In this episode, Andrea Gordon shares her insights on how to maintain individualized attention while being a top-producing real estate agent.

In this episode, we sit down with Boise real estate powerhouse Christina Ward to unpack how she built a thriving business with an astonishing 86% referral rate. Christina shares the systems, mindset, and generosity-driven strategies behind her “ultimate referral system,” including her 52-touch plan, community events, home makeovers, and the art of teaching clients how to truly refer.

In this episode, I sit down with Manhattan broker and bestselling author Scott Harris to explore why emotional intelligence—not market knowledge—is the real superpower in modern real estate.

In this episode we break down what top agents are doing right now to set up a powerful 2026. From strategic holiday touchpoints and early pipeline building to Stephanie's “Costco strategy” and a 12-week planning rhythm, we share the relationship-driven actions that create real momentum long before January.

Take Better Care of Your Clients. Kim Gellatly, who closed over 180 transactions in just 2 years has redefined what it means to take care of your clients. Some may think that if I’m going to do a lot of volume, then I couldn’t possibly take care of people at a high level. It’s got to be quality or quantity. Kim proves the fact that you can do both.

In this interview we discuss three categories of care:

1. Taking care of your clients during the transaction- Kim has the practice of reaching out to all of her active buyers and sellers 6 days a week. Although to some it may seem like overkill, she’s realized that it really is her job to tell her clients what is going to happen next, not for the next week, but in the next day. Her clients have concerns and questions and curiosities now and by her having such open and regular dialog, it empowers them to ask the questions as opposed to thinking that they are too small of a concern.

I learned this firsthand as a high-end homebuilder. If I wasn’t in contact with my clients, then, they were in contact with me and by that point they were assuming that they needed to do my job because without the communication, they assumed that I wasn’t doing my job. By me being in regular contact with my clients, it freed them up to know that they didn’t need to manage the project. I was already doing it.

1. Taking care of your clients outside of the transaction- A key to Kim’s success is the fact that she recognizes that she doesn’t have past clients. Instead, she just has clients. Some need her now and others will need her later. By looking at it this way she can really pour into her clients and solve problems that they have related to real estate and problems they have that are not related to real estate.

Kim shared that one of her favorite resources is Keeping Matters Current, which has recently given some insight as to the fact that not all recessions result in a housing crisis. This is one example of her taking on the role of advisor and leader as opposed to just someone in sales.

1. Taking care of your clients during a global pandemic- Of course extra care is being taken now to keep people physically safe from the effects of COVID-19, she is also having free dinner for pickup to her friends and clients to get some relief of cooking at home. She also just set up a Zoom call with each of her sellers so that she could have a more face-to-face that would allow them to get their questions answered.

In 2019, not including some builder business with which she has some additional help, Marie sold 51 homes in 2019 and has a lot of business in the pipeline and still moving forward.

Now, enter COVID-19 and in addition to her already heavy demands she is also a homeschool teacher of three young boys.

The big question I posed to Marie is, “How are you managing?”

Schedule- I used to be up at 4:30 to be at Orange Theory Fitness by 5 am. Now I’m up to get in 2-3 hours of work before everyone wakes up. Then I have breakfast with the family. My workout has shifted to the evening hours.

Mindset- I find myself at times feeling guilty about all of the things I’d like to be improving upon during this special time and I’m not finding that I actually have extra time. From this, I have to find mentors that help me to fix my mindset and stay positive. For Marie, this is Rachael and Dave Hollis.

Health- I go crazy if I don’t workout and so again, I’ve shifted my workouts to the evening.

Homeschool teacher- My oldest two have curriculum from school but I’m finding my oldest gets his done earlier. Both he and I need him to be busy for longer than a couple of hours and so I’ve asked his teacher for more work for him. My second oldest has to be supervised more because he loses focus quickly. My three year-old, on the other hand, is very active and I’ve got to keep my eme on him.

Business- Things have slowed a little bit, but not enough to really feel it. I’m taking additional precautions for my clients and have found that my sphere really appreciates pop-bys in the form of things for their kids during this time.

