It’s time to learn how to start, grow, clean out and “touch” your database! We dive deep into the systems that we failed with and what is working for us now. Sometimes the simplest solutions are the easiest and we give you the down low on why we both ended up using a simple excel spreadsheet. We are sharing that very spreadsheet with all of you when you visit hustlehumblypodcast.com/database. We discuss how important it is to have a database and why using it will be the most successful, fun and safe way to grow and sustain your business.

The following is a rough transcript provided by Otter.ai.

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Hi, y’all welcome to hustle humbly. It’s Alyssa and Katie and we are two top producing realtors in the Baton Rouge market. We

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work for two different companies where we should be competitors. But we have chosen community over competition. The goal of our podcasts is to encourage you to find your own way in business. So stop comparing yourself and start embracing your strengths.

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This is episode nine of hustle humbly Podcast, episode nine. Yep, very exciting. And today, we’re talking all about how we work our database, what we use, what systems we have in place, what systems we don’t have in place. What works, what doesn’t work. Yep. And we have a lot of good content. Well, working your database is so fun, it is fun. It’s the funnest part of our job. And I feel like so many people aren’t doing it properly. Or they don’t do it at all. Yeah, be honest. That standard, they’re not doing it properly, there probably is no right or wrong way to do your database, if you’re actually talking to them. Yes, but so many people aren’t talking to them at all. And that is a problem. That’s when you’re doing it wrong. Yes, that’s when you’re just gonna be working so hard, and you’re not going to reap any of the benefits of your referral system. What you need to Yeah, you have to be in touch with these people. I like when you say you can’t be a secret agent. That is true. Yes. Well, I think that both of us use an Excel spreadsheet. Let’s talk about that for a second. Okay. It’s not a very advanced technologically system, it is the easiest for me, because I like to see it all at once. Yeah. And I feel like having a broad view of who all the people are, what all their you know, emails and phone numbers are and when you know, you last talk to them? Or if you’re gonna have a column that’s Are we friends on Facebook? Oh, which I think is super helpful that it because we’re kind of gonna get into later that a lot of my database, you know, I’m going to talk to them through social media. Sure. So it’s all there in one thing, I’ve tried the systems, I haven’t done top producer, but we know I did. I tried it, how did it go? I said, if there’s a free trial on any of these, I’ve tried it, I have downloaded it. And the reason everything is in an Excel spreadsheet, and this is a good way to start any new agents. When I was a new agent, I did not start off with a good database. Year two, I was like, oh, I should probably have all my people in one place. Yeah, and it was really hard to work backwards. But you have got to have all your people in one place. So the reason it, it became a database is because anytime I wanted to do a free trial, you can just import Okay, and then it’s all there. You don’t you don’t have to spend hours and hours and hours setting up this thing that you want to try out. And then if it doesn’t work out, you just export no harm done. So that spreadsheet is born out of me because you can use it in any system. And then after doing I think I did three or four free trials on CRMs. Is it that CRMs CRM? That’s what they’re oh, gosh, don’t make it. Oh, man. It’s management, customer relationship. Relationship Management. Yeah, I think there you go, um, CRM. So that is where I, that’s why I developed the Excel spreadsheet. So I could do all these free trials easily. But then after so many fails, I was like, I like my spreadsheet. What do you like about it? What I found when I was trying these fancy CRMs is that they would yell at me. You felt like you were inadequate? Because you weren’t doing all the tests? Yes, it was sending me things. And then it was one one of the programs I put that this was a referral from another agent. And it was trying to calculate income and label like it was trying to give me percentages. On my end, I was like, I don’t need a system to do any of this, right? If I labeled it as the wrong thing that set other things into place that I didn’t want, I would log in, and it would have a list of 20 people for me to call that day. You haven’t talked to this person in one month. And I was like, I don’t need to talk to them every month. I think that’s too much. But it didn’t like So overall, I didn’t need all of the bells and whistles. I just needed a place to keep all of my people that I would use when that made my brain feel okay, right and organized. And with Excel. It’s all there. It’s simple. There’s not too much information. We’re removing the overwhelm of it. Yeah, it should be actually a fun activity. Yes. And I think if you have found a database that you like, as long as you’re using as long as you have all your clients in one place, okay, and that you are actually using it. That’s that little thing. They say the best CRM is the one that you’ll use. Yes, but we both have really parted down to just being an Excel spreadsheet. Yes, it’s easiest. So my column is first name, last name, address, city state. Zip source, meaning Who are they? Where did they come from? Okay. And then date of last contact? And how so it might say sent a text in October, okay. Or, but my, my source of it My, how I contacted them last, it doesn’t have to be a big huge thing, right? It can just be something simple. Yes. Can we talk just while you’re on that? So the original, my original introduction to you and the webinar you gave for CRS yeah talked about your spreadsheet yet and how you were touching, we’re going to talk about that, how you were touching your database. And it was interesting, because the how you last contacted column really stuck with me. And like, that’s pretty smart. To remind yourself last I sent a Facebook message. And then next time you said, Well, I wouldn’t go back and do a Facebook message. Again, maybe I’ll send a text message this time, or maybe I’ll send an email, but making some variety and that you can see what they respond to. And I keep it very simple sometimes if I so basically, what I do is I open up my Excel spreadsheet, I