Why Visibility Beats Ability

This episode shines a spotlight on the magic words: "Patience, consistency, and execution." Our guest, Tom Storey, shares a key insight: success is less about reinventing the wheel and more about recognizing and adhering to foundational principles.
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In this enlightening chat, you'll discover:

• The transformative power of a growth mindset.
• Three pillars that differentiate top sellers from the rest.
• The unmatched value of content that educates over entertains.
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So, if you're keen to unlock the secrets of success, this episode is a must-listen.
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Meet Tom Storey: A luminary in Canadian real estate, Tom stands tall among the top 35 Realtors under 35 in Canada. A regular voice in Toronto's media scene, he's not just about selling homes; he's about imparting wisdom on the dynamic world of real estate.

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Key Takeaways

• The Three Pillars of Success in Sales - Patience. Consistency. Execution.
• The Importance of a Growth Mindset - Tom mentioned the importance of learning from those who have already achieved success. This involves being open to feedback and willing to adapt, rather than trying to reinvent the wheel.
• The Power of Value-Driven Content Marketing - Tom found success on platforms like YouTube by focusing on educating his audience, even if the content might be considered "boring" to some.

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Top 3 Reasons to Listen

Universal Principles: While the conversation revolves around real estate, the principles of patience, consistency, and execution are universally applicable to any business or entrepreneurial journey.

Real-World Experience: Tom's candid sharing of his journey offers invaluable lessons, from his humble beginnings to his ascent in the real estate world.

Tactical Takeaways: Beyond theoretical discussions, the episode provides actionable strategies and tactics that listeners can implement in their own ventures.

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Follow Guest on Social

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thestoreyteam/

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More About Today's Guest, First Last

Top 1% in Canada | Toronto Real Estate | The Tom Storey Show

Tom Storey is a prominent Toronto realtor known for his expertise in the local real estate market. With a strong presence in both traditional and digital media, including channels like CTV, Global News, and CP24, Tom has earned a reputation as a trusted source of real estate insights and advice. As the leader of one of the top real estate teams in Toronto, Tom's brings a unique approach to the industry.
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Instead of focusing solely on transactions, he prioritizes building lasting relationships with his clients. His dedication to understanding their needs and goals sets him apart. Tom's commitment to data-driven decision-making is a cornerstone of his practice. By analyzing market trends and utilizing comprehensive data, he equips his clients with the knowledge needed to make informed choices.

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A Transcription of The Talk

Mark Drager: Tom, I know from your backstory that you went from living in your parents' basement, you know, eating ramen noodles, and sleeping on the floor on a cot or something like that, to over the course of 567 years building up a multimillion-dollar real estate practice, in your name under your brand, you are the leader of it. You're young, you're in your early 30s. And when people talk about real estate, you know, they often talk about like, the sales numbers, you know, like, the 100 million dollars of sales, but we're actually just talking about your operating revenue. You know, a multi-million dollar business. You're a young guy. What would you attribute most of that success to?

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Tom Storey: I think at the very beginning, it was actually maybe being a little bit naive, in the fact that I didn't know that I was or wasn't supposed to do something. And I think if I had actually known more, I wouldn't have just gone for it. Because people would have maybe tried to talk me out of here, like, hey, why don't you go for something more secure at the beginning? Just get a job. If you don't like it, then you can try this later. Join under somebody else, see what they're doing, you know, go the mentorship route, do it that way, don't do it on your own, you're gonna fail. And I think because I didn't have that, that I just did it. And I think for anyone in sales, the one thing that I learned pretty early on is that somebody somewhere is doing what you do, but with better results, right? Like, whatever it is that you sell, or what you're trying to build, there's someone in your field that is getting better results than you are. And in those early days, it was finding out who those people were, and then asking them how they did it. It sounds so simple. But what I found is that the people that were truly successful were pretty much willing to tell you everything that they were doing, because they know like one or 2% of the people they actually tell are actually going to execute on this.

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Mark Drager: That is such a good point. Because it's like, Do you know how hard this is? I'll give you the whole recipe because no one's ever gonna do it.

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Tom Storey: Exactly. So I was coachable in terms of like when I was told to do someone by someone that I had the proof that they did it, and I saw it could be done. I just didn't second guess it. And I think that was a massive factor in terms of building up really quickly, because it's very easy to say, well, I don't want to do it the way other people did it, because I want to try it my own way. First, I'm going to, you know, redo this whole thing, reinvent the wheel, and you realize pretty quickly, like, all the fundamentals are there, and you got to follow them and build your own path. But like the building blocks are there as long as you follow them.

