Two Confessions from the Broker's Desk
Once a month, I sit down and debrief. It's a habit from my Navy days - no flight was over when the helicopter shut down... it was over after the debrief. What happened, what we learned, what we carry into the next one. I run my brokerage the same way. Here's what July taught me.
Confession #1: I've resisted systems my entire career
At our weekly Together Tuesday meeting, we got talking about what actually separates top producers from everyone else. It's not scripts, and it's not rattling off features... the best agents walk into every conversation hunting for the client's problem and how to solve it. That's the whole job!
And I admitted something out loud to my team, so I'll admit it here too: I have resisted standard workflows my entire career. I always figured my way was faster, scrappier, better. Turns out... some of those boring, established processes exist because they flat out work. Twenty-plus years in, and I'm still learning to get out of my own way.
Confession #2: Two leads fell through the cracks
This month I found two leads that slipped past us. Good ones! Real people who reached out and wanted help. And it wasn't anybody being lazy... they got forwarded along by email, and our system never created a record for them. They lived in an inbox and nowhere else.
I fixed the process that same night, but two lessons stand. First: if it's not in the system, it doesn't exist. Log the call, log the text, log the lead... every time. Second: when something slips, look at the system before you look for someone to blame. Blame changes nothing. Better systems change everything.
What I'm taking from the coaches this month
I read a lot, and a few ideas earned a spot in my notebook this July:
Your brain can't run fear and curiosity at the same time (hat tip to Jay Papasan). Walking into something intimidating? Swap "I've got this" for "let's go find out."
Your database isn't software... it's people. A well-tended sphere of 300 can produce around 30 deals and referrals a year. The difference between 30 and 3 isn't the database - it's the discipline.
Protect your mornings like they're closings. Jeff Glover once bet a colleague $100 a day he'd be at his desk by 7:30... he lost thousands on that bet and credits it with making him millions. If the prospecting doesn't happen before noon, it doesn't happen.
"Someday" is usually just a dishonest word for "never" (that one's from Jordan Freed, and it stung!).
One more thing... start a brag sheet
A running doc where you drop every win, every save, every glowing client text the moment it happens. Future you - at review time, at a listing appointment, or polishing your LinkedIn - will thank present you!
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Kasey Jorgenson is the Broker-Owner of Jorgenson Real Estate in Round Rock, Texas, a Navy veteran, and a TREC-approved continuing education instructor.
