4 Small Hinges that Swing 6 Figure Doors in Real Estate

If you want to be a 6 figure agent (and that could mean 100k or it could mean 900k), I’m going to share 12 secrets that could really shake something loose for you. No strings attached. 

What’s in it for me? 

I’d like to earn your trust. If what I share resonates with you, and you’d like some help getting to 6 figures, instead of trying to do it alone… we could have a confidential conversation to see if we’re a fit. 

SO LET ME TEASE THE 12 SECRETS…

Here’s the list. Then I’ll expand on the first and follow up with the others in the coming posts. 

Secret 1: The 4 small hinges that swing big doors in real estate
Secret 2: A secret niche no one is utilizing
Secret 3: Why most agents struggle in their first 3 years
Secret 4: Becoming the digital mayor
Secret 5: How agents accidentally become order takers
Secret 6: 6 figure agent blueprint
Secret 7: Why mentorship isn’t working
Secret 8: The secret to effective and affordable farming
Secret 9: Taming the chaos of real estate
Secret 10: A better social media strategy (if you value authenticity)
Secret 11: The missed opportunity of a business network
Secret 12: 6 figures… guaranteed (by me) 

SECRET 1: The 4 Small Hinges that Swing 6 Figure Doors in Real Estate

Prepare to be… not shocked, lol. What you’re about to read is both obvious but also rarely mastered. And in a sea of too much information and training, these 4 small hinges get overlooked and discarded. For the agents who DO master them, they swing 6 figure doors.

Hinge #1 - Contacts. 

It’s cliche but real estate IS a contact sport. You can’t sit in lotus pose and make 6 figures (or if you do, you don’t even need to be in real estate because you’re so in tune with the Universe you can manifest millions where you are). 

But what makes outbound contacts effective so you can find leads? 

In a word: Being Human (wait, that’s two words)

You don’t have to lace every conversation with “I’m a Realtor” or “Do you want to buy, sell or invest in real estate?” Real Estate is something everyone is curious about. It WILL come up in conversation. But you don’t have to force it. So just get in conversation with people. 

“But how do I just get in conversation with people, Chris?”

I’m not one to stand in front of Costco and pass out my business card or talk to the person in line at the grocery store. I find it easier to talk about the things I’m passionate about and find those who also want to talk about THAT. 

I’ll give you an example. 

Maybe you like dogs. You could talk about dogs everyday (if it’s not dogs for you, work with me here… what is it for you? What could you talk about every day and not get tired of??) Did you know that there are others who like to talk about dogs? They could talk about dogs every day. If you go real deep into this niche you’ll find that some dog lovers buy clothes for their dogs, feed them special diets and pamper them like family. It’s up to you how far down this niche you go, but there is a connection here that both of you (all of you) want to talk about. And the good news is, dogs lovers eventually needs to buy or sell real estate. So start with the connection that’s easy for you to make and then let real estate come up. 

I’ll give you another example.

I have a heart for helping people. I know of an agent who has a heart for helping Blended Families (families that came together after divorce and created a new family in marriage or partnership). The point of supporting these families is not to get a sale in real estate. It’s to help them navigate the ups and downs of a new normal. But do Blended Families need help in real estate at some point? Yes. It’s a win/win.

Find the thing you can connect with others about, find where they are and make contact with them. At some point real estate will come up. 

This is the subtle of art of making contacts like a Human and it is a small hinge that swings a big door.

Hinge #2 - CRM.

This has been my karmic lesson to learn. As a 6 figure agent, I didn’t use my CRM. I shot from the hip. I was all over the place. I couldn’t sit still long enough to enter the data. I wasn’t a technology guy so I resisted using a CRM (not that I didn’t pay for several of them as I tried to “do what’s right”). The problem was I didn’t have a systematic approach to my business and so my income was up and down. That created way more stress than I cared for. 

I heard early on that “your business is your database”. But I didn’t head that lesson. Don’t let my mistake be your mistake. Your CRM (Contact Relationship Management system) is the engine that drives your revenue and business. 

So how do you use one, especially if we’re not “techy”?

I had the privilege of seeing how this was done when agents didn’t have computers. Ha! I saw Gary Keller, founder of Keller Williams, show how he did his CRM when he first got into real estate with a recipe card file box. I went out and bought myself exactly what he used and replicated it just so I could understand it (I did this in 2003; he did it in the late 70’s, I think). 

I’ll spare you all the details of the recipe card file box. But bottom line was that you had your people’s contact information on a card. You knew their phone, email (nowawdays), mailing address and any notes about them, like their family, work, birthdays, etc. It was a record of their contact information on an index card. 

