Newsletter # 6

Realtors Are Being Lied to

Published on: April 26, 2026

This week, I’m starting the newsletter with a personal update that’s relevant to our business conversation further down below.

I was recently promoted to a brown belt in the sport of Brazilian jiu-jitsu. I train under Casey Halstead at 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu in Henderson, NV, and it’s been one of the best decisions of my life.

It’s been a long, six-year journey to get to this stage of my martial arts career.

Lots of ups and downs, lots of self-doubt, a few injuries, and getting choked out more times than I care to admit.

For those of you not familiar with the sport, I want to give you a quick breakdown, as best I can, of what the different belts in jiu-jitsu mean.

This will give you some context for some of my thoughts later in this article...

White Belt - you just started, have no idea what’s going on, you’re trying to figure out how someone half your size can control you like a child!
Blue Belt - you know some individual moves, although you have no idea how to chain them together, and you’re learning how to survive and be defensive. Being offensive still feels years away!
Purple Belt - you are developing an offensive game, are just dangerous enough to submit someone (or hurt them), and you’ll try anything. You spend lots of time watching YouTube videos with fancy moves and trying crazy shit because… well… why not!?!?
Brown Belt - you have found “your game!” You know what moves you like, you know what moves don’t work for you, and you’re focusing on applying & refining your skills versus trying something new every day.
Black Belt - you’re truly mastering something! You know what moves you like. Your opponent knows what moves you like. Yet your opponent still can’t stop the attack he knows is coming, because you’ve mastered the technique!

Where I’m at in my jiu-jitsu career is also kind of where I’m at in my business career! I know what works, I’m finally saying no to the stuff that doesn’t work, and I’m confident enough in my abilities that I don’t have to pay attention to every new shiny object that comes along.

Back when I was younger, I, like many sales professionals, had what I’ve coined as ‘Shiny Object Syndrome’ or SOS. I’d try anything, I bought all the courses (and rarely finished them), I believed everyone when they said “something new was working for them,” and I wasted a lot of time focusing on the wrong thing!

Sound familiar?

So let me ask, what marketing, advertising, or lead-generation system, app, or training are you starting to work with these days? Or, said another way, what marketing tools, online training, or company is constantly offering you the newest ‘hack’ and is filling your social media with advertisements?

An AI masterclass?
Facebook ad courses or services?
Claude agents that do your lead-generation for you?
Instagram virality & content courses?

I cannot scroll through Instagram, look at Facebook, or check my email without seeing dozens of advertisements from a myriad of marketing agencies. Some of them mean well and might be able to deliver, yet I suspect a majority of them are snake-oil salesmen.

I worked in a job for 25 years where the average commission was $5,000. If an ad company found a way to ‘generate leads on demand,’ why would they be selling me a $99 course instead of just generating deals for themselves?

This barrage of marketing, being sold as a solution to our production problems, frequently causes salespeople to feel like they are missing out. It makes them feel like ‘doubling production’ is just one $499 program away.

💲 If I could just show up as the best lender in Las Vegas when someone searches on ChatGPT, I would double my production.

💲 If I could get 30,000 TikTok followers, I would sell so many more houses.

💲 If I could just get better at email marketing—which this company will do for me for $299 a month—I’d double my production.

💲 If I could just find a coach with that special hack, or that website that converts online leads, I’d pay $2,000 a month to double my production.

💲 If only I could optimize my LinkedIn profile, I would get so many more leads!

💲 If I just knew what program to buy and what social media platform to pour all my time into, I’d sell more widgets!

Yes, digital marketing, having a digital presence, and staying in touch with clients by email is important.

However, I find that most sales professionals are habitually acting like jiu-jitsu blue belts & purple belts. Meaning that, either because they are scared that they are missing out on something cool that some other practitioner is learning—or they are so enamored with the sport that they are willing to try anything new—they aren’t focused on mastering their own game.

Spoiler alert—guess when MOST people quit the sport of jiu-jitsu?

It’s right between that blue belt and purple belt stage. At this stage of development, jiu-jitsu practitioners either get too overwhelmed with the amount of options and information they are trying to take in—or they think they know enough and don’t need to continue the journey towards mastery!

Sales professionals suffer from the same problem.

I would argue that the most battle-tested submission, with the highest win percentage, is the rear naked choke.

True story—my daughter, at 7 years old, has choked several adults unconscious.

She was able to do this because these adults thought there was no chance that would happen, so they let her try out her favorite move without resistance.

The right pressure, applied at the right angle, allowed a 60 lbs girl to put a grown man to sleep!

Similarly, in sales, there are some battle-tested tools that work across industries. The most powerful tools you have in sales are your cell phone, your relationships, and your ‘Micro-Communties.’

Like I mentioned in Issue #3 of Scott’s Thoughts, tech companies, marketing firms, and online advertisers want you to believe that we are moving to a ‘contactless society!’

This is NOT true!

Community still matters, relationships still matter, phone calls & in-person conversations still matter. Many sales professionals are ignoring their #1 assets—relationships & micro-communities!

