Mike Browning

Tag: Trust

  • Nobody Will Ever Know

    Nobody Will Ever Know

    Except some times they do.

    The cashier hands you fifteen dollars in change on a five dollar purchase. You gave her a ten, but she thought it was a twenty. You could keep it. Odds are nobody finds out. Or they will find out they are a little short later, but won’t know it was you who benefitted.

    Same with the number you rounded in your favor. The little fib about why you’re late. The expense you didn’t mention up front because it was small, and you figured it was less likely to kill the sale later than if you pointed it out now. The kind of thing that makes everybody love buying a car.

    Usually, nobody notices. And on the rare occasion somebody does, it’s almost never the person who will later be deciding whether to hire you or do business with you.

    But sometimes it is, and you never get told in advance which time that’s going to be.

    So look at what’s actually on the table. Ten bucks on one side. A client, a partner, or a deal on the other. It isn’t close, and nobody would take that bet if it were laid out in front of them.

    It’s important to practice complete honesty on the stuff that doesn’t matter. Especially there, where it costs you little and nobody’s watching. That’s where the habit gets built.

    Because one day you’ll be in a pinch. The deal’s wobbling, or you’re behind on something and someone wants to know why. Lying might look like the easy way out, at least short term.

    If honesty is already just what you do, you don’t have to decide anything in that moment. If it isn’t, that’s a bad time to start figuring out where the line is.

    And the lie doesn’t pay off. Not when the price is a relationship instead of ten dollars.

    It’s the kind of thing Jeff Olson talks about in The Slight Edge. Small choices that are easy to make and just as easy to skip, with nothing to show for them today. Being honest when it’s free is one of those choices. So is the other kind.

    The people who matter won’t say anything, either. No confrontation, no warning. They’ll just quietly move on, and you’ll spend a while wondering why the calls stopped.

    Get it Here

    P.S. That link goes through Amazon, and I’m an affiliate. Doesn’t cost you a dime more, but if you click through and buy the book, or anything else while you’re there, I get a small commission.

  • Punctuality = Integrity

    Punctuality = Integrity

    It’s built fifteen minutes at a time.

    Last week I talked about the majority reliably being wrong, and how that teaches you what not to do. You just quietly stop doing what everyone else does, and let the results show up later. No need to announce it.

    Here’s another one almost nobody will notice. Which is exactly why it works.

    Everybody’s in a hurry. We’ve got a supercomputer in our pocket that’s supposed to make everything faster, so naturally we’ve filled it up with optimizing and multitasking. But of course we all still feel behind.

    Behind enough that most people have decided that showing up when you said you would is optional. Fifteen minutes late isn’t really late anymore. It’s just how it is.

    When your whole day depends on other people doing things at the time they said they’d do them, one person running late doesn’t just cost you fifteen minutes. It costs you the next three things you had lined up behind it too.

    The thing we forget is that it’s not just us who has too much to do. It’s everyone else as well.

    That anxiety that wells up when somebody throws off your day by being late? Other people feel it when you’re late too.

    So here’s the move.

    Be on time. Every time.

    Not most of the time. Not “on time for me.” On time by the clock, the way you agreed to it.

    Don’t make a thing out of it. That’s its own kind of annoying, and it puts people on notice to check. Just show up when you said you would, do what you said you’d do, and let it sit there.

    Your counterpart notices. Maybe not out loud. Probably not even consciously most of the time. But somewhere in the back of their head, a little file gets updated.

    This guy does what he says he’s going to do.

    And when they’re dealing with you, they feel a little less anxious about things. They may not even be able to tell you why.

    Deals get done with people you don’t have to manage. Repeat business goes to whoever didn’t make the first transaction a headache. None of that gets decided in a meeting. It gets decided quietly, the way most real decisions do, based on a pattern somebody noticed and never mentioned.

    Showing up on time isn’t dramatic. Most people aren’t going to thank you for it in the moment. That’s kind of the point.

    It’s boring, it’s free, and enough people don’t do it that it’s still one of the cheapest ways to stand out.

    This is the same math as The Slight Edge, the Jeff Olson book I mentioned a couple weeks back. Small, easy actions that are just as easy to skip, done consistently long enough that the compounding takes over and does the rest.

    Being fifteen minutes late doesn’t feel like it costs anything.

    Being on time doesn’t feel like it earns anything.

    Neither one shows up on a scoreboard today.

    Check the scoreboard again in a year.

