Authenticity & Kindness = More Clients • Monday Market Minute • Carrie McCormick

In our January episode of Monday Market Minute, Carrie McCormick from @properties discusses how being authentic and leading with kindness are the keys to having a great impact and building great relationships with people. Carrie also talks about the importance of having a business plan and the role it plays in the success of your business. Next, Carrie emphasizes the importance of listening to your client’s needs, desires and also frustrations. Last, D.J. shares his marketing tip and discusses it with Carrie.

If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!

Carrie can be reached at carrie@atproperties.com or by phone at 312.961.4612.

Please follow Carrie on Instagram by clicking here.

This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks and FollowUpBoss.

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Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:00
We all know that we’re supposed to be authentic and kind with our clients. But how does that actually translate into more business? Well, we’re going to talk about that today. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solutions so that you can easily generate more business. There agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and now on to our show.

Welcome to keep it relevant largest podcast made for real estate agents and by real estate agents. My name is DJ Parris. I’m your guide and host through the show today on the show is our monthly series called The Monday market minute with Carrie McCormick from the Kara McCormick Real Estate Group with at properties here in Chicago. Now Kerry is a top 1% producer here with over 20 years of experience helping buyers sellers and investors. Fact in the past 12 months out of 46,000 real estate agents here in the Chicagoland area. Carrie is currently ranked number 13 in production, and she’s a true superstar and expert in everything from first time homebuyers, veteran investors and luxury properties. And she also works with a lot of developers and is often chosen to represent their high end developments, please visit Carrie at our website, which is Carrie McCormick r e.com. By the way, we have a link to that in the show notes. And also, most importantly, follow her on Instagram can find her at at Carey McCormick real estate. Also a link to that in the show notes. Carrie, welcome once again.

Carrie McCormick 2:36
Hi there. How are you?

D.J. Paris 2:38
I’m good. I’m good. We’re recording this in December towards like the month beginning of December. This won’t go out till January. So I guess what we can talk about is 2023. And sort of what your what you’re dealing with for 2023 What how you’re feeling about the market and any ideas that you’re you toying around with?

Carrie McCormick 3:02
I love that I first have to say for those who are watching, if I look orange, I am not orange. Because I feel like this, this lighting wherever I’m at is it’s kind of bad lighting. So this is not really what I look like but and I have not gotten a suntan. So that’s that’s kind of strange. So anyways, well, happy 2023 to everybody. We are recording this in December. But I’m planning and doing all of my due diligence to start the year off, right. And I wanted just to kick it off by giving a little bit of success to everybody for 2023 our markets a little funky. But I am a true believer that it’s going to be a good year, it’s going to be a good year for us. But I wanted just to say being authentic, and leading with kindness is going to be your plan for 2023. And I think that everyone should start 2023 with a game plan of having a defined business plan. I think that is key and my success. And I’ve been doing this for 22 years, so I have a good track record of success. And my success has been built on being authentic and leading with kindness. It sounds so simple. It sounds so easy. And it truly is. And I truly believe that having authentic actions in everything that you do is key to making high impact personal connections with people. And we are all in real estate, connecting with other people. Connecting with your clients, connecting with your vendors, connecting with colleagues is the core of your business and think about it again. We’re in a relationship type business, right and relationships are going to drive your sales. They’re going to generate your leads. They’re going to build your credibility but you You have to be genuine, I’ve been with people, and I’m sure you have to that. I don’t know, you know that it’s fake, you know that it’s not real. But if you are genuine, it can be extremely effective. And I’ve also done that with my brand, just like you were saying is, you know, with social media or with any type of advertising that you do, be your own brand ambassador, yes, I look at other brands, and I find inspiration in MRI, I listen to other podcasts, or I do, you know, a lot of research and I get inspired by other brands. But if you are your own brand, Ambassador, and you are truly authentic to what you do, consumers will respond to that. I think

