Mike Lyon
Yay. Happy New Year, Jen. I'm so excited for 2026.
DYC Studio
Happy New Year!
DYC Studio
man, there is something special in there. I don't know, I got a feeling. Do you do New Year's resolutions? Is that a thing that you guys do in your family?
Mike Lyon
There it is.
Mike Lyon
Ooh, that's a great question. Not really resolution. We will do a mantra, I guess, or like a phrase. That seems pretty simple as it relates to the New Year's, but I do like to do goals, and I usually get to them a little bit late. Like, I'm like, man, I need to get my goals taken care of. But that's different. That's just kind of, you know, different than resolution.
DYC Studio
Yes.
DYC Studio
Yeah. Yeah. We, so Mia is a big vision board. she, yeah. So she'll, she'll get out the, all the magazine and she does like vision board, like old school, like poster board, cut out pictures, that type of thing. So we did while she was home, we did vision boards and we did, we had each person do a presentation about.
Mike Lyon
yes.
Mike Lyon
DYC Studio
So we got a little bit extra, you know, obviously goals are important. Resolutions are important. We are stepping our hearts out over here at DYC. Did you, in fact, you know what? I don't even want you to join the DYC Step Challenge because you're just gonna blow us all out of the water.
Mike Lyon
Mike Lyon
I don't, I don't, I get sub 10,000 a day, but if you put me on a challenge, I'd hook it to, I'd hook it to someone. I hook it to my son who plays basketball and say, sign into my account while you're, while you're practicing.
DYC Studio
That, I know.
DYC Studio
Exactly. Yeah, we, we've got about, I think maybe 15 people doing the step challenge and, Beth is like, I had to haul over my neighbor's walking pad, to get this going. So anyway, I know these marketers, they're getting competitive. I like it.
Mike Lyon
That's fun.
Mike Lyon
I like the competitive spirit.
Mike Lyon
You know, I went back and looked at goals and the phrase for last year because I had forgotten what I put down with Corey the other day. And I go, what was my phrase? Low maintenance mic.
DYC Studio
that go, buddy?
Mike Lyon
I asked her, said, what'd think? And she goes, yeah, it was pretty good. You kind of chilled out on some things. So that was basically, I need to just lower the temperature on things. So anyway.
DYC Studio
Yeah, I agree. I agree. agree. All right. Well, let's speak in a step in and low maintenance, Mike. Let's get into this. Welcome to episode 53. With me today is an OPT fan favorite, the OG himself, Mike Lyon, my friend, mentor, president of Dconvert. Welcome to online people talking. It's been a minute since you've been on.
Mike Lyon
Yay!
Mike Lyon
you know what? It's a pleasure. It's weird to say the president of Do You Convert? There's got to be something else. Just, it's Mike. Sure, I'll take it.
DYC Studio
Prez.
DYC Studio
Uncle Mikey!
Well, Mike, I'm excited for you to chat with us today. I always like to pick your brain and get in there and see what you're thinking. I know everybody loves to hear from you, but before we get into that, let's do a couple of housekeeping items. First, our Tito