Dig Your Well Before You're Thirsty- Bonus Episode

I’m going to do something a little different with today’s show and I’ll share with you what that is and why I’m doing it so that you are fully informed and briefed before I do it. What I’m going to do with today’s show is play for you one of the bonus episodes I did back in December of last year that only the Value Syndicate members get. Those are the people who have given us their email address and want the weekly podcast delivered to their email address each week instead of waiting to see the new episodes pop up on their device or in whatever podcast app you tend to use. They also get any and all of the bonus episodes I may put out, which is very few so that I don’t overload what is probably an already overloaded email inbox.

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The bonus episodes are typically episodes that are extensions of main episodes that all of you get to listen to but maybe were going to be too long so I chopped it up into two parts, a main episode and a bonus episode so as to keep it relatively short. As you probably know by now, relatively short for the Real Value Podcast is anything under an hour. If an episode has a lot of content and I don’t want to go more than an hour, I end it around the one hour mark and make the rest of it a bonus episode. Every now and then I will also record additional material just for the Value Syndicate members. Its my way of adding value for the people who have signed up for always free content. So last December I recorded an episode entitled Digging Your Well Before You’re Thirsty where I get listeners 5 ideas that will help them dig their proverbial wells before they’re thirsty. The well I’m referring to is your business, of course, and the reference to being thirsty is a reference to not having enough business coming in or, at least, not enough of the kind of business you desire. Digging your well is a reference to an old concept and one made popular by the author Harvey Mackay with his late 1990’s book, Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty, where he talks about networking, marketing, and basically building your database of clients, potential clients, and people who can and will refer business to you based on your networking efforts and the goodwill that you build when you add value for them.
 
So I recorded the episode back in December of last year and and I gave three ideas in the main episode and pushed the remaining two ideas into a bonus episode because they would’ve made the main episode too long. What I’m doing with this episode is sharing with all of you that bonus episode so that you can hear the last two ideas that were shared in that bonus episode. Now, what this means is that, unlike that main episode where you only got three of the five ideas, in this episode you are only getting two of the five ideas. Since the bonus episode is derived from that main episode, I have included a link to that main episode both in the email to all of the Value Syndicate members, as well as on the Real Value Cast website in the episode description and the iTunes description. I would highly recommend listening to that episode again after you’ve listened to that episode. There is obviously a lot more back story in that main episode and I tell a story or two about Mr Toyoda, which is where I got to see a master networker first hand Digging His well, so to speak, and where I was first introduced to this concept, which he referred to as ‘cooking your rice before you’re hungry’.
 
So now for the reason to do it this way. First and foremost, I want to make sure as many people as possible get to hear all five of the suggestions for digging your well. I teach at least 15 ways to dig your well in our coaching program but that would be a four or five hour episode so I just shared five of the ideas, several of which are extremely easy to do, like hand writing thank you cards every week. There are some rules for that so you have to listen to the episode to learn them and why to do it, but its all in the episode. The second reason I am recording the episode this way is because I will be speaking with a great group of appraisers at an Appraisal Institute economic summit next week and the title of my talk, or class, is Digging Your Well Before You’re Thirsty. Since I always take a lot of time to prepare for talks and classes, I have been making notes and working on some exercises that I will have everybody do at the event and it made me realize a few things. One, just how valuable this concept is, and two, how some of my teachings on this topic have evolved since recording that episode less than a year ago. The ideas haven't changed, I have just expanded on them, added more to them, and have evolved how I teach them to make them more easily doable. For one, I have added the profit first concept to the digging your well modules that we teach because its that important. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, go and listen to the episode called Pay Yourself First where I breakdown the profit first concept and how to do it. Although digging your well, as it was laid out by Harvey Mackay back in the 90’s, was primarily about networking and marketing, I strongly believe that the concept of digging your well MUST take into consideration your future savings, investments, your profit, your retirement plan, money management, understanding the numbers in your business and personal finances, and basically just having your well dug long before you need to drink from it. In essence, your proverbial well cannot just be related to networking and marketing. It doesn’t matter how much money you make or how busy you are if you have no idea if you’re even making any money. Even then, its never just about how much you make, its about how much you keep! This is where the profit first idea comes in to play and I’ll be sharing all of that when I give my talk at the AI conference next week.
 
