Kickstart 2025: Free Business Planning Live Stream with Leigh Brown #KickTail

I don't know what's I've got a major delay problem right here. Oof, what is going on?

I guess y'all heard me talking to myself.

I have no idea what's going on today because I had to restart StreamYard. Oh, so anyway, I guess that's how we gonna kick tail to finish off 2024 and get ready for 2025. If we've never met, hello friends, I'm Leigh Thomas Brown. I am in my office here in downtown Concord, North Carolina, where they have finally finished our street revitalization project, and we are very hopeful that those of us that survived the closed streets that things are going to get better down here. So come visit anytime. Although frankly, I'm not here as much as I have been because I've spent most of my time in Western North Carolina doing everything I can through Patriot Relief to help my neighbors in a time of disaster. You are here because each of you has decided something's got to change for next year. And this, y'all, is all that you've sent me. These are all of your comments for what you need for help I'm gonna do the best I can to address as many of your needs as possible. And if you know anything about me, you know that I appreciate y'all because I'm going to be answering these all year long, and you've given me lots of good topics here. Please introduce yourselves in the comments and take note of your peers that are here today because you're not alone. One thing we forget sometimes in the small business world when we get very insulated and we get very dug down into the challenges of running a business when the economy is crazy and we just came to the other side of the presidential election and we're thinking about next year. And if you're in real estate, you're thinking, what's next? You sometimes think you're all by yourself, but friends, you're not by yourself. Not now and not ever. Now, we're going to do business planning a little differently than some of y'all have done business planning before. This is not going to be your typical boring hour, but I am going to share with you some tools to make your upcoming year Amazing. If you did not download the homework, shame on you, because it's free. Uh, come on now. So go back to leighthomasbrown.com/kicktail and you can download it again at any time, share it with a friend, and give yourself some tools for success. Now, the first tool that you will find I use is called the Simplified Planner.

It is the same look.

They do sell it at Target, but I haven't shopped at Target in 3 years because I hold a grudge.

And so what you should know is that you can also buy this online.

And at the front of my book, I have my recap of last year. So I'm going to have my 2024 recap of what I had for sales. Where did that fall in regard to my goals? I have my average sales price because I need to know where I'm having success with my marketing. And then I want to know what my success has been in regard to list price to sales price. And in real estate, you want to know how successful you've been at gauging the market. And also what the story is, how many showings did it take to sell things? You've gotta know what's happening in your business. And this is my 25th year in real estate. So it's important to watch the trends and it doesn't matter what business you're in, you cannot rely on somebody else to know the trends for your business. If I look at what's happening in real estate, Charlotte is a different story than Concord. Concord is a different story than Kannapolis. And even inside our zip codes, it's an entirely different story, neighborhood by neighborhood, area by area, especially when the markets start shifting. And we are in a shifting market right now. If you are watching from say Austin, Texas, you're the one that's gonna raise your hand and say that Austin's market has been in a bigger slowdown than other areas. Here in Cabarrus County, we've had some stronger areas than in others.. But if you go just a little bit north on 85 up towards where the mega site is in Davidson County, Randolph County, Guilford County, their market's much hotter than here. And so it's a matter of knowing your dynamics so that you can plan ahead. I'll tell you the reason I use a written planner. As some of y'all know, I am of medium age, undisclosed years. I need to write things down to remember them. Some of y'all use online calendars.. And I wish you all the best if you use online calendars. Doesn't do me a hill of beans because I have to have Michelle send it to me every morning so I know what I'm looking at. The other thing I want y'all to know is that our book recommendation this year is not actually on my desk here at the office. It's sitting beside my flower chair at the house. And if you watch all my videos, you know it's absolutely sitting at my house on the flower chair. And I think my stream just froze. Do not know what's happening in StreamYard today. I guess y'all can hear me because the clock is still Running? Is the clock still running? And I don't have any idea what's happening here, so alrighty then, we're just gonna have to assume the internet will figure itself out. Anyway, this year our book is on reputation marketing. Now the reason for this book suggestion, it goes back to, I think 2015 is when it was written. I did suggest it to you in your homework, and the author is Joshua Klein, and it says You Are the Product: How to Survive in an Era of Reputation Marketing. If you are in any kind of a small business, you're in sales. And I don't care if you're a bookkeeper or a realtor or a mortgage lender. At some point, you have to convince somebody else your services are valuable to them. And what it boils down to in today's world is that your reputation is the best tool that you have. Now, what is your reputation? I would like that my reputation be one of honor and integrity and that I speak truth, even if somebody doesn't agree with me. In the world we're in right now, a lot of people have chosen a pathway of least resistance, and the pathway of least resistance is to be all things to all people. And I'm gonna tell y'all something, you cannot be all things to all people. That's a bill of goods that's been sold to you. And in real estate in specific, we are in a challenging era where our reputation as a profession has been maligned in the mainstream media. We have watched our professional trade association flounder for answers, and it is our individual businesses that have paid the price. So how do you fight that back? You have to realize that in a wildly competitive market like real estate, like mortgage lending, like running a boutique in a small town, you have to convince people there's a reason to patronize your business. I'm gonna go ahead and keep talking because it says the clock is still ticking, y'all. I'm just gonna tell you, that's how the devil operates. The devil operates by kicking out your devices and trying to stop you when you're trying to do good things. Page unresponsive. Wait for it to become responsive or exit the page. It's Frozen. What is happening here? Okay, it says the clock is still ticking. Son of a gun. Okay, I don't know what's happening. Is anybody— can you see me again?

I'll have to check my comments.

Lord have mercy. Look, not today, Satan. That is right, because Satan wants to shut me down. Some lost videos, some lost sound. I'm back, gracious and mercy. Oh, and that is why I say, "Get behind me, Satan," because my business is not going to be impacted by anybody else. Okay, so for the person who said you're having trouble finding the book online, it is out of print, and I am so sorry to recommend a book to y'all that's out of print, but keep hunting for it. Check ThriftBooks, check your Goodwill website. It's worth hunting it down. There's other books on reputation management that are important, but why I want to start with you on that is that if you are letting somebody else dictate your reputation, you're lost already. You're not going to let the brand with whom you're associated dictate your reputation. They should be improved by you being there. That's your reputation improving them. I'm gonna lose my mind. Yep, for everybody announcing there's no video or audio, I, um, I don't know what's going on with my technology today. I have used StreamYard for years and they are letting me down today, but here we are.

Okay.