tried to do it two or three times a week, I start where I left off. So if you haven’t ever done it before, start at the top, maybe see if you can do everybody whose last name is a right next time, everybody whose last name is B. But you just reach out to them. And it doesn’t have to be something scary. It can be going to their Facebook page and commenting on one of their pictures, right? Something that you pop up in their life, right? It doesn’t have to be an awkward phone call. Are they at work? I don’t know, I’m calling I don’t have anything to say I just want them to remember, I’m a realtor and I need something and and that’s when you that’s when things get awkward and uncomfortable for you and them. Yes. So it doesn’t have to be reaching out to them doesn’t have to be a phone call, depending on the client. So you go through and some of the things I do I rotate is text, email, Facebook message, comment on a picture on their Facebook, in a call, okay, and I just rotate those five things. Okay. Sometimes it takes me four months to get through my Excel database. Sometimes it takes me two months. Okay, so it just kind of depends how quickly you’re growing. How often are you being diligent about opening up your Excel spreadsheet and going through the people. And then by the time you get to the bottom, it’s time to start at the top? How many people are on yours now? You know, there are some people out there that try to have like 1000s and 1000s of people in their database on anti that for myself? No, I think the people who are most successful with actually contacting their database have a smaller Yes, a smaller sphere. So what is yours? I tried to keep it around 500 Okay, that feels big to me, but you work in a large kind of volume. I have listened to I feel like it was Lee Brown, who in her class, she was talking about it and she does a very small ours was like 130 Yeah, and if you aren’t sending work and she’s got a big team and a lot of obvious referrals and a lot of transactions over time. But if you weren’t basically when she contacted you if you weren’t building a relationship, like if you were rebuffing her, yeah, she would take you all the bright someone else on so it was sort of trying to stay under that 150 Because she couldn’t contact them the way she wanted to. With a bigger one. So she had 500 She couldn’t get through what I think the way she wanted to. And that can vary for every every person. While we’re on this, because I keep catching myself. Please tell us y’all before we started, elicit told me that she doesn’t like it particular terminology. And I am now realizing that I use it all the time. So I can’t even talk normally, because I think she’s gonna laugh at me. So please tell us I don’t like when people say touch your database. Tell us why I personally don’t like to be touched. Like don’t touch me. Okay? So I just don’t like when they’re like, You need to be touching people. I’m like, I don’t like that word. It should be communicating. Follow, following. Like, what word do you use? Because I’m trying really hard to get through this without saying so you can use touch just now. I think it’s creepy. Okay, that’s fine. Don’t touch me. Do we talk about who should be touching their clients. If you’re a massage therapist fair or a hairdresser, have to then you have to touch people. esthetician don’t touch base. I don’t like when people say I have a 33 touch system. I’m going to touch you 33 times you didn’t want to be touched once. Right? Okay, but to be fair, everyone, your database and your sphere Do you want to be contacted and contacted you don’t have to reach out and touch them. I like the word contacted. I don’t like the word touch. I like when they describe it as building a relationship though because that’s what you’re doing right? And that takes time. And we’ve harped on this a bit. This is my I obviously have a personal it’s like I’m going to freak people out issue with everybody else. It’s just you for sure. But here we go this so half of our audience is gonna hate this. It’s like the word moist. Like people have a thing with that. Do you see that? Maybe it falls in line with that. I

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don’t know, I just I cannot do unto others what I don’t want done to me. This is so true. So for example, whenever I am reaching out to people and contacting them, I don’t ever want somebody to knock on my door. No, they are Oh, or I am not a door knocker? Right? Makes sense. There are people that enjoy that. I don’t, I can’t. If I would feel awkward having it done to me, I can’t do it to other people. So that’s why I think my approach with staying in touch with my database is very casual, right? Most people some realtors would not consider commenting on somebody’s picture, a contact, but it is to me because it means a lot to them. I’m being genuine about it. My name shows up in their world. Yes. So no one ever says an appropriate content. It doesn’t have to be a formal, no phone call that is just awkward. A big scary phone call never works. Right? Okay. And then the other thing with the 33 touch, or the 15 touch or however many times you want to touch people. We sell real estate, right? I do think you need to be in their mind. You can’t be a secret agent. People need to remember you and think of you. But they do not need to hear from you 33 times a year. No, probably not. No. I mean, it’s just, it’s just overkill. And it’s overwhelming to you. It’s a system that you will set yourself up for failure, because it’s going to feel hard. And it’s going to feel like work and it’s going to feel like it’s taking so much time, right? And God forbid you actually be a busy producing agent, then it’s really going to fall by the wayside. Right. So I’m going to tell you that my favorite way to do the contacting is through social media. If you change your social media mindset to being a participant and not a stalker watcher, onlooker, yeah, it will change your life because all you have to do is go in, you can even on Facebook, take all of your past clients or current clients and put them into a group called clients. And then you can make status post to just that group of people. That’s awesome. It’s very neat. Or you can go hit the feed for just those people. So I can hit my clients feed, and I can just burn down the list and say, your baby is so cute, right? You know, like, I can’t have a good gun, like a picture. Like every like every single picture. It’s awesome. I wish I logged on and did it more. But I just do it as it comes natural. So I go on to my Facebook and instead of inapplicable across the board, other agents family, whoever’s