Simon Sinek demonstrates how small gestures—like putting away your phone, using a visitor’s name, and asking personal questions—make people feel seen and valued. He illustrates the psychological effect of holding a phone while engaging with a client (using a live in-room demonstration) and applies the advice to real estate interactions (selling a home vs. a house; staging suggestions).
Chapters
Can I borrow someone's phone? Can I just borrow a phone? Yeah. Thanks.
I know. It's okay. Here, I'll get one. There you go.
Okay. I just want to show you something. I'm just going to show you a little. I'm just going to.
I'm just going to show you something. Right? So. So.
I'm just holding my phone while I'm talking to you guys. It's not buzzing, it's not beeping. I'm not checking it. I'm just holding it. Let me just ask you a question. Do you feel like you're the most important thing to me right now? Exactly. There's a deep seated psychological reaction when you are walking around a house with a client holding your phone, even if you're not checking it. And I have absolutely had it where I've been walking around with an agent and they're talking to me and then I like, look to the left and I turn around and they're like this.
Guess how that made me feel? That I am not the most important thing to that person in this moment. Wow. Right? And this is artificial. I'm just doing it right now in front of a room and I'm not even looking down. And you don't feel that special. Right. So the point is, put your phone away for the 10 minutes you're walking around a house and go ahead.
I mean, the art of making someone feel seen and heard is stupidly simple, right?
Learning their name really quickly is really easy. And calling them by their name is really easy. Asking them questions not about what they're looking for in a house, but asking questions about who they are, like where they see themselves in five years, professionally, are you married? Are you single? Learn about them as people and all of that learning makes you show people different things.
It makes you creative. I know this wasn't the kind of house you were looking for, but based on what we talked about before, I think you'll really like this. And now you're not looking to sell them a house, you're looking to sell them a home. And I know a lot of you use those terminology. I'm not here to help you find a house. I'm here to find a home. And yet you still left a bottle of champagne in the fridge in their new house. You didn't help them make a home with a yoga mat.
So really, really easy. Put your devices away because not only does it distract us, but as an act of service.
