Working In The Cracks - Lee Woodward

Your next listing might be hiding inside the time you’re currently wasting. When the market changes and enquiries slow, it’s easy to drift into busywork, hide behind blast messages, or blame call screening for a quiet pipeline. We don’t get that luxury in real estate. The work is still a contact sport, and consistent daily connects are what keep your career steady when conditions get tougher.

We walk through a practical technique we use called working in the cracks. It’s built for agents who can’t (or won’t) sit at a desk for long call sessions, and it turns the in-between moments of your day into real prospecting time. We explain how to nominate a weekly list of 80 to 100 priority contacts, then warm that database with a simple text so your calls land better and feel less like cold calling.

From waiting at a property while a buyer runs late, to sitting in a rideshare, to deciding not to drive back to the office before the next appointment, these “cracks” add up fast. We also talk frankly about the cost of scrolling and how screen time quietly replaces the calls that create commissions. If you want sharper real estate time management, better client communication, and a cleaner system for lead generation in a changed market, this is a tight listen with immediate actions.

Subscribe for weekly tools to progress your career, share this with an agent who needs more connects, and leave a review to help more people find the show. What’s the biggest “crack” in your day you could use for calls?

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Discover more:

• Next Events
• Reaching Out - The best of AREC 
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• Explore Lee Woodward Short Courses
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Transcript

Welcome And Platform Support

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hello and welcome back to the podcast We Are Selling. My name's Lee Woodward, your coach and host. This program is supported by Agency Portal. One platform with six powerful tools. This platform is now saving 7 to 12 hours of administration time per listing. It has two outstanding finance products allowing you to win business, even allowing commission on exchange. AML is completely inclusive of the platform, and the sign product acts as your doorway to activating the property. AI is driving the real estate experience, and the agency portal is delivering that platform. Let's cross to this week's podcast. Hi

Why Daily Connects Matter Now

SPEAKER_00 0:52

everyone, and welcome back to the podcast. Thanks, Lee, good to be here. Today I'm gonna do a request for you regarding weekly communication. When we have a changed market, which is where we are right now, many people lose their job. And unfortunately they do that because they didn't keep their commitments up. Which is that daily connects that they need to do, that anyone needs to do to survive in real estate. You can't hide behind the inquiry that's not coming in, you can't hide behind the blasting emails and texts that people aren't responding to. Real estate is a contact sport, and you must keep those connects up every day. And as a guide to the industry, 20 connects a day is what is required. And I would like to acknowledge that this has got harder. People have their call screening. We ring, they're not answering. They don't want to talk to us or anyone anymore. The communications game has transitioned. No different to the market isn't changing, it's changed. So today's tip is to give you a way forward, an idea, a snack of information that you could apply and action in your business and get better returns from your week. And as your training partner, that is the value that I would like to bring to the table today. So, firstly,

Working In The Cracks Explained

SPEAKER_00 2:23

let's name the technique. And as you know from live mode, sell mode, invisible value, I love to label the technique so you can remember it, execute it, and do it. So today's technique is called working in the cracks. And before I give you the solution, let me give you the background. I've had many sales managers, principals, leaders, directors ring me and say, Lee, I just can't get my agents to make their calls. They won't book the session, they won't sit down and do it. If they do book it, they find a better distraction like changing the toner and the photocopy are more interesting, and they're just not getting through their connects, and I'm gonna get rid of them, or I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that. I hear that a lot, but I'm not always in agreement with it. Many people have a work style that's called continuous, and they keep moving, they keep working, and they keep moving around, and they're not incredibly structured at all. They can't sit at a desk for two, three hours and do call sessions, although there's about 30 people in this country that can, and we hear them on audio all the time. For most people, they get distracted, they get fidgety, they need to keep moving, they need to keep doing things, and that is what a continuous worker is. And I myself am a continuous worker, and continuous workers need to have default activities. And the best default activity in the world is your phone calls that are nominated at the beginning of the week. So, for example, in my world of time of recording today, I'm week one back after five weeks away. This week there were 33 people that I nominated that I have to communicate with based on future business client requirements, but they need my attention urgently. So they're nominated, and then I work in the cracks. In your world, this is the sequence of events that you would do to activate working in the cracks. On

Nominate Your Weekly Call List

SPEAKER_00 4:24

a Monday, you nominate the 80 to 100 connects that you want to make this week, and they will be your established clients anniversary, your future sellers who are nominated that they're gonna drop this month, and they are scheduled for you to have that communication. You've also got your greatest buyers that may be ready to purchase and have a trade in. Whatever the nomination, you are nominating the best people you can speak to this week. And yes, they may be in your scheduled task list, they may have popped into your brain, but I'm saying to group them, print them out as a list, and that is your target calls, your connects, your contacts for the week.

Warm The List With A Text

SPEAKER_00 5:08

Step two, send a bulk text message to the list saying, Would really like to connect with you this week, I'll reach out and give you a call, would love to chat about your current situation and what's happening in the active marketplace. But when you notify them that you're going to be calling, you're warming up the data, which is a skill in itself. And when they see the text come in, then they see your call coming in, you've incredibly increased your chance of a great call connect because they know you have something of value that you want to speak about versus your calling cold calling off guard and not getting the connections you require.

Use Waiting Time For Calls

SPEAKER_00 5:52

Step three is to make the call in the cracks. And let me explain what I mean. You are at an appointment waiting for a purchaser to turn up. The lady rings you and says, Lee, I'm so sorry. The kids got held up at Netball, I'm gonna be another 15 minutes. Do you want to reschedule? And you're sitting out at the front of the property. Helen, please come over. I will wait for you. This property is definitely worth looking at. Proceed over and I'll see you when you arrive. Hang up the phone. Now, pick up my list. I'm gonna get seven calls done in the cracks, and that's what working in the cracks is. Right now, when that situation happens, you think waste of my time, I'm driving back to the office, or even worse, you pick up your phone and you start scrolling, you start watching videos and you start throwing away your career as you're scrolling it away and you'll never get it back. Socials is currently your default activity. And if you look at your screen time at the end of the week and how much you're on socials, there's many hours that you are scrolling and not calling. If those hours were reinvested, and by the way, there's nothing wrong with checking out socials and seeing what's going on, I get that. But you got 80 connects to keep your real estate career alive as a priority. So stop scrolling and start calling. Working in the cracks is such a great solution. I know for myself, I have many phone calls I need to make in a week.

Staying Mobile As A Continuous Worker

SPEAKER_00 7:24

When I hop in an Ubar, I hop in a cab, I grab my list and I just work in the cracks. When I'm driving, I know my first week back at work this week, I had to go to Singleton, I got 12 phone calls done, and I'm working in the cracks. But I have no opportunity at all to sit down at a desk uninterrupted for an hour and a half and make calls. My life just doesn't work like that. And as a continuous worker, you've got to learn to be mobile. Sometimes you're driving somewhere, it's not worth going back to the office before your next appointment, go to the park, put the headset in, work in the cracks. And you'd be amazed by the end of the week, you will smash your call list, keep your career alive, and that is exactly what working in the cracks is.

Key Takeaway And Close

SPEAKER_00 8:09

I hope you've enjoyed today's tip. And that concludes another podcast on We Are Selling. My name's Lee Woodward. Thank you for listening to all our listeners all around the world. I'll see you next week with our next delivery of content to progress your career. Thank you for listening.