on my Facebook, instead of me just looking at the picture and thinking, Oh, I can’t believe how big their son has gotten or Wow, look. So in so turn 75 type a dang comments, right? It’s not that hard, right? You are already on it. Just say that’s awesome, believe me, it is going to make a difference over time. And it really makes it easier to contact a lot of people at once. Right? And I think if you were trying to say you know you were trying to reach a contact your database 20 times a year to me too much. I’m sorry, let’s let’s let’s just use 33 for easy math because I have this written out perfect. So according to the National Association of Realtors, people buy a house every nine years. Okay, I think that number is getting smaller. I think it’s down to seven, I think seven. However, I use nine because that was on their website. So if you wanted to touch someone 33 times a year or nine years, how many years that you have touched that one person 297 times they probably hate you at this point. That’s a lot. And if you have 500 people in your database, that’s 148,500 contacts. Yo, do you know how much time that would take? You wouldn’t have any time to sell any real estate or sell anything or have any business or do anything besides contact people. If we were in a business like retail, makeup sales, things where people actually you know, hairdressers, yep, things that you do multiple times a year right? Those people do need to stay in front of their clients pretty regular license. However, when you’re selling something as big as a house, you don’t need to stay on top of your clients. No, every No. Who was I talking to? I was talking to a realtor recently about the podcast and I told them we were doing this episode and they were so excited. And he said okay, when I was a new agent, I was following up with my my past client I only had like two right time I was new And the fourth time the guy goes, you call a lot. But they’d already bought a house. Yeah. But he just felt like, Okay, now they’re in my database. And I need to touch them this many times, because I’m following the schedule. It got awkward. It’s awkward. It may just he stopped, which is good. What? Right? So I don’t know if that was positive or negative feedback, but it caused him to stop. Well, he kind of was asked to well, okay, so that’s a great segue into what is your database? How do you what is the origin of it? How do you build it? What if it’s day one on the job? Yes. And you have never sold even to two people you don’t know who’s the database. My database started from my wedding list. That’s perfect. I had an illicit tab and I had a tanner tab. Love it. And I called my mother in law. And I said, I need to sit down with you for lunch. I’m bringing my laptop, we’re gonna go through the tanner tab. And I need you to tell me in detail who these people are. Yeah, they were obviously enough in our life to be invited to the wedding. Love it. So me and her had lunch. And in my source column, I put Tanner’s baseball coach Tanner’s High School driver before he could drive Tanner’s babysitter, well, Tanner’s work partner, his mom’s co worker, so that way I knew where they were from, where they were from, and this was how I started my database. If you are a new agent, I think you need to get an Excel spreadsheet, perfectly filled out with no gaps, no gaps in emails, no gaps in names, and no gap. Name, email and address are really the top three guys. What about phone number? Do you care? I do not put the phone number in the Excel spreadsheet. Well, how do you text them them from my phone? But they’re already in your contacts? Yeah, I mean, if I have their number, there’s no one in your database that you wouldn’t also have in your contacts, right? Got it. So I just think that I’m never gonna say I’m gonna call the person let me go to my Excel spreadsheet, just gonna call them right. It’s just clutter to me for myself. So I have them. I just have my email makes sense. That makes perfect. I don’t think I think I used to have their phone number, but it was just too much to keep up with I never used it. And it just wasn’t it was just cluttered to me. So I deleted that column. Okay. But as a new agent 100 people set a goal, you know, 100 people you do? There is even I think you can Google it. There’s a sheet of who do you know, it’s build your database, go look up, build your database, or something to that effect. And this works for any, any business person who wants to start a business of any type, go to build your app, think I found it before on break through broker has an example there are going to be a million different websites that have an example of how to build a database. But that’s going to list for you things that you might not be thinking about your hairdresser, your dentist, your you know, babysitter, your Who were your teachers from pre K through high school, who were your college professors, all of those people would love to get a letter from you or a Facebook message for you saying, Hey, I haven’t talked to you in so long. I’m actually in real estate. Now. If you know anybody keep me in mind. Yeah, because most people have what hundreds of Facebook friends. Yeah, you can’t find 100 of those that work as your database. Something’s not right. In our office, our broker mails out 250 announcement cards. Wow. Yes. So they make a postcard with your picture. And it says, you know, CJ Brown is so excited to have Alyssa Jenkins as their new realtor. Here’s her contact information. Okay. I think that’s amazing. Yeah, every every agent should do an announcement card when you’re new. Or if you’ve been a realtor for a while and you are now solo, do an announcement card database. Or if you have started a team, do you want an announcement card, anything that you need to announce about your business that your clients need to know, I think an announcement card is a really nice, professional way to do that. Um, so that that sets a good goal. If you’re new, you need all of these people’s contact information, set a goal of 100 Make your way to 250. And just just focus on that we basically collect people we do, and we need to get all the pertinent information so that we can communicate effectively. Okay, this is where I want to talk about cleaning your database, though. Yeah, filling it up. Yes. I also want to give you permission to delete people from your database. If when you look at their name, it sparks some sort of anxiety in you, you don’t want to text them or send them a Facebook message. It’s okay to let them go. If they were a past client and you had an unpleasant transaction and you don’t actually want to work with them again.

