Meredith Rigdon - Elevate: A Podcast For Driven Real Estate Agents - Episode 6

Watch the Episode Here:

For the sixth episode of the podcast we brought on Meredith Rigdon who is an agent with KW Drive. If you're someone who needs any sort of help to market yourself or your business, give Meredith a call! She has years of experience with some top brands such as Michelin and KW and knows a thing or two about other ways to generate leads besides doing cold calls.

In This Episode We Cover:

• Using the 36 Touch Method to gain revenue.

• How effective proper marketing techniques are.

• Some tips for agents just starting out.

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Listen Along!

Read the Episode Here!

Meredith Rigdon:

You're going to get 10% of your database. So for instance, if you only had a hundred people that you knew and you applied a 36 touch system to them, that's 10 transactions in a year. Yes. That's almost a hundred grand in earn commission. Yes. With only a hundred people. Yes. That's pretty darn simple.

Nathan Whitworth:

Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of Elevate, a podcast for driven real estate professionals. And I cannot tell you how excited I am to bring to you a force of nature, guys like she is a force of nature is Meredith Rigdon Meredith, how you doing? Hey,

Meredith Rigdon:

I'm awesome. How are you?

Nathan Whitworth:

Good, good. I gotta tell you, in the short relationship that we've had, I am so impressed by you. Thank you. Every conversation that we have, and you've got exciting stuff coming up, which we'll give a little teaser on in a little bit. Yeah. Every time we have a conversation, every time we sit down and talk, I'm always just finding myself nodding my head when you're talking and you're talking about what you got going on and you're talking about what's coming up and you talk about your philosophy behind what you do and how you wanna do it. Well, I just find myself always agreeing with you and it's rare that we find people like that. And so I just wanna say congratulations on all your success. Things have just been blowing up for you and I'm excited for you. Well,

Meredith Rigdon:

Thank you. That's, that's quite the introduction. <laugh> feel special. Thank you.

Nathan Whitworth:

Well, it's easy when you give us good cont, that's easy. So Meredith I first off, wanna start with who you are. Okay. Tell us a little bit about who Meredith Rigg did end. How did we get here today?

Meredith Rigdon:

So it's interesting. I'm originally from here, which is interesting. Greenville and the upstate. We've gotten so much positive press and accolades probably in the, I would say in the past five years, probably since the Swamp Rabbit was built and Main Street really took off. We've become the kind of place where people go. I don't know that I've met anybody who's from here. Right? You are.

Nathan Whitworth:

We were local. I'm probably one of the few You

Meredith Rigdon:

And I went to Rival High School. That's right. Yeah. We were both band nerds.

Nathan Whitworth:

That's right.

Nathan Whitworth:

So a

Meredith Rigdon:

Hundred percent for people who knew me back when I grew up in Piedmont. And Piedmont existed before Pottersville. Everybody. Now Pottersville has a high school. But I grew up on a farm. My grandfather was an entrepreneur and a cattle farmer. I was a band nerd. Very cool. I was a hundred percent music when I was in school. I didn't do athletics. We can get into that, but a lot of people think that I must have been a high school or college athlete. But that's not the case

Nathan Whitworth:

Because you are crazy active now, right? Because yeah. How many Ironmans do you have planned for

Meredith Rigdon:

The next? So I just wrote actually this. Yeah, I just wrote my 2023 schedule. So I'm a triathlete and I'm doing four half Ironman races next year, which is pretty normal.

Nathan Whitworth:

Well, not for most people.

Nathan Whitworth:

<laugh>, I guess.

Meredith Rigdon:

Oh, ok. So that's normal.

Nathan Whitworth:

And your community. Yeah. Oh, that's for you. Yeah.

Meredith Rigdon:

Yeah. So it's started running because my fiance and then who became my husband at the time was a college athlete. He was a soccer player cross country. And I'm tall and I'm big bones. I know this about myself. I'm not the girl who's ever just going to be skinny and I refuse to have this athletic husband and me just be this huge, so it started as a vanity thing, thankfully, and now have an incredible coach who's a sport dietician. And now it's truly a health thing.

Nathan Whitworth:

That's very cool.

Meredith Rigdon:

It impacts every area of my life for the better. Yeah,

Nathan Whitworth:

That's very cool. Yeah. I gotta tell you, every time I talk to you, you've always working and you're biking and you're running and you're swimming, you're getting ready for the next one. It's so impressive. I mean, this <laugh>,

Meredith Rigdon:

It's fun. Yeah. Truly. I tell people it's my quiet time cuz nobody, I mean you can call me cuz I can see my calls come through on my garment. Even if I'm on my bike, they push through the computer screen but I don't always answer. It depends. I shouldn't give that secret up. Depends who you are. If I pull over and answer, but it is, it's my quiet time. I work out all my problems and then I go back and I'm better.

Nathan Whitworth:

That's cool. Yeah. So you've had an interesting history before you became an agent. Yes. Do you wanna take us through, what were your previous roles before you decided to go into business for yourself?

Meredith Rigdon:

So yeah, I've only been a real estate agent. This is my fourth year selling, which is, it's crazy how fast and how quickly you can build a business. But I finished Clemson marketing degree. I knew I always wanted to work in marketing, I love branding. I love brand strategy that fires me up to this day. I know a lot of the people who are behind some of the biggest brands that we know and I think it's fascinating. That's right. To follow them. So the bulk of my career was with Michelin in first in sales. They moved me to Los Angeles. So my first sales territory with them was in Los Angeles. And then they eventually brought me back before the first housing market crash that we all are familiar with. I literally got out by the skin of my teeth. Wow. Sold a condo in la.

I had one of those interest only loans that you can't get anymore. And I was married at the time and I remember he was very, very, very conservative financially. And when we signed those papers for that interest only loan, he said to me, we should not be doing this. Banks were crazy that they Yeah, that's right. You want money? I got money, you can have it. Yeah. You got a good job. So we literally got out by the skin of our teeth before the market crashed. Came back here. I was with Michelin in corporate marketing for almost 10 years. Got what I really thought was my dream job. I had a country marketing role for agriculture, which for a girl who grew up on a cattle farm, very cool. I was going to farm shows, I got to drive the big combine with all the software and you would be amazed.

Very cool farmers as still to this day, real estate agents, the good ones are business people. A lot of people don't realize farmers are business people. They're incredible business people. And going to these shows and learning their stories and just bringing products to them that would make their operations more efficient is an incredible business. Interesting. And then I was recruited by Seal Air away from Michelin. They probably called me for a year. And I kept saying to them, don't call me. I work for the world's most respected brand. I mean, I was full of myself, right? <laugh>, like I work for Michelin, have you heard of the Michelin man? Cuz I work for him. And

Nathan Whitworth:

Michelin by the way, is a great company. It's an incredible company. It's a company, it's a great company. And

Meredith Rigdon:

I had no intention of ever leaving. And something, the recruiter just hit me the right way one day and she said, I really think I just want you to come meet this VP of communications. They wanted me to help them build their first corporate communications department for the Global Sealed Air brand. Cool. At the time they were bubble wrap and Cryovac and all of their divergent verticals. They were combining them to be one brand. And so that was what I was going to be a part of. That was interesting. But she said, this VP is a huge fan of women and his wife both went to West Point and just come meet him. And I thought, okay, I, I'll give the guy a shot. And I remember they flew me to New York. Obviously I was still employed by Michelin. Now all my Michelin is going to find this out. So I'm wearing a suit, I'm taking a flight out of GS P, which is Michelin land. And

Nathan Whitworth:

I'm Were you getting on the plane like this the whole time? Oh

Meredith Rigdon:

Gosh. I was like, if anybody

Nathan Whitworth:

Suits, don't make eye contact. Don't make eye contact. What are you doing?

Meredith Rigdon:

Right. Because if I was going to an ag show, I would've been wearing the polo and my boots and somehow that was a God thing. Nobody saw me. I flew up there, they picked me up in a limo. They take me to this guy's office. He was incredible. Of course he won me. And at the time I told my husband, the only way I will leave is if they give me this number. I get home and literally it's in my email. It's the number. And I'm like,

Nathan Whitworth:

<laugh> meant to be great.

Meredith Rigdon:

Yeah. Awesome. It was one of those things where I was like, I, I'm changing jobs. I mean, like I said it, I put it out there and now I have to do it. So unfortunately after that happened, then I found out that Seal Air was moving everybody to Charlotte. They were consolidating all of their offices. And I had three years to move. They were very generous with me about the move. But it ultimately came down to, I didn't wanna leave Greenville because I was from here. And once I came back I really wanted to stay. And we had young kids and I'm so thankful we didn't go because of what happened later in life. But I started having freelance jobs fall in my lap where I was involved locally on a nonprofit for cycling safety. And a guy came to me and said, this is the coolest story.

