Yesterday morning, I was going over my to-do list and, as usual, hadn't even thought of what I'd write for my Broker Bit that's due yesterday. I had a closing, a two-hour meeting at BR with a one hour round-trip ride, FORD calls to make, sellers to update and showings to schedule for today.

I find myself over-booked most days and, unfortunately, I tend to push my FORD calls back when I run out of time. That's a huge problem because I know that these calls are my number one source of business, by far. So, that led me to today's topic in this Broker Bit.

I time block most days, but find myself constantly interrupted (I am after all a qualifying broker in addition to being a salesperson). I kick myself at the end of most days because I didn't get my calls in, again knowing full-well that these calls are THE main source for my business and my livelihood.

This "Bit" is written for those of you with a database of relationships in your CRM. If you still do not have at least 50 relationships loaded into your CRM with autoflows working for you, I refer you back to my previous Broker Bit. It references a document with 150 ways to build your database as well as daily activities that will allow you to build this up quickly. Without this, you're likely to fall into a transaction here and there, but will never have a prolonged, steady income in this business. To be serious about real estate as a profession, you must create and foster relationships with local "non-Realtor" friends and have a system to stay connected to them. I encourage you to get to work on this sooner than later.

But, if you're like me and have your database with notes and tasks for future real estate reviews, FORD calls, autoflow and marketing tools turned on, you may still have the problem of not making time for your calls. That's my personal hurdle. So today, I wrote down 10 names on my note pad and took it with me as I drove to and from the board office and my closing. I was able to make 2 calls on the way to BR and 3 on the way back.

When I got back to the office, I updated my conversations in my CRM and set follow-up tasks based on the calls. Guys, social media, emails and texts are great tools, but I promise you that relationships are stronger when built with face-to-face and voice contact. Relationships are what will make or break your real estate career.

The brokers at Bellator are a wealth of information. If you've not been paying attention, I challenge you to go back and read all of the Broker Bits for the past year (further back if you have time). I promise that you WILL learn something that will help you improve your business.

I am challenging myself and would like to challenge you to always have 10 names from your CRM in your note pad and to call at least one on any drive that you have to make. Be safe and use hands-free dialing, but make use of that driving time. We all drive a lot in our business, so this habit should drive us into many more transactions each year.  

This is a very simple challenge, but one that I know will increase my listings and transactions. I started today and I already know I have a lot of driving tomorrow, so I hope to get at least 10 more calls in while showing property at the beach.

If you're like me and struggle with getting your calls done, give this a try. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

TSW (The system works!). Now go out to build and foster relationships -- that's where the consistent business is! Enjoy the day my friends.