Let's talk about something almost all of you guys are NOT good at, bragging about yourself.

Do you ever feel passed over for opportunities you deserve and are qualified for? Do you feel underestimated? Do you feel like your clients, friends, family, everyone underappreciates the work you do? That people don't seem to get all the little things, the dozens and dozens of things we do to push and pull our clients across the finish line and into a chair at the closing table? I think it's safe to say all of us can say yes to all or at least one of the above.

In many, if not most cases, this can be attributed to the fact those people don't know all the things we do because we are not telling them. It's usually that simple. Think about it, pause for a second and think about your last transaction or better yet your most complicated one: all the times you checked in with the title agent, the lender, the agent on the other side, talked to your broker about wording for an addendum, the time you spent cleaning up, preparing and submitting paperwork, the issues you had, the effort to avoid issues, the time you argued with the appraiser, spoke to the home inspector before, during and after the inspection, called the other agents to discuss……everything. Did you tell your client you were doing any of this? No. No, you didn't. We never do, unless we know they are expecting an answer from us.

Here's a quick (personal) story to further illustrate what I'm talking about.

I lost a listing years ago; the out-of-town seller told me he didn't think I was doing anything/enough to sell his house. He did this over the phone, obviously after he had decided to fire me already. Of course, he and his wife had no idea that I paid for the photographer, bought the sign, bought a lockbox, paid an appraiser for a desktop appraisal (unique property w/ land), personally made flyers, made business card sized "mini flyers" and dropped both off at other real estate offices, took flyers to nearby model homes, paid for color copies, walked their neighborhood and put flyers on every door, left copies on the kitchen counter, put their home in our Caravan, put out (and paid for) directional signs, had the title work pulled- received a commitment, that I stayed in touch with every agent that showed the property fighting for feedback and checking to see if their buyers were still looking, that I had driven another agent out there to ask for advice, etc.… Not to mention the preparation before the listing presentation and all the paperwork. And of course, they didn't agree with my comps and listed it too high! I'm sure I could go on making a longer list.

I was very angry about losing this listing. So, I did we what do and went to talk to my broker, the great and powerful Don Jones himself. He listened to me, and when I was done he asked me a simple question, "did they know you did all these things on their behalf"?

I realized it was 100% my fault! I never told the Seller I was doing all of these things. I spoke to him every week or so, but I felt like I had nothing to say because the results weren't there yet. But the results are not what is important, the activity is. This is what they pay us for! They pay for our expertise, our connections and our time. He and his wife didn't have the time or ability to do all of these things. And we can't control if there is a buyer in the market at that exact moment who may be interested in that particular house. The activity is what they pay us for. They expect results, but the effort is our evidence for the things we can control.

It's part of the human condition to forget that the things we are doing, thinking about, care about a lot are not necessarily what others are thinking about. We do this (assist with transactions) so often, and when we aren't working one, we are still thinking about it. But we forget to tell our clients what we are doing on their behalf. Think about it, how many things do you do for your clients that they don't really know about? Time is money and we are consultants. So, even just talking to another agent in the office about our new listing is time spent working for our client.

There's a Real Estate trainer I used to follow 10 or so years ago, who implored his people to call their clients throughout the transaction process and make what he called at the time, "Brag Calls/Texts". Now, I know the word "brag" makes some of you cringe, it can be hard to brag about ourselves. And I'm not talking about bragging in the arrogant, traditional sense like, "man, no one is better than me" type thing. "Brag" is pretty much a dirty word to most of us, right? So, call them Proof Calls, Reassurance Calls, Update Calls, Evidence Call/texts, whatever. But we need to do them.

Evidence Calls/Texts- brief, purposeful touches during the transaction designed to let our clients know all the things we are doing for them.

Example texts:

• "Good morning, just letting you know I left a message with the buyer's lender for an update to make sure everything is on track. I'll let you know what I find out."
• "Evening! I was just talking to a group of realtors about our home search, one of them has a listing coming that you might be interested in."
• "Hey, earlier I was evaluating our marketing- just letting you know I'm making some new flyers. I'm sending it out to all the licensed agents in our area later today."

Easy huh? The only hard part is remembering to do it. Make a plan, create a habit of quickly letting clients (and your sphere) know all the things you do, all the care you put into your career.

Your work will not speak for itself. You are competent and qualified. Often those "self-promoter" types seem to get ahead despite the fact the most people are put off by them using a megaphone to talk about themselves. Maybe people still work with them because they are letting people know their qualifications and the work they do.

I think Bellator is full of quietly confident agents who don't talk enough about their accomplishments, qualifications and daily activities. Maybe we're all scared people will think we are full of ourselves. Or we don't want to seem prideful. But we can make small, thoughtful actions (like "Evidence Texts") that will have a positive impact on our sphere of influence. You can do yourself justice and give yourself credit without shouting it from the rooftops. Our people need to know how good we are at what we do! In fact, we owe it to them.