D.J. Paris 5:46
you’re right, I think authenticity, really Trump’s sort of the aesthetic of what we think we should look like, or what we should present to the public, sort of the image that we want people to see us app is needs to be in alignment with who you actually are as a person. So if you’re like a female realtor, and you just are somebody that isn’t somebody that spends a lot of time, on their visual, you know, their physical appearance, like they’re not putting on a ton of makeup, or they don’t, you know, you maybe don’t wear certain types of clothing or do your hair a certain way, I would, I would lean into that and just be like, I’m the agent who doesn’t, you know, do a lot of makeup or hair, if that’s, you know, you don’t have to look differently than you are. Because you’re ultimately I mean, you should obviously look professional and all of that. But, but if you’re if you’re you know I have I have friends, I have some very good friends who are women who just have very different styles than maybe what we think of when we see a billboard with a realtors face on it. And they lean into the fact that that’s just they’re different. They have different preferences. And they’re the people that want to work with them are going to respond to that because it’s authentic, versus Hey, I look perfect. And I think I think this need to look to sort of look and appear perfect. It takes away from the authenticity, which is, you know, look, we don’t have to be perfect. We don’t have to even act perfectly. We just have to be ourselves. And I think people relate way more to imperfection than perfection anyway,

Carrie McCormick 7:18
I do too. And, you know, speaking of being kind, you know, sometimes kindness can be mistaken as a weakness, right. And there’s that old saying that nice guys finish last. And I think that that’s so untrue. I don’t know who started that one. But I totally disagree with that. I find that when you are authentically kind, you know, doors are gonna open, people will smile back at you, your business will just grow and to me, it’s kind of like karma, what you give out is going to come back to you. So you know, think about when you look at like I always like to focus on like, who are the successful leaders out there who are the successful managers or sales team, and you’re gonna see that they all have something very common. They’re common traits, they have the ability to understand people understand their co workers understand their clients, they listen, that’s another big thing for 2023 Everybody out there, listen to your clients listen to their needs, their desires, even their frustrations listened to that their dreams are challenges. When you really listen. You know, you’re not talking talking too much. You got to listen to them, you’re going to understand, and these successful people, they understand the drivers of change and they strive to make the people happy. And keep in mind kindness is a choice and you got to choose it.

D.J. Paris 8:42
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Follow up boss integrates with over 250 systems so you can keep your current tools and lead sources also the best part they have seven day a week support so you’ll get the help that you need when you need it and get this follow up boss is so sure that you’re going to love their CRM that for a limited time they’re offering keeping it real listeners a 30 day free trial which is twice as much time as they give everyone else and oh yeah, no credit card required. So you can try it risk free but only if you use this special link visit follow up boss.com forward slash real that’s follow up boss.com forward slash real for your free 30 day trial. Follow up like a boss with follow up boss And now back to our episode. Yeah, you do. And I think you’re right. I don’t think nice guys finish last I think. I think maybe there was a time in our culture where that was more true, but it was not in my lifetime really, I found that maybe in the 80s, it was a little different. If you were, you know of a certain age, then maybe there was a little bit more of like, just grind it out and be that be the very best and crush the competition. But I think that nice people are oftentimes just so valued by employers, they’re valued by your team. If you’re on a team, they’re valued by, you know, any, any, anytime you can help somebody, it really it really tends to come back I find in this industry, because it’s such a collaborative industry. Yeah, so I agree, I have a marketing thought that I wanted to, I’m a little nervous, because I have a feeling that I might not be thinking about this entirely fully. So I am going to lean on you a top top top producer to tell me if you think this if this value is it has any merit because I was thinking about for 2023. Right now, obviously market is challenged, the rates are up inventory still down. Yes, we all know this. So we’re probably all a little nervous about 2023. Or at least Everybody I talked to seems to be. So it’s thinking, Okay, what’s one proactive thing you can do? Well, we also know that home prices have probably fallen over the last couple of years, at least a little bit in most markets, not not in every case. But I also know that like 100 and some million people, unique people 100 And some unique, a million unique individuals every month, go to Zillow, this is just in the US. So you know a lot of the country is checking Zillow, every so often. Now, what’s the first thing that people do if they own a home and they go to Zillow, they check to see what the price of their home may be worth according to this estimate. And as Realtors I don’t I can hear the collective groans yes, these estimates are problematic. We don’t like them. They’re not always accurate. People think they’re accurate. And then you have to come in and save the day. Well, okay, so that’s sort of the situation we all know, people are checking, I even check this estimate, even though I just it’s just the quickest and easiest way for me to get an idea of what my place might be worth, even though I’m a no, not ready in any way to sell. But it’s kind of a fun little thing. It’s like checking your credit score once in a while. I don’t know how they figure it out. But it’s there. And it does feel good, whether it’s a high credit score number or high Zestimate. So but we also know as realtors, it’s not probably super accurate. And that’s where you guys come in. Because obviously Zestimates can’t take into account every possible eventuality in the market. And so whatever, it’s just a guess. So if it was me, I’m, here’s my idea, I would reach out to everybody you know, that owns a home in early 2023. And say, Hey, I was just browsing around on Zillow. And I noticed the Zestimate for your home is x. And I also know that when people see that they’re not always sure is that accurate? Is that not, I would love to have a quick conversation with you. And just to give you my update on what I actually think your home might be worth. And yeah, maybe the number will be less or higher than what I found here. But I just thought maybe you deserve to get an actual number, just so that you can keep an keep on top of what’s going on with your home. So the risk here is, of course, you know, maybe the numbers much lower than the person wants to see or maybe it’s higher. But I just liked the idea of the realtor adding value going hey, I just wanted to give you an update here it here it is. So that was my thought. What are your thoughts about that? What’s is there? Are there pros and cons to doing that?

