young shared insight into how to get off the plateau, and for her it included one simple realization: At the time, she realized the agents she aspired to be had more of a growth mindset than she did. So she changed her mindset and skyrocketed her success.

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And Annapolis, MD’s Phil Gerdes had the crowd fully engaged with his story about giving himself permission to pee… but I’ll save the details on that one for the attendees.

Kudos to all… amazing job!

The HaBu 5: ‘Highest and Best Use’ Activities You Should Be Focused On

I’ve been talking about the growing emergence of teams since Summit 2015, so it’s no surprise I dedicated a portion of Wednesday afternoon to the important topic of team building.

In addition to revealing the six team options everyone should consider, I also talked about the five core activities I consider to be your HaBu, or Highest and Best Use of your time.

Any guesses what they are?

Think about it and I’ll share them at the very end of this blog.

Random Notes & Takeaways:

Being nice is really inexpensive. Being an asshole is expensive.
You’re not going on enough listing appointments.
Are you winning the battle of “know, like and trust”?
Make yourself the hub or go-to resource for all things housing and real estate to people. Make sure they understand. Too many consumers don’t understand what their agent is capable of, and as a result, YOU fall short of forming the type of close-knit relationships you really should be forming.
Day 1 keynote speaker Michelle Poler shared her 100 Days Without Fear project and taught us there’s a key difference between being fearless and being brave. She also asked if when it comes to the checklist of your life, are you checking society’s boxes – or the ones the “real” you really wants?
Everyone in attendance – at least that’s the way I heard it – committed to video-first marketing from this point forward.
You know that hook that always works when you’re on a listing appointment? Why aren’t you using that in your marketing instead of reserving it for the few appointments you go on?
Team leaders and Rockstar coaching members Dee Martin and Sandee Payne joined me onstage for a fascinating conversation about how they attract listings.
Bill Pipes talked about the importance of gaining three keys – trust, respect, and rapport – when working with today’s buyers.
We even got an impromptu version of “Fly Me to the Moon” sung on the catwalk by an attendee!