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It’s okay to let them go. I am about 150 people in my database. On my past client list, it’s much long or if it were people that I no longer felt comfortable contacting, maybe too much time has passed, maybe we didn’t have a pleasant experience, maybe they, whatever, I wouldn’t say moved out of state, even though I do like kind of take it into account depending on what it is, but I’ve had clients move out of state and then that. So I don’t know that you automatically want to remove those. But if you don’t actually want to contact them, take them off. I think it’s better to have 80 people in your database that you actually want to contact Yes, then 300 people and you don’t want to talk to half of them. You do not need to be everybody’s realtor. No, I have had closings where after closing, I said, this person is not going in my database, the way that they treated and spoke to me throughout this transaction. If they call me again, for to listen to their house, I would say I don’t think that we worked well together in our last transaction. And I think that you will be better served by using another realtor. I think that’s okay, we have to give ourselves that permission. And I think the problem is when you’re new, you get into the mindset of, I’m hungry, I need to do everything and take anything and then it just sticks with you. And you’re five years down the road, and you don’t even stop and realize I don’t have to take them all like right, I will still be okay, if I don’t waste my energy on this person who was sucking up all my time who wasn’t kind to me who was not good to work with, I might end up with two or three additional clients that I now have time for, right. And when you’re operate when you’re working with people that appreciate you and that love you, the referrals are usually of similar quality. And if you’re weeding out the bad egg, every year, your business gets better and better and more enjoyable, for sure. Hello, friends, hi, all our template course has launched out there and we have been getting some really positive feedback. Yes,

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I have some great feedback I wanted to share with you guys. We had one purchaser say thank you for these templates. As a new agent, I feel it would have taken me years to create these on my own. That’s awesome. I know. It’s so great. And then I had these are so incredibly helpful. What a great investment. Thank you for your time and efforts putting these together. I think that you guys, this is the answer to saving yourself some time it helps

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you put systems in place, it keeps you professional, it keeps you consistent. It just makes everything run so much smoother,

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much smoother. You’re never going to forget to tell somebody something, no, this is over there. It’s all there. And you’re going to edit it to make it sound like your voice if you’d like and it’s going to be perfect for your business. Yeah, so go check out our template course. Yes. At hustle humbly. podcast.com Perfect. Enjoy. Enjoy. I

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may do some stats. Yes, please. Okay, so 39% of sellers who used an agent failed them through a referral, so that 100 people that you have in your database, okay, let’s, for instance, say everyone knows 100 people, that’s what they say, I’m doing my air quotes, people, everyone knows 100 people. So in my database, there are 157 people, if age no 100 people that’s 15,700 people that my database is connected to, if I only want to do 50 transactions, which is I mean, more than I’ve ever done and a lot for weight over average. But if I only want to do 50 That is only point 3% Not even 1% point 3% of the people that my database knows Yeah, so it’s not That’s it. I mean, like you touch these 150 100 people, 80 people, whoever however many is, if you’re doing it right, and they are starting to refer you. You’re not trying to do 3000 transactions, right? Got it in context. Yes. If you’re not focusing your time in the right place, it’s just going to you’re going to be spinning your wheels, you’re going to be distracted, nothing is going to be done with intentionality, no, not at all. But when you’re actually intentional about it, it’s gonna make a difference you’ll get results. Here’s the other stuff that was good 69% These are from NAR in 2018 69% of sellers say they would use their realtor again, but only 24% did and I think that is where people are not using their database right they’re not contacting their past clients at all right the closing table happens and that is it they don’t speak to them again. I can’t tell you how many times I have listed a house and I was I’m always curious who sold them the house right I always look I look and you know sometimes I’m surprised and sometimes I’m not I’m like these people for whatever reason are not being called back by their clients yet to be their listing age, right? Um, I always want to ask like, whether me has this curiosity I want because I also want to know what am I doing wrong with my past clients? Because look what’s Be honest, not every one of my past clients call me back and then you see their listing on the MLS and you’re like, Oh, that hurts like, why? What did I do wrong? And then I’ll think I haven’t talked to them in years. Why have it? totally my fault, right? So it’s very interesting. I would love to know, yes, sometimes people just don’t work well together, it doesn’t mean that you’re not going to work well with someone else. So I went on a listing interview somewhat recently, okay. And she said, when I got there, I said, Do you mind me asking how you got my information? Okay. And she said, Yes, I was just Googling around. I was like, Okay, fair enough. Super. That doesn’t happen. Usually, it’s all referral based at this point. And she said, and I did the whole listing interview, and she was excited. And we were signing papers, we signed the papers, okay. And she goes, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. And she was the younger girl. I just felt like I could ask her I had looked up who her realtor was, okay, it was someone I knew. So I went on the interview, and that’s her choice, you know, right. And before I left, I said, Do you mind me asking? Why not just use the realtor that helped you buy the house? I can’t remember her