    Get it Here

    P.S. That link goes through Amazon, and I’m an affiliate. Doesn’t cost you a dime more, but if you click through and buy the book, or anything else while you’re there, I get a small commission.

  • Say It Before They Do

    Say It Before They Do

    Turns out the fastest way to defuse an accusation is to make it yourself.

    One of my repeat clients told me something I really appreciated not long ago. They are capable of performing on large transactions both as a buyer and seller, so naturally they have lots of brokers showing them anything and everything.

    Some of it makes sense and a lot of it doesn’t. But as you can expect, most of it gets presented to them with all the good parts highlighted and the not-so-good downplayed. If mentioned at all.

    So what did he say? Basically that he knows I want to sell deals, that’s how I make money after all. But he really likes that I get to the so-called “hair” on a deal pretty quick, if not right from the jump.

    To me, it’s the only sensible way to operate. But if you’ve dealt with real estate folks very long, you know it doesn’t always work that way.

    For my part, it’s just smart business. If you intend to be around a long time, you need people to trust what you tell them. And the best way to keep a client wanting to buy land deals is to make sure they do well on the ones they’re buying today.

    Besides, these are sophisticated guys. If I know about something affecting a deal, they’re going to find it sooner or later anyway.

    Chris Voss has a name for this in Never Split The Difference. He calls it an accusation audit. The best way to deal with baggage where your counterpart might have an issue with what you’ve said or done is to be the one who brings it up first. Usually right at the start.

    It sounds like handing the other person ammunition. It’s usually the opposite. Once you’ve said the uncomfortable thing yourself, they don’t have to wonder whether you see it too. You’ve put it on the table where both of you can deal with it. And often, hearing their own worst thought said back to them plainly takes some of the force out of it.

    Or maybe you are right, and they are carrying a grudge and they aren’t going to do business with you no matter what. At least you found it out up front, and saved time and effort for both of you.

    There’s a difference between defending yourself against an accusation and never letting it land in the first place.

    It only works if you’re honest about what the accusations actually are. Sugarcoating them defeats the whole point, and people can tell when you’re doing it. You have to say the version that actually stings a little.

    I’ve been flogging this book for about a month now, so I’ll give it a rest after today. But given that negotiation touches just about every part of your life, can it be a bad idea to get better at it?

    Buy Never Split The Difference Here

    PS- That link goes through Amazon, and I’m an affiliate. Doesn’t cost you a dime more, but if you click through and buy the book, or anything else while you’re there, I get a small commission.

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  • Ambushed By A Salesman In Real Time

    Ambushed By A Salesman In Real Time

    We both know why you should do certain things. And why you don’t.

    I keep coming back to this one: people put off stuff they already know they should deal with. Not because they’re lazy. Because they’re avoiding a hassle they’re pretty sure is coming.

    Take your land. You’re not looking to sell it today. But knowing what it’s worth, and what’s happening around it, can’t hurt you. You’d have the information sitting there if anything changes. If a neighboring tract comes up for sale, you’re not finding out last. And if it’s a good deal, you might be ready to move on it first.

    So why do most people pass when someone offers them free information?

    Mostly because they’ve been burned before.

    Mention you’re the slightest bit curious what your property’s worth and your mind jumps straight to a timeshare pitch. Numbers too good to be true. A guy who won’t take no for an answer.

    You ask one question. The phone starts ringing. And doesn’t stop.

    So you let it go. Not worth the hassle.

    That happened to me last week. My truck’s had a couple of recalls sitting open for a while (nothing major), and I’d been putting it off because I didn’t want to spend an afternoon at a dealership. A card came in the mail with a QR code, said I could schedule online. Figured I’d try it. The site barely worked, so I gave up after a few minutes.

    Except it worked fine, for what it was actually built to do.

    Within minutes my phone rang. Sales manager at the dealership. I let it go to voicemail. He wanted to know what car I was interested in and when I could come in for a test drive.

    A few minutes later, an email. Somehow he’d copied my wife on it too, asking what we were “working a deal” on.

    I asked for service. They tried to close me on a car I never mentioned.

    That’s the move. That’s why people stop raising their hand.

    When you raise yours with me, that’s not what happens. I’ll reach out, sure. Lightly. No pressure, no script.

    You can decide for yourself what that’s worth.

    PS -Most landowners aren’t planning to sell today.

    But things change. The ones who already understand the market tend to handle that better when it does.

