From Special Agent to Real Estate Agent — Ali Garced, AZ

If anyone tells you that 2023 is a tough market, just have them call Ali Garced, a “special” agent out of Tucson, AZ. In only her 2nd calendar year as a Realtor, Ali has already closed 50 units and is on track to close 65-70. Ali’s secret is to be tactical as well as methodical. She is the queen of going deeper with her clients by way of probing questions followed up with meticulous note taking. She uses her CRM to store any piece of data possible because any piece of intelligence can be used either to spot a buying sign or to use to start a future conversation. Ali has been known to jump into her CRM while at the grocery store to look up intel on a client she sees walking around before she approaches them to chat and catch up!

She is also methodical about tracking the conversations she has daily because she knows that 6 conversations per day equals 42 per week and 2100+ per year! Conversations lead to closings!

Connect with Ali on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ali_the_agent/

Want more from Ali? Check out The Agent Goldmine, an agent-focused podcast she hosts alongside Shelby Johnson.

The Neighborhood Realtor is proudly sponsored by Treadstone Funding and Neighborhood Loans. For more tangible tips in real estate marketing, check out Matt's book, The Tangible Action Guide for Real Estate Marketing available on Amazon.

Learned something new, or have a suggestion? Message Matt Muscat on Instagram! 

Transcript

Ali G. | 00:00:03:02 | I do not answer phone calls. And everyone's like, Oh my gosh, you're real estate agent. No, I mean, you know, I don't I don't need to answer phone calls. I rarely ever answer phone calls. And I'm still doing pretty well.
Matt M. | 00:00:18:15 | Everybody, thank you so much for tuning into the show today. And just a reminder, if you have a second, if you're not driving, please go to your favorite podcast and leave review. More views. Help us get more quality guests. I appreciate it in advance. Thank you so much. Today, we have a special treat because it's someone that not only is a successful Asian, but it's someone who is being successful in this market.
Matt M. | 00:00:38:27 | I hear from everyone that we're in a challenging market. I hear all the doom and gloom, but I'm going to introduce you to Ali today, guys. She's already done 52 sides, 52 units year to date in 23. In this market, there's no reason that if she's doing it, you can't do it other than the fact that she probably works harder than you and is cooler.
Matt M. | 00:00:57:28 | But other than that, like you're all even. So, Ali, welcome to the show today.
Ali G. | 00:01:02:17 | Thank you so much for having me, Matt.
Matt M. | 00:01:04:10 | So I wanted to start with the fact that you are you have not been a realtor for like ten years or 20 years or 30 years. Like a lot of the people that I've talked to recently, you are new in the level of success that you've built in your short career is staggering. So I want to hear kind of like your superhero origin story, like when did you start?
Matt M. | 00:01:24:09 | How did you get into it? And I know I just already said that you did 52 deals year to date so far, which is the spoiler. But tell us about how you got there.
Ali G. | 00:01:31:28 | Yeah, I work my ass off. Like, I am the first one to say I like, I work and I talk to as many people as I can about real estate. It's all with intention and it's all with a smile on my face. So it's not like it's not genuine. It's very genuine. I want to help people. And being I know about the process because I am an investor as well.
Ali G. | 00:01:53:09 | That's how I got started. Originally in real estate, when I got my license, I was still active duty Air Force here at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. So I started telling everyone I knew, Hey, I'm getting into real estate as an agent. Let me know if you are PCC. Let me know if you're moving in or out, if you know of anyone moving in or out.
Ali G. | 00:02:09:27 | I'd love to help them. So I started networking before I was even licensed, knowing that I was going to get license and give it a shot. So my first year I did 25 transactions while I was still part time because I was still active duty Air Force. I was still traveling for work, I was still working and like it working my day job.
Ali G. | 00:02:27:25 | And at nights and weekends, that's what I was showing homes and writing tall tracts. Well, I wasn't writing contracts because I don't write anything. I have a time to do all of that.
Matt M. | 00:02:37:22 | You focus on.
