Christine Hall: Raving Fans

Hey, welcome back to The Real Estate excellence podcast, best of the best. I have a gold key certified agent. Today I'm going to find out what gold key means, and she is way out in front of her production 22 where many agents are down. She comes highly recommended by her broker, Cole slate of slate Realty, and I can see why, and we will find out the details. She is doing something right in 2022 and we'll find out what she is doing. Let's welcome Christine Hall of slate real estate to the show. 

Christine Hall  1:31  
Thank you so much. 

Tracy Hayes  1:32  
I actually had lived Thank you. I actually had lived on some of my intro there. It's funny when I when I sit down and I had the night before, and I going through all your information, and then I try to come up with some fancy intro for everybody but

Christine Hall  7:35  
church was offsetting the financials went away, and obviously keep growing the missionary causes that are out there, Dominican Republic, what were like? I mean, what were some of the things you were doing there? So when we went there, we went to a small mountain town called hatavakoa. And the few times that I went there, one time we built a playground in a small village. We built a house for we, they called him the coconut candy man. He would make coconut candies and try to sell them, and just super sweet guys. So we built a house for him, and we built a basketball court one time, a pavilion. So it was a lot of the trips that I went on and the sites that I was in, at least, the ones that I preferred were like the construction, like work with your hands, because I grew up playing sports, and I just that was what that was. Those were the sites I wanted to be on while I was did you get the opportunity to go some other countries or Dominican? Was yes. So I played volleyball in college, and so I went to Costa Rica on a volleyball mission trip, and we played against different teams in Costa Rica, I went to, I went to Mexico for a two week intensive language study. I have led a trip to Peru, a trip of students. And then in my early 20s, when I was still single, I went backpacking in Ireland and England. That wasn't really a missionary trip. That was

Tracy Hayes  9:00  
not but the Costa Rica volley was I, you know, I've told this story on the show before. When I was in high school, I was fortunate. You know, back when they, like, promoted the exchange students, like my sister, did a German exchange, where the German students came to our house as well. You know, she went over there. But my basketball coach had a long career. My brother was seven years older. He actually went to Russia, I'm not mistaken. Or it was Greece, I can't remember. I ended up, we went to Sweden, and we went over and played basketball games. And, you know, playing international rules, we're seeing America. And it was just, just great fun, I mean, and we did the home stays and stayed Yeah, that that experience, one you never forget, but it's also, again, another one of those culture things. Yeah, you know, living in different states, but now you actually are in that other country, and you actually are in their home, and you're having breakfast with them, because then are they the things a little differently, and then their stories they all want to know about the United States. That's always interesting, and you find. Out why, and it's just, it's just one of those things that I, unfortunately, I wish everyone could experience. But, you know, so you one of the things on your LinkedIn, you had a marketing director with Chick fil A. How did you? How did you roll into that one

Christine Hall  10:16  
that, in fact, was my first position, working for a company that was not nonprofit. So from college, I went to work for a parachurch organization called crew after crew. I was mentoring high school students after crew. I went and I was the the administrator for Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary here in Jacksonville. And then I got brought in as the director of administration for Christ Church. And then from there, I started working for a Chick fil A, and I our accountant for the church. Her husband was the general manager

Christine Hall  10:49  
of a Chick fil A, oh, okay, one here in town, St John's Town Center.

Tracy Hayes  10:55  
Okay, not the, I know there's a, no, it wasn't a citogram. You see he was a he was in the Navy. I think there's a navy office, a former retired Navy officer. I think that runs the one at JTB and 95 if I recall, if he's still there. But anyway, make sure we talk about that after the show, because I've been trying to get him to come to our I'm president of our alumni association locally. So he was, and everyone at ciddle has to take ROTC. He was one of the instructors there. And, yeah, so he knows some of some of the guys locally. So what were some of the things, you know, because we're kind of, what I saw in there, is like, okay, is this leading her in the sales? What are some imagine Chick fil A? I mean, just the perception is, their training is probably, you know, top notch. How? What are some of the things that you were you took from Chick fil A, you know that you that you're might be even using today?

Christine Hall  11:46  
Oh, my goodness, so much. Chick fil A really spoiled me in terms of customer service and the way that we trained our employees to think about other people and to rise to that next level. So when we trained, we talked with them about upgraded language. You have to use upgraded language instead of Sure. We say, of course, instead of You're welcome, we say, my pleasure. And we teach these things all in training. When somebody walks into the store, you know, you walk into a store, and for the most part, employees are looking down and they're doing what they're doing, and you don't even know if they know you're there. And nobody walks up to the register, and nobody Chick fil A, not an option. If somebody walks in that door or is standing at the end of the counter, you acknowledge them. If you can't get with them right then acknowledge that they're there, that you see them, and you'll be right with them. And it makes people feel like, okay, so I don't need to, like, try to get somebody's attention right now. So you say, I'll be with you in just a minute,

Tracy Hayes  12:37  
or we've all been there where someone doesn't greet us, and how does that make you feel? And if you do the reverse shoes, I learned that. I learned that in sales years ago, 25 years ago, working a mattress firm, and what I found was you when that person stepped on that mat is, hey, how you doing? And bring them that sales flyer, especially on the weekends, because it always went out on Fridays. And share that sales flyer with them. Don't be totally transparent, but recognize them. And I had no problem. When you do that, you can handle two or three customers same time. Yeah, you can send them off. Go, go lay on that bed and let me go. I'll be right back. Yeah, at

Christine Hall  13:14  
least they know that you're aware of them. You're coming back. So Chick fil A just had so many things. Their customer service was top notch. In fact, I was not really familiar with the Chick fil A way of things prior to working there. And so their goal is always to create raving fans. That is the goal of growing their business is, if you create raving fans, raving fans, all they want to do is talk about Chick fil A and tell everybody else to go there. And hey, I had the best experience. I mean, that's how it got, the reputation that it got. So it's interesting.

Tracy Hayes  13:45  
You say that because I was exchanging texts with Cole, I think it was yesterday, and he used that phrase raving.