Well, let's see if it came back, and I guess those of y'all that didn't see it can watch it later. I'm back. Okay, friends, well, this is actually the perfect analogy for how to do your business planning. You don't know when things are going to go sideways. You don't know when things are going to be coming at you from a different direction. And so what do you do? You log out and you log back in and you keep going. That's your real estate business, that's your mortgage business, that's everything in life. Okay, so anyway, back to what I was saying about reputation management. I do hope that my reputation is one that when I get knocked down, I get back up and I try to do it with a smile on my face. And sometimes my smile is fake, but if you fake smile long enough, y'all, your real smile will come back. And I hope that y'all recognize me by my swoop in my hair, although in relief world I've had my North Carolina hat on, so That's why I don't even look like myself all the time. Okay, there's your reputation management. So it is a really good question I want you to ask yourselves. How are you described in your professional life? How would your clients describe you? I will tell y'all, I had a lady I just met with. I showed a property right before we started our livestream today, and she came to me yesterday, and when she called, I answered the phone and she said, y'all know what she said, right? I have called a ton of realtors and you're the first one to answer the phone. I have been hearing that for 25 years now. I don't always get to answer the phone because sometimes I'm with someone, but I did answer the phone and we had a lovely conversation. We went over all the information, and then when we met at the property, we had a meeting at my car before we visited the house to make sure she knew what had changed in real estate and how things operated. And she was asking questions about the area. She was asking questions about investment. She was asking questions about what the expectations would be. So what I will tell you is that you can be in control of some things. You're in control of whether or not you answer this. You're in control of whether or not you respond to text and emails. You're in control of some things. You cannot let outside forces dictate how your business operates. For the person who said you had trouble downloading the homework, it should not require you to buy any file viewer that might be in your computer. It's provided to you as a PDF. Okay, so now we're going to talk about what your business planning should include every year. The first thing I want you to figure out in that calendar, so written calendar or Google Calendar, however you look at it, I want you to know that you can control your calendar. Those of y'all that say you can't and you're terrible at time management, I'm going to tell you the hard truth here. The reason you're terrible at time management is you. It's nobody else's fault. And don't tell me that your clients dictate your schedule. They will absolutely work with you if you set some guardrails and guidelines. This is on you, but you have to determine what matters to you. You should also know how you're wired. I'm a morning person. If you try to meet with me at 9 o'clock at night, that's not good for me or for you. But if you want to meet at 8 o'clock in the morning, I had a wonderful breakfast meeting this morning because I'm on my A-game at 8 AM. That's me knowing me. That's me letting the other person know that so that we can meet in the best possible circumstances to get the best possible outcomes. Are you willing to set guardrails so you can give somebody else the best possible outcome?

I think a lot of people in real estate are not.

And so this is where we come in here and we start looking at the answers to— okay, this person says, I need your advice on consistency. All right. Here's what consistency comes from. It comes from setting a schedule. All right. And you're going to get there when you start to realize that you're an entrepreneur. Your day has to start at some time. Quit letting your day start when you feel like it's starting. Quit getting up when you feel like getting up.

Set a schedule.

Put yourself in military school. I mean, you remember being in high school. If you missed the bus, what happened? Well, where I lived out at the edge of the county, if I missed the school bus, well, I wasn't going to be able to bum a ride off my parents because they had to get to work. My grandparents were— I was never going to ask my grandparents for a ride to school. I would have to call Gary Stewart and bum a ride off Gary, and he couldn't stand when I called him, so I did not want to have to call him. And if y'all know Gary, you know he hated driving me to school because my best friend Carrie was dating him. It was very dramatic, so I would get all the scoop, but I didn't want it. There's a, there's a consequence to you not having a start to your day. There's also a consequence to you not having an end to your day. So if you want to build in consistency, start your day and end your day. And I know that sounds basic, but in entrepreneur world, we have a tendency to work 16, 18, 20 hours and never turn it off. And then you get burned out and exhausted. And so you stop being consistent in your actions. For those of y'all that have trouble turning off social media, Put it in your calendar. I'm going to check my social media at 9:00 AM, but my day starts at 8:00. Maybe you start your day with client phone calls and getting everything properly set up so that at 9:00 AM you could check your social media messages and get those off your plate and then close it back down and get moving. Check it again in the middle of the day. Check it again at the end of the day. I look at social media like caulk. I want to caulk my day with it. So if I have a gap, I'll check in and see what I need to deal with. But it is not the foundation. It is not the bricks.

It is the caulk.

The foundation of my business is the interactions with people. And I don't mean over the interwebs. I mean over the telephone or face to face. Look at your business. Go back at 2024 and say, where did my business come from? Where did my business come from in 2023? How about 2022? I can say that I've had a lot of conversations with my past clients by doing relief work. So for those of y'all that are asking questions about how to grow your business, maybe if you pick a volunteer outlet that is a passion for you, you will let that feed your business. Now, this does not work if you're volunteering somewhere where you don't have a passion. You've got to have a meaning behind what you're doing. I care intently about North Carolina. I care intently about the best outcomes for people who have been treated poorly. So I know that one day my business will benefit from this, but it might not be today, and I'm okay with that. So you also have to say, if I'm consistent in what I'm doing and in my messaging? Am I okay with the outcomes not being what everybody else's outcomes are? I'm not going to sell as many houses this year because I've done relief work. You know what? I'm okay with that because I don't measure myself by other people. If you want your business plan to work, it's for you, my friend. You, just you. It's nobody else's business plan. Now, you should share it with someone. That's for accountability. You let somebody else know what's going on in your world so they can help hold you accountable. They could ask you, have you made any phone calls today? You should have a bestie in business that's willing to say, did you make your phone calls? So that you have to say yes or no. Now they don't need to know how many you've got to make. They don't need to know all of your inner workings. But if you have somebody that will check on you, that is so powerful.

Entrepreneurs get really lonely.

And so because we get lonely, we don't always check in to see if somebody else is there to notice that we are or are not doing anything.

COVID caused that for a lot of people, the whole COVID era, people going home and hiding out and hiding behind a Zoom screen.

There was nobody to hold you to account. So if you're in a business where you are being asked to go back to the office, celebrate that. Celebrate that somebody somewhere is going to know that you haven't died behind the door of your house and the cats are eating you currently. And so when you think about this, you're in real estate, go to your sales meetings on Tuesday. I still don't know why Tuesday is a sales meeting day. If one of y'all knows the secrets, hit me up in the comments, but If there's a meeting, go to it. If you're in a local trade association, go to the meetings.

What's the worst that could happen?

You get a free cup of coffee and a plate of carbs that you should probably ignore because part of your business plan hopefully includes treating your body better by fueling it correctly. Because if you want to be consistent, you've got to also pay attention to what you're eating and when you're eating it because you have to fuel this machine that you live in. So that's a couple of pieces of advice on consistency. All right, let me check the comments over here. Are we getting this right? Okay. Y'all are still just chatting amongst yourselves.

Okay. If you need something, I hope somebody's going to have to ping me, I reckon. Okay. Look at here.

I have somebody who says, I need advice on a total reboot of my business. Can I tell y'all, is that something? The fact that real estate is changing right now is the most exciting thing ever. In my 25 years, I have seen so many different market conditions and so many different conditions when it comes to days on market. And whether we're a seller's market or a buyer's market or a balanced market, anytime we go through a change, that's exciting because you have this opportunity to rebrand yourself. So go back to our homework book if you can find it, or any book on that relationship marketing and that relationship branding and reputational management. That reboot, maybe it's coming because you haven't paid attention to your business. All right, so what went wrong? When you didn't have your business operating well before. Too often we don't do a postmortem on our professional year. Do a postmortem on it, not just the numbers, but what did I do wrong? What did I do right?

But more importantly, what did I do wrong?

Because that's what you have to fix if you want to reboot your business. What I have found in real estate is that some of the best agents operate really well until the market changes, and then they lose all of their good habits because they forgot that they needed to go back and make some changes. One of the biggest changes you have to make is to talk to people in the business. I will say it.