Ali G. | 00:02:39:24 | Exactly which is talking. I babble and just really just networking. So then this is my second year. I am so I've been an agent for what is it like a year and ten months? So I'll be finishing up my second year with on track to do like 60, maybe like ten or 15 more by the time, like my second year ends up, because I started in August at like an awkward time and I'm on track to make $3,000 GCI and which is three times the amount that I was making in the military.
Ali G. | 00:03:12:11 | So I am so glad that I separated out. It got to the point where the military is holding me back.
Matt M. | 00:03:17:10 | Well, and it becomes one of those things where what I would have noticed, something that successful agents have in common is that they bring something with them or some assets with them from their former career that really helped propel them in real estate. And so for you, what I'm already hearing is like you number one, you were regimented like in the military.
Matt M. | 00:03:37:06 | You kind of have to give it your all and now you're giving it your all in real estate, but also you have those relationships and the people that you knew from the military, you they already had trust in you. So you're a trusted person because you share that in common. And so now you're pivoting that trust into something more profitable, which for you is real estate, right?
Matt M. | 00:03:54:16 | Like it could have been mortgages, it could have been insurance, it could have been something else. But real estate is one of those things where the trust, the trust carries over. Like, I think if you were a brand new agent coming from a different industry, you might not have had that. But you do because of that. I think people out there need to figure out what are they bringing from their former job that's going to help propel them in real estate.
Matt M. | 00:04:15:14 | It's going to be something from every industry. But for you, it was trust, which I think is huge.
Ali G. | 00:04:20:17 | Yeah, I actually will add on two more things to that. I one was more tactical two and one was more psychological. The tactical is that in my military career I was a special agent. So we were investigating felony level crimes. We were interviewing victims, witnesses and subjects. So when we're interviewing subjects, we're going deep. We are not holding back on our questions because we need to know what can the attorney, you know, press?
Ali G. | 00:04:45:27 | Are they going to be kicked out of the Air Force? So the question, the level of questions I was I got used to asking, very much so translated to the questions that I'm asking the real estate business, which do not compare, you know, asking to see someone's bank account to make sure you approve of funds. And, you know, why are we selling a home?
Ali G. | 00:05:02:09 | Let's talk about this divorce that does not even compare to the questions I was asking while active duty.
Matt M. | 00:05:07:19 | Which is true for you and your experience. But if you think about like the average agent and the average sales person, most people are not comfortable asking even questions that are just below the surface. Right. Like asking about someone's income. Yeah. For you coming from where you did like that seems like a basic question, but that was such great practice because most people are very uncomfortable about that and I feel that a lot of new agents don't.
Matt M. | 00:05:30:23 | They don't get the opportunities that you've had and that they want because they're not going deep enough in their questioning and they're missing opportunities for like figuring out how to sell to those clients because they're just they're not going deep enough.
Ali G. | 00:05:42:28 | Yeah. And I find that with if you come from the customer service background, you have more of that angle where you know how to work people, you know how to talk to people, get people to like you. So that will help. And I did. I didn't have that. You know, it's not like I'm trying to please the subject.
Ali G. | 00:05:58:06 | You know, it's it's hey, come in for the interview And then the the other side, the more psychological side that I had was I was not in a good mental health state when I was in the military, I was miserable. And so I had that, like, depression and that anxiety to fuel me. Actually, Alex or Jose put this in like the best way.
Ali G. | 00:06:17:06 | One of his recent podcast that I use that anger that to fuel the amount of hours that I'm working now to make sure that this is a successful business.
Matt M. | 00:06:26:18 | That's fascinating. So, you know, obviously the military is a tough job and like we our country wouldn't be here without people like you. So thank you, by the way. But you were able to use your I want to, like really dwell on that for a second. You were able to use that pent up, like rage and like frustration to jump into real estate and ensure that you could make it work because you wanted to, as I'm assuming, after a long career in any industry, not just the military.
Matt M. | 00:06:55:26 | You learned a lot about what you don't like and what doesn't drive you and what you don't want to get out of your real estate career. And because real estate is all you and because it's something that you're building from the ground up, like everyone's real estate business is in essence their own small business. You're able to focus all of your effort on building real estate to be the career that you wanted to be without any of the bullshit that you had in your in your former career.
