Business
John Schuchman
Research shows that 80% of Realtors will not survive their first year and 87% of Realtors will be COMPLETELY out of the business within 5 years. Why does this happen? What does this mean for you? It means that if you have survived your first year, you are already better than 80%! of the new agents out there. Survive to five years, and you are statistically in the top 13%! That is great and awful at the same time. Why do agents fail or leave the business? How do I make sure I am not a statistic of failure in the business? Those questions are what brought the podcast; the Real Estate Survival Guide to life. We are excited to have you join us along this journey.
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25/05/2022

Finding Your Why: An Interview With Ken Hannaman

Who is Ken Hannaman?Ken is an executive with a nationwide fast food chain with the responsibility of 700 plus restaurants. He is also a coach to thousands of people, dog dad to two chihuahuas, and husband to one: his best friend Crystal, with whom he has spent more than 20 years and navigated life in untraditional ways. Author of Ungraduated: Finding your why and dropping out of outdated belief systems, published by Harshman House Publishing, Ken helps people like you change their ways of thinking so they can lead fuller, freer lives. He is a member of Total Life Freedom and a couple other masterminds, and he is one of the kindest people you could ever hope to meet, and he asks great questions. “What stories do you want told after you're no longer here or after you move on from your place of business? And if you can, really carve out and be purposeful with your time. You're going to find that flow state to where you can knock out a couple hours of something that you probably would have spent mindlessly scrolling Facebook or Twitter or Instagram.”“I help people realize what a life they can have if they want to go after it. I'll tie this together from the real estate world is you can look at it as a transaction. You could look at it as get them all done, make money, take care of my family and that's it. But what if during every single deal that you're making, you realize you're impacting people's lives, you're setting them up for the next chapter of their life? Whenever you can, correlate and draw in that relatability to who you are, why it matters to you, and what stories you're going to help people tell as they carve out their new homes and make moves.”Find out all of this and more:How Ken went from facing prison to being a trusted mentorThe realizations he came to regarding education and other systemsWhich beliefs you can change to get results quicklyWhat Ken says instead of “I’m busy”Ken’s reason for beingHow fast food work relates to real estateWhat we are not doing enough of in our businessesResourcesUngraduated: Finding your why and dropping out of outdated belief systemsUngraduated podcastShow notes and blog posts are brought to you by HarshmanServices.com and RealtorEmails.com. John Schuchman is a licensed REALTOR® in Lancaster, PA, with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Homesale Realty and a part of the Andrew Welk Group. The opinions shared on this show represent the opinions & values of John Schuchman and do not necessarily represent the opinions & values of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Homesale Realty. The opinions & ideas shared in this podcast do not guarantee or promise any results of success to the listener. 
39m
23/05/2022

Be the Realtor You've Never Seen Before

SummaryThis podcast episode was inspired by an awesome post in the Total Life Freedom community by our amazing leader, Vincent Pugliese. He shared an interview, from Paul Stanley, the lead singer and creator of the band Kiss. In the interview, Paul said that they had gone to rock concerts for years and spent all this money and sort of felt cheated out of a great experience. And so when they created the band Kiss, they wanted to be the band that they had never seen before. Creating a better experienceThe minute I saw this, I knew that I could apply it to my real estate business and share it with you, my wonderful audience, to help you in your real estate career. It's so interesting: being the band they never saw. Paul wanted Kiss to create an experience unlike any that anyone had ever seen. I personally am not a fan of Kiss. I couldn't tell you one of their songs. That's not my type of music, and that's okay. That doesn't change the fact that Kiss has probably been one of the most influential and remembered rock bands in history. With the makeup and the acts they put on, they create an experience that people want to recreate and tell others about. When we think about being the band we never saw and that Kiss was created because people felt cheated at concerts, how can we apply this to our real estate business?Take out the word band and put Realtor in there. Be the realtor that no one has ever seen yet. Lessons LearnedIt's hard to create relationships with people and just be the person they who answers their phone, who gets back to them when they promise to. And in that way, I want to be that Realtor that they've never seen before. When I say I'm going to get back to them, I do my best to make sure that it happens. Like Paul Stanley, who created Kiss so that people could see the band they never saw, I want our real estate businesses to be one where we show people a different side of Realtors aside that they have never seen before. And we do it with honor integrity and honesty, really caring about our clients and the relationships.Operate your business with character and integrity and treating your clients the right way so that they say, “Wow, I got so much value out of that. When I have another real estate transaction or when a friend is looking for a Realtor, when it's their turn to buy or sell, I'm going to think of John,” or insert your name here.I hope this is helpful to you, and I will see you guys on our next episode.Show notes and blog posts are brought to you by HarshmanServices and RealtorEmails. John Schuchman is a licensed REALTOR® in Lancaster, PA, with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Homesale Realty and a part of the Andrew Welk Group. The opinions shared on this show represent the opinions & values of John Schuchman and do not necessarily represent the opinions & values of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Homesale Realty. The opinions & ideas shared in this podcast do not guarantee or promise any results of success to the listener. 
8m
20/05/2022

Control Your A.P.E.

