Episode 11: Why Real Estate Scripts Don’t Work… Until they do

Shawn Whelan (00:01):

The reason scripts sound awkward at times is because you haven’t internalized them. So they do kind of come out a little pitchy a little bit, I dunno, a little stage maybe, but once you internalize it, it just comes out of you and it becomes very conversational

Chris Cook (00:23):

Today. Mr. Shawn Whelan, who I share some office space with, we’ve had a couple of interactions. Actually, one of my very first real estate deals that I did with Max Hallmark was with Shawn.

Shawn Whelan (00:37):

That’s right.

Chris Cook (00:38):

We did a commercial deal down on Queen Street and we’ve stayed in touch, I guess, here and there. And then when I moved over to the Merton office, we’ve seen more of each other and I’ve had the pleasure of talking with him and kind of going through different sort of strategies and mindsets and ways to build your business. And the reason why, Shawn, the reason why I brought you on is because I think you and I have really similar sort of approaches to how you’ve done your business for a very long time and how I’ve come to really adapt my business and my way of thinking, which is more effort based is probably the best way to put it. Rather than looking for that silver bullet, that magical platform that you can buy that’s going to place people on a silver platter in front of you versus what you really have subscribed to, which I guess best described as maybe like a baffini type of approach to building your business, getting on the phones, having conversations and converting clients that are going to buy and sell to your side, to your level of your level of attention and service and all those other things that come along with it.

(01:59):

I guess some of this is new for me because we’ve talked about that sort of approach, but we’ve not talked about your business specifically, how you came to this sort of strategy and why you’ve stuck with it.

Shawn Whelan (02:13):

Thanks, Chris. Glad to be here by the way. Thanks for the invite. So this is my 38th year in real estate. I think it’s 39 in October. And when I started, we didn’t have obviously internet driven lead generation systems, et cetera. So my mentor and coach for many years was Mike Ferry. And Mike taught a very simple system, which was speak to people every day and what his course was about and his teachings was simply learn a script, who out and engage with people and just learn what to say, learn how to handle the objections and et cetera, and the rest take care of itself.

(03:02):

I started door knocking and I had a partner for many, many years, her and I, this is kind of funny story because the first time we went out to hit doors, I’m talking like 1989 maybe. We were working in the same office, but we didn’t really know each other. It was basically an experiment. We’re like, Hey, let’s try this door knocking thing. And then we made an agreement, we said, we’ll go for 30 days and if nothing happens, then we’ll just say thank you part friends, and see around the office. So I think in that first 30 days we did four deals and lightning struck because it was so simple, super effective, but it does require a certain discipline and it can be boring and it takes time. So that’s where I started to cut my teeth is just what else was I going to do all day?

(03:59):

So we go out, grab a handful of flyers, go knock on doors. Next thing, yes, I’m thinking, oh, this guy’s thinking. And so I just never gave that up and I stayed in the coaching program and so I really strengthened my scripts and dialogues and that helped me a lot. But since I started the business, to your point about the shiny object, the silver bullet, there’s been hundreds of them come and I haven’t seen anything really stick. And that’s not to diminish. I know there are people that do certain volume of business through other modalities, but for me the most effective, cost effective and consistent way is just through talking to people. So that’s what I do and I still do it.

Chris Cook (04:43):

You said you use the S word there, which is scripts, which I think for a lot of people, I think a lot of people tend to shy away from a script because they don’t want to feel like it’s scripted. They don’t want to feel like they’re acting, they don’t want to have somebody feel like they’re having regurgitated information being shot at them. And you and I have heard people deliver scripts in a way that sounds very robotic and not terribly well delivered. I think that a script can be, well, I think anybody that’s any good at their job has a script. They have a way of delivering. I always think about a wolf of Wall Street, that scene where he goes in and he sits down and he convinces that guy to buy those terrible stocks at pennies. But he had a script he hadn’t approach and more importantly had some things that were essential to converting somebody to have that conversation. He used their name, he would say, tell me Shawn, I’m interested in this. And Shawn, if I was to do this, he uses their name, he creates that connection. But the way that he delivered it, it never really sounded like a conversation in the movie. And I think that’s why everybody, all the other salespeople in that room were so awestruck because it didn’t sound like a script. It sounded like he was having a real conversation with this guy and that unfortunately for the movie, he really didn’t care about the person on the other end.