But the system didn’t stop there. You had a follow up plan on another card that told you the schedule of “touches” you’d make with them over the course of the year, so that you didn’t have to think about what to do or say next with them. That card/plan lived in your recipe card file box as well. 

Finally, you had days and months tabs in your card box and you would move their contact card to the next date out in the future based on when the follow up campaign card said the next touch was. So imagine you are running this system, making contacts DIRECTED BY your CRM (recipe card file box) and you show up to work on a Monday 6 months later… you don’t wonder “What should I do today? Who should I contact?” No. You open your CRM (card file box) and you see behind the tab marked Today, that you have 25 contacts to make to different people in your CRM (card file box) based on what touch they’re on from the campaign card in your CRM.

Did this translate? 

There’s something I really loved about the hard copy file box system that made it real (even though I didn’t use it… don’t judge me). Technology can become a black hole. Contacts (your people) can get lost in there. 

So the secret to an effective CRM that makes you money is that it always tells you the next touch to make with the people in your database. 

If you just stay in front of them (or as Larry Kendall from Ninja Selling says, “stay in flow with them”), you’ll position yourself to help them in real estate when the time is right. 

This is the magic, and secret, of a CRM. 

Hinge #3 - Conversations.

I did, however, learn early on that what you say and how you say it matters… a lot. The conversations we have in our lead generation, our buyer consultations and seller consultations will effect the quality of the transaction and how people relate to us (do they want to refer us in the future or not). 

The industry often calls these “scripts”. Many agents don’t like the idea of a script. They say it doesn’t feel like them. It feels canned. And I get that. So let’s just call it a “conversation”. 

But the conversations you have matter, and it matters how you have them. So we better get good at them BEFORE we meet with clients, so we can provide the best experience for them. 

My daughter and I like to bake chocolate chip cookies. Hers are amazing. And everytime we follow the recipe. A recipe is simply a script. It helps us produce a consistent result in the cookies. Every now and then we’ll experiment with ingredients to see if the change we make creates a better cookie. But it’s always the same base. You want this “base” to operate from when consulting and advising buyers and sellers. These conversations are small hinges that swing big doors. 

There are too many important Conversations I’ve learned over the years to put them all in this blog post. I share them in my 6 Figure Agent coaching program (wink). But let me share a couple Swiss Army Knife conversations that were game changers for me (and agents I coached over the years)...

6 Consulting Questions

“What’s Important to you about _______?”
“What exactly do you mean by ______?”
“What do you get when you have _____?”
“What does that do for you?”
“How does that make you feel?”
“Why do you suppose that is?”

And extra credit… “Tell me more.”

Now, I won’t go into a long role play here in this post, but these questions are magical because they draw out of your client what’s under the surface of their first answer. 

One of the biggest challenges we have to our reputation in our industry stems from communication. A lot of assumptions are being made based on the first pass of what people say when you start to work with them. 

The secret to more referrals and satisfied clients is having them feel understood and you being so clear what they’re trying to accomplish that you can create solutions to the real problems (or the real dreams) they have. 

It’s never about bedrooms and bathrooms. It’s about what those do for them (that’s one of the questions above, so ask them). It’s about how the space makes them feel. Just because they say they want a big kitchen, doesn’t mean they actually want to buy a big kitchen. What exactly does a “big kitchen” mean anyway? (Again, that’s one of the questions above). 

What you’ll find, when you ask these questions, is what really matters to your client. It will shape how you search for homes or how you market their property. At the end of the day, we live in a world where most people don’t really listen. And they sure as heck don’t dig deeper and ask more questions. 

If you want to swing big doors, you’ll master these 6 questions. 

8 Lead Generating Questions

I’ll give you one more “Conversation” to use with people you meet which can generate a lead on the spot. These 8 questions create a conversation. You have to master these questions in order for you to move through them conversationally, not robotically. So learn them. Practice them. Use them. And over time you’ll get great at them… and they’ll generate leads for you (if you use them). 

1. Where do you live? 
2. How long have you lived there? 
3. Where do you live now? 
4. Why did you move? 
5. What do you like about where you live? 
6. What don’t you like about where you live? 
7. If you could live anywhere in the area, where would you live? 
8. That sounds amazing. Why haven’t you made that move yet? 

As with any Conversation (script), you should feel free to massage it in a way that fits the conversation you’re actually having. For example, if you get to question 8 and the way it’s worded here doesn’t quite fit, find another way to ask the same thing. 

I have more “Conversations” committed to memory and mastery than I can count. And these conversations have given me a confident foundation to consult from over the last 20+ years in business. The conversations you master are small hinges that swing big doors and you’d be a fool to shoot from the hip in this business. So find the conversations that resonate with you and commit them to memory, then mastery. 

