Jen (00:01.538)
Hello, Josh. my gosh. I'm amazing. you sound so great. This is our second time recording this podcast because the first time we had sound issues. So second time's a charm. Josh, you're not you're not going to believe this, but. We have new music and your podcast, this one with you is going to be the debut.

Josh Selleck (00:04.263)
How are you, Jen?

Josh Selleck (00:12.443)
Yes.

Jen (00:31.348)
of the Online People Talking Rap song. Now you have to wait, if you're listening, have to wait until the very end to hear the full set of lyrics. Okay, so when this, you know, when this comes out next week, it's going to be the first time that we have released the Online People Talking Rap. Are you down with OPT? Yeah, you know me.

Josh Selleck (00:34.267)
I love that.

Jen (01:01.742)
Out in the airwaves. So I'm so excited. What do you think about this? Do you think this is crazy? What are your thoughts and a rap for online people?

Josh Selleck (01:11.943)
I think we're going to go viral. think this is the start. This is the jump off.

Jen (01:13.198)
Ha!

Jen (01:17.582)
I think, I can't wait for you to hear it and I can't wait to hear what everybody thinks about it. I mean, I'm biased. I think it's pretty amazing. But I will tell you that I had AI help me write it and I was at the summit and

Josh Selleck (01:38.524)
course.

Jen (01:43.853)
Kevin Oakley was helping me with it because he was like, I can I can produce this for you, you know, and I was going to actually sing it at the summit, which didn't happen, but it's going to happen next year. I'm putting it out into the universe. Yeah, I'm putting out into the universe. And Kevin goes, yeah, we can actually create a video, Jen. And so we were playing around. We were playing around with.

Josh Selleck (01:58.417)
Yeah, little practice. Yeah, work up to it.

Josh Selleck (02:08.243)
my goodness.

Jen (02:11.458)
the Sora app, is AI created video thing and it needs some work. That is definitely not ready for prime time yet. So anyway, rap debut, stay on, you gotta listen all the way through to the end, but let's get into it with our special guest.

Josh Selleck (02:19.846)
you

Jen (02:33.414)
Welcome to episode 48. With me today is a superstar award winning online sales specialist from Tripoint Homes, Mr. Josh Selick. Welcome to Online People Talking.

Josh Selleck (02:48.57)
Thank you, Jane. Thank you for having me.

Jen (02:51.372)
my gosh, so excited for you to be here. You are one of my favorite online sales specialists in the universe. And before we kind of get into talking about things, we've got to do our housekeeping. First and foremost, we have an exciting online sales academy that is coming up the end of January. And if you're listening and wondering if you should attend, answer is yes. If you.

Josh Selleck (02:56.046)
Aw, thank you.

Josh Selleck (03:17.882)
Yes, yes.

Jen (03:20.098)
Here's the criteria. You should attend if you are a serious person. You should attend if you want to sharpen your skills. You should attend if you like to be around other smart online sales specialists. You should attend if you have nightmares about AI replacing your job.

Josh Selleck (03:44.815)
You

Jen (03:46.479)
You should attend if you like to have fun while learning. So, you know, again, we get that question a lot as like, if I've been doing this role a long time, does it make sense for me to attend? And the answer is yes, even seasoned online sales specialists can attend if they haven't had any formal training or, you know, structured type of training, then yes, absolutely. Brand new, seasoned.

haven't had training, this is definitely a great fundamental program for you. Registration is open, so we keep the class small, so definitely don't delay in getting signed up. And then Josh, our Tito shout out today. Top industry-talented online sales goes to the entire TryPoint online sales team. Josh, do you have any idea why I'm giving you guys the Tito Award?

Josh Selleck (04:35.27)
very nice, very nice.

Josh Selleck (04:43.074)
I have a sneaking suspicion. So it's got to be the competition, Yes. So it was an effort, you know, and it was a collaborative effort. We saw everybody jumping in, going above and beyond, and it's all about the outbound calls.

Jen (04:44.894)
Ha ha!

Jen (04:49.098)
Yes!