He said I was in a meeting with all these people in city hall. We all walked out and this guy had stared at me the whole time and I was like, is he creepy or do I know him? Or when you're a girl you're like, why are you staring at me? Just introduce yourself. He waits on me in the hall and I walked out and I was like, hi. And he goes, you know how to do marketing. And I said, I do <laugh>. And he said, and you're a cyclist. I was like, I am. And I'm like, what is? And he said, will you please help me? And I said, what do you need? And he said, I'm in charge of the U S A Pro championship that's coming to town. Whoa. And I have no budget and George hen cap's going to be here and all of these people and it's important to the city.

We have no budget for the PR and marketing. Can you help me? Interesting. And I was like, well I have a full-time job and now all my sealed air people looking find this out too. Here's all, this is the story of Meredith Secrets. So I'm like, yeah, I guess this is what they call a side hustle. So I took that one little freelance job, literally word got out after that. And I wanna say he may have paid me $200. I can't remember it. I didn't even have to report it. It was so low. But remember I went home, my coaches at the time, I got them in there was a v i P section right there on Main Street. They introduced me. This would've been my nine year old was a baby. So this would've been eight years ago. The guy who gave me the job introduced me to George Hin happy.

I couldn't speak. It was like I froze. Cause I'm like, you're Lance Armstrong's bestie. I mean I could not speak. I was such a dork. So hey George. Which that has come full circle too, which I can talk about that. But that became, I went home that night and I said, what if I actually tried to get jobs on my own? This just kind of came to me. And so then I ended up making a plan and starting my own marketing company, doing work for people and companies who couldn't afford agencies or couldn't afford an employee. And also doing work for agencies who couldn't afford people like me because I ended up really, really specific skillset in the work that I had done at Michelin and Sealed Air. And I had my own legitimate marketing company. Interesting. So I was able to walk away from that big number sealed air gave me I burned the ship big time.

Nathan Whitworth:

Wow. Okay. So there's so much jump back. I now know why I'm nodding my head all the time because you, you're kind of coming into real estate with a very specific skillset around marketing and branding. That is probably a lifetime of education that most other agents don't have.

Meredith Rigdon:

I would say

Nathan Whitworth:

So. Yeah. Which is very cool. That's awesome. Well so then how did you fall into real estate?

Meredith Rigdon:

How'd that come out? So that came about because one of my first clients who was the Swamp Rabbit Inn, it was Wendy Liam who started the two swamp rabbit inns. There was one in Greenville and one in Traveler's Rest. And this is where we talk about lead gin and prospecting. She was interviewed on npr. I used to listen to NPR before everybody had satellite radio. And I, no kidding, take my daughter to school in the mornings. I think it's called. They have a Carolina business show. That's right. She was interviewed and I was listening to this woman talk about cycling and being an entrepreneur and her passion for marketing. And I googled her and found her, this would've been have been five or six years ago. It was when my company was fairly new. And I said, I heard you on NPR and I would love to come talk to you.

I wanna learn from you cuz I just started my own marketing company. If I could do some work for you, that'd be great, but I just wanna meet you because of what you've started and what you've done. And she was totally open. She was like, yeah, come meet me. So I think we met for breakfast or lunch or something. She ended up hiring me cuz she needed help with her social media. She needed some PR for some events she was doing. I knocked it out of the park. I'm not sure how, but I did. Cause I was like, if I can succeed for her, one of the greatest things about working for her was how much I learned from her. She's still, to this day my marketing mentor. I go to her and I sit down with her. She's the reason why I'm going all in on video, the notes in my notebook from her on video because she is a marketing genius.

But Wendy had a real estate project when I was working for her for the Swamp Rabbit ends that she was trying to get off the ground and she wanted me to do the branding for it. And because of license laws in South Carolina, what I was going to do was kind of on the edge of Sure of broaching license law. And so she said, get your license, let's do this branding and then you can be my onsite agent and it'll be another income stream. Cool. Because Wendy is a brilliant businesswoman. Who knows, you can't just have it all in one place. Right. A hundred percent. And after I got my real estate license, my then husband and father of my kids died by suicide. And Wendy said to me, and I obviously had to take some time off from work cuz it was very unexpected. The marketing and PR is very demanding, real estate's demanding in a different way. You can get leverage and help for real estate marketing and PR is intellectual work that I could not sub out. So there was a different kind of demand there. And Wendy said, what have you sold 12 houses a year. Like her development didn't come through, she couldn't get the utilities, just couldn't make it happen. And she said, go get a broker. Go sell real estate cuz I think you'd be good at it. So it was a client from my marketing company that led me into real

Nathan Whitworth:

Estate. That's incredible.

Meredith Rigdon:

Wow. Was going to be a side hustle.

Nathan Whitworth:

Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. And I'm sorry about your husband. Thank you. Yeah. So what I wanna do is I want to talk about what do you feel like you've pulled from all that experience because it, it's becoming crystal clear to me now that your prior experience in marketing, in branding and what you've been able to pull out of those experiences that you've had working for those incredible companies and then going into business for yourself, figuring out how to be an entrepreneur and taking some time to organize things well in your mind on how everything should work, how to pull everything together. And then basically that's a hurricane force win that you're now bringing into the real estate world as an agent. Right? Yeah. So I'm curious if you don't mind sharing, what do you feel like you've pulled from the years and years of experience that you've spent with those companies doing your own thing as an entrepreneur, working in your own marketing agency or building your own marketing company? And what are you pulling from that and what are you bringing into the real estate space that you feel like would be helpful for other agents to know?

Meredith Rigdon:

So I think first and foremost is people. I can say without a doubt that where I am today has not happened on my own at all. It's been leaders, directors of marketing people seeing things in me and calling them out. Coaches and mentors pouring into me. Harrow who's a local owner here of the Harrow group who I will always look up to

Nathan Whitworth:

Him. He's got an incredible team.

Meredith Rigdon:

He's so busy, but he finds time about three times a year to sit down with me. We text all the time, we Instagram message. But it's that time when he can look at me and say something impactful or see something in me. My business coach, Wendy's a great example. There's a person who I can point to who's the reason why I'm in real estate. That guy at City Hall is the reason why I realized I had the opportunity to do outside of a corporate environment.

Nathan Whitworth:

Interesting.

Meredith Rigdon:

So for me it is humility to allow other people to lead me and to give me I would say, constructive feedback so that I can be better. Cuz there's so much you just don't know on your own.

Nathan Whitworth:

Have you found, I don't think that's easy for everybody and I don't think everybody does that right. I've encountered a lot of agents who choose to generally try to go it alone. I, I'm not sure if it's because they're afraid of criticism. You openly invited how to laugh at yourself and we just did a video project last week and we're kicking some stuff off. And before you came in, before we started recording, we were laughing about some of the stuff in the video. But that's actually not an easy skill for most people. That's not an easy thing to be able to laugh it off and to be able to take criticism constructively, hopefully. But to take constructive, constructive criticism. Do you have any advice for people? How do you do that?

Meredith Rigdon:

I think you've really got to, I think it's humility. I think, and I've said this, one of my best friends in the business who works for another broker, he and I talk all the time and those agents with the huge egos

Nathan Whitworth:

Especially the last few years,

Meredith Rigdon:

It only goes so far. And if you're not willing to be open and learn, and for some people, and we can talk about this, I've been through probably the worst tragedies of my life in the past four years. Sometimes it takes that getting knocked down, maybe it takes that for everybody, I don't know. And then also in sport, I'm very well aware in sport of my limitations. And the only way to overcome those limitations is that outside perspective. Perfect example is the pool. So my coach can tell me what to do, I can watch all the YouTube videos and then I go get in the pool and I feel amazing. I'm staring at that black line, oh it feels amazing. I'm doing this. My coach could walk up and be like, they call it petting the kitty when you're not, you're supposed to grip it and rip it.

He's going to laugh. Hopefully he'll watch it. Like Meredith, you're petting the kitty. And the whole time I've been like, no I got this. I'm nailing it. It's somebody standing up on the deck who can see it from another level that can totally change your game in the water you're doing the thing, you've taken all the advice and everything in. But until you have somebody else's eyeballs on you, you can only see so much. Interesting. I think that applies. It's like somebody seeing pictures of me at a race and my coach going, I know what's happening with your run now she can see a picture of me running and just say, I see where it's breaking down. Here's what we gotta work on. I can't see that cuz I'm not a coach. I'm the athlete. Interesting. I think we all need a leader.

