All right, so I was going to do my first location video with me walking, but I'm afraid to walk and talk at the same time. Plus, I'm in Wilmore Park, which is in South City in St. Louis, and today must be a cross-country meet because there are people everywhere. Now, I'm afraid of filming with people around me—it's one of those things. With all these people here for the meet, it’s chaos.

Anyway, I saw something online—on Twitter, I think. It was an article talking about how to be the best real estate agent ever, and I thought that was kind of fun. I think the title was "How to Be a Successful Agent." Then I thought to myself, "John, do you consider yourself a successful real estate agent?" And the answer is overwhelmingly no. Let me tell you why.

One of the things the article talks about is defining what success means to you. For me, I've always wanted Deerwood Realty to be a place where my family, friends, and friends of friends could go to find a real estate agent who would help them buy or sell a house in an unbiased manner—always looking out for the client first. I always thought that if I did a really, really good job, my family and friends would recommend me to their friends, and I'd have more business than I could ever handle. In a way, that frightened me because I wanted to give individualized attention to all my clients. I was always scared that if I got too good at it, there would be too many clients, and I'd have to hire more agents. Then, I’d end up chasing those agents around instead of working with my own clients.

It’s always been this kind of internal battle for me. If you look at my reviews or talk to my clients, they’ll all tell you they had a great experience with me. But at the same time, it’s not like I’m constantly busy. Over the last couple of years, with the, uh, you know, the flu, there were a lot of real estate transactions. I did well, but I didn’t really outpace anybody. In times of mania, people jump into real estate, and when things slow down, they leave.

If you look at total membership in the National Association of Realtors (NAR) right now, I bet you’ll see a pretty steep decline because transaction numbers have dropped significantly. I warned everyone about this two years ago. I said, "Look, I'm hoarding cash right now because this won’t last forever." Sure enough, prices have gone up, but transaction numbers have plummeted.

So, back to the question: do I consider myself a successful agent? No, I don’t. And you might ask, "John, what would it take for you to feel successful?" Well, it would be reaching a point where I’m working with family, friends, and their friends—people looking for a good agent who just wants to help them buy or sell a house. I don’t want to be part of a huge team with 100 people. I don’t understand how buyers and sellers function in those environments.

If you think having 15 different people involved in your transaction makes it easier, I don’t know what to tell you. When you meet with a listing agent, and that’s not the person who ends up selling your house or doing your open houses—or worse, you never talk to them again, and you’re stuck with a transaction coordinator for the rest of the process—you’ve been had.

So, how do I define success? I’ll know I’ve succeeded when Deerwood Realty becomes what I want it to be—a place where I can help people all the time, consistently. How long will that take? Well, I’ve been doing this for a while, and it hasn’t happened yet. But we’ll see.

I’d be interested to know what you think. What are you looking for in an agent? How would you define success if you’re an agent? Is your definition anything close to what that article was talking about?