Matt M. | 00:07:17:01 | I love that. And I think that when I what I think I see happening is I think a lot of agents out there, a lot of salespeople end up bringing a lot of their baggage from their past industry. In essence, even though they're now their own boss, they end up rebuilding the same crappy work environment and all the same problems that they had before.
Matt M. | 00:07:35:02 | And then shockingly, it doesn't work out right. Like too many realtors get into this business because they want freedom and they want independence. But that's going to be the reason that they fail is because they're not rejuvenating themselves enough. Like you have to be tenacious in anything that you do, even if you're your own boss. And I think that's where people are missing out.
Matt M. | 00:07:53:08 | Real estate has a lot of contracts. I want this podcast to have a social contract as well. Here's what I need from you. If you're listening to the show and you get something valuable out of it or you hear something that you think that's awesome, I want you to send me a GM on Instagram, or if you sign my email, send it that way.
Matt M. | 00:08:08:21 | The more feedback that I get helps me to put together better shows and attract better guests. So, Ali, obviously people are choosing to use you because you're awesome. But like, what are you specifically doing to like, get them to call you in the first place? Like, why? Obviously it'd be great if everyone just like randomly called you and you could just like, do nothing and they would call you.
Matt M. | 00:08:31:05 | But is it social media emails? Are you doing events on base? Like what is the Catalyst event for getting to 50? Because like I could see someone awesome getting seven or eight deals a year just from being a part of the community. Like how are you getting 50 in your second year? Is that that's different than most.
Ali G. | 00:08:47:04 | Yeah. So first what gets measured gets improved, right? So I track every single conversation that I have and I don't mean necessarily notes on what we spoke about, but I tally everything under just a plain simple like Google Google sheet. So every single day of the week, I, I, I tally how many attempts I made to contact people, how many actual conversations that I had about real estate, how many appointments that ends up being up.
Ali G. | 00:09:15:05 | And then afterward. Those are because those are all leading indicators. That's all I really try to track is I can't really measure. I can't really have a goal of how many closings I want. I can only really control how many times I tried to have a conversation about real estate. So I track everything and the way the.
Matt M. | 00:09:34:09 | Council wants to tell me the number, like what is the number of conversations you need? An agent needs to have a week if they want to get close to 50 transactions in six months.
Ali G. | 00:09:43:01 | Yeah, my number is actually smaller than you would think. I need to have six conversations a day about real estate and that's that's.
Matt M. | 00:09:50:23 | That's not small. Six days 40. I'm terrible at math because I work in mortgages, obviously, but six a day sounds like it's 42 a week about.
Ali G. | 00:09:58:18 | Yeah. Yeah I yeah.
Matt M. | 00:10:00:18 | So 42 a week turns 52 weeks in a year. That's that's like a lot of conversation.
Ali G. | 00:10:05:29 | They're not all doing it.
Matt M. | 00:10:07:03 | It doesn't sound like a lot to you because it's only six a day and when you break it down per day, it doesn't sound like a monumental number. But I mean, 2000 conversations and you're converting 50 that those numbers are realistic. Like now whatever listening to really get that like she's not having 10,000 conversations. She's not telling you to do 30 conversations a day.
Matt M. | 00:10:26:19 | It's six conversations a day that she's strategically ensuring mention real estate in a positive way. Now, is it always the same topic about real estate? Just reminding people that you're a realtor. Walk me through like you run into me at the grocery store and maybe I served with your partner. Or maybe like, I don't know, we were classmates back in the day.
Matt M. | 00:10:46:25 | Like, what does that interaction look like?
Ali G. | 00:10:48:23 | Yeah. Okay, so doing this exact scenario, if I were to run into you at a grocery store first, I would go on my phone to look up my most recent notes because it So yeah.
Matt M. | 00:11:00:03 | So you would see me and then you'd like, hide back in and I'll show you. I love this.