​In the podcast we talked about three methods of adding value to your business and for your clients. Its one of the most popular questions I get from the Value Syndicate members and it’s the kind of stuff we go over with coaching clients and mastermind groups. This is the kind of stuff you can be assured nobody is doing in our industry, trust me, I’ve been checking around for years. Of course, you don’t have to do any of this stuff and can be quite successful in the appraisal business without it. I didn’t start to implement many of these things until later in my career and I was doing more than ok before I did these things. What I can tell you though, is that by doing these things, you are adding a turbo booster to your business and creating long term value. One of the symptoms many appraisers suffer from is turn time thinking. They tend to think in terms of turn times so their mental clocks start when they accept an order and then they think in 2 and 3 day blocks of time until an order is done and delivered. Rarely do they think one month, six months, and 2 years or 5 years out. All of these suggestions are 6 month, one year, and 5 year activities. If you’re stuck in today or this week mode because you have bills to pay, I get it, but at some point you will have to deal with how to get beyond that mode and plan for the future. I can tell you from having implemented these things into our company, the stress of the ups and downs of the mortgage market, following interest rates and the fed, dealing with AMCs, and much of what many typical appraisers deal with is more or less gone because our peaks and valleys are smoothed out by the private work we’ve developed over the years from doing these things. Our referral business has skyrocketed and we don’t fret when an AMC goes out of business because we don’t work with any of them anyways.
 
I’m not trying to be dismissive of those who do have to deal with that, just encouraging you in the way that I do to get busy building a solid business that doesn’t rely so much on unreliable interests.
 
Ok, so the first three were to hand write thank you notes, include everybody in the transaction in an email sequence that informs, educates, and trains them on the type of appraiser and appraisal company you are, which is head and shoulders above the others. And the third suggestion was simply to set up a reminder in your calendar to send out a 30-45 day congratulations card to all of the new homeowners on the purchase transactions you’ve completed. Is this more work for you? Absolutely! It’s a whole different mindset from the get an order, schedule it, work on files, send files, and turn off computer mode of most appraisers. Over time, you will start to set aside time each day, maybe a couple times during the week, or even just once per week to work on the business instead of in it.
 
The fourth suggestion for adding value for your clients and your business is to get out of the bat cave and join a networking group or organization where there are real estate agents and lenders meeting up. I’m not talking about a BNI group, I’m referring to some kind group where you can be in front of numerous potential clients showing off your personality, answering questions, and building your network. I am a member of a several of these groups and they have done a couple of valuable things for everybody involved: one, they always pay off in terms of business for you (I’ll add one caveat to that in a minute), but more importantly, they add tremendous value to the people you’re talking and networking with because they NEVER get to talk and meet with appraisers! I’m not sure if you are hearing me or not but we have one of the greatest opportunities in any industry and that’s being the little fish in a huge pond. A room full of realtors and lenders are all competing against each other to impress everybody else. A room full of realtors and lenders with one appraiser in it is a massive opportunity for you to add some value for them because they have tons of questions, they have a bit of animosity stored up that they can release onto you (therapy for them), they have a bunch of scenarios they want to run by you, and they’re just generally surprised but excited to see you there. The first time is like being a zebra in a room full of lions and leopards but, after a while, being the zebra becomes on asset for you because you stand out in the crowd of gray and blue suits with red ties and you just add value everywhere you go.
 
And if you haven’t figured it out by now, I am not suggesting you join these groups just to get orders and for your own benefit. That’s a given as soon as you show up. We join and walk in to those meetings looking to be the go-to source of answers and a resource for all of those realtors and lenders. The discussions we have NEVER ask for business or to be put on a list. What I can tell you will happen however, is that you will get lots of requests to be added to lists from your interactions. It’s brought up all the time when I’m talking with lenders whose lists we may not be on. A loan officer will be talking with me and will inevitably ask, “geez, are you on our list?” To which I reply, “I don’t think so, but don’t let that stop you from calling or emailing me if you ever have any appraisal related questions”. I follow up with, “I’m really here just to be a valuable resource in my market whether I’m on your list or not”. I’ll tell you why this attitude and language is important. First and most important, it puts YOU in the mindset of not wanting or needing anything from anybody and that smells different than everybody else in the room looking to stick their hands in somebody’s pocket. Two, loan originators move around! You meet one lady working for Huntington Bank today and a month later she calls you from a local credit union and wants to add you to their panel. This is long term thinking my friends and its about digging your well. You go to an event, you meet some people, you answer lots of questions, you set up some coffee or lunch meetings, you follow up with thank you emails and hand written cards, and you keep digging the well.
 
