Why showing up helps you win in commercial real estate.

CRE Success Principle: Make visibility your advantage. When other agents retreat, hide behind email, or assume prospects don’t want to hear from them… that’s when you should lean in. People will remember the expert who showed up when things were unclear, not the agent who went missing in action.

In commercial real estate, showing up is still one of the most powerful competitive advantages you can create.

We live in a world where Zoom is commonplace, email is convenient, and social media gives us visibility at scale. But nothing replaces being in the room.

Physical Presence Builds Momentum

In the episode, I share how increased travel and face to face meetings directly contributed to growth in my business. When you shake hands, look someone in the eye, and have a real conversation, relationships move forward faster.

One simple strategy is the “I’ll be in the area” message. If you are nearby, give prospects a reason to meet. You do not need a complex agenda. You need presence.

Showing Up Mentally Matters Too

There is also the metaphorical side of showing up. Bringing your A-Game. Making the calls. Asking for the meeting. Staying visible even when markets feel uncertain.

During downturns, many agents retreat. That is precisely when clients need experts most.

If you want to accelerate deal flow and win more listings, commit to showing up physically and mentally.

I unpack the full strategy in episode 258 of Commercial Real Estate Leadership. Listen now and put it into practice.

Episode transcript:

There's a good quote that you've probably heard before, which says that 80% of success is all about showing up, and sometimes it's said 90% of life is about showing up.

The quote is often attributed to Woody Allen.

Now, I don’t know if he actually said it, and I don't know if it's precisely 80 or 90%. But I do know that the sentiment behind it, or I believe that the sentiment behind this statement is true.

And I just wanted to share in today's episode some ways that you can apply that statement in a way which is relevant not only in a living-with-COVID world, but also in a world where we are dealing with some of the impacts of economic uncertainty. So, stick around.

This is episode 258 of Commercial Real Estate Leadership. Really appreciate you joining us for another episode in our series, which is all about pipeline prospecting and production power.

My name is Darren Krakowiak. My job is to help you lead better, grow faster, and stress less.

And I also have to give you an apology because I mentioned the C word at the top of the episode.

COVID. Haven't been talking about COVID much recently, have we? But because we're getting into the vault and picking out some of the best episodes for you and creating these themed episodes, sometimes the word will come up.

And I guess back when that episode was released — episode 108, I believe — COVID was still a big thing.

Well, I know it is still a big thing for some people, and I'm not trying to, I guess, minimize that, but I also am thankful that it's not something that we talk about day to day anymore. Isn't that a good thing, I think?

Look, today's episode we're talking about one behavior that can create more opportunities than any script, any hack, or any CRM, and that is showing up.

And the whole point about talking about living with COVID is that COVID was an excuse for many people.

And I guess we still haven't fully adjusted to a pre-COVID world in terms of in-person meetings and people working in the office.

But certainly, there's the opportunity for us, I think, to be showing up more and to be putting ourselves in a position, even when we're in uncertain markets.

And I think, you know, it almost feels like markets are constantly uncertain right now.

But right now, is a great opportunity. It's a great time for you to be getting in front of clients, to be having those conversations, not hiding behind emails, because when you are more visible — particularly when others are retreating or panicking or not sure about what to do — that becomes a powerful prospecting advantage.

So, I hope you enjoy our third episode in our series on pipeline prospecting and production power.

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So, today's episode is really a big prospecting tip, and that tip is to show up.

And I think the reason why the statement that success in life, or, you know, 90% of life is just about showing up, is because most people don't show up.

And people don't show up physically in that some people just don't get out there and put themselves forward and go after opportunities.

And then there are some people who don't metaphorically show up. So, they're the people who perhaps they're physically there, but they're mentally not quite there.

I don't mean not quite there as in a couple of bottles short of a six-pack. But I mean they're not quite there in that they're not bringing their best selves to the game. Their head's not in the game. They're not really there to win.

So, there are these two elements of showing up. It's about showing up physically, and I want to share with you how I've been showing up a bit more, particularly in 2022, in a living-with-COVID world, and how the borders coming down and more ease of international and interstate travel has allowed me to do that.

In fact, I'll share that with you right now. And then I'll talk about how we can show up more, even when there is economic uncertainty, even when we may believe that people don't want us to show up or we don't feel like showing up.

So, what I've found in my business this year, in 2022, is that the more that I've shown up, the more that I've been willing to get in front of people, the more the business has grown.

And I've traveled interstate many, many times this year, and more trips are coming up. Been overseas once. Will go overseas later this year. And getting in front of people just creates so much more momentum to make things happen.

There is nothing like an in-person meeting versus a Zoom meeting. Or when it comes to showing up on social media, for example, and people seeing who you are and having some presence, understanding of who you are — that's good.

A Zoom meeting's good as well. A phone call's great. But being able to get in the same room as somebody, to shake their hands, to look them in the eye, is going to do so much more for the relationship.

And I think that since we have been able to rely less on in-person meetings during the time when people were more focused on physical distancing, some people haven't gone back to the way things were quite yet.

And perhaps because we've been in a period of a market upturn until recently, people have felt like, well, I don't need to go back to the old ways.

Or they've decided that turning up on Zoom, meeting with people virtually, doing things on social media is just as good as — or better than — physical presence.

Well, I would argue that when we are now approaching a period of a slowdown — whether we, as we talked about last week, believe that we're going to be entering a period of an economic downturn or a recession — as we enter a period of slowdown, we're going to need to be able to show up more to create the same amount of activity.