Tracy Hayes  13:57  
But it goes into I was listening to something a few weeks ago, Grant Cardone, and the mission of his organization is they want, I don't know how many, whatever you know, 2 billion people to know Grant Cardone, whether they like him at first or not, is not actually the child they want. They it's just it's making that market penetration of, you know, like, like any of the big brands do, they know that if they get so many people that become a household name, it just, and I imagine that's the whole point of Chick fil A to create those raving fans, which, you know, obviously, with the service they do, their fans are pretty rare. I don't know anyone who says that Chick fil A don't go to Chick fil A because of their service, right? You know? Or even the quality, even the food quality, yeah,

Christine Hall  14:45  
you've got one offs here and there, or people who have bad experience. I mean, that's, I mean, it's a national company with a ton of locations, so you're going to get people that have rough experiences, but their goal is to create that consistency across the board with the quality of food. That's not enough, because if you have a quality of food, but not the quality of customer service, the people who can't rise to that level, they just don't make it at Chick fil A, they leave, or they they don't get scheduled, or so it because you will

Tracy Hayes  15:13  
go to an okay food place if they're getting if they feel like they're at home, they're being treated, as, you know, the way you're explaining there.

Christine Hall  15:24  
Listen, if I know, I can sit down at a table and I've got both my kids with me, and somebody's already walking around to find out what I need, I would go here any day over even a better quality food, because I'm gonna get taken care of. I don't have to try to, like, grab my kids and bring them up there with me. And 100%

Tracy Hayes  15:42  
Yeah, so jumping a little bit forward here, since we're on the Chick fil A topic, and when I saw that, I'm like, so what are some of the things that you try to implement when you're working with your buyers and sellers today, with some of the things that we

Christine Hall  15:56  
just talked about? So I think one of my goals is to have a Chick fil A type of experience in real estate. I want to create those raving fans. I want to give people the experience, not just in the way that I treat them and the frequency of my communication and the smoothness of the process, but also I want them to have the experience where they have loved it so much that they just want to go tell friends, like, you cannot use anybody else. Like, every part of my experience was great down from the details of the contract and understanding that, because that's a huge piece of it, there are realtors that are, you know, big picture people, but don't care about the details, and don't care to really learn the purchase and sale agreement. And then there's, you know, you have, you really have to enjoy and get good at every part of the process, because it's your own business. And so that is kind of where I feel like I brought Chick fil A, I have brought skills from each of those career paths with me, and to me, it has all cultivated to make me great at real estate, yeah. So my competitiveness at volleyball, I've been competitive my entire life. So you have to have that in sales, or you're not. It's not going to push you in a way,

Tracy Hayes  17:09  
just listening what you were just saying in our world, and especially, I think the lenders don't, we don't generally have it because I think we're still attached to the larger name where the realtors, you know, there's, they're attached to a brokerage, but no one, no one really puts slate Realty or Keller Williams. They don't put that brand over top of you. They it's you. And when you give the great service, people are willing to go above. Become those raving fans, and you create those raving fans. They're telling to, like, the normal, normal thing is, like, if you had a great experience, you might tell, you know, one person you had a bad experience. You can tell 10, you know, that that whole thing, I don't think that's so true for a real estate agent that gives great service. Now, if you give bad service, they're probably not gonna, they're really probably not gonna tell anybody because, because it's you personally, you know, versus you know, loan depot. Oh, loan depot. I had a bad experience there. Well, there's 1000s of people working. Who are you working with? You know, that type of thing where they do put the brand over, over me. Were you as a real estate agent, that personal relationship that you just spent in the emotional transaction of buying or selling a home? They come your raving fans, and they are out. Every time someone says something about real estate, they're talking about you if you're doing the right things. Of course, staying top of mind, but it all starts with creating that raving fan, that experience. Not only that,

Christine Hall  18:33  
but I think people don't necessarily know if they've had a bad real estate experience. I mean, think about how many times you buy and sell houses, if you only do it a few times in your lifetime, when I go and ask people about their real their previous real estate experience, either one, they don't remember it, and if they're using me, that means the person did not stay top of mind for them and was not consistent. Or two, when they experience what my process is, they didn't even realize until that that they had a bad first experience, because they may not have been, yeah, they'll describe it, and I'm like, No, that shouldn't happen. But they don't realize that, you know, because the agent is taking care of they don't know the purchase and sale agreement, the agent is taking care of that. So to them, it felt stressful, or it felt they felt like they didn't know what was going on, or they felt uneducated, or they felt like they just whatever. They signed on the dotted line and they didn't have no idea what happened, which kind of is the case anyway, a little bit. But you know, well,

Tracy Hayes  19:32  
yes, we've been talking in the conversations that we've had, obviously recently, talking about, obviously last year, a lot of it was very transactional. It was like, okay, just give me the deal. Get the deal in quickly. Okay, hey, we got a contract run through the steps, appraisal, inspection, but a bit of them and close, and we're now, we're back to this more of a stereotypical, you know, you got people, you know, I got them a list of approved lookings, as we call it, and people that are pre qual, and they're out there looking. And you got to spend the time, and now you got to nurture that. It's a little more taxing. From that standpoint, I'd lost the train of thought. What I was going to actually, was thinking about, Oh, I was, I was listening to a podcast from a local agent, Hayley, yeah, she's with red zone, but she was talking about it, John and Brittany Brooks. John Brooks talks about it, they had bad experiences, and was one of those things. And both of them talked about that bad experiences like, Oh my God, and they evaluated the industry, and, you know, obviously the financial potential and like, if that person's selling houses, I do 10 times better that, you know, it actually motivated them because of the bad experience that they they felt, but most people don't realize that it can actually be done better and be more enjoyable. So kudos to you. Alright, so you're at Chick fil A. What I mean? When do you actually start getting the sense or smell for real estate?

