How to Actually Get Your Money's Worth at a Real Estate Conference | LeadingLane Podcast | Ep 116

but I pull it up. Here's a QR code. There you go. And now they have my contact information. But what I do from there is like, cool, shoot me a text message real quick so that I have your contact information. I just got their, their email or their, excuse me, their, their phone number. Right. I know where they're from. I know their name. I can find their address. They should be able to be Googled, hopefully. And now what is my marketing tactic? How do, what is my outreach? To them.

Welcome to the Leading Lane Podcast for real estate pros by real estate pros with your hosts Ashley Frederick and Stephen Birch. If you're looking for an honest, authentic, and raw perspective, you found it.

Welcome back to the Leading Lane Podcast. We're here today and we actually have a conference coming up soon that we'll be going to. Uh, and I know that in my office I have a lot of first-time conference-goers that will be coming along with us, which I'm super excited for. Uh, so I thought it might be a good idea to talk about how to be conference ready, what that entails, what you should bring, what you should do, what you shouldn't do, all those types of things. So, uh, Stephen, let's dive in. What do you think the number one thing is to be conference ready?

Well, kudos to your team, right? And to everybody that are going and make the commitment to be able to leave. They made the investment to be able to go and learn and invest in themselves. So like, kudos, because a lot of people don't whatsoever. So I think the number one thing is just to be able to go in with an open mind. And it's to one, learn one thing from each session. It doesn't need to mean that you need to like the person and take every single thing away. And really, it's learn and implement. It's making sure that you know what, what are you actually going to implement to it? Listening, at least listening to it is one thing, but action, it speaks louder than words, right? And I think the other thing too is like, there's other first-time goers.

A lot.

There's other people that are introverts. There's other people that don't like small talk. There's other people that tell themselves that they don't like networking. You are truly there to meet people and to have conversations. And really, I think the challenge, main challenge that I would give somebody first time is get used to introducing yourself to somebody else. Look in the room to see who else looks like they're lost or maybe not really comfortable or, um, you know, kind of like you, right? So go over there, introduce yourself, and take the first step and just see how that feels. Because if you can't do it to another agent, somebody else that is doing the same thing in your world, in this industry, how are you going to be able to do it outside of that to a complete stranger? So I think those are probably my first couple things.

Yeah, I think, you know, making sure that you have a copy of the agenda. Like, I have it saved on my phone because, let's be honest, when you're in a conference center, Wi-Fi doesn't work all of the time. So I like to screenshot the agenda since they can be all over different conference rooms, etc. But I think it's a good idea to try to plan out ahead of time which ones, you know, really interest you. And I think that you're right, just trying to meet new people, like make a goal. Maybe your goal is to meet 5 new people a day. And that can be if you're in line. A lot of times, you'll be waiting outside of a conference room for another one. There's breaks. So there's what we call vendor alley, where you can go and check out all the cool things. If you end up at a table with someone, in the bathroom— I mean, let's be honest, maybe not so much in the men's bathroom, but in the ladies' bathroom. People are fixing their hair, right? You know, and I think like one of the simplest ways to do that is by complimenting someone. So especially like in our conferences, like we have a specific color or like I notice people's shoes because I love shoes or earrings or whatnot. Like that's a really simple way just to like break the ice with someone. Or, you know, when you're standing in line too, I think an easy question is like, where are you from? I mean, right? Sometimes you might even end up with someone in your same state, but also like Maybe you end up with someone in a state and then, right, you find you have a buyer or seller that needs to go there in a year or two. Um, so I think just, you know, sitting next to someone different at a table, and I, I mean, I get it, like there's a comfort level of being with the people that you came with, right? That, that's fine. But making sure that when you break out, like, it's actually things that you want to do, even though you might be the only person from your group that's going to those breakouts, making sure that it's something that means something to you. I think that, um, a good goal would be— and this is what I do with like coaching, etc.— is, is there a way that I can pay back my investment? So, right, right. If you spent X amount of dollars to come to conference, if there's going to be, you know, a breakout about something specifically about, you know, how to save time or how to add, you know, to your sphere, something like that, that then around like turnarounds and fills whatever you spent. That's kind of the way that I try to like look at it too.