Get out of the office, that’s where business happens and where you can be an awesome resource and add value for your clients. It should be noted at this point that I, like many of you, am in introvert. You might not be able to tell from the podcast but I am happiest when I am with my kids, my girlfriend, or one or two close friends. I don’t like big loud crowds, I don’t like much of the fakery and glad handing that goes on in much of the business and networking world. But this is not about me, it’s about getting over myself and putting myself in uncomfortable situations to be of service to my market. If I looked at it just as a way to get business, I wouldn’t go because I don’t really need it. Its much easier to blow it off and stay home or go workout or go to Jiu jitsu or find something to do alone. But its not about me and it’s not about being fake to get business. I had to reframe the whole experience so that it has become a way for me to go out into the community and be a valuable resource.
 
The last one will really get you out of your comfort zone but is a value syndicate favorite of mine and its to run webinars. What is a webinar? A webinar, is the name implies, is simply a mini seminar on the web. How do I do that you ask? Quite simply. Just like the Gmelius plug in or learning how to use aweber, MailChimp, or constant contact, you’ll have to step beyond your aversion to learning new stuff and start googling webinar services. The best one out today, in my opinion, a service called Zoom where you can have lots of participants on the webinar, they can see you, hear you, chat with you, you can turn their mics on and off, and you can have lots of interaction.
 
You simply sign up for the service, schedule a webinar, you get a shareable link to email out to anybody who wants to join at that pre-set time, and when its time for the webinar they click the link and will be logged into your webinar. They’ll see the screen that you’re presenting on and whatever you want to present will be shown. If you want them to see your face while you’re talking to or with them, you can do that. If you want them to see a PowerPoint presentation that you’ve created, you can do that. I recommend that you create a PowerPoint presentation because its more pleasing for the viewers and it helps lead the discussion if you’re not a natural talker, but you can really do whatever you want in the time you’ve allotted.
 
We have several webinars that we host on a regular basis for realtors and lenders and they range from how to think like an appraiser to comp choosing to just basic Q and A sessions. They are always a big hit because not everybody can make it to one of our live talks or events and the webinars can be recorded and re-distributed later for all of the participants.
 
I have a couple recommendations for any of you thinking of doing this. One, as I mentioned, have at the very least an outline of what you want to go over. I recommend having a PowerPoint presentation so that you can stay on track but even an outline works. I recommend you familiarize yourself with the controls in ZOOM, or GoToWebinar, or whatever service you choose. Run through a couple practice ones with your office staff, husband, wife, significant other, kids, or a couple friends so that you get used to muting and unmuting people. If you don’t do that there will be all kinds of background noise, people eating, drinking, and talking, people trying to ask questions over each other, and a variety of issues. You can mute everybody and when they have a question, they can virtually raise their hand in the chat room. You then unmute their mic and let them ask the question. Everybody else can hear them and your answer. You can mute their mic right after. This comes in real handy when you have that one angry agent who has nothing but disdain for appraisers and every appraisal of hers has come in low on every deal.
 
They can also ask questions by typing in the chat window to the right or left of the screen and you can answer them as they come in. That way their mics stay muted and you’re the only one talking. My other suggestion is to have a one or two page pdf that goes along with your webinar that they can download prior to the webinar with a list of things you’re discussing in the webinar with a bunch of lines or space after each point for them to write notes. The pdf will follow the topics in your presentation but the real benefit of doing this is that you are getting them to take some kind of action, which is awesome, and they will then also have a piece of paper with your company name and logo on it on their desk long after the webinar.
 
So quick recap: thank you notes, email sequence for everybody in the transaction, 30-45 day follow up for purchase transactions, join a networking group to be a value added resource to your market, and host a webinar or two. Five value adds for your business that, if you do, will all but guarantee a well that’s been dug long before you’re thirsty. And please remember my friends, that is the attitude to have as you build your business into something very real and something very valuable that supports you and your family for a long time. Dig your well before you’re thirsty and that means being a value added resource to everyone you can along your journey.