name. That’s what she said. Yes. Oh, and I said, I could have given you her name. Right. I felt like I needed to say that. Because this person I kind of know, okay, and friends with whatnot, right? And she said, Well, if they didn’t communicate with me, they don’t want me and you already showed up and did all the work like I don’t want to. She was like, I’m good. Okay, but I felt like I needed to offer it. Normally. I don’t feel like I need to offer that’s on them. But I just felt like I want to and I wanted to ask I felt comfortable. And she was honest. And it was interesting to get that answer. That was the answer. The answer was, I’ve lived in this home three years. And I haven’t spoken to them since the closing table, right? Like, I don’t remember, literally, I don’t remember. I don’t remember their name I couldn’t remember. And she said when she was googling Trump, she would try to find hers, and then last button and found someone else and called them and I showed up. And we clicked and it worked out. Right. But it’s a good lesson to learn. And it was a good lesson for me to learn because it made me go, I probably need to get back in I probably need to increase. Yeah, you know, we’re coming out of summer, it was a busy summer, I probably haven’t worked my database as frequently as I should have. Which is fine. But one thing I do like to do to clean out my database, which is helpful. I do two big mail outs every year. Okay. Those are good to do. Because you see which ones come back? Yes. And you’re like, wait a minute, right? Why didn’t this get deliver? And it’s a reason for me to contact and say, Hey, I mailed you the LSU football schedule, right? But it came back. Did you move? Right? Did you sell your house? Are you saying call me? And most of them. I’ve never had anyone say that they moved around. But sometimes it was just like a mail glitch. And I emailed it. There have been times where they moved out of state and had a relocation company that had to sell the house. But I wouldn’t have known that. And so that’s right, so my two mail outs every year are my Christmas cards. Okay, I send out my family Christmas card to everybody with your picture of you and your family. Yes. Okay. To my clients to my family. Yeah, my clients and my family get the same one. Got it. I feel like as a realtor, we’re relational people. It’s okay. You don’t have to keep that that separate. Yeah. So that’s an interesting point. That’s almost how my part down database was born. Yeah. Because I would send a client always from the beginning, I sent client Christmas cards and the one mailer I would do every year, and I would just get, you know, like your standard Christmas card. It wasn’t my picture. It was just like a Merry Christmas, whatever. Sure. And then, some of my clients when they were becoming close enough to me, where I knew they wanted to see my family, and they wouldn’t want to see the and then all of a sudden, that list was getting very long plus my family, I’m like, wait a minute, these are the people that belong on my database to contact. It’s the people who I would actually send a picture of my family to, if you don’t feel comfortable sending them your family Christmas card, they should not be in your database. Right? at all, then you because you haven’t built a relationship. Right. And you I mean, you’re not close enough to show them a picture of your family at Christmas time. You’re not close, right? If you wouldn’t be friends with them on Facebook. Right, then you’re not close enough. I don’t want a generic. Yeah, multi copy mailers sent to my people because that tells them you’re not special. No doubt we don’t have a relationship, right. We should talk about we didn’t plan to talk about handwritten notes, but you know, that’s like my baby. I love a handwritten note. I hate when I have time to do them. I could never pass it off. Like I want to say with my hand and wants the paper because I’ve seen these technology companies now where you could put your database in, and they’ll send what appears to be a handwritten note from you. Yeah. It makes my skin crawl. I don’t hate it. That’s fine. Because look, you’re trying to contact 500 people. So within reason, there’s only so much you can do and look, to be fair, I’m not writing a letter to all 157 people in mine. But if you send me a referral, you get a handwritten note. I don’t know if I said this when I was saying it. But handwritten card is one of my things in my rotation. Okay, how often is that? It’s not? I mean, it’s one of the five or six or seven maybe only once a year? Yeah, maybe only once a year, maybe once every other year? Well, that’s still enough. Yeah. If people have did we talk about how often people move you said, every night? Even if you sent them one every other year, you should catch them where they’re like, oh, yeah, Alyssa was my realtor. I remember her name. I see her face on this card. I do have thank you notes. Now that on the back, it has my my picture. Okay, so it says thank you on the front. But on the back. It’s a picture of me with my contact info, just so that I don’t need to sign your hand wrote it. I hammered the inside. Yeah, that’s a pen. I think that’s fine. Okay, what else do we have? Oh, can we talk about? So my look, every guru, every CRM company will tell you the things that you need to put in your database, you know, you need their name and their phone number and their email fine. But they will also sometimes tell you to get their anniversary. And I have a client survey that I give a closing where they fill out what’s their new mailing address gonna be, especially if it’s a seller going somewhere else that I didn’t sell them the house. You know, what, what are their kids birthdays? What are their birthdays? What method? Do they like to be contacted that I do like that one where it says email, text phone, Facebook, Instagram, other? What how do you want to be contacted? That’s a great thing to ask your people. But one of the people like my husband would be like, don’t talk to me ever. Please don’t bother me. The right Just leave me alone. Maybe they’re not good for the database. Right. But they they had anniversary on their wedding anniversary, which is all fine and dandy if you’re keeping good tabs on your people and you want to send him an antibiotic bursary card, fine. But sadly, the divorce rate is pretty high. I don’t think I feel comfortable sending out an anniversary card with what if it’s not appropriate anymore?

