How To Deepen Relationships With Your Sphere • Skye Michiels

Skye Michiels the National Head of Agent Development at Compass and DJ discuss how photos give you a better chance to connect with people and how to use this tool. Skye goes back to the beginning of his career in real estate how he got into Compass and became the head of agent development there. Skye describes how he started the 6amers and built a community around it. Next, Skye discusses how to nurture and deepen your relationships with your past clients. Skye also talks about what he expects 2023 will look like and how agents can talk to their clients about the rates at the moment.

Please check out and subscribe to Skye’s the6amers Podcast here.

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

Skye Michiels can be reached at info@skyemichiels.com.

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

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Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:00
2023 is the year that you should deepen relationships with your sphere. But how do you do that? We’re going to talk about it 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 in 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 solution 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.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the largest podcast made by real estate agents and for real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris, I am your guide and host through the show in just a moment, we’re going to be speaking with Sky Michaels before we get to sky. Just a quick reminder that the best way that you can help our podcast well a couple of ways, actually two ways. So there are two best ways. One is to of course support our sponsors who are nice enough to help us continue funding our show. So we love our sponsors, please, we hope you love them to check out their products and services. And then the second best way you can help us grow is also by telling a friend, our goal is to reach as many real estate agents as possible. There’s 1.7 million of them in the United States right now. And I don’t think all of them are listeners, although we would love it if they all were so help us get one more follower or one more listener and turn somebody else on to our show, send them over to our website, keeping it real pod.com. And guys, that’s enough for me. Let’s get to the main event my conversation with Skye Michaels.

Today on the show we have sky Michaels from Compass and let me tell you more about Scott. Scott Michaels is here to connect, empower and cultivate kindness. He’s a dad and entrepreneur. He’s an award winning real estate professional and a national motivational speaker. Now Currently he is serving as the National Head of agent development at Compass and Sky is currently creating a national agent training curriculum based on the principle that real estate is more about creating connection and caring for people than it is about selling houses could not agree more. By the way. Sky is also the founder and host of the popular motivation and accountability group, the 6am errs, which brings together 1000s of agents across the country in the early hours every week to learn frameworks for developing a healthy mindset, reaching their goals and achieving their own happiness. I’m going to give you guys two websites that I want you to go check out about Skye first is his personal website, which is Sky michaels.com. Michaels is spelled a little differently. So there’s a link to that in our show notes. But it is M I C H I E L s.com. So sky with an E, Michael’s anyway, just click on the link in the show notes, but also want you to check out his 6am ers accountability group and podcast. You can find that anywhere podcasts are served, but go to his website, the 6am ers, and it’s the number 6am ers.com. Google it, you’ll find it. I’ll also have a link to that in the show notes. Skye, welcome to the show.

Skye Michiels 4:14
Thank you so much for having me. I’m thrilled to be on I wanted

D.J. Paris 4:17
to very quickly before we get into your story, I’m sort of going to take over for just a moment, which is like super rude and not great. Not not not great etiquette. But I wanted I saw something that really stopped me in my tracks and forced me but not forced me encouraged me and immediately captivated me to learn more about you. So we do obviously prep for the show. Although today I didn’t do my prep that early. And so I was like oh my gosh, I have to learn about sky. And I went to his website, which is Sky michaels.com And he does something that I’ve yet to see any other person in the real estate industry do and I’m sure other people have done this but this is the first time I’ve seen it in five years of looking at other agent websites. For people that are on our show, after 400, some episodes, this is super cool. If you go to his website and you go to his About Us page, he is got something called big moments. And what he’s basically showing you here is different major events in his life that are important to him or significant to his development or about his personal life. And, boy, I love this. And I just wanted to say, I literally got to learn all about your life, not necessarily by reading a bio, which, you know, I get lost after a while when I read somebody’s bio, especially if it’s really long, but I loved this because I could see pictures of each event in your life. And then if I hover over, I can read more about it. And I was like, wow, I really feel like I know this guy. And I thought, What a great idea for other realtors to do this. So please, everyone, go to his website, Sky michaels.com, go to his About Us page and just check out how he really gets intimate and vulnerable. And says, here’s the here’s what’s been most important to me in my life. I think it is super cool. So I just wanted to give you some, some kudos before we before you started.

Skye Michiels 6:01
Yeah, well, I think it ties back into the philosophy that I have around real estate too, that real estate is about people. And you know how many, every realtor that you you’ve seen or that you go and you go to their about page, it’s words and words and words. The reality is like, no client looking at me, it wants to read all that, right. But when they see a visual, and they see a picture of like, divorced, you know what I’m doing what I’m doing, right, there is a, um, I’m explaining who I am as a person. In addition, I’m also creating potential connection with the person like, oh, wow, like, if they had read paragraph and paragraph and paragraph, you know, eventually maybe they get to it. But the visual of that in, you know, the visual, my children are the visual of me rowing in college, or whatever it might be it you connect a lot easier, our brains are wired to connect visually, much quicker than we are connect when we read something. So that was sort of the mindset around it was a really one in a very, very quick situation illustrate who I am as a person, mainly because I want to connect with you as a person as well.

