Speaker1: And welcome to Mike Ferry TV. It is, of course, Monday, and we are very lucky to have with this, as you know, we started this wonderful series of great real estate agents and coaches that work with MFO and sharing some of their good thoughts and advice and what they’ve experienced. And it’s really been a fun adventure for me, I have to tell you. And as we introduce Vickie Clark Jennings from Fredericksburg, Virginia, which is about 50 miles south of Washington, D.C. I have to say I have been taking more notes on these, Vickie than I never thought I would take this. I’ve probably taken so far 10 pages of notes doing these interviews, and I’m just hoping all of our viewers understand how important what you have to share is, and they do the same. So let me ask you this question. When did we first meet? How long has it been that we became acquainted?

Speaker2: It was 31 years ago this October.

Speaker1: So, if it’s 31 years ago in October, that means you’re more than 30 years old.

Speaker2: Yeah, unfortunately I am.

Speaker1: Yes, I think the Fredericksburg weather must keep you young. Good for you. That’s great. How long have you been in Real Estate overall?

Speaker2: I’ve been in Real Estate for 30, It’ll be my thirty sixth year in November, so I suffered for five years without you. I don’t know what I was thinking.

Speaker1: And you know what’s interesting? I’ve heard that probably now five or six times from our great clients like yourself that that first four or five years, you know, they made a living and then they somehow reconnected. Where did we connect? What was I in Fredericksburg or D.C.? Or do you remember?

Speaker2: Well, I don’t know if you remember Cathy Belcher. She sold in my market and in her second year in Real Estate, she did one hundred and ten deals and I thought, what is that woman doing? And I want some of it. We were in the same office, and I was able to find out that she had was lucky enough to connect with you in her first year of Real Estate. I was in.

Speaker1: Well, good for you. That’s great. It’s a big leap and a big change of beliefs, as you know. When you started with this, what was the hardest part for you of adopting this mental process of working the way we teach?

Speaker2: Well, you know, it’s interesting for me, I don’t feel like it was hard for me to adopt what you were teaching because I was tired of working all the time and not having money. Ok, you know, when I saw Cathy, I was blessed to see Cathy do what she did. Follow your teachings and your system and how well she did, and I just thought that’s for me. And so I didn’t fight it. I remember the first time I met you and I just thought, Hope Lord, I don’t hope I get thrown out of this class because I was throwing people out of class. So, yeah. It was amazing. It was just an amazing experience to meet you and join.

Speaker1: That’s very kind. So how long have you been a coach with us as a coach?

Speaker2: I’ve been a coach for 11 years or 10 years, I’m going on my 11th year next year.

Speaker1: How many agents do you coach now at this time?

Speaker2: In my schedule right now, I have 15

Speaker1: Good and I always say to a coach and to the agents, if they have you as a coach, their lucky agents. That’s for sure. Are you still personally producing?

Speaker2: Yes, yes, I sell full time.

Speaker1: And how many transactions will you do this year?

Speaker2: Personally? Personally, I’m on track for sixty-five.

Speaker1: Good. And do you have a team of any type supporting you?

Speaker2: I have a team that works with me, and as a team, I think we’re on track for somewhere around one twenty-five, one-fifty.

Speaker1: Good for you. That is outstanding. I want all of our viewers to say that not only can Vicki help you learn how to do what she does, she does it herself. Yes, and that’s really the name of the game. I think we, Vicki, we’ve always been very lucky to have people like yourself that are very active, very productive, and then also help other agents. I wrote down this question. I wrote down, you know, can you share two or three of the qualities or characteristics that agents have that you’ve seen that can do the kind of business you do plus? What are some of the things you’ve seen in these people?

Speaker2: Well, from the clients that I’ve had the privilege to work with, you know, a lot of a lot of them were very open minded. They were willing to accept based on blind faith. They were willing to take time to practice and learn and internalize. And, you know, along the way, they had question. They struggled a little bit. But when you ask them a lot of questions and it just made sense, they just went right along with, you know, your system and they’ve made a lot of money, a lot of money.

Speaker1: Yeah, for a lot of people. I think which I wrote down open minded blind faith, I wrote that down first and then I wrote down second, which probably is important is, you know, they invest the time to learn what to do. You know, before Real Estate, did you have a career of some type?

Speaker2: Before Real Estate, yes, before Real Estate, I was a property manager for a real estate company.

Speaker1: The reason I asked that for all of our viewers, almost all of us had a career prior to Real Estate. And if you didn’t take the time to learn what the job was, you worked the last on the job. You for this week, you time and again, the Real Estate is one of the only jobs you can have where it’s actually hard to get fired. Yes, because you can do nothing for months on end and so often management puts up with that right for you and I as coaches, we can keep them away from that zero zero zero production level if they’re willing to be open minded, which is such a big thing. What’s the biggest challenge that you face in working with agents or challenges? Because I know there’s many challenges we face every day.

Speaker2: Well, two that stand out to me the most is number one, they haven’t learned really how to put a plan in place to overcome the obstacles that get in their way.

Speaker1: Can you give me an example of that?

Speaker2: Well, for example, if someone doesn’t make it to the office on time, let’s say they’re late every day, that really starts right before. What’s the plan? What are they telling themselves before they go to bed? What time are they going to bed? Are they getting up early enough? Do they have an accountability partner that will help them get to? They’re just not. They’re not focused on putting strong enough systems in place to help them overcome their excuses is what it is.

