There aren’t many kids who settle on their futures when they’re only 18-years-old. But Frank Isoldi wasn’t like many kids and, now, he’s not like many real estate agents either.

Frank got his real estate license as soon as he was eligible to sit for the exam. And to ensure he would have his own sphere of clients and prospects once he graduated, he would come home from school on weekends to work open houses with his father.

That was a long time ago.

Today, Frank averages between 50 and 70 transactions a year, all in the $1M+ range.

But his success didn’t come without the need to make some scary decisions and learn some tough lessons. And regardless of where you may be in your career, Frank’s story is sure to resonate with you.

You need to be consistent

One of the early lessons Frank learned was that people will do business with the first name they think of, which meant he had to be that name. To reach his goal, he committed to two actions:

• He consistently marketed his name and business everywhere he could.
• He consistently stayed in contact with his sphere.

In order to keep these commitments, Frank made a decision that not many agents would want to make. He decided to build his business and make a name for himself as the agent of choice in the less expensive neighborhoods. He understood that being consistent was more important to his long-term success than a larger commission check.

And as Frank tells it, as his clients moved up the economic ladder, they kept him as their agent.

You need to be patient

Deciding to work with buyers and sellers of less expensive properties, so that he could nurture relationships with his clients and prospective clients, turned out to be a good decision for Frank. But at the time, and for a long time after, he didn’t know that things would work out.

In this respect, Frank had a lot in common with many of our clients for whom relationship marketing is uncharted territory.

Because relationships take time to mature, and because it takes time for people to know, like, and trust someone before they’ll do business with them, some of our clients get anxious and give up. They give up because they can’t draw a solid (and short) line between their money and time and a defined ROI.

So, when Luke asked Frank (who’s a ReminderMedia client) how he keeps going, Frank gave him the only answer he could—business takes time.

It’s not that Frank doesn’t second-guess himself. He simply understands that no one achieves success overnight.

For relationship marketing to work—for opportunities to come to you in the form of referrals and repeat business rather than from chasing leads on a never-ending hamster wheel—you need to be consistent and patient.

You need to work harder than everyone else

There’s no denying that Frank has a successful real estate career; he’s been working at it for a long time. And he continues to work hard. He also continues to nurture his sphere—he’s been farming the same area for 20 years!

Working with clients in the luxury market requires Frank to give his clients a lot of attention. He’s a solo agent, but he has a client concierge, a photographer, a stager, a cleaning service, and a social media and branding consultant. And, like everyone else, he’s had to pivot because of the pandemic.

Still, when Luke asked him what his biggest pain point is now that he has become synonymous with real estate in his area, Frank’s response wasn’t about whether to build a team or develop an exit strategy. Frank’s biggest pain point is about trying to make his clients’ experience even better.

No wonder he’s such a success.

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Website: The Isoldi Collection

Instagram: Frank D. Isoldi

Facebook: The Isoldi Collection

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