I'm telling y'all, I'm about to lose my mind. All right, so I'm just changing to my phone, so I'm changing cameras altogether and see if this stream works better. So hopefully you're sticking with me and giving me a little bit of grace and forgiveness because I'm really not happy with StreamYard right now, and I've been recommending them for a while. So anyway, let's see, many of you hopped on and off. Yeah, I know, Julie, this sucks. Okay, I'm trying to to get my, my mind right, because y'all have been trying to stop cussing and this is not helping me stop cussing. I'm just gonna be real honest with you. Okay, put my glasses back on so I can see y'all's commentaries, and I don't have the foggiest idea what I was talking about because now I'm irritated. But anyway, okay, let's get back to— oh, how do we build focus and structure after surviving strokes? Oh my gracious. Okay, so one thing that I love about entrepreneur world is that you have the ability to recast things while you work through personal challenges. Now, here's the craziest thing about it, my friend, and I don't call names, by the way, from the comments because I forgot to add a check block on there so y'all could say, do or do not say my name. It's still blank on YouTube. Hopefully it's fixed. Okay. If you go through something like a stroke, If you are vulnerable about that and tell people, I've been through this, I just will say this. My client base is the most understanding and forgiving people on the planet. If they know you've been through that, there's a whole segment of people out there who have already been through things and they will pour into you because they understand where you are. They will give you the space to grow through it. So resetting your business can be as simple as I've been through this. Now, there are people that will say, I don't want to work with you anymore because I'm concerned about your mental capacities. Let them go. Those are the same people that are probably the ones that are going to work your last nerve. So ask yourself how much vulnerability you're open to. Are you willing to let go of a segment of the marketplace? I had to let go of a segment of the marketplace when I ran for office because first of all, that's a huge time commitment. But the second thing is there are people out there that will not use somebody with a different political persuasion than them. I had to make that decision. And the beauty of it is there are still people of both political persuasions who are willing to work with me because they know I choose not to be ugly about politics. But it is an impact that you have to be aware of. So I want you to be thinking about this as you go through life changes. And in fact, this is what somebody said. They're looking forward to their spouse retiring. Well, when your spouse retires, you're probably going to pour yourself into your business even more. So you should carve out some time for them, but don't automatically drag your spouse into this business. My husband an engineer. He has no business in real estate, and he's the first one to absolutely laugh his head off with some of the texts you people send me. So don't make your spouse do what you do automatically. There is a wonderful person who texted in, "How do I remind people I'm a REALTOR®?" It's very simple. When you answer your phone, you should answer it. Don't just text all the time, and don't say, "Oh, I don't know that number, decline." That's a terrible business plan, is to ignore your phone ringing. You answer your phone like this, hey, this is Leigh Brown with One Community. That's how I remind people I'm in real estate. When I answer the phone, I tell them I'm in real estate. And you know, I do that in other places too. I'll answer the phone when I'm at the grocery store. I'll answer the phone when I'm in the parking lot somewhere because people will then hear that I'm in real estate. No lie, y'all, I was running the Huntersville Half Marathon this Saturday that we just had, and I was checking in and the little lady was handing out the bibs, said last name Brown, first name Leigh, L-E-I-G-H, not 'Elle E like the pants,' because that's my joke. And the fella next to me checking in said, 'Wait a minute, are you Leigh Thomas Brown, the realtor?' And I said, 'Yes, I am. How can I help?' He knew my voice because he's heard it so many times in the community. He lives one neighborhood over from me. I've never met this fella. We wound up having the loveliest talk about how he's had to care for his parents and he's having to care for an adult child. We had a long conversation about life, and then he asked a question about real estate. So the other thing, if you want to remind people that you're a realtor, Be the human side of yourself first and the realtor side second. Too many people that are in real estate or mortgage or anything, they go to the professional side first. Slow your roll a little bit. It's no different than dating. If you start telling people right away what you want out of the next person you want to date, they're going to run for the hills. Maybe you should ask them their name first. You know, just wild and crazy things. Now, let's see what the— a good question is, ooh, I live in a rural area. I need to generate more leads. If you are a rural person, then you know that your business is different than an urban market. And I'm somebody who works in a suburban market, but I grew up on a rural farm situation and I've been working in rural markets since the storm hit. So I've been placing a lot of referrals because I don't pretend to know those areas. Now, if you're rural, you're probably an expert in land, you're probably an expert in residential, and you may also know some things about development or commercial. You're more multifaceted than somebody who's in a city who could be super specialized. So if you want to generate more business, get more educated. I will tell you, I think the best classes available in real estate world are at the Realtors Land Institute, RLI. That's if you want to sell land, you should know land is different than houses. So if you're in a rural market, go get yourself more educated. It will cost some money and some time, but those are investments you can make in your business. In fact, this year I invested in my business by getting my auction license. And for those of y'all that saw those videos, I did get my license through the education at the Western College of Auctioneering, which is in Montana. I took my in-person bid calling and chant classes there, took the rest of the class online, and sat for my North Carolina license in August. When you are thinking about how you can build your business, sometimes it's an education and specialty. So I'm excited now because I can auction real estate and personal property and automobiles. And in fact, we've got one coming live tomorrow, and I'm super excited about it. All right. So where do I go to become an expert in my area? Look at you just segueing me in, sister. How do I find out what's being planned in my area, like plans for new communities, businesses, transportation, and anything else? You're going to hate my answer here, but listen, if you want to grow in your professional life, and I don't care what area you're in, it doesn't matter what your professional space is. If you want to know those kinds of things and be really drilled down into your county and zip codes, get involved in planning and zoning. The planning and zoning boards are often made up of appointees, and in many areas, I've looked them up when I go out to speak and teach, there are openings in these planning and zoning boards because nobody's asking for that appointment role, and the mayor or the town council or city council or county commission, whoever's in charge of it, may not know that you are willing to be appointed to it. Now, you have to go into those roles with an eye for service to the community, what's best for the community., and then if the business comes later, it comes later. But at a minimum, you'll have knowledge to build your business. If I were running a stationery shop, I'd want to know what was happening with business coming in and out because that's going to allow me to