Marriage and relationships- I don’t see my husband a lot right now because it’s tax season. Now that this has been extended, it’s as if more miles were just added to the end of our marathon. I’m having to be intentional to spend time with him. Additionally, I’m having to be intentional with my kids that I’m not just their teacher but that I also have good experiences with them.

From all of these categories we recognize the need for intentionality, the need for self-awareness when we really are doing all that we can do and to not let guilt step in and rob us of our limited resource of time and energy.

Referrals without asking. That is exactly what author and coach Stacey Brown Randall teaches her followers and clients how to do. With real estate agents facing what may be the largest challenge of their career, Stacey’s advice on how to fill your pipeline in a comfortable and genuine way is needed now more than ever.

Stacey defines referrals in two parts. The first is that when someone personally recommends you and trust in you is transferred from the referral source to the referral. The second part is that the person being referred has an actual need that your business can fulfill.

Stacey shared that within all of the different types of business inflow, none are wrong, but some are more valuable than others. Referrals, as defined above, are the most valuable form of business in flow into your business.

This then begs the question of how do you go about getting more referrals? Stacey outlines a 5-step process for doing this:

1. Go back 2-3 years, if possible, and look at your sources of business. Identify who those sources of business actually are.
2. Every time you get a referral, send them a handwritten thank you card.
3. Give those people real value roughly six times per year… not value for you disguised as value for them.
4. Language differently what they mean to you. They are not a means to your end.
5. Systematize staying in contact with them while remaining genuine.

Towards the end of the episode, Stacey shares that right now, she recommends that agents go to step one to start to identify who these people are. Then, start reaching out to them asking how you can help them with some idea in advance of how you might help them.

At this time, people need leadership more than ever. The reality is that real estate agents know their customers on a more intimate level than most all other professions. You know where they live, where they work, everything about their home, roughly how much money they make, how many kids they have, what are their short, mid, and long term goals, what networks they’re a part of or would like to be a part of. Attimes like these you can use this information in order to provide real value to them to help them in whatever way they might be needing help.

To help all agents get a better understanding of where they’re at along the getting referrals without asking continuum, Stacey has put together a simple quiz at: https://referralquiz.com.

You can also find her book: Generating Referrals Without Asking on all of the major publishing platforms.

During these unprecedented times that we are experiencing amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, not only has the health of many experienced trauma and even death, our economy has suffered some traumatic blows as well.

Fortunately, we have a government and an economy that is strong enough to help businesses and individuals for a period of time. However, the only goes to those that qualify for the help. While many of these programs are forgivable, meaning that they require no repayment, many are passing because they don’t think they need it or because some other reason tells them they shouldn’t access it.

Another big question mark that everyone has right now is the difference between mortgage forbearance and mortgage deferral. While forbearance means that it all comes due as soon as the forbearance period has passed, deferral technically means that the life of the loan is extended out the same amount of time as the deferral and there is no lump sum payment due at the end of the deferral period. Keep in mind that different mortgage lenders have different definitions and interpretations for these distinctions and so it behooves each person who is interested in qualifying for one of these programs to call their lender to get clarity on what that means to their specific lender.

We also discussed the general sentiment amongst buyers and sellers at this time. While many buyers and sellers are still moving forward, there’s no doubt that our economy has been wounded. While 10M in the US applied for unemployment in the past few weeks, we must recognize the trouble that this signifies trouble for both the employee and the employer. It behooves real estate agents to bulletproof their transactions by ensuring that those with whom they are working are employed and that there is a high probability that they will stay that way.

Tony shared that the silver lining in all of this is the return to humanity in our business. He sees this as being a real shock to the iBuyer movement because people will realize that they appreciate and need the human side of the business. He recommended reaching out to all of your clients to check in and see how you might serve them in their time of need.

Tony’s answer to the Signature Question of how he continues to think bigger and expand his own possibilities is to get outside himself and be concerned about the needs of others. He finds that as he does this, he immediately finds space and opportunity to grow.