Trust Is the New Cur­ren­cy, JUSTIN KONIKOW, PRIME REAL ESTATE BROKERAGE

Most agents think you need to go vi­ral to be suc­cess­ful. They spend too much time watch­ing the high­light reels of peo­ple’s fake lives on so­cial me­dia, as if that’s a re­flec­tion of re­al­i­ty and a mir­ror of the view­er’s short­com­ings.

They think they need to com­pete with them, when in re­al­i­ty, they al­ready have a se­cret weapon: they know how to con­nect with peo­ple.

In a world filled with in­for­ma­tion over­load, some­thing as sim­ple as a phone call or a gen­uine hu­man con­nec­tion re­al­ly makes an im­pact. In a noisy world, at­ten­tion is cheap but trust is rare. Trans­parency, hon­esty, and gen­uine ed­u­ca­tion con­vert faster than flashy sales tac­tics. Peo­ple crave au­then­tic­i­ty, not mar­ket­ing hype.

In a world of three-sec­ond Tik­Toks, it’s nev­er been eas­i­er to build a hu­man connec­tion. But the ones who do it best? They use so­cial me­dia to scale hu­man con­nection. You can let the tool use you, or you can use the tool—you de­cide.

The Tac­ti­cal Take­away

If you want to use the tool ef­fec­tive­ly, let’s break down some tac­tics. Pick your favourite “in­flu­encer,” some­one who has ex­celled on­line. I bet they are your favourite be­cause you feel like you know them. I bet, in large part, it’s be­cause of their au­thentic­i­ty and con­sis­ten­cy. Now, think about what would hap­pen if you had their cell­phone num­ber and they be­came a real friend.

This is far more like­ly than you may think. Even peo­ple who have mil­lions of follow­ers will no­tice some­one who spends time in the com­mu­ni­ty, mak­ing real comments and sup­port­ing them. Why? Be­cause it is rare.

I chal­lenge you to show up in their com­ments and write gen­uine hu­man re­sponses—the kind you would write to some­one you were hav­ing lunch with. Do that for a month. If they launch a list­ing or are work­ing on some­thing im­por­tant to them, send an en­cour­ag­ing mes­sage. Don’t ask for any­thing. Just build a re­la­tion­ship.

A Les­son from Ryan Ser­hant

Ryan Ser­hant is a great ex­am­ple of this. He’s be­come a per­son­al friend and mentor, and he has been there for me through some very tough times.

How did it hap­pen? I showed up in my com­mu­ni­ty, and some­one very un­like­ly made an in­tro­duc­tion to Jor­dan Hurt, who was Ryan’s as­sistant back in 2018. Fun fact: Jor­dan used to know peo­ple at Call the Of­fice in lit­tle old Lon­don, On­tario (my market). The world is small­er than you think.

I went to meet Ryan and we chopped it up on all things busi­ness—the strug­gles of build­ing a team, pitch­ing new de­vel­op­ments, splits, every­thing. I tried to give more than I got. I didn’t care about the pho­to op; I con­nect­ed with his team. Then, I kept in touch with them and him.

I’m sure for five years he didn’t even know my full name. I was nev­er chas­ing the clout. I just tried to be there for him and his team as they worked on projects im­portant to them. I was there to en­cour­age them when the world was not, act­ing like a normal hu­man be­ing in­stead of a su­per­fan.

For all his fame and ac­co­lades, he has nev­er treat­ed me dif­fer­ent­ly. He’s the same guy be­hind the cam­era as he is on cam­era. Which is rare. He even called me yes­ter­day just to say thank you for an in­tro. It was a good re­minder that be­ing a real hu­man is what mat­ters.

The Val­ue of Rep­u­ta­tion

The op­po­site can be true as well. I re­mem­ber be­ing at din­ner once with a group of agents. One of them had a few too many drinks and start­ed talk­ing about consumers like they were stu­pid. This was dur­ing the bull run; he was cocky and showed a side of him­self none of us had ever seen. It for­ev­er changed my per­cep­tion of who he re­al­ly was.

Be it Ryan or the cocky agent, they are both in the same boat: Trust is one of the most valu­able cur­ren­cies. Once you have it, the val­ue is be­yond mea­sure. Once you lose it, it’s near im­pos­si­ble to re­gain.

It’s nev­er been eas­i­er to suc­ceed, but it’s nev­er been hard­er to avoid dis­trac­tion. Mul­ti-bil­lion dol­lar com­pa­nies are study­ing hu­man habits dai­ly to gam­i­fy you, sell you some­thing, or latch you onto a sub­scrip­tion you nev­er need­ed. Don’t let them. Stick to what is real.

SOURCE Justin Konikow, Prime Real Estate Brokerage

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