Carrie McCormick 13:33
That’s interesting. You know, it’s funny that I’ve never really gone and look at these estimates. To be honest, I think any outreach to a client and giving them information is 100%. Always a great idea and educating them on what his estimate is. And I always tell people Zestimate is not even a real word. I mean, it’s an algorithm really what that is doing well, what else and sometimes it’s a good number. And sometimes it’s a bad number. But again, our jobs as professionals is to give them the true market value of the home. So I like your approach, I will give that a thumbs up because it’s doing that’s what we should do a thumbs up or thumbs down on on your ideas, but because it’s an outreach to the client, and it’s giving information to them, or at least starting that dialogue about where the market is at, I believe and I’ll have to look into this a little bit. But I do believe with Zillow, you can claim your home. Right? And you can go in there and add some of the details and facts of your home because Zillow doesn’t know Do you have a basement? Do you have a two car garage Do you have you know, whatever the features are of your home, you can go in as a homeowner, claim your home, add your features, and that will change your Zestimate of your home because Zillow now will aggregate that data to like homes with the same kind of information. So I’ll look into that and just see.

D.J. Paris 14:57
Yeah, it’s interesting because I was at a Zillow event earlier this year, and they claim that there’s estimate is within three percentage points of, of accuracy plus or minus three percentage points. So I can I don’t know if that’s true, but it’s certainly something that people look at. So I was just thinking, you should be looking at what your clients look at. So if they’re looking at that, you should be there to say, hey, that number actually looks really good or no, I’m going to run some, some more comps, I’m going to give you a better answer. And then you solidify yourself as the person that they can still go look at this estimate. But you’re the one that comes in to kind of verify the numbers, just like an financial advisor might call you and say I want to tell you about how the market did this year, I want to talk about how your investments did in relation to the market. So I’m just sort of thinking more along bad, it’s just a reason to pick up the phone

Carrie McCormick 15:46
100% It’s a reason pick up the phone, I think always I’ve done more of that to this past year, and 2022 is picking up the phone and talking to my clients and they absolutely love it. So I think that should be a strategy to for 2023 for realtors listening is is pick up the phone, give a purpose of your call, and provide value. And I think just like you’re talking about with the this estimate, it’s providing some value of where their investment is at. Yeah, I

D.J. Paris 16:13
would say I’m less texting this next year. I mean text when you have like easy, quick, simple, simple things. But when you’re talking to clients, I think nobody’s calling them anyway. They’re not getting calls from their friends. Probably everyone’s texting, everyone’s on social media. This is a way to go back a step and say, Hey, I was thinking about you. And I just think, you know, hey, I was wanting to just talk, touch base, see how everything’s going? I think that those are and a lot of people won’t even answer the phone anyway. So you’re gonna get a ton of voicemails, and you can leave, that’s even easier. It can leave like a voicemail. Hey, I was just thinking about you. I hope you’re doing well. It’s talk to you soon. And there’s a company

Carrie McCormick 16:47
that a lot of people use is called sly dial. Oh, sure. You know, and they just do their slide dial messages to people. I have not crossed over into that yet. But I hear a lot of brokers do use that that survey.