And please, don’t take my word for it.

Every year, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) conducts the most comprehensive study of Realtor activities and outcomes. They survey and source data on everything from the size of your average real estate brokerage, to the number of families they serve, to the source of their business, and the size of their commissions.

Buried deep in this year’s report, titled “The 2025 Profile of Real Estate Firms,” is some very surprising information. The insights I’m about to share come from pages 37 and 38 of the report. The first survey question I want to address is on page 37.

“Median Percentage of Customer Inquiries Generated from Sources”

AKA, where are Realtors actually getting their leads? The numbers on the graph below might surprise you.

Yes, you’re reading that right. The average source of referrals for all firms (the light blue line) shows something that even I was surprised by!

Over 40% of customer inquiries (AKA incoming leads) are from past client referrals
Over 40% of customer inquiries come from REPEAT business from past clients
Social media, open houses, online ads, and purchasing leads only accounts for slightly over 10% of all leads coming into the eco-system of Realtors.

But what about actual closed transactions? I’m glad you asked, NAR surveyed that information as well. The results were about the same.

Almost 90% of all closed transactions came from a mixture of past client referrals and past client repeat business!
Less than 15% of all closed business came from social media, online leads, or paid ad traffic!

Now, I have to give one caveat here. Social media, email marketing, community activities (both digitally and in-person), and paid advertising might be the way that Realtors are choosing to stay in front of these past clients and their sphere of influence.

However, it is not the dominant tool that is bringing in new leads or creating new clients. Your relationships, your community, and past clients are actually what’s bringing in consistent revenue.

“But why,” you might ask, “do I see so many advertisements from companies asking me to build a better website, attend an Instagram training program, or pay to show up on page one of Google?”

It’s a good question with a simple, but not obvious answer.

Marketing companies cannot sell you your own relationships! Ad salesmen have a hard time helping you build the micro-communities you get your deals from! An online marketing platform cannot pick up the phone for you, be you, and interact with your clients and sphere of influence.

There’s no data, video program, social media program, or software that sells your people back to you!

Is there a cross-section of sales professionals finding success & generating leads on social media? Sure, some sales professionals are! But not nearly as many as you think!

Do I co-own a media company, called www.HomeTownLegend.com, that helps you grow your digital footprint in your local community? Yes, I do (and our system does actually grow people’s local influence).

HOWEVER, are most sales professionals wasting their limited time and resources on digital activities that keep them busy, but not necessarily productive? - ABSOLUTELY!

Like the purple belt who will try anything for fear of missing out, are sales professionals really focusing on the activities that will get them to a level of mastery? HELL NO!

I want to give you another real-world example from a conversation I had with a coaching client named Ryan earlier this week.

Ryan works in a rural area outside of Boston and, with our coaching guidance, has tried a few different approaches to growing his business. He’s tripled his business in the last 4 years.

Recently, a competitor across town has been showing up on his social media feed… a lot. She has over a quarter of a million followers between TikTok and Instagram!

Ryan was fretting, for months, about ‘having’ to get ‘good’ at social media to compete with this nearby loan officer. On a call this week, when we were discussing commitments, his commitment and his statement to me was as follows:

“I’m committed to giving myself permission to suck at social media. I’m going to post what I like to post about my life and my job, and not worry about it. I looked up this competitor, who is great at social media, and she closed 90 deals last year. I closed 78 deals last year and will close over 100 this year. And I did that without having to put in dozens of hours and thousands of dollars a month into my social media activities. Good for her—I’m glad she’s winning with social media—but that’s not my path. I’ll just stay in touch with clients & Realtors, connect more deeply with people, and win that way!”

That kind of self-awareness is a black-belt move if I’ve ever seen one! The student has surpassed the teacher (at least in this moment)!

Overall, I want to see sales professionals use tech as a supplement to, not a distraction from, lead-generation activities that actually grow relationships.

Connect more deeply with people, and the money will follow.

Lean on tech as the primary tool, instead of a supplement to, your business… and you will suffer the consequences.

Be a master, be a black belt, figure out what works for you, lean into that, and ignore all the other noise.

Don’t forget to share this newsletter with someone who might be interested, and connect with me on social media if you want to see the changes I’m making in 2026. Instagram is probably best: www.Instagram.com/ScottLGroves

If you got forwarded this email, you can subscribe at www.ScottsThoughts.com

My invitation to you is this: If you’re feeling a bit too distracted by technology right now, or feel like you and/or your company have focused too much on technology, hit reply to this email and give me your thoughts.

I personally read each and every response.

Hearing from you would not only mean the world to me, but it would also help me shape the upcoming issues of this newsletter.

And, as a bonus, I will be doing my best to individually respond to each email I receive to this brand new “Scott’s Thoughts” newsletter!

Till the next time I have 2 hours to think,

Scott :-)

P.S. - None of this was written by AI, my assistant, or a ghostwriter. Just me, a real person who probably made a few typos in the newsletter above. Please forgive me!