Building a Purpose Driven Business Born from Sheer Survival with Nichole Fecteau

[0:00] Welcome back to the REI agent. My guest today is Nicole Fecto, a real estate agent, educator and speaker based in Berwick, Maine. Nicole became a top agent in her town without a single cold call or expensive ad, building a $16 million business through purposeful community involvement, targeted neighborhood campaigns and handwritten mailers. She also teaches other agents through the triple visibility blueprint hosted online by the Real Estate Institute of New England. Nicole, welcome to the show. Thank you. I’m happy to be here. Yeah, no. What got you into this crazy world of real estate? Oh my goodness. What a story. So I was a, I was a, I was a, I was a trad wife. I was a stay at home mom doing all of the things. I had two little boys at the time and I, I knew that I wanted to do real estate. Like I just always had this drive to, to sell. I either wanted to do used car sales or real estate. So, and, and wound up getting divorced. And so that kind of like pushed me into the workforce.

[1:09] And I mean, I got started because I needed to, and it was something that I was, I was interested in, passionate about. Sometimes you need to kick in the pants to do something a little bit different. I mean, that’s, it’s also a risky one to jump into. I mean, if you needed to have the income right away, it’s not like a guarantee. Yeah. Yeah. Actually I, in, in my class, I tell this story about when I got divorced, I was sitting there in front of the judge and she said, you know, Ms. Bechtow, you’re living below poverty standards. You guys know, like, I think I had made my first year in real estate, like $15,000, which was at that time, the poverty level in the state of Maine. And she said that, and she was like, you know, and she was giving me like information on food stamps and state aid and all this. And I was like, no, I’m going to make this work. By the skin of my teeth, I did it. I was like, that goes to state aid.

[2:03] But. Wow. Were there other job careers you were considering or did you go straight to real estate? I was, I went straight into real estate. So I was also, I feel like I’m a do it all person. So I was also at the time baking desserts for a couple of local restaurants. And then I also wound up, this is so Maine. I wound up working at this place called Chauncey Creek Lobster Pier, which is like, like an institution in Maine for anybody that comes here, but it’s this little like BYOB dock over the water where you get lobsters. And so I was working in the kitchen there on the weekends. Like I was doing anything just to, you know, put $40 in my gas tank so I could take buyers out during the week. You know, when my kids were in school to, to go make it work.

[2:50] Wow. That’s hustling. It was amazing. Not the best of times. Clearly made it work. You built a $16 million business in a town of just 8,500 people without cold calls or paid ads. What was the first community involvement move that made you realize that strategy could actually replace traditional prospecting? So, so I still, I did traditional prospecting and that worked out really good for me. So mailers and, and whatnot, and this is back in like 2010, 2011, right? Although I still, I still do that stuff to this day. But what I, what I really realized was that I was really consistent with that. And people were calling me saying like, we see your sign every, or we see your name everywhere. That’s what they said.

[3:34] And I’m like, that’s weird. Cause I didn’t have any business going on at that point, just sending up mailers. But I started joining different, just because I have like a heart of service and I love to, I love to contribute to my community. I live in a small town. I started to just volunteer on different boards and stuff. So I headed up a couple of committees. We put in a kayak launch. We built a walking trail. I was asked to be on the planning board. And when I was on the planning board, that’s when things, I think just because people just saw my name more and they just, they already saw my name in the mailbox associated with real estate. They were maybe seeing on a, on a few signs at that point, but I think just my name became bigger in the community. It’s not a very large community and people started to make that, that inference, which was awesome.

[4:23] Yeah, totally. And if you, you know, use your business email and those kinds of committees and that kind of stuff, you can get your signature out there and not have to be like, Hey guys, I’m a realtor. Do you want to know anybody that wants to buy or sell? Just it’s kind of more subtle and you’re doing. Exactly. Yeah. I actually like at this point and I’ve kind of made it a thing. Like I never introduced myself as a real estate agent. I have first, I’ll just be like, hi, I’m Nicole. And then people will be like, are you Nicole Fecto? I’m like, yes. That’s how you want it to be. Yeah. What, I have a question about identity shifting there to go from a stay-at-home mom, you know, married to divorce and then into this career path. I’m curious what the identity shift for you, what that experience was like, because that is quite a turnaround to something different.

