REALTOR® Terry Watson of Chicago has trained thousands of real estate professionals nationwide and this week he offered his words of wisdom to REALTORS® in southern Illinois at the IAR Spring Conference in Collinsville. The topic for his session was “Avoiding Roadkill—the 10 Stupid Things Really Smart REALTORS® Do To Mess Up their Lives.”

Watson believes the first 30 minutes of what you are exposed to will influence you for the rest of the day. If you watch the news and are exposed to negative information, your mood will be affected. His motivation in the morning is to log onto YouTube and do a search for “LOL” every morning to get a good laugh in at the start of his day.

Here are some of the highlights of his remarks to REALTORS®

1) Make things easy. Find a way to make things easy for your clients and watch how they come back to you in many different ways. Go buy the book Don’t Make Me Think. People don’t want to think. They want E-A-S-Y! Look at every area of your business to make things easy. Make your website easy. Most people don’t read anymore they scan. Don’t get bogged down in information overload.

2) Start having fun. Watson recommends a good book to get you in the mood for fun: Nuts! Southwest Airline’s Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success.

3) Stop being reasonable. Put a humor section on your website and watch what it does to the hits. If you are always being reasonable it shuts down portions of your brain. If you are unreasonable you access other parts of your brain, he says.

4) Use YouTube videos as instruction for clients. Log onto YouTube and type in “real estate” and watch how REALTORS® are using video as part of their self-promotion. Get a YouTube account, keep a flip video camera with you at all times and get testimonials from clients. He says next time you have a buyer say “You were amazing—I couldn’t have done it without you” ask if you can get their video testimonial. Here are some ideas for some testimonials:

  • Get a testimonial from a short sale where you saved someone from foreclosure.
  • Next time you have a killer deal where you saved someone lots of money get a testimonial.
  • Get a testimonial from a lender about what a great job you do or from an attorney.

5) Be sure to quote an authoritative source when you report facts and figures. This will make you sound more credible. Don’t use wrong phrases in your advertising such as “quiet neighborhood,” “quiet streets” and “good schools.”

6) Stay energized. Real estate is a stressful career. Make sure you are taking care of yourself and eating right to say energized. Never let yourself get hungry. Get healthy to stay energized throughout the day!