SummaryWe are not talking about a monkey. We’re talking about a phrase that was created by Ron Rivera, who used to be head coach of the Carolina Panthers in the NFL and is now head coach of the Washington Commanders.He says to control your inner A.P.E. And that stands for your attitude, preparation, and effort.You may or may not know Ron Rivera’s story, but I share it in this episode. It's very applicable and can help you in your real estate career. What you can learn about real estate from a sports coachRon’s team didn't let anyone doubt them. I feel like they outworked many more teams, even in their division, that were more talented than them. The Washington football team probably had the least amount of raw talent in the division.Ron Rivera did amazing things all while undergoing major medical treatment.He could've complained. He could have really felt bad for himself. But he controlled his APE. No one was going to outwork him. And no one did. That team made the playoffs when they literally had no business being in the playoffs.I absolutely love this phrase. It relates so much to what we do as Realtors. I know a few weeks ago, I talked to you about controlling what you can control. This phrase really impacted me and my career, and I hope you find it applicable to yours as well.Lessons LearnedI love how Ron Rivera says to control your attitude, preparation, and effort. You're not always going to be the best Realtor or the agent making the most money or the one that everyone wants to work with, but what can you control?You can control your attitude about it and how you see it. Are you going to be a glass half empty person and doom and gloom about your real estate career? Or are you going to have a positive outlook? Are you going to put in the work and prepare? Are you going to put in full effort, or are you going to slack off and let others outwork you?One of the things that I have found in my real estate career is that I am going to not let any agent outwork me. I mentioned previously about how some clients did video testimonials for me to use on social media. The most amazing thing a client ever said was that I would outwork every other agent that you've ever dealt with.This was a game changer for me, to have people who not only believe great things about me and let me borrow their confidence, but who also were willing to say it publicly, to put me over, because they want to help promote my business.How can we as realtors control our A.P.E.? How can we control our attitude, preparation and effort? Well, if you control those things, you are in a much better spot than many Realtors out there. No, that doesn't mean you're always going to win, but at least you know that you did everything you could by maintaining your attitude, preparing well, and putting that effort in for your clients.I hope this encourages you. And with that, I will see you on the next episode.Show notes and blog posts are brought to you by HarshmanServices and RealtorEmails. John Schuchman is a licensed REALTOR® in Lancaster, PA, with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Homesale Realty and a part of the Andrew Welk Group. The opinions shared on this show represent the opinions & values of John Schuchman and do not necessarily represent the opinions & values of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Homesale Realty. The opinions & ideas shared in this podcast do not guarantee or promise any results of...
12m
18/05/2022

Creating Consistency That Leads To Success- An Interview with Chris Daub

Who is Christopher Daub? Chris has been a mortgage loan officer for about five years now and works for Geneva Financial. He has helped many clients with their financial situation over his career. He has a passion for helping people achieve their dream of home ownership. Chris is also involved in the community, and he plays clarinet for the Lampeter Strasburg community band. He lives in East Calico Township in Lancaster County. And Chris also recently joined Total Life Freedom, which we talk about all the time on this show. We have been on quite a journey together since my real estate career started. We've been on similar paths where our business grew at like similar volumes where we doubled or tripled our volume. We've both been really blessed. “I think the biggest thing that you and I have done working together is we have a similar philosophy on how we handle our business and the big portion of that is building relationships.” “I don't want to be transactional where it's all about the transaction, because if it's about the transaction and if it's not about the service, then we're looking at price. And when it comes to interest rates, it's very competitive, especially in a market like this right now. And if I'm not the lowest, for whatever reason, you know, I need to be able to do something to make myself stand out and services where I can help make up for that difference.”Learn all of this and more:How he’s created success as a lender and how that can relate to RealtorsWhat Mortgage Mondays did to his businessHow he went from being unable to give to his church to happily writing a full tithe checkThings others aren’t doing that Chris is doingHow a lender and a Realtor can be a great teamResourceshttps://www.genevafi.com/ Show notes and blog posts are brought to you by HarshmanServices.com and RealtorEmails.com Grow your business on autopilot.John Schuchman is a licensed REALTOR® in Lancaster, PA, with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Homesale Realty and a part of the Andrew Welk Group. The opinions shared on this show represent the opinions & values of John Schuchman and do not necessarily represent the opinions & values of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Homesale Realty. The opinions & ideas shared in this podcast do not guarantee or promise any results of success to the listener. 
37m
16/05/2022