Nathan Whitworth:

That's interesting. I love the idea of humility because I think that that's so important. I think for a lot of people. Typically when I get with a new agent the conversation's usually around, and I think we actually did this when we had lunch. I said, so what are your goals? Where are you? I was like, catch me up. I actually literally do this with every agent. Catch me up, let me know who you are and what's doing, what are your goals? And it's so funny because typically the conversation usually revolves around or gets to this point where I say, that's amazing. Those are amazing goals to have one. First off, are they high enough? Are they big enough or do they scale you a little bit? Because hopefully they should and they do. Right? And then the next point is, do you want to hit that goal in three years, six years or 16 years?

Right. And one thing that's so impressive about you is that you have, number one, you pay homage to your mentors. I don't know how many conversations, and we haven't had that many yet. We're going to have a lot more and I'm excited about it in the future. But every single time that we do have a conversation, you always talk about how thankful you are to your mentors or the experience that you've had with your mentors. So I think for a lot of agents, the question always comes down, if you're trying to do this by yourself, are you wanting to get to your goal in three years, in 10 years, in 13 years, in 20 years? If you wanna get to that goal faster, you have to surround yourself with people who are not only going to encourage you and drive you, that's that and push you a big part of it for sure.

But also I think that, I wanna say this is Alex Hermo thing, but paying down, I was talking to you earlier, that ignorance tax, right? Yes. Paying down, going through the process of finding out what it is that you don't know because you don't know what you don't, finding out what you don't know and then being coachable and getting feedback and helping you through and paying down the ignorance tax as fast as possible. That's how you get to that goal fast. And it seems like you've done that so well. And every stage of your life it seems like you've done that super well.

Meredith Rigdon:

The people I look up to do that. So I guess it's not a new idea and it's not something I came up with. I know that my coaches are coached. I know that. And

Nathan Whitworth:

That's such a good point. Yeah, that's

Meredith Rigdon:

Such a good point. A great coach has a coach that's the <inaudible>. There's a guy in Asheville, he owns Johnson Property Group with Keller Williams in Asheville and he came and spoke at our stakeholder meeting, I think it was July or August. And he said he goes to every single training he can possibly go to. Mm-hmm. And this guy is leading an incredible team that one day I'm going to be just his right. That's who I'm looking up to and that's what I'm going for. That's what he's doing. So that's what I'm going to do. And that's the culture of Keller Williams is when we figure out what works, we share it so that other people can come do it too. It's a very open and it's a very giving culture. We don't keep secret what it is we're doing that's making us successful.

Nathan Whitworth:

Interesting. Yeah, I, and I wanna talk about KW here in a second because I've got a big soft spot in my heart for KW because everybody that I've worked with there, there's a culture of family that's there that's unlike anything else that I've seen. So we'll get to that. But I wanna get to the humility thing for a second too because talking about humility, and again, I think this is a very difficult thing for a lot of people. You showcase vulnerability in a very real way. You have no problem with just being honest, just being open and honest, right? You're not looking for a handout, you're not looking for people to do the work for you. But you're very open and honest about just saying, Hey, here's what I know. This is what I don't know that I don't know about this thing that I know.

And just being open about that. Most people, I feel like, especially agents, they have this kind of air of professionalism about them and they try to hide the fact that they're not sure what they should be doing. They try to hide the fact that they're not sure what to do next. What's the most next important thing to do. They typically try to bury those things and not showcase the fact that hey, there might be a better thing to be doing right now instead of what I'm doing. Can you gimme some feedback that typically is not a conversation for them. Do you feel that way? Is that something you feel like you agree with? Do you see that about yourself? That you're open and just honest?

Meredith Rigdon:

Yeah, and actually I will say, so honesty is huge for me. My kids know in our house, me and my 13 year old daughter and my nine year old son. And we've got two really big rules and it is no mean people. So we're going to be kind, not nice, we're going to be kind. Cuz I think there's a difference in we don't lie in this house. And they've seen people come and go because of honesty. And my kids know that. I hold that as a standard. So honesty first of all is just a standard and it's a way of life for me. And that's when I'm teaching my kids. Cuz you're, you're going to get so much, it's just easier to be honest. And so if you're putting up a front and you're being somebody you're not and somebody hires you because of that, it's not going to work out.

And I remember when I first started in real estate, my first brokerage was Coldwell Banker, which is a fantastic brokerage here in town. It's came, it's an incredible family, an incredible company. It just was not the place for me. You gotta find your home. And that wasn't it. And it was an awesome part of my journey. I remember them when I started in on their training. So I came from corporate marketing and I was always the person behind the brand. And when I started at Coldwell Banker, that was in the midst of my husband dying by suicide. My mom also died very unexpectedly that year. Sorry. So talk about a hard year. I was raised by very private people. They're probably not going to watch this podcast and if they do they're going to be very angry, which I apologize. But you just don't talk about what's happening to you.

Keep it to yourself. We keep those doors closed, we are fine. Everything is good. And I worked in corporate marketing, which it's never my story that's being told, it is the brand story. It is impeccable. Everything is perfect. We got this. And when you work for Michelin, it is, they're literally the world's best tires. I won't have any other tires. They just are. So then you come into real estate where it is personal branding. Personal branding. I remember sitting in the Coldwell Banker office and thinking, I'm not telling anybody who I am <laugh>. Like I'm not talking about what has happened to me. I am not talking about being from Piedmont, like n none of this farm girl stuff. We're not, no, absolutely not. I'm going to build this corporate real estate group and we're we're going to be that perfect Michelin box. That's what we're going to be.

It didn't go well. And it took me making that mistake. And actually I will give my current coach Catherine credit, it was probably the second time I sat down with her because I really struggled with it. And after my husband died by suicide, I just didn't talk about it. Everything's fun, we're good, we're great. I didn't tell teachers, I didn't tell babysitters who came into my house. And I had a precious babysitter who came into my house. And when I got home that night, she burst into tears and she says, I asked your kids how often they see their dad. And I said, that's my fault. I should have told you because that's a perfectly normal question that you're not going to get a normal answer out of this house. And so I started learning, I need to talk about this if for no other reason than it makes things easier for my kids. So that's how it kind of started for me. And it's not that I was trying to be dishonest or lie or be like, oh

Nathan Whitworth:

Sure,

Meredith Rigdon:

No, I had these children by hundred percent.

Nathan Whitworth:

So I just to say this, I'm from the same type of family. You don't talk about what's going on inside the house, outside of the house. And even my wife and I, to some large extent, we're pretty private people. We don't get on Facebook a whole lot. We don't talk about what we do a whole lot. We were just gone out of the country this past weekend and we didn't post anything about it. We're probably not going to. So I understand that for sure. I grew up in the same type of household.

Meredith Rigdon:

Well, and I think I saw early in my real estate career, I saw other agents just being that face on a billboard and I thought I can just use my corporate marketing background and I can just be that face and I have all these connections and I love this community and that's going to work.

Nathan Whitworth:

Do you think that it used to work? Do you think that it is kind of a thing that the marketplace, the type of people that agents are trying to reach now, trying to connect with, trying to work with, do you think do, that's just slowly evolving and that's why this is changing? That's

Meredith Rigdon:

Interesting. That's possible because you can think back to when you and I were early in our careers, that was the kind of real estate agent you saw

Nathan Whitworth:

Very much. Yeah. I mean I would say this is a relatively new thing.

Meredith Rigdon:

I wonder if it's a post pandemic

Nathan Whitworth:

Possibly or slightly before

Meredith Rigdon:

Connection kind of thing.

Nathan Whitworth:

I will say talk, I think the term authenticity gets thrown on around a lot. But I think that's what you're genuinely talking about. That the person that you are when the camera is turned off, is the person you are when the camera's turned on. And it's not that you necessarily have to share things that you're uncomfortable with about your life. I mean find talking about your kids, I talk about my kids. I don't post a lot of pictures of them or anything like that. But it's definitely the idea that there is no fake front to your personality, to your interest, to the things that you love and the things that drives you. That again, the same conversation that we'd be having. I feel like you and I, we got a camera rolling, we've got microphones in front of us, but this is honestly kind of the same conversation that we had at lunch the other day, right?

Meredith Rigdon:

Yeah, totally. Well and I think if you think about my experience and what's happened to me in the past four years in real estate we are the second most disrespected rep reput, reputation wise of our career. A career. Do you know what number one is?

Nathan Whitworth:

Oh, I wanna say, I know this is it insurance?

Meredith Rigdon:

It's lawyers.

Nathan Whitworth:

Oh, lawyers. I know that makes sense.