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Mark Drager: People often tell me like, hey man, you're an entrepreneur, you are such a risk-taker. And I'm like, I'm not a risk-taker. I mean, I have more comfort with risk now. But I wasn't a risk-taker, I was foolish. I just foolishly believed that I could do it way better than everyone else, so that I had my own thing, or I could do it differently. And I did fall into the trap of like, every time I approached something, I wanted to do it completely different, brand new, unlike anyone else, because it felt like I was just stealing or taking other people's work to just implement it. And then I watched so many people just get far more successful quicker. And I was like, What's your secret, and they're like, we just we just do the work, like we just we follow the processes, do the work 100%. And so early on, and I guess even over the years to be able to grow your business, you have a few fundamental beliefs that are really underpinning how you operate, how you sell, how you market, how you lead gen because at the end of the day, a real estate business is very much a sales-driven business, 100%. You're not making anything, you know, you're not really marketing anything other than the opportunity, the property, what have you. And so while you are in the real estate, this conversation, I think can help anyone who's responsible for sales in any business because the fundamentals don't change. And so give me one of the underlying principles that you feel has really taken you the furthest.

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Tom Storey: I think there's actually if I broke it down into three different just like one-word things that are gonna separate the people at the top of any sales industry from the people that are like, kind of getting by or making it work, but it's not really what they expected. Number one is patience, having the patience to understand that someone's done it somewhere before and if you follow that plan, you will find results. But nothing happens in three months. And nothing happens in six months. Really you're building the foundation, like you're farming, you're planting during that time. So patience. Number two is the consistency of like the reality for most people. And why even in my world, in real estate, when people hear real estate, they think like those TV shows the selling sunsets that like that's not what we're doing. It's boring what we do for the most part, right? So having the consistency to do the boring things over and over again at the point where you have time. And then when you build up to a certain point that you have more money, then you pay other people to do those things for you. And then the third thing is just fairly obvious, but we talked about it before, is execution. Ideas are everywhere. And ideas are great and I don't think we should dismiss ideas because that is where it all comes from. But the people at the top of any industry typically get an idea they like and it's in action the following week. So patience, consistency, and execution.

Mark Drager: I love it. And so let's get really tactical and specific, though. What does this look like in your business: patience, consistency, execution?

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Tom Storey: The asset in which we sell is a house. So, real estate sales is technically just high ticket sales, because it's an expensive asset that you're working for a long time to build someone's trust, to help them buy or sell that asset, right? And the one thing that we have that a lot of other entrepreneurs don't have is that I don't have to buy the inventory to stock my store to then try to sell it at and above what I paid. Right, the inventory's already there. So we kind of have that. So the patience is, you know, we have a plan in place for the people that we've already worked with, our active clients. Some people will call them your past clients, but they're your active clients, right? Because hopefully, they're going to be working with you again. So that's a 12-month plan where every single month we are providing them with something that we believe is valuable, that isn't a sales pitch. And the whole point of this is like they've already worked with you. So you know, they trust you. And a lot of people in any types of sales. You say, "Where does your business come from?" And people will typically say word of mouth, right? "I did a good job for someone, they talked to me." Like that's kind of like word of mouth can create massive marketing campaigns that any type of marketing couldn't do on its own, right? If you sat down in a boardroom. But a lot of people get repeat business very, very well. You've worked with someone before, they will come back and buy the thing that you helped them do because they trust you, right? Like car salesmen are kind of like this, you go back to the person that you trust. But in that period of time between the first transaction and the second transaction that they repeat with you, how many people do they refer to you along the way as well? Because I find a lot of salespeople are good at getting the repeat business, but they're not great at getting that referral business. I think it's because the messaging is slightly missing. The first conversation you have, you know, in my world, if I meet with a buyer or seller, the first thing I'll say to them is like, "Mark, I really appreciate you inviting me over today. I just want to let you know, I didn't bring any paperwork, I'm not gonna ask you to sign anything, we're just gonna go over all the things I would want to know if I was in your position so that you can make an educated decision. So that's what we're going to talk about today. And my only goal here today is to do such a good job for you and your family that at the end of our time working together, you want to talk about me to your friends and family." That's number one. So right away, I've gone in as a technically real estate agent in North America where they're called salespeople or brokers.

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Mark Drager: I think you can also be called assholes.