Ali G. | 00:11:04:12 | Yes. Because I don't want to be unprepared. That's the reason why I don't answer phone calls. I am unprepared for that phone call. I don't know what they're going to ask of me. So you can text me and then I'll get back to you when I'm more prepared. We can shorten the length of dialog. His chances are he doesn't need to be a phone call.
Ali G. | 00:11:18:20 | I'll text you back with the answer. Good to go. So yeah, I do not answer phone calls and everyone's like, Oh my gosh, you're real estate agent. No, I mean, you know, I don't I don't need to answer phone calls. I rarely ever answer phone calls and I'm still doing pretty well. So what I would do is look up the notes, see if there's anything that comes to mind, like a recent or anything that we last spoke about.
Ali G. | 00:11:41:03 | Your brother deploying or, you know, whatever, whatever it is you saying soon. The one thing that I make sure not to do is say, Hey, are you getting ready to buy or sell? Do you know of anyone looking to buy or sell? Everyone hates that. No.
Matt M. | 00:11:55:24 | We sounded so familiar. I think that's because that's how every other realtor in the world sounds crazy.
Ali G. | 00:12:02:24 | And it's everyone that's just like my business runs off referrals. What the fuck does that mean? Explain that to someone, because not everyone knows what that means. So it would just be a genuine conversation. Hey, how is your brother doing now that he's deployed? Have you spoken to him? Is there a care package that I can give him?
Ali G. | 00:12:20:13 | Whatever it is, you know, and so something that I am providing value to you and that's it in conversation, chances are you're going to remember that I'm in real estate and probably you're going to be the one that asked me how the market is. That's my leg in. I don't. I will rarely initiate the first real estate portion of that conversation.
Ali G. | 00:12:40:08 | I just want you to like me.
Matt M. | 00:12:42:20 | And it's funny cause I've been talking about this for years. You don't necessarily need to talk about real estate because at some point in a conversation, most human beings who are English speaking, they they typically will ask you, how's it going, how's life, how's work, how's the market, etc.. So they don't know what if they don't know you're in real estate?
Matt M. | 00:13:02:13 | They're going to ask you like, how's your job going? What are you doing these days? What's going on? How are you? If they know you're in real estate, they're going to ask for the market, especially if they're a homeowner or like, what do you think's going to happen in the market? And that's really your time to shine. Yeah.
Matt M. | 00:13:14:29 | And then usually, like any time someone asks me about the market, I make a note. I actually I send myself an email. I'm like really unorganized. So I email myself to do things and I will email myself their name and then I will send me an email the next day. This is, Hey, I know you guys. You know the market I gave you like a two second version of it.
Matt M. | 00:13:30:13 | I didn't want to bore you. Here's here's a summary of what's actually happening in the market. Take this for what it's worth, if you have any questions on it. And that shows people that I'm the most educated person on the market and hopefully in sales. Yes, But like most people don't pick up on the opportunity to talk about themselves when people offer, but they instead shout about themselves when no one cares.
Ali G. | 00:13:51:14 | Yeah. And that shows that you respect their time too.
Matt M. | 00:13:54:16 | Well, And that's also the crazy thing because like in real estate, like we're trying to work with people and obviously we're trying to help them and we're trying to help them get into a really good place, right? Like you are literally providing people with housing after they are turning out of the military or making a switch in their career.
Matt M. | 00:14:11:28 | And whether or not you're a realtor out there and you do military stuff or not, like you're helping people buy a house, like you're helping them get shelter. So you are doing good for them. But you're also you have a huge opportunity to make a large financial gain for yourself. Why are we not respecting people in our marketing?
Matt M. | 00:14:28:19 | Why are we why are we not marketing in the way that we would want to be marketed? Yeah, right. Like just talk to me like a human and respect my time.
Ali G. | 00:14:36:08 | Yeah.
Matt M. | 00:14:38:08 | So tell me. So after getting into it, after getting into real estate, what do you think? What was the most surprising thing to you? Like you got into real estate. I know you were prepared. I know you did your research. I know that you're very tactical, but like, what has surprised you the most and how have you reacted to that or changed in your short two years in the business?
Ali G. | 00:14:57:29 | This is a great loaded question. A lot of things have surprised me.