D.J. Paris 7:11
Yeah, it almost felt like I was, it was almost almost like a mini Instagram. Most important moments of your life in a weird way. It’s just, it’s like I don’t have to infinitely scroll through, you know, a million of your Instagram posts, I can literally just see the top 12 things that have happened that are significant. And you you really do talk about everything on there, which I think is is courageous, and a great, a great example of leadership, the ability to, you know, say, hey, not everything in my life has been easy and perfect. And here are some of the challenges and here’s how I overcame them. And I just I’m really impressed by that. And it encourages me to want to be more forthright, you know, with with my own story as well. And by the way, I’m a divorced guy, too. And it’s and as soon as I saw that, I was like, Okay, I feel good. I did, I did, I felt a little drag to do tonight. I don’t have children you do. So I wasn’t able to connect in that way. But But I was like, Oh, I’m a divorced guy that that’s, you know, it’s not really something we like, when we go around bragging about in a way or like announcing, but of course, half the people in this country are. And so even even things like that I thought was really, really

Skye Michiels 8:21
well. And I really think it goes back into owning your story. Right? The best. Realtors are authentic. And authenticity is the most powerful thing we have in real estate. It’s Be your authentic self. And when you own your story, you’re showing up as your authentic self. And, and very similar. Like, when someone is looking at you online. You don’t know what they’re going to connect with. I don’t I didn’t know if you were divorced. But now we have a course in connection. And imagine if I was showing up to a listing appointment at your house, you already feel like you know me a little bit and you have we have a connection and maybe it was the college rowing or maybe it was the children or maybe it was the we don’t know. But now I’m putting my story out there I’m saying this is who I am as a person. And now you it allows you to connect in your terms rather than me trying to force my turns on you. I don’t know if that makes sense.

D.J. Paris 9:14
It makes perfect sense. And also this this idea of vulnerability is is really the gateway to connection and you are vulnerable on this and and I like that because so so many people are desperate for connection and but it’s scary to get vulnerable. It’s scary to put your story out there because of course you know people can judge you for it or people can have a reaction that isn’t what you want. But you’re saying it’s my story. This is what it is i and and but people love that I love it. I love the anyway so we’ll move on from that because I could talk about that all day. But I think that is such a great example of who you are. Is is the the willingness to put something like that out there I think is a really great indicator of your character and and also where you’re at in life. But let’s start all the way at the beginning of your story because I really want to hear about how you got to where you are now. So how did you get started in real estate?

Skye Michiels 10:09
So I was a teacher. So I graduated from Syracuse University, I knew from a very early age, I wanted to be a teacher, like, I love that, you know. And I was inspired by some of my teachers, like most teachers are. And I got into I graduated in 2000, with my master’s degree, and I became a high school history teacher. And unfortunately, I realized very quickly, I was poor, as a teacher, so I needed a side business. And all most teachers have a little side thing, they paint their movers or they coach or whatever it might be. And I had a conversation with a teacher who was just about to retire. And he said, If I could go back and do it all over again, I would get my real estate license and sell real estate part time and then teach full time you get the best of both worlds. So I was like, Sure. So I went online, Google real estate schools, you know, found the closest one. And I literally got my license. And it was one of those, like, all weekend classes, right? So I got it, for weekends, got my license, and I was a realtor. And I started selling. And I always intended it in the beginning to be a part time thing. Like I thought it was just going to be something I sell four or five homes a year, you know, make a little extra money and be a teacher the rest of my life. And I’m also a former college athlete, so I’m a little competitive. So I got into it and actually loved it. Because I think it reminded me a sports, right? Like, if you work hard, you actually get a return here. Right? Right. And there’s a piece of my, my, my soul, so to speak, that missed that competition, right? You every day of your life as a college athlete, you’re competing, and then you leave it, you’re like, Okay, that’s over. And now it’s back in a competition mode. And I just loved it, I gravitated into it, I was successful. And I literally did both for three years as a part time agent, because of the fact that I grew up, you grew up craving stability, like I did, for years there QC University, in my opinion, the best school out there, you know, but at the end of the day, like you, you go to school for five years, become a teacher and you achieve it. And I’m going to leave it to go sell houses at 100%. Commission.

D.J. Paris 12:26
And it was probably probably difficult in a sense to because I imagine with teaching, sometimes there’s there’s a calling, like, it’s like I feel drawn to do this, you obviously could have chosen any career. You know, Syracuse is a great university. And so you could have chosen any any path and did you feel called to teach was that like part of?

Skye Michiels 12:47
Totally. And you know, the last year I stayed as the last year, I literally stayed because of the fact I didn’t want to leave the senior class to that as teaching, because I’ve been with them all for years. And yeah, it’s a relationship. Oh, yeah. The relationship and care about those kids are exactly and then on the surface, when you look at real estate on the surface, it actually it feels very, especially nowadays with like, all the housewives and the HGTV stuff, right? It feels very, like. What I discovered, though, within real estate, is all the skills I applied as a teacher, I can apply in real estate. And that’s what made me successful, between caring about someone learning about who they are making sure I could explain everything properly, making sure they really, really understood the process, right? All the skills of a teacher applied so closely, to me being a realtor, as long as they then applied sort of that competence and the sort of the drive you have as an athlete as well, when those came together really made me who I was. So I did both for three years. And then finally 2005 went full time real estate. And it was made the decision and you know, this was gonna be my career.