    That’s what the MBR Land Reality Check is for. It looks at nearby sales, current listings, development pressure, and the details affecting value that aren’t obvious from the road.

    Is it a bad idea to know where things stand?

    Get Yours Here

    PPS- If you’re not ready for a Reality Check but enjoy reading about land, markets, and negotiation, you can sign up below and get these posts in your inbox.

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  • Things Change. That’s Not the Problem.

    Things Change. That’s Not the Problem.

    The schedule changed. Nobody called.

    My daughter started her first job recently. Retail. Big store.

    She’s a couple weeks in. Shows up on time, good attitude, does what she’s asked. In retail, that combination already puts you ahead of a significant portion of the workforce. The industry runs around 60% annual turnover. No-call-no-shows are a daily problem for store managers. Someone who just reliably shows up is one less thing to worry about.

    Which means they’ll notice. And eventually they’ll start asking more of her. She’s already getting way more hours than she initially expected. That’s fine. That’s how it works. You accommodate when you can, especially when you’re new. You never know who’s watching or where people end up. I have clients who’ve hired six-figure salespeople out of fast food drive-thrus because someone made an impression.

    But there’s a line.

    She has a friend leaving the country. Going away party scheduled around my daughter’s work schedule. She was off at 4, plenty of time. Except she looked back at the schedule and her shift had been moved. Hours later. Nobody asked. Nobody called. It was just different.

    That’s not a scheduling issue. That’s a respect issue.

    She was upset. I was able to talk her through how to approach it and she got things switched back. The boss said the only reason she changed it was that my daughter had written “open to any hours” on her application. Which is true. But a reasonable person knows that if you’re scheduled off, you’re not just sitting around waiting to work. You’re living your life. Sometimes a change is no big deal. Sometimes it’s a huge deal.

    Things change. The market moves. A buyer falls through. A timeline shifts. I’ve seen deals that looked simple get complicated fast and complicated ones come together out of nowhere. That’s just how it works and there’s no point pretending otherwise.

    But there’s a difference between things changing and someone changing things on you without a conversation.

    If something shifts that affects your timeline, your plans, what you thought was going to happen, you’re going to hear it from me first. Not after the fact. Not when it’s already done. You’re not going to look at the schedule one day and find out it’s been changed.

    You control this. That part doesn’t move.

    I can’t promise everything goes according to plan. Nobody can. What I can promise is that you’re never going to feel like you woke up and someone had already decided something for you.

    PS – Most landowners aren’t planning to sell today.

    But things can change quickly. When the time comes, the people who already understand the market tend to make better decisions.

    That’s what the MBR Land Reality Check is for. It looks at nearby sales, current listings, development pressure, and the details affecting value that aren’t obvious from the road.

    Is it a bad idea to know where things stand?

    Get Yours Here

    PPS- If you’re not ready for a Reality Check but enjoy reading about land, markets, and negotiation, you can sign up below and get these posts in your inbox.

    Register to Receive Posts Via Email!

    By submitting, I understand I will receive marketing emails and blog posts from Mike Browning Realty and/or associated companies. Unsubscribe at any time.

  • Play Ball!

    Play Ball!

    They say baseball is defined by numbers but it also defies the numbers.

    Like Most Things.

    The World Series starts Friday.

    With so much riding on every game, postseason baseball can be a lot more fun to watch—even for casual fans. For a sport that measures everything, it sure gets unpredictable when it matters most.

    And that’s the point. The numbers show who’s better over time, not who will win today.

    A .250 hitter is considered average. A .300 hitter is a star.

    But the difference between them? About one extra hit per week.

    Watch only a few games, and you’d never know which one was which. Many weeks, the “average” guy might even look better. The game’s randomness keeps it interesting—and keeps fans hopeful.

    Kind of like real estate.

    You’ve seen the agent who lucked into one great result and now claims she gets her clients THE MOSTEST THE FASTEST.

    Maybe she does. But there’s no way to know. Every deal is different, and the numbers you see usually come from the same place the bragging does—the agent.

    So what do you do? Go with someone you trust.

    If your agent doesn’t realize those stats don’t mean much, they’re clueless.

    If they do and use them anyway, they’re dishonest.

    Either way, not who you want representing you.

    If you’d rather work with someone who tells you the truth, even when it’s not shiny, I know a guy.

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    PS — You’re probably not ready to buy or sell anything today. But it never hurts to know where you stand. Getting current market info is free, useful, and comes with zero obligation or pressure.

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