(06:36):

But if you really did care about them and you really did believe in the thing that you were selling and you had a script, how powerful is that?

Shawn Whelan (06:44):

Well, there’s a couple things. First of all, everybody uses a script every day, whether they realize it or not. If you examine the language with your kids, with your spouse, everything is scripted because you just repeat certain patterns in our speech. So the idea that we don’t have scripts is really a myth. The second thing is the reason scripts sound awkward at times is because you haven’t internalized them. So they do kind of come out a little pitchy a little bit, I dunno, a little stage maybe, but I went through some really heavy duty training and practicing about internalizing scripts and it’s not complicated. You just have to do it. And once you internalize it, it just comes out of you and it becomes very conversational. So what I would say to, and I get these conversations, a lot of people are resistant to scripts for me.

(07:41):

They’re amazing. They help me lead the conversation. They’re not there to trick people. It’s there to keep the conversation on track. It’s there to figure out if you can help this person with their goals, et cetera. And at the end of the day, we’re in sales, we’re there. We only get paid if we help them achieve their goal by buying or selling. And a script facilitates that very nicely. And without question, I think that should be mandatory. I think everybody should be in some form of script training, especially new agents. You go out on a listing appointment. I remember going out before I was trained, I just shudder thinking what I must have looked like on the other side of that table. 22 years old, they probably wanted to walk me right up to the curb. But you learn, you make the effort, go learn some scripts, learn how to handle some objections, and you’ll find your closing ratio will get much better. Your time wasted will become much less because you’ll learn to pre-qualify people much faster. And yeah, all in all, I think it’s one of the most critical skills skill sets you can have in this business.

Chris Cook (08:48):

Yeah, I really like what you said there is everybody has a script whether you’re talking to your kids or because one of the objections to a lot of pre-listing preparation, because I’m a really big believer in preparing ahead of a listing presentation, I come armed with a lot of information and then I pull it out as it’s needed. I don’t present it all at once. I don’t over paper the person, but I have everything that I need or may need

(09:19):

With me. And what’s interesting is there’s another agent who’s a very high producing agent at our brokerage and he shows up with nothing, also been doing the job for a little bit longer than yourself. And I don’t think that that’s a lack of scripting. It’s a level of confidence and knowing that he’s going to have the answer for whatever it is that gets put at him. He already has the data in his head and can present that on a as needed basis. But I would bet that he has an internalized script like you’re saying. So well ingrained that he’d be able to run circles around most agents,

Shawn Whelan (10:14):

100%. I guarantee you that person 100% uses a script. But the reason they show up like that at the listing point, in my opinion, and I don’t know exactly who or what the circumstance of their presentation is, but I would guess that they’ve already asked all of the pre-qualifying questions right out of the gate. They’ve qualified this person through their own scripting. So when they walk in there, they already know what’s the objection going to be? What’s the price point going to be? And they walk in, they go, bang, bang, sign here. And that level of confidence comes from knowing your script. It comes from knowing what to say. If somebody calls me cold Turkey on a telephone, I’m scripting them right away. I have a list of pre-qualifying questions. I want to know what’s motivating them. It’s just a script. By the end of that first conversation, sometimes I can dump the phone.

(11:03):

I can just say, sorry, this isn’t going to work for me. Or well, I’m heading into that appointment when I’ve set it, I already know the lay of the land. I know their objections, I know what their goals are. So when I go in there, I’m just that much further ahead. If you show up, if somebody goes, if I’m competing, I know this, and let’s say it’s a level playing field like no bias because of relationship or something, I have as good a chance as anybody else, probably better because I’ll do a really great pre-qualifying script and when I go in there, I got my questions and my objection, handlers all internalized. And when you have that sort of in your quiver, it’s much better.

Chris Cook (11:42):

I think it was something that just came into my head while you were talking about everybody has a script and it’s something that just sort of queued to me. If you’re cold calling somebody, whether it’s for real estate or duct cleaning or whatever, everybody, the buyers or whoever’s on the other end of that sales call, they have a script too.

Shawn Whelan (12:09):

You’re dark. They do.

Chris Cook (12:09):

We all have a script. When the duct cleaner calls, you have a script to get them off the phone.