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Well, even if you have a HUD, okay, we cannot do it all it goes back to our quote, you can do anything but not everything. Exactly. And if you have 100 people in your database, you would have to hire a full time person to make sure that 100 People were touched 30 times a year and got a birthday card and every one of their kids was remembered and their pet’s name. We that is not our job. We do not need to know all of that. No, no, it’s just but it’s built like an actual relationship with a person where you happen to remember that they have a beagle, and its name is Buddy. And it was so cute and sweet. And you remember then fine. Tell them about that. Yeah, you don’t have to like force that with everybody. It’s funny, you should say that. So I had a total database failure. This was probably two or three years ago. I’m like, I am gonna send out birthday cards I’ve gotten I’ve collected all these birthdays. Why don’t I go ahead and send cards. So I got a great big box with different kinds of birthday cards from Amazon. I’m so jazzed, they just say happy birthday in and I’m not going to spend a lot of time writing a message, just sign my name, send it to them, which is fine in January, February and March. And I’m like cranking through them. I’m like, so proud of myself and then it got busy. I think I made it to May. So that’s pretty far. That’s decent. But guess what some of those people were married and their their spouse’s birthday was probably in September. So it’s like I sent the wipe up card in January. And then by September I had I had forgotten why just Oh, you didn’t miss too busy. It just didn’t. Then I was like, Oh, it’s too late. Now. I can’t go back. I just I gave it up. And there are systems for that. I’m sure there’s a lovely online system that will send them out for you. And I’m not against it. I use the Facebook birthday. Oh, yeah. As a way So Facebook is in itself its own database. Yes, I do. Try to keep it clean. I know you have limited friends. So like, are you up to 5000? Not yet, but I you have to be careful. Oh, you know, like, so what I do is every day whenever Facebook is like, here are the birthdays today. I’ll go through and say do I know this group of people? Yeah, sometimes it’s five people’s birthday. Sometimes it’s 15 or 20 Brian’s birthday, okay. But I try to go through and if I don’t know them, I unfriend them. Happy birthday. That’s that’s a weird thing to do. But a great time because it brought it back to your well if you do it every day and you go through a year, you have cleaned out your Facebook, I can’t even that you unfriend them. Have them on their birthday. I don’t know you This is look, if I don’t know you and I don’t want to tell you Happy birthday, that’s an appropriate we shouldn’t be friends. We’re not friends. So then that’s how I do it on it kind of helps me. But people, people sometimes get too focused on social media and Facebook. Yeah. And they forget that there are people not on there, right? That’s true. That’s why I like your column. Yeah, tell about it. Oh, so I have a column on my database that says, Are we Facebook? Friends? It’s just a yes or no. Are we? Or are we not? Like, I don’t know if I’m friends with you on Facebook? Well, I feel like you need to remember the people that you aren’t friends with on Facebook, because you assume, you know, Facebook makes it makes you feel more connected than you really are. It kind of gives you a false sense of security. I think that’s fair. You think you put a post out there and all what everybody knows about it and saw it. And then later on, you’re like, Hey, you didn’t see my post on whatever. And you’re like, No, I’m like that. That’s pretty rare. I can’t tell you how many of my good friends didn’t see my podcast announced. They’re like, wait, what? Yeah. And then I bring it up. And they’re like, you have a podcast? Like, it’s been a week, you didn’t know, right? And I put too much confidence in the fact that Facebook will reach the masses. It doesn’t. And it doesn’t, it just doesn’t. And you have to be aware of who’s not even all in there. Yes, yes. So I think that’s really important. It just goes to show that that’s why I like the Excel spreadsheet is that I go down and look at each person’s name. When did I last contact them? How did I do it? And I like alternating also, because what if I text them and don’t get a response? Or it goes through? It doesn’t go through? Or it lets me know, they must have gotten a new phone number. Yep. Or same with email? People actually get new email addresses a good bit. That’s right. Jobs. Yep. And so if you email them and don’t get a response that lets you know, I may need to call or text them and say, Hey, did you get a new email address? So by contacting them in several different avenues, it also keeps their contact information up to date, that makes sense. And they may have lost your number fare, or they may have lost your email. And so that’s why I like rotating, how I contact them. Okay, listen to the story. This just happened last night. In fact, like, late at night, I was getting ready to go to bed, I look at my Instagram, I have a message from a past client, and she says, Hey, I tried to send you a text message and it wouldn’t go through. And I’m like, I’ll text Amelia message back. I’m like, This is my phone number. And I’m like, What can I do for you? She says she responds back with we’re ready to start