The other day my fiance asked me about my facial hair.

“Do you like having a beard?”

Katherine asked it in that kind of judging way… like, “when are you going to shave that stuff off your face?”

My response, “No… I don’t like having a beard.”

“Why do you have it then?” she asked.

I answered her back, “Because I hate shaving.”

As much as I dislike my beard, I dislike shaving even more.

In my opinion, shaving is a tedious, annoying process. So I avoid shaving whenever I can. (I know this is pretty funny to hear from a guy that shaved his head for the last 3 years.)

Since I have not had to make a public appearance in a couple weeks, I’ve been able to avoid shaving for awhile.

My facial hair is starting to look fairly grizzled.

It looks like I might be applying for the reality TV show, Duck Dynasty. Or playing guitar for ZZ Top.

I have not shaved or trimmed my facial hair in about 2 weeks.

My lack of shaving has given me a result that I don’t care for.
______________

Activity = Results

Or absence of activity brings results. Is it the result you desire though?

Watch… it is really this simple…

The activity that you do, brings you the results that you are getting.

Or….

The activity that you don’t do, brings you the results that you are getting or NOT getting.

For example…

You are not making recruiting contacts every day = NOT having consistent, predictable appointments or new hires in your brokerage.

You are not creating and operating from systems = duplicating work, effort and time.

My not shaving every day = having a beard.

OR… another way to look at it… NOT having a smooth, clean shaven face.

There is no big mystery. There is nothing magical going on here.

You either do the activity that brings a result or you don’t.

Me… I’m going to continue to avoid shaving for a few more days.

You… Can you afford to keep avoiding whatever it is you are avoiding?

Stay Productive | Keep Focused | Be Consistent
– Darin Persinger

P.S. >> If you serious about doing the right activities and doing them consistently…

You should check out The Socialcruiting Blueprint or schedule a 1-time GAP Coaching Call with me.

Both are fairly expensive investments… But you know what else is expensive?

Avoiding the RIGHT activities that you should be doing in your business is REALLY expensive!

CLICK HERE For The Socialcruiting Blueprint…

Or… Hit Reply and tell me you are interesteding in 1-time GAP Coaching Call… I’ll email you back the details, so you can decide if it is right for you.

Well, I am a big fan of the movie 300.

The commitment that the Spartans showed is probably difficult for most of us to understand.
The culture that they built of warriors ain’t exactly the culture we live in today.

A scene that really sticks out to me is when King Leonidas, of the Spartans runs into a group of Greeks.

Daxos, the person leading the Greeks seems frustrated that King Leonidas only has a few hundred soldiers and they are about to enter into this epic battle with the Persians.

Daxos is focused on the quantity. He is bummed that Leonidas only has 300 soldiers with him.

King Leonidas then starts to ask the Greeks what their profession is.

Daxos: I see I was wrong to expect Sparta’s commitment to at least match our own.
King Leonidas: Doesn’t it? You there, what is your profession?
Greek-Potter: I am a potter… sir.
Leonidas: And you, Arcadian, what is your profession?
Greek-Sculptor: Sculptor, sir.
Leonidas: Sculptor. You?
Greek-Blacksmith: Blacksmith.
King Leonidas: [turns back shouting] Spartans! What is your profession?
Spartans: WAR! WAR! WAR!
King Leonidas: [turning to Daxos] You see, old friend? I brought more soldiers than you did.

King Leonidas is focused on the quality.

What Are You Focused On?

Maybe its working on a project, a task or a profession…there is something to be said about having singular focus.
Are you multi-tasking through out the day?
Are you really not that committed to your recruiting Realtors?

Do you have one foot out the door or are you straddling the fence?

I’ve done a Productivity Nugget before on why agents should STOP selling real estate.

If real estate sales is not your passion, if you can’t get excited about finding people that want to buy and sell real estate, you should probably do something else.

I’ll say the same to you… if you are not passionate about recruiting Realtors maybe you should do something else?

Now, I’m not saying this because I’m a real estate snob or because I want to raise the bar or anything like that. I want honestly want you to be happy and succeed.

In the movie the 300, the Greeks looked confident going into the battle. But the sculptor, blacksmith, and potter did not seem that excited about the war. It wasn’t their profession.