Christine Hall  20:55  
I think I had just the idea of it even before I went to Chick fil A, before I started having kids, and a friend of mine brought it up. She's like, you would do really great in real estate, and she's not in real estate. And then my mom, at one point, did a stay in real estate, and so did my sister in St Louis. It didn't work out for either of them, but I kind of had it on the back of my mind. And then I think the common thread, and I've had great experiences, great bosses, great mentors throughout my career, was that the idea of having my own business, my mind is works very creatively in different ways, and I really would have this desire to implement all the things right, And the idea that I could do both sales and implement things in a business any way that I wanted to, with no ceiling and nobody to tell me you can't do that. As long as you want to pour the money into it, you can do it, yes, but as long as you want to put the money into it, and you have it, you implement your creative ideas however you want to to grow your business 100% and I think to me, that is that was a huge driver to kind of pulling the trigger. Also, it was something that I could get into. I could get my license after I had my first baby. Is when I actually pulled the trigger, because I didn't have enough chaos in my life.

Tracy Hayes  22:20  
I because I was reviewing your LinkedIn slate, slate, your first No, no, I should have X Yes, that's where, that's right, that's where you met.

Christine Hall  22:30  
Sleep. Yes, yes, okay, and I actually knew Erica Pledger.

Tracy Hayes  22:34  
Oh, okay, all right, so yeah, so I can see how you got wrapped in there. So was it? What led you there. I mean, you knew Erica before, and that led you there, or what led you to that first brokerage?

Christine Hall  22:46  
Oh, to exit, yes, I had interviewed with multiple brokerages, and a few of them were not taking on agents that were going to be part time because I knew I wasn't. I didn't know the type of time commitment that I could make with a newborn, right? And I was still going to be working at Chick fil A, at least until I had built up enough business to where I really felt like I could leave. And so I interviewed, and I sat down with Diane at exit real estate Gallery, and I said, Hey, I've been hearing a lot of different things. Can I build a successful real estate business and not do it full time, do it while I have my kids. And she said, you can it would be really difficult. She said, the way that real estate works is the driving factor in it, is the consistency, the staying top of mind, the putting the hours into your business. If you just want to do a handful of deals a year. Sure you could do that while you're doing it part time, being a mom working. But the truth is, if you want to grow a very successful business, that is very hard to do while you are doing all the other things. And I really appreciated the authenticity of that. For somebody to not say, No, we're not hiring you because you're not coming on full time. Or for somebody to say, Yeah, you do whatever you want, because they just want a piece of the pie, whatever it

Tracy Hayes  24:05  
is, you get one deal or 10 deals. Put the numbers out there, right?

Christine Hall  24:09  
But for somebody to have an honest, converse, honest and frank conversation with me about it, that was kind of the selling point. I almost did an interview with them, because I didn't like their colors.

Tracy Hayes  24:22  
I've been there. I used to make jokes about some of the places before I ended up getting there, yeah, about their names, like, Who in the world would name it that? So see, but you do do it this way you get you start part time, right? So let's dig in that, because I know there's, there's probably numerous people out there watching or hopefully will listen to the show, whether it's today or months from now, that are thinking about getting the real estate. And like said, some of the brokers, they don't want, they don't still anyone take time with part timers. How do you make that work? So.

Christine Hall  25:00  
It didn't work very well with my personality. I am a fully engaged or go home, and so the inability to put all of my effort towards that, and all your thoughts, and all of my thoughts, all of it, was really difficult for me and my desire, and I'm just gonna say it out loud, is I want to be the best, right? What I want to be the best in college, when I played volleyball, I wanted to be the best when I mean all growing up, all of life, I wanted to be the best. So for me to not to get into real estate and to not be the best right away was just, it's just a hard pill to swallow for me, and there was no way I was going to and I had to keep telling myself it's not that doesn't mean that doesn't equal success, that doesn't equal success. Just do what you're able to do, continue to plug away at it. You will get there, because there were the agents that did 35 transactions their first year, and I was like, I was like, I need to be that. And it wasn't. It wasn't happening for me.

Tracy Hayes  25:59  
So did you feel at times you were measuring yourself to these, those, absolutely because, I mean, there's, there's a few. I mean, obviously I've had on the show, not everyone does that. So they are almost unicorns, in a way, in real estate, it can be done, certainly if you implement a lot of the things that the 80 some rough, almost 80 agents that I've had on the show will tell you how to do that, or you know who you need to talk to, or you know and follow to put you on that track. But I think today, would you agree? The only thing really that holds you back

Unknown Speaker  26:36  
is you right? Holds me back from what?

Tracy Hayes  26:39  
Well, not, like physically, physically hold that, but the only, only obstacle in your way of, obviously, yeah, interest rates or whatever. But everyone's dealing with that. We're all on the same playing field. We're all dealing in that. We're, you're working in the same area, in lucky we're in one of the hottest areas of the country, so you can't really complain from that standpoint. But really your success as a real estate agent or even me as a loan officer in our in our you know, commission, 100% commission world, the only thing stopping us from being good to great is really just us working on ourselves, being better at what we do, creating those raving fans. And that takes consistency. It takes focus. It takes, you know, I want to use the term education, but we're talking to other people. What's everyone doing? What's working, what's not working? Take a little bit from this person, a little bit from that person, put it together and make it yours. It takes a lot of that, where it's not easy for the average person to do that,

Christine Hall  27:39  
absolutely, especially when you consider it. Some people, if they get into it and consider it a job, where they're just going to go somewhere and they're going to have leads handed to them, and they're going to do the things that somebody just tells them to do, just to you know, if you consider it a business, absolutely You're right. The only person holding you back is you, because nobody's going to hold your hand and take you to training. Nobody's gonna hold your hand while you go do any of your lead generation ideas. Now you can choose how to implement those. If you're not into cold calling, don't do cold calling. Do what you're good at. Yeah. So I think I definitely agree

Tracy Hayes  28:12  
with that. Yeah. And there are so many and talking about choosing the first brokerage, which I think is a big some people have gotten lucky. Some people will tell you their first brokerage was a total bomb. And, you know, but they learned from it, as the Cotton Team Caitlin cotton was talking about the other day, exit, well known in the area, obviously, you, you know, you met, you meet Erica, you meet slate. Over there, you got people that are actually doing it, which, you know, sometimes I think everyone needs to ride someone's coattails a little bit at any time. You know, it's all that saying, be in the room with five, five successful people, but be number five in that group and grow from that standpoint. So what do you do? You know now you're up and running, you're full time, you got kids. That's that's always so the

Christine Hall  29:03  
kids anymore real estate? Yeah,

Tracy Hayes  29:05  
you're 100% real estate agent. Now, what do you do to stay sharp? Because I believe a lot of people get in this business, they do don't have a natural thing to read books or listen to podcasts or go to events, they just kind of like they are still in that corporate America, like, oh, okay, I'm going to show up and I just got to do my thing every, every day. But you, like you said, the obstacle is you. So if you're not growing, your business is not going to grow. So what are some of the things that you do to grow yourself?

