Money for Morals - Part II

In case you were wondering what happened with Paul from a couple of weeks ago, below is Part II of the situation with my coaching client. (Here was the original story.)

In the end, Sam did not want to represent himself; he wanted Paul to do it, but only after a lot of negotiation. The buyer agreed to pay Paul an “average” fee (but not his full fee), but then had a sliding scale reduction in fee based on what purchase price Paul secured for the buyer (Sam).

I said to my client, Paul, “You got out-negotiated.” 

He said, “I disagree.”

We obviously have different views on what happened. My view is that he caved and didn’t want to lose the commission on a very big deal - something of a big number is better than the full fee of nothing.

To be clear, in this example, I am NOT saying Paul should have done anything different.

What I want to point out is that real-life situations are hard, and it’s the story we tell ourselves afterwards that might get us into trouble. In this case, Paul rationalized the outcome to me by saying, “You cannot get your full fee 100% of the time in the real world.” Followed by, “If I can get it 80-90% of the time, I am ahead.”

Fine.

However, I said that not being able to get your full fee 100% of the time is a limiting belief. If you believe that to be true, then when you are in a tougher spot, you will give in - 100% of the time. 

The three points I am leaving you with to consider for yourself and how you operate in your business:

1) I wholeheartedly disagree with Paul’s rationalization. He gave me a very long story about why this case was different. What would have had integrity and more power was: “Yes, I didn’t think I could get my full fee, so I made whatever deal I could get. I was (probably) operating out of fear of loss.” 

If Paul had said that to me, then at least we would have been having a straight conversation. Instead, Paul is sticking to his rationalization and story that you can’t get a full fee 100% of the time, even though getting his full fee 100% of the time is exactly what he did last year! 

Of course, this is my view - it doesn’t mean I am correct.

2) The other problem with this “deal” Paul made with this one client - he now cannot say with 100% integrity that his fee is X. From now on, his quoted fee is X, but if you (the client) can out negotiate him, then you can have a lower fee.

3) One last thing to point out from this situation: Paul and I now have a “break” in our coaching relationship because we haven’t fully worked this out - any future conversation we have will be on top of this incompletion. The next call we have will have to address this issue - not that Paul has to see it from my view - remember, I am not even saying he should have done anything differently. I am saying that between him and me, there is a conversation that still needs to be had, and if I don’t address it, then I am not being Transparently Honest (Virtue #6), nor am I operating with complete integrity.

By the way: I invite you to consider these types of “breaks” that you may have in your client relationships.

Being worth a full fee in this business is way more than just saying, “My fee is X.” It requires not only excellent real estate IQ, but a deep understanding of who you are as a professional, and the ability and willingness to have difficult conversations. 

AI Is Going To Wipe You Out!

I mean, it’s not going to wipe me out, but maybe for a few agents, they are already toast. 

However, I’m not pointing to the people who aren’t using AI, it’s the people who are using AI that are outsourcing their thinking skills.

This week I was doing a small group workshop for twelve very high-performing and seasoned veteran real estate agents. After I walked them through the 13 Virtues, I asked them to share with a partner which one or two virtues might be a growth area for them over the next 12 months.

One person, let’s call him Max, says, “Oh, I put this into my AI - you know, I have trained my AI, and it knows me well. So I uploaded the virtues and asked it which one(s) I need help with. It said the areas in which I could use some further development were...” Max is outsourcing his self-awareness and thinking to his AI agent.

Some of you may see no problem with this. Totally fine. Except that my experience is that people already score low on a self-awareness scale. If you need AI to tell you where you are unskilled or have areas of weakness, how will you ever do it on your own?

The counter-argument is, of course, that AI is helping people who may not be good at this to then have some skill. 

Except, wouldn’t it be better if you learned how to be more reflective on your own?

Like, what happens when you are with a client? The discussion goes off the rails. They are getting upset. You are not getting anywhere. You are definitely losing their faith and trust. What are you going to do - “Hey, I gotta go. I will call you back in 5 minutes.”

I am not saying not to use AI. What I am saying is not to outsource your thinking completely. I am fully expecting people to get dumber and lazier - “I will put it into AI and let it do the work for me,” they will say. Again, maybe someday you can fully outsource your thinking, but probably not now. I am specifically thinking of a real estate office manager who responded to many agent questions with ChatGPT replies. She got fired.

The way to differentiate yourself is to be more authentically you, but I think that is probably scary and/or confronting to many people. Plus, when you look around the industry, there is no shortage of classes and content about “AI Powering Your Business.” Very few classes on “Being a Professional Worth Hiring,” - in fact, there is only one of the latter - mine!