Jen (05:01.678)
Yeah. So guys, we, gave the, the tri-point team a challenge, a six week challenge of, you know, it was pretty simple. was like, it was teams of, they took all 30, broke them into teams of 10 ish and each team was responsible for making as many outbound calls as they could. And collectively they made like over 30,000 calls in six weeks. I mean, come on.

Josh Selleck (05:29.136)
Yes, yes, yes, yes. That's awesome.

Jen (05:32.888)
Come on, so kudos to you guys. That was pretty cool. That was amazing. So you guys are top tier. Yes. All right. So Josh, let's talk about you because you're so awesome. Share with everybody, like what's your industry story? Everybody has one. How'd you get started?

Josh Selleck (05:36.56)
Thank you.

Josh Selleck (05:40.612)
Love ya.

Josh Selleck (05:53.201)
So for yeah, so how I got here. So I've been an online sales counselor now for about five years, five maybe going on six. Before that, I was a new home advisor. I was on site in the models. But I've been in real estate ever since I got out of high school. Graduated from a prestigious high school here in town, Bishop Gorman High School. And at first I thought I'd want to go into politics. So I was working up at the state legislature and which

gave me the opportunity and the chance to help broker some land deals. So kind of got out of the politics mindset, you know, and started leaning more into real estate. The brokering land deals, that was extremely exciting. Very, very, very cool. From there, I took advantage of the shift in the real estate market around 2008, 2009, and started working for a real estate attorney doing loan modifications.

And then we'd also do even bankruptcy petitions, loan modifications, a little bit of everything. Then went to work for a title company, negotiated short sales, and then eventually made my way to my current builder. So pretty diverse background, but it's always been real estate related. So all of that experience has definitely been helpful in my current role as an OSC. But yeah, just real estate, real estate, real estate, real estate.

Jen (07:10.339)
Yeah.

Jen (07:19.426)
had no idea that you started out in politics.

Josh Selleck (07:23.844)
Yes, so I was the class president, you know, class president and thought that, you know, I wanted to do something like that and kind of change the world and quickly learned it was not what I thought it was. Yes. But the real.

Jen (07:27.191)
Okay.

Jen (07:35.896)
Hmm. Yeah. Well, what do you think about politics today? Just kidding. We're not talking about. Don't worry, we're not going there. not going. We like to talk about good things on online people talking.

Josh Selleck (07:41.562)
Yeah, no, yeah. Not a politics conversation.

Josh Selleck (07:52.348)
Yeah, yes. No, no, in real estate really, you know, it's been, it's been something I love. I've really, I've really loved it. I've all different aspects of it, but, and then this role, you know, you get to, you get to help people, you know, it's a lot different. I feel a lot more effective and I get to, get to accomplish a lot being an online sales counselor.

Jen (08:01.933)
Yeah.

Jen (08:11.468)
Yeah. Putting together like land deals though, that's pretty cool. yeah, like seeing something go from just like dirt. mean, truly like, you know, doing like land assemblages. That's what you're talking about, right? Like.

Josh Selleck (08:17.205)
It was very exciting. Very, very cool.

Josh Selleck (08:27.537)
Well, of the deals was actually one at the time it was one of the largest land deals in Nevada history. It was 20,000 acres. We have a big the Tahoe Reno Industrial Park in Northern Nevada. It was the largest national industrial park. yeah, it was like I said, big, big, big land deals were very cool, exciting stuff. We had a town in the title report. You know, there's a lot of stuff.

Jen (08:37.582)
Wow.

Jen (08:52.76)
Yeah. I'm sure that level of understanding though that you have from all aspects of real estate, you you mentioned, you know, land deals and then working at the, like for an attorney, right? you know, like just having all of those different perspectives probably really helps you in your role now as an online sales specialist, wouldn't you say?

Josh Selleck (09:08.379)
Yeah.

Josh Selleck (09:20.569)
Yeah, because it's all about the people. You know, it's all about the people. It's all about trying to solve a problem and making the journey smooth.

Jen (09:30.924)
Yeah, I love that you said that. I think I probably know the answer to this, but what's your favorite thing then about what you do, what you get to do?

