Nathan Daniel: 0:02
Welcome back to the broker broker real estate podcast in this episode today we're talking about embracing individuality and how do you do that inside of real estate. Alright, so I'm really excited today where we're getting talking about embracing individuality inside a real estate and I have a very special guest with me, all the way from California, Miss Ashley Harwood with move over extroverts. Welcome to the show.

Ashley Harwood: 0:46
Thank you. I'm excited to be here.

Nathan Daniel: 0:49
Well, I'm excited to have you I know we've, we've had a few conversations in the past. And I mean, you're all over the social medias right now. And so I know you're making a big, big impact right now. And that's why I wanted to have you on the show. Because you're talking about a topic that is not talked about often, which is embracing individuality. So can you do me a favor? Introduce yourself? And then we'll get into the topic of the day?

Ashley Harwood: 1:15
Sure, sure. So I'm Ashley Harwood. I'm the founder and CEO of move over extroverts, which is a training and coaching company for introverted realtors. It's kind of a unique niche, my background is as an agent myself, I was a solo agent for six years. And in that time, just found that a lot of what works for the masses, quote unquote, or what is talked about very often does not work for everyone. So there was this segment of the agent population being missed. And that's kind of where I come in.

Nathan Daniel: 1:51
Oh, I like that well. Okay, so so you're a solo agent, you were were out there and doing your thing as an agent for a little bit. And then you're like, Hey, I'm gonna get into coaching. And so you started coaching now. And you've developed some programs around that. So let's start with the agent aspect of it. All right, I love what you what you actually have this little quote says too many agents are burning out and not getting the support, they need to be successful. So can you help us like for those of us that that maybe don't know, define what an introvert is?

Ashley Harwood: 2:23
Sure. So an introvert is simply someone who gets their energy from being alone, versus extroverts get their energy from being around other people. So you can't always tell where someone falls on that scale from just, you know, meeting them or looking at them.

Nathan Daniel: 2:41
Okay. So how do you how do you figure that out? Like, if I'm working with a new client, I'm an agent, how do I go about figuring out if somebody is an introvert or extrovert.

Ashley Harwood: 2:53
So for the agent client relationship, it's really not important. It doesn't matter if your clients an introvert or an extrovert, what matters is you as the individual agent, knowing yourself, that's the key. So you can make decisions about where to spend your time where to spend your energy, and be more strategic and purposeful, so you can avoid burnout.

Nathan Daniel: 3:17
Okay, so how do we go about doing that? Like if I'm, if I'm an agent, and I'm trying to discover if I'm an introvert or extrovert, how do I go about starting that process?

Ashley Harwood: 3:27
It's very introspective. So the best thing that I recommend is start journaling. And just write down the things you did during the day. Maybe do this at night. Here's what I did during today. And here's how each of these affected my energy level. Did it, drain it? Did it bring it back up? Did it drain it a lot. And once you start collecting some of this data, you'll start to see patterns and then you can use that to make decisions about Okay, maybe I don't want to completely drain my energy before I go on a listing appointment, you know, things like that.

Nathan Daniel: 4:06
Okay, so what I just heard you say is start collecting data. And you can do that by simply journaling throughout your day. And then understanding where you're getting energy, what gives you energy versus what takes energy away. Right? Like Okay, so start journaling. So, in order like if I'm if I'm an agent right now out there, and I'm going to start discovering this, you know, maybe I'm already in burnout, like do you know of, or are you suggesting to anybody like what to do if they're already in that burnout phase.

Ashley Harwood: 4:36
If you're already in burnout phase, take a vacation.

Nathan Daniel: 4:40
Oh, love vacation.

Ashley Harwood: 4:42
Like it's not a suggestion, it is mandatory. Find somebody else in the office to cover your business to babysit the business so you don't have to think about it. And take a couple days at least as much time as you can. Maybe get away. Take a drink. You don't have to get plane, but take a drive get be in a different environment, and just let your brain rest and reset.

Nathan Daniel: 5:08
I love that. And I actually experienced that in the past where I was an extreme burnout. And I did just that. And it made a world of difference. And I would actually go back to what you just said a second ago and start journaling. Right?

Ashley Harwood: 5:21
Right.

Nathan Daniel: 5:21
Just journal your process. So all right, so let's, let's transition a little bit like I thank you for talking to agents on this. And now I want to talk about the leader, right? If I'm a real estate leader, I know most leaders out there and correct me if I'm wrong, they're they're kind of extroverts am I? Am I right? Or am I wrong? No.

Ashley Harwood: 5:43
Okay, that's okay. It's very good to think that that's kind of what society tells us. Yeah, whatever the reality is, many, many leaders, especially in the real estate world, are actually introverts. They just have learned how to make that work for them. And they have highly leveraged lives and businesses. So they're not expending all of their energy all day long.

Nathan Daniel: 6:07
Okay. So if I am a leader, and I'm leading agents, you know, I know, I know, you said this, too. Like from a leadership perspective, there's so many great organizations out there that are losing people, whether it's through burnout, or whatever it is. So can you talk to us about that?

