Category: Talent Attraction

According to a Housing Wire article dated April 10, 2025, which references a new report from Anytime Estimate (a subsidiary of Clever), the relationship between homesellers and real estate agents is evolving in 2025. While a significant majority (91%) of homeowners planning to sell in the next year still intend to hire an agent, there’s a growing skepticism about their fundamental necessity and trustworthiness.

Key findings indicate:

1. Decreased Perceived Necessity: Only 63% of sellers now view agents as “inherently necessary,” a notable 10-percentage-point drop from 2024.
2. Eroding Trust: Even among sellers who plan to use an agent, trust levels have fallen, with only 70% expressing trust, down from 81% the previous year.
3. Commission Concerns: Commission fees remain a primary concern for sellers, heightened by the ongoing impact and discussions surrounding the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) 2024 settlement.

In essence, while sellers aren’t abandoning agents en masse, they are entering the market with increased scrutiny regarding agent value, justification for fees, and overall trustworthiness.

4 Steps Agents Can Take to Build Trust

Given the concerns highlighted in the report, here are four actionable steps agents can take to build and maintain trust with sellers:

1. Radical Transparency on Value and Process: Clearly articulate exactly what services you provide, how your expertise benefits the seller specifically (e.g., negotiation skills, marketing reach, navigating complex paperwork, saving time/stress), and outline the entire selling process upfront. Don’t assume sellers understand your value proposition; demonstrate it explicitly.
2. Open and Proactive Communication About Commissions: Address commission fees head-on. Explain your fee structure clearly, justify the cost based on the services rendered and value provided, and discuss how compensation works in light of recent industry changes (like the NAR settlement effects). Being upfront prevents suspicion and builds confidence.
3. Prioritize Honest Dialogue and Expectation Management: Build rapport through active listening and genuine interest in the seller’s goals and concerns. Provide honest feedback on the property, realistic market assessments (even if it’s not what the seller wants to hear initially), and maintain consistent, proactive communication throughout the listing period. Avoid overpromising.
4. Demonstrate Expertise with Data and Testimonials: Back up your claims with evidence. Share local market data, statistics on your performance (e.g., list-to-sale price ratio, days on market compared to average), and provide recent, verifiable testimonials or case studies from satisfied clients. This shifts the focus from a perceived commodity service to proven professional expertise.

Do you ever make a small mistake – drop something, forget a name, fumble a simple task – and find yourself immediately flooded with harsh self-criticism? That internal voice loves to magnify minor errors, turning them into evidence of inadequacy. If this sounds familiar, know that it’s an incredibly common experience.

In an era often defined by polished online personas, it’s easy to fall into the “perfectionism paradox.” We compare our messy, real lives to curated highlight reels, making it increasingly difficult to tolerate our own normal imperfections. As noted in the article “Stop Beating Yourself Up: The Truth About Everyday Self-Criticism,” we might see someone else’s minor mishap, like accidentally using too much sunscreen, with empathy, yet judge ourselves ruthlessly for the same kind of slip-up.

This constant internal critique isn’t just unpleasant; it has real costs. It can dampen our joy in everyday life, stifle our willingness to try new things (for fear of failure), increase stress, and even make us feel less connected to others.

But there’s another way. Consider these perspective shifts, inspired by the source article:

1. The Friend Test: When you start criticizing yourself, pause. Ask: “What comforting, kind words would I offer a dear friend in this exact situation?” Try saying those words to yourself.
2. The Time Test: Take a breath and ask: “Honestly, how much will this matter in five years? Or even five days?” Often, the things we beat ourselves up over are insignificant in the long run.

Learning to embrace our imperfections isn’t about giving up or accepting mediocrity. It’s about understanding that our value as humans isn’t measured by our ability to perform every task flawlessly. Being human means fumbling sometimes. Perhaps today is a good day to let one small self-criticism go.

Source: This post draws inspiration and key ideas from the article: “Stop Beating Yourself Up: The Truth About Everyday Self-Criticism,” dated April 3, 2025.

You know that feeling, right? You’re in the thick of it – whatever “it” is for you right now. Maybe it’s a tough project at work, a challenging personal goal, a difficult family situation, or even just a really rough patch in your training. It feels endless. Brutal. You’re tired, maybe even in pain, and that little voice in your head starts screaming, “This will never end. I can’t do this. I need to quit.”

Sound familiar? We’ve all been there. Staring down something that feels absolutely insurmountable.

But here’s the truth, and this is a sentiment powerfully echoed by Spartan founder Joe De Sena:

Nothing stays hard forever.

Think about it. That stress at work? It will eventually ease. That difficult conversation you’re dreading? It will happen, and then it will be over. That feeling of being completely overwhelmed? It doesn’t last. Life has its ebbs and flows, and those tough times, those storms, always pass.