Meredith Rigdon:

And my great-grandfather and grandfather and uncle were insurance companies. <laugh>. Were agents Sue. I come from wonderful people. Right, right. I didn't stand a chance. I think because of that I am so much more motivated to treat my people Well and when you decide to work with me, that's the conversation I have with you. You just became one of my people. I'm going to fight for you, I'm going to win for you. I'm going to be really honest with you. Real estate, death, no moving death and divorce are the top three stressors in life. It's like all the studies have proven it. So I am walking with people through first of all the biggest transactions. It's either their home or their investment. So it affects their generational wealth, what they want for themselves and their children. And a lot of times it could be a probate situation, could be a divorce situation.

I am walking with them through the worst thing that has ever happened to them. Yes. So why would you hire somebody who's not who they say they are? And there's a realization there. And I tell my people when I first meet with them, you can't scare me. And I, we don't even have time for it. But I promise the things that have happened to me since those deaths, it the things that you learn and the resilience, I wouldn't wish it on anybody. But the lessons I have learned, I wouldn't wish that it didn't happen either. Sure. Because of how I've grown and how I've even learned how to lean on people. But those lessons teach me how to treat people.

Nathan Whitworth:

Yeah. We were talking about the books that we've read and some of Gary's books Yes. That we've read. Yes. Have you ever read the Gap in the game? No. Okay. I will gift this book to you. Okay. Yay. I'm going to send it to you. Okay. Cause you have to read it. Okay. Not that you need this lesson. Okay. But it's just amazing talking to you because I'm, the concept be of the gap in the game is this, it's essentially where you can view anything from a per perspective, the same situation from any perspective can be kind of changed how you feel about it. Obviously the gap is basically where you're measuring where you're at right now and the situation is happening to you against a perfect scenario. So you're measuring it against, in your mind what the idealized version of this scenario is. And obviously it makes you feel bad.

You're in the gap. You have a very negative perception of what's happening to you at that point. Or you have the perception of the game, which is not measuring against a future or a perfect ideal. You're measuring against your past actions or you're measuring your current success or where you are right now against where you were six months ago or a year ago or five years ago or whatever. And you live that so well. You live in the gain well where you see what you've learned, you see the benefits. And I just wanna commend you for that's, thank you. That's so rare to see. So that's awesome. I'm going to give you that book. It's worth reading just to have the concept around that. It's really good. But let's kind of talk just a little bit about y I wanted to go back to KW for a second. Okay. What was it about KW that influenced your decision to kind of move there and to find a home there?

Meredith Rigdon:

This is so easy. This is so very easy. And this is a HARO story. And it's interesting because here in the upstate, probably all over the world, based on how I know him. So HARO has been an agent since 2009. HARO

Nathan Whitworth:

Is tough time to start it to be an agent.

Meredith Rigdon:

And he crushed it. He sold 33 units Cool. In 2009. So if you're an agent and you're worried about the market, come talk to me in For sure. We gotcha. Harrow and I were in Leadership Greenville together. We were on the same project team and just became friends. We share the same faith and not even, I don't wanna call it sneaky, I don't like that word at all, but Harrow just stayed close to me. And he saw me through my real estate career met with me, would talk to me, would ask me questions. He gave me Gary Keller's, we call it the Red Book Millionaire real Estate agent. And at the time I was with my second broker which was the company started by some friends of mine. And I got about halfway through it when he started talking about systems and tools and leverage.

And I got really angry and I basically threw the book and was like, this is for people with these big companies. And this is so far over my head, I can't even do anything with this. And I remember a couple of times Haro asked me, did I read the book? And I was like, yeah, I read the book. It was fun. <laugh> like, but I threw the book at the wall because I didn't have what the book was telling me I needed. And at the time, cuz it was 20 20, 20 21, my business was booming without me trying. So I didn't really need what the book said I needed. And so Haro just stayed very close to me. And I'll never forget we had a lunch. It was a leadership Green Bowl alumni lunch. And we left. And Haro said to me, he said, Meredith, you're a gem.

And I said it J, the way he said it, I said, that is really a nice compliment. And he said, would you talk to my friend Jeff, just regardless of where you are, I think he would be good for you to know and he could help you in your real estate journey. And I said, yeah, of course. Connect me with him. And there's a real estate agent here locally that does a lot of billboards and his name is Jeff. And I texted Harrow, I was like, it's not that Jeff, is it <laugh>? Because I really don't like his style. And he was like, no, no, no, no, no, it's not him. So he starts, puts me on a text with Jeff. I don't know his last name. I don't background check him, which is something I normally do when someone, I don't know. I didn't do all of the normal things, which is a just serendipity, God call it what you want.

Jeff sets up a meeting with me and he says, meet me at 200 Mills Avenue. I'm perfectly happy. I thought at my current brokerage and D and I remember I texted him the day before and I was like, what is 200 mills? Is that a coffee shop? What is that? And he says, no, it's my office. And I went, oh okay. Let's just agree to meet Jeff because Harrow knows him at his office on 200 mills. And as I think back, I'm like, I would have my daughter's head if she went through this series of decisions.

Nathan Whitworth:

It show, it shows how much you trusted Harrow,

Meredith Rigdon:

Though. I did. I truly did. And I still do. So it speaks to him because he really is someone you can trust. So I go and I pull, turn onto Mills Avenue and I can see the sign in the distance and it's Keller Williams Drive. And I'm like, you are freaking kidding me. <laugh> like, like I didn't wanna be recruited. I'm perfectly happy. I'm good here in my mess.

Nathan Whitworth:

So at this point you decided when you pulled up, you realized what this was really about? Oh yeah.

Meredith Rigdon:

I said the meaning and I'm like horror <laugh>. Right. And I wasn't mad and I was like, he's my friend so sure I'll go in and meet Jeff, whoever Jeff is. Right. Well I walk

Nathan Whitworth:

In the door for no other reason than curiosity. Right?

Meredith Rigdon:

Correct. Yeah. And I set the meeting and I opened the door. Literally if you open the door of the drive office. And what at Harrow did know this about me personally, at the time I was struggling. I was underwater as far as my business was all consuming. I wasn't getting time with my kids. I had to sit out of a race in May because I could not manage it all at had an agent who was my right hand girl, just unexpectedly quit. And it was awful. I'd had an encounter with my son where I'd yelled at him because I needed to get some work done and I can replay it now in my head and if I could take it back I would. But it was because I was so out of balance. So that was where I was emotionally walking into that office. Business was great. I was making plenty of money, but I was not great at home. I literally opened the door of the drive office and when you open the door, you're staring at a wall and it says, our values are God, family and business. And Nathan, I saw that wall and immediately in my head I thought, well I'm changing brokerages.

Nathan Whitworth:

Before you even met Jeff,

Meredith Rigdon:

Before I even met him. So that's like, that's the beginning and end of my Keller Williams story because those values mattered enough to me that all I had to do was see it on a wall and go, this is where I have to be because if this is what these people believe enough that they'd put it on a wall, then I'm moving now. It took me, how long did it take? Probably six weeks. Because the people who own the other brokerage were my friends. And that was very hard. It was a very, very, very hard conversation and decision. But it was ultimately about my kids and about my life. And it's the best decision I ever made.

Nathan Whitworth:

I wanna talk more about kw, but I think this is going to help a lot of people. I think it's going to help a lot of people because I wanna talk about that managing, just being a mom and being an agent. Because those are two roles and responsibilities that most, I would say almost every agent deals with and struggles with. Right. For you, you found that just making a change and moving over to kw, which may not be the answer for everybody, right? I'm not trying to say it is for sure. Yeah. But can you talk me through that for a minute? How have you found, been able to balance, use the word balance earlier, how have you been able to balance being a mom and the massive responsibility that is I think about my wife and how she's a mom to our three and it is such, I can't imagine, but to also deal with all the roles and responsibilities of taking care of people the way you do as an agent. How have you been able to balance those two things?

Meredith Rigdon:

So I'm going to change your word balance to harmony. And I have to give my triathlon coach Marnie credit for that. Because when I set out that race in May, she called me immediately. I was with a different coach at the time. I was with Marni and then left because I was stupid. And then came back, she called me when she noticed I didn't do that race. And I said, I can't do it. I can't balance it all. And Marni knows how much I love the sport. She knows I love to train almost more than I love to race. Because for me, the process and that daily getting in there, which is a lot real estate, I just love it. It lights me up. Marni said, cuz Marni and Corll know me very well. They knew me when my kid's dad died, my mom died, said they lit.

They're my neighbors. So they literally know what my home life looks like. And Marni said, you're not going to have balance. You need to strive for harmony. And so if you think of music and you think of sometimes the high notes are louder and sometimes the low notes are louder, sometimes it's all in the middle. And she's like, you've got the kids. You've got this incredible business you've built. You've got a life with triathlon. You also want to have friends. You want to have a relationship, you want to remarry. Balance isn't going to happen. Cuz if you think of it, of all those things that are on my plate at Keller Williams, we have a thing called a life wheel. Those that's that's never going to be balanced. Sometimes other things are going to push and pull. And just by her saying that to me and saying, let's look for harmony.