Matt M. | 00:15:03:09 | All of my questions are less.
Ali G. | 00:15:04:24 | Or too typical of. A lot of things have surprised me. I would say number one is, and I don't want this to come off the wrong way, but how how easy this business is because the standard is so low. You just have to not be a felon to become a realtor, Right? You just have to pass the exam.
Ali G. | 00:15:25:06 | That's it. And then pay pay a little bit of money because that is the standard. That is the bare minimum. That is your quote unquote competition, although I don't really truly believe in competition because there is enough business to go around. So as long as again, is just like as long as you're friendly and you're providing value, you're not you're not nagging people.
Ali G. | 00:15:46:18 | Hey, can I. There are you looking for a realtor? You're providing value. The business will come. The more you give, the more it will come back to you. And I just truly believe that. So like, I've mainly got my business through social media. I sent out a couple of mailers. I didn't really do much. I didn't rather I did not send enough mailers for it to work out.
Ali G. | 00:16:06:25 | I Anyway, that's a different point. I loved social media. It was free. I liked it already. I was already on it. Spending a lot of my time on social media. Might as well capitalize on that. So Facebook, Instagram, but mainly Facebook groups, those are money join local Facebook groups.
Matt M. | 00:16:25:03 | It's so funny you say that because every time, you know, I've been doing marketing presentations in real estate for about the last 12 years. And, you know, at first it was all Facebook face for Facebook. And in the last couple years now when I talk about Facebook to younger people, they're like, oh my gosh, like, who's this old guy?
Matt M. | 00:16:39:29 | Number one, I'm not old. I mean, my thirties. Chill out, guys. But number two, Facebook is still super relevant because of groups like groups are the biggest opportunity. Like if you're out there and you're on Facebook and you're not going to business, think about 20 groups in your community that you could join and think about how you could engage in there if you just moved to your area and, you know, nobody find a local group for people who are into beer, into puppies, into whatever weird like niche you're into.
Matt M. | 00:17:06:03 | There is a group for that on social media. Anyone who asks a question, you can answer their question or ask a question and then add them as a friend afterwards and keep the conversation going. Yeah, like if your goal was to like, make five new friends a week and have one conversation per, that is a way you can do it.
Matt M. | 00:17:22:07 | Whether you're the most active person in the community or whether you're brand new to town. Like, thank you for that, Alec. I'm so having you like you reaffirmed what I have been saying What about so and social media I know on Instagram I follow you and your content fantastic and you post a lot of value. Not all of it is about real estate.
Matt M. | 00:17:39:27 | Like what types of content do you typically try to post about and what resonates the best with your audience?
Ali G. | 00:17:46:15 | When it comes to me posting about real estate specific?
Matt M. | 00:17:50:02 | No, like because I don't think it really necessarily matters if it's real estate or not real estate. I think it's all about engagement. Like what type of posts work the best for you when it comes to getting engaged? Yeah.
Ali G. | 00:18:04:15 | So I have actually not categorized which types of posts. I will say majority of my posts are educational, so some of them are like the trending sounds of me just like lip synching the words. Those are okay. But mainly if you're providing educational pieces of value, whether like something so small. Just a small tidbit. That's all you need.
Ali G. | 00:18:25:26 | I try to keep my reals to less than 30 seconds because nobody even watches really past 10 seconds. People will people will share that. And the more that you post, the more that people will see the your followers. I'm talking Instagram because TikTok is a different algorithm with with Instagram. Those are people that already follow you. Most likely they know you like you trust you.
Ali G. | 00:18:47:12 | So the more that they are reminded that you are a realtor, they eventually will know someone else who you can help. Because mainly my my closings have not come from my actual direct followers. They come from someone that they know. It's always like a middle person. So that's a majority of my my my stuff is stories with a lesson learned.
Matt M. | 00:19:13:16 | Oh, other stories with a lesson learned. And you know, the great power of social media is that anyone listening to this can kind of copy your stuff and follow you. And they're not your competition because they're staying away. So, Ali, if someone wanted to follow you, what is your handle on social for them to steal all of your stuff or learn?