[5:10] It was rough. And, you know, I was, I don’t even know how old I was 32 then. Yeah. 32 then. So between 32 and, you know, in your thirties to your forties, the big shifts happen in your life. Anyway, if y’all haven’t been there, you’re about to find out. But yeah, it went from being, you know, taking care of my husband worked. I like stayed home and like washed cloth diapers and grew stuff in the garden to make baby food for my kids to like being the sole breadwinner. I did not have a lot of like, there was no like large amounts of alimony or child support or anything. I was really, I was really scraping by on my own. And I think the biggest identity shift was being, I think this, this industry kind of toughens you up a little bit and thickens up your skin a little bit and having to be the sole breadwinner and, and also, you know, take a lot of criticism and be under the spotlight a lot. It was, it was a huge shift. Now I’m like, nothing bothers me.

[6:13] I feel like a different person from that person actually. Yeah, you probably are. Which my, my next question, which I think you’re kind of answering was what part of yourself that maybe didn’t get a chance to be discovered at that point when you were a stay at home mom, what part of you did you find once you became kind of this different person? Great questions, Erica. I would say that I found, I mean, I, I know now that I can rely on myself that I, you know, I’ve got it. I don’t, I mean, it’s probably toxic independence at this point, honestly, but it’s like, you know, I, I don’t need anybody. I can do this. Yeah. But yeah, yeah. I mean, there is, there is a balance there. I, I, it comes up in relationships a lot like this. I call it the masculine energy, right? It’s like that take charge energy that I have, you know, decision maker energy. Um, it definitely, it definitely, definitely changed me.

[7:12] I don’t think it’s a bad thing. I think that, uh, it’s just a, I’m a Gemini, so I have to like split that personality off sometimes and put it in the closet for the weekend. Yeah. It’s a strength though, for sure. I, I, I know what you mean. And there, there are parts of, of that side where it is helpful to make it a little bit softer, maybe more in relationships, but, but it is such a strength to be able to pull from that when you need to, when you need to have thick skin or when you need to really like your full self forward or really get. Yeah. It’s yeah. And I like, I sell real estate. I, I, I’m a national speaker. I have this class and all this, so I, I wear a lot of hats and yeah, I, I sometimes feel like I might have a little bit of a multiple personality thing going on because yeah, sometimes I’m like talking to myself, like, you know, you’ve got this, you know, you’ve done it before kind of thing. And then you kind of in a relationship want to be very, you know, feminine and rely, reliant on somebody.

[8:08] Yeah. Right. Right. Receptive. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it sounds like you’ve really put yourself to the test and proven that you can do a lot of different things and aren’t afraid of taking on a challenge and pushing yourself to the new, a new frontier, which is just great. Which is awesome. I think, I think it often feels like if, if I don’t know, I like to be in an uncomfortable position a little bit. I’d like to be pushing myself forward. You know, going to a planning commission meeting tonight for a subdivision that I have under contract for a developer. And that is a new experience for me. I’m not sure if I’m going to be speaking or not, but we’ll see. And it’s a good, it’s, you know, I got to say, I got this, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You’re going to get all nervous because I’m the chairman of my planning board. So I know when you guys get to the podium, I will say that I love when agents come with their developers. Like it’s so beneficial. You can answer questions that the board has that they don’t even know they have. So don’t be afraid of getting up there.

[9:13] All right. You’re the expert. An expert. Awesome. Now you do some targeted mailbox campaigns, right? Could you walk us through that a little bit? And what does a great mailer actually look like? How often do you send it? And what kind of response rates are you seeing? Oh, wow. You’re like, I should just sell you my class. This is exactly what I teach. So I, so I started a long time ago. I started and I, because my broker wanted me to do cold calls to expired listings, right? It was like 2010, 2011. And I said, I’m absolutely not calling people. And not that there’s anything wrong with it. I absolutely admire people that can get on the phone and call strangers. I, I’m not comfortable with it. It’s not me.