D.J. Paris 13:58
And then now you’re in you’re, you’re you’re a corporate guy now now you’re part of you’re part of the biggest real estate company out there right now. So you are the National Head of agent development at Compass and everybody knows compass of course, I would hope by now everyone knows compass. And you know, they just they just are crushing it everywhere. And and obviously, Robert replikins a really impressive guy, of course. And yeah, you guys are always in the news. And I’m always a lot going on with Compass. Um, how did you get to compass just out of curiosity?

Skye Michiels 14:27
Yeah. So over the course of my career, you know, I was an individual agent, oh five and then over. In 2012, I created my real estate team. And it was called Real Estate with heart you know all about caring and cared about people, etc. That team I grew that team into one of the top teams in the Philadelphia market. At the time I was with Keller Williams, which I love Keller Williams is such a great company, some great trainings and awesome culture, etc. But I was at the time I’m as also craving a little something more, shall we say. And compass at that time in 2018, was just starting to launch in the Philadelphia market. So I remember taking my first recruiting appointment only as taking it because I was like, I’m gonna learn about this company so I can recruit against them. And the minute when I walked

D.J. Paris 15:21
in, like, wait a minute, they’ve got everything. I don’t want to compete with those guys.

Skye Michiels 15:26
It was that situation, I walked into the appointment, I met a gentleman named Rob Lehman. And at the end of the day, in my head, I’m like, Oh, my God, why did I take this appointment, because I literally fell in love with a company, the philosophy, the branding, the marketing, there’s so many aspects that I wanted to create, but there’s just so many, it’s so challenging in most real estate companies to create it, because of the fact that, you know, the factors present really holds you back. And the encompass sort of overcame this, really, because of the fact that they invested so many millions of dollars in in supporting agents first. And that was like this philosophy that I had, that I really wanted to sort of pursue. And so at the time, in 2018, I came over to compass I took over as the managing director for the city of Philadelphia, and my team came over as well. And my sister ran my team. And yeah, and we launched in, we launched in June of 2018. And I came over in August of 2018. And as awesome ride, and then over the years, the teacher and me started to come out. And really, this is accentuated in the pandemic. So I’d been doing a little bit of national team teaching that our retreats and things along those lines and the pandemic hits, right. So March 2020, hard to remember it, but it everything shut down. And we’re sitting there, like, what do we do. And immediately myself and a group of probably about 13, or 14 other people were formed. And we launched a thing called coaching at Compass, which was all virtual training. So every single day, all we did was we did all this virtual training. The other thing was, I was drinking a lot, eating a lot, watching Netflix a lot, you know, we would have our virtual happy hour, and then you know, you’re like, alright, six o’clock, like what I do now Mazal just watch TV, there’s nothing to do. And this was in March. So the end of April, I launched a group called sticks hammers, which was sort of a morning and accountability group, just within my market, just within the Philadelphia market. So between the coaching and compass and the six hammers, I started to work a little more nationally, but I was still managing full time as well. And then at the beginning of this year, I was promoted to the head of agent Development here at compass to make a long story short,

D.J. Paris 17:54
no, it’s, it’s, it’s really impressive. You’ve really come full circle you’re teaching again. And and also, you know, you’re you’re obviously super engaged in in the real estate, Industry and Market. So before we I want to get some advice, because our audience are all realtors, I assume, I don’t know who else would want to listen to our show. But we love our we love our audience, of course, but we also are here to help educate them and help get them ready and AI for next year. Right, we have a shifting market that’s already shifted, and we just had a Fed rate increase, you know, a couple days ago. So we’re certainly agents are, well, you know, they’re stressed, they’re worried. And I’m super excited to learn, you know, what you’re telling agents on what to do through the end of the year, all the way into 2023. But before we do, let’s get to your podcast, because I always wait till the very end to sort of say, Oh, by the way, he’s got this, and then you know, not as many people make it to the end. So I want to make sure we get that out there right now. So tell us about the 6am errs.

Skye Michiels 18:59
Yeah, so the six hammers, once again, it was formed in April 2020. And the mindset it actually was the originally like, couple of years prior, I had gotten divorced. And one of my really good friends a guy named Jay Dreyfus at Keller Williams, I was struggling I was in a bad place. Sure. Sorry, can see this. I’ve been

D.J. Paris 19:18
there. I know. Yeah, it’s bad. Even in the best of scenarios, it’s bad.

Skye Michiels 19:24
And I have a beautiful divorce by the way, I have a great like, you know, my kids are we have great beautiful 5050 custody, et cetera, but going through it, it rocks. So Jake wood, he said, Hey, I’m gonna start texting you early in the morning. 5am We followed a guy named Jaco willing Nick, who’s like, sure,

D.J. Paris 19:43
sure. Yeah. By the way, for anyone who doesn’t know who Jocko will, because he’s got a million books. He’s a crazy what ex Navy Seal or? Yeah, I guess you’re never an ex Navy SEAL. I shouldn’t say it’s like disrespectful. I didn’t mean it to be he’s not But anyways, he’s a Navy SEAL. And this guy is hardcore. And he’s all about discipline and anyway, go Correct. Sorry.