Like wow, let's look for that sweet spot of sometimes the business has to pull. Sometimes triathlon needs to pull cuz you've got a big goal and you need to double down. Sometimes the kids need to pull. Having her say that to me was like a weight off my shoulders. Real estate is appealing to women and it's appealing to moms and it's really appealing to single moms because if my daughter is sick, if I need to run to a band concert, if I gotta drop everything and be there, I actually can. You can't do it if you're by yourself. I will tell you that cuz I tried. So the difference is in having that support and even just if you didn't join a team, if you joined an office like Drive, they're, I call 'em drive fam. They're my family. And I know literally my drive office is the reason why I was able to go to mega camp in Austin.

They found childcare for me. Wow. Because I'm a widow, so I'm the only driving person in my home. So I have two kids, two activities. I'm also a triathlete. I wanna have a life and friends and pursue a relationship as you should relationship. Yeah. And my kids know. So I'm not a helicopter parent, I'm not a touchy-feely. I love my kids. I hug 'em. I tell 'em I love 'em every day I tell 'em they matter. But they also know that when they turn 18, they're gone. <laugh>. Right. Y'all are leaving. You are out of here. I have a life and most of my races, unless it makes a whole lot of sense, most of my races, I don't take them too because it's more about me, it's my time. Which a lot of moms are bad not to do. But I think it's so good for

Nathan Whitworth:

Your kids. It's important kids. Yes. Yeah. Prioritizing your mental, physical health is important. And that's something that my wife and I talk about a lot. I love this idea. I wanna go back to a balance versus harmony. I was thinking as you were talking, it feels very much like when you think about the concept of a balance. It means that you essentially have these two opposing forces that you're trying to find balance between. And that kind of inherently does insinuate that there's something of opposing forces when in reality we think of harmony. You have these multiple things mean, but harmony. Harmony, modulates. Right. It changes. Yes. You actually have times and seasons of your life where something, one phrase of the music in a particular harmony changes. And I'm trying to think about how to talk about this in a way that most people don't understand. Yes. But modulates means to change. That's the musical term for changing. So when you have harmony that modulates from one to the other, one is not better than the other. One just serves that musical idea at that point in time better than the other. Right. Yeah. And I love that. I love that concept. Preston I know you're listening to this cuz Preston, you're a musician too. I'm definitely using that a lot. That is now, that is going to be a central focus of the studio. That's awesome. I love

Meredith Rigdon:

That. I mean honest, if you think about it, balance means something goes into submission. If you think about me on my bike, I'm balancing, like you said, those opposing forces. It means that fallings not happening.

Nathan Whitworth:

And you're limiting potential by pushing something down to get it into balance. You're forcing the potential of what something could be down as opposed to harmony. That's amazing. I really do love that. That's cool. That's guys, I'm so excited. That's going to help a lot of people seriously like the idea. Cuz again, you're right. This is a profession that really does appeal, particularly the moms who do get into it for the flexible schedule and all the reasons why a lot of people get into this. But it is a struggle. And I do see a lot of moms who's trying to figure out how they can come into better harmony with the different parts of their life. I love that. And I really do. I can't wait to share that with as many people as I possibly can. That's cool. Yay. That's very cool. That's awesome. Going back to kw, you've got some exciting things coming up at kw. Yeah. Right. And your story is an interesting one and I feel like it's about to get far more interesting. Oh yeah. Do you wanna just give a little snippet about what's to come, what's coming up?

Meredith Rigdon:

So Keller Williams is like no company I've ever been a part of. I have to be perfectly honest. And just that whole instance of me I'm a Jesus girl. So I need to say that cuz that matters. That's a part of who I am. So I have faith that there, there's somebody else involved in what's happening to me. I believe in a higher power. And walking in that door and seeing that on the wall, I mean it was not a question. The question was how and when do I do this right? And I'm going to make a lot of people angry in the process. Which sometimes you do that sometimes you have to make those kinds of choices. The culture of productivity, of coaching, of lead generation. Keller Williams is the number one training company in the world, not in the us, in the world.

So Keller Williams has a culture of training and learning and development. And I think that's so important for me. And I don't wanna speak for all Keller Williams agents, but for me, Keller Williams helps me grow as a person and it helps me grow in my faith as much as it helps me grow my business. And I told my assistant when I was talking to her about some of the things we have coming, I said, her name's Mary. I said, when I was at Michelin and I love Michelin, they wanted to make me a better marketer. Keller Williams wants to make me a better person. And several sessions with my coach, I have a dedicated business coach. We have sat down and she dating after for is so hard. It's just so hard. I'll admit it. And wherever he is, he's out there. I can't wait to meet him. Mr. Wright's out there. But Catherine, my coach, was writing on the board helping me with dating and with these conversations and these relationships because she said, Meredith, that matters. She said, if you want that in your life and you want that on your wheel of life, it's going to affect your business. And so you need to set aside time for it. And when you find that right relationship, business will continue to soar because of it. Right.

Nathan Whitworth:

It's so true. Yeah. And again, it's the whole concept of if the plane's going down, you have to put your oxygen mask on, oxygen mask on before you help the person next to you, even if it's your child. Right? Yeah. That's what they tell everybody and they tell everybody that for a reason. And the more that I go throughout life, the more I become super convinced that it's easy to get out of harmony. If you wanna say that. It's easy to get out of harmony with the balance that you have, but getting back into it is very important and it should be prioritized what you're talking about here about. Mm-hmm. Having fulfilling relationships for yourself to make sure that you have a life for yourself that is engaging and that is fun and interesting. It allows you to better serve the people you're trying to serve.

Oh yeah. Absolutely. Let's talk for a second about lead generation cuz you said that Keller Williams is the foremost when it comes to training, not only to be a better person, but to be the best agent that you possibly can to serve people in the best way that you possibly can. Let's talk a little bit about the lead generation part because right now in this market, that's what every agent is trying to get a handle on, right? Yeah. What is good, reliable, consist lead generation, what does that look like? How are you approaching that for you and your business?

Meredith Rigdon:

Yeah, so since my background is marketing, I get really fired up about this because to me lead gen is marketing. You're marketing yourself once you're okay with that authenticity. Once you're okay with telling your story, which by the way, once you tell your story, you will figure out there are so many people that are just like you a hundred percent. And they're going to come running and they're going to beg you to work with them a hundred percent. So that's the beauty in it. And also when you tell your story, it helps people. And I think that's the whole point. I think we were all put here to help each other. And I think that's the point. When something bad happens to you once you're, you gotta help people with what happened to you cuz it's going to happen to somebody else. It just is.

So it's a fun, it's kind of a joke when you go to into a class at Keller Williams and there's coaches and teachers and trainers. The joke is almost always, if we ask you a question, the chances are the answer is lead gin <laugh>. Like it just, no matter what we say, it's either the answer is either Gary Keller or Leadin. Just say one of those two things and you'll be covered. If you read Gary, Gary Keller's, red book, millionaire Real Estate Agent, I've had too much coffee. He says it over and over again in the book, you have one job, it's to generate leads and that's how you fill your pipeline, which turns into clients, which turns into close transactions

Nathan Whitworth:

A

Meredith Rigdon:

Hundred percent. There's a lot of details in between there, but at the end of the day, lead gin is your job. A hundred percent. So if you don't like or don't wanna do lead gin, you should probably leave real

Nathan Whitworth:

Estate a hundred percent. For most agents it's figuring out top of funnel. Yes. That's what it is. Yes. Right. Trying to figure out top of funnel. Yeah. So for you, what are you doing right now? What are you working

Meredith Rigdon:

On? So we've got a couple of lanes. And this is what I'm most passionate about with my team, with the agents that I'm interviewing to be on my team is if you are committed to and excited about lead genin, I will help you find your lane. And what I mean by that is not everybody wants to do cold calls. Not everybody wants to go door knocking. And my dating adventures met a very nice young man who sells solar panels and he goes door knocking. I actually should call him, he should be a real estate agent.

Nathan Whitworth:

He, that would be, that'd like 10 seconds of an awkward conversation. This all just came to me. That's amazing.

Meredith Rigdon:

I'm going to call him. I'm going to do it. Hold me to it. I'm going to be like, Hey, I know that I didn't call

Nathan Whitworth:

You on the second podcast. We do. I'm going to ask you about how that went because

Meredith Rigdon:

I was the one that ghosted him, so I'm going to have

Nathan Whitworth:

To go.

Meredith Rigdon:

Cause the dude loves to door knock and based on getting to know him, and he was a very nice guy getting to know him. He loves it. So if you loved a door knock, honey, I'm going to give you all the good neighborhoods and I'm going to send you to him. And I want you on my team. So I'm calling him.