[10:00] And so I won’t do it. So that’s when I, so I was like, I think I could get my message across just as effectively in a mailing campaign. And so that’s where I started was with expired campaigns. And I had this whole campaign of I’d write a handwritten note to expired listings and say, and, and really touching their emotions. Because, you know, these people had already raised their hand and said, Hey, I want to sell my house. And they’ve had a really bad experience probably with another agent. We all know what the issue actually is, which is always pricing. Um, so I would, I would, I just started this mailing campaign and I was like, I’m going to inundate these people with mailers. So on Monday, Wednesday, Friday for two weeks, they got a mailing from me. That’s when I sent them out anyway. And then on Tuesday and Thursday for the next two weeks, they also got a mailing. And then for four weeks after that, they got one mailing and I really started, I mean, that was like, that was like a turning point for me. Um, and the things I sent them then was like a handwritten note I would do, um, because it was always pricing, right. It was always pricing when your house

[11:05] didn’t sell. So I would say, listen, let’s take pricing off out of the equation. Let’s take it off the table. I will hire an appraiser to come out and appraise your house. So I had an appraiser back then appraisers, like they, they needed the work. So I had an appraiser that would do appraisals for me for 250 bucks. It like eliminated that. Um, and I felt like I cracked the code at that point, right? Like we’ll have an appraiser. So it’s a neutral third party. Your house is going to have to appraise anyway. I sent them, um, a postcard that said, like, if you, if you hate me and you think I’m doing a terrible job, you can fire me. All you need to do is, is send it in writing. Like I just basically overcame every objection that, that an expired listing could have via mail. And I was like, I went from nothing to like 12 listings at a time, like consistently. So that was that. Now I still do the same thing. I just do something a little bit different. Obviously we’re in a different market.

[12:01] People have a lot of equity in their homes right now. What I do is I send out, um, a market analysis to very specific. I have a very specific mailing list that I mail to. Um, I go back, I think right now it’s like six to eight years. People are staying in their houses. It might be a little bit longer right now. I think actually we’re probably at eight to 10. So I go back 10 years, see who bought their house then in my, in my town. Cause that’s my, my farm. Um, and I mail to them. So I send them a market analysis and then I have a series of postcards that I send them, um, after that. And, you know, at this point in my career, 16 years and everybody knows my name around here. So it’s not, it’s not hard to get people’s attention, but I’m, I’m still at it. I still do it every week. This is what I do. Yeah. That’s interesting. That, that whole, that’s a really smart thing with the appraisal. Um, it, it removes your opinion from it. Um, it was it, was it pretty common that, I mean, did you have any problems with appraisers ever over giving them like being affected by the previous list price or, you know,

[13:04] I would, I never had a problem, never had a problem. I, and, and even like when, you know, when it went under contract and an appraiser would come in, I’d be like, listen, I have an appraisal already. That’s what I use to price it. If you want it, I’ll give it to you. If you don’t want it, I won’t give it to you, whatever, but you know, um, but we never had a problem. Listen, if I walked in and the house smelled like cat pee, I hired a stager a hundred bucks. I’m like, go out to this house, tell them it smells like cat pee. Like I was always, I’m, I was always the hero. Like you just, I just, every objection just overcame it. Oh man. Uh, you now teach agents how to dominate visibility and lead generation through agent elevate Academy. What’s the biggest mistake agents make when trying to build community presence and what would you tell them to do instead?

