Feel overwhelmed by all the advice you’ve heard about how to market to your sphere and farm throughout the year? You aren’t alone! Most people feel so overwhelmed that all they do is… well… nothing.

Here’s a handy calendar you can use to systematically “touch” your sphere and farm all year long to get leads! Feel free to tweak to make it your own. As always, if you need help with implementation, reach out to the professionals at Voigt& Associates!

Before you know it, you will have 300 people in your group! These are all potential leads and if you keep up with your group consistently you will soon bear the fruits of your labor!

Well, its that time of year again. Preparing yourself to face the music. Whether that tune is a lovely lullaby or a jarring jumble of notes will depend on how well you did this year. However, for the health of your business, your best option regardless will be to take a good solid look at your year so that next will be (even) better.

The end of the year is a perfect time to look at your systems, make plans for the next year, and check on your finances. The new year will be a fresh start, so why not clear off your slate and start ready and raring to go? When preparing for the new year with an end-of-year check-up, you should (at a minimum) look at the following items:

You wouldn’t believe how many agents I know that, unless someone really did some digging, they would have never know this person was in real estate. Blows my mind every time. It seems obvious, but I think a lot of agents just don’t think to take the time to shout it from every rooftop they can find. If you want people to use your services, you first have to let them know what you are selling! At a minimum:

Feeling stumped? Want to try something new? Here's a list with over 50 ideas to get you started! Need help getting any (or all!) of them accomplished? Give us a call!

We all grow up knowing the Golden Rule - treat others how you would want to be treated. Funny thing is, it seems like when we start running our own businesses we forget how important relationships are and how important it is to make people feel special.

Let's talk for a minute about branding. This is a topic people LOVE to talk about, but few ever really take advantage of.

When we think about branding, most people think about a strong logo and some sort of omnipresent reputation that transcends all others and results in a "household name." But truly, branding is much deeper than that. When you think about branding, you need to think about your customer just as much as, or maybe even more than, you think about yourself.

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, real estate agents and business owners sent letters and postcards to prospective clients. This was a more simple time, before the pervasiveness of social media, websites, and PPC. Life was slower. Relationships were stronger. Handshakes meant something.

Fast forward to today. Everything we do moves at the speed of light. "Friends" and "Connections" are made instantly on Facebook and LinkedIn, ads are images scrolled by in news feeds, and you can never get anyone to call you back (voicemail? what's voicemail?). 

You wake up in the morning, check your phone, and are accosted by 127 unread emails. This is in addition to the 2,963 emails already in your inbox. Both numbers keep growing. It's like Groundhog Day. Every. Single. Day. 

You can't keep up with it and stopped trying about a year ago. You know half of the emails are junk and probably 90% of it could just be deleted at this point, but the very thought of tackling it overwhelms you and you just shut down. 

When we set out to grow our businesses, whether we want to admit it or not, we want to see immediate results. We can't help it. It's in our nature as humans to prefer the non-delayed-gratification option. Wouldn't you like it if you just mailed out some postcards and three days later your phone started ringing off the hook? Alas, those of us that have owned businesses for any significant amount of time understand that that's just not how the world works. Instead, it is our job as business owners to reach out, advertise, market, post on Facebook, sell, and cold call until we finally get a nibble, a lead, and then a bite.

You are BUSY! As in, stay up until 1 am answering emails getting 4 hours of sleep and then back at it again at 5 am kind of busy. Some days, you aren't entirely certain that the time fairy didn't trick you and sneak out a few hours behind your back.

The good news is, that means you care about your business and are DRIVEN! Congrats, BTW (we don't hear that NEARLY enough) - 99% of the population doesn't care enough to work as hard as you do and won't reap that rewards that you will.

You already know you should be using social media to help grow your business. Frankly, this is where pretty much all advertising is going. It won't be too long before billboards, postcards, and even TV commercials will be a thing of the past. Even worse - if you don't get on the train right now, I can assure you your top competitor already is.

But - social media can be daunting, even scary. There is SO MUCH to learn. I tell my clients all the time that you couldn't even teach a comprehensive class on it. There is too much to learn and it is changing rapidly.

If you are like most of my clients, your day is consumed by emails, phone calls, meetings, putting out fires, and, well, just trying to get through the day without anything blowing up. Marketing is always on your mind, but it is done in bursts - on the weekend, at midnight, in the carpool line, pretty much any time you can just squeeze it in. You know that you would like to spend at least an hour a day concentrating on building your brand and in return, your business, but that just isn't always possible. Life is hard, and owning your own business is life is hard times 2.