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Tom Storey: Yeah, just ask the public, go on Reddit or Twitter. And you'll get called that as well. 100%. "Are douchebags" is another one. But at the end of the day, you're someone's adviser. And if you are transactional in your sales, you can maybe have a good year, congrats, maybe have a good five years, if you're really lucky, but you're not having a good decade, you're not building a career out of this. So I think it's understanding from the very beginning to set up that they understand how your business works. You work on word of mouth, so that when you've done a good job for them, they want to talk about you to their friends and family for whatever it is that you sell.

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Mark Drager: In my world, we call this future pacing, like being able to seed or prime the people that you're speaking with or working with to help them have an understanding of what the future will look like. You know, if you choose to move forward with us, we will continue to work with you, imagine being in your place. Imagine that, you know, the boxes are unpacked. I mean, you may not go this far. I'm a marketer. So, "The boxes are unpacked, and you're finally sitting in your home and you're like, 'This is our place.' And there's this feeling of amazement, and you're walking around your community. And you're like, 'We get to live here.' You know, all of that future pacing, you can use in sales, you can also use to set up that like, this is just one of many. And here are the other outcomes. Send us your family, send us your friends, you know. And then the other great thing about this is there is a psychological benefit, because people want to refer people they work with because people want the status of being smart. You know, if you work with someone that is terrible, you're not going to go out and be like, 'I picked the worst person ever, look at me.' But when someone knows that you've moved or someone knows you've made a purchase or moved forward with something, there is this like confirmation bias you're looking for where you want the people around you to also like the things that you like and work with the people that you chose because it makes you look smarter, right? Everyone loves to say like, 'I got a guy or I got a girl for that.' It makes you feel good. But like, 'I got you covered, I got someone, they're awesome. Just call them, they'll take care of you.' Right? As someone that sells something, could you just be cold calling all day? You could be and that's obviously a way to get business. That's very clear, but it just takes more of your time. Or you get inbound opportunities, referrals from someone you already trust. It's already built. It's not trying to tell them why they should work with you. It's just like, 'Alright, how do we start the process?' It's a better way of doing business.

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Mark Drager: So you almost touched on the patience, consistency, and execution right there by saying, okay, every month we're going to make sure that our current clients and some people call them past clients, but we're going to make sure our current clients have a touchpoint from us that is high value to them, that we are not selling. And I know because we spent a little time looking into your business, behind the scenes, just how much work went into building up the database and the administrative help and just how seriously you take this. I know you've invested, I'd say years in building up the systems, the processes, the tools to do this. But in your opinion, worth the investment?

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Tom Storey: The best thing I ever did was having a system in place to stay in touch with the people I've already worked with. It's the best return on any time or money in my business. And it's not even close.

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Mark Drager: For those listening. You know, Tom's smiling right now, was like sheepishly, like uncomfortably like, "Mark, I wish I could tell you, this has driven millions of dollars for me."

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Tom Storey: And that's the thing, you know, Mark, it's like if you really break it down, it is simple. Do what you say you're going to do, stay in touch with people and provide value, don't be a slimy salesperson, right? Like, it really is simple. Build trust with people. And the biggest thing at the end of this is you better know what you're talking about with the product or service that you're trying to sell. And if someone's already sold, you don't have to keep trying to sell them. If I walk in this, and someone's with a seller, say like, "Okay, are you ready to get going? Do you want to just sign and get this on the market?" If they say yes, yes, I could spend another hour trying to prove to them why I'm the right choice. But they've already, while you're trying to sell someone that's been sold, your active clients or past clients, whatever you want to call it, they've already sold on you, they've worked with you before, it's just the best way to do business. And the formula for me is every 100 people in my CRM in my database that I've worked with previously, if you follow a system, which every month you provide value to them, and we can give examples of this, if you want, we're getting a minimum 15% return. So 15 of those 100 people in my world are buying or selling. But it doesn't mean that 15 of them are doing it. But 50 of them via referred me a friend or they are they're doing it again. And that's a way to build a business that's sustainable over a decade.

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Mark Drager: That's huge, though, because if you consider that the cost of acquiring a client is highest when they're new, it takes the most money to get in front of them, it's the most competitive, takes the most time hand-holding and what have you to be able to deliver for them. If you have this pool in your CRM of past clients, and 15% are being able to drum up new opportunities for you, whatever that might be. And these are warm opportunities that you can pursue. That's a massive return. And so just a few questions on this, are you running a 12-month repeat and are people entering the sequence and then working through it, so they never get the same value-added piece of content every month? Or are you coming up with something new for the entire pool?