[13:53] I think the biggest mistake that I see is that it’s, um, agents are doing things, not from the heart, but from a marketing standpoint, I see a lot of like, and I don’t want to dog on anybody because God bless you if you’re doing any of it. Right. Um, but I think there’s a really effective way to do things and there’s a way to do things where it looks like you’re just trying to promote your business. Um, so I see a lot of like, Oh, you know, I’m throwing a, uh, maybe a customer appreciation thing, you know, and, and come get hot cocoa and pictures with Santa, whatever. And, and it’s the marketing plastered all over it. And I get it like it’s good and it’s a good write-off probably. But I think that when you really come from a heart of service and you are just literally in your community or in your demographic, whatever that is, I mean, you guys are, um, into investing, like you can start an investment group. That’s not like trying to, you know, push your services on people, but really just like talk about investing strategies and, um, thinking outside the box. I think that’s what it is, is, is really coming from here. Um, and, and not thinking like a real estate

[15:02] agent for, for once. I love that. I mean, I think whenever you can provide a real value to others, um, that’s authentic and you know, that it really, I think makes a difference. It’s not like you’re, you’re waiting for the, and if you know anybody that wants to buy a house. And people can see through that. Like I’m, I live in a small town. People will see through you immediately when you do stuff like that. And it doesn’t, I don’t know if for me, it doesn’t have tenure either. It doesn’t stick. It doesn’t stick in people’s minds. It’s kind of more of a, I think it’s a waste of money. I don’t do them. Um, but I think, yeah, I think, I think serving, serving your community, however it is. I mean, there’s a million ways to serve the community, doing it from a heart of service and, um, just making connections with, with people is how to, is how to do it. That the heart of service you’ve mentioned a couple of times. I’m curious, is that something that you, you kind of learned that value through the family that you grew up in?

[15:57] No, no, not at all. Actually. I’m not sure where I came. I don’t know where I learned it. It seems to be great. We won’t get into that, Erica. That’s a whole therapy session.

[16:11] Woo. No. I hear that just by your no. I got it. I got it. It’s definitely something that- I want to get a thick skin from those people, but- Okay. Okay. Okay. I’m volunteering. There’s, there’s the benefit there. Tell me, uh, I want to hear a little bit about life outside of work. You had mentioned before when on air, you’re also an investor. Um, but what else is happening for you right now? Um, oh gosh, I love my life outside of work. Uh, I, again, I mean, I feel like everything, everything that I do almost contributes to my real estate business and it’s very passively. I don’t not even actively trying to do it. I play a lot of pickleball. It’s how I handle my stress after this, I’m going to play pickleball. Um, and it, so I, I think I have a good balance with that, like, uh, you know, a physical outlet and that’s, it’s so fun. It’s actually another way I contribute to my community. Cause I like, I host a league in my community and I just do it cause I love it.

[17:10] Right. I got a $2 million listing that way though. Literally got a $2 million listing from playing pickleball. It’s a riot. Uh, no, just, but outside of work, I mean, I’ve got, uh, I’ve got a really, I’ve got really good friend group, my family, like my kids, we were talking about, you know, my kids. Um, I say everything that I do and they know it too. Um, but everything I do and how hard I work is really just to, uh, travel around with my kids. That’s, uh, that’s what I like to, they’re old. They’re 21 and 23. Um, but that’s, that’s what we do. They come with me every, I would just spoke, um, in Nashville at our convention for better homes and gardens, who was my brokerage and my nieces and my sister-in-law flew up from Florida. My kids and my son’s girlfriend came, came with me from here, like just to see me speak, which was so cool. And you know, they’re, they’re just great.

[18:03] That’s awesome. I love it. Do you want to, do you want to share at all about the, um, multifamily that you bought and invested? Yeah. Yeah. So we were talking about that, like a little bit of the personal life. So I was saying that I sold my beautiful home that I had, which was like gorgeous, 2700 square feet. It was a lovely house and bought, I didn’t tell you all the details of this, but I bought this, I was on a listing appointment and I went and it was, it’s in downtown of my little town, which, and it’s not in the greatest area, but it’s in the up and coming area because I’m on the planning board. So I know this. Um, so, so, uh, I walked into the listing appointment and I was like, I just had this feeling. I was actually so overwhelmed at this feeling. I had to buy this, this place. It’s a three unit. Um, it’s on a nice little lot, but it was right downtown. Like I can see my town hall. I can see all the businesses. And, um, I left and I, I called, uh, I called my friend and I was like crying and he’s like, why are you crying? And I’m like, I have to buy this house. Like I have to buy this. And I