See, the Spartans were warriors though. It was their profession. They had singular focus.

What is your profession? Your role? What is your singular focus?

Stop being distracted, sidetracked. Stop wearing so many hats.
Go get excited about what  you absolutely should be doing.

Inspire | Lead | Serve | Succeed
– Darin Persinger

P.S. > If you want to get singular focus like the 300 Spartans, on recruiting… check out the Socialcruiting Blueprint.

I didn’t just create it, I use it to get my own clients.

CLICK HERE to get started

We talk about Marketing and Productivity.

Wassup Weekend Email Reader (my favorite email reader of course)…

You should take a listen to the show… make your marketing/recruiting more effective, increase productivity and get some ideas that you can share with recruits… you know the Advanced Value Technique? Don’t know what the Advanced Value Technique is…Check out out The Blueprint

Don’t forget, these shows are in iTunes. So you can listen on your iPhone, iPod, iPad, iTouch, mobile device, etc.

If you like to listen that way, go to iTunes, do a search for Marketing and Productivity, look for a big green M.

—— Episode 7 —— 

http://marketingandproductivityradio.com/episode-7-creepy-referral-marketing/

In this show we talk about…

• Creepy referral marketing that gets you leads from Facebook
• How to increase your IQ
• Who wins in a fight: Facevook vs Email marketing
• What Joe Stumpf says about consistency
• Why you should be more like 50 Cent
• A secret way to get more mileage from your content
• Why you should create more content and skip social media

http://marketingandproductivityradio.com/episode-7-creepy-referral-marketing/

——- Episode 8 ——-

This is the newest show, this weeks show…

We get really silly in this one… but we have serious discussions about the “future”, creating the world you want to live in, distractions, mindset and money…

I even explain the problem of “Thinking Big”.

Take a listen below….

http://marketingandproductivityradio.com/episode-8-developing-the-millionaire-mindset/

Inspire | Lead | Serve | Succeed
– Darin “Just Call Me Beaker” Persinger

P.S. >> Did you leave a review on ITunes?
I’d appreciate that if you did.

You are standing across the room. You lock eyes and connect.

How do you go from the first glance… to a conversation… to a first kiss?

Perhaps no different than you would with a recuit for your real estate brokerage.

You get your recruits attention… but now you have to keep it.

You can’t let them ignore you or worse… be bored by you.

This simple, underrated, overlooked piece of copywriting advice gets your landing pages to convert… recruits to respond and react to your recruiting emails… and your sales letters to bring you loads of customers.

Maybe you’ve heard how important your “Headline” or “Subject Line” is?

There is no lie in that, but don’t over look this key element.

Are you wondering what it is?

I’ll give you a hint. Can you guess what these all have in common?

“Call me Ishmael.”
—Herman Melville, Moby-Dick

“I am an invisible man.”
—Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

“All this happened, more or less.”
—Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

“In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.
—F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

“Tyler gets me a job as a waiter, after that Tyler’s pushing a gun in my mouth and saying, the first step to eternal life is you have to die.”
- Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”
- Charles Dickens, A Tale Of Two Cities

Did you figure it out?

Don’t Underestimate Your First Sentence

Of course the headline is important. We’ve established that.

But the job of the headline is to get recuits to read the first sentence… and the job of first sentence is to get people to continue reading.

You are fighting for the recruits attention… the few spare moments of precious time they have… AND… you have to keep it.

Don’t get lazy after coming up with kick gut headline.

Just like the opening lines above… it’s not the first thing people see. A reader saw the cover, read the title. But now the author needed to grab your throat, draw you in to their world and make you care.

Let’s look at these opening lines and investigate why they are so compelling…

“Call me Ishmael.”

Who is Ishmael? Why does he need to call? Who is asking Ishmael to call?

“I am an invisible man.”

Huh? Who is this invisible man? Are they really invisible or do they just feel that way?

“All this happened, more or less.”

What happened? What does that mean, more or less? Is this true or made up?

“In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.”

What advice is that?

“Tyler gets me a job as a waiter, after that Tyler’s pushing a gun in my mouth and saying, the first step to eternal life is you have to die.”