answer for what's coming in. If I see a growth in wedding businesses, I would want to make sure I had wedding information on hand if I were a stationery shop. And if I didn't see any wedding venues, maybe that's what you open up and you learn this from service. So one of your 2025 goals might be to look at your town council, your city and county commissions, and figure out where the opportunities are for service. And at a minimum, maybe you're too chicken to serve because you don't think you have the knowledge yet. Well, you probably know more than the ones currently serving, but that's a different discussion altogether. You can always go to the meetings. They're open and some of them are on Zoom, although I recommend you go in person because then if you have a question, you can raise your pretty little hand and say, hey, I'm just a minute, I got a question here. And the reason I suggest this is your 2025 business plan Investing an hour a month and getting to know intimately what's happening in your area when it comes to planning and zoning and growth could be what changes your business 10 years from now because you're the one that was there at the beginning to raise a hand and ask questions. That should always be our goal when we're business planning, asking more questions. And whether you like the answer or not, ask the questions. All right. How do you increase your price point or enter the luxury market? Well, you've got to get to know where the luxury people are. You're not going to build the luxury market hanging out at the apartment complex in the lower income zip code. Just is what it is. Now, some of y'all might think, Leigh, that sounds ugly. Okay, sorry if it sounds ugly. It's called the real world. Now, if I work the apartment complex in a less expensive zip code, but I'm good at first-time buyers, man, lean into that. Get where your market is. But if you want to work the luxury market, you should get to know the luxury builders.. And you could call all of them and say, "May I tour something you have under construction?" Get to know the product, get to know the upgrades that are available. Ask that builder, "What are the architects including now? What are people requesting?" Become an expert on the next level of luxury. Instead of looking back at the 20-year-old houses, look at what's being built now. Then, as you're out there getting to know the product, you're going to be in the neighborhoods where there's luxury houses. So drive around, get familiar with them, and if somebody's out for a walk, roll down your window and say hey. Don't be, you know, gross and stalky about it, but just roll your window down and say, hey, how do you like living here? I'm a realtor. I want to know what it's like to live here. Just ask for some opinions. They might say, I wish it had a pickleball court, but I love the pool. I love this. And just, you might get sued by your local board, Shannon, girl. That's a whole different discussion. But keep asking questions even if your local board gets grumpy with you. You know what I'm saying? So get out there and get comfortable. And by the way, the luxury market in real estate is some of the easiest to break into because so few agents market into it. Because you know why? You don't think you're quality enough to sell a luxury house. If you're like me and you grew up in a regular house that my mom and dad were building when they were pregnant— well, my mom was pregnant, let's just be honest, only one of us could get pregnant. But my mama was helping roof the house. So they were doing the house themselves because they didn't have extra money. I come from a background of people who figure out how to have enough, but we don't have extra. So I even felt like a country bumpkin going to our good mall in Charlotte, South Park Mall. I feel so out of place there even today because y'all know I buy everything on clearance at Marshalls and that's just not my jam. But in the luxury world, you have to walk in with the confidence that says, I might not be of this world, but I can learn this world. So maybe don't tell yourself that you're limited. Maybe tell yourself you can be anything that is available through education and through confidence and through making an effort. You would really be surprised. I have shown a lot of luxury homes and I've sold many, and the marketing is subpar compared to a $400,000 house. Why is it subpar? Because that agent didn't feel they had to really compete harder. So be like Avis. I'm number 2, so I try harder. That's how you're going to get there. Oh, look, here's somebody says I need to be true to me and my business and focus what matters to me and my family. Y'all really want the real world here about what's going on. Look, are you going to be willing to be canceled for your beliefs? Are you going to be willing? So you've got to be willing to be something, y'all. And I know this might not sound like business planning, but I'm going to tell you, it really is. We are in a world right now where a lot of people are afraid of being attacked by trolls and commenters in the internet. The internet is full of people who hide behind keyboards. You're going to have to be bold enough to say, this is what I believe, and I'm comfortable with that. I'm comfortable with myself, and this means that what my beliefs are might be different than your beliefs, and we can still be friends. What? Exactly, because if you're comfortable and confident, that comes out of everything. And that's how you learn how to be true to your family. When you learn how to tell people, I cannot meet you on Friday evening because we have a Christmas play at the church. Go to the Christmas play and don't be on your phone the whole time either, cuz you need to be where you are. There's my big advice. Clip this out. Be where you are. Turn the stuff off and focus in. You want to make your family know they matter? Focus on them. All right. You've got to get this, y'all. And I can tell you this. The more outspoken I am about who I am and what I believe and where my strength comes from, the more likely I am to attract people who want to be in that space with me. And I'm also going to repel the people who don't want to be with me. And that's okay. Because real estate's a wildly competitive business. I don't care what you read in the comment threads on the mainstream media. Our business is really competitive. And that's cool. Because that means in the public, you can find somebody that you could connect to. Because the connection matters more than anything. And as it turns out, this matters in landscaping, this matters in home building, this matters in Home inspection, it matters in lending, it matters in being a headhunter. Wherever you are, when you're able to connect to people, the service just naturally expands. Your family has to matter more. If I could change anything in my life, and I will be so honest with y'all about this, I would go back and I would not have said yes to so many speaking engagements. I would not have said yes to so many times to pitch RPAC. I would not have said yes to the association so many times. But I said yes, because I believed it was in service of a greater good. Now I know that I traded the service of a profession for being around my kids. And I spent a lot of time with my kids. I wish I'd spent more because now that I've launched my little birds, I wish I could go back. And you can't wish anything like that. So all you can do is say, here's what I did well, here's what I want to do better. And that's how you focus on what matters to you, is understanding it now. How do you— here's a very specific real estate one. Okay, how do you explain to buyers that now is a perfect time to buy a home? Okay, first of all, get out of your way. It's not the perfect time for everybody. You realize that one of the biggest lies ever told in real estate is it's always a great time to buy or sell. That's not true. However, it's always a great time for somebody to buy and sell. Some buyers need to buy right now. Some buyers do not. So you have to be willing to be in that uncomfortable conversation that says, just because you're in the golden crowd does not mean you need to go to the chocolate fountain.