Skye Michiels 20:07
So Jake and I formed a group called the Five Amber’s, right? We woke up at five, a couple days a week, we we’d get on a zoom call, we actually launched it like, nationwide, it was really cool. Actually, the Facebook group still exists today, Jake is one of my best friends today. But you know, he moved to Colorado, I went to compass like, you know, so it just sort of, sort of settled in, I guess we could say. So when the pandemic hit, I started just revived it as the six hammers a, it was a pandemic, so you didn’t need to get up at 5am. And 6pm is also the hour that really allows it to be accessible to everyone, you know, a little a little tough. It’s a little hard if you’re not like a crew guy swimmer, like an early morning person to Paperboy, like 5am is just it’s not healthy as well. 6am was a great time. And to make a long story short, what we do is Tuesdays and every month you sign up and you commit to doing one goal for the month, you wake up at 6am. And you get on a zoom call on Tuesdays and Thursdays. And I usually will interview someone motivational on the Zoom call. And then I’ll put a post, I’ll post a question of the day on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and workplace, which is our internal Facebook system that you need to answer. And then we also read one book of the month. And the goal is let’s create a community around sort of waking up early and really taking care of ourselves. Because at the end of the day as realtors, what do we do all day every day, what makes us successful is we take care of other people. And that’s good during the day, because of the fact that’s what makes you successful. The challenge we have as Realtors is that usually that spills over into the early morning and in the late evening, because of the fact that we are always on email and text and social media. And we literally wake up from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to bed. Sometimes we’re on our devices. So the goal of the six embers is really to say to people that you don’t need to be all things to all people at all times. Early in the morning, early in the morning is for you. Yeah, that’s for you. And we coined a term we call Healthy selfish, that you need to be selfish in a healthy way, early in the morning, you don’t get on the phone, you win. And everyone is different, right? For some people, it’s working out for some it’s meditating. For some it’s reading. For some people, it’s folding laundry, because it makes you feel like you’re in control, whatever it is that you need to do for yourself. That’s, that’s selfish, but it’s healthy, selfish. That’s really what we try to preach. And we want people to wake up with a little bit of motivation, a little bit of positivity, a little bit of inspiration early in the morning to carry them throughout the day.

D.J. Paris 22:51
Now, is this open to only compass agents? or can anyone apply for this?

Skye Michiels 22:57
It’s a great question. So it is right. The the live group is only compass agents, right? Because of the fact we use internal communication systems, etc. And over the years, I had hours and hours of interviews that are recorded, and my mom, my mom was like, can you send me that interview? Or like, you know, people would say, Hey, can you send me the interview, I want to send it to my my kids are. And it really it got to the point where I was like, I got to put this out publicly, because there are so many great inspirational moments and interviews and a lot of there’s people within compass, but people outside of compass as well that we interview. So I was really motivated to put something out there that the world could actually see inside what we do as a group and gain inspiration from it as well. And I’ll say it’s, obviously it’s a lot of realtors will be a lot of staff members in there. And the podcast really is not about real estate per se, it’s really about you as an individual in the person, and how do you get inspired and really take care of yourself.

D.J. Paris 23:59
So Podcasts can be listened to by anyone. So we’ll have a link to that in the show notes again called 6am. ers number six. And if you want to be part of the actual accountability group that’s limited to two for currently to the compass agents. So a lot of our listeners are compass agents. So if you don’t know about this, this is a great time to sign up. But let’s talk about right now what’s going on? Because of course, everyone’s focused on what’s right in front of them, which is some challenging times, right. We had, well, they’re challenging times in relation to what we had a couple of years ago. And I think that’s an obvious thing for people to to think back and go Well, that was easy. This is hard. But if we think back maybe a couple years ago, even at 3% interest rates, I don’t know that it was so easy. I think if you were working with buyers, we all remember it was not easy. If you were working with sellers, you had a great run, but now things have changed and we’re now you know rates of course are much higher. Um, obviously business still needs to continue, people still need to move. And but yet I, I’m part of our local association here. And we I’m, I’m in work on some committees that deal with programming around helping agents get through this current time. And boy, everybody I know is a little bit stressed. So as you know, so I’m curious on what you’re telling agents or what you’re seeing out there, how are successful agents sort of continuing to stay focused? Are they putting the blinders on? And just kind of doing the things they were always doing? Or are they are people pivoting? Just curious to get your thoughts on what you’re saying?