D.J. Paris 17:01
Yeah. So sly dial, bypasses the ring and goes right into somebody’s voicemail. And it’s pretty accurate. It’ll get it out right about 80% of the time, the rest of the time, it just won’t work. But it is a very, it’s like four cents a call. They’re really cheap three cents, maybe. So it’s absolutely a good idea. If you want to sort of blanket call everyone just be careful because those those calls can sound recorded a little bit. So you have to be really careful how you record it and listen back to making sure it doesn’t seem like a recording because then people probably wouldn’t respond well, but we I use slide dial to what do you do? Okay. Yeah, well, we sometimes we do it for our own brokers because we have like 800 agents. So one of the easy ways we text everybody, but then we also drop a voicemail and hey, this thing’s coming up. Just want to make sure you know. So but it’s a great way to reach as many people as you can very quickly and very cheaply. And if you have 1000s of past clients like you do, that’s going to be very hard to call everybody so so that’s that’s a good way to just do something or you can also do bulk texting to there is ways to do that. Even through an iPhone, there are little hacks around that. So maybe we can cover that. And another just another way the phone calls. I like those. Me too. Well, Carrie is this is the end of the year. And we wanted to keep this one short and sweet. And also, while this will be January, but we’re recording this of course in December wanted to thank Carrie She has been with us since the very, very beginning and we are so grateful to have her and her insight. We don’t we don’t get usually when we get top producers they do one episode with us and then they are off to run their business and carry still makes time for us every month. We are so honored and grateful to have her she always has amazing insight and really everybody listening she just do everything she says because she gets results. She gets results. All right. But I want everyone to visit her on her Instagram page, which is at Kerry McCormick real estate. Also if you are a buyer, a seller and investor or maybe you are another realtor who is thinking about partnering up with somebody, I don’t know if Carrie’s team is currently looking for someone else. But I know I would want to make friends with Carrie if I was thinking about exploring other options. Or if you have a client maybe that’s moving to the Chicagoland area. I know Kerry’s worked with a lot of transplants, people that come in from other cities. And you actually worked with the big big way that accompany my friend works for up in Michigan, who ended up moving to this area. So Carrie is a great person for anyone moving to Chicago if you’re a realtor in another market, and she might have somebody who’s moving to your area too. So reach out to her. Carrie what’s the best way someone should reach out if they want to work with

Carrie McCormick 19:39
always call me 312-961-4612

D.J. Paris 19:43
Awesome. All right, Carrie. Well, thank you for another year of service to our audience. We are we’re so I mean just it’s just amazing. By the way, Carrie does. Like I won’t even go into your production but it is it is well over the hundreds of millions of dollars of production every year. So she is she is just that busy, probably closing a home every three or four days or so. So we appreciate it. And I hope you have a great 2023 I’m sure you will. And I and it’ll be great to hear how a top producer stays positive this year and stays productive. Because of course you’re dealing with the same challenges that everyone else will be dealing with.

Carrie McCormick 20:22
Always Be kind, be positive, and you’ll have a great year.

D.J. Paris 20:27
Well said All right, everyone, we’ll see you on our next episode and let’s all have a great 2023 and tell a friend about the show. That’s that’s the way you can help us grow our audience and have a great 2023 is just tell one other realtor. Look everybody knows a realtor that is depressed that is stressed that is going I don’t know what I’m gonna do. This is the time to send them a link to this episode. Our episodes are about giving people hope and understanding how to keep them on track while the markets a little tricky. So let’s let’s share this episode with as many many agents as we can. All right. Carrie, we will see you again next month. Thank you so much.

Carrie McCormick 21:04
All right. Thank you guys.