[19:02] don’t know how this is all going to work. And, you know, my kids were graduated from high school and I’m like, they’re not going to stay here forever. And I don’t need this big whole house to myself. So I bought this three unit. Um, I lived downstairs in one of the units and I renovated the unit that I’m in right now. So I like gutted it and made it my pretty princess castle suite. Um, and then my boys, uh, who are adults, uh, but still too young to maybe buy a house and the market here is a little wild. Um, but they live downstairs and they live with, uh, one of my son’s girlfriends and his, uh, her twin brother. So it’s kind of cool. And a guy named Brian, but it’s cool. Cause I get to see my kids, you know, we see each other in passing. We don’t really infiltrate each other’s spaces. It’s like a really good flex. Yeah. It’s a good way for them to try to fly the coop. Yeah. And that’s perfect. I mean, I think it’s, uh, definitely can give that privacy, a little bit of autonomy, um, about while still remaining close. Um, that’s a really cool solution. I wish everybody could do a, that kind of, maybe we can get an apartment later.

[20:09] What do you think? Should we go on? Well, I know my family, I’m, so I’m one of five kids and we’re, and right now we are spread across the country. Um, and, and so we often talk about at some point we all kind of want to reconvene in one area and we, there’s talking about like, you know, those family compounds where you have on land and stuff, but there’s a lot of things that need to come together for that to happen. And so when you talk about this, it’s just, it strikes me as such a nice way of having family close, but having your own spaces and being able to choose how often you see each other. Um, and you, you know, you can do that when you want to, or if you don’t want to see each other, you don’t have to. Yeah. And they’re learning to like pay their own bills, right? Like they pay rent and they pay for their, you know, they pay their bills.

[20:55] Uh, so it’s good. It’s a good little foray into adulthood. And, but you know, mom is still right upstairs. Although I think, honestly, I’m so proud. Sometimes I went over yesterday and, um, they were like cooking dinner. Like they cook dinner. Like I don’t cook dinner. I was like, I’m just whatever. I grab a burrito bowl across the street. They’re so cute. So it is, it’s like a, it’s very, uh, heartwarming. Oh, that’s fun to be cooking you dinner. Right. Yeah. They would, they would definitely. Um, you mentioned the, the market is, is crazy. So it’s, it’s always interesting to talk to people across the country because I think everybody’s market’s a little bit different. I think I recently saw that, uh, maybe the nation on average is more of a buyer’s market now than a seller’s market. What are, what are you, we have, what does your market look like? Uh, we’re, we’re still in a seller’s market up here. Um, I think our absorption rate, I think we’re right around two months. So we’re still like pretty heavy into a seller’s market. Um, I’ll say that I’ve put, I have a lot of listings. I’ve a couple that are like

[22:00] anomaly, like a $2 million listing and Kenny bunk is not going to sell very quickly, but pretty much everything that I put on is on the market Thursday, open house, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. I still do open houses and, um, under contract by Monday. And it’s pretty consistent that way over asking price. We’ve got a pretty, uh, yeah, pretty hot market still. Yeah. Well, that’s great. Yeah. It’s definitely, uh, I think this season, uh, I was surprised to see that the market hasn’t really taken off yet. Um, and well, I mean, it’s, it’s hot and cold. So I think, I think we are word Virginia, two hours South of DC. Uh, I do think we are experiencing a little bit of a shift. Um, it’s still not, not, you know, a huge change, but, um, but yeah, it does seem different. And I started experiencing, I think last year, the second half, the last year we started noticing a little bit, but yeah, you talked to an agent from like Florida, um, Austin, I mean like some of those spots and it’s like doom and gloom. Yeah, I know. I’m waiting to buy a condo in Florida. I’m like, I think I might have my best year yet. I’m going to go cash it in in Florida while the market is