Josh Selleck (09:43.516)
Yeah, exactly that. It's guiding people through the uncertainty. Home buying is one of the biggest life decisions somebody's gonna make. I don't think people, and how could they, but people don't truly understand the process at first. And I love taking what feels like an overwhelming, complicated thing and then turning it into a smooth, positive journey for somebody. It really is about helping people. And then our...

role as the OSC. It's such an important part of that process. You know, it really is a first impression and it's critical. It's critical in helping somebody through that journey.

Jen (10:18.414)
Yeah.

Jen (10:22.062)
Do you feel like in this market people are more uncertain and people do need more help? Are you seeing that from the front line right now?

Josh Selleck (10:32.099)
Absolutely, yeah. That is exactly what people need is somebody like us to help them through the process. You know, there's enough confusion out there, you know, the challenge and of course today's challenges with, you know, affordability and availability and interest rates and all that kind of thing. It can be confusing, you know, and it's

Jen (10:53.518)
and government shut down? I gonna have a job?

Josh Selleck (10:56.717)
Right, right, right. There's a lot of big things going on, a lot of moving pieces. And at the end of the day, people still need to buy homes. They still need homes for their family. And that still is going to be such an important part of decisions that they make.

Jen (11:12.098)
Yeah, I just wanna park on this for a second because what are online people talking about right now? There's a couple things that you've said that really resonate with me and I know I hear from other LSEs is that it is tough on the front lines right now. It's tough from a, helping...

people who are feeling uncertain, like I do need to move, I do need to find a place to live, I'm not sure what's gonna happen with the economy or my job or interest rates and things like that. But then the flip side of it is the online sales specialist trying to maintain positivity and trying to, like, cause you could, you you're absorbing that, you're absorbing that energy from customers, right? And that could.

Josh Selleck (12:00.143)
Right? Very much so. yeah.

Jen (12:04.364)
That could make you feel a certain kind of way at the end of the day. And so what people are talking about right now is just how to stay motivated, how to stay positive in a tougher market. So I want to hear from you because you have such good energy, good vibes. How do you, Josh, like how do you stay positive? How do you stay motivated when it gets hard? What do you focus on?

Josh Selleck (12:07.355)
Yes.

Josh Selleck (12:29.808)
For me, I think the best thing that I can do is I focus on what I can control. I try to break things into small steps. I try to be consistent. I try to follow up. I try to provide some type of a value. And I just truly educate buyers so that they can make the best choice for their situation. I'm very lucky to work alongside my partner, Shannon. I know you know her. She's been a leader in the industry and having people like you and Mike.

And to have that kind of support and that partnership, that makes a huge difference.

Jen (13:04.854)
Yeah. Lean on your, okay, so I'm gonna pull out some of the things that you said, because I want everybody to hear this and really think about this. If you have a partner, right, lean on each other, right? Shout out to Shannon. What up, girl? You have each other. If you don't have a partner, let's say you're a solo OSC, and that can feel very isolating at times, right? If you're the only one in the organization.

Josh Selleck (13:09.914)
Mm-hmm.

Josh Selleck (13:18.182)
Yes.

Jen (13:34.499)
you know, that does this job. That's like, okay, who do I lean onto? There are people in the industry, you know, of course, me, Mike, Amanda, like the team at Do You Convert? Like we're always here, we always wanna talk to people, listening to the podcast, getting some inspiration, attending webinars. There is so much like industry education out there, you know, happening right now, like.

Josh Selleck (13:51.334)
That's right.

Jen (14:03.404)
looking at those people that can be mentors to you, that can help you, guide you through that. Any other thoughts on any of that?

Josh Selleck (14:10.833)
Well, that's the part that we can control, right? Staying educated, you know, making sure that you are, you're fresh. Make sure that you do your refreshers. Make sure you're energized and ready to talk to those people. You know, focus on bettering yourself in the role. Being consistent, being prepared and being organized. You know, that's what you can focus on.

Jen (14:30.114)
Yeah, that's true. Because if you start thinking about all the things out of your control, that can really start kind of spiraling. You know, I remember reading something and I'm going to screw this up. It's the like happiness quotient to the happiness something. can't think of the name of the book right now. And the author talks about

When you think too much in the future, right, that causes anxiety. When you think too much in the past, know, what a, shoulda, coulda, that causes depression. But really focusing on right now in the moment, what can I control? That creates happiness. That creates, that's when you're the most content. And so I just encourage everybody, like Josh is saying, what's in your control right now? I can do my followup.