Christine Hall  29:38  
Personally, I think outside of education classes, you mentioned the Gold Key certification, which is just an excellence in professionalism, which goes, I mean, like, totally aligns with what I'm already trying to do, and my Chick fil A background and wanting to be excellent at what I do. And I think, outside of education, really big at. Just like, I don't want to say the word leech, because it's a negative word, but like, I love to, just like, soak in from other people that are really good and ask questions. And there's such a huge learning curve when you get into real estate. And so I was trying to the people that I saw that were doing really well. I was trying to reach out to them and ask questions. I did the peak producers Buffini program within my first six months,

Speaker 1  30:23  
and Marissa teach that. Oh, awesome.

Christine Hall  30:25  
Yeah. So sometimes I listen to podcasts and sometimes I read books, but I think those are probably my two main sources, so like education classes and then other ages.

Tracy Hayes  30:35  
Yeah, how important? How important is someone out there wanting to get in the in the industry, or maybe is in the industry, but has reached a lid to really check up and say, Hey, am I? You know, education needs to be part of your daily, weekly, monthly routine. I mean, we like to think that we Hey, we got a college education. We know everything. Let's just go and we're going to fumble through life, which I think a majority of the population does that. But here, like you said, you're self employed, so you're selling you guys self motivated. Yeah, you can hire a mentor or a coach that can, you know, kick you in the butt a little bit, but they're gonna, you have to, you have to rise to the occasion. You know, in that coach isn't gonna be any good if you're not taking what they're telling you and implement it. Because it's not like going to going to volleyball practice every day where the coach is on you Okay, it's time to run. It's time to do these other exercises. Okay, now we can actually play volleyball. You know, you have to do those other things to be in shape, you know, mentally and somewhat, you know, and physically and emotionally, to handle customers and make those raving fans. Because if you're in a bad mood, it's gonna be pretty hard to make raving fans, yeah. But also the, I think the other big term confidence, I mean, if someone wants to get started in this business, or, like I said, is started, maybe they're not hanging around those right people that you need to start showing up at ne far or showing up the St John's board, going to the trainings, as Marissa Scott offers at exit, really, the Buffini course that she does going to events, you've got to reach out and grab those things. They're going on all day long. I mean, we can. There's so many things being offered, big and small. Whether it's a lender offering it, it's a title company offering it's a home inspector offering it, landmark titles got their classroom now. I mean, there, if you want to do something every day you can there is living, and you get a free lunch or breakfast with it, right?

Christine Hall  32:26  
Eat free and eat good life in real estate.

Tracy Hayes  32:31  
I told one younger, older I met probably six or eight months ago, and I told us, I said, No, no, you don't pay for anything. These guys take you out. You don't take you don't pay for anything. Yeah, so, but the importance of education as far as confidence, I mean, when you took the Buffini course, I mean, how does it make you feel when you complete whether it's an hour long class or that's like a thing that goes on for like, eight weeks, 12 weeks. Yeah, you know, how do you feel when you come out of that? How does it change your your business?

Christine Hall  33:08  
That was great to do right, right from the get go. It was a great starter for me again. It lined up with my personality, but also to have some direction and next steps, where, when you get into real estate, you think, what is my direction? What are my next steps? There's about a bazillion different paths you could go when you're trying to lead generate. And so I think that class really helped in terms of giving me, hey, I can be doing these things. And the handwritten notes are a huge thing in the Buffini, the Buffini class. So I started doing things like that, writing handwritten notes to people that I knew. I mean, even just

Tracy Hayes  33:44  
checking, just saying thank you card, type things, well, yeah, check up notes, yeah.

Christine Hall  33:47  
Like, just a note. Hey, hope you and the family are doing well. I thought about you today. Yeah, and here's a, here's a $10 Starbucks gift card. Go take a little break when you get a chance. Like, just little things like that. I'm gonna

Tracy Hayes  34:00  
say, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna make a bold statement here. I've had, like I said, almost 80 agents on we've all read books right the top people are doing some of the things. We are not 100% we are not, you know, we listen to a John Maxwell or Tony Robbins or and we can do a little bit of what they're encouraging us to do we're going to move forward. Don't be overwhelmed and think you need to do everything but Golly. If you're in an office right now and you're a broker and you don't have cards, whether they're thank you cards or just blank cards with your logo on them with a stamp machine, please go get that this afternoon. Everyone is telling us that's what to do. Everyone thinks it's corny and it's not gonna it's not gonna be effective. Hey, that guy who sold the 13,000 cars in 15 years, or some crazy thing he was handwriting all because they eventually had to have people write the cards for him. It's there. And you're, you're telling me that Paige Weissman told me that last week, and I can continue to go back. You've got. Have to do it. The people I follow in the loan officer Royals, have five five cards a day. There's a reason why they're telling you to do that and you're staying top of mind. It's just another reason let someone know you care, because what's saying they don't care how much you know until they know much you care, right? And that's what those cards do. And if you aren't supplying your troops with the cards, you're not helping them. Go buy a few 1000 cards and just tell everybody, I'm going to put five stamps on them. I'll pay for the five stamps. It's going to change your game. I'm hearing it constantly or consistently, I should say actually is the word there? Yeah. So I was