[23:08] tanking a little bit. It’s funny. I teach, um, I, I, I teach my class. Uh, I have an online class, but I also teach it live via zoom, uh, for, for some people that I’m teaching right now to a bunch of agents in West Virginia. And Oh my God, do I love these people? Um, but I was just, I was just down there. I taught them a different class. I drove down there and I’m driving back down in a couple of weeks, but it’s really interesting to see how different that is there. It’s like a totally different market, totally different price points. It’s pretty wild. What’s your median sales price? Uh, we are in my town. I want to say it’s right around 500. And I would say my, my personal one is probably around five, five, five 50. Yeah. Okay. Is Berwick, um, like, is, is that a big tourism place too? Like, do you have people coming? No. Okay. No, no. So I’m right on the New Hampshire border so I can look out my window and see New Hampshire. Uh, I w I would say, and we’re, I’m like 25 minutes from the coast. So not really that like coastal, whatever. It’s like, we’re the, this is where the people live who work there or work in Boston. A lot of people travel

[24:16] to, to Boston, but yeah, no, not a big tourism thing. We’re like a bedroom community. You like that. Where else do you like to travel with your kids? Oh my gosh. I can’t wait. Um, well, I’m going to Nashville tomorrow. Uh, also with them, what, with my niece, my niece and my sister-in-law are flying up from Florida to meet me there. Um, my youngest son is coming with me to West Virginia when I go teach there in a couple of weeks. Cause I told him how beautiful I’d never been to West Virginia before. It was just like the, between the people and the topography, it reminded me of Switzerland, which is wild to me. Um, so listen to that, but, um, we’re going to, uh, we do, we do a Europe trip every year. And so this year we’re going to Southern Italy next month, but they’ll go anywhere with those kids will go anywhere with me. Like wherever we go to Florida a lot. Cause my family is, that’s where I grew up. My family’s down there. Okay. Oh, wow. You guys are well-traveled. That sounds so fun. Yeah. Yeah. How do you, how do you manage when you’re gone?

[25:19] I mean, I, I, are you typically, do you get more busy when you’re traveling? Do you have, I had two listing appointments today. It’s like two 30. I’ve already gone on two listing appointments today. Um, I definitely tend to get more busy, so I don’t work with buyers, uh, which makes my life a lot easier. And then I, um, I’ve got, I think I have like 19 listings between what’s coming on and what I have on the market right now, but everything’s under contract. I try to time everything out. So I pretty much know my travel schedule from now until the end of June. Like I love to travel and I’ll just time it out so that the listings come on when I’m here and, you know, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, under agreement, Wednesday, Nicole goes on a plane. Usually I’ve got it down to a science right now. I think. Oh, that’s awesome. Yeah.

[26:06] That’s awesome. Um, yeah. So curious about your golden nuggets for our listeners. All right. I’ve got a couple of them and this is stuff that I teach. Uh, so it’s your, your free nuggets here. The first thing I teach is to niche down, get small to get big, I call it. And that is like, really think about what your ideal, who your ideal client is, right? Like I only want to work with people that I like and like me. So I want to work with cool people who are fun, who own houses in Berwick. Ideally, I like to ride my bicycle to my listing appointments. Like that’s my, that’s, that’s just like my, my best life is that. Uh, and then I kind of build, build my, my database from there. I think that a lot of people get really good. Like I got really good at what I do and I was like, Ooh, I’m going to go, I’m going to do this because this is successful here. I’m going to do it in Kittery, Elliott, South Berwick, North Berwick, Lebanon, York. I like, I, I hit all these towns and I was super ineffective because I can’t, I can’t know the market, the niche market in each one of those towns.

[27:12] If somebody tells me right now, you know, Hey, I’ve got a three bedroom, two bath cape with a two car garage in Berwick. I can tell you like that with the value of it is. And that’s how good I want to be. And I mean, I refer stuff out all the time because I just, I just want to be really good at what I do. And I think, especially in, in this market, people will take anything anywhere. Like people are driving an hour to, uh, you know, to their listings. And I just think it’s, it’s very ineffective. And I think that if I can do this much business in a, in most of it is in my town of 8,500 people, you can do business, you know, you can get enough business out of your towns. Cause this is almost as small as it gets. Right. Um, so that’s, that’s one is, is get small to get big and, you know, be the big fish in a small pond. That’s ideally what you want to be.