Shawn Whelan (12:16):

100%.

Chris Cook (12:17):

And one of the things that I always thought was I just have to be, I got to have a deeper script than the person that I’m calling. If I can get past those first initial more superficial objections where I get treated like a duct cleaner, I do and I have absolutely, if you can have that sort of deeper level and understand what that client’s script is as well. L I’ve sat down in front of buyers or sorry sellers and I can tell that they’ve practiced their objections before we’ve met, especially when it comes to something really important. Like commission, they’ve practiced their script to pay less.

Shawn Whelan (13:11):

Yeah, 100%. They’ve made their little notes, okay, honey, we’re got to ask them this and oh yeah, don’t forget to ask, do they do this and do that? So they create their own script, but then put yourself in the shoes of you’re the seller. You’re interviewing three or four agents, which happens often. Somebody walks in there and they spend the first 20 minutes talking about how great the dog looks running around in his new shoes or something. And then it’s just the conversation’s warm and fluffy, but it’s all over the place. Versus the guy who walks in professionally sits down and goes, okay, goes through a script. Right? When I spoke to you on the phone, you said you want to move for this reason. You want to be there by then. You said you wanted this much out of the house. This is what you expect me to do, whatever.

(13:57):

I mean, when they do their comparative shopping, they’re going to say, holy cow, these three guys came in. They’re just kind of winging it, where Chris or Shawn came in here and they were really focused, very professional, and they knew exactly. There’s another, Mike Ferry beats his drum. And at first I resisted it, but I think it’s very true. We want to have great relationships with our clients 100%. You want to have that great connection and all that stuff, but they’re not hiring a friend. You don’t go into your doctor to have a new buddy to go in there and talk about politics. If you have an illness or you go to your lawyer, you go to your banker. You’re not in there to be all warm and fuzzy. Yes, you want be cordial and all that, but go in there and be a professional.

(14:38):

Professional at the highest level. And I just want to tie something else in because you talk about the duck cleaning guys, that phone, right? Call Rogers call pizza. Pizza order pizza, pizza. No. If it’s all scripted, IBM spent hundreds of millions, maybe billions of dollars on the psychology of selling, and they train all their computer salespeople for the last 50 years to sell more product. Realtors are the only group of salespeople. And I say salespeople because that’s what we are, that have resistance around learning a technique to make a lot more money. And it’s baffling because our paychecks are not small. We not making, if you work at a clothing store downtown Toronto, if you make a hundred, a hundred, $200 on a sale commission, that’s a good thing. But if you’re in real estate and you’re making 25, 30, 50, $60,000 on a paycheck, why wouldn’t you want to be at the highest level in your communication skills?

Chris Cook (15:36):

Yeah, I think that no matter what the pay, I think that everybody should look to up their game regardless of whatever the pay scale is. I’ve always kind of believed that we should put the same focus and energy into a $200,000 piece of vacant land as we do a $2 million new build house. It should be the same. It just happens to be that we chose this particular vein of sales. I think that’s kind of, sorry, that was a little bit off topic. So lemme get back on topic here. Tell me about how much time you spend, because you do cold calls too, right? You do. You have a dialer and you Yeah. Mojo dialer. Yeah, mojo dialer. How much time would you think the most successful calls

Shawn Whelan (16:43):

Take? So full transparency, I do less of the phones these days. I still like the doors. For me, the doors have always been better.

Chris Cook (16:55):

Do you think it’s different, the doors versus the phones in terms of how long the conversation,

Shawn Whelan (17:00):

Oh, the conversations themselves, they’re not first conversation.

Chris Cook (17:03):

First conversation.

Shawn Whelan (17:07):

Oh, okay. If it’s not a lead, you’re off the call. Let’s talk about the phone for a second. You’re off the call in literally, I mean like 10, 15 seconds, right? If they’re going to completely blow me off, but if they give me something, I have a script to dig deeper, then my goal is to get an appointment. It’s not to make a contact. So my intentionality is, it’s very important, by the way, if you’re just calling for numbers and you’re not asking for appointments, it’s not as effective. You got to get that idea in your head that, Hey, today I’m going to set two appointments or whatever. So I would say going through script, if they’re responsive, it’s not more than five minutes and I’m going for an appointment.