Christine Hall  35:35  
sold on the handwritten card, not just from Buffini, but when I worked for the church doing administration. I was tasked with picking out a CRM for our church. So I needed I was researching church platforms, and the one company, one of the companies that I interviewed with, was called CCB. And after we met and we talked, literally within days, I got a handwritten card from the guy I talked to in a book that said how to grow your church, and I was sold. I don't, I don't even remember who the other companies were. Doesn't matter. And I just said, wow. And he wrote this same card to everybody and sent the same book to everybody, but it didn't matter. I was floored that somebody would take the time to do that. Put it in the mail, give me a race, 100%

Tracy Hayes  36:20  
100% in the group I follow after I went to their event a year ago in August, actually, you see that got his, one of his books over there, exactly I got, I same thing. I got the card. Actually got, you know, every about every quarter I get a card from you say, hope things are great, just thinking about you. Because we do kind of meet every quarter, so we kind of see each other. But they're, they're going through their database. It's the same, I'm a customer of theirs. They're coaching and so forth, and they're reaching out to just to let you know that channel is open. And if you need you know it may not even be the direct person you're dealing with, like, I have a coach, but I'm getting it from the leadership over here, knowing that I feel comfortable to call the call them if I want to. It just keeps the channel open. I think that's just it mind boggles me that I, I don't want to go into that. I'll get, I get the thank you cards. Please get on the thank you cards. You got these boxes of business cards. Put a couple in there. Hopefully they hand them out to somebody, right? Got to put them on the street. Is what I what I call it. All right, so you, well, you pretty much go over to slate when he starts slate, really is that correct? Yeah, okay, yep.

Christine Hall  37:28  
He talked to myself and one other agent about helping him start it, other than his team, Erica. Erica, you were his team at the time. So we sat down, we had a few conversations, and then I spent a lot of time thinking about it, praying about it, talking to my husband about it, and seeing, hey, is this because I'm I know that people hop companies all the time. That's just not my style. Like I didn't, I didn't not like exit. I loved exit. It was like a big family to me. So making that leap with somebody else was a big deal.

Tracy Hayes  38:01  
Especially, you know, obviously Slate's already known in the area. He was known and driving his truck and everything. That's how I always saw it. I always saw it in the parking lot, because I live on 210 and, you know, he's a reputation, but he's not exit real estate gallery, right, right? And the reputation and hundreds of agents they have there, and the resources because of the large organization there, yeah, to make a leap. But you do what? So what was some of the things that you, that you saw were, or maybe you experienced now, or slate and his team, or, you know, just the organization adds value to your

Christine Hall  38:34  
so I think a few things from cole that made me, you know, really want to take the leap is, you know, he he talked, he'll talk about raving fans, too. And so I think we line up on the way that we go about getting business.

Tracy Hayes  38:50  
I would agree with that in the conversations I have with him.

Christine Hall  38:53  
So, so that. And then he wanted to create a commission structure that was based around the well rounded agent. And so I really was intrigued by that idea. And thought this is pretty cool, because I love being involved in other things. And you know, typically, the more you're involved in other things, the more business you're going to bring in. The way it works,

Tracy Hayes  39:16  
and our business, it is, it's it's networking, and that's the bottom link. And people got to know you. And as we were talking pre show, you know, one of the things was, you know, if, if I meet you somewhere, we face to face, we see each other, even if we don't directly speak to each other, but you've seen me, and now I call you. You're a little different, because now you've seen me, you see me in the same space as you have been in, and you're a little more warm to it.

Christine Hall  39:41  
Yeah, yep. So I think those things. And then he wanted to provide things that he thought were going to be truly useful to agents when they came on board, as opposed to just saying, we offer this and this and this and five of those 10 things you probably won't even use, but he wanted to actually be providing things that were useful. And then he. You that I have a passion for mentoring. I think our industry does not do a good job when people get their license of actually preparing you to work with people's biggest asset. I think that's an area that we lack and and because there's such a huge learning curve, I have a passion for and I've always had a passion for training, but I want to train other agents how to do it well, and how they cannot be nearly as stressed as I was their first few transactions.

Tracy Hayes  40:27  
It's a little different when you you either you know, you tell somebody, or you're teaching, teaching a group of people. Hey, this is how you should do it, and you're not doing it right. So it formal, it does. It forces you to stay on your game that hey, I'm telling everybody in this room to write five thank you cards a day. I better be writing five thank you cards a day. You just even if they're not even checking up on you or even ask Hey, are you writing cards? You know, but you mentally, you it's going through your mind that you need to be doing so you know that holding you teaching it makes you better at it can and then you, obviously you got to follow through. But you, yes, Cole was Leah brought talked to me, mentioned his structure of the comp plan and and how. And he complimented on complimenting him again, because I think it's so I don't know if it's unique. He just got the idea, whatever it was. But he built his business on community activity. Hayes incentivizing you to do community activity, which hopefully is getting you that 1234, extra deals a year, which, you know, just rises all boats, right? And I just really think that is, I mean, what company really benefits or bonuses, or, if you want to say, in a in the financial compensation side for being involved, you know, in a community, it might be your own Hoa, in your own community, or something, you know, doing something that may or may not actually be. You may not be in the on the NE far bar board, or in their thing as he is, but you're working over here. You're involved in this charity, or whatever it may be. I mean, who incentivize that? But that is the biggest and being in the telecommunications world, before getting into real estate, you're in any sales you think about, if you're running a sales organization, you're creating a comp plan. Your comp plan needs to incentivize the behaviors that lead you to success. And I think he's totally on it when it when it comes to that. What how he's done it? Yeah, definitely. So what is it? What is the activity that you do?