Mm-hmm.

Because some of y'all need to step back from the chocolate fountain, and you know who you are, and I'm not even calling your names out, and you can be mad at me all you want. Uh-huh. You know, you know. So when you already know these things, You're going to have to lean into it and say, look, Mr. Buyer, Ms. Buyer, it may or may not be the right time for you to buy. Then they're going to say, well, hang on just a minute. How do I know if it's the right time for me? We'll say, well, let's talk about why you want to buy. Why do they want to buy that house? Is it because their lease is up and they're paying $2,200 a month in rent? But with today's mortgage rates, they could buy at $1,800 a month. For that buyer, it might be, oh snap, it would save me money to buy. Maybe we should have that conversation. But if they're paying $2,200 a month in rent and the house payment would be $2,500, you say, all right, well, tell me, why are you willing to pay more to buy a house than you are in rent? Because they might say yes and they might say no. Are you willing to let them say no to you? That's the biggest marker for how your business can grow, is when you allow people to get what they want. In fact, the most successful business people let somebody else get what they want. And then you benefit later. But are you willing to do that? Because the question you asked here says you want to tell all buyers it's a perfect time to buy a home. It's not always perfect. Now, for the ones that are waiting for interest rates to come down, I want you to also be willing to talk to somebody who's older than you. My first house was at 10.75% interest rate. It was high. Didn't matter to me because the payment worked. So what I want you to tell your buyers is forget the rate. And that crap on the internet, marry the house, date the rate. What kind of crap is that? Quit telling people things that don't help them figure out a good solution, y'all. It's just because you saw it on TikTok or Instagram does not mean it is good advice. Okay. What you want to always drill buyers down to is what's the payment situation? Can you handle the payment? And I did a whole video on this. Y'all can look at it. I help buyers by looking at PITI+, principal and interest. That's what they get off of any internet website. Taxes. You always got a plan for taxes going up because our government has a serious problem with spending, and that is not exclusive to DC, y'all. That is also our states and locals. They are out of control. And then insurance, which is the biggest problem child we have in the world right now that is not being addressed. You want to talk about the kid that needs to have a— what would my daddy always say? I'll put a knot in the back of your head. We need to put a knot in the head of insurance. It's a problem. So your buyers need to plan for all of those expenses and you need to have that plus in there. I tell my buyers, be prepared for an increase. So whatever the PITI is, the P and the I you can pretty much count on if you did a fixed-rate mortgage. The T is going up and the I is going up. So do you have a plus in there so you can handle it? Then you can tell them it is or is not a good time to buy. It's not the rate, it's the payment. Always, always. Now, where do I— oh, where does she think— look, you didn't know you were talking just to me, friend. Hey, what's up? I read all your comments because I am a control freak. Where does she think the market is headed in 2025? Moving to a neutral market but slightly favoring sellers due to inventory. Maybe it depends on your zip code. So it just depends on where you're located as to what your market conditions are going to do. This is the thing that no app can get their head around and why AI is only going to replace lazy agents. Or lazy lenders. The internet is never going to understand the micro nature of your market, which is why if you're the one on planning and zoning, you're going to know way more than AI, which is old, and way more than the apps. So be the person who knows the marketplace you serve. And this again, if you're in the fitness market, we know everything in the fitness world, those little pop-up shops, it always goes in these really hot cycles. Burn was popular, then Orange Theory, and then it was this F45 thing, which is really expensive. And so you start looking at it. What's the next trend? Those trends move all over the place. So what are you going to do to be responsive to that, to be ready to survive? Well, I think in the real estate market in 2025, there's a lot of people that think things are going to get better immediately after January 20th. While I do think we're headed in a positive mindset, I don't know that we're going to be able to see action happen fast enough to overcome the insane spending that's gone on by our federal government, and the fact that inflation has not gone anywhere. It is really sticky, and it is causing people to have a headache, and unemployment's coming. I do think we're going to see some challenges come in the market because of unemployment, because of inflation, and because some of the changes that need to happen, like cutting the number of federal workers, that's going to cause some headaches for federal workers. So it depends on where you are. Maybe there'll be a problem in Arlington, Virginia. Maybe there will be an uptick in Tampa. I don't know, but you should know. And then you should let the public know that you have a handle on what's happening where you are. I did add my auction license because I want to offer an additional option to sellers who aren't comfortable with days on market increasing because our days on market have been increasing. I also want to be available to the banks on the day that there are some foreclosures coming back into the marketplace. I want to be available for that. Do I think foreclosures are coming? Yes, because there are people that when unemployment hits and because they've tapped out their home equity lines, the public thinks they're sitting on a big bucket of money because the house went up. But if they spent the equity, there could be a problem ahead. So get yourself super educated on your zip code. You don't have to know everything, y'all. And please stop. Even if you're in a regional multiple listing service, my multiple listing service here in Canopy goes all the way up into the mountains. And I've been in the mountains a lot in the last 9 and a half weeks, but those are not my real estate markets. And so when a buyer reached out to me for a lot— well, there she is, there's Star Franklin. I had somebody wanted to sell a lot up at Lake Lure. That is not my market, that's Star's market. So even though I'm there and I know some, I know the surface. She knows the depth. So be the person who knows that market all the way through. And then you're able to tell sellers and buyers that your advice is worthy of being considered. And speaking of worthiness, there is a question here about how to get into a meaningful Bible study routine. Y'all want to know what that looks like? Mm-hmm. Yeah, pick it up every day. And I don't mean the app, because a lot of people use apps. I just don't think that apps are the answer to the world. I need my real hard copy. So I can have that kinesthetic feel. I need to— I like the smell of a book too. Y'all know, I've— that's been no secret. So pick it up and just open it, just start reading. That's where your meaningful routine will come from. And also, you— this person had asked, how do I find a solid study group? Well, you can join my devotion group on the interwebs here. We have a, a core group that like to converse every day. It's called Daily Devotions with Leigh Thomas Brown, and we do a lot of underlining and earmarking. And Lisa in my team That's what helped her get back on path, is to have a book that we share. So I do have a devotional book that we do. That's one of your links in your books. And so if you want to get into a routine, join, join my routine. You're welcome to join us through the interwebs and then make a friend locally. I'll just tell you that if you're looking for a church, in my opinion, find one that understands Acts 2, and then you'll be in a place that can do great things. I found out this past week that I'm a Baptist, and I about just peed on myself laughing because that was hilarious. All right, so this says I need to reboot my motivation after an exhausting year of setbacks. I'm so glad this person asked that because that was asked through about 45 times in here is how do I get the motivation back?