Chris Cook (17:54):

Thank you for that. Because I actually, and full disclosure here, Shawn and I actually haven’t talked about this before, and we have the same number I believe because I’ve coached a lot of agents through cold calling and I believe the same thing. First of all, your goal is to get to a proper appointment with all the decision makers present. And if that conversation takes more than five minutes, every minute after five minutes, the likelihood of you converting this person to even an appointment, let alone a client, your chances diminish exponentially after five minutes, 100%

(18:41):

They are. I tend, what I find is, and I’ve had agents that I’ve done a debrief after a call session, I’m like, how did it go? And they go, oh, I had four really great conversations. Great, how many appointments? Zero. How long were those four conversations you had? How long were they? 15, 20 minutes. Man, we got into all kinds of great stuff. Alright, have you ever heard the term getting the milk for free sort of thing? Why would you buy the cow? And what they’re doing is they’re milking you for information. They feel like they’re getting their appointment for free. They don’t have to give anything in return, and you haven’t properly scripted to get to the appointment as quickly as possible so that you can get onto the next call and then do the appointment with proper preparation and show up for that. So I think we agree on that

Shawn Whelan (19:42):

100%. And I think five minutes is a generous amount of my time. So I agree with you a hundred percent. So here, if I can expand on that, using door knocking as an analogy. When I was starting out, I was shy. I was a little bit, I guess probably uncertain, lacking the confidence to be solid on my feet at the door. So I would get looped into these, Hey, yeah, come on in, have a look at my house, tell me what you think it’s worth, right? Oh yeah. And what do I end up doing? 25 minutes. I’m standing at a guy’s canteen and he’s telling me how great the rebar is. And then at the end he goes, yeah, but you know what? I don’t think we’re ever going anywhere. And besides my cousin’s getting her real estate license, right? That’s right. So you get enough of those, you learn.

(20:32):

I tell people now, if I’m at the door and I say, listen, I list to your neighbor’s house, just wondering if you have any thoughts of selling the house in the near future. And they say, well, yeah, yeah, why don’t you come in and tell me? I’ll say, well, hold on. Before we do that, let me ask you this question. Are you thinking about selling? Nah, no, we’re not going. Well, listen, here’s my card. You call me when you’re ready and I’d be happy to give you a price on your house. Have a great day. Goodbye. That’s it. I’m not there. I don’t need any more friends. I don’t need any more phone numbers. My phone’s full of numbers already. What I want are appointments. That’s my only goal when I go, I’m not looking for contacts. So for anybody who’s thinking about prospecting, it doesn’t matter.

(21:12):

Cold calling on the phone or door knocking, even open houses. If you’re not asking for appointments on open houses, what are you doing there? Right? It should be, Hey, what do you think of this house? Would you like to make an offer? No, we don’t like this house. Oh, why? What are you looking for? We’re looking for A, B, C. Great. So let me ask you this question. If I could find you A, B, C in the neighborhood, take a look at it next Saturday. Do you have some time available? Yeah, I guess probably. Sure. Great. By the way, are you under contract with another agent? No, we’re not. Great. So this is what we’re going to do. I’m going to call you Friday because Saturday morning at 11, I’m going to line up a couple houses. Does that work for you guys? Great. What’s your numbers? Blah, blah, blah. I’m going to call you Friday. I’m going to confirm. That’s without even knowing if there’s another house to show them I’m moving for an appointment. That’s it.

Chris Cook (21:55):

Yeah. And yeah, I love that. I have a different approach that kind of probably gets us to the same exact place, but

Shawn Whelan (22:06):

As long as you’re going for the appointment and you find your road. But otherwise, and again, I learned all this basically by taking my lumps at the start, right? Start realizing that, hey, if I don’t start asking for these appointments, they’re not going to just come out and go, Hey Shawn, why don’t you come on over and show me how this Saturday, right?