Christine Hall  42:29  
So I am on the board for the South Council at the Jacksonville chamber. I'm the program's director, and then I was involved in a few other things, but have since tried to kind of focus on my efforts a little bit again. There's so many different paths you can take, and so I needed to kind of narrow in, you know, when you start and you're going to all those lunches, those free lunches, and the river cruises, and I, at some point realized those are not the things that are actually helping me get leads. They're fun, right? There are plenty of them that I'm just

Tracy Hayes  43:05  
pick and choose the right ones. Yeah, every everyone in that room is also a real estate agent or a lender that has

Christine Hall  43:13  
as much as I love to meet you. You are

Tracy Hayes  43:15  
not my customer exactly. Eventually you have to go out and meet the peeps. But, like, I mean, think about it over, you know, the time periods that you've been doing these involved in these different groups that are volunteer. I mean, how many new people have you met that whether they introduce you to somebody else, but it starts expanding your circle, your network.

Christine Hall  43:34  
I'm involved in a lot of different things. I think I'm trying to think even where, I mean, my leads have come from open houses and my sphere and the past customers referring people. And so I think, to be honest, I haven't gotten any referrals from the Jacksonville chamber. I love being involved in it, because I love meeting other people with small businesses, but I don't have one person

Tracy Hayes  43:59  
from it. You can't think of someone that she has come come from

Christine Hall  44:02  
that, and I don't know if that, I don't know what

Tracy Hayes  44:05  
it should not be. It should not be measurement of of the success, because you you don't know who knows there's other people that know people, that know people, and how many, how many times the worst fear of an agent is, you know, their friend uses another realtor, right? And it's because they forgot what you did, but you don't know that person actually might have been reminded by somebody who was on the chamber. Hey, you know Christine. She's on the chamber. You know her. You know. You never know, right? So I would not discount that, that efforts, the efforts there. So we've been having some great conversation. I want to really drill down these next 10 minutes of your business and what as something we talked earlier, like, some of the, some of the things that maybe you did didn't work, or maybe the broker, maybe you went somewhere and you tried it, and it's like, that's, it's just, you know, because it doesn't, it didn't fit for you. I think what. One of the great things. And John and Brittany Brooks, they talk about, and I actually take the Clifton assessment, where it actually assesses deeper than the DISC assessment, your personality and what you like to do. And they're they try to fine tune and help their agents fine tune, like you said, when you're doing your your marketing, what do you like to do? Some people actually like knocking on doors. They'll do that. It's very rare, but they'll do it. Some people like they're good at the converting online leads and just kill it. What do you what? You know, the Clifton assessment breaks it down, and what do you do? So what are three things that are necessarily three things, but what are some things that you're doing consistently today? Maybe you've done it always because maybe Cole, Cole or Erica taught you earlier, something, this thing, what are you doing consistently today that you feel is moving your business

Christine Hall  45:49  
so consistency and communication with my sphere, with referrals, past customers. So I, when I had started, started sending out a weekly email, and it's just a very quick, like, two topic, maybe three thing where, and it's just, it's real estate stuff. It could be random Jacksonville stuff. And then I do a very short video that's, hey, if you don't have time to read these two paragraphs. So I started doing that to maintain the constant communication. I've gotten really good feedback from it. I am so not

Tracy Hayes  46:29  
just using Facebook to do it. You're putting it out into the email this video,

Christine Hall  46:32  
yeah, yeah, using our CRM to put that out. I'm on Facebook and Instagram. Just present, present. Whether it's stuff about my family, you know, I have random people that just, you know, stuff about my business, it reminds somebody that I'm in real estate. Hey, we met. We met here, and I saw your post about this. Hey, can we talk about, I'm looking to purchase a home. So things like that, just being present and active.

Tracy Hayes  47:01  
So you feel you've gotten business from your social media.

Christine Hall  47:05  
Absolutely, absolutely. I did a campaign. I called it the one more campaign a year ago, a year and a half ago, and it said I am one deal away for making my yearly goal. If you share this post, if you comment, if you tag my page anything, I'll send you $5 for Venmo to get it, to get a coffee. And I had somebody who was from an old church who commented, I wish we were in the market. We would totally use you, but I think we might be there soon. Reached out, reached right out through Facebook. Hey, let's just meet up and talk. Our conversation led to, I didn't realize it was only going to take that much money to buy a house. We got plenty. House. We got plenty of money to buy a house, purchase their home, help them purchase their home, and then a year later, they had to move, unfortunately, and I sold their home as well.

Tracy Hayes  47:51  
So the campaign was, I need one more house to reach my goal, and if you liked or shared, you would send them a $5 Starbucks

Christine Hall  48:02  
gift card, yeah, or just over Venmo get a copy. Yeah, a lot easier. How much did that cost?

Tracy Hayes  48:08  
You get a couple

Christine Hall  48:08  
probably, no, probably 50 bucks.

Tracy Hayes  48:12  
10 people, roughly, interesting. Let's try that one,

Christine Hall  48:18  
yeah, yeah. And again, does your counting customers? I'm like, that is one, one customer, like, Whatever,

Tracy Hayes  48:26  
whatever it was, it triggered them to respond to you, and now you gaged, yeah, they triggered them to bite the hook and and then, like I said, you were able to reel them in by sitting down with them and explain them they could buy home. Yep, that's awesome. That's a really good one. There. We talked about education, we've talked about social media. We've actually really talked a little bit about mindset. Was another thing, but the whole raving fan, if you had someone, you're mentoring, they're shadowing you, going through an entire buyer or seller transaction and whatever story comes up easiest for you, what is, what are some, some little things that are totally Christine, that you feel you do obviously, hopefully make them a raving fan.

Christine Hall  49:15  
Little Things I am constantly trying to improve my transaction process. What can I do to make this better? How can I personalize it more? So from the time that I meet with them again, the handwritten cards, the education process. So, like, I have a packet. Obviously, plenty of people do, but there are people that just sit down and and say, let me, like, share a little bit. Or they just say, Just meet me at the house. So from the education process at the beginning of this is what it takes to buy or

Tracy Hayes  49:46  
sell your home to and you're always reviewing that and how make that correct.

Christine Hall  49:50  
We go through each of the hurdles, and when we're past the first one, when we go under contract, they get a card in the mail it says, Congrats, we're under contract. Contract. It'll say on the back again, handwritten note, hey, thanks so much. We're past the first hurdle. Take a deep breath. Let me take it from here.