looking again. You know, it’s probably been five years or maybe a little less. And this is what we’re looking for blah, blah, blah. I’m like, okay, but I’m gonna text you now and make sure that we’re connected. But she had to use another avenue to get to me because there was some sort of disconnect, right? But if you’re not, if you’re not connecting with your people in different ways, then they don’t know how to find you. When I was new, I had a past client that I really liked. We had we just had a good relationship, the whole transaction. I was sad at closing, I was gonna miss her. Well, after closing, she never responded. You were like I was emailing her Hey, how’s the house and we would just wait during the transaction, we email we were emailers Okay, did not have Facebook. Okay, so I couldn’t rely on that. And she never responded. I’m so mad at myself looking back at young little Elissa realtor who was too scared to pick up the phone. But one day after a year, I guess I called her like, hey, and she answered, oh, that was like happy. You thought you weren’t friends anymore. I thought she was really Oh, here she is because she had never responded. And I was like, Hey, um, did I had emailed you a couple of times checking on you? Oh, well, I switched school. She’s a teacher, I switched schools. So I don’t have that email. So here I was, for a whole year feeling like she hates me. She’s not responding. And all it was was that that wasn’t her email. And I should have picked up the phone. We had to get out of our own way. Sometimes we do. It was a mindset issue that I was having. And now I give everybody the benefit of the doubt. And you just have to figure out, you know, you cannot get in your head and think that people don’t like you. No, no. Alright, I want to make sure we touch on something. This episode is going to follow the two episodes of realtor safety in Carl’s interview. And I want to point out that working your database is a far safer practice than getting strangers off of the internet or a sign call or whatever method you want in an open house. These are people you actually know and can vet pretty easily and if you get a referral from one of the people in your database, they know them and are vouching for them and they’re not a bad person. This is the safest Hi Be a business that you can have. It really is like, I am a huge advocate for this for those reasons, it’s easier. It’s more fun, it’s safer. There’s no reason not to do this, it is also the most productive, for sure. Because you don’t have to they already know like, and trust you. Yeah, you’re so far ahead of the curve, as opposed to someone who’s calling you blindly off of Google or wherever they found you. And it’s, I think, also the most neglected. Absolutely. I think all these realtors are out there working their database, but from the conversations I’ve had with the public, half the people do not remember their real job. And that’s very common. You know, I’ve done Brian Buffini referral maker before I’ve done his blitz program, which are all great. And they’re all he’s been focused on database since way back. I mean, like years and years and years, he’s built a very successful coaching business off of it. And it is very interesting, because that is one of the most common things when he talks to someone out in the public, he meets a person at the bank or someone who doesn’t know. And he says that he is a realtor, and they say, Oh, wow. And he’s like, Do you own your house? Oh, yeah, we bought one last year. And he always would say to you, who sold your house? Many, many, many times, they will be like, Oh, I can’t remember their name. Yeah, that’s so common. That’s crazy. It’s very crazy. One thing I did earlier this year that I thought was great. Um, I organized my database by zip code. I

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just, I just, that’s another thing I like about Excel. Because I ordered it I sorted the ZIP Code column. Okay. And I chose I think 10 People in 70809. Okay, and got the $3 bottle wine from Trader Joe’s. Yeah. Which is delicious. Right, a cool looking bottle. And everybody loves Trader Joe’s. And put hay was in your area thought of you and put a horse that just left it on their door. And it only took it only takes like 45 minutes to do to people because you were in the same area. Yeah. area. And I’ll be even more honest, I paid a new agent to deliver them for me. There you go. And it wasn’t much to pay her because it was only an hour of time, right? Oh, very smart. It was just easy. What are your data? My contact column? I just put delivered wine. Right. So they noticed a difference of code. We’ll get it. Yeah. How often do you think you’ll do that? That was a new thing. I haven’t I need to do that more. Yeah, that’s cool. It was easy. How was the response? So good. When they got home from work? I immediately got text messages from all of them. Yeah. Oh my god, you’re so sweet. I love it. And it made me feel good. That’s what’s so fun about database. It makes you feel good. I had a teacher that I saw on Facebook. So when I sold her house to probably five years before she was on Facebook and said she was a teacher of the year though, and she it was popping a bottle of cheap champagne with her husband because well she’s a teacher. Well, this is probably one of my proudest moments. I went and bought like a $50 bottle of champagne and I shipped it to her oh my god I said teachers are