All right.

I can't give you your motivation. In fact, one of my agents came to me and said, I need you to set my fire again. I can't set your fire. If you are here for kick tail because you need Leigh Thomas Brown to kick your tail, that's not the purpose of this. The purpose of this is that, you know, that you can kick your own tail. Now, what that looks like is up to you. For one of y'all, that might be getting a day job so that you can get your finances stabilized so that you can focus on real estate. For you, that might be focusing on your family so that you can get your marriage straightened out. I can't kick that tail for you. You have to find it. I do worry about the young people right now because the lack of drive and passion I think is hurting our next generation. So what's yours? What makes you get up in the morning? What sets you on fire? I am currently set on fire for how my people in North Carolina have been let down by the very institutions they put taxpayer dollars into. That's what has me on fire. That's where my energy goes. That's what gets me up in the morning. What gets you up? And I do that because Jesus told me to. Do you get up because somebody told you to? Because you're not going to be sufficient to tell yourself. Mm, you probably shouldn't be your own god. That's the biggest thing I can tell you. If you don't know the Lord, I'll totally be glad to introduce you because he and I are super good friends. But what I want you to know is that there's something going on here that's bigger than you. And when you start to look up and out and say, this is bigger than me, so maybe I can be a part of it, that's where your motivation will start to come from. If you look in here, this is not sufficient. Our society is narcissistic. Our society has said self above all. That is not motivation. Don't do that. If you're in real estate, go find somebody that needs your help. Find that first-time buyer. Find that Section 8 person. Did y'all know that a Section 8 person who's on a voucher has down payment assistance through Section 8? Be the person that says, you know what, if I can get somebody out of Section 8 and into a house with down payment assistance, shazam, that's going to get my motivation back because you're serving somebody that nobody else will help. Go do that. If your motivation is the biggest possible paycheck, go learn the luxury market. Go stretch into a different place because you have to go find something that's interesting to you and is fun to you. That's why y'all want to go back to this book where we talk about reputation management. What's your reputation? Are you known for being somebody who's stretching and learning and growing and that you make mistakes, that you keep going? What an amazing reputation to have. Oh, hearing 2025 is all about teams. I actually think 2025 is going to be the end of some of our teams because many of our teams are built on buyer agents. And historically in real estate, we have taken somebody who's newly licensed and sent them out to learn on the backs of buyers. What a terrible training plan that's been for our profession. What if instead that person comes in with us and we educate them on how to serve and what questions to ask before we set them loose. Because right now they're going to have to ask how to get compensated when they don't have any idea how to sell a house. So I think teams are going to actually shrink into people that are highly competent and can balance each other's talents. I do worry about our newly seasoned agents and, and what they're going to do to get up and running, but that is why we do have some brokerages that specialize in fresh people. Now, speaking of different kinds of brokerages, I do see a question here on how to properly switch brokerages. As somebody who has obviously lost agents, I've been in the business a long time. Some agents leave me because they need more money, or they want more money, or they need to have their name on the sign, they want it on the marquee. And some just get tired of the fact that I'm a superly structured, processed person. They The best way to leave is not to do what people like to do to me and send me a text and say, I'm out, which is pretty gross and tacky because you don't want to burn bridges in this business. I can tell you that memories are long. And in fact, one agent who left me about a year and a half ago, he switched to a brokerage that's run by a good friend of mine, and he stole a listing along the way. And so I called that broker friend and I said, just so you know, I'm going to send you a referral form for the stolen listing, and this is what you're bringing in. And I wish you all the best because it's a really small world in a big competitive space. And we do have to look out for the best interests of the consumer because the consumer shouldn't get dragged into that. Now, that being said, you call your broker and you say, here's what you've done well, here's what I need, therefore I'm changing because every broker does something right. Nobody is all the way bad. Can we just address that? Our society has told us that some people are bad to the core. They're not. Everybody has some goodness somewhere, even if it's accidental. So acknowledge that. Acknowledge what they've done well. And then if you need something different, that's okay. That's why we're a wildly competitive business. It's why when I started this whole Patriot Relief Project, I partnered with a couple of local brokers. Cindy and Kirk Hanson from Coldwell Banker have been my partners in this. They let us use their parking lot. They got a hole in the parking lot because the truck was so overfilled. I love them. I love their agents. One of their agents has been volunteering with me building these temporary tractor sheds. We have the healthiest relationship ever, and they are 0.3 of a mile away from me. Their brokerage is different than mine, and that's good. Another broker, Chris Puckett, he's been our local president here. He runs one of the biggest brokerages in the area. He leaned in in a different way because he had different constraints on his time. So when you're changing brokerages, just know a lot of us really like and respect each other.. And we know that our environments are different, so it's okay to switch. Don't think of yourself as some kind of a sneaky snake unless you're a sneaky snake, in which case, please go land with a sneaky snake person. Okay, let's see, some of y'all are just talking about the team thing there. Okay, so I have a really important one here that you might not be in this space right now, but somebody you know is. And I always like to address one of these because y'all know I am in general a high D personality. I forget to hug people. I forget to nurture people. Because that's what it is. And I'm, I'm working on that. I'm not there yet. I'm terrible at gift giving. I, I move too fast for a lot of people. I'm definitely so far from being where I need to be. So I look at 2025 as a chance to get better at those things. But that's also why I'm grateful for Pia, who works in my office, because Pia reminds me to slow down and love on people. Because I'm better at loving on strangers than I am on the people close to me. And I don't know if y'all are like that too, but this person said 2 years ago her husband passed and they've been married for 48 years. And so I can tell you right now what I read here is that this would have been her golden year if her other half were not waiting for her on the other side of heaven. And she feels she's behind on the market because she was caring for her husband and she feels lost. So I want to tell you this, friends. Real estate is that space where you can simultaneously be lost and found. You're found by the clients, and it's easy to love on strangers, like I just said, but you can feel lost in your own personal world because it's really heavy in these offices when nobody sees you. Your clients love being poured into, but they don't want you to pour into them all the time, so sometimes they don't want to know everything that's happening with you. So you got to learn how to feel those things out, but then you remember too that after that many years, and you've been in the business 30 years, and your son's in the business, maybe you just accept the next phase of life and say, maybe it's time to let the son take the forefront and let him stay in the forefront and I'll back clean up. I love being on the bench. I love being the person who's able to provide the advice, provide the counsel, and then cherry-pick the phone calls that come in. Maybe you start serving other people that have been in that space that you were in 2 years ago and you lean into it. I don't know why we tell people to grieve so quickly now, y'all. We tell people to grieve and be done and move on because on the internet, if you've lost a loved one, well, the timeline moves on. It's kind of like the hurricane that hit North Carolina. The timeline moved on and people have forgotten about it unless you're square in the middle of it, then you don't forget about it. Let that be your story. Let it be your story that you haven't let go and that you're honoring the grief by sticking in it and then let people know things. All right, now there is a, a space here I took over for my dad. As y'all know, he's a Realtor Emeritus. He is retired from real estate, which it did irritate my mother because he didn't have to pay dues after he became an Emeritus and he retired anyway because he just wanted that pin. But he enjoys playing golf and he enjoys woodworking, and he loves playing golf with my son. And nothing makes me happier as a mother than that my dad and my son hang out and my dad cusses in front of him on golf course, but we're going to have to talk about that later, Darryl Thomas. So anyway, just embrace the next phase. The future of property management. I love my Kathy Robertson here. She's an amazing property manager, does prison ministry. This woman is so amazing. What you should know is that property management is always going to have a space because investors will start to step in. Anytime the markets are in an oddball spot where they are stabilizing, houses take longer to sell. Some people will lose their patience and they'll decide to rent it out instead. Property managers that are properly out there can provide an alternative to selling or to cutting your price. A lot of agents are just going to say, cut the price $50,000 and be done with it. But that seller might say, I'd rather wait it out 12 or 18 months or 24 months and see when things start to change again. Property management can absolutely be a tide over if you understand the pros and cons. And that's what a professional property manager does. You don't just say, I'll stick a tenant in here. You talk to the property owner and say, here's the pros of renting, here's the cons. And let people become fully educated. I think our educator property managers are going to watch their business explode as the market slows, and the ones who are in it for a quick hit will go away. And I'm fine with the quick-hit people going away. Okay, now let's see. I need help prioritizing. Oh, law. Okay, so this is a very important business planning skill. How are you going to read those books I gave you? A lot of y'all will probably hunt them down, buy them, and there they will sit. That's probably not going to improve your life a whole lot if you just buy the book and let it sit there. That's why if your Bible has dust on it, it ain't doing your spiritual life not a darn bit of good. So how do you prioritize that? You're going to have to decide that that's worth spending your time on. You're going to decide to put your phone in airplane mode. You're going to decide that you want to spend 15 minutes reading. And I'll just say this: when you're trying to prioritize your life