You know that image, right? The one of the person digging through a tunnel, just inches away from breaking through to the light, and they give up? Joe De Sena often talks about this – that’s where so many of us falter. Right there, on the verge of a breakthrough.

Trust me, I’ve been that person in different ways throughout my life. We all have those moments where we feel like we’ve hit our limit. And speaking from personal experience, having crossed the finish line of eight Spartan races myself – including the grueling Beast – I can tell you firsthand that those moments of wanting to quit are real, and they are intense.

I remember during one particularly brutal stretch of the Beast, slogging through mud, muscles screaming, the next obstacle feeling miles away, that voice was practically a roar. But what got me through, what gets any of us through those seemingly impossible challenges, is the understanding that those moments don’t last.

I remember when I first started pushing my physical boundaries. Every new distance felt impossible. But what I learned was the power of just focusing on the next small step. Instead of dwelling on the miles ahead, I’d tell myself, “Just make it to that next lamppost. That’s the goal.” And then the next. And the next. This idea of breaking down the impossible into manageable chunks is something Joe De Sena champions – focusing on the immediate effort rather than being overwhelmed by the enormity of the task.

And what I discovered was that those “finish lines” I kept creating for myself? They were arbitrary. My actual capacity was always greater than what I initially believed. As Joe often says, we are capable of so much more than we think. Those eight Spartan races, each one a testament to pushing beyond perceived limits, have solidified that truth for me.

Here’s something I’ve come to understand, a principle that resonates deeply with Joe De Sena’s philosophy:

Wherever you mentally draw the line is often where you’ll stop.

And this brings me to something I’ve been thinking about lately, something a lot of us grapple with: what happens after you conquer a big challenge? You pour everything into reaching a major goal – maybe it’s finishing a marathon, launching a business, or overcoming a significant personal hurdle. You cross that finish line, and there’s this incredible sense of accomplishment. But then… what?

Sometimes, that feeling of triumph can be followed by a bit of a letdown. The intense focus and drive that propelled you forward can suddenly feel… absent. It’s like you’ve emptied the tank, and the idea of filling it up again for something new feels daunting. You might find yourself struggling to regain momentum, wondering how to transition that energy into the next big thing.

This is a question I see echoed in the spirit of Joe De Sena’s “You Ask, Joe Answers” – how do you keep pushing, keep striving, after achieving something significant? The key, I’ve learned, and this aligns with Joe’s direct and action-oriented advice, isn’t to wait for some grand wave of motivation to wash over you. That feeling might not come right away. Instead, it’s about taking that initial, sometimes uncomfortable, step. Think of it like this: you’ve just completed a long, hard climb. You might be tired, but the view from the top is amazing. To see the next vista, you don’t need to immediately sprint up another mountain.

You just need to start walking in that direction.

Pick one small action, something manageable, that nudges you towards your next goal. It doesn’t have to be monumental. It could be a phone call, some research, a single workout.

The act of starting, even in a small way, creates its own momentum.

It reminds your mind and body that you’re still in motion, still capable. As Joe De Sena often says, “Just start.” Don’t overthink it, just initiate.

So, if there’s one thing I want you to take away from this today, inspired by the relentless spirit of Joe De Sena and my own experiences on the Spartan racecourse:

• Tell yourself the story you need to hear to keep going. The struggle will end. Sometimes, you need to give yourself a little mental nudge, a little lie even, to push through that immediate discomfort. Focus on the eventual relief, the feeling of accomplishment.
• Embrace the tough parts. Yes, they suck while you’re in them. They’re the parts we naturally want to avoid. But here’s the secret, a core tenet of the Spartan mindset: those hard times? They’re where the real growth happens. They forge resilience and reveal strength you didn’t know you had. Trust me, I’ve seen it firsthand, both in myself and in countless others on those grueling courses.
• Believe in your deeper strength. We are all far more capable than we often give ourselves credit for. You have reserves of strength, both mental and physical, that you can tap into when things get tough. And when you reach a big goal, don’t let that be the end of the story. Use that accomplishment as fuel to ignite the next chapter, one intentional step at a time – a philosophy championed by Joe De Sena himself, and one I’ve lived through, mud, sweat, and burpees included.

So, what’s that one hard thing you’re facing right now? What’s that next small step you can take, even if you don’t feel fully “ready”? Remember, you’ve got this.

Here’s to embracing the challenges, because that’s where we truly discover what we’re made of, and here’s to finding that next path forward, one intentional step at a time – a lesson I’ve learned time and again, not just from Joe De Sena, but from the grit and camaraderie of the Spartan race community.