Josh Selleck (15:16.935)
That's right.

Jen (15:28.48)
I can handle these phone calls the best that I can, right? I can bring as much positive energy that I can to this call. I can lean on my teammate. I can educate, fill my brain with good things. I love that. What do you think are the three skills that an online sales specialist should have to be successful?

Josh Selleck (15:56.249)
Number one has to be adaptability. Adaptability, you know, because you have to, you have to be able to adapt every day with every different lead, like what we're talking about now with the different markets. You have to be able to pivot and shift. And I think that's number one. Number two, follow through, you know, staying disciplined, staying disciplined with communication and trying to just to make sure that no opportunity slips away.

Jen (16:08.428)
Yeah.

Josh Selleck (16:24.016)
trying to make the most of out of every opportunity. And then the third one is something I'm working on personally. It's the act of listening. So you have to hear what your buyers are saying and you have to hear what your buyers are not saying.

Jen (16:31.937)
Mmm.

Jen (16:38.337)
Love that. Active listening. That's a hard one, right? How do you, how do you, you said you're practicing that. How are you practicing that?

Josh Selleck (16:44.526)
very hard.

Josh Selleck (16:52.058)
So I have a, my bad habit is I lead the witness. You you start telling me a little bit about your story and then I want to fill in all the gaps, you know, or I already know what community to set your appointment at that, you know, but that's great. And that's great that I can do that and I have that skill. But again, it's going back to the basics and listening to the person, listening to what their story is, what their mission is, what their true goal is, you know, and yes, we can figure out what house to sell them. That's easy.

Jen (17:00.237)
Hmm.

Josh Selleck (17:21.764)
but actually trying to help them along their journey, that's what's gonna make the difference.

Jen (17:27.627)
I love that. I too was, I was bad. I think my husband would say that I'm still bad because I get excited. you know, when somebody starts, when I was an online sales specialist, somebody would start talking and I'm already thinking like, and envisioning them, I've already placed them in that community. And I just want to go to that end result as quickly as possible. Right. And I remember I had somebody,

Josh Selleck (17:35.558)
That's me. Yes.

Josh Selleck (17:43.514)
Yeah? yeah.

Josh Selleck (17:47.971)
Mm-hmm.

Jen (17:57.079)
say Josh one time, will you let me talk? And then I was like, I was like, dang, like it was a gut punch. Like, shut up, Jen, shut up. And I agree with you. mean, active listening, it's hard. And I think what comes to mind with that is a couple of things like how do you practice this or how do you how do you active listen?

Josh Selleck (18:01.559)
I think I've had that too, yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Jen (18:26.394)
is you ask questions, you repeat back. So when you ask the question, somebody says, yeah, like, I'm thinking about this, I'm interested in this, then you're repeating back to them. So Josh, what you've told me is that you are interested in happy acres, you're working from home, you have five dogs, you know, like you're repeating back what they told you. And don't interrupt.

Josh Selleck (18:28.326)
That's right.

Jen (18:55.49)
That's the worst thing that you could possibly do. So I love that active listening, very cool. What is your go-to tech tool that you cannot live without?

Josh Selleck (19:12.048)
So without a doubt, my CRM. The CRM for us is so, so huge. know, having a task-based system for follow-up is essential. It really gives us guidance. You show up, you know what, you can focus your energy and efforts on that day. And also adding in the video email. You know, the video email part of it's huge too. That's given you the ability to set yourself apart, add personality, know, stand out in the inbox. But the CRM, we've done a lot of

great things recently with leaning into the technology, utilizing it, not just AI, but just utilizing the CRM like you're supposed to. List hygiene, I think that's really important, but it's all how it relates to utilizing that CRM.

Jen (19:48.493)
Yeah.

Jen (19:54.861)
Yeah.