Figure out again where you are, and I'll take reading as an example. Most of us have become terrible readers because we are watching our attention span reduce because of things like TikTok and the internet and the notifications that come in like this, and life is surprised all the time. You can't focus on reading because you need to slow down, let your brain absorb. So you might only read 2 paragraphs before you doze off in your flower chair. Excuse me, that's me. So before you doze off in your regular chair, So give yourself permission to read for 5 minutes uninterrupted, and then the next week stretch that out to 6 minutes. You'll find that you can get back to reading, and that's going to help your brain grow in a different way. So if you want to know what's happening in your industry right now, you're going to have to read the briefings from lawsuits. You can't just read the headlines. We can't read the headlines on anything, y'all. Go deeper. I go to Substack for my news. For those of y'all that want to know where I get my news, it ain't from the mainstream media because I don't trust nary one of them. But I go to Substack and I follow independent journalists. I look at X as a way to find some angles and then I go digging. That's how I do my research. And the fact that I can sit and read for 15, 20, 30 minutes is what allows me to become more educated. You're not going to get educated on headlines, y'all. Thoughts for someone transitioning from full-time back to real estate sales? Okay, that's a great question. What I want you to know, this is This is the hard truth of it, okay? It's hard to survive in real estate as a part-time person because this is an intense job that has been treated poorly. In fact, a lot of us in the business have treated it like a side hustle. Real estate's not a side hustle. Do you realize we're handling somebody's biggest financial instrument? The most money they're going to spend, they're spending with you. You need to be committed to that. And that means that to get into this and do it right, you need to be full-time. You need to be vested. And for those of y'all that are part-time agents, it's not that I don't love you. But I don't think you can provide the right level of service if you're not completely in for real estate. And I do think the markets are going to start to demand that part-time agents find a different way to be involved. So you're asking, can I do open houses? Not in the new world. In the new world, you can no longer do open houses unless you're the listing agent or the listing office. And so make sure that you know the rules in your state and you know the outcomes of the settlement. And also, you know, can you do flyers? Can you assist? Of course you can assist. That's a different job function, and it's a great way to learn the business is to come in and get educated on how the business operates before you touch a client. So my suggestion is this: if you're licensed and working in an assistant role, you still don't touch clients. If you are unlicensed and working as an assistant, obviously you don't touch clients. You learn as much as you can before you go into dealing with clients, but then I want you to be all in. If the public deserves anything right now, it is people who are vested in the best outcomes of their real estate dealings. Which also goes back to this, how do I get started in real estate? How do I get jump-started in real estate? Oh, how do I get strong in real estate out of the gates? Well, you have to have 6 months' worth of savings because real estate, even in the commission changes, is still a roller coaster until you've been in long enough for it to stabilize. And for the record, it's 10 years before it stabilizes, which you will actually know that that is not long in real estate because it'll fly by. I mean, 25 years, obviously I haven't aged. What? Let's see, I'm in creative real estate investing. So if you're thinking about investing in real estate, I do think it's well worth your time to get interested in that and get educated in that before you start doing anything with it. Too many people jump into real estate investing because they went to a class or got in a Facebook group, and then they wonder where their money went. I would talk to a professional property manager before you invest in real estate so you understand the schematics of working with tenants. I would also suggest that you understand the numbers and what happens in a vacancy. Okay, trying to decide if I need to change companies after 23 years. My cut is great, but a cut of nothing is nothing. That's it. I hate Mark Cuban. I hate Mark Cuban. I'm trying to hate anybody. I do not care for Mark Cuban. I think he's a blight on existence, but he does say something really good on Shark Tank, and he says, "Half a watermelon is better than a whole grape." I'll just tell you that if you're changing brokerages, look at the whole picture. And the biggest thing I would look at is the culture of the people that are in that brand. Are you going to be elevated by being associated with them? Are they known for honor and integrity, and do they share, and are they kind and caring? Or will you be brought down by being affiliated with them?. And then you should know if you go with that brand. It's not the brand, it's the broker. Every single time. There's good brokers in every brand. And the same thing goes with any franchise business you're looking at. Oh, that's right. So there is my coaching program called Ask Leigh, and a person mentioned here that program. I rolled it out last year. It's called You Ask, Leigh Answers. I'm trying to keep it super inexpensive so that it's accessible to people who can't really afford to have personal coaching. But you can still ask personal questions and I'll answer those as we go. You also get access to everything I've ever put on the internet. That's You Ask, Leigh Answers, and I think that was in your login code. Let's see, how do I— oh, as advice as a mom and businesswoman, had a baby this past year. High five, honey! High five! Good job making life happen and bringing that child into this world, and your career flatlined. Okay, that's good because that means you were probably breastfeeding and keeping somebody else alive. So high five on that. That's hard work. Let your clients know when you have a new agent in training. One of my best marketing pieces I ever did was after Cora was born, and she's 20 now. I sent out a a postcard that had her picture on it and it said, I can't take calls for 18 years, call my mom in the meantime. Ah, people kept going, I love her, ain't she precious? I don't mind using my kids for advertising. I also took down a domain and I put it on their little shirts that they wore to school. So my children were like, uh, NASCAR Real Estate Kids. I don't mind branding things. I'm way over my time, but the internet kept crapping out, so I'll keep going with y'all a little bit if you want to stick with me. Okay, I have a couple people who know I'm an introvert, so I'm gonna have to answer this question. Those of y'all think I'm not an introvert, do a little bit of study on it. There's a book called Quiet, which is one of the best books ever for understanding introverts. What that means is when I'm around people, my battery drains really quickly. And if you watch me, I will make my way to the edge of the room and then I will vanish because I've had it with you people. I love y'all so much. You extroverts, the longer you're in the room, the more your battery goes up and you get all wound up. I like being on a stage. I like educating and teaching. I like one-on-one conversations, but I get so drained. And that's part of the challenge I have to overcome because lead generation can be hard for introverts because we do get drained. The number one thing you have to understand is that it's okay to be an introvert, and it doesn't mean that you're unable to have conversations. That's a misnomer about introverts that we're terrible at talking. We're great at talking. We just are better in different environments than extroverts are. So to do good lead generation, put yourself in the place that will work for you. I do great lead generation at the grocery store because I can walk around with my reading glasses on and my list, and I can look up and speak to people, or I can look down at my cart and keep going. People know who I am because I have a signature hairdo, thanks to Noel, and they will walk over and say hello. But they come to see me because I'm in the same place all the time. Well, kind of, either in the Food Lion or the Lowe's Foods. So they can come find me. I'm mad at Harris Teeter right now because they're owned by Kroger. Um, and y'all can ask me why I'm mad at them not going there anymore. Let's see, how do I actually reach my goals? Well, first of all, you have to write down your goals. Oh, what? And then you have to track to them. All right, so I love a lot of y'all, and you're going to put together a basic business plan based on your downloads. You're going to say, here's what I want out of 2025. And then January is going to roll around, and just like your fitness goals, you're going to go to the gym twice, and then it will land in a pile because you'll get busy with this one thing over here. And then it's going to roll back around, and in June you'll say, let me see how I'm doing. And then you're going to look and say, well, shit, I'm so far off the plan right now, it's all over for me. And then you just throw it out. The only way your business plan is going to work and the only way you're going to hit your goals is if you track them. I'll give you all an example. You know, I'm a runner. I didn't become a runner until about 12 years ago. My dear friend Virginia dragged me out to go running, and this was because I had put on a bunch of weight after having my two kids. I didn't like it and I didn't want to be that space. And so she took me out and we go from this mailbox to that mailbox and she slowly dragged me out more and more frequently till I built a pattern. It was her influence that helped me build that habit. The same thing happens with your sales business. You will get there when you start slowly but surely tracking your habits. The number one thing you can do is call people. And when I say call people, I ain't saying text them, and slide dial has gone out of fashion. I want you to go to your contact manager in your phone and just start calling the people in it and saying hey. And if they're ugly to you, then just don't call them anymore. On their— don't delete them. On their name, you put DNA, says do not answer. That way you know they were ugly to you. So just carry on, but don't delete them or you'll forget about them. And just keep going through and calling people one at a time, and then two at a time, and then three at a time, because prospecting is nothing more than nurturing the relationships you already have. Now, if you're in real estate or you're in mortgage, your business has seen this many changes over the past couple of years. What better reason to reach out than y'all have questions? Can I help you with anything? Because people have questions and they're not necessarily sure that you're available to be asked. Because what if you're like me and people assume you're too busy to talk to? I can't tell y'all how many people when I call them, well, you're so busy. I'm like, let me decide how busy I am. I called you. Hey, what's up? Maybe we should get out of our own way, and then you'll start hitting your goals to the point where now— y'all know that I do run every day. Part of how I get there is I have that app Strava on my phone, and I have friends in Strava. That's because I've learned not to post my runs on my feed every day because y'all would just hate me for that. But I can talk to my runner friends about it. We look for each