Skye Michiels 25:40
Well, the first thing I’ll give everyone is that the solution to anxiety is action. If you’re if you right now are feeling anxious. Anxiety is all about unknown things in the future. And what happens when we feel anxiety is we get, we sort of get frozen in place, almost picture the deer in the headlights, right, and we don’t move. And that is it. That is not a good thing right now. So if you’re out there, and you’re hearing this and you feel anxiety, my challenge to you is what are the actions that you need to take in order to move forward, right, get out of the headlights get out of the blind spot, get out of that frozen mode. Because the reality is there are real estate transactions that are rehab, there’s millions of transactions are going to happen. But in this moment, when you feel that frozen mode, that anxiety is going to kick in, and it’s going to paralyze you. And if you are not in a mode of action every single day, then you are literally going to sort of slide backwards, and it’s gonna get really, really hard for successful agents. And when I’m coaching everyone, this is an opportunity. We have a massive opportunity right now, as professional agents to capture market share and elevate what we do in two years ago, a year ago, let’s be real, if the property is priced right, and you had it in the MLS, like it was about all you had to do. Yeah. So at the end of the day, our role as a as an agent, or an I like calling us like advisors and consultants around real estate sales. it at the end of the day, it really we weren’t able to fulfill our greatest potential, because of the fact that it was it was the market was so crazy, it’s so fueled with, with low interest rates and low inventory, it was hyper hyper growth, right, it was not natural. And so now we’re moving back to a world where there is an opportunity for us to elevate what we do as realtors, and to elevate what we do with an industry to actually embrace that role as the advisor and the consultant. And I I really am coaching agents right now, to figure out everything you can do to be in action. And when you think about like the last two years, a lot of agents probably didn’t work in their CRM, they didn’t update their contacts, they didn’t reach out, they didn’t have those great touch points that made you successful, right, all you did was you done, you did transactions, you show properties, you listen to homes, and you were so busy and so frenetic that you were just running so fast, well, we have an opportunity now to take a step back, and we’re still going to work as hard, we’re just going to work in a different manner. Because the reality is the millions of transactions that are going to happen in this real estate industry are going to happen with people that have real life situations. But if we are not in a relationship with these people, what are they going to do, they’re going to click on a link online, and then they’re going to get connected to someone that’s paying lots of money to a third party company. And the reality is we need to be reaching out to people we know, in a human manner, in a manner that develops our relationships. So when that advisory role comes up, we are elevated and they reach out to us for help. Right when you think about financial advisors, you know, your financial advisor is constantly in touch with you hopefully about your portfolio and what you should be doing. And the reality of real estate transaction that happens once every seven 810 15 years.

D.J. Paris 29:14
But there’s a lot of lead time in between.

Skye Michiels 29:17
And the what most agents do is they they don’t remain in their clients lives as an advisor around real estate beyond the transaction. And

D.J. Paris 29:28
if I pause Can I pause for a second I have a theory about about this number one, obviously we’re talking about the time in between sales which I think is maybe is not even maybe it is more important than when you’re actually working with the client because as you said this this is I mean we’ve all seen the stats the I don’t know you know depends on what study you look at but the certain number of peeps certain percentage of people literally forget who their realtor was like three years after the transaction. My parents are this way it took them. They have a they had a home in North Myrtle Beach and it took years to sell it because it’s just kind of weird timing, whatever. Anyway, took years and many different realtors to finally, finally somebody did it after like five years, it was brutal, but they finally did it. And my parents were like, Oh, thank god, somebody finally got it sold. And my parents are super grateful to this person. I was asking my dad not that long ago, this is a couple years ago, but I said, who wasn’t even a realtor because I thought maybe I had a lead out there. I was just gonna say he goes, he goes, I don’t remember. And my parents liked this person. And they couldn’t remember now they don’t live in North Myrtle Beach, you know, they’re never going to do another transaction there. But still, that was shocking to me. And I went, Oh, yeah, I’m in the industry. Of course, that makes sense. People don’t stay in touch. And what you said, I think is really important. So here was my my thing I was going to suggest for anyone out there that’s going okay. Like Skye was saying, now’s the time to think about how can I deepen my relationships with my connection to these people? Well, that sometimes is is the challenges they might go well, I don’t know, what am I supposed to just call once in a while, or I don’t I know, they’re not they just moved in a year ago, what am I going to do, I could call and say like, what’s going on, or how you doing, and that’s fine. But what I’ve always suggested, especially you talked about your car, like really getting your CRM updated, I think now’s the time to call everybody you know, especially now if you have some extra time, and you probably do call everybody in your database, and literally just update the information be like, Hey, I’m working on my marketing thing for next year, I just want to make sure I have all the right data for you. Find out their birthdays, find out their anniversary, if they’re married, find out you know, where they work, if you don’t know, you know, and this gives you find out what their children names, ages, maybe even birthdays, too for that. So this way, if you have that information, you now have six, seven reasons to pick up the phone next year already automatically built in to your calendar, right? You’re like have the ability to pick up the phone and go, Hey, it’s your wedding anniversary, just wanted to say happy anniversary. Anyway, I was just thinking like, this is the time to get that data in there so that you have all those touch points built into your calendar.

Skye Michiels 31:58
So true. Well, I think two agents struggle with this, what do I say? And I think the reality is because of the fact that we’re looking at that former client as a client, not a human being. And when you go back, and let’s bring it back to the beginning of our interview, right, like my website, you look at it, you get an idea of who I am as a human being. And I think this is a technique you can also use as you put a touch point to do what I call reverse social media. So social media, Instagram, and Facebook, they give us what they want us to see. But we have the ability to go in and actually look at what’s happening in our clients lives. And when you ask yourself the question, well, what should I say, Well, what’s happening in their life and reach out about it? Right? Give them a compliment, give them a piece gratitude. Or you can just say, and this is one of my favorite scripts was you it’s a text or an email, and you just say, Hey, I’m just going through my records. I saw your name, and it made me smile. Just want to say hi, no need to respond back. Just letting you know.

D.J. Paris 32:58
Oh, boy, it Oh, good. Okay, and we want to emphasize only do this, if somebody’s authentically makes you smile, too. Because people are gonna smell you know, something that isn’t honest, but that you are so absolutely right is is using social media, as almost research and development, you can literally just, again, don’t wait for the feed, because Facebook’s only going to serve up things that they think you’re going to want to see. You’re not going to really get a good sense of everything that’s going on in someone’s life. So go through, type in their name, see what see if they’ve been on vacation lately, see what’s going on with their kids. And then my suggestion is don’t you can always comment on posts. And that’s great. And that’s definitely better than doing nothing. My suggestion is pick up the phone and call or text be like, Hey, man, just saw you got back from Cancun. Hope you had an amazing trip. Like, that’s the sort of stuff that people go wow.