Nathan Whitworth:

That's so funny. So hold on. So inherently what you're saying is the method of lead generation isn't the same for everybody, or it shouldn't be the same for everybody. It should not be. You should find what you feel passionate about. Yes. And what you have strengths in. Is that what you're saying?

Meredith Rigdon:

Lead gen is building relationships. It's conversations. It is creating relationships with people who you have an opportunity to do business with in the future. That's what lead gen is. It could be, there are some days I didn't, today I wanted to dress a little bit cuter for the podcast. I've got these shirts I ordered on Etsy that say, license to Sell. I'm your homegirl. Oh cool. I'm wearing 'em in my videos so that when people see me, they know that I'm a real estate agent and they know that I'm open to talking to them. So that's a way to be open to a conversation with somebody who you might have potential to do business with. It's staying in conversation with the people who know and trust you. Now, if you need to add people to your pipeline, let's find some things that you love to do and let's build a community around it. Here's my George Capy full circle story. I now work for George's Hotel Hotel, dumb Mystique as a great guide. Nice. So people come stay at the hotel. They either pay the other guide Justin or me to take them out on a bike ride.

Nathan Whitworth:

I actually know Justin.

Meredith Rigdon:

Okay. Oh,

Nathan Whitworth:

I know Justin. Yeah, I actually know Justin. Yeah, yeah,

Meredith Rigdon:

Yeah. He's one of my great friends. Yeah. So Justin's the reason why I'm doing that work cuz he brought me back in. We were both associated with a previous guiding company that it didn't make it in this market after Covid. But we do that for hotel Dumb mystique. Justin has sent me referrals from clients at Hotel Dumb Mystique. The staff at Hotel Dumb Mystique knows me. They know that I come in, all of my bikes are hot pink. So it's Meredith, the girl on the hot pink bike, gray branding

Nathan Whitworth:

By

Meredith Rigdon:

The way. She's going to be laughing. I always tell my people, I hope you're chatty because if you're not, I'll just carry the whole conversation. I sing, I tell knock, knock jokes cuz the rides are really hard. If you come to ride with me here, we're going to be climbing, guaranteed. We're in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and at the end of those rides, it never fails. This is why I'm telling you, if you're a real estate agent and you're committed to this and you don't want a cold call, get in touch with me. I can get your business cranking. I can help you find your lane. I never tell a single person that I guide, that I sell real estate. They always ask. They always go, is it do you do this? And I say, I wish if I didn't have kids, I'd be living in Mexico.

I'd be living like Kenny Chesney. I'd own a bar. Even if I don't drink anymore, I would be riding my bike doing this. But no, I have kids, so I have to sell houses because babies are in private school and we gotta pay for college <laugh> a hundred percent. It always comes up. And then they go, well you keep in touch with me because it's beautiful here every time. And all I do is I put 'em in my database, I set up the automation and I check in with them four times a year personally. And I maintain that personal relationship. I have all the art marketing automation set up by the Keller Williams systems that I didn't have when I threw the book against the wall. But now I have them and they're all there. And once that person goes into my database, as Harrow says, they either die or they buy

Nathan Whitworth:

<laugh>. I love that.

Meredith Rigdon:

So once you meet me, you're my bestie. Bad news you're in once you meet me. And so that's Hotel D is one of my lanes. And I just do that because I love to ride my bike. I also get paid, which is for a girl like me to get paid to ride my,

Nathan Whitworth:

To do something that you love. Yeah.

Meredith Rigdon:

Oh my gosh. Leadership Greenville. I stay in touch with all of those people. I have found a sweet spot with women. I am really passionate about mentoring women.

Nathan Whitworth:

I totally remember the thing I was going to talk about earlier. Keep going. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Keep going.

Meredith Rigdon:

And so we recently did a free runner self-defense class for women. Did it at Run-in? We're going to do four of them next year. Cool. Because we had such an incredible turnout. Very cool. And we're doing next week, women One and Wealth. I have partnered with a female wealth advisor.

Nathan Whitworth:

Very

Meredith Rigdon:

Cool. Who came into my life when my husband died, because as you can imagine, when people die, money becomes a topic. And I had no clue what to do. And I had always paid my own bills. I was always the breadwinner. But when it comes to making decisions for your family, actually what's happening right now, there's studies out there. It's falling on women it never has before. And I think I'm 43, my generation of one ahead of me. And behind me there's this swelling of women having to all of a sudden make these decisions. And we don't know how because it's a conversation we've never had. So we're doing that next week. Women wine and wealth. Oh my goodness. We talk about wine. Yes. Why don't we talk about money?

Nathan Whitworth:

I love

Meredith Rigdon:

It. So that's, Elaine is connecting with people through events. And there's a way to do that almost for free. You don't need a ton of cash to do that. We're now doing video because of the influx of new people into Greenville who don't know somebody who could help them find property. We're going to seek them through our video strategy. And then just by being who I am, by staying close to the people who are in my database my assistant Mary runs all of my automation. She manages my database so I can be doing the lead. I talked about all the other things you're supposed to be doing. And then lead gen is the one thing you have to do. A hundred percent. So that's the Keller Williams approach is that lead gen, those conversations, those activities, it create conversations and relationships and then you let somebody else do the rest.

Nathan Whitworth:

Interesting. So it sounds to me, when you have those conversations with agents who come to you and they say, Hey, I need help with Legion Y, there's a lot of people I talk to every day who's like, I hate doing the calls, I don't wanna go to the office and I don't wanna make my a hundred calls today. Right. They really almost begrudgingly walk in and you could just see the expression, their face, if I was in that office, I'm sure of them walking in, going to their, their space in the city now as starting their calls. I just wanna make sure I'm clear on this. You're saying that you don't necessarily have to do that as a legion method if you don't want to. No. No. Interesting. No. Are you an advocate for, again, choosing based on your personality, based on what you're good at, choosing the legion method and then going all in on that one method?

Yes. Or two methods or maybe three methods. Right. But figuring out what it is and then really doing that. Well, I feel like most often, and this is from the other businesses, it's really interesting. Typically you can't do a lot. Well, right. And that's the age old foible for most entrepreneurs is that they're trying to take on, they have way too many hats. They're trying to take on too much. And at the beginning you kind of have to do that. I'm sure when you're by yourself. What's interesting for me though is with agents, they don't necessarily have to, because there's such a support structure in place at a place like KW that they can go and they could find out, talk to you and say, Hey, this is what I don't like to do. I know I'm not good at this. What can I be doing to do something to be said for honing in on lead generation, which is so massively important for a small business. And then figuring out how do I do this? Not okay, how do I do this pretty good, but how do I become the best person in my market at doing this one method of lead generation? Right? Yeah. That typically I've seen. I'm just curious if you have the same experience, people tend to have better success that way. Would you agree? Instead of doing, doing the four or five things that they read in that book, and they're all kind of half Harding, each of those methods, right? Yeah. What would you say

Meredith Rigdon:

If you think of it? So there's a non Keller Williams agent and you want a free tip to help you build your business. Here we go. Okay, lean in. Okay. There's a system called 36 touch and you can go on YouTube and look up the 36 touch system on YouTube. Now what you're not going to have is R C M, which automatically has the smart plans to program it, but you could do it on your own. 36 touch is a way of touching your personal sphere. In real estate, we call it your sphere. And it's the people who you already know and trust you. If you touch them 36 ways in one year, the statistics are, and it's a really good statistic, even if you do it at a B minus level, you're going to get 10% of your database. So for instance, if you only had a hundred people that you knew and you applied a 36 touch system to them, that's 10 transactions in a year. Yes. That's almost a hundred grand in earn commission with only a hundred people. Yes. That's pretty darn simple. And here's the thing that I hear all the time over and over at Keller Williams and I believe it cuz now I'm leading and watching agents. It's so simple. That's why people don't do it.

You mean to tell me that I could make almost six figures just by keeping in touch with the hundred people that I know and actually having a relationship with them? Yes. That's what I'm telling you. It's on YouTube. Go look it up. If you'd like to have the CRM included and all of the support and training, then call me. By all means. But you could do it yourself. You could do it with file folders and that 36 could be I would say it needs to be personal contact at least four times a year. That's a phone call or that's coffee or that's lunch. It's actual contact to maintain that relationship. It's liking and commenting on social media. It's sending them a birthday card. It's emails. So my team, we send out weekly emails. I have that automation going, those count as touches. So I'm way over 36.