[28:01] Sure. Um, number two, be authentic. You said it earlier. I, um, I, I count how many times I say it during my class. It usually winds up in the 50 to 75 range, be authentic. Everything is so Instagram and so perfect. And everybody’s face looks the same nowadays, right? Everybody dresses the same and we’re all tick tock in the same, like be authentic, like be who you are. Because I think everybody is just has such a beautiful personality. Like I just think we’re, we’re all different. There’s no two of us. Everybody’s got their own thing. And I think when you show that to people, they feel it and they know it and they connect with that. And, and listen, there’s people out there that just want the fake stuff and that’s fine. They’re not for me. I get way more, way more, um, positive and clients and just feedback from when I’m actually authentic. And that’s in my, you know, in the photos I post in the videos that I do in the, what, you know, whatever I do when I’m out speaking, when I’m teaching, I am a hundred percent authentic and it resonates really well with people. Like I said, people can, people will sniff right through you if you are being fake. Um, so that

[29:13] is that show people how you’re different. Um, and the third one is the one that we all know, and that is be consistent. So if you are doing your marketing, it takes like six to eight touches. To even get somebody to recognize, like just barely recognize your name, right? So you, they have to either see you, hear from you, whatever, get a piece of marketing from you six to eight times for you to be on their radar to command mindset. You need way more than that. And because we’re an instant gratification society and we’re kind of an instant gratification, you know, way of life, uh, here, we tend to give up quickly. And I think that, you know, people will send out one mailer or one letter or two or three or whatever, and they don’t get anything from it. Or they do one, you know, series of posts, whatever they’re doing, they don’t get anything from it. So they just stop. And I’ll tell you what I’ve been mailing, I’ve been mailing to people, my computer is sitting on top of my lead generation box. Otherwise I would rip it out and show you, but I’ve been mailing to people for years. And I get people that I just sold a house a couple

[30:18] of months ago that they called me and they’re like, Oh, you’ve been sending me my home value for the past five years. Every year they get, they get a CMA from me with their updated home value. And it’s different from what they see on Zillow too, which is the important part. Um, but I think that just that consistency is, is really what’s important. That’s what’s, that is, what’s going to solidify your name with real estate in their minds, which is exactly what you want. Yeah. There’s a, there’s a couple of things I would came to mind as you were telling, saying those, um, like the first one, I mean, you said it, but like, yeah, just being able to niche down in a town of only 8,500 people is kind of case in point. I guess kind of a mic drop moment, right? Like, I mean, to it, I think most agents in your town would probably feel like they need to have a much bigger, uh, you know, network or, or be able to willing to drive to, to have enough business. And it’s hard to say no, it’s hard to say no to business when the, when the opportunity comes. So like, were you always able to do that or did you, um, have to kind of like learn to,

[31:15] to, to, to say no, to, to, to focus on, on what you really, you know, your, your hometown. Yeah. I mean, let’s be honest, I was starving at one point. So, and there are still times where like, you know, somebody is going to give me a $3 million listing and it’s, you know, a half hour, 45 minutes away. I’m going to go do it. Um, a lot of things that I get that are out, out the outskirts of my town are referrals from people. So obviously I want to do those. I did start saying no though. Um, you know, it started with, for me, it started with like mobile homes and parks because those were very, very difficult up here. And just the, the time it took me away from my other business, it, you know, in relation to how much I was making off of it, uh, wasn’t making sense. So I refer those out. I mean, essentially I’m still making some kind of, generating some kind of revenue from them, but, uh, but yeah, it’s, it changed my business incredibly when I really started to focus on this. And, and even case in point, I was at a, I was doing an open house on Saturday and there was a newer agent from who lives in the next town over from me. I