Ashley Harwood: 6:25
Yeah, it's true. I see this all the time, I saw it as an agent, I see it now as someone in the coaching space, working with different brokerages and different offices. And I see them losing good people, people who could be amazing agents and amazing leaders. And it's because the leadership does not understand how to embrace this individuality. Right. And, and encourage people to be themselves. Now this isn't true across the board, there are exceptions. But in general, there's, there's more of a feel like leaders come at it from more of a, this is the process, this is the system, this is what works. And if you as an agent, don't fit into this model, you're either doing something wrong, or you're not cut out for this business at all. So even if that's not being explicitly said, oftentimes, that's kind of the vibe, you know.

Nathan Daniel: 7:30
Okay, so what you're saying is, agents are that they're joining organizations out there, and the organizations aren't flexible enough. And they're basically saying, Here you go, go do this, and you'll be successful. Right? And what you're saying is that most people are not, because that's kind of like a one size fits all. mentality, right? Yes. Yeah.

Ashley Harwood: 7:55
So a better approach would be to say, here are some tools that may work, they work for other people try them must keep in communication, if they're not working for you. That's okay. First and foremost, you know, validate their experience, and, and then start asking questions about what might work. And really, that's where the brainstorming and the collaboration with the agents can come into play and make a huge difference so that they not only feel heard, but they feel encouraged to figure out what works well for them. And once they figure that out, that's when they're able to create a sustainable business and ramp up their production. Okay, does that all make sense?

Nathan Daniel: 8:43
Yeah, it absolutely does. And I and you know, I, what I love is this, it says, meet people where they're at, I know, you typed this earlier, and I was like, you just listened to him. I'm like, Wow, what a novel idea might slow down long enough and have a real conversation with somebody and meet them where they're at, right? And don't don't plug them into a system that work for you. That doesn't work for other people. So collaborate with them, find out what's going to work for them specifically, and then support them on their way to doing that. And I might add some of that, even if it's not in your comfort zone, right?

Ashley Harwood: 9:21
Yeah, I mean, a piece of this is setting the ego aside. Mm hmm. That's a part of that. Well,

Nathan Daniel: 9:30
Would you say that's one of the challenges that you've seen in the last six months? Yeah. Ego in our industry. It's a thing.

Ashley Harwood: 9:39
It's, it is okay. It's it's part of human nature. I have an ego too. We all do. It's just learning how to deal with it and not let it stop you.

Nathan Daniel: 9:51
Yeah. Well, and sometimes we have to take the hat off the ego hat off and put it aside, right, because what business are we really in it's really Ships right? Yeah, people visit. So sometimes our ego can get in the way of that so we got to take that hat off every once in a

Ashley Harwood: 10:06
while. Yeah, totally.

Nathan Daniel: 10:08
So so alright so if I'm a leader maybe I have had a one size fits all equation up to this point but I'm like I'm hearing this message right now. And I'm going to step back and I'm like, No, I'm going to take the ego hat off. I'm going to attempt to do this collaboration piece of it, sit with my agents one on one, help them figure out what's gonna work best for them. You know? What impact Are you seeing when people are actually doing that?

Ashley Harwood: 10:38
They're seeing better retention, okay, and increased production. Okay. The number one reason why agents leave offices is because they don't feel heard or supported.

Nathan Daniel: 10:58
Agents don't feel heard or supported. Okay.

Ashley Harwood: 11:04
So by really listening to them and making them feel like they don't have to change who they are to be part of your office. That's an important piece and that in itself I mean once word gets out, you can use that to recruit and bring in other people and be like hey, guess what? We're doing things differently over here.

Nathan Daniel: 11:25
I like that. Well I know in our world we talked about that as partnership and you know, become a partner somebody don't just be the broker right? And don't just don't don't just do that like get on their level so I love that well, any you know, as we as we start to wrap this up any other parting thoughts that you would want to share with the world about embracing your own individual and your individuality?

Ashley Harwood: 11:51
I would say just come from curiosity. I know that phrases thrown around a lot, but really, you know, what does that mean? That means really, getting to know your people and meeting them where they're at and not trying to change them but together collaboratively, helping them grow into whatever the best version of them is.

Nathan Daniel: 12:13
Okay Awesome. Well I love that Ashley Thank you so much. So really quick I want to recap this like I want to recap the episode and go back through this so to embrace individuality whether you're an agent like on the agent side of it, if you're in a mode of burnout right now, I hope you heard what she said disconnect go on vacation. I just gave advice to somebody recently on that same thing go on vacation, if it's a couple days, step away journal. Allow the calm the peace getting away from everything to allow your internal voice to start talking to you. If you're if you're wondering whether I'm an introvert extrovert, find out where your energies at start collecting data take a journal what what gives you energy what takes energy away from a leadership perspective, I heard like, Hey, don't make it a one size fits all equation, meet people where they're at, get into relationships with people and and get to know him and get to know him because we're in the relationship business. So that was awesome. Well, Ashley, thank you so much, again for being on on the show today. How do people get in touch with you?

Unknown: 13:21
So people can find me at my website moveoverextroverts.com and also on Facebook introverts in real estate is the Facebook group. And for the brokers out there, I do teach a workshop so I can come in and talk to your agents.

Nathan Daniel: 13:38
Yeah, and Ashley is all over the place right now. I know she's spoken for Inman, she's speaking for Nara all across the country. So I know she'll come in and speak with in your office about this topic. And I highly, highly recommend Ashley. So again, Ashley, thank you for being on the call today. I appreciate it. And we'll catch everybody else on the next episode.