Skye Michiels 33:46
Yeah, the other the other brilliant gem I’m gonna give you as well is to ask for help. Yes, I’m coaching next week, I’m actually coaching this within compass. And we’re going to basically be giving we have 1000s of agents signed up for that. So I’m really excited. But it’s five days of giving is the challenge. So I’m going to be basically showing how gratitude but the first thing is agents are going to reach out to their clients and say, Hey, we’re developing a recipe book. Do you have any Thanksgiving recipes that you love that I could share in this recipe book

D.J. Paris 34:20
and everybody has at least one and

Skye Michiels 34:22
even if they don’t? Yeah, what they’re gonna say, oh, you know, I don’t have anyone but that’s awesome. Can you send me that when you’re done? Absolutely. And now you have a digital recipe book you know that you can send out instead of just that the corny Hey, hope you’re having a Thanksgiving like the blast email blast we all get right like the

D.J. Paris 34:42
turkey I’m thankful you’re one of my clients or what yeah,

Skye Michiels 34:45
now like and when we wait, your parents got a Thanksgiving recipe book from their realtor like as a oscillate right? Now we got to get beyond that transaction. We got to think of like what are my clients going to need and the key aspect of asking for help is people like helping other people. And now and you’re not asking for help in a, in a bad way, you’re asking for help in a good way. Imagine that neighborhood guide. You, you ask your clients, hey, I’m building a neighborhood guide, do you have a favorite restaurant in Chicago? Or everybody has whatever, right? And now, what are you doing, you’re interacting with your clients, your former clients in a human way, and what it’s all about being present in their mind in a positive manner. Because while they may not buy or sell a house every 10 years, how many people do they know? In those 10 years that are going to buy or sell and what you want to do as an agent, you want to create raving fans, that when you say, Who is your realtor, I, my clients, they say, oh my god, Sky, you’ve got to call them like, here’s his number. And let me text them right now. Because of the fact I’m present in their lives in a manner that is nothing to do necessarily with real estate. But everything to do with real estate, if that makes sense.

D.J. Paris 36:00
Totally. Now, after interviewing hundreds of top Realtors in the country on the show, do you know what CRM is used more than any other by our amazing guests? Well, you guessed it is follow up boss, let’s face it. Following up is the key to taking your business to the next level follow up boss will help you drive more leads in less time. With less effort. Don’t take my word for it. Robert slack, who runs the number one team in the US use this follow up boss and he’s built a one and a half billion dollar business in just six years. I am sure Jonathan is hot on their tail. But follow up boss integrates with over 250 different systems. So you can keep your current tools and lead sources. Also, they have seven day a week support. So you’ll get the help that you need and get this follow up boss is so sure 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. That’s how confident they are that you’re going to keep using them. But only if you use this special link, which is 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 a follow up boss. Boy, I’m just absorbing what you did, I realized what I need to do is create content from our listeners. I never have asked our listeners to contribute to the show, I asked him to tell a friend and boy, that is all you ever have to do if you’re listening is tell a friend. But I’m thinking you just gave me a great idea. I would love to create a list of tips from our listeners about what’s working for them right now. And maybe what isn’t working, that would be kind of cool, too. But But putting that together and just giving that away to our audience and saying, Hey, here’s here’s all the stuff that you guys told me. So that I love that boy, what a great, great idea. I love that. So so why don’t we think about 2023 Here’s what we know, we know rates are higher than they were I don’t want to say hi, I just want to say higher than they were. Because my parents got got their first mortgage, it was double digits in the in the late 70s. So So again, it’s all relative, but we know that that that people are not as happy with rates as they as they were. So what are we how are we talking about this not just rates? I just mean, how are we talking to clients right now? Or what are you suggesting? agents do to really explain sort of, or rather to sort of set the narrative versus what maybe the media is projecting? Correct?

Skye Michiels 38:34
Well, a the media is always going to put things out there that are going to generate activity, right. The reality is that real estate transacts based around most real estate, but transacts around the life goals, not financial goals. So true, isn’t it? Yeah, we’re not talking about like, investment properties and all that stuff. Like that’s a little different. But for the vast majority of people that buy or sell real estate, they’re doing it not because of finances, but they’re doing it because of life. death, divorce, birth job. Yeah, right, you name it. So so the reality is that most people real estate’s one thing you need, that’s a necessity of life, that’s also an asset that you you need to buy and sell, right air water, like you’re not really buying and selling that it’s just like sort of natural shelter is it is a necessity of life. So one of the key things that I challenge are the realtors that are listening to this is find the people that have those life events that do have that need and with them work with them on solutions. So an entrepreneurial principle we talked about here at Compass is be solutions driven. When you are encountering a problem within your your clients life or your transactions, etc. The more you focus on the problem, the less you can accomplish, the more you focus Some potential solutions, and the pros and cons of each. Well now you can actually move into action. So the bottom line is there’s usually a solution to something. And at the end of the day, that’s what we need to drive that there’s two one buyer announcers. Yeah. Seller held financing. Yeah, there’s the there’s lots of potential solutions. But what are they? Now the one thing I’m, when I think about 2023, I went through 2008, I think you might have as well, like, no, I

D.J. Paris 40:30
got in just after that, but, but I’ve had enough guests on the show that had been through it, too. I feel like I’ve been through it.

