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FROM THE CALM AGENT DESK
5 Creative Mindset Rules That Will Reshape Your Real Estate Career
I recently attended a Keller Williams leadership event featuring Kaiser Yang, author of the business book Crack the Code.
Yang’s talk on creativity touched on a subject rarely discussed in real estate circles. But when I think about top producers, they’re some of the most creative people in the business. They’re proactive architects of their success. Creativity empowers them to innovate in client service, deal structuring, and navigating unpredictable markets. They create opportunities from thin air.
Yang outlined five transformative creative mindsets. Here they are, translated directly to real estate:
THE 5 MINDSETS OF INNOVATORS — APPLIED TO REAL ESTATE
#1 Every Barrier Can Be Eliminated
Try: The Judo Flip
Write down the rules and assumptions you’ve accepted about a product, process, or experience. Flip them. What’s the opposite? Use that contrast to spark fresh ideas. Every obstacle has an opportunity of equal or greater value.
→ Reframe client objections as solvable puzzles.
→ Low inventory? Try off-market outreach.
→ Financing hurdles? Bring in creative lender solutions.
Examples:
Flip the belief that “open houses don’t work” and ask: how could they work better?
If buyers say they’re waiting for rates to drop, position today’s market as a rare negotiation window they won’t get when demand roars back.
#2 Burn the Blueprints
Try: The Borrowed Idea
Look outside real estate. Who else has solved your challenge already? Borrow and adapt.
→ Stop replicating what every other agent is doing. Tailor your approach to your client.
Examples:
Use luxury brand tactics to build exclusivity in your listings.
Adapt concierge models from hospitality to elevate your client experience—from pre-market to post-close.
#3 Seek the Unexpected
Try: Option X
Push beyond your first idea. Don’t settle. The breakthrough usually comes after your comfort zone.
→ Surprise and delight with creativity that may sound strange at first.
Examples:
Run a reverse open house: neighbors first, wine and local gifts included.
Launch a “Hidden Gems of [Your Town]” series instead of more “Just Listed” posts.
Use memes, TikTok-style reels, or immersive storytelling to share market updates.
#4 Start Before You’re Ready
Try: The To-Test List
List all the ideas you've shelved. Each week, test one. Action brings change. Feedback brings refinement.
→ Small, fast experiments beat perfect planning.
Examples:
Launch a 3-email drip campaign using AI for your niche audience.
Record a quick video answering a common buyer or seller question.
Test a new script or follow-up message each week.
#5 Fall Seven, Stand Eight
Creative agents don’t crumble at the first no or a slow month. They see setbacks as raw material for reinvention.
→ Resilience feeds momentum.
Examples:
Use a failed listing to build a compelling case study.
Keep a daily log of wins, however small.
Send thank-you messages to clients as a mindset reset.
A Harvard Business Review study, The Innovator’s DNA, found that creativity is largely a learned behavior, not innate. That’s good news. These mindsets are practical, trainable, and powerful. Adopt them, and create success in a challenging market.
AI PROMPT TO UNLOCK 5 CREATIVE MINDSETS
Use this PROMPT to brainstorm ideas for creative solutions in your business.
You are the Creative Mindset Architect, an AI that transforms standard real estate thinking into unconventional, standout strategies using five breakthrough creative mindsets.
I’ll present you with a real estate scenario—whether it’s a marketing challenge, deal dilemma, client issue, or growth goal. You’ll analyze it using exactly five of the Creative Mindsets, delivering fresh angles, unexpected tactics, and tested frameworks I wouldn’t have considered.
For each mindset, begin by naming it and providing a quick summary of what it means. Then, explain how it applies to my situation and what new lens it offers. Highlight a creative twist—an unconventional or surprising move this mindset reveals. Finally, suggest one fast, low-risk action I can take right away to test it.
Choose five mindsets from the list below: Every Barrier Can Be Eliminated, Burn the Blueprints, Seek the Unexpected, Start Before You’re Ready, and Fall Seven, Stand Eight.
Apply all five to my real estate challenge. Focus on revealing the overlooked, the actionable, and the innovative.
REAL ESTATE NEWS
Crypto Legislation and Real Estate: The Trump Administration signed the GENIUS Act to establish federal stablecoin standards, potentially unlocking billions in crypto capital for commercial real estate. This move could accelerate the adoption of fractionalized ownership, blockchain-based escrow, and crypto-denominated real estate transactions.
Affordable Housing Project Delays: The Trump Administration’s proposed $27 billion cut to federal rental assistance programs is stalling new affordable housing projects, causing concern among developers about the viability of such projects if subsidies are lost.
Nation’s Largest MLS Platforms Compromised: FlexMLS and Matrix, two major software platforms for multiple listing services (MLS), experienced compromised access that forced users to reset passwords and heightened cybersecurity concerns for real estate data.
AI PRODUCTIVITY
Testing ChatGPT's New AI Agent
ChatGPT recently rolled out its new AI Agent, now accessible to subscribers at the $20/month level. While other AI tools like Manus Agent have been around, ChatGPT’s version makes advanced, agentified AI broadly accessible for everyday use.
Once you start working with the Agent, you'll see the AI Agent open its own browser window on your screen, actively working on websites. If it encounters a login, you can securely provide credentials.
To access the ChatGPT AI Agent:
1. Log in to your ChatGPT account.
2. Open the tool dropdown in the chat box and select "Agent Mode."
I began experimenting with ChatGPT’s AI Agent a few days ago, specifically applying it to projects I'm currently working on. It couldn’t access my website platform due to security blocking it. Maybe that’s good. So, instead, I had it perform tasks that O3 could accomplish. It didn’t have to interact with websites other than navigate through them. The AI Agent did excellent work. It independently did my projects for me with only a few instructions. I will test some more complex scenarios this week and will report back to you.
Here is what I did. Again, Regular Thinking Models can do the same work, but they will require more prompting throughout the project.
Real Estate Violations Analysis: I asked it to analyze real estate violations in California, focusing specifically on Santa Cruz County. It proactively navigated to the California Department of Real Estate’s website, extracted monthly violation reports, and provided a comprehensive breakdown. Interestingly, violations in Santa Cruz County primarily involve unlicensed activity, typically occurring when brokers fail to monitor agent and corporate license renewals, and assistants performing work that would require a license. The ChatGPT AI Agent completed this task in 19 minutes.
Local Disclosures and Requirements: Next, I had the AI Agent research local disclosure and point-of-sale requirements. It efficiently identified municipalities within the area, accessed their resources and multiple other sources, compiled a clear list, and gathered direct links and PDFs for relevant forms.
This week, I'm eager to further test the AI Agent on additional real estate scenarios and see how it handles them. I’m not going to give ChatGPT access to any private or sensitive information at this time. But, I have some great CREATIVE IDEAS on projects it can do for me.
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