And actually I listened to a podcast about two weeks ago and they're staying now because of the norm normalizing of the market. Everybody else is calling it a shift. I like to think positive. I say it's normalizing because it's still pretty strong here. If you ask me. The market is normalizing. They're bumping that to 102. So from 30 interesting six touches to 102 because also there's a very strong statistic that says the first person that a person talks to when they're looking for a real estate agent is the person they hire. So you have to maintain contact and you cannot be a secret agent. So if you apply that 36 plus touches to the a hundred people that know you, that's 10 sales in a year.

Nathan Whitworth:

He says it's really interesting. The one thing I always find fascinating is that, again for cuz this podcast is geared towards new agents, there seems to be a lot of mystery around getting that next dollar when in fact it's not a mystery at all. No, it's not a mystery. And I think it's proven. It's proven. What what's interesting is when you find a space, regardless of the brokerage you're at or whatever, but when you understand the process and if you could just fall in love with the process, and typically I think for most people that's by finding small successes along the way. You start the process and you're like, oh wow, that worked. Right? Even if it was just a one small step and you were like, that worked. That was awesome. That was amazing. That gives you a little bit of motivation to do the next step in the process.

But falling in love, this is what you said earlier, I love the process more than the result. And again, the tough part from most new agents always feel like is they get into the business because they like the idea of a flexible schedule. And if they're not careful, it doesn't become flexible at all. And they like the idea that, oh, I can basically have an incredible income with, there's really no cap. I could almost really make whatever I can make. And they like that idea. But again, it never hardly ever works out. So what we're doing here is we're talking about applying, giving some clarity around how do you get from where you are to want to go. And then as basically, and correct me if I'm wrong, I don't wanna put words in your mouth, you just repeat the process. Oh, over and over. It's repeatable and over you practice it and over and over. And that's what I love about this. This is actually a far more simple business than most people give it credit to be, I think. Mm-hmm.

Meredith Rigdon:

The transaction in itself, I believe there are 48 steps. They may have been changed because of contract changes. I believe there are 48 steps in a real estate transaction, most of which can be done by a computer. You know, could remove humans from the process. But imagine the experience. So what's the difference? What difference are you making? It's in the relationship.

Nathan Whitworth:

That's so good. I have had this conversation a couple times with agents and this is the thing I forgot about earlier. But I really wanted to highlight and put a pin in. And I think you and I had this conversation over lunch. You were talking about the people who need help and building relationships with people, going through what you've been through before. I find that so many agents are always asking the question, what should I post? What should I talk about? What should I get on video and share with the people out there in Facebook land and Instagram land and TikTok land. And the thing I heard one time, and forgive me cause I heard this from somewhere, I'm not smart enough to come up with it. But I think that it is so true. It is. You are most uniquely positioned to help your former self because you've been through it.

And I think that is so, it's so smart of you to recognize there. And there will be even more people who go through what I experienced in my life. I can help them get through it. I've been through it, I figured it out. I was able to understand step one, what's step two, what's step three? What are the roadblocks? What should I be watching out for? How do I get to the other side of this? Really, in your case, in some cases very awful experiences. How do I get through all of that? And by not only sharing your story, but being the open and authentic and the honest and all the things that we're talking about in the beginning of this show, in the beginning of the podcast, you are uniquely positioned to help people who are coming after you. And I think for agents, I'm always talk about that. Figure out what out what out what you love. And figure out what your experience in your life has been and just talk about those things. It doesn't have to be negative. You don't have to talk about sensitive things that if you don't want to, that's okay. But there's still things there. You just have to sit down and think about that. Right? Yeah. What do you think about?

Meredith Rigdon:

So I love that. And I will tell you, and this'll get onto the faith side of things. Once you accept your journey and who you are and how you got to where you are and you start living in that, the opportunities and the people that come your way because they need what you can give them because of your experience is off the charts. I had a lead come to me on Sunday, a house that I listed went under contract Sunday morning, got a phone call an hour after it went under contract. And this strange, when you're a real estate agent, you always answer your phone, the ones that don't lose business.

So put that on Instagram for sure. Answer your phone. Our phones are blocking spam, so if it doesn't get blocked, answer it. Right? Because I cannot tell you it happened this morning. I was meeting with an agent on my team and the phone was ringing and I said, let me answer it. He understood. And it was a woman, we call it a sign call. I don't know how she got my number cuz it wasn't my sign. So that's kinda crazy. I was like, no, that's not my listing. She said, well, your number's on it. I said, wonderful. Talk to me. How can I help you? And she ended well, I think I just need to deal with the listing agent. I said, the listing agent represents the seller. You really need an agent to represent you. How the, and she was like, oh

Nathan Whitworth:

Yeah, it's really funny. This is a whole nother conversation that we could have. But it's really funny how when you're in a space, when you work in a career, you overestimate how little or how much, I guess other people know about the space that you deal in every single day. Right? It, it's always stunning to me how many people, there was a situation the other day where they, they'd been working, it was a new construction thing and it was an investor and they were doing it for a short term rental, but they were like, yeah, I've, I've gotta go back and I've gotta renegotiate some of this stuff. And they used the same agent. It was a dual agency kind of situation. And I was like, there's nobody fighting for you. It's one of those things where it's really funny how many people don't know, and I guess this is a podcast for agent, but here's the lesson in this.

Tell them, share that. That's something that you should be doing on social media. And again, there's so many basic things. I'm trying to figure out what I wanna say to this. There's so much, there's so many basic things that we feel like everybody knows and is pointless to make a post about. But it's not because people don't know, even the simplest, smallest of things, people don't understand the concept that a listing agent is. They have a fiduciary responsibility to the seller. They have no responsibility to the buyer at all. And most people don't understand that. They get themselves in the situations that they shouldn't be in because they don't have anybody representing them. That's a common, every agent knows that, right? Yeah. That that's such 1 0 1 from realtor school or whatever you wanna say. But other people don't. The general public doesn't understand that concept.

Meredith Rigdon:

They do. But I took those calls, I converted 'em the point of being who you needed, which is interesting. That has been something I have employed my entire professional career. Because when I finished Clemson and my two favorite professors were at the senior banquet, Dr. Middlest was my international marketing professor. And Dr. Duke, Dr. Duke worked for Texas Instruments. Remember we had the cool calculators. Yeah, yeah. So he was a researcher for Texas Instruments and then he taught marketing research at Clemson. Oh, cool. Everybody loved Dr. Duke. And I remember he told me at this, in your banquet, this is not it for you. You're going to be back. And at the time, I wanted to get an mba. And because I graduated early, my parents said they would pay for college. I asked them to pay for the first year and they were like, oh no, that was not the deal.

We didn't say four years. We said a degree. So you got a degree, you're cut off. Bye. Right? You can pay for it. And then Michelin, I had gotten into the Michelin program and was at the point where I was taking the GMAT to get approved to get my MBA from Michelin. And that was when Sealed Air recruited me. That never came to fruition. But what did happen was I found a way to go back to Clemson as a mentor. So I mentor marketing students. I sit on a board for the school of marketing right now. But when I came out of Clemson with a marketing degree, I felt like everybody had a marketing degree and we were all just getting sales jobs. And I had nobody that I could ask, how do I get out of this trough of marketing graduates? And we're all the same.

We're all blonde and blue-eyed. We're all from South Carolina and we're all cute and we can all sell. But I wanted more than that. And there was nobody there to mentor me. Clemson started a program called Tiger Ties and I jumped on it because I was like, that's who I needed and that's what I wanna be. And I specifically mentor female students because I'm just passionate about women and their careers. A former Michelin colleague, I'm actually going to start helping her son. So he's very lucky. <laugh> cool that I will mentor him along with the women that I work with, but be who you needed because it ends up be who you needed. It's giving is a way of life. And so then it just becomes so reciprocal that it just becomes a way of life. And when you get into that giving, it's not, then when you have people that you're in relationship with, you're not asking them for anything. You're actually giving them something. So then lead gen is not a take, it's a gift. It's a gift. And that totally changes how you feel about it. And there is nothing better for me than to wake up in the morning and give something of value to the people I care about.

Nathan Whitworth:

Oh, that's so good. So you said lead generation. So first off, I love that Be who you needed. I love that. That's a great takeaway for me. I'm going to take away from this podcast. But the other one was what was the last thing you said?

Meredith Rigdon:

Lead generation. Lead generation is not, you're not taking your giving

Nathan Whitworth:

That

Meredith Rigdon:

You're giving something of value.

Nathan Whitworth:

To me, that's a mental shift, that's a mindset shift. And I think most people have, which is why a lot of people do not like mm-hmm. Prospecting, which is what we're talking about here. We're talking about prospecting, right? Correct. Most people feel like, well, I'm asking and I'm looking for people to give me things. If you could just do a little bit of a mindset shift and say, Hey, this is, I'm not looking to asking for anything. I'm trying to give and I'm trying to help people. I love that idea. If for no other reason than at the end of the day you can fall asleep, you can put your head on your pillow and you can say, I at least helped one person today. That's incredible.