[32:21] didn’t know her, um, but she was there meeting some buyers who wound up being like fake buyers. So she was there, she was there for a while. So I just started chatting with her and we were chatting and chatting. And, um, she was telling me about how she was buying leads from Zillow and realtor. And I was like, Oh my gosh, I’ve never bought a lead in my life. She’s like, well, how did you do it? And I’m like, girl, you live in the town next to me. And I’m still going to like, I put her in my class at a severe discount with my West Virginia people, just so I could teach her. Like it’s so small minded to think that we, that there’s not enough business. There’s plenty of business. You just have to be really good at what you do. You have to be authentic. You have to, you know, not everybody loves me. Not everybody is going to hire me and that’s okay because I probably don’t want to work with them. I only want to work with the people who are like me, right? Because those are the most fun to work with the people that I can pick up my phone and joke with right now are the people I want to work with. And some people aren’t like that and they might be great for somebody else.

[33:17] I think it’s just, uh, yeah, I might have a different mindset than a lot of people, but it serves me very well. You know, I’d travel the world with my kids. I’d, I’d do all right. Pretty relaxed. Yeah. I’m doing fine. I’m doing fine. That’s awesome. I mean, it is, it’s true. I think like saying no to business, um, is, is a definitely a, a hard thing that I don’t think a lot of people, it’s hard to learn. It’s a hard lesson to learn firing people. That’s a hard lesson. Listen, you wind up in your broker’s office in tears enough times and you will just learn how to fire people. Like when it doesn’t feel good here, that’s it. Let them go. I learned that. Like I just learned that last year in the very hard way. So yeah.

[33:59] Yep. Yeah, no, it’s a, it’s a tough lesson. Um, cool. What about a favorite book? One that you thinks fundamental that everybody should read or just one that you currently really enjoy? Um, I enjoy this book over and over and over. And so, you know, I talk about my kids and my nieces and, uh, my family a lot. And so I have a, I have a little text message thread that every Monday I send, uh, that, that group of children, uh, one of the laws of power from the, from Robert Greene’s 48 laws and power. This book is, this book has helped me so much in my personal life, my business life. I mean, with negotiations, with handling people with this book, I think is everybody should read it. And it’s like very easy to read, or it’s very, it’s very easy to get really in depth with it, or you can skim it. It’s super readable book. That’s an intimidating looking book.

[34:50] Is it? Look, I even like take notes in it and everything. It’s, it’s pretty like, this is, I legit, I take this one very seriously. This book is a good one. No, I’ve, um, I don’t know if I’ve actually ever tried to tackle it. It’s been on my list. Um, but it is so long and so big that it just, it kind of scares me. It’s like law one, you know, like it’s broken down. It’s like broken down into laws. If you do one a week, so that’s what we do is one a week. I just read it every year and I just do one law a week. I ask chat GPT, um, like every day I’ll be like, Hey, uh, you know, Robert Greene’s first law of power. How could I use that in my daily life this week? And, and, you know, I call him Charles.

[35:32] Charles like tells me a bunch of things. So it’s, I think it’s really easy to read. You know, don’t sit down and read it. Like it’s a novel though. Just chunk it. All right. You’re convincing me. I’ll try it again. It’s so good. It’s so good. You’ll, you’ll email me. Um, now, um, you are obviously very active as a big speaker, all that kind of stuff. If people want to find you a website, Instagram, where can they find more about you? The best way to find me is on my Facebook business page. So you can just look up my name, um, realtor and pretty much you, everything is from everything comes off of there. I feel like every time I’m on a podcast, people, uh, you can call me like literally, I don’t care. Like just look me up, call me, text me. You can find out about my classes, all that stuff. Yeah. I’m, I love, I love helping people. So.

[36:23] That’s awesome. Yeah. It is the gift and the curse of being a realtor. I mean, you can find us very easily. Uh, if you all liked what you heard, uh, definitely check out Nicole, uh, follow her, uh, you know, reach out to her, uh, follow this podcast, uh, give us a review. We’d really appreciate it. And Nicole, thank you so much for being on the show. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Thanks for listening to the REI agent. If you enjoyed this episode, hit subscribe to catch new shows every week, visit REI agent.com for more content until next time. Keep building the life you want. All content in the show is not investment advice or mental health therapy. It is intended for entertainment purposes only.