And one way that you're able to do that is by getting in the same room, showing up for face-to-face meetings more with people.

And it certainly helped me and my business. And I know perhaps if you're operating as a commercial real estate agent, you may not be traveling interstate or overseas to meet prospects in most cases, but you can certainly get in front of people more just in your local market.

When I go to another city, for example, my calling card is basically to say, "Hey, I'm going to be in Sydney on these dates, and I'd love to meet you." And that's the way that I can try and create a reason for the meeting.

And I think the same thing is true when you're in an area, when you're at a specific address, and there's somebody who you've been wanting to meet at a nearby address.

You can just say, "I'm going to be here at this time. I'm wondering, would you be available at this or that time?"

And if they're not, okay. But if they are, then you've got the opportunity to get in front of them. And that can be the reason for the meeting as opposed to inventing some other reason.

We're trying to just get in and have conversations with people, get that face time, because that face time is what grows relationships.

So that's the importance, I think, of showing up physically.

And then there's this idea of showing up metaphorically, or the idea that we don't want to show up as much, or we believe that people don't expect or want us to show up because people are worried about other things if there is a downturn in economic activity, I think.

And the challenge I would put to you on that is that it becomes even more important to show up because people need experts during periods of uncertainty.

Also, you'll be remembered as the person who was showing up when other people were battening down the hatches.

So, showing up more — actually making the calls, asking for the meeting, making the effort with people — as opposed to just assuming that people don't want to hear from you, that it's not the right time because people are focused on other things.

I think if you're willing to do that, then again, you are going to be showing up more than most people.

And that, again, proves the point, I think, that showing up in life is that 80 or 90% of what you need to do in order to succeed.

Now, the more that you show up, the more likely it is that you perhaps might be ghosted or stood up for a meeting.

And the other thing I wanted to just tell you about today was that that happened to me recently.

In fact, it was an interstate trip where I had a few meetings lined up, and one of the meetings just was a no-show.

So, I went into their office and I asked to speak to the person who I was there to meet. And I could see there was some confusion because they obviously weren't around. And then somebody else came out to see me.

Let’s call this person who I was going to meet Mark for argument's sake.

And what this person said to me was, "I can assure you that whatever Mark is doing is more important than speaking to you. It trumps your meeting."

So that was the way that he clumsily tried to tell me that I shouldn't take it personally because Mark was a very important person and, therefore, whatever he was doing was more important than the meeting we had scheduled.

And this was a real opportunity for me to act with magnanimity, as I've talked about on this podcast before, to either — when somebody's giving me a pretty good cause to get a little bit grumpy — maintain my composure and still act with kindness and be polite.

So, you know, I didn't carry on. I didn't take it personally because it wasn't really anything for me to take personally. It's more a reflection on them than it is on me. But I saw it for what it was, which was an opportunity to demonstrate magnanimity.

The person who was the stand-in for Mark, who I was supposed to meet — well, he told me that I'm sure Mark will get back to me very, very soon and he'll want to reschedule.

Never heard from him. No apology for not turning up to the meeting.

And I guess that shows me that they are probably not the type of organization that I want to do business with anyway, even though, based on my limited dealings with them, they probably do need some help.

But I also, in that moment, thought about a few things, which is the more meetings you do, the more likely it's going to be that occasionally someone won't show up. It's just the odds. Occasionally it's going to happen, and that's okay.

But also, what could I have done to prevent that from happening?

And one thing that I could have done was to have a longer runway to build the relationship with the person — so-called Mark.

So, Mark would have been less likely to stand up the meeting with me if he had more awareness around who I was.

I would have been more front of mind if I had built up a better relationship with him from a distance, from Melbourne, before I'd gone up to see him.

And then he would have, I think, been less likely to — maybe he still would have had to take this other meeting or wherever he was — but perhaps he would have at least remembered to let me know that he wasn't going to be able to be there.

So that was something I could have done.

I also think that I could have done something which I've advised people to do, which is to send a text message every morning before your meetings just to confirm that the meeting is on.

Just to say, "Hey, Mark, just confirming our meeting today at 11 o'clock. Look forward to seeing you then."

Now that's something I've told other people to do, and I didn't do it myself.

So, I've got a list of my own advice. It could have saved me some time.

If you want, by the way, the list of the 10 text messages that commercial real estate agents can and should be sending in order to accelerate deal flow and elevate relationships, you can grab that free resource today at cresuccess.co/text

And in fact, another one of the texts from that list of top 10 texts is the "I'll be in the area" text, which I kind of used when I go interstate to try and get meetings with people — again, to accelerate deal flow and elevate relationships.

So, I guess what I wanted to get across today is that showing up means not phoning it in.

Not phoning it in literally — so not just relying on the phone or relying on Zoom. It means making the effort to try and get in front of people and to move relationships forward.

But it also means not metaphorically phoning it in. We have to show up. We've got to bring our A game.

And even when we perhaps think — or we wrongly, in my opinion, assume — that because economic activity is down and people are worried about other things, that's just meaning that we are focusing on what is going on to try and give ourselves an excuse from being consistent with our prospecting.

We need to continue to show up. And we need to continue to move forward, to have those relationships and to create opportunities for ourselves if we want to continue to grow and if we want to continue to be at our best.

I hope that all makes sense. I really appreciate you being there. Thanks so much for listening, and I will speak to you soon.