Meredith Rigdon:

And the thing is, I've seen it with brokerages, I've seen it with agencies. If you go into this business for the money, it doesn't work out.

Nathan Whitworth:

Why do you think that that is?

Meredith Rigdon:

People can see through that. And if you're in it for the money, then your level of service and the experience that your clients get is not going to be the same as me and my team. We're in it to serve. So if you're, because statistics say not all of my contracts are going to go through, but if I see it as a long game, if I see it as work of service and giving something to people, and this is a place where I can give back through my career and also provide for my kids, it takes the pressure off. Because if you're only focused on money, oh my gosh, you're a used car salesperson. You just are. With all due respect, I love CarMax. It's a fantastic place. And what a dear family friend of mine owns car dealerships and he's been very good to me and my kids. So he, let's take him out of that pile.

Nathan Whitworth:

We're we're talking about the awful car sales, what we're talking about

Meredith Rigdon:

The one

Nathan Whitworth:

<laugh>. Yeah, that's right.

Meredith Rigdon:

Have commercials on tv. Right? He's right down the road. We're not talking about my friend Billy. He's a good one. But if you come to it from a place of service, it totally removes the pressure. Think about the posture of serving somebody as opposed to the posture of trying to make money off of them. Think about the difference. So if you're in a brokerage and they're just in it for money, I mean it, it'll have an expiration and the agents are going to start to wear out. That's where burnout comes in a hundred percent. And there there's a rap song. More money, more problems mean they knew what they were talking about. So there's a guy I listened to, ed Mylet, have you ever heard of him?

Nathan Whitworth:

I do. Yeah.

Meredith Rigdon:

Fantastic podcast. Yeah. He interviewed a guy, cuz I have to qualify that statement cuz real estate agents make great livings. Right. I have a great life, I'm very fortunate, but I worked my tail off for it. But Ed Melet interviewed the hip hiphop preacher and the hiphop preacher said, money's not bad. I think you need as much money as you need God, you need God and money. And I love how he said that cuz he said people will vilify it. And so that's where that comes in. If you can serve people and it can become a great career, there's nothing wrong with that. But if it's your soul focus, it makes that lead gin really hard. That would mean I'm going on my bike ride and the first thing outta my mouth is wanna buy a house? Do you have pre-approval? What's your house worth? What's your credit score? Could you imagine? Cuz the,

Nathan Whitworth:

That just feels cringey. No, I got you. It has be used down

Meredith Rigdon:

The road, but instead,

Nathan Whitworth:

And that's, I truly feel, going back to what I was saying earlier, I truly feel that's what most agents don't, most agents don't want to be that way. None of us. I think most agents they, that's a very cringey look and a very cringey feel that I think most agents want to try to stay away from. And you have, the way to do that is essentially train changing the way you think about prospecting from taking to giving. And if you can do that, business comes your way. It's really funny. I think if you look at any, and I listen to the Ed Millet that his podcast, yeah, he's really great. One thing that he says over and over and over is, it's important to live a life of abundance. And it's important to live a life of giving. And when I think to all the people that he has on his podcast, all the people, there's so many who's successes, you kinda look at him as overnight successes.

When you go back and you really look at what's the process they're going through day after day, and they start to get in their story a little bit, you realize that they, generally speaking, never think about money. They usually think about how to help and how to serve. And that's the exact same thing you're talking about here. And if you're an agent, you've been doing this for a few years and you're not where you want to be, maybe that's something to think about and just consider. Right? Yeah. What's your true motivation behind wanting to do this? You probably love real, I love real estate as an investor. I love real estate and I can nerd out on real estate all day long. I talk to people about real estate all day long. So it's cool that you have a passion for real estate, but I think that you have to have a bigger passion for helping people. That's how you find the success For sure. That

Meredith Rigdon:

You're looking

Nathan Whitworth:

For.

Meredith Rigdon:

Yeah. I'm an investor too. And my kids' college is already paid for, so they're 13 and nine through real estate. But that's not the story. The story is, Hey, I'm only 43 and I could show you how to do it too. A hundred percent. And it's actually easier than people think it is. You just need somebody to show the way to help you along.

Nathan Whitworth:

That's amazing. Yeah. This has been such a good conversation. Yeah.

Meredith Rigdon:

This is so fun.

Nathan Whitworth:

Is there any last little bit of advice that you have for agents? Just one more thing and if it's not, we can go straight to the end. But yeah, anything else that we haven't talked about that you think would be worth mentioning for agents who are starting their business and trying to find their way in this career? We

Meredith Rigdon:

Touched on it a little bit, but I would, when you become a real estate agent, you're going to get hit really hard with buying to the internet leads and spend your money here and spend your money there. If you're going to spend your money, spend it on a good coach. That is the one thing I would

Nathan Whitworth:

Say, invest on yourself

Meredith Rigdon:

Because your coach will be able to help you identify what it is. You would be good in serving your people. And if you don't have money to spend on a good coach, find someone who can mentor you and sit down with them and say, Hey, if I was going to pick a lane, then just, I have a lot cuz I'm four years in and I have a lot of avenues that I'm building for my team. If I only had to focus on one lane, it'd be between probate and cycling. Cuz those are my people because I was a personal representative going on four years now for an estate. And it's an experience that you can only have true empathy for once you've been there and done it. So think of the things that are uniquely you that you could give. And if you can't figure that out, find somebody who can help you figure that out.

Buy the internet. Weeds. Do not advertise on Zillow. I only got stalkers. It was horrific. Mm-hmm. Like some of them, some of the voicemails I kept, I was going send them to the county Sheriff's department. Yikes. It was bad. My friend. Do not advertise on Zillow. It works for some people, but I think for a young single woman, and also that's not my lane. Those are not my people. So if you think Zillow is your lane and you wanna take those cold claw and you wanna run all over the county, then do it. It's going to cost you. But I can almost promise you, if you will figure out what your personal spot is, have a coach or a mentor help you identify it and just go all in on it.

Nathan Whitworth:

I love that. Yeah. I think generally speaking, it's easy to want to fall and just spend money on a tactic that you think is going to get you there faster. Right. To press that figurative easy button or the thing with staples, the easy button. Easy button. Yeah. The big red and there's not one easy. Yeah, there's not one. Right.

Meredith Rigdon:

It's simple. Right. It's not easy. Right,

Nathan Whitworth:

Right, right. So true. It's simple, but it's not easy. Meredith, thank you so much. Thank you. This is so fun. I can't tell you how much it means to me, and I'm sure everybody who's going to be seeing this that you are open and you share with them not only your story, but what you've found to have had the biggest impact on your success. It's something that a lot of people do. They kind of hoard the secrets close to the chest, and I think that it's not only rare to find somebody like you who's willing to give so much and so openly and so freely but it is. It's a relief. It's a relief to see that there's still people out there who's willing to do that. So thank you so much. It really means a lot. Yeah. Yeah. That's what it's about. All right, so if anybody out there has any questions, are they looking to get more information from you, Meredith, on maybe something that they're looking for? Where can people find you and how can they get in touch?

Meredith Rigdon:

I'll give you my phone number. Okay, sure, sure. That's all. Being a real estate agent, so you can call or text me at (864) 884-0473. I would love to talk to you if you're an agent or if you're interested in investing or buying or just curious about Greenville or the upstate. You can also find me on YouTube. My channel is called Greenville Bucket List, and I believe our handle is actually moving to Greenville. SC Cool. Is our YouTube handle. Nice. So look me up on YouTube Meredith Rigdon, gimme a call or text me. I'd be more than happy if I can help you,

Nathan Whitworth:

Meredith. That's what I'll do. This has mean, this has meant the world. Thank you. Yeah, I really appreciate it. This is fun. Yeah, for sure. Guys, I will tell you that hopefully you pulled, I felt like I needed a notepad to take notes and to write down some of the thoughts that we were talking about here today. This has been great. Hopefully you took a little bit away from this conversation I had with Meredith, a few nuggets that you may be able to take and place into your own business and find the same success or to find the success that you're looking for. Thank you so much. We really appreciate your time and attention. Have a great day. Thank you, Meredith. Yep. Thank you. Yep.

Meredith Rigdon:

Bye.

Nathan Whitworth:

Hey everyone, thanks for listening. Hopefully this was really helpful to you in your journey of building a business. If you like what you heard, please click subscribe and go to iTunes and give us a rating that helps us out tremendously when we are producing hopefully content of huge value to you. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it, and I hope that you have an amazing week. Go out there and crush it. I'll see you soon.

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