Q: “Denise, I had a tough year last year. I don’t want to get into it, but until that point I had always been a people person. You know…if I was short on business, I just needed to do an open house and I would have five new clients. But the life has been sucked out of me and I just can’t “perform” at an open house and schmooze with new people the way I used to. In fact, the thought of doing an open house has me almost in a panic. My business is suffering and I don’t know how to generate leads anymore.”

A: I am sorry for what you went through as it obviously was something traumatic to cause this sort of change. But don’t worry, you have options.

Have you thought about bringing a coworker with you to do an open house? Sometimes the thought of being the only one “on” can be overwhelming, but what if you shared the stage with someone? That way you can protect your energy but start to warm up again to people.

But if that is too overwhelming, then you may need to consider another type of lead generation. Perhaps one that involves some MLS research, finding market shortages and sending out letters or develop a strong neighborhood campaign for when you have a listing. Or perhaps seeing if there are FSBOs in your market and developing a campaign for that (of course, we can help with all of these angles).

If you are not the kind of person who likes research and sending letters, then perhaps you should take on some floor time. Again, you are warming up people by answering questions and not feeling like you have to drive the conversation.

My last suggestion may seem outlandish, but it has been just the thing to perk agents up and get their confidence back – have a client appreciation event. Now I don’t mean a whole event where you have to be the star attraction, but maybe coordinating a movie night, tickets to a play, or a gelato drop-in social at your favorite local gelato place. Your clients already know you and love you. You don’t have to take effort to get to know them and you won’t even be expected to answer any hard real estate questions. Plus, my clients report that these events almost always result in some referrals and future business. What a great positive way to build your pipeline back up!

Remember, this is a business of connections. You can’t make connections if you are in hermit-mode. But you don’t have to jump into the connection pool all at once – dip your toes in and gradually you should be ready to get back in. Don’t let whatever happened to you define you for the rest of your career. You can do this!