awesome and you deserve more than a cheap bottle of champagne. That’s so awesome that you one teacher of the year well I mean that makes like a huge and that wasn’t my I did it I just felt like she deserved and that was awesome. Yeah, there she is posted on Facebook and saying how cool her realtor is and how great and she’s so like thankful and I was so thankful for her. There was a year three years ago I had a client who was a teacher and she refer I ended up selling for teachers at the nice school this small school have it how’s it all for and I was like it within a very small timeframe and I thought I need to do something for them. So I asked them how many teachers are in your school total eight. There were eight that was it as a small useful half of them out. Yes. So I went to Target and I got eight clear boxes. And I filled it with Expo markers. Purell hand sanitizer, stickers just fun thing Yeah, and I delivered the eight boxes to the school at the beginning of the school year. And it was just like with my card on it you know and it was just fun having them all grouped together like that. It doesn’t just make you feel warm and fuzzy does it makes you feel good just giving is like my favorite thing it is so it’s so fun it’s not you don’t have to spend all this money do no you don’t. So my dad is a real estate appraiser right back in the day you could choose your appraiser that’s right which blows my mind is so different now you cannot even know your it’s like they’re going around in masks right if my dad gets an order to appraise the house and I am the listing or buyer’s agent he has to decline it Yeah. He says like cost him business. Sorry, sorry, dad. But when we were little he had to hustle. Yeah. And keep good relationships with lenders and realtor right and at Christmas time. He would load the back of his car with those tubs of popcorn. You know the ones that have the divider? Yes. And cheddar Caravelle, please tell me which one do you like? I want to hear it. I’m a white cheddar. I love the white cheddar or care about Yeah, yep. Those are my two goats. Yes, love it. But he would load that in the car. And my sisters, and I would dry and we would just make our rounds to the banks and real estate companies love it, and he would deliver popcorn. It’s so sweet. Thank you. I love it. Oh, so fun. Have we covered everything. I feel like I could talk about this literally all day. And we say that on so many of our episodes. But the truth is, this topic can be taken in so many directions. Yes. And there’s so much you can do for your database. There’s like a million things. Y’all don’t feel overwhelmed by how many choices just pick one that speaks to you. Right? You want to go comment on Facebook posts do that you want to send text messages all day, do that. Just pick something today and contact at least 10 people in your database and have them somewhere if you are operating without a database. And you have some people here and some people there and they’re in your phone and they are on your email and then you have Facebook, it’s not going to sustain you know, you have to have everybody in one place. We don’t care where that is. But if you want to see a copy Oh, that’s right. We are willing to share what the columns in the blank Wilson now the blank spreadsheet. So what we’re using to keep our database organized, if you want a copy of that, just go to hustle humbly. podcast.com/database Yeah. But yeah, we’re happy to share it. I think that’s awesome. Toast. Oh my gosh, we didn’t even talk about who we wanted to toast to. We say today I got a message from one of our listeners is a new agent in Houston. Okay, her name is Rachel Hartzog. Oh, I love it. I know her because back in the day, when we were little, little, we took dance together fun, okay. And we are Facebook friends and she messaged me last year told me that she wanted to get into real estate. I told her the good, the bad and the ugly. Okay, and we didn’t meet for coffee because she was in Houston. But we talked a lot on Facebook and she messaged me today okay, and said that she is halfway through the first episode and loves it. I love it. And it just made me happy to know that it’s helping her it’s encouraging her in Houston yes that’s what it’s here for. Yeah, and she is going to be so good y’all who good okay, like we’re gonna have to watch her because she is going to be dominating us. Well, we need a good place to send our leads to in Houston. People are constantly being hosted agent let me know because I think she’s going to be amazing. Okay, so toast to toast the Rachael Ray show. Okay, that’s awesome. And yours. Cheers. We really really need you to send us who you want us to toast to. Yeah, we’re just coming up with these literally on the fly now but we know that you have people out there that you want to submit their success story or you’re out we want to hear your success stories. We just think it’s cool. Yeah, urging. We want to hear about it. Love it. That’s it. That’s the time and the books people see that sci fi Oh, thank you so much for tuning in to the hustle humbly podcast. Let us know who we should toast to for the next episode.

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Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram at hustle humbly podcast. If you have an episode, topic or question please email us at hustle humbly podcast@gmail.com

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This is goodbye