“I can’t do it”, I said, shaking my head.

Theresa looks at me inquisitively. “Can’t do what?”

“Oh, nothing.” I replied.

“Did I say that out loud?”, I thought to myself.

There’s no way I’m telling her what I’m thinking.

You see, the wife of an entrepreneur is the worst, and over the years I’ve made her life a living hell.

There’s no way I’m going to lay my next idea on her. It’s not her burden to bear.

I am an entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurs are creatives. They build things. They tinker. They explore. They dream. They take risks.

To most people, it’s madness.

But, I can’t help it. My mindset is continually looking forward. Continually growing. Continually experimenting.

One of my favorite sayings is “I’m speaking it into existence.” Which I still believe is true.

However, there come’s a time when an entrepreneur has to stop talking and start doing.

Recently, I decided to stop talking about the future of the business with my wife. Instead, I’ve decided to start doing and more importantly, start producing.

Producing in my world is sales. Which means more clients and more real estate agents.

Once I decided to go full hustle mode, I looked at changing my website to make it more “lead” friendly.

Leads. You know, people interested in buying and selling real estate. That’s how real estate business is done by most agents. More leads.

So, I spoke with a company who specializes in real estate websites. He showed me what they’re doing to get more business and all of the tricks of the trade.

Guess what he revealed?

Big teams “who are killing it”, are using RoboDialers. Open Houses. Email Spam. Drip campaigns. Call and Text Capture. Guaranteed Sale Programs. Property Valuation Ads.

All of these activities require you to drop everything you learned in kindergarten about being human and toss it out the window. Tricking people into giving you their cell number. Getting their contact info so you can endlessly spam them. Holding open houses, not for the client, but for “the leads”.

I can’t do it.

Annoying people to get business. Becoming a telemarketer. Begging for business. Bait and switch techniques. Selling my soul. For what? Leads? So I can “kill it?”

I can’t do it.

I can’t teach my agents to do it.

Leads are like crack cocaine. (not that I have any personal experience)

Once you begin to collect leads, you must nurture them, and follow up, follow up, follow up.

It becomes a full time job.

Calling strangers, begging for business. Every. Single. Day.

Once you’ve mastered this practice, congratulations, you have officially become a telemarketer. Is that why real estate agents get into this business?

So, no. I can’t do it. I can’t teach my agents to do it.

Instead, I will teach my agents to be humans. To be storytellers. To be solid members of their communities. To ensure that their clients interests come before theirs.

Yesterday, I met with a friend and he asked me how I plan to grow.

“I’m going back to 1955”, I said.

I mean it.

Before squeeze pages, sales funnels, telemarketers, and jackass real estate agents.

As for the new website?

I just can’t do it.