Ali G. | 00:19:28:29 | Yeah, And I mean, you're more than welcome to steal all my stuff. I feel like there is no original thought anyway. You know, like I. Any time you think that you are original, someone else has already thought that. That's my mentality.
Matt M. | 00:19:40:02 | But yeah.
Ali G. | 00:19:41:29 | So my social for all of the social accounts I have, it's Ali the agent and that's Ali spelled Ali Ali underscore the underscore agent.
Matt M. | 00:19:53:12 | I love it. I can literally see that behind you in your head. So it's it's very much on brand. The Neighborhood Realtor podcast is proudly made possible by the support of our sponsors, Treadstone Funding and Neighborhood loans, Two amazing Midwest mortgage companies that now have offices all around the country here are realtor and you'd like to learn more about connecting with one of our lenders.
Matt M. | 00:20:13:07 | Dammit, Matt must be aided and often acting with someone in your market. If you're a lender and you want to join the right mortgage company ADMA, and I'll connect you as well. You said something when we did our pre call that really stuck with me and I wrote it down and I double underlined it, so we have to talk about it.
Matt M. | 00:20:27:04 | You did an excellent job of you do an excellent job of highlighting your journey, both like your transition from like your your past career into your current career. Not only like your success, but also like how you've personally, you know, purchased in rental properties and like your journey in real estate, how you've helped yourself, how you were able to buy your first loan with like a VA loan, second one to.
Matt M. | 00:20:52:25 | And I think your people really resonate with your journey because they see themselves in you. Can you talk to us about that at all?
Ali G. | 00:21:01:11 | Yeah, Being that my my niche, our niche is niche and my niche is military members. That's the language that I speak, even though I'm an investor myself. Originally, I thought my clientele was going to be investors, but I quickly that was another quick lesson learned. I do not work with with first time investors at all military members. That was the language that I spoke.
Ali G. | 00:21:26:21 | So being that they all have access to the VA loan, I have been through it myself several times. My wife and I have four VA loans out right now along with others. Some other mortgages too. That's we know that I've done it. I just moved into this house, which is why I'm filming in my kitchen right now, because my office isn't set up yet.
Ali G. | 00:21:44:12 | Like we continue doing it. I know the process, so therefore that establishes another layer of trust. Like you're not just using an agent that has never, you know, in theory this is what would happen, but know that they've actually done that too, so they can guide you through it.
Matt M. | 00:22:00:09 | What I think too, like a lot of it's funny, like a lot of realtors and sales professionals don't post about their personal journeys, like buying and selling because they don't want to appear boastful. And I'm I do understand that. However, like when you post about your journey about buying, it makes me think it's people like you think that they can do it too.
Matt M. | 00:22:20:09 | It gives hope, it gives inspiration, and it kind of like makes them think like, Oh, she's not that different than me. Why aren't I doing this right? Like, you've only been in this for two years. You're not that far ahead of someone who you know, who's the next Ali who's, you know, transitioning out of one career into another.
Matt M. | 00:22:38:06 | Like, if you can do it, they can. If they put the work in sharing that journey and gives people that hope and then it attracts them to call you to find out how you did it. Like anyone who wants to do what I do and be like a better podcast host or be a better real estate marketer, call me like number one, it's flattering, but number two, like, I want to help you is someone helped me when I was there and that person could eventually be a client in a million different ways.
Ali G. | 00:23:02:12 | Yeah, no, exactly. And I and I really try to make it in intentional that I don't sound like I'm bragging because that's not type of person that I am. It really is to show others like, Hey, I was also miserable in the Air Force in in case you're miserable, you know, in the military too, or whatever job you're in.
Ali G. | 00:23:18:09 | That fueled me to reduce my in my my cost of living. And every single paycheck I got for five years, I invested 50% of that for five years. And that is what catapulted my success, my net worth. That's how I was able to separate as a millionaire. You can do it to.