Right. You know, and I, and I think here too, like, yes, we're here to meet people, totally get it. But it's a lot like when we talked about open houses, like, what do you do with that thereafter? I think a lot of people forget that this is a whole line item in your revenue, in your income that you can really beef up, um, because it's making sure that you have the conversations with other people and having a plan afterwards. So something that I do on my side, um, I actually have a wallpaper on my phone and it's my QR code to my Linktree. So like I just pull, I have my phone every single time. Do I have my freaking business cards all the time? Not at all, but I pull it up. Here's a QR code. There you go. And now they have my contact information. But what I do from there is like, cool, shoot me a text message real quick so that I have your contact information. I just got their, their email or their phone number. Right? I know where they're from. I know their name. I can find their address. They should be able to be Googled, hopefully. And now what is my marketing tactic? How do, what is my outreach to them? I'm not saying just put them on a drip campaign about how your market is doing. What are you being able to do to bring value and making sure that they know that wherever you are, you're the market leader and you want them to send you the referrals?

I think a handwritten card. I've gotten those from other events too, but, you know, just great to meet you, like, look forward to the next conference. And sometimes you can find a, you know, a conference buddy. Um, you know, I, I think about people that I solely met at conferences and have now met somewhere, or, you know, look forward to spending time with them at every conference, but you just randomly, you know, met them at a conference. Um, I think too, like, I like to practice gratefulness But I think a simple way to do that for a conference is maybe at the end of the day, or maybe not the end of the day, but after like the end of the conference day, before you've gone out that night, like write down 3 takeaways. Like what are 3 things I learned from today? Just one, I think that helps you establish that you, you know, your time and effort, taking time off of work is hard. Taking time away from your clients is hard. But if you can remind yourself every day, like I did learn this, I met this person, I was inspired by this speaker and You know, if you've— I found like Anthony Young, for example, came one time, appraiser, has a lot of information. He came to our conference before. So then I followed him on socials and right there are really great things he shares. So if there's someone that impacts you, it's a great thing to, you know, on stage still find them and maybe they can inspire you outside of conference as well.

Yeah, I mean, you never know who you're going to meet and it's going to roll into something else, right? Like, I mean, Noelle, right? Like met her and now we're, we're talking about plans for conference on the next one, she joined us for our group dinner. There's just so much that happens there that, you know, I don't tell people like, I don't go to conference just for the conference. It's the connections, it's everything else. Yes, I want the education too, I want the tidbits and whatnot, but I don't sit there and try to expect to take notes on every single thing that they are saying. I listen, absorb, and if there's something that interests me, then that's where I pay attention to, or something that I can improve on myself. But, um, it's having the conversations and it's such an easy way to have, I mean, somebody that's sitting next to you just sat through the same thing that you just watched and ask them the question if you don't know them, like, what was your favorite part? What was your takeaway? It's easy way to open up a conversation without having to be too awkward with anything whatsoever. And I think the other thing too is like, as much as I'm going to say that I want my agents to make sure that they're not going out and going crazy and everything else, but you are there to have a good time. You are there to mingle, right? Um, and a lot of great, real, true, raw conversations happen at happy hour and thereafter. Um, my rule when I talk with my agents is nothing good happens after midnight. So turn into a pumpkin and go to your room.

Yeah.

Right.

I think you're right. There's so much that happens like at those random off, you know, but in the same sense, like if you stayed up until 4:00, when are you gonna end up coming at 8:00? And there's some really great speakers, like now you just missed out on like the biggest message that, right? So like making sure that give yourself enough time to rest, like Tylenol, water, eye patches, like you name it, like you need to be bringing it. Um, so something with that too is like what, like conference wear, right? So I was talking to my agents about this last week and I think a lot of people, and I would say that the first time I went to one of these too, like I thought I, like I had like black slacks and like a dress shirt.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. No. Um, I mean, if that's you, great. But really like the amount of walking that you're going to do, because these are not like in one location, you know, so you want like comfortable shoes. I say that for some reason they always try to freeze us out of these conferences. So like you need a fleece jacket. Like one time I think I actually brought my winter jacket into the room. Oh, I mean, it's right. And it's, it's uncomfortable to be freezing cold. So I think making sure that you are more packing more so for comfort and you can have swag, right? There's normally swag stores there that you can buy things from too if you don't happen to have anything with you at the moment. But I think really trying to think about like comfortable shoes, comfortable wear is what's more important.