Jen (19:58.947)
You know, I think a CRM is only as good as the data that you put into it and the data that you continue to go through and evaluate. And like you said, list hygiene. It's like, why are you following up with all these people who are not even interested anymore? Like you've got to go through and figure out who's still in the market, who's not in the market. right.

Josh Selleck (20:04.186)
That's right.

Josh Selleck (20:23.802)
And sometimes that can be the win too, right Jen? Like just disqualifying somebody and knowing they're no longer a lead and taking them off the list, know, sometimes that small win is important too.

Jen (20:34.764)
Yeah. Why do you think, just curious, because this is a thing like, okay, I got a CRM and I'm using just kind of surface level. Why do you think so many sales professionals, whether you're online, onsite, whatever, just have a hard time embracing technology or taking the time to really learn it? Why do you think?

Josh Selleck (20:46.032)
Mm-hmm.

Josh Selleck (21:00.794)
I think that, so coming from an onsite new home advisor, you know, I've always looked at my skill being the sales person relating to the person talking to them face to face. And I always was not scared of the CRM, but I just felt like that took away control that I had, you know, or it made me feel like I was coming across like a robot, you know, or anybody's, everybody gets all the emails, you know, and, and, and I just didn't see how I could make it effective. And

But now learning the video email portion, now learning what I know now, the OSE role, how important that follow up and personalized communication and video emails and how really important that is to be able to nurture a lead. Because nowadays we're starting to see, you might have nurtured a lead 30, 60 days in the past, now it might be 90, 120 days before they actually get them into the sales gallery.

Jen (21:35.256)
Yeah.

Jen (21:44.685)
Yeah.

Jen (21:52.525)
Yeah.

Josh Selleck (21:58.759)
You can't be scared and you can't worry about it taking away the personality. You just gotta use it as a tool. Same thing with picking up the phone.

Jen (22:04.526)
Yeah, anything, well, if anything, it allows you to be more personal. Like if you've put good notes in there, it allows you to be really intentional about your follow up, intentional with your what you're saying in your email and what you're saying on your phone call. And like I remember when we talked about, you know, your husband's shoe room, you know, and like.

Josh Selleck (22:19.974)
That's a great point.

Josh Selleck (22:31.462)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jen (22:33.164)
That's gonna make the person feel like, wow, really special. And yeah.

Josh Selleck (22:37.636)
And we use that with our teams, right? So we were nominated for online sales team of the year. It's our local, our national, you know, local home builders association has a best in builder award. And part of that is utilizing the CRM, seeing what notes your partner or your onsite person put in there. They visited a community. We already got some of their story, you know, use that to your advantage and work, use the CRM as a team. That's part of it.

Jen (22:54.637)
Yeah.

Jen (23:05.528)
Yeah. I love that. Josh, last year when we did our home builder online survey follow-up report, whatever we're calling it these days, you scored a 100%. You happened to be randomly shopped. We randomly select 100 builders. We put...

We do the whole follow-up with them for 30 days and then we select some and call and you were randomly shopped by clear evaluations. You scored a 100 % on the phone shop. What is the secret to your success? How do you do that? How do you score 100 %?

Josh Selleck (23:53.223)
It's part of trying to do the consistency thing. The consistency in the care. I was trying to look at every single inquiry. Didn't matter. I was trying to look at it as this is the one. Not this is the one that could be my mystery shot, but this is the one this could be the next sale. This is the next appointment that turns into the sale that gets the job done. so treating everyone like it was the one, trying to...

The fast, thoughtful, and professional, right? Fast, thoughtful, and a professional response is how you win in today's market. And so that's what I was trying to do.

Jen (24:31.758)
Fast, thoughtful, and professional. Are those the three things you said? Fast, thoughtful,

Josh Selleck (24:35.01)
Mm-hmm. That's it. Yeah. Vast, thoughtful, professional response.

Jen (24:39.886)
Mm-hmm. I love that. And treat every lead as if it's the one.

Josh Selleck (24:46.31)
Yeah, that's the real secret sauce. know, and I and I do I do owe that I owe I owe that to you and Mike, you know, trying to do trying to do 100 % now trying to do the 100 % of the process 100 % of the time, you know, and having a process to follow, you know, and I think that's so important. Doesn't matter if you're new, you know, just getting started in online sales or you're experienced, you know, you have to have a good foundation, you always have to refresh yourself.

