The greatest asset you have as a real estate agent is your ability to connect with people in a meaningful way.

A meaningful connection will have people wanting to work with you, be more comfortable making decisions, appreciate your expertise and be excited to recommend you to others.

It is up to you to create the environment that allows for this connection. This takes being at your best. If you are tired, burned out, frenetic or pessimistic, meaningful connections are unlikely. Protecting the asset means taking care of you and your ability to develop these important connections.

Many years ago a woman asked me what connection was. That was the first time I realized that people do not necessarily have a natural ability to connect. This began a multiyear reflection and research project about connection that has been a significant part of the evolution of The Nature of Real Estate.

So what is connection?

Imagine you are sitting with a person you have not met before and you are talking about their plans to move. They are open with you about their thoughts and feelings, they are speaking without pretense or defensiveness and they lean in as they tell you a little joke. They are completely comfortable and the conversation is unusually rich and lively. This is personal connection and it is foundational to every relationship; personal and professional.

Most of us naturally connect with some people, but if we are to be successful in a relationship business like real estate sales, we want to develop this skill so that we can serve a wider group of people.

Connection is founded in trust.

Not just trust as in trustworthy, but a deeper trust that involves both the heart and the head. The three factors in creating this level of trust are Emotional Intelligence, Social Intelligence and Practical Empathy.

I’ve written at length about these factors in previous blog posts: ( What’s Trump in Real Estate Sales – IQ, EI or SI? , Saying Goodbye to Old School, Deliberate Conversations, Soft Landing ) but the important takeaway from today’s ramblings is that we have very limited access to these important factors if we are not at our best.

Take care of you and you can take care of the business.