Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey everybody and welcome to Ed and Ken's mini podcast. Your once a week dose of all the knowledge you could possibly ever want built into a half hour format with two of the smartest people you'll ever meet.
That's me, of course, and Ed Fordyce.
[00:00:15] Speaker B: How are you, Ed, of course. And we're also very humble.
Today we will be cut down to 15 minutes.
[00:00:21] Speaker A: Uh, oh yeah, we have a hard stop at 10 o' clock and of course I did forget to tell Ed that we had a hard start at 9:30 and he was a couple minutes late. So you know, we'll have to work.
If I go sending a text when you logged on, I'm like, oh, he's gonna love this.
[00:00:39] Speaker B: If I go through the records, I'm gonna bet, I'm gonna bet the casino that I've been on time more times than you.
[00:00:47] Speaker A: Yeah, probably right.
[00:00:51] Speaker B: We're perfectly imperfect, brother.
[00:00:53] Speaker A: That's it. That's it.
We have a cool topic today and it's something that I think a lot of people are confused about. And I bring in like an example of where salespeople get confused. A lot of salespeople confuse marketing and selling. They're two different things. And you brought up a very, very good point. And that is they also have a distorted view or they're confused about branding. So tell me what you mean by that. How are most sales professionals not thinking about branding in the right way?
[00:01:34] Speaker B: I'll read something in a second, but number one, I will send you and you can share it with our audience in the show notes.
[00:01:42] Speaker A: In the show notes, of course, the.
[00:01:43] Speaker B: Difference between marketing and branding.
It is so good, it is so clear.
And branding though again, I'll put up this book. I really like this book. Wealthy and well known, build your personal brand and turn your reputation into revenue.
So most of us think self branding or branding is our logo or hey, let me tell you about me or what is my brand? And what this book says is this leads us back to dismantling one of the most destructive, limiting beliefs about personal branding.
Ironically, a personal brand is, is not about you, it's about the people you were created to help.
Building a great personal brand should not be a self centered pursuit, but a service centered one.
And it goes on and on. Talk about, I love how they call it a mission driven messenger.
[00:03:03] Speaker A: Let me take a step back.
It's not about you, it's about the people you are created to help. Is that what you said?
[00:03:10] Speaker B: Yes. So in, in the real estate world, let me, let me ask you Ken, in the mortgage world, do you think your consumer clients and your agent clients would lean more into.
My name is Ken Jordan from Princeton Mortgage. We offer exceptional world class service. We have this thing called the blueprint and we have very competitive rates that almost beat the pants off of any competitor out there because of our business model. Want to do business with me compared to.
I want to share a story of two people who I think are my heroes.
There are two veterans, married couple that came to me a year ago. Their dream home was in Glen Mills. The reason why they wanted to live in Glen Mills because their parents. Like, you're telling a story of how you impacted somebody's life and your mission is to serve military families.
It is such a. And when I send you the difference between marketing and branding, which I am not an expert in either, if I have too much coffee some days I think I am.
There's a big difference, man.
And it's about how self branding is how, what feeling do we leave with people.
[00:04:47] Speaker A: Yes. I think you just hit the nail right on the head. I mean, branding has an emotional component to it. Marketing is very simple. Product price, promotion, place.
That's marketing. You know, what is your product, how do you promote it, how do you price it and where do you sell it and where do you show up and where is it available? That's all marketing. And that's the P's of marketing that I learned back at Penn state, you know, 30 years ago.
Branding is how people feel when they hear your name.
And how you drive that message is by telling stories. Like you said, I think that you're dead on. In fact, there's a great book called Story Branding which walks you through how Hollywood. And I'm sure you've heard this, right, how Hollywood tells a story, okay? And no matter what story it is, whether it's Star wars or whether it's Forrest Gump or whether, you know, you name it, pick one of your favorite movies of all time, okay? That had a great storyline and they all have similar components, macro components, okay? Number one, every single story has a hero, okay?
And in every one of those stories, that hero faces a challenge. And it's not a little challenge, it's a hero, huge challenge. It's a life or death challenge. It's an existential challenge. It's a challenge that could change the trajectory of a generation. All of these things are challenges. And your hero has a challenge, and then along comes a guide, okay? And that guide helps the hero to tap into what their potential is to overcome that Challenge and win.