Chris Cook (22:23):

Yeah. I always hate asking people if they’re under contract with another agent. So I beat around the bush, I found another way around it, and basically what I said, has anybody taken the time to sit down and book a strategy session with you? And then they’ll ask me a question, what’s a strategy session? Oh, well, that’s where I get a really clear understanding of what it is you’re looking for. And I put it together with my understanding of the market and what’s available and how to best get you from where you are to where you want to be safely. Does that sound something that’d be of interest for you? I’m only asking for half an hour of your time. Is that a good trade? And they say, yeah, that’d be great. I said, I just want to make sure before I do book this up, you’re not our contract with any other realtor, right? Because now I’ve asked them, basically, if you do have a realtor, are they good? Have they taken the time to actually make a strategy session, to make a strategy to get you where you’re going? So I think it gets us to the same place

Shawn Whelan (23:25):

100%. And the verbiage might be a little different, but your intention is the same as mine. They come into my open house where I meet them somewhere, I want to sit down and talk real estate with them. And the only way we do that,

Chris Cook (23:38):

But both of those are clearly well rehearse scripts.

Shawn Whelan (23:43):

Absolutely. Oh my god, different. I did an interesting, I was at a Mike Ferry event, maybe like 2020, and one of, I was part of this mastermind group and we were doing a lot of role playing and stuff, which is super good. I would tell anybody, if you want to get really good at your scripts, get a role play partner or two or three. Anyways, he challenges all. He is like, who knows? They’re listing a presentation script and of course we’re all like, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you start to do it with somebody who’s reading the script while you’re improvising and they’re like, no, no, that’s not what you say there. So anyways, he gives us this 30 day experiment, write out the listing presentation script every day for 30 days and see how good you are at the start versus the end, right?

(24:32):

Oh wait, well, I’m telling you, everybody in my group, I would say it took maybe by day 2021, I didn’t have to look at the book anymore. It’s just coming out of you. The point I’m getting at is that for anybody that’s watching this about scripts that says, oh, it’s hard to learn, make it simple. Write it out for a month and start small. Take off one little chunk and then get a role play partner. Don’t be embarrassed. Have the conversations. Okay, you be the buyer, you’d be the agent, then flip it around and then you give each other a new objection, et cetera.

Chris Cook (25:06):

Well, practicing things can be boring. First of all, I’ve been there my whole life. I’ve done a

Shawn Whelan (25:14):

Lot in your athletics. Absolutely.

Chris Cook (25:15):

I’ve done a lot of training and it can be really boring, but I never, ever got bored of winning.

(25:24):

And the reality is, before I really learned how to train and practice and do all these things, until I really learned how to do it, I did a lot of losing. And the problem that we have in real estate is sometimes the opportunities are few and far between. You can’t, just finding clients can be really quite challenging. And then to not be prepared for that opportunity when it comes to you is really the shame. And that’s where I challenge people to say, if you were doing anything else, would it be acceptable for you to not practice what you do? I always say, if you were to compare yourself to a dentist or a doctor or a lawyer, those people’s businesses are called practices and they have the advantage, let’s say, of being able to practice their practice with clients. They get to a certain level and they get better with time because they have so much practice. We don’t always have the benefit of a multitude of clients to be able to stay sharp. Sometimes you’ll be 2, 3, 4, 5 weeks without having a listing appointment. So how do you keep yourself sharp for the next time that opportunity comes and God help you if you go right after Shawn,

Shawn Whelan (27:06):

Anybody? I mean, we’ve got some real rock stars in our company and our industry that are really committed to that, right? They really do that type of work and it shows. But you mentioned about training, and I love sports analogies and go to any of the superstars, right? Kobe Bryant guy wins a, there’s a great story about him winning an NBA championship and the next day, who’s the first guy at the gym at seven in the morning shooting hoops, Kobe And somebody walked in and said, whatcha doing? He just won last night. He says, yeah, I got to get ready for next year, and there’s thousands of those stories,

(27:49):

The very first PGA golf tournament. I went to, tiger was at his really hitting his stride, and my buddy was on the tour, he was on one of the other tours. So I went to Florida and hung with him for a while and he says, we’re going to go to Bay Hill to watch that tournament. He says, okay, we’re going to go, got to get up at four 30. I said, four 30, what do we make him the coffee? What are you nuts? He goes, no, no. And he goes, that’s when they start practicing. I go, what do you mean? He goes, well, the minute the sun comes up, they’re all hitting balls. So I watch and I see all these guys and this Chris, they’ll hit like two buckets of balls. They go play 18, tiger comes off the course, I’m standing right there. He does an interview, he walks past us and where does he go? Goes right back, gets two buckets. He starts working on his irons, but we want to not learn anything and be like superstars, right?