Do The Little Things

SummaryDo the little things. It makes you stand out. I am constantly frustrated as I see realtors taking the shortcuts and not doing the work necessary to make their clients happy. Some of them maybe don't even know that they're doing it. Maybe they don't know that they're not doing the things they should be doing. Maybe they don't know that they come across as lazy. I'm constantly frustrated by the agents that are not doing the little things to make it easy for their clients and their fellow Realtors in the real estate transaction. I'm not trying to toot my horn, but I feel like the reason I've had success and how you can have success is by doing the little things, the things other agents aren't doing.This episode has some examples that will help you. I’ll share two here with you in the show notes.Things Realtors don't do but shouldI recently was interacting with an agent on a property that we are under contract on. They got the inspection report and so they needed to have some contractors go in and price out some work. When I talked to the agent about getting it scheduled with our showing service for a showing time, she basically said, don't worry about it. I don't have time to do that. Just go to the house. That makes it difficult for me because if I schedule it with the service, it goes right to my calendar. Her way, I have to just put a note in there to go to the house. I have to remember the lockbox rather than all of it being in the showing time instructions.As I thought about this episode, I was driving to and from my luxury listing we've talked about. It's about an hour and 10 minutes from my house. And as I've said on some other episodes, the reason that they hired me over a handful of other agents they interviewed was because I said I'd be there for whatever they needed and I’d get the job done. I want to do the little things to make them happy with my services so that not only do they list their home with me, which they have, but they tell their friends and family what a great job I did. So as I drove there, I started thinking about the little things required to have success in this transaction and just in real estate in general.I was on my way to their home to meet an appraiser. Now, I don't interact with the appraiser. Your best bet is leaving the appraiser alone. You don't want them thinking you are trying to influence the price or anything like that. But I drove about an hour and 10 minutes to go there and unlock the door for the appraiser because my clients were out of town.I could have said, “No, you guys have to figure it out. The Realtor doesn't show up for that. No, I can't do that. Just give them the door code.” But that just seemed so lazy, and it seemed like a bad experience for my clients. If I did that, then they’d worry about, “Okay, who's in my house? What if somebody goes into the house while he's appraising the property?” Instead, I got in my car, drove the hour and 15 minutes, and let the appraiser in the house. The appraiser was in the home for 15 minutes.I drove basically two and a half hours for something that took 15 minutes. But you know what? The time doesn't really matter. What really matters is giving my clients a great experience. That does not stop when you get the home under contract. Lessons LearnedWe have to give a great experience to our clients. We have to do the little things and sometimes the things that seem so small and so insignificant to us. An hour of driving can be something big for our clients. That can be a reason they go and tell their friends and family about the work that you do as a Realtor. Think about this in your real estate business. Are you doing the little stuff? Are you making the drives, even though you could just tell them someone else can do this or let them use the door code or mail that deposit check?...
10m
13/05/2022

Give Out Great Service Like The Apple Store

If you want to be successful in the real estate business, you need to give great service like the Apple Store. I told you earlier this week how I could talk about Apple all the time. I promise after these two episodes, I will try not to talk about Apple for a little bit and give you guys a break.SummaryI go to the Apple Store a couple of times a year when I'm upgrading different devices. And every single time, they give me a great experience. The shopping experience with Samsung, Google, and other phones is different because they don't really have a Google phone store or a Samsung phone store. The service I get at the Apple Store is phenomenal and just makes me want to do business with them. I went to talk to them about possibly getting a new computer. They could have sold me on a product they had in stock, but they didn’t. They asked me about my needs, and suggested a course of action that would serve me better.It is very interesting to me how the success that Apple has created in their business. Earlier this week, we talked about how you don't really need to reinvent the wheel. You just have to do things better than other realtors. And we've seen how Apple has done this in their business model. Apple doesn't really care about being the first to try new things. They just want to be better. And so that was the lesson there: that we can just be better. Don't reinvent the wheel; just do it better than these other Realtors. Apple employees ask questions, they try to find solutions, they try to help, and they know that it's not a one-size-fits-all situation. Answering questions, being patient, trying to help—these are three great qualities to apply to our real estate business. Are we doing that with our clients? Lessons Learned You don’t have to be first.        You don’t have to reinvent the wheel.     Just be better than others are.   Ask the right questions.     Answer the prospect or client’s questions.      Be patient and helpful.     Don’t just sell. Real estate, just like a tech purchase, is not a one-size-fits-all kind of thing.      If someone walks away without buying from you, it’s okay.I hope that you can think about this in your real estate business. Give out great service like they do at the Apple Store. Show notes and blog posts are brought to you by HarshmanServices.com and RealtorEmails.com For a quick win, click here for a freebie you can give to all your prospects and clients.John Schuchman is a licensed REALTOR® in Lancaster, PA, with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Homesale Realty and a part of the Andrew Welk Group. The opinions shared on this show represent the opinions & values of John Schuchman and do not necessarily represent the opinions & values of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Homesale Realty. The opinions & ideas shared in this podcast do not guarantee or promise any results of success to the listener. 
12m