other to run. So I'm looking to say, hey, look, there's Melissa. Hey, there's Charles. Hey, there's Ray. And that encourages me. That's how you hit your sales goals. You have to— you have to put a plan together. And at the core of all of this, if you know who you are and you know what you're chasing, it's easier to get there. If you aren't comfortable with who you are and you don't really know what you're chasing, how do you expect to get anywhere? I mean, the world told you to go sell some other made-up number. What if that doesn't fit you? Your goal is not going to be my goal because you know what? You're not me, and that's a good thing. And the world is probably glad there's not but one Leigh Thomas Brown. Let's just be honest. Okay, how do I keep the pipeline full when the busyness starts to take over? Ooh, sister, that is such an important one because that's what happens to people in sales when you hit the season of abundance, because it happens. A season of plenty, you're busy, busy, busy, and then suddenly you don't have time to continue growing. You got to carve it out. So in my office and in my coaching and everything I do, it's always about one phone call a day because no matter what else is on your plate, you can make one phone call, make one, and then you've done something. That's what keeps your pipeline full is doing something. You know what? Compare it to a house when it's going to freeze outside. Y'all know how to keep the pipes from freezing, right? Even those y'all in Arizona have heard this on the interwebs. Do you know how you keep a house's pipes from freezing? You cut on the spigot. And how much do you have to cut it on? Just a drip. A drip keeps your pipes from freezing. But if you do nothing, you're taking a big chance. The pipes might be okay, but they might freeze. And if they freeze, you know what? It's a very expensive fix and could hurt your whole house. That's the difference in prospecting and not prospecting. And now that I've said that, if I can't clip this out, I'm totally making that a new video. Now that I've said that out loud, I love how I think of things as we go. Setting up systems that work. Implementing systems. I need systems. I'm not efficient. I have piles. I need systems. Oh my gracious, this is like the systems crowd in the last— oh, this is first names that start with L. You people need systems. I do have all of my systems available on my website. There's some free downloads at LeighThomasBrown.com. There's also some things you can purchase that are a little more intense. The first thing I'll tell you is that living in piles is a dangerous place to be. When I got into the business with my dad, His office was a series of piles, and he panicked when I touched them because he knew what was in which pile. And I disagreed with him because I would find a little scrap of paper like this, and he would say, "Oh, oh, well, that's this one," and I'm like, "Did you ever call them back?" "Oh no!" Because he would call them back then with his great charm and personality and get his way out of it. And this is a nice little note here. Oh, that was a— I put that over here in the other pile. See, I got some piles too, but not as many as Daddy did. And the way that you get out of that is, first of all, carve out the time, turn off all your devices, come in here and make 3 piles: keep it, throw it away, and then must be dealt with. The keep it might be little happy notes because, yeah, I save all the notes y'all send me. Somebody sent me this really nice card and it says, never above you, never below you, always beside you. I love that message. That's like life. Oh, this was actually from somebody I gave a present to. And she's obviously good at thank yous and I suck at gifts, but here we are. So I keep this. That's a keep because I like having people's handwriting. I love personal notes. I love, love, love it. The throwaways would be this thing was a magnet that came from the bank, and I'm going to make a video because it's great content. Then I'm going to toss it because I don't need it. And then I have the things that I have to do, which will be the notes that I just tossed over here in the pile because it was sitting in the wrong pile. Now I'm going to do this when I get off the feed. That's how you get rid of your piles. Then you have to commit to not letting the piles happen again, which means focusing in on running your business. And I can tell you, every business that I know needs to get more business focused. All right, let's see one more question that was very important here. Where did it— oh yes. Okay. And I'm going to give this one to you because it applies to anybody running a business who needs some sales advice. All right. Here is the last question we're going to address. And by the way, make sure you hit the bell for future notifications because I'll keep answering these throughout the year. My camera went crooked. Okay, fix it again. I'm not OCD, I'm CDO. Put the letters in the right place. This person says, how do I get comfortable asking for sales but not coming off as pushy? Do you know how you do that? You do that by not being pushy. Don't be gross and don't be icky. And you know what gross and icky feels like? Hey, how you doing? It's always a great time to buy or sell. Hey. Market's moving. Are you moving? If you're saying things that sound like a used car salesman, that's why you're being perceived as one. However, you can set this up in a whole different way. And I'll tell you what Darrell Thomas taught me all these years ago. My dad is the king of sales because he is the king of reading people. He is the king of caring about people. And because he reads people and cares about them, when he has something to sell, they know. It's coming from a place of service. That's how you stop being pushy. So what my dad taught me on the very beginning of my business, and this was in working with buyers, every time we look at a house, Mr. and Ms. Buyer, I'm going to ask you if you want to buy it. You can say yes, you can say no, but I'm going to ask it every time. And then you go show a house and maybe it's the worst house you've ever seen. And for those of y'all that are early career in real estate or thinking about getting in, honey, you don't know what a bad house looks like. We saw them in '08, '09, '10, '11, '12. It's coming. To just know what you think is bad, it's coming. So you walk into that house and it's the one where the 2-year-old was teething on the walls. I've seen it. The IV bag was hanging from the breakfast room fixture. I've seen it. The carpet was black, and not because they bought it black. They bought it in beige and then they had never once cleaned it. And so, ew. And so I asked my buyers, y'all want to buy this? And they're like, are you freaking kidding me. I'm like, ah, I told you I was gonna ask. Okay, no. Well then, let's head on. What did I do? Set an expectation, followed through on it, and gave them permission to say no. And that means when you walk into the next house and it is perfect, then you watch them. And one thing we know in real estate is when a buyer wants it, their little eyes start to sparkle. And it's the coolest part of the business is when your buyer wants a house and they start to get really jumpy. Then you look at them and say, y'all want to buy it? And they're going to say, yes, yes, yes, we want it. You gave them permission to say yes. That's really what sales is, is giving somebody the permission to say yes or no, accepting either outcome and allowing the best interest of them to be at the forefront. And then nobody's going to think of you as a pushy salesperson. They're going to think of you as somebody who made good on their word. And isn't that what we want for our 2025 businesses? Don't you want to be known as somebody who's going to be honest, whether somebody agrees with you or not, that they're not going to be ugly about it, but that at the core of everything that they're doing, they have your best interest in mind? I think, frankly, it's how we fix everything that's going wrong in our society is if we help other people to a better outcome. And that can apply to your business too. So my challenge to you is this: look at that homework. I know you don't want to, and I know some of y'all said you had trouble downloading it. Try again. It's in PDF. Carve out an hour and you've got plenty of time coming up between now and January 1st because you're going to have some quiet time. Maybe you spend an hour in front of the Christmas tree filling out the papers and thinking. Get your husband or wife to sit nearby and bounce some things off of them. They'll probably listen and pour into you if you allow that space. Maybe don't assume that your spouse isn't interested in your business plan. Don't assume that your teenage kids aren't interested. They have insights because they hear everything that you you say. And then create that starting post. And once you create it, share it with a friend. You can look through all these comments and you could probably look at some profiles and make a friend. If you're involved in the Women's Council of Realtors, there's wonderful leaders there. If you're involved in the Residential Real Estate Council, you've got some top professionals there. Your local association may have a past president who's bored and needs to have a job so they will stay out of the way of the new president. Just saying. Maybe you lean on them and say, hey, would you be my accountability partner? And then be vulnerable, vulnerable enough to send them your business plan and say, look this over. Maybe that's your broker. Maybe it's just a friend. But find that space. Be vulnerable. Be willing to be right and be willing to be wrong. And at the end of the day, there's a really great 2025 ahead. The question is whether you're going to choose to make it a really great 2025. And I can't choose it for you. I can't design it for you, but you can. And when you feel really low and you feel really burned out, because several of y'all said you're feeling some burnout, that comes when you don't rest. And for the record, there's a difference between sleep and rest. Sleep is something your body needs to function. Rest is when you honor the space of needing to detach, turn it off, and sit. And in a perfect world, when you sit, go ahead and talk to God. Let him talk back to you too, because if you're doing all the talking, you can't hear. It's also good business advice for 2025. Maybe listen a little more, hear a little more, and pour into somebody that needed somebody else to pour into them. I really appreciate y'all hanging with me for a little over an hour. I really appreciate your patience with StreamYard, and I can't wait to call their customer service and let them know of all their opportunities for improvement. And I'm trying not to cuss, and so I'm going to work very hard to be a really pleasant person on customer service because why not? Life's moving way too fast. So I'm going to make it a little better every day. I challenge you to do the same thing. And if you need anything from me, then sign up for You Ask, Leigh Answers, and you can ask your little coaching question. I'll answer it on the spot and you can actually benefit your peers because they probably had the same question and they were too chicken to ask. But mostly, don't let the outside noise distract you from doing great things. Don't let negativity keep you from being the positive force that you can be. And when things around you don't look right, then maybe you have to decide to make it right yourself. I'm Leigh Thomas Brown. I'm in One Community Real Estate in Concord, North Carolina. I'm sending you love, lots of amazing Christmas wishes for a beautiful season and the happiest of New Years. But don't let January 1st be the end of your 2025 plan. Okay? Get better the whole way through.