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Tom Storey: So every year, we'll kind of tweak it slightly if we want to change something out. But really, for the last five years, the 12-month plan has been not that dissimilar. And what I realized too is that, you know, with sales in general, we are stuck in our own little bubbles for whatever it is that we do, that is all we think about. And we wake up every morning, but our clients are living their lives. Like they don't actually care that often until the moment that they need you to help them do that thing, whatever it is, right? So whether it's for me, market update videos are getting in touch with people, letting them know what's going on with the market or inviting them to client events. Like we have our big client event tomorrow night, just because someone said they're not going to come or, you know, doesn't respond to your email or doesn't respond to every little thing you said doesn't mean they don't like you and they're not going to work with you again. It just means like they're living their lives. It's okay. Like I've had clients that don't respond to one email after we worked with them for like five years. And then out of nowhere, like, "Hey, Tom, we're ready to sell our place and buy a new place. Can you come over?" And like, "Where have you been?" But they're living their lives. Like, we're not that special, you know? How often do they need us? Not that often.

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Mark Drager: And so that's one side of your business. Now, I do quickly, with the time we have left, want to talk about the whole other lead generation side of your business, which is you've gone all in on yourself on building. I don't want to say a persona, but you've kind of become an expert. What have you built? And how has it helped your business?

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Tom Storey: Yeah. So early on, and I think a lot of salespeople have had this kind of internal thought process where they're like, I'm good at what I do. I understand what I'm talking about. The clients that I work with had a good experience. Why am I not doing more of it? It's so frustrating, like, why can't I get more opportunity? And we've talked about this a lot, right? Like, I love it, like visibility beats ability is my favorite saying. And it doesn't mean that ability is not important. All I'm saying is that the visibility aspect comes first. So, you know, the simplest way of putting this is it doesn't matter how good you are at what you do if nobody knows. It's really that straightforward. So, you know, when I started off my career, I didn't have money to spend on trying to generate opportunities through the traditional marketing types. But what I did is I had time, I'm a millennial, I could talk to a camera and I knew what I was talking about. At least I thought I knew what I was talking about, right? So the persona that was built has become the guy online. I built a YouTube channel focused on real estate in my market. And, you know, last year, I think we did 700,000 views. It's just passed 10,000 subscribers and every single day I had a call just before this, people are watching me there and then booking an appointment with me and asking to use my services to help them buy or sell real estate. But it doesn't matter what I'm selling. And I think the difference is and why it's working so well and why I've chosen that platform is because yeah, it's very easy to go to TikTok or Instagram and feed your ego with the likes that it gets. Because there's just more people there, the algorithms will have a beautiful thing there. But I think it's feeding your ego, not your business. And those platforms as a consumer are wonderful. It feeds you what you want. But I think they go there to be entertained, and they go to YouTube to learn. If I can give one piece of advice for someone that is selling anything, like my best video I put out this year is a 45-minute video on everything you need to know to buy a condo in Toronto. It is so boring, unless,

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Mark Drager: Unless you happen to be someone who's looking to buy a condo, and you're like, "I'm going to drop $2 million, I better do my research."

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Tom Storey: And guess what? They watch 45 minutes of me teaching them, and then at the end, there's a call to action in the video, they book a call with me. And they're like, "We watched your video. We were thinking of working with someone else. But we didn't even know half the things you taught us." And it's funny because a lot of these people are like, "Are you taking on new clients? Are you willing to work with us?" Where it's like, "Yeah, I think we can."

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Mark Drager: Oh, there's this perceived, like, you might be too busy for us even. That's interesting. You should make sure in every video, you say, "If you want to connect with me, we do have some openings for new clients." Let them know.

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Tom Storey: 100%. And they're excited to talk to you and they want to work with you. And they're not interviewing a bunch of other people. They've almost already done their research for three to six months watching my videos. And again, this doesn't have to be real estate, it can be anything, whatever you're talking about. And then when they reach out to you, they've made up their mind, and they just want to do the thing. And then you help them do the thing because you've already spent all that time nurturing them without actually knowing they existed, which is kind of cool.

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Mark Drager: I was hanging out with you last year. And we were working on a project together. And it was like three in the afternoon and you turned to me and you show me your phone. You're like, "Hey, Dee, I just got another lead from YouTube." And it was just like, "Oh, okay, like, I'm not going to say this happens every day. But how many years into your YouTube channel are you now?"

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Tom Storey: Two years into it with an actual plan? About four years before that, throwing videos into the abyss with no execution behind it, just whipping them out there.