Who is Tyler? Who is telling this story? Why is there a gun in his mouth? Is he going to be killed? Is he going to survive?

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”

A run on sentence, if I ever read one. But damn, what a good line. Paints me a picture of where I’m about to go.

These lines are compelling. They make you want more. They suck you in. They grab you by the throat.

You’re in love and know you want to know more.

That’s why the first sentence on your landing page, or in your email, or in your sales letter can not be overlooked.

Great copywriting is like great storytelling.

The first sentence matters.

Don’t overlook it. Don’t underestimate it.

This was a question one of my 1 to 1 clients got from 3 real estate agents this week.

My client and I work on more than just recruiting together. I work with her on marketing, internet, productivity, agent training, etc.

Maybe we need to focus a bit more on the recruiting… and you can learn from our conversation this week.

Here is what my client told me what happened…. (has this ever happened to you?)

First, the agents asked that question…

“Will you give us a higher commission split?”

Next, they called her up and told my client they are going some place else. “They have a better deal for us.”

By the way, what they mean by “a better deal” is they found something cheaper… not better.

• They didn’t find a brokerage that will give them more leads.
• They didn’t find a brokerage that will help them get more focused.
• They didn’t find a brokerage that will help them with their online presence.
• They didn’t find a brokerage that will help them make more money.

The found a cheaper deal. Plan and simple.

I asked my client, “Did you take the lead? Did you tell them how the conversation was going to go? Did you ask them about where they want to go and where they are now?”

Her response was, “Kinda… I told them the vision of my brokerage and then asked what questions they had.”

Here is what I told her next and write this down and read it every day and design your entire recruiting process around this…

“In the absence of YOU being the clear leader in the conversation, they will default to asking really bad questions.”

This isn’t just for recruiting… this is for listing a home… selling a home… or anything.

In the absence of a Realtor being the clear leader in a conversation with a seller, they will ask bad questions like, “Will you lower your commission?”

In the absence of Dentist being the clear leader in a conversation… will could you imagine?

You gotta be the leader.

My client and I got that clear and settled.  Next week, my client and I are going to be focused on what that “Recruiting Conversation” looks like and how to make her the clear leader, while having the focus still be on the recruit.

Remember… “In the absence of YOU being the clear leader in the conversation, they will default to asking really bad questions.”

If you are getting really bad questions… you probably aren’t being the clear leader.

Inspire | Lead | Serve | Succeed
– Darin Persinger

P.S. >> If you at a loss on how to have an effective recruiting conversation and be the clear leader, no shame… Took me about 50 real life recruiting conversations to get “ok” at it and then another 100 to become the real leader and effective at it.

If you want to speed up the process of having effective recruiting conversations start working with me 1 to 1…

Although, I ONLY have room for 1 more client at this time… so be serious and don’t hesitate CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

PS #2 >> If you are not having a problem with your recruiting conversations because you are not having any (or enough) Recruiting Appointments CLICK HERE

Oh my!!!

Gamechanger?

I no thinky…

If you don’t have an open mind… if you think life begins and ends on facebook… that Mark Zuckerberg is the second coming… if you would rather trust your gut vs looking at facts and figures… you can stop reading this email. You will not likey what I gots to share.

However, if you are committed to recruiting more realtors and are more focused on achieving your goals vs the tactics or tools you use… boy oh boy, you are gonna love the goodies I got for ya today.

Let’s Get Ready To Ruuumblllllllllllllllllllllle…

If You Are Going Into A Streetfight… Who Do You Want On Your Side: Email Marketing or Facebook Pages?

You’d think with all the hype about facebook pages changing to timeline format lately, that this is somehow going to save your business.

Like somehow getting the right cover photo on your timeline is the  ”magic bullet” to recruiting more realtors.

Luckily, I know because you are on my email list and you are still reading this email, you are too smart to fall for the tricks and hype like that… but lets go deeper in to some numbers and facts.

Facebook Pages

Allfacebook.com reports that only…. listen carefully… come closer…. that only 3% to 7.5% of your Likers even see your Page’s posts. YIKERS!!!

The data was collected and compiled from PageLever.