Tracy Hayes  50:08  
Well, the personalization there. I mean, I think, you know, everyone we talk about relationships, all of us do. I mean, the top people we had on the market, all the people we follow as Buffini, or the others that you know they're out there, relationships, relationships, relationships. And really, what I'm hearing from you is you're you're reminding them how appreciative you are that they've chosen you to partner up with and help them

Christine Hall  50:37  
buy the home. Absolutely, absolutely, yeah, yep, that that's

Tracy Hayes  50:41  
really, I wouldn't cut you off there, but that just came, came to mind there. What do you think it's been the biggest

Speaker 2  50:47  
mistake you've made? The biggest mistake, it doesn't mean catastrophic.

Tracy Hayes  50:51  
Hopefully you haven't made any catastrophically. Well, you're still here. So what would you say, like, oh my god, I would. I would tell everyone, don't

Christine Hall  50:59  
do that. Oh, goodness, the biggest mistake.

Tracy Hayes  51:03  
Because I think one of our whether it's loan officers or real estate agents, we do fail forward often and do stuff, you know, spend money on something that, yeah, yeah.

Christine Hall  51:13  
And I'm trying to think I've learned so many things along the way, but, but so much of it was part of the learning curve, like not knowing that a house had to be seasoned before it would be FHA loan. Yeah, yeah, little things like that. So I'd write an offer and and the other age on the other side, didn't know the rules either. So there have been little things like that.

Tracy Hayes  51:37  
I mean, it's, well, there's statistically how often it happens, not a lot, and therefore it isn't preached out there. Someone mentioned that to me the other day we were talking and how the loan officer explained that to them. Actually, I think it was John Adams was telling me a story about that, how he was proactive in that, or some of the hero synchroneses with the VA loan too. He was running into a situation that everyone else was pre approved. It's like, no, no. He hasn't been actually active long enough to be you know, he's active duty, but he hasn't been active duty long enough to get approved. He has to wait another couple months, or whatever it was. Yeah, they're very rare that they come up, so I wouldn't really call that a big mistake. Yeah, it's you just gotta pull back that contract and go find something else, or wait a few more months, right?

Christine Hall  52:27  
Yeah, yeah. I mean, and I again, I don't. There's nothing like cats. There's a lot of little things that was learning stuff along the way. I accidentally let a cat out of a house one time that happened to be an escape artist, and there was a sign on every door that said, don't let the cat out. And I was out at eight o'clock at night chasing it when it hopped the seven foot fence. Oh, my God, just crazy stories from my first

Tracy Hayes  52:55  
there is actually a podcast called the shit that happens in real estate. Stories like that are on

Christine Hall  53:01  
sure my, one of my first inspections, the the master bathtub overflowed into flooded the master bedroom and underneath the

Tracy Hayes  53:10  
I've heard stories like that, yeah, yeah.

Christine Hall  53:13  
My very first closing the house went into Pre Foreclosure prior to us closing, and there was lean on the house and so, like, there's just things, stuff

Tracy Hayes  53:21  
happen, and that is our business. Every transaction is unique. I've said this before. Every customer is unique. You know how they make their money? You know their credit, whatever, but one from a lending side. But you know what they obviously what they want, their desires. Some of them are like you really want that. And you know there are people that that are in that thing, so you have to, you have to just, you have to go out there and be willing to stand on the edge. And sometimes you are going to fail, but you have to understand the failing is the learning experience. So the next thing you do it, because if you actually had to learn everything that possibly ever could happen, you would never actually have time to sell a home, because you'd be in a classroom every day for the rest of your life, that all the situations that happen in real estate, you just got to go out there and do it and understand that it is, I like tell people you're giving me a lump of clay, and now I've got to make it into a statue, right? And that's our that's our job on every transaction, yeah, when it comes to that, who has been the most influential person in your career?

Unknown Speaker  54:24  
Oh, questions.

Tracy Hayes  54:28  
Influential person. Who's your goat? I mean, do you have, I mean, you have a go to person like, you know, when a situation comes up and you go, your mind goes blanks, man, let me just call that's the first person on your list.

Christine Hall  54:39  
I mean, I call Cole or I'll call Diane or mark.

Tracy Hayes  54:45  
Let's expand. Let's expand over your expand all the way back to college, your your career, you know, the church and Chick fil A and so forth. Who has there been or coach? Has there been a coach in your your career that look back and kind of set, help you set the tone?

Christine Hall  54:59  
Mm. My high school volleyball coach told me to go as far away as I possibly could for college, get out, don't be within, like, a few hour drive of home. And I did, and it was great, great advice, great advice. I would absolutely give that advice again. And then when I moved to Jacksonville, I call them my Jacksonville parents, because I didn't know anybody when I moved here, I moved with whatever I could pack from new staff training in Colorado, whatever I could pack in my car. I drove to Jacksonville. Didn't know where I was going live when I got here, and knew I had to start raising support, because that's what the job was, is you raise your support to work with these high school students, and thankfully, some great people took me in. Along the way, I ended up staying in a trailer in the middle of a field that was owned by a church. And, I mean, lots of crazy stuff happened when I got here, but I was 22 and, you know, yeah, yeah, just go with it.

Tracy Hayes  55:53  
But that's like, this goes back to what we were just saying, like, about real estate, you have to just, you have to just go in and do it. You want to grab the education, when you when you can pack your bag, you'll have the extra water bottle, have the, you know this, those extra pair of dry shorts or whatever, or dry socks, and you got to go, yeah, and because guaranteed there's gonna be something you need. It's not in your bag. As much as you pack into much of that education you pack into it hopefully gets you through most of it, but there's always gonna be something and just be prepared to overcome and adapt.

Christine Hall  56:27  
Yeah, so that person was the pastor of the church that I started attending. Him and his wife, John and Carol cinema, they let me live with them for six months while I was raising support and call them still to this day, they've moved to South Carolina, but I still go visit them. I still call them my Jacksonville parents. He already they already had four kids. He calls me Cinco. And the less the life lessons and that I learned in the mentorship from them have been have aided me in in anything I've done. They were not career specific, but

Tracy Hayes  57:00  
Right, right. Is there anything, as I conclude my formal questions, anything that we have not talked about, that maybe you want to say while we've got the podcast live? Sure, and

Christine Hall  57:15  
then you can edit it out bold statement, oh, go make a

Unknown Speaker  57:18  
bolt. Gotta raise viewership.

