I’m live-blogging #AREC16 from the Gold Coast. Here are my top learnings from Fredrik Eklund: Life as Number #1.

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I’ve actually watched a few episodes of Million Dollar Listing New York, which is the reality tv show that our final keynote speaker features in. Like John McGrath, I’m far more interested in watching the real estate business side of things, over and above the drama. And Fredrik certainly offers a lot of business lessons.

(Incidentally, if the producers over at #9Life are looking for treatments of Australian real estate tv shows, drop me a line.)

Here are my top 5 learnings from Fredrik’s presentation:

1. The difference between the successful and the really successful – is the lack of fear of failure. We all fail, and nobody likes it. But why are we scared of it? And if we weren’t scared of failure, what else would you attempt and what would you achieve? Fredrik has developed almost an in-built radar identifying his fear of failure – and when it goes off, he takes that as a sign that he must lean in towards that direction. And despite his many successes (see below), don’t think he’s never failed (his Norway venture didn’t work out, for example)
2. I talked earlier about the different cycles that real estate businesses and agents go through. Make no mistake, Fredrik has made it all the way through to the Leverage Cycle and several times – in addition to a $US Billion in sales, he also owns Scandinavia’s most successful real estate agency and is a global Sales (not just real estate) expert.
   We’re all in Sales, he observes, even if we don’t realise it. Selling is about two parties meeting and trusting each other – build trust, be authentic, be you. The more ‘me’ he became, the more successful he became. Fredrik built a Brand – it’s an exercise you need to do in every Cycle, to keep reviewing, tweaking, and ultimately leveraging it. Fredrik is know for his high kick – it’s an authentic personal trademark, part of his brand.
   Back in 2006, management told the office they needed two Facebook profiles – one professional, and one personal. Fredrick – who admits he’s not a social media expert – knew that just wouldn’t work. You need stickiness. You need personality, not corporate BS.
   On the topic of authentic marketing – he’s a master of PR, TV (now, of course) and Instagram. He doesn’t try to be an expert on paid marketing, Facebook and so on. Again, this comes back to the Traction Bullseye Framework for Marketing – what strategies are going to work for you? For the real, authentic you?
3. Do you know what is driving you? Is it money, ego, fame? (My experience, it usually isn’t – those are, ultimately a means to an end, and it’s the end that drives you.) If not, what else? Fredrik likes being competitive, to win. And then take that Drive and use it to create your DREAM. And keep creating your dream – to live in New York; to be the biggest real estate agency in New York; to be the biggest real estate agency in the USA; and so on! It’s the dream that keeps you going when you don’t speak great English, have no contacts, no money, no experience, and you’re dependent on the roster (floor time) to generate sales.
4. Marketing and Sales challenge for new developments: How do you create something that makes people say “I must have this now” even though they can’t have this now?! And it starts right at the beginning – involving the Agent, who knows the clients, who knows how people want to live right now, right from the beginning of the project. That’s a lot of Trust by the way – working with the developer, guiding the architect etc, sometimes years before anything gets listed and definitely many years before the project is built.
   Interestingly, he took his experience back to Stockholm and flipped the way they considered new developments from cheap, cookie-cutter to prestige. That motivation extended to creating his TV show – he pitched the network long before they came to him.
5. Can you Pitch yourself and your business in the first 30 seconds? You may have an hour … but you’ll often win or lose the listing long before the 60 minute mark. It’s about relationship, not transaction. Be liked. Instantly. Which requires credibility, trust, authentic compliments and genuine questions that create a dialogue.

And this is awesome – he’s throwing it open to the floor for Q&A. And did you notice how it changed the energy of the room? If Fredrik can do this for 4,000 people, what can you do to positively impact the energy of your clients one-on-one?

(Oh and hey, we broke a world record for the largest number of people high kicking at once. That’s another world record for my list!)

And so we end AREC 2016 Day One. Great day – lots of key lessons that I feel largely reinforced each other. Things like #Authenticity #Trust and #Systems were really common, as was #Energy in the Listing Presentation, especially from the top performers.

Please join me here again tomorrow, with Nigel Marsh to begin, and sign up for free below to receive the ‘Top 5 Mission Critical’ lessons when I send them out next week.

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Jacob Aldridge is a co-founder and business coach at Real Estate Grow.

If you’re a real estate Principal looking for fresh ways to help you work on your business, let’s chat. Contact me on either 0427 151 181 or jacob@realestategrow.com.au.

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