Real estate runs in Steve Kettelle’s blood. The Upstate New York-based agent’s father was a builder and a Realtor, so Kettelle naturally gravitated along this path. Throughout his career, he built two successful businesses from scratch – one in West Palm Beach, Florida, and another in Upstate New York. A real estate veteran and KW MAPS coach, Kettelle created a reputation for himself the classic way: by spending hours-upon-hours doorknocking and providing value in the form of market updates.
Thirty-two years later, you can hear Kettelle’s passion for the industry in the timbre of his voice. Here, he shares how he manages to keep the industry flame alive, even during the most difficult days.
Learn to leverage
In transitioning his business from Florida to New York, Kettelle experienced burnout. “One of the biggest takeaways in my career was how leverage can work in your business,” he shares. To combat the dip, Kettelle had a conversation with himself, zeroing in on what he loved about the business and what his least favorite aspects were. “My goal was to get all the ‘don’t like’ items off my plate as quickly as I could and just stay with the pieces of this business that I am passionate about and excel at,” he says.
With that in mind, Kettelle hired his first assistant (who has since become the team leader of his market center). His current assistant has been with him for longer than five years.
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Stay connected with your sphere
In March, Kettelle began to create a weekly video telling people what was going on in the market. “I made the decision that I wanted to stay very top-of-mind in the eyes of the community through the current times, so that when it is over we can be in a very strong position,” he says.
To stay connected, Kettelle sends out a weekly newsletter with the embedded market report, for a total of 52 yearly email touches. “In real estate, the National Association of Realtors tells us that 70% of consumers are going to work with the first person that comes to mind. We want to be that person,” he says.
Keep the fire burning
If you’re losing steam because you are not achieving your goals, Kettelle suggests taking a deep look at your business and asking yourself what isn’t getting done. Sometimes, he shares, this might require someone from the outside looking in. Kettelle himself has two coaches keeping him accountable.
In addition, he believes it is important to constantly be learning from the most successful agents. “There are 20% of people in this business doing 80% of the business,” he says. “There are clues we can take from these folks: They are learning based, they are running their business like a business, and they are running their business on the foundation of the systems and processes of Keller Williams.”
For the future, Kettelle relates to the image of one of his own coaching clients, 79 years of age. “I look at him and I think: that’s going to be me,” he says. “Because, I have no desire whatsoever to leave this business and retire. I love what I do.”