And, you know, what do they say at the end of every story? Like, you know, and happily ever after. Right.
Think about it. Where most, and this is what I've learned is that where most real estate agents, loan officers go wrong, they think they're the hero and they're not. If you're telling your story and you're positioning yourself as the hero with the challenge, you're putting yourself in the wrong spot of the story. You're the guy, the customer is the hero, the real estate agent is the hero. And it's not pandering.
It's not to say like, I'm going to go on and tell this great story about how, you know, how this deal came together. And for me, as a loan officer, I'll speak how this deal came together and how the real estate agent really went above and beyond to make sure that this thing got closed. He. Even though I did my part and I really kind of did a heavy lift, it's not pandering to say, hey, listen, the reason this got done was because of you and how you managed this and how you trusted me and how you navigated the details like, they're the hero of that story and they want you to be the guide. They don't even want you to be the hero. They just want you to be the guide. Same with your borrowers, man. Same with your buyers.
They want you to be the guy they want. They are the hero. They're the ones with the struggle.
Right?
And I think that's where the emotional story, brand. Great, great, great book.
[00:08:15] Speaker B: There's a, I just took a couple screenshots here. This says marketing is promotion, visibility, attention, engagement, gets you seen, generates leads.
It's transactional, it grabs attention, it creates customers, it sells the product.
It's short term and it's tactical.
Branding is perception, emotion, meaning, trust gets you chosen, generates sales relationship, earns devotion, creates advocates, sells the meaning long term and it's strategic.
It also says at the end here, and I'll have to, I'll have to listen to it to clarify, but I think it says marketing creates a moment, Branding creates a memory.
[00:09:10] Speaker A: That is awesome. Marketing creates a moment. Branding creates a memory that's phenomenal.
[00:09:18] Speaker B: So moments are forgotten, memories are never forgotten. Which leads me to. And this is going to be so counterintuitive to what you and I talk about. I had a great coaching call the other day and this is, this is towards our ancient partners and other loan officers.
And I, I made the, I call it one of the parrot comments. That we make in our business.
And it was. Well, it's all about relationships.
[00:09:50] Speaker A: It's that power comment is that thing you just say without, like, very little thought. You're just repeating something you've heard or said a million times.
[00:09:57] Speaker B: That's it. That's it.
And this guy goes, no, it's not. No, it's not. People are going to do business with you because you make them more money or you save them more money.
The relationship is cool.
But. And I was like, oh, oh, my gosh.
And I thought about that and how over the years, my little tender feelings were hurt because somebody left my brokerage or somebody used another loan officer. And when I really look at it, I'm like, I was fully dependent on our relationship.
Why aren't you giving me the business?
Dude, that was like such. I sort of knew it. But it's like, getting that relationship's cool. It's great. It's great.
But it has to be backed up with. Let me show you on black and white how I serve you at a higher level, how your clients are going to be in better hands, how I'm going to make you more money, save you more money. Here it is.
Great. Now we can go, you know, go for a walk together.
[00:11:17] Speaker A: But it's you, you say that. That is so, so true. And, And I think that the time I Look, I'm 100%. I've been there with you, right? Like, I, you know, I don't understand everything I've done and, and why.
Why did you leave or why did you go somewhere else? You know, you do. You feed. Your ego takes a shot, right? But that, that's because if your ego takes a hit when someone leaves, whether it's because. Whether it's a relationship you have within the business or it's a customer, if your ego takes a hit, that means that you were positioning yourself in the wrong place. In that story, you were the hero and they were helping you uncover and get over a struggle. Whether it's you need more revenue for the branch or you need more revenue for your brokerage or whatever, when your ego takes that, or you need more friends or you need more people to like you, or you need more people to validate you when you, whatever it is, you're putting yourself in the wrong place. And that's why it hurts. When you put yourself in the right place, everything works out exactly the way it's supposed to. And that means if they leave, it was because they were supposed to leave, right? Like, and if they, if they, if you're not providing the best service at the best price.
You're not providing that value composition of price and service. And they leave. It's because you have something you have to now work on. They're giving, they're doing you a favor.