Matt M. | 00:23:36:12 | Right. And it's interesting to like you talking about your journey and how you did that. There's obviously a million realtors over there that someone could choose, and I'm assuming like on the base that you guys are closest to, there's probably a couple other spouses who are realtors, a couple other agents, like, I'm not wrong and I you're not the only one.
Ali G. | 00:23:54:03 | Everybody's spouse is a realtor.
Matt M. | 00:23:56:03 | Especially in Arizona. In Florida, like you retire, you become a realtor, it's like you're gone. It's easy, but you're able to really showcase your personality through your social media, through your marketing. And so I think after people see that education, they still have a choice of realtor. They could use their brother in law, they could use whoever they know that's an agent, but they see your personality.
Matt M. | 00:24:16:15 | They almost feel like they're getting to know you, even though they're not always interacting with you. And then that's what separates you from the pack, is that your personality is naturally going to be a better fit for X amount of clients, right? Like you're not going to be a fit for the people that don't like you, right? Like, yeah, it's kind of like using video is such a great way to like weed out the people that, you know, you're not going to be a fit for it because they're not going to call you either.
Matt M. | 00:24:38:00 | Like it's usually it's usually a mutual feeling.
Ali G. | 00:24:41:13 | Yes. Yes. 1,000%. And related to that is because everybody's spouse is a realtor. I feel I actually started a Facebook group and it like is not big at all. But I'm not going to be here in Tucson forever. We're going to be moving at some point probably this year in 2023. So I'm I started a Facebook group called like Military Spouses, Realtors, just to help each other out because knowing that we're going to be moving and having to pick up your business and go somewhere else, that's difficult.
Ali G. | 00:25:10:23 | And that's the only thing that like, you know, only spouses and military members that are realtors have to deal with that everyone else has, you know, their roots in whatever city that they're in. So that's what I'm doing to try to get back and like create another community. But just between realtors that are military spouses.
Matt M. | 00:25:28:06 | And all that, too. And I think, you know, I want people out there to realize like, this is not like a military podcast, like this is the advice here works in almost every industry. Like if you are moving and you know that, you know, your situation can be changing, your networks are maturing, you can find like a group that doesn't exist yet and start it yourself, right?
Matt M. | 00:25:47:12 | Like there's so many there's so many people I work with that moved to an area, didn't know anyone, started something that became their source, like my good buddy Josh, he was on our podcast a year ago. He moved to Grand Rapids where I live now. Didn't know anyone. He started a young professionals networking group because he was like all the people here are old, like the entire city.
Matt M. | 00:26:04:22 | Like when I go out, it's all old people, the young people. Like I don't know where they're hanging out, but they're not here. And it's cause I had just moved here. Our city was exploding. But no one was like the real groups yet. So he started a group that now has 3000 members, and it's his main sort of status, although now he's not young.
Matt M. | 00:26:19:04 | So it's like it's awkward for him because he's older side of the group. But again, like this, this pertains to any industry. So before I let you go, because I do respect your time, you told me about your your CRM system and anyone that knows me knows that I, I live and die by serums and lists because the two parts of marketing are having a list of people and then having a message to get out to those people.
Matt M. | 00:26:42:23 | So you use Katie Couric because you're with the key. But talk to you. You mentioned that you test out every single person in your CRM, and that is bringing amazing. Tell me all about that.
Ali G. | 00:26:54:00 | Yeah. So this is not an original thought by me. This was this is in our training that we have as you know, somebody in my up line, Ruben Garcia, I have to give him the shout out for this. Every single person that I put in my CRM, I assign five tasks or I'm sure if you don't have to keep score, there's something similar or some sort of a reminder at some point in the future.
Ali G. | 00:27:15:03 | Five different touches. So the first touch is a life update. So I just call it, you know, l'ue and a wife's update isn't necessarily me telling somebody else about what's happening in my life. They don't care. It's it could also be a market update, something that will benefit them again, leading with value or just catching up. Hey, your grandmother died, you know, three months ago.
Ali G. | 00:27:36:26 | How are you doing? You know, or whatever. I do that every two months, which is a lot. I'm actually transitioning that to quarterly. Don't tell Rubin. So but every originally that's that's every two months for every single person in my database, it's a lot. So therefore, you know, going back to the six conversations a day, that's easy. Asking for the other one is asking for talent because I'm always looking to expand the realtor crew, but with people that are hustlers just like me to see if we're a good fit.