Christine Hall  57:22  
I think, after being in this business, I the bold statement that I would make is not everybody is cut out for real estate. There are a ton of people that get into real estate. And as you know, we have a high turnover rate. But I think people get into the business, maybe not with the like, I don't want to say personality type, because any personality type can make it. But if are you familiar with Discover Your strengths or Strengths Finder.

Tracy Hayes  57:47  
I've heard Strengths Finder. I've heard of it. Okay, yeah, I think it's probably like this. Clifton, okay,

Christine Hall  57:51  
probably so. But the premise is, is that you play to your strengths. Everybody in the past was talking about, how can you improve on your weaknesses? Why don't you just continue to increase in your strengths. And if you're you might be on the bus, but you're not in the right seat on the bus. And so if you are in real estate, there are some people that are not cut out to be in real estate that cannot make this a full fledged business, and that's okay. That's okay if it's not your path. I talk

Tracy Hayes  58:16  
about it often, and you may agree with this when you're interviewing that broker. First of all, you should interview some other agents, and then some agents that might actually work for that broker to actually understand what is going to be delivered just like any employer, you need to interview that employer. Is this going to work for your skill set? You have to drill down in yourself. Find these tests, Clifton or this strength, strength test, what is it that you are good at what do you like doing? Because if you don't like doing you're not doing if you like doing it and you're successful doing it, you'll 10x it like right CARDONE talks about you have to interview these brokers and find the broker that's going to match. I really feel when they say 80% are not going to be in the class. You know, everyone goes into the test say 80% of you won't be here in a couple years, I really think this is 80% of them just went with their friends, went with their friends, broker, and they just their personality did not mesh with the way they do business. You have to find out how you do business and find that find that broker. It's going to bring that out. Yep.

Christine Hall  59:19  
And I think finding the right seat on the bus in those terms as well, if you want to be in real estate, if you're going to stick it out, if you feel like you are cut out for it, and you are not working within your strengths, and maybe your strength is being a part of a team, because you don't do all of those things. You don't want to do all of those things. You don't want to be out in front of people. Great. There's a team where one person is the front person and the other person takes care of all the details, all the back end stuff, and they make a perfect team. Maybe that's your route 100% you know. So maybe you are meant to do something else or fit into the real estate world in a different way. But if you don't figure that out, but. Beforehand, then you might end up fading out if you're if you're not, if you don't know your strengths and don't know how to find that right seat. You don't

Tracy Hayes  1:00:07  
know how much I agree with you. This has to be chapter in the book, actually. Now I think about, we talked about those other themes, but this business of all the agents that all of them do it a little differently. Some are standalone. Shonda caponero, over a decade before, she added a couple buyers, agents a year ago or year and a half ago or so. Melissa Ricks does it totally different. Sarah Rocco, she's got a lot those young people on the phone. She's, she's the she's, that's the Rocco team. Her name's out front. But those people like you just saying you your personality may fit, you have to find that one that you fit with. And if you take 30 days to figure yourself out, and which one does you can do this? Yeah, I think too many failed, because they just enter the wrong way any more on that rant, that wasn't a rant, my bold statement. All right here because my two minute warning questions. What's your favorite thing to do in Northeast Florida? Warning question, I always because I referee football, so I call it the two

Speaker 2  1:01:11  
minute Yeah, two minute warning. So what is

Tracy Hayes  1:01:14  
your favorite, most favorite thing to do in Northeast Florida? Because I always talk about lifestyle so boating, or going to the Jags game or beaches or whatever,

Christine Hall  1:01:24  
if I have the time, other than, you know, being with my family. My husband's a big fisherman. I love when he takes me out fishing.

Tracy Hayes  1:01:31  
Okay, I love it. You guys go offshore. You like to stay in your coastal we

Christine Hall  1:01:35  
say, well, I stay inshore. I get better.

Unknown Speaker  1:01:39  
I get seasick.

Christine Hall  1:01:40  
So and we're and we're in, like the creeks, or we're flounder fishing or gigging, or loves galloping, absolutely loves galloping.

Tracy Hayes  1:01:47  
Awesome. All right, all right. Here's the here's the the challenging question, is it more important who you know or what you know? Is there a right answer? Well, I think there is. But No, there isn't

Tracy Hayes  1:02:00  
who you know, who you know. You do believe it's who you

Unknown Speaker  1:02:02  
know? Yeah,

Tracy Hayes  1:02:03  
okay, I would, I would argue with that, okay? Because my argument is, my argument is when I, like, I was kind of going preaching, you know, finding the right people surrounding yourself by the right mentors. They'll tell you what to do. So you can narrow this whole world down very quickly they can give you. So now you may add some steps. Now you have to be competent. You can't be just a total like, you don't go talking to, you know, someone about Wall Street, and you don't even know where New York is, right? And, I mean, it's just like you have to understand, you know, have some understanding of it. But if you, you know, I think real estate agents or even loan officers, if they get with the right mentor, that mentor is going to really just flatten their learning curve very you know? And hopefully, you know, it's like losing weight, do on a diet, and you don't start losing weight, like, quit the diet pretty quickly, right? I think a lot of real estate agents fall out because they just don't have the ability, because they didn't get with that person right away, that really could shorten them down and hopefully get them to those first couple of sales.

Christine Hall  1:03:08  
So you think it's about what, you know, I think too. Oh, that's what I said. I thought you said, what? Okay, you know, all right.

Speaker 2  1:03:15  
So yes, I concur. Like, Wait, isn't that who you know?

Tracy Hayes  1:03:20  
I was like, where's I thought you said, what? Okay, we're just playing the recording back. I appreciate you coming

Christine Hall  1:03:27  
on. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. All right,