Chris Cook (28:41):

Yeah. I think it’s fair to say, and as quickly as that, we’re already coming up on half an hour and one of the things that I always like to do when we do get somebody like yourself, and you had mentioned this is what are the things that somebody could do if we had somebody that was listening to this and our conversation resonates and they’re like, yeah, you know what? I don’t actually practice. How should I start? What would be your suggestion for somebody that needs to really start practicing their delivery, their scripts? Where’s the best place to start?

Shawn Whelan (29:31):

In my opinion, the one and only would be the Mike Ferry organization because they really, it’s a full A to Z. All the scripts are there. They teach you not just the scripts, they teach you about your tonality, how to do vocal intonations drops, where to raise your voice, Laurie voice. The whole psychology is selling and they support you in that. They walk you through it progressively, and all of his scripts, by the way, they’re free. They’re downloadable free on his website, so nobody has a reason to not, but if that’s not their bag, find another coach that has scripts and get some coaching audit, right? Do some training.

Chris Cook (30:16):

I mean, you used the right word there, coach like Tiger Woods’s, best golfer in the world at the time when he was competing, and it’s arguable whether or not there’s better people now or before him, but when he was competing at the top of his game, the guy was a machine. He had a coach, he had multiple coaches. Multiple coaches. That’s correct. Swing coach for sure. He had a sports psychologist, right? Hundred percent. And I can attest at the peak of my game, I had multiple coaches. I’ve relied on that outside perspective on somebody to be able to analyze my performance is to be able to fine tune the things that matter. I’m always surprised that people don’t engage in coaching and especially, and I’m going to put this out there. This is, I’m on the max Hallmark leadership team and my job is business development coach, and I do believe heavily in scripting. I have my own script. I have other scripts that I’ve pulled from other coaches from other places, and ultimately what I did is I created a script that really was me. I pulled from a lot of different places and I find stuff that I like and I include it.

(31:40):

I think you can source this information, but ultimately I think you do. You need a coach, you need a peer group, you need to have conversations with other people. I really value the times when you’re in the office and we cross paths and we talk, and sometimes we totally agree and sometimes I pick up something that I didn’t know before. Really using that office environment, especially something that’s as collaborative as remix hallmark is. All the offices are very collaborative. I’ve not gone into one where I feel like people are closed off. They’re very sharing. We have a multitude of resources available, but I also think that there’s one book that I read that really moved the needle for me, called exactly what to Say for Real Estate Agents Who authored that book? Oh, Dan. Hey, Dave, who wrote exactly what to Save a Real Estate Agent is, do you remember that guy’s name? Dan? He’s going to

Shawn Whelan (32:50):

Look, is it Dan Sullivan?

Chris Cook (32:52):

No, it’s not Dan Sullivan. I feel like we’re on the Joe Rogan podcast right now. I got the guy.

Shawn Whelan (32:58):

Can you pull that video up? Look

Chris Cook (33:00):

That up. Look that up

Shawn Whelan (33:01):

For me. Let’s back check. This is awesome.

Chris Cook (33:05):

Yeah, Dave’s right here. He is going to look it up and see who wrote that book, but probably one of the best books. I actually recommend it for any brand new real estate agent fresh out of the gate, exactly what to say, four real estate agents, and it’s got all kinds of really clever ways of starting conversations, asking the right questions, getting people engaged, getting past those first objections.

Shawn Whelan (33:31):

What is it? Phil Jones.

Chris Cook (33:32):

Phil Jones, yeah.

Shawn Whelan (33:34):

Okay. Chris, you like the word coach and I love coaches. I’ve been involved with that coaching for many years, and I think of it this way, if you were going to learn to play a guitar or something, you could sit in your basement and pick away, but if you get with a really great guitar teacher, an instructor who will sit with you, I mean, they’ll just shorten that learning curve so much. And why wouldn’t you want to make that investment in yourself to, number one, you of course make more money, but number two, to make the process easier, to make the job easier so you create freedom in your time, you create better earning opportunities. There’s just no downside to it. I’ve never understood why people are so resistant.

