Someone once told me that I was a ‘relationship first’ kind of person. At first, I didn’t know how to take that statement, was it a compliment? Was it a jive at how I took on both my personal and professional life? I realized quite quickly that the person was just stating the truth about what they had seen in me when observing me in my every day life, the one fact was clear, I led every encounter in my life with a relationship first approach.
For my personal life this means that I think it is important to have close and meaningful relationship with the important loved ones in my life. I take the time every other week to have time with just my husband. We have date nights and make sure to take time with just us. With my family I make an effort to keep building and growing my relationships with each of them and work on growing together as a family. My beautiful daughter is someone I work really hard to have a healthy, loving and encouraging mother-daughter bond with because I know that as her mother what I do now and will continue to play a large role as who she looks up to and who she takes after. Our actions, how we deal with other people, the way we take on the world, all of these things our children watch with close eyes so I think it is imperative that we develop and nurture healthy relationships with them from the time they are born long into adult hood.
For my professional life saying I lead with relationships means that when I meet a client, my first thought goes to how to find a way to connect with them so we can start the foundation for a good relationship. My clients always start off as my clients but as we continue to work closely together and as one project turns to multiple projects or house deals, I work on making those relationships turn from client only to friend and mentor relationships. It is imperative as you continue to build your business that you take every relationship you have ever had and nurture them. One thing that is easy to do in real estate is to have one encounter with a client and once the deal has been done, many agents never follow up with their clients after that. I can tell you right now, the effort you put in to keeping contact with your client will only do good things for you in regards to referrals and later business of your client down the road. You want your client to know they are not just another client on your list, that you do care about the deal you did and you will continue to care as the years pass about their wellbeing and lives.
If you want to listen to a great talk about the importance of continuously building and nurturing your personal and business relationships, listen to Randi Zuckerburg with Dot Complicated on Sirius Business; she has great insight into the matter.
Just remember, it takes time to build and grow every relationship in your life so it is up to you to make time for each of those relationships. The personal and the professional are both important to your personal and professional success, give them each the love and care they deserve and need.
