Early in my career, I didn’t have the money to do all the things I was told a real estate agent should be doing: direct mail, pricey coaching programs, etc.
But I, a natural ‘people person’, was having a great time on this new thing called Facebook. In fact, I spent so much time on it, my manager once mused about how much more business I might be able to do if I spent a little less time there.
She was concerned I wasn’t following the pre-internet ‘spray and pray’ marketing playbook. Even my dear friend and sales mentor, Keenan, suggested that I lighten up on my ‘touchy-feely’ tendencies and lean a little more into the grind. What neither of them realized was that I was doing more online than posting my lunch and watching cat videos. I was getting really real with people—lots of them—and my business was doing just fine, thank you very much. In fact, it was thriving.
And then the pandemic hit– a massive shock to everyone and everything in the world. Out of necessity, we adopted technology at 10x our pre-pandemic rate, and we did the same with our humanity. Even the staunchest introverts came to appreciate the value of seeing and being seen.
Before long, it became a lot less risky or weird to demonstrably care about other people in a professional setting. And soft skills—like empathy, active listening and communication—became more important than ever.
Lean Into Relationships
Relationships have always been the foundation of any successful business; we have just been leaving way too much meat on the bone. Since this cultural shift, more people now expect their humanity to be considered (I see you, Gen Z). By people, I mean customers, team members, co-brokes, and yourself.
So it’s time to audit your business strategy to capitalize on this opportunity of soft skills coming to the forefront:
- Where are you over-automating?
- How much are you still relying on interruption as a marketing tactic?
- How can you make more genuine connections with people?
Take the time to determine what’s working in your business and what’s not. You might be surprised by what you learn. From there, create a new plan to double down on strategies that work and maybe even try something new.
As for me, I’m going to just keep on loving on people and collecting checks.