Chris Cook (34:27):

I think there is, Shawn. I think that there is a downside to it, and the downside is you pay the money, you go on the calls, but you don’t take action. You don’t do the practice, you don’t make the calls. And I’ve seen this a lot. I’ve done a ton of coaching calls and I was a national team coach for a number of years, and the number of people that wouldn’t engage with their gym programs, they wouldn’t do the time on the water. They wouldn’t do the things that they needed to do to be able to get to the next level. They love the idea of being a champion, but they don’t want, it was that guy. There was a guy, a weightlifter guy, Ronnie Coleman. Oh, Ronnie Coleman. Yeah, I remember Ronnie Coleman. He goes, everybody wanted value builder and nobody want to lift these heavy ass weights. And the reality is there is a downside. The downside is that you can lie to yourself and think that going to coaching is going to getting coaching as if it was some sort of commodity that you buy it and just be better. The problem with coaching is if you go to it, but you don’t implement it, if you don’t change your behaviors, if you don’t do the practice outside of that coaching time, then it’s a waste of time.

Shawn Whelan (35:54):

Absolutely. A waste of money. Waste of money, a hundred percent, hundred percent.

(35:57):

That’s where, but if you step into it, those are skills that will last you your career. That’s the beauty, right? If you really lean into it and you put a couple of years in a good program with a good coach, multiple coaches if you want, I know people with three and four coaches in real estate, they’ll have a mindset coach, they have a real estate coach, they’ll have a finance coach. And when you lean into it that way, that skillset doesn’t dissolve. So if somebody wants to, especially newer agents, I would say if you really want to make your life in real estate easier and more fun, learn really good basics and practice it like any skillset, and it’ll pay you back 10,000 for

Chris Cook (36:43):

Amazing. Shawn, honestly, we could talk about this. I have a million more questions, but we do have a time limit on the amount what we want to do, so really appreciate your time. Pleasure. You’re a much better looking man than me. Yeah, sure. Thanks for being here with us. You’re a generous

Shawn Whelan (37:07):

Host. Thanks,

Chris Cook (37:07):

Chris. Taking the time to chat about this, and I hope that if there’s anybody out there that is listening that this has resonated with a couple of things, reach out to people in your office that you think are going to be able to be of assistance, whether that’s your broker, manager, another agent, or by all means do reach out to me because this is my role within the brokerage is to have conversations with people on what’s getting them stuck and how do they unstick themselves? How do they get out of their comfort zone and do some things that maybe they have been hesitant or they haven’t followed through with all the way. If you’re looking to make that sort of change in your career and you want to start with something that doesn’t cost you anything, and that’s I think one of the biggest delays for a lot of people to get coaching is the cost. You’re already paying your brokerage fees, and with it comes this amazing set of resources, and that include not just myself, but the leadership team in general is there to make sure that you can get to where you want to go. So I would,

Shawn Whelan (38:15):

It’s all there. You’re right, Chris, in this company, it’s all there. So whoever’s watching this, don’t be held back. Don’t be nervous, don’t be embarrassed. Don’t be fearful. Pick up the phone, call Chris, ask. It’s only going to help,

Chris Cook (38:29):

And it may not be me. I may not be the right person, but I know all the leadership team and I know where to best help direct you to. So please do connect. It’s not just the leadership team, it’s the entire realtor. Every realtor that I’ve come across has been so generous and giving contrary to I think how a lot of people view our industry.

Shawn Whelan (38:59):

A hundred percent. The culture here is really top shelf.

Chris Cook (39:03):

Yeah. Awesome. Thanks so much, Shawn. It’s a pleasure. I will see you next Monday across paths with you there at the office.

Shawn Whelan (39:12):

Right on. Alright, have a great day. Thanks.

Chris Cook (39:20):

Okay, here are the top three things from Shawn on this podcast. Number one, keep it simple. Talking to people directly through calls or doors remains the most consistent way to build your business. Number two, scripts, work scripts are not robotic. If practiced, they give confidence. I’m just kidding. Scripts are not robotic. If they’re practiced, they give confidence, direction and better results. Number three, always aim for appointments. Conversations should be short and intentional with the goal of securing an appointment. Thanks for listening. If you’ve enjoyed this episode, please do leave a rating and review to help us grow and forward this episode to one friend.