Ali G. | 00:28:07:27 | So I'm asking people Haiti know of anybody that's interested in switching brokerages that feels like their growth is stunted right now. Number three is asking for business. Or if they're an agent that I'm talking to asking for a referral. So I do that. Actually. Let me backtrack to ask you for talent is about every nine months to a year asking for business or a referral.
Ali G. | 00:28:30:28 | Same thing like every nine months ish. And then the fourth one is meet. I asked to meet up with someone if they're local in town. Hey, let's grab a lunch. Let's grab a coffee. If they're not local, I ask them what conferences they're going to that year because maybe there is a chance that we're going to be at the same place at the same time.
Ali G. | 00:28:51:10 | Like Chicago.
Matt M. | 00:28:52:25 | You and me are both in Chicago kayaking and boating on the same river last weekend. And we didn't know it. Even though we had this go. We could have done this on a kayak that could have been filling in. The next time, we will put it together.
Ali G. | 00:29:04:26 | Yeah. So that'd be awesome.
Matt M. | 00:29:06:10 | When you get to the task to do one of your life update calls, I'm assuming you look at your notes first. You stalk me in social media if you what if like you, what if it's someone that doesn't do a lot on social? Like we're all on social. But what if you get to my profile and there's just nothing great?
Matt M. | 00:29:23:12 | What are what what is our conversation going to look like?
Ali G. | 00:29:26:26 | Yeah. So chances are I have take I have taken notes on our last conversation because there are a lot of people like that. They don't you know, they're very private. They don't post anything. That's totally fine. I'll look at my notes as far as what we you and I spoke about last time. And so, for example, in this case, you I know that you last went to Chicago.
Ali G. | 00:29:43:05 | I'll ask you if you plan on going to Chicago again. Something related to the last time. Hey, Matt, it's been a while. It's been two months. Do you plan on going to Chicago again? Because I really liked it when I went and, you know, maybe talk about food recommendations or just something to just just talk just talk to you.
Matt M. | 00:29:59:10 | And I think that's where that's where some people like, lose like where they don't do this strategy because they they think in their head like, oh, I have to get to real estate assessed as possible, but you don't need to like by simply listening is going to give you more more ammo for either your current conversation or the next conversation.
Matt M. | 00:30:14:27 | And if a conversation dies, it's okay to naturally let it die, but at least tend to take notes on it and use that for the next time you chat with that person. Or just to stay top of mind so that the next day when they're working, someone's like, Oh yeah, I'm moving. They're like, Oh, you know what? I did talk to Alex or She's a realtor and I bet she would love this referral.
Matt M. | 00:30:31:17 | It's shocking how people put that together even when you don't ask.
Ali G. | 00:30:35:00 | Yeah, Yeah, exactly.
Matt M. | 00:30:37:03 | Well, Ali, your excitement and your energy is absolutely infectious. So I can see how you built your business to 50 deals in just the first six months of this year. If someone wants to connect with you, if they have a referral in your area. Tucson, Tucson, Arizona. Right.
Ali G. | 00:30:53:21 | Say.
Matt M. | 00:30:54:06 | How would they get you a referral? How could they connect with you? How could they join your team? Any of the above?
Ali G. | 00:30:59:13 | Yeah, the I respond to all messages on Instagram. Maybe I shouldn't, but I do at this time. So again, that's Ali the agent. That's probably the quickest way to get a hold of me. Also, like if you want the trackers that I use the conversation, I also track every hour that I spend with clients. That way I know how much per hour I make with a buyer or seller investor referral.
Ali G. | 00:31:20:22 | I'm happy to give you that too. So I've had a lot of, I don't know, positive feedback about that. So happy to help in any way that I can. Truly awesome.
Matt M. | 00:31:29:19 | Well, thank you so much and I hope you have a great weekend.
Ali G. | 00:31:32:27 | Thank you so much. You too, Matt.