You know, one of my big pet peeves when I'm at a conference is when people are sitting there constantly, their phone vibrating, or people that don't even put their phones on silent, ringing, interrupting everybody else. Like, I get that you still have business to run and operate. Um, I just find, I mean, as we have been on stages and spoke and done sessions, people working, like, I just feel like it's completely disrespectful. It's only a certain amount of time. You have plenty of breaks. If you need to take a phone call or you have to work, remove yourself from the room. Don't distract everybody else. Be conscious of it. Um, and I think it's almost like a, sometimes when you get a whole bunch of realtors in a room, it's almost a Who has the biggest ego? And sometimes looking like you are the busiest can show everybody you're, you're the best. That's not the truth whatsoever. Dedicating your time, being intentional for the reason why you are there is to be able to have multiple takeaways, not just to continue to work and do the same old thing, uh, that you can do if sitting at home.

I like to bring, uh, like a smaller notebook. Um, and I think, you know, a lot of people like to take pictures of the screen, that type, but for me there's something about writing it down. So that's kind of where, like when someone says like a one-liner or whatnot, or they'll say something and it makes me think about something I want to do or was going to do, I like to actually just write it down. So I'll normally bring my backpack with and yeah, real estate has to still happen, right? But I think that's another like rookie mistake is thinking that you have to go to every single breakout or whatnot. I do think for the most part, like, the main events are normally pretty good. But like, if you need to take a break from the breakouts and one isn't calling to you, then take the hour, go sit somewhere, catch up on your emails and your phone calls so that it's kind of out of your mind. So then you can come back full focus for, you know, the next, you know, sessions. But I think that if your intentions are like just to go and have a good time, I think that maybe they're just that is all well-intended. But know that, like, people have put a lot of time and effort into these conferences. Like, you and I know from speakers, like, a lot of people don't just wake up on a whim and give a presentation. Like, they've also spent weeks or days or years perfecting some type of presentation because they do want to make an impact on someone. So giving them, like, your undivided attention is really the kind thing to do.

100%. And, you know, like, again, it's the— I always go to the action afterwards. What we do as a group, and since we have, you know, agents going and staff going, is we do a debrief. We get everybody together. It's almost like a little circle round robin. Everybody talks about things of what we liked, what we didn't like, things we wish we would have done different, right? Like it's kind of just a spill it all brainstorm, not even brainstorm, just throw everything out there, right? And then you're listening to everybody else and you're like, oh yeah, so next year we can do it this way, or we should do it this way, right? And then I always challenge, you know, afterwards, like, okay, what is the one thing, the one thing that you are going to implement and do? And I make sure that we get that for each individual so that we can help them grow and push to that direction of what they want to be able to learn. Do they always do it 100% of the way, all the way through? No. But is the desire behind it of like wanting to help them shows from a leadership perspective that We're all here and now I got them to say in front of their peers, so they're going to help hold each other accountable as well.

You know, I think the other thing too is especially in franchises or with social media, a lot of people like know each other on Facebook or social media, but they don't know each other in person. So I think that if you like are friends with someone on social media, but you've never met them in person, like that would be like a great opportunity to be like, I think we're, I think we're Facebook friends or, you know, whatnot. Gravitate towards actually, you know, knowing someone. But I also think there's a lot of people that are doing, you know, podcasts or, you know, inspirational type things. And I think that if you are following someone and you haven't had a chance to thank them in person, I always like to try to find people like if they've done something or they shared something on social media that then I was able to implement. I like to try to find them and personally thank them too. And you never know, like what what that means to that person to know that what they're putting out there is being perceived well, but also you don't know what type of relationship that might lead to in the future.

No, I think these are all great points. And I think that, I mean, it's kind of like going to the gym. The hardest part is getting there. And then the rest of it you'll take from there. And don't feel like you have to jam-pack every single thing. Do you be conscious of you, do what's right for you. And you don't have to follow what everybody else is doing. It's not your style. It's not your style. Let them, let them go and do what they want to be able to do. But you find your people. And even if that's you need rest, go for it.

Or pool time.

Or pool time for that. Yes, 100% pool time. We weren't supposed to say that though. That's okay. All right. As always, we appreciate you for listening. If you would like to be a guest on our podcast, please reach out. We would love to hear from you. Have a great day.

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