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Mark Drager: So you produce these YouTube videos, but this has not only led to more leads, but you also get more press from it, right?

Mark Drager: I love this line, "Visibility beats ability." I used to tell clients, like, okay, when we're working on a creative or brand strategy, when we're helping them position stuff, like let's get the professionalism out of the way. That's like, you have to be professional, you have to be good, you have to be better than your competition. So that's not enough. Let's just get that out of the way. But the gap between feeling like I'm capable, this almost imposter syndrome, feeling I'm capable, and then putting yourself out there. Most people won't cross that. Most people, I don't think, will take the risk. And does this just come back to why you were young and hungry or millennial or comfortable? Or, I mean, you've done it. I'm worried that anyone listening to this might be like, "Oh, I've heard this advice before." And yet, most people listening probably won't even act on it.

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Tom Storey: Yeah, maybe they've heard it before. But there are lots of things we've heard before, and there's not really any new information out there. It's like, are you actually doing the things that you know you need to do? And truthfully, it doesn't matter because the first 5, 10, 15 videos you put out, anyways, no one's watching. So it's good to practice during that time because it takes time to build a viewership. And if you think anyone else that you look up to, whether it's in your industry or someone online, someone on YouTube, or just, it's probably someone you look up to in your industry, hasn't been doing it for six months. They've been doing it for 16 years. The person you watch on YouTube to get your advice on whatever the thing is that you enjoy, they probably have over 300 videos posted. They're not on video five and you're like, "Oh, I love this person," right? So why do you think that you're going to get those type of results when you've put out nothing like it's going to take time.

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Mark Drager: The first thing I do whenever I find someone that I really like is I go to their YouTube channel, or their podcast or their Instagram, whatever it is. And I immediately either rank by date, reverse date and scroll to the beginning, or on IG, we'll scroll all the way back to the beginning. Because one, that's the unpracticed version of them, as you just said, I feel like that's almost the true them. And then I also like to see the growth. You know, I did this with Mr. Beast, I went back and watched his first three years of videos, boring stuff, man, like playing video games, and he's young. And it's like, but it was interesting to go, like, how did this guy become, you know, this guy, my son, and I just watched again, "The Last Dance," the Chicago Bulls, Michael Jordan documentary. And I was struck with, you know, at the end, they show like, Jordan, year one, and then Jordan afterwards, and just the physical change, you know, as a man got older and more physical and a winner. And so yeah, I mean, the piece of advice I would give is just like, hey, let's not think that we can't do it. Because what we're seeing is so good. Let's go back and see where people started and go, Can I at least try what they did when they started and at least be maybe as good as that.

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Tom Storey: And then I think recognizing that keeping momentum, once it's already built, is a lot easier than building it up from scratch, right? So that's why a lot of successful people. And there's always been that argument that if you took all the money away from everybody in the world, redistributed it, it wouldn't take that long to kind of get back to where it was previously, right? Because they have knowledge, and they have the understanding of how to get it back, right? If you have that momentum, don't let it stop. But if you're just starting, you're in that building phase, and it's going to take some time, it's going to be tough. But then at one point, something happens, like, you know, six months into me making these educational videos, no one was really watching or reaching out, and then one of them took off, and then the next one took off. And I can't tell you what changed, other than the fact that I kept doing it, and then it clicked. And now it's like, you know, I can put out a video. Now that's not even half as good as some of my early stuff. But it will get 15 times more views, and I'll get appointments from it just because I've already built up the momentum in the audience that's showing up every week.

Mark Drager: I love it. So the lesson here, really, in everything that you're covering off is the idea of patience, consistency, and execution. And whether it's these email lists or whether it's the YouTube strategy you're doing, or frankly, I know all the other areas of your business, this is just how you operate, which is amazing. So, Tom, just to quickly wrap up, last question for you. What is your number one piece of advice that will help myself and the listeners sell more?

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Tom Storey: Honestly, be easy to work with.

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Mark Drager: I've not heard that one yet, but because it seems so obvious, and yet...

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Tom Storey: If someone reaches out to you, make it easy to work with. Don't overcomplicate everything. You know, when someone's buying a house with me, if they're the type of person that wants to know absolutely everything, I'll give them everything. But if they're like, "Tom, we just, we don't care. We're not trying to become a real estate agent after this. Like, we just want a house. This is what we want. Let's go get it." I'm not going to bore them with stuff that I think they should know because I think that being easy to work with and being likable, I would say, is like, you will sell more if you're just a likable, happy person that's easy to work with.

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