Skye Michiels 40:37
Yeah, a, and that was a different because there was a nuclear bomb that went off underneath our feet. This is different, because what we’re doing here is we’re just pumping the brakes on the growth that was not healthy, right? Like, it was not healthy to have offered, you know, double digit growth, like multiple bids like that, that was not a good thing. So the what I’m trying to coach Realtors on, and also this, in essence, like your buyers and sellers, is that, hey, you got to go back into the life goals of what you’re trying to do. And then backfill into the finances, start with life, then go finances rather than being like, Oh, I just watched something on Fox News or CNN. And I’m scared. Well, that’s not, that’s not how you should make a decision. The second thing is that get ready for the bounce, meaning this is a little bit of a correction into normalcy. And at some point, as rates start to go down, demand is still there, we haven’t gotten rid of the demand for housing, right? We haven’t gotten in the inventory is still at an all time lows, frankly, even as we’re starting to increase, we’re still at an all time low for most markets. So the reality is there, there is probably a little bit of a bounce coming, we just don’t know exactly where that’s going to be. And once again, the work you do in the next six months, will probably dictate the next two years of your real estate career. Because if you sit there and once again, that anxiety kicks in, and you just starve your hands and say, Well, I’m just gonna sit here and go on Facebook and Instagram and you don’t give up? Well, you’re probably gonna that’s gonna dictate next two years, your real estate career, you’re gonna live pretty slim. Most realtors that I’m working with right now are are so excited, because of the fact that they actually have time now to help class. They have time to work in their serum, they have time to take those actions. Build the Thanksgiving recipe book, frankly,

D.J. Paris 42:36
they do the fun stuff. Now Now’s the fun stuff time.

Skye Michiels 42:39
Yeah, exactly. And the reality is like, yes, it’s just about getting better as a professional and improving your craft. And as you do that, you’re going to do more transactions, and you’re frankly going to gain a lot of market share. Most, most good agents are actually like, Oh, here’s an opportunity, all those like, if you do research in your local market, look up how over the last 20 months, how many deals were how many agents did one two or three deals in the last 20 months. The reality is those agents are gonna be gone in the next six months.

D.J. Paris 43:15
Like we were already we’re, we have a holding company here. At RT, we have two companies, ones for active producing agents, and ones we just created. Not every state has these. But for people that don’t actively produce or want to keep their license active. They just want to can we in the last, so we have about 700 agents in that in that company in the holding company in the last or maybe 800. Now, in the last month, we’ve added almost 50 agents just because people are exiting the business. So if you are a producing agent, whether you’re part time or full time, now’s the time to really get excited because lots of people are leaving.

Skye Michiels 43:52
That’s right. And I think too We’ll see this accelerate as dues come for like most associations operate on a yearly schedule. So you’ll see that jump in January, probably as well. So it’s, it’s key. And once again, I think it’s the positive is like they’re really solid economics people have equity. People, you know who you are, like, I know, you just got it. I mean, you probably remember doing short sales, right? Where people didn’t have equity in banks were for closing, like, we have a lot of positive economic aspects that are going on right now that are good. And if you’re buying a home, the rial, this is a really great way you can explain to buyers, here are three options, there are three things that are going to happen with interest rates, if you buy today, number one, interest rates are gonna go up and you’re gonna be really happy that you locked in this 7% Or six and a half percent, or whatever it is you locked in. Number two, they’re going to stay the same and then you’re no worse off. Or number three, they’re going to go down and then you’re going to refinance into that lower rate. So the reality is, in either one of these scenarios you’re going to be, you’re going to end up in a good space as long. And that’s a really great way that you can explain to buyers right now, the fact that interest rates going up, it’s just sort of the reality of where we are, as in the in the interest rate market, the reality of interest rates are going to change. And if they go up, and you’ve locked in, I remember I just bought a house actually in in June. And I was so pissed, it was like, Man, I could have walked you missed out. I missed it. And now I’m like, Oh, my, my mindset, like totally changed. Like, Oh, thank God, I like it. And then at the, you know, that 4.25 Like, rate I got I was, at the time, I was so mad. Now, I’m thrilled. But the reality is, no matter where you are, you can explain, one of three things is going to happen, they’re gonna go up, and you’re gonna be happy, they’re gonna stay the same, you’re gonna be happy, they’re gonna go down, and you gotta pay a little money to refinance into the lower rate.

D.J. Paris 45:59
Yeah, it’s you know, and you’re you brought up something a few minutes ago that I just want to step on a little bit, because it’s so important, which is that you said most consumers, most buyers and sellers, aren’t thinking about rates, they are thinking about their life events. And funnily enough, I just got lucky when I bought my most recent condo, which just happened to fall in a time when the rates were that low. That was not the reason I bought, it was because this new development came about. And I was like, I needed to make a move. And it just so happened that I got lucky with rates, it could have been the I was 7%. Either way, I needed to move. And so I just got lucky. So I think as agents, we often we’re so immersed in it, that it’s so much of our life, that we think everyone else is thinking about it. But you’re right. In most cases, people are thinking about what they need for their family. And whatever the rate is, is the rate. And it’ll affect what they can afford, of course, but it’s not going to. I don’t think it’s pushing people away as much as agents might be talking about it right now. Like agents are thinking people are scared, and they don’t want to pay. And I’m like, I don’t know how true that is for the vast majority of buyers and sellers.