Hinge #4 - Context.

You could also call this mindset (but I needed a “C” for all my Hinges). This business will spin your head around. Your ability to reframe your mindset at any moment and create an empowering Context is critical to your focus, your mood and your motivation. 

It’s important that when things feel upside down, you know how to orient yourself and generate an empowering context to operate from. Too many agents get stuck in “stinkin’ thinkin’” and eventually leave the business. If they had only found an empowering context (and a good coach/mentor… wink), they could have made it to 6 figures. 

So let me share with you some of the secrets I’ve applied over the years to reframe my mindset so that I show up in my power rather than shrink in my doubt. 

“Strengths”

Early on in my real estate career I learned about the DISC profile, a behavioral assessment that gives insights to the ways we’re wired behaviorally. It helped me see my strengths (and weaknesses). I noticed that when I operate in my strengths I have a stronger context, or mindset, about what I’m doing. This is a cheat code for you. If you can build your real estate business from your strengths you will have a stronger context to operate your business from. 

It was around 2007 when I heard Marcus Buckingham say “a strength is something that when you do it, it leaves you feeling strong.” I like that. My context of the world and my work when I feel strong is much more empowering than when I feel small and weak (and there may be times in this business when you feel small and weak). So the trick is to reframe those situations by getting into your strengths. Bring your strengths to all the situations, conversations and unfoldings… and you will have generated an empowering context. 

“A big goal that gives me a strategic plan”

I heard Gary Keller once say, “I’ve never hit a goal I set. I set a big goal SO THAT I can get a big plan. Then I focus all my attention on the plan” (at least that’s how I remember it). I love that. 

For quite a while in my real estate career I set big goals because that was the trendy thing to do. All they cool kids were doing it. But the context, or mindset, I had from setting a big goal and only my enthusiasm to try to accomplish it created stress. My context for big goals, without a plan, was stress. Maybe you can relate. 

When you set big goals and work them back to a strategic plan, you create a mindset that’s focused on implementation, not rah rah. Big goals and strategic plans helped me feel clearer about where I was going and how I wanted to get there. 

When you feel clear, your context is empowering. When you don’t feel clear, your context is confusion. So dream a big goal that matters to you so that you can find the strategic plan to get there, and then focus all your attention on implementing that plan.  

“Throwing my hat over the wall”

Another way I’ve found to create an empowering context is to “throw my hat over the wall”. I love this imagery for some reason. On purpose, I throw my hat over a wall, SO THAT I have to then actually go get my hat. Haha. Too funny. But so effective. 

For me, throwing my hat over the wall involves taking my big goal and strategic plan and putting it into the world in a way that I can’t back out. This could be creating a class and announcing it to the world by inviting people to it. Now I have to create that class material. Or when I decided to build the 6 Figure Agent program and moved my life to Las Vegas to do it (that’s an extreme example, but totally effective). 

The context, or mindset, that gets created when I “throw my hat over the wall” is one where “I have to figure this out. I will make this happen.” It puts me in my power. I have no other choice. 

I see agents go to class after class. They never create a plan from a big goal and they don’t throw their hat over the wall in a way that causes them to have to figure out how to move forward in their business. 

Some small examples of throwing your hat over the wall in real estate might be… 

Ask agents in the office if they have a listing to can hold open on the weekend. If they say yes, you now have to do it or risk looking like a flake who let them down. 

Maybe you like the idea of parties and events as a way to grow your business. Pick a date and invite everyone you know. Now you have to do it because they’re rearranging their life to show up for it. You don’t even have to have all the details figured out for your event to make the invitation. Just a date and the invite. That’s the part about throwing your hat over the wall… Now you have to figure out how to do it AND DO IT. Same with an event. Now that you’ve invited people, you have to put together your event.

*Disclaimer… I’m not suggesting you throw your hat over walls you don’t want to throw them over. Nobody made me create the 6 Figure Agent program. That was my vision. My desire. I wanted to build that. You may not want to do open houses. Maybe you want to do a geographic farm. Or build your business through social media. Or specialize in luxury. Throwing your hat over the wall is about finding ways to put yourself in a context of ACTION around something you desire. 

There are more ways to create context for yourself than these (obviously). I’m sure you already have some that you’ve used over the years to move your life forward. The trick is to bring them forward, on purpose, so that you can continue to operate from an empowering context, on purpose. 

Wrapping Up

There are a million things to learn in this industry. Always another class to take. Your ability to focus your time, money and energy on the small hinges that swing big doors will make a huge impact on how your business grows. This is a simple business when you do the right things. With the right small hinges, you can swing 6 figure doors.