They're doing you a favor.
They're telling you keep at it, keep working on your value proposition because it's not there.
Wifm.
My first coach taught me that. You know what that stands for?
[00:12:49] Speaker B: No.
[00:12:49] Speaker A: Wiifm. He says it's the radio station. It's the signal that all people are tuned to wiifm. What's in it for me?
What's in it for me? And it's not selfish, it's human nature. Right? And you have to always remember that what's in it for them? And being your friend is not enough.
It's not enough. Right. Like what's in it for them? What's in it for them is you're going to save them time, energy, which allows them to focus on their work. Because you're going to take care of the mortgage process seamlessly and effortlessly or you're going to negotiate that transaction on the, on the, on the sale of the house to make sure that they're going to walk away with maximum profit. Or you're gonna negotiate that sale and make sure they win so they can move their kids in to that school district before the school starts. So what's in it for them is the most important thing, the most important filter. You gotta put things through.
[00:13:42] Speaker B: Yes. So a couple things before we wrap it up. Today's rapid fire. I'm gonna give a really cool. Go do that. Really, really cool.
So speaking of that, the relationships, I'm on a recruiting call and, and the, you know, the, the, the bobblehead on the other side of the call is like. And I am unhashtag. Unrecruitable. I love our office, I love our broker, my team leader, the culture, the blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I said, oh, you're unrecruitable, huh?
What if I were to get you a million dollar signing bonus today, would you leave? And they laughed and I said, so you're not unrecruitable now that's not going to happen.
[00:14:30] Speaker A: Right?
[00:14:32] Speaker B: But it just goes to show relationships are great and it has nothing to do with loyalty.
And this is something that I'm talking more about recruiting and some reason in the, in the real estate world, like if you and I are a management team, I don't even think Modell's sporting goods is even in business anymore.
[00:14:59] Speaker A: It's right next to Blockbuster.
[00:15:01] Speaker B: Okay, let's just say back in the day, models, right? And we're get, we're on salary for 50 grand a year. The Ed and Ken team, right? And we love it, man. We love dressing in our Phillies and Eagles stuff and whatever we're promoting, you know, and it's great. And Dick's sporting, comes to us and says, hey guys, you guys do a great job as a leadership team. Really like you.
We're going to triple your salary.
What are we doing?
And by the way, everything's equal benefits.
Great people, great leadership, blah blah, blah. We're leaving.
Why people don't do that in the real estate world is still something that blows me away.
Blows. I literally have had, what do you call those things, performance done that some agents would literally in seven years net $1 million more coming with me.
And they don't.
I don't know why.
Here's the go do because I have a hard stop.
Quantum physics. I'm really digging back into this quantum physics energy vibration that comes off of us. And I'll tell you, when human beings start doing this, minimum two times a day, when you get up in the morning and when you go to bed at night, I would recommend doing it at least four times, you will start to become so aware. And dude, lately you and I talked about this. I feel more like a rookie in business and life right now than I ever have in my life. And what I mean by that, I'm so open to learning, I'm so open to going, oh my gosh, I didn't even realize that.
But when you start doing this, you become so aware of how many negative thoughts still go through our minds.
So when you go to bed at night, just say these words, something, something amazing, phenomenal, wonderful is going to happen to me in my life tomorrow.
When you wake up, Something amazing, wonderful and phenomenal is going to happen in my life today. For me, It changes everything. It's not woo woo. It's actually science.
It's quantum physics. It's vibration.
It's unbelievable. There's my go do.
[00:18:06] Speaker A: I love it, man.
And I suggest we all brush our teeth in the morning. We all brush our teeth at night. So put a little post it note on your mirror. You can't forget to do it. And make sure that you turn your phone off a full half hour before you go to bed. That's another go do something that I've been trying to work on myself.
Your brain, if you're scrolling and then you try and roll over and go to sleep.
You know, you're just hurting your own sleep, and you're hurting your own ability to retain and learn from the day. So that's good stuff, man. I appreciate you as always. Ed. We have another minute before your hard stop, so I'm going to give you back that minute. That way you can get ready for your next call, and I look forward to our next conversation next week.
[00:18:51] Speaker B: You got it, brother. See you guys.