Speaker1: That’s a big challenge for most Real Estate people. You know our advantage we’re independent contractors. Our greatest disadvantage, we’re independent contractors. Is there a second challenge that you see or face on a regular basis?

Speaker2: Well, I feel like if they knew what to do with their extra money, if they had a plan on how they were going to spend it and how they were going to enjoy it, that some of the other obstacles would go away, some of the other challenges. I think what happens is they get in, they go into using your system, they make more money than they’ve ever had before. Finally, their taxes are paid right and now they’ve got a savings going on, but they have not identified How am I going to spend this money? What am I going to do with it?

Speaker1: What am I going to do with it, which I think is a great, great point. You know, I told Sabrina about all the great people I was going to be doing these interviews with from Mike Ferry TV. And I made a comment for all of our viewers about Vickie because we’ve known each other a long time and we’ve done personal things together. We’ve spent some holidays together. We lived in Richmond for a long time and we got to enjoy being with Vickie and her family. I said, What I like about Vickie is she’s straightforward. There’s not a lot of emotion in a coaching call. Do you see yourself that way?

Speaker2: I do. I just feel like emotion is a waste of time. There’s a place in a time for emotion and in making money. There’s no time for emotion. And if you’re too tied up into your emotion, you can’t really guide your clients in the direction that they need to go.

Speaker1: it’s really a matter of keeping your head on straight or the Zig Ziglar used to say is if you have stinking thinking, you’re never going to get ahead. Right? And because that’s one of the things that I think that Sabrina and I have enjoyed about our relationship with Vickie is that straightforward approach, which is pretty much my approach. For personality styles, which one of the four personality styles do you see yourself as?

Speaker2: I see myself as a driver.

Speaker1: And I’m going to do this. I’m just stamping that driver because I agree with that 100%.

Speaker2: Yeah, right. Well, thank you.

Speaker1: It’s a challenge because you and I think very much alike. We’re pretty straightforward. We don’t hold back much. If somebody asks a question, we give them an answer. Is it hard at times to adapt to all the personalities of the clients that you coach?

Speaker2: Yes.

Speaker1: And what’s the hardest part of that for you?

Speaker2: For me, I think the hardest part is when the personality style that I’m talking with is thinking… for example an analytical, for example, right, like I feel like an analytical, you give them an answer to fix something or you help them arrive at the answer to fix something. And all of a sudden they’ve ignored the answer and they’ve gone on to the next issue that needs to be fixed.

Speaker1: Yeah.

Speaker2: Like what is happening here, right? And then with an expressive, you know, I feel like you can talk with them and arrive at a situation, you know, how to fix the situation. And then instead of just saying, Oh, that’s great, let’s go. It’s like, move on to the next drama, right? And then you know what I mean? It’s just so to me, I want to say, hey, this is the way you need to do it and so on and so forth. But as a coach, I can’t do that. I can’t. I can’t be a dictator. I have to ask questions and help them write. So, there’s a lot of drinking after coaching calls at times.

Speaker1: I love it. That’s good. I saw something yesterday. It was a little quip that somebody sent me, and they said the key to doing a Zoom call is put your wine in a coffee cup and then blow on it occasionally. They think you’re drinking hot coffee or tea as you sip your wine. And I thought it was. It’s a great way. Yeah. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of these we’ve done over the last 18, 20 months, I can appreciate that. So, you’ve got a group of, say, 15, 20 agents in front of you for a couple of hours and they’re saying, Vickie, give us one or two pieces of advice that we can use to change the direction of our career. I’ve already written down one two three four five six things that you’ve said, so give me a couple of thoughts. If you were doing a little conversation with some top people that want to get better.

Speaker2: Well, I think the first thing you have to do is pay attention to your market. You’ve really got to study your market statistics. There’s a lot of shifting that takes place in a market and you have to know, you know, how to present those shifts. Yes. I’m sorry, go ahead. I mean, interrupt.

Speaker1: That’s no, that’s vital. I put that in capital letters. The second thought that you would share with them.

Speaker2: You have to be eighty five percent minimum question-based conversation.

Speaker1: Tell me why.

Speaker2: When you ask a question, especially an open-ended question, you have the person talking, right, so these are the rules of versatility, ask great questions, learn to listen and give up always having to be right.

Speaker1: Great advice.

Speaker2: If you can master those three rules, you’re going to win the presentation game hands down.

Speaker1: Yeah, because I think most agents think that for example, Listing Presentation is just talking. I know it’s really just asking questions, right? The answer so you can decide what the course of action is going to be, which is the name of the game. So, Vickie, as we’ve been doing Mike Ferry TV now for about, I think about 17 years and we keep trying to create formats that keep their interests up. We’ve had millions and millions of viewers. So, this particular message I’m hoping everybody watching today watches at two or three times this week because certainly I take a lot of notes when I listen to smart people, and I hope they did too. And I want to say, first of all from Sabrina, and I thank you for being a long-term friend, a long-term client and a long-term coach. And the people that you coach are lucky people, and we want to say thank you for that. With that, I’ll say to our viewers, we’ve had the good fortune of being with Vickie today. I hope you learned something and enjoy the experience. And Vickie, thanks for your time.

Speaker2: Thank you, Mike. I really appreciate you. Thanks.

Speaker1: We’ll see you soon.

Speaker2: Bye bye.