First Year Success as an Agent – Hi, Shana Acquisto, broker for Acquisto Real Estate in here today in studio live, we have Kim Miller, rising star, top realtor, Acquisto Real Estate. So Kim, we’re going to talk about first year. So you’ve been in the business a couple of years now. And let’s talk about that first year success, because you pretty much. Yes. Hit the pavement running. So let’s talk about that. Like you had immediate success. What do you think contributed to that?
Oh, I think what contributed to it is listening to the advice that Shauna and Mike gave us and some of the other agents on the Acquisto team is just always talk about what you do and who you are and promote yourself. And listen, you know, if you’re going out and you’re talking to people, people are going to talk about what they’re doing and what they aspire to do. And just listen, I I knew a lot of people in my neighborhood, and that’s where I had a lot of success in my first year within my neighborhood. Just my knowing hearing somebody say they wanted a pool.
So listening to or knowing who had a pool and just matching that way and then also just putting a post on our neighborhood page, you know, and then you get a free referral and contacts that way. And just people know about you. People know that you’re doing a good job. Everybody that I work with in my neighborhood promoted me somehow to somebody else. And I mean, I still from that initial post, I think last week I talked to three different people and they’re talking about buying or leasing in the next six months.
So I laugh because there was a game show or something called the Love Connection. Remember that? Do you match people up with different people? You know, that perfect match and you’re kind of like that. You would take, hey, I heard this and you put them together and several of your deals were transactions that they weren’t even on the market. They weren’t even you know, some of them maybe had talked about selling. Some of them had some. You were able to put those those people together.
And, you know, she also mentioned something else that I would I want to say. So Mike talks about this a lot. And you mentioned listening. Mike says, you know, you have two ears and one mouth for a reason and you need to listen. And it’s amazing when you just listen how much information that you can truly get because people will start, you know, and, you know, they know you from the neighborhood. Some did and some didn’t. OK, so it wasn’t just about knowing
All of the people. I think out of the nine I did in my neighborhood, one was a really, really close family friend. But we sold their house and bought a house. However, the Facebook initial conversation was knowing and having that first meeting in a selling consultation and listening and caring because you I totally forgotten two of the houses weren’t even on the market.
Talking about listening to one one sweet couple just needed out of their house for financial reasons. And I, you know, just and so everything is there. But you do have the care. We talk about it a lot. Yes. I mean, it’s just you have to want everyone to have their objectives and get their needs met. It’s not about you. It’s about the client. And I think just genuinely caring and listening really just sets you up for success.
And if you do care and you’re a true caring soul and that’s not something you can teach yourself or trained to be, either you care and you have that here and giving soul or you don’t. And I know that you do. And that has really contributed to your success as well. So let’s talk about earning the trust like. So you’re going into these people that you don’t know. Right? How do you. Because I think that’s a lot of it. You have as you know, I think Hanus talked about this. You have seven seconds, right? Dryly Yes. To really connect and earn someone’s trust. And so how do you do that?
I think for me, earning someone’s trust, it goes back to listening, but it goes back to. Just your body language being open and then not just talking about yourself, cells, people, we get a bad reputation sometimes because no one wants to be sold. No. Right. And so for us, I think it’s like a consultative cell conversation. Just listening. You can’t go in with your goal.
You have to listen and to be able to make sure it’s a good fit. A lot of clients and, you know, appointments and meetings that I had that first year, you walk away and it’s not a bit, you know, for either one. And so but to gain trust, I with our process, our listing presentation, this is what we do. This is how we are going to serve you and how we are going to work together to hit your goals.
So they felt confident that you had a plan. Yes, right. And I always believe that you can find some commonality with any person. So you go in, you listen and you find that you yes, you connect the dots. And when they feel that you get what they’re talking about or they’re going through because of an experience you had, instantly you get that connection. I think so. You know, a great job. And I think that’s awesome. Thank you.
So, you know, Kim, when she started real estate, she had another job, a career and, you know, to transition and do them both at the same time. You know, I always say part time realtors. It’s it’s really it’s really giving a client a disadvantage, in my opinion. I think that this is a true profession. We have to be licensed to do this profession. How many professions and, you know, in Texas do you need a license to do?
So this is something that you have to be present all the time and you transition from, you know, a previous career to real estate. And I did them both at the same time simultaneously, which I think is, you know, really, really impressive. So let’s talk about that.
How did I do that? I mean, looking back, I said, OK, so yeah. So that was two years. I’m doing dual roles and I think, you know, in the beginning and in it, you know, with me as a team getting our license and working together and planning for what we wanted our future to look like, I knew going in to real estate that I didn’t want to work two jobs. I wanted to work one job, and that was real estate. And so I had to convince Chad, my husband, that I could do it. So I think that fire of like, oh, I can do this really helped. But also just being available, you know, I mean,
As a kid, how available you are when you did two jobs? Like, that’s crazy
Time management – Because you had meetings that you had to be in. Yeah. You had obligations that were not flexible, right?
Absolutely. And, you know, I worked in an organization where the the leadership team knew I had my license. And so I was hitting my goals in that career. And so we said, hey, you know what? If you can do both of these at the same time, I’m not going to stop you. So it’s like as long as you we you can be successful here and there. That’s what I want for you. But it’s just, you know, doing things in the afternoon, doing things through your lunch break, waking up early before you go work out, getting things done, things.
Just how do you work out like for you. Yeah. OK, so not much sleep.
No. You know me, I’m in bed early so you got to have sleep to be, you know, to go and I just think goal setting and just working around your calendar, your family’s calendar and just having goals set.
I think goals are important. And, you know, I think you and I both have that inner competitiveness with me, with, you know, ourselves. Oh, yeah. That we want to prove to ourselves that we can do something right. And, you know, that really makes a difference, I think.
Oh, absolutely. I don’t want to I mean, I know we’re all going to make mistakes, but the the effort, the failure, I just I didn’t want to say, like, I wasn’t able to go something like that, but I just. Yeah, it wasn’t it wasn’t going to happen. So just knowing and just being driven and setting goals really helped.