Jen (24:54.478)
That's nice, but you're doing the work.

Josh Selleck (25:15.142)
You always have to go back to the basics and I think be consistent to 100 % of the process.

Jen (25:23.0)
love that. What advice would you give to your brand new self if you could go back in time?

Josh Selleck (25:31.558)
Stay organized. Don't get focused on any kind of immediate results. You don't have to be number one or you don't have to have, it's not all about the numbers game at first. I just think that it's all about trying to convert that lead to an appointment by being genuine and authentically helping that person.

Jen (26:01.708)
Authentic over perfect right as well we say Man there there were so many nuggets. I mean so many nuggets from our conversation to jet today Josh. I mean every lead treat every lead is the one Thoughtful and I'm gonna screw this up fast thoughtful professional Did I get that? Fast thought yes authentic

Josh Selleck (26:03.664)
That's right, yes.

Josh Selleck (26:13.894)
Kyle Gold.

Josh Selleck (26:23.632)
Yep, fast, thoughtful, professional response. Yep, fast, thoughtful, professional response. That's what it is. That's how you win.

Jen (26:31.426)
Yeah, that's how you win. I love that. Okay, so the last thing I wanna do together is a skills check because you gotta check yourself before you wreck yourself, exactly. And I think in honor of you, Josh, we're going, this is what I want everybody to do. This is your homework. I want you to write down all the things that are in your control. Think,

Josh Selleck (26:40.23)
Okay. Yeah, wreck yourself.

Jen (27:01.038)
Attitude, using your tools. What are some of the things we talked about, Josh? Like attitude, tools, yeah, your process, right, consistency. Yeah, right, refreshing yourself with your process, your phone path, like phone call path, like how you communicate with your teammate, your sales team, like all of that's in your control.

Josh Selleck (27:06.8)
Going back to the basics.

Yeah, reteaching yourself, refreshing yourself on the fundamentals.

Josh Selleck (27:25.944)
Mm-hmm. Good notes, list hygiene.

Jen (27:30.134)
Right, good note. Okay, so make yourself a list. These are all the things in my control. And I want you to put attitude at the top is number one, because I feel like that's probably the most important, wouldn't you agree? Yeah, like you gotta have an, yeah, you gotta start your day with a great attitude before anything else is gonna happen. And then around that list, I want you to put all the things that are out of your control, like interest rates.

Josh Selleck (27:41.998)
Yes, every day, every day.

Jen (28:00.181)
government shutdown, politics, cranky customers, availability, pricing, marketing, how many leads you're getting, Like all of those things, like think about that. All of those things that are completely out of your control. And that'll give you a really good perspective of, you know what? I'm gonna focus on this list. When some of these other things start popping up, I'm gonna just push those off to the side.

Josh Selleck (28:01.126)
Politics.

Jen (28:30.274)
and I'm gonna narrow in and focus on these things that are completely in my control.

Josh Selleck (28:35.078)
You know one way that you can work on the attitude part, Listen to this podcast. What a way to start your day by, because that's what I wanted to say, Jen, is truly, truly, truly, I want to say thank you, you know, not only for having me, but for just doing this kind of a platform. You know, this gives online sales specialists a place to feel at home, a place to feel heard in the industry, and I just think that that is huge. And so thank you, thank you, thank you.

Jen (28:39.345)
tell us. Hey.

Jen (29:05.154)
Wow, guys, I didn't even tell him to say that. Josh, thank you.

Josh Selleck (29:09.22)
No, it's true. It's lean into the people that we have, right? Lean into your support. And this is it.

Jen (29:17.528)
Thank you so much, Josh, for joining us. Last question, are you down with OPT?

Josh Selleck (29:24.653)
yeah, you know me.

Jen (29:25.838)
Perfect. Okay, cue the outro and stay on so you hear the whole rap song. We will see you next time. Josh, you're amazing. Thank you for sharing your wisdom with online sales specialists out there. You the best.

Josh Selleck (29:40.464)
Take care, everybody. Thank you.