Skye Michiels 47:08
You will feel this ad out a little bit too because right now, we probably still have the people that we’re looking at in the three to 4% rate and for those who didn’t get in, yeah, it is real for them. But the people that you will encounter over the next six months, when they meet you and you do your consultation, you explain here’s the process, here’s the payment here’s where rates are for them. That’s just where rates are right

D.J. Paris 47:35
and and and one more thing I was just gonna before I’m sorry, but also to the people who did buy a couple years ago the last couple of years probably overpaid by a significant so that’s another thing you can bring up if somebody’s like, well, rates are where they’re at, say like, well, let me just show you what it would have cost back then to purchase this home. And and you know, and then all of a sudden things get more in line like oh, okay, it’s not sky is falling. Sorry. I’m so glad

Skye Michiels 48:00
no, no, I was gonna almost say the exact same thing. And the other positives are we can actually do a home inspection, we can actually get an appraisal we can actually

D.J. Paris 48:07
you don’t have to buy it sight unseen.

Skye Michiels 48:11
I bought my home with no, I didn’t see it. I just went off the picture. Amazing. I didn’t do an inspection. I didn’t have a mortgage contingency, even though I got a mortgage. So no appraisal contingency, right? And but I knew I knew what I was doing. I’m like, look at it knew what I was basically buying. What’s that scary,

D.J. Paris 48:31
scary.

Skye Michiels 48:32
I’m in the business. And I was really scared about it. But at the end of day, that’s what buyers had to do to get home. The positive now is actually I as a real estate professional can protect you, I can actually do an inspection for you. We can do appraisal, we can have a mortgage contingency, hey, you need to sell your home and buy this one, we can actually make it contingent now because of the fact we’re back. What we’re dealing with, we’re just coming back to the ground. This is like we were we just it was a rocket that took off. And now we’re just sort of settling back into the ground of what’s normal in real estate. It’s normal for us to take 60 days to sell. It’s not normal for it to sell in two or three days back in 2010. You sold the house in two days, right? Whoo. Yeah, that’s great. You know, no, it’s like it’s normal. For this. It takes some time. And that’s what we have to adopt this mindset that we are professionals. And what we do matters. Because if what we do doesn’t matter, then the internet companies are just going to take it over and do it for us at a cheaper rate, frankly, great.

D.J. Paris 49:34
Yeah. And they’re going to do a better job digitally than we can do because that’s their business. What we can do is all the interpersonal stuff, all the we care about you stuff, and if you can be the care about you person and the AI can educate you and read you know, reassess what’s actually going on and re educate you and make you feel cared for and appreciated as a as a human being And then you know, that’s going to win out almost every time over over the tech. That being said, I think this is actually a perfect place to wrap up. So I want a couple of things. The 6am errs, if you are a compass agent, and you want to participate in the accountability group, what’s the best way that they should do? I guess they probably know, internally, they probably know how to get access. I hope

Skye Michiels 50:23
so. But just in case you don’t, you could obviously email me sky@compass.com. Or you could actually sign up on the website as a compass agent as well.

D.J. Paris 50:32
And if you are not a compass agent, which, of course most people listening are not, let’s listen to the podcast, subscribe to 6am ers and get a steal, you still get all the interviews and all the exciting parts of what Skye does. And by the way, if you are an agent, and you are, you know, not happy at your current firm, or just want to see what else is out there, obviously compass would love the opportunity to speak with you. There’s, you know, reach out to your local compass office, you can reach out to sky as well, I’m sure you haven’t directed to the right, right person. But compass is really doing some great things. And I don’t work for Compass. And I’m impressed with Compass, because I just think they do so many so many wonderful things for agents. So definitely if you’re looking to explore their options, except if you’re one of our agents stay with us. I’m only being silly, of course. But But anyway, if you are exploring other options, check out compass, they are actually a bit different than a lot of what the traditional big firms offer. So check them out, they’re there, they do a lot of great things. So Skye, thank you so much for being on the show. This was a real pleasure and a lot of fun for me. And I can’t I won’t become a compass agent only because I have my feet firmly planted here. But I wish I was only to be part of your six AMS group. So maybe I’ll figure out a way to sneak under the door because I want to I need that accountability in my life. So if anyone out there is a congress agent, you know, definitely Let’s sign up for 6am ers it’s it’s it’s I mean so many people read the how l read book of the Miracle Morning, which is like every like every realtor I know is read that book this is an extension of that and you know specific to real estate. So anyway guys, thanks we want to on behalf of sky and myself we want to thank everyone for listening and supporting our show. As I said earlier, please tell a friend that’s the only thing that you can you need to do to help us continue to grow. And also check out sky Michael’s everything he offers on the on the national stage with with Compass, as well as his 6am ORS podcast and accountability group go to Sky michaels.com link to that in the show notes and also 6am ers which I apologize I forgot the website for that is that 6am or 6am or.com yet and birthday. We’ll have links to that in the show notes. So six the 6am errs.com So anyway, Sky thank you so much and we will see everybody on the next episode. Thank you everyone.