Email Marketing 

On average… you are going to get a 15-20% open rate on your emails *BAM*

I myself get just under a 25% open rate on every email *POW*

Nielsen data finds that 41.6% of U.S. mobile use time is spent on email vs that of social media, which only makes up 10% of users’ time on the mobile Web. *KAPOW*

It seems pretty obvious to me who won this street fight… so, why do people insist on pushing facebook pages so aggressively?

I don’t know… why do people play slot machines… why do people watch Ben Affleck movies… why do people drink diet coke while eating a bag of potato chips… why do people complain about $4.00 a gallon gas but pay $4.25 for 16 ounces of Starbucks coffee…

The point… people do things and say things that don’t make sense.

You have to sort that out. And I know you can and I know you will. Because you are a smart, savvy business owner that wants to recruiting more realtors.

Now… I know for a fact that setting up Email Marketing is not easy for many people.

• Picking the provider
• Selecting a template
• Knowing what to send
• Finding time to create the content
• Guessing at how often to send

I do think setting up a Facebook Page is miles easier than Email Marketing and that’s why it’s pushed so hard…

But I know you know, that what is easy doesn’t matter. You care about results. And the proof is in the pudding, Email Marketing brings the results like thunder brings the rain.

2 Easy Ways To Get Started With Email Marketing 

1. Happy Grasshopper

Happy Grasshopper makes email marketing super easy for you…

It creates the content and sends it out for you every 3 weeks.

Plus, they track their data and they get a 29.34% open rate. *Round house Chuck Norris kick to the Facebook Pages face*

CLICK HERE To check out Happy Grasshopper 

2. RE Messenger 

RE Messenger comes from Inman News… you basically get to license their content, from their professional writers and journalists, for a ridiculous low cost.

You just click and drag the content you want and *ZOK* their is your kick gut newsletter.

CLICK HERE To check out RE Messenger

In the future there might be a 3rd option… Someone got me on the phone earlier this week and asked if I would write their follow up sequence for them… I started to balk… They said they would pay me lotsa money…. I still balked, but I’m now thinking about it.

I don’t know if I want to spend my time writing emails, autoresponders, landing pages, sales letters, news letters for other people.

If I get enough people interested and the money in exchange for my time and writing prowess that creates sales, makes sense… I might move forward.

The fact of the matter is… Happy Grasshopper or RE Messenger are going to be WAY more affordable options for you vs hiring me. So you should probably start there.

Inspire | Lead | Serve | Succeed
– Darin “Happy Recruiting” Persinger

P.S. >> You might be thinking….

“Wait up a minute here Darin! I thought you were the Social Media Recruiter guy, why you dissing Facebook?”

Fair question my Recruiter friend.

Principle #1 in Socialcruiting is actually all about EMAIL.

That should let you know where I stand with email. The very first principle of social media recruiting revolves around how to use email effectively.

Make sure you pick up the Recruiting Real Estate Agents With Socialcruiting to get the low down on using email effectively in your recruiting… CLICK HERE 

When I asked on a facebook page the other day, “Who is your personal finance guru of choice?”, Dave Ramsey won hands down.

It got me to thinking about what if Dave Ramsey was a Real Estate Recruiter.

I bet he is already a pretty focused, productive guy with writing books, doing radio shows, personal appearances and all that jazz…

What I was thinking about is, what kind of advice he would give about real estate recruiting?

My big take away about money from Dave Ramsey is he says, “You must pay yourself first.”

What does “pay yourself first” mean?

It’s the idea of saving for the future by putting money aside before paying regular monthly bills.

If you want some money for a rainy day or for your retirement savings, it should come first in the budget or you might not get around to it.

Well, if you know anything about me, you know that I view time as more precious than money.

So what if you took Dave Ramsey’s concept of money and savings, of “paying yourself first”, and did that with time.

Are you paying yourself first with your time?

When you wake up in the morning, what is the first thing you do?

Do you check email, facebook or twitter?

When you walk into the office in the morning, what is the first thing you do?

Do you chit chat, check email, check facebook or twitter once again?

It’s incredibly difficult to be an effective recruiter, to move your business forward, and to grow your profit margin, if you are always reacting to other people’s demands, to-do’s, information, etc.

You must pay yourself first.

The first thing I do when I wake up is grab my phone and start writing content for emails, or blogs, or courses.

I pay myself first.

My day gets incredibly hectic and chaotic and I don’t always get everything done I want or perhaps should.

SO, it is essential that I pay myself first. By starting to write this daily email or one of my other content pieces first thing, it makes it a bit easier to finish it.

I never finish the email in bed, but I get it started.

I then walk out to the kitchen to grab a cup of coffee and to do some reading.

I never read blogs or Zite in morning. Too distracting.

I either read from a book/kindle or the daily email lists that I’m signed up on.

I don’t look at new leads, client questions, or other emails.

I pay myself first.

I don’t check facebook or twitter.

I pay myself first.

As my day gets rolling, I usually have two client calls before I come back and finish the emails.

And then I usually have another client call shortly after I push send.

If I didn’t pay myself first, if I didn’t control my time, my schedule, the influx of information that is waiting for me, I’d never get to send this information out.

And this information is my lead generation, my lead conversion and my lead nurturing.

It’s vital to my business that I pay myself first.

I think if Dave Ramsey was a Real Estate Recruiter he’d do and say the same thing.

Time is precious. Pay yourself first.

If you struggle with the idea “paying yourself first” with time….

Check out my Impactful To – Do List.

To make your recruiting super impactful, make sure you are doing the right activities too… I share that in my Recruiting Blueprint - CLICK HERE TO SEE WHAT YOU GET

Stay Productive | Keep Focused | Be Consistent
– Darin Persinger

P.S. >> I use the Impactful To – Do List every day.

I don’t get everything done, but I get done the things that make a true impact in my business and my world.

CLICK HERE TO CHECK IT OUT

I sometimes even hear Recruiters and Brokers say silly things… but I’m sure that’s not you.

Only really smart people read this blog.

Have you ever heard an agent complaining that they have the problem of too many leads?

There is no such problem.

It doesn’t exist. Just like Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny or a good Ben Affleck movie.

After an event that I spoke at the other week, my father was relaying to me a conversation he had with an agent…

“How’s business?” my father asked.

“I have too many leads right now. I have more leads than I can handle. The last thing I need is more leads!” was her response.

“Oh… fantastic… so how’s that working out for you?” my dad followed up with.

“Well, nothing is closing. Buyers aren’t writing offers. People aren’t calling me back.”

“So do you want some help with that?”

“No… that last thing I need is more leads. I’m already too busy.”

So there you have it!

Luckily this conversation was not with me… I’m not sure what I would have said or hopefully I would have just said nothing, turned and walked away.

She is too busy to make money and close transactions.

The problem is, I hear this a crazy amount of times per week, just with variations on the language.

I don’t know if people are…. how do I find kind words… delusional or just misguided.

If you are not making a professional level of profit, there is something wrong in your business. Period.

As I’ve said in the past,

“You should be generating more leads than you can handle. If you can create this problem in your business… If you can create the problem of more leads than you can handle, you will have a lot less problems in your business.”

At no point and time, should you ever step on the brake, shut down the funnel, turn off the machine… whatever other metaphor we can come up with here… of lead generation.

The “I have too many leads lady” only had the Lead Generation Area business working… and guess what she wanted to do with it?

She wanted to shut it down!

YIKERS!!!

When you hear agents talking like this you have to get them to understand…

They should never shut down the lead generation, marketing segment of their business, ever. Never. Ever. Never. Ever. Ever.

There is no such thing as a “Too Many Leads” problem.

Explain to them…

“When you starting thinking like that, talking like that… the universe will listen and stop sending you leads.

You might have a “I have too many unmotivated leads” problem.

You might have a “I don’t know how to convert all these leads” problem.

You might have a “I have too many leads that don’t qualify for a mortgage” problem.

You might have a “All my leads are mean and grumpy and I hate working with them” problem.

You might have a “None of my leads listen to my advice and wisdom” problem.

You might have a “All my leads want me to show them a home at the drop of hat” problem.

You might have a “All my leads are completely unrealistic about the value of a home” problem.

You might have “My systems and time management skills suck and I can’t manage all my leads” problem.

But I promise you… there is no such thing as a ” I have too many leads” problem.”

That might be too intense… or perhaps not.

What are you going to say to your agent or a recruit when they say “I have too many leads”, so they don’t need your help, training, coaching or a recruiting conversation with you?

By the way…

Have you got your paws on the “How To Recruit Real Estate Agents Using Social Media Blueprint yet?

CLICK HERE TO GET IT

Inspire | Lead | Serve | Succeed
– Darin Persinger

I was standing in line at the grocery store the other week…while waiting… I was looking at the magazine covers.

Lately I’ve been really studying the cover of these magazines for headline ideas. If those writers can write a compelling enough headline to make some one shell out $3.99 while just standing in line, maybe you and I can learn something from that.

I mean… you are just trying to get real estate agents to read your blog posts…. and open your emails.

A real estate recruit gets to consume your content for free, right?

They don’t have to pay $3.99 to open your email or read your blog do they?

So I’m standing there and something caught my eye (I got a picture of this and will post on the blog sometime this week).

2 of the magazines had the exact some headline formula.

Must be something to this, right? Here are the headlines…

The “O” magazine had the headline “The New Rules For Healthy Living”

“InStyle” magazine had the headline “The New Rules For Figure Flattery”

And that’s why I dropped that headline of “The New Rules Of Real Estate Recruiting” on ya…

I wanted to see if it worked. If it did… if the subject line peaked your curiosity… take a look at how you can implement this headline in your business…

I’m about to give you some copy-writing headlines here… and I would normally be charging $250 an hour for stuff like this… but here some ideas to get you started.

• The New Rules For Getting Listings From Homeowners That Aren’t Underwater
• The New Rules For Selling Your Listing In Today’s Market
• The New Rules For Finding Buyers Online
• The New Rules For Getting More Referrals From Your Sphere
• The New Rules For Blogging and Email

These seem like a good start for ya… Use them… tweak them… create your own… or ignore it completely. It’s up to you.

There’s a lot of opportunity to “recruit some productive agents” right now, no matter what people say about the economy.

The opportunity of increasing sales and increasing profits starts with making your recruiting more effective.

Here’s how to get more info about recruiting… Socialcruiting Blueprint

Inspire | Lead | Serve | Succeed
– Darin “The New Rules” Persinger

We started talking about how much Goldie and her daughter, also an actor, Kate Hudson look alike.

Especially in this movie, as Goldie is probably the same age in that movie as Kate is now.

With all the remake movies lately, I thought it would be interesting if they remade Overboard and had Kate Hudson play the same character as her mother played.

Which brought up the next question….

Who would play the Kurt Russell character?

Katherine and I started naming actors, but couldn’t pinpoint the exact right person who could pull off that role.

Kurt Russell’s character is very blue collar. Rugged. A real man’s man.

Who could pull that off today?

We could not come up with anyone.

Because all the male actors today are just too “pretty”.

Kurt Russell, and I feel comfortable saying this, is not a bad looking guy. He is a good looking guy. But he’s not a pretty boy.

So, who could pull off a good looking, man’s man, blue collar, bib overall wearing, toolbelt carrying, character today?

We could not come up with an answer.

All the actors are just too pretty.

It reminds of some of the marketing and business development practices today.

Everything is so tech based, so shiny, so glossy, so pretty.

Where are the Blue Collar Recruiting strategies and tactics?

Are they a thing of the past?

I don’t think so.

Kurt Russell is a great actor and has played great roles.

Overboard is a great movie.

Ol’ School, Blue Collar Recruiting still has a place in this world. Socialcruiting blends old school proven recruiting methods… amplified with new school technology, tactics and tools.

Like for example, Principle #4 of Socialcruiting is all about taking it offline… going ol’ school, blue collar with it.

If you think this could work for you check out Socialcruiting Blueprint….

Learn how to make your realtor recruiting more effective…

Be more like Kurt Russell, less like Ryan Gosling…

CLICK HERE FOR SOCIALCRUITING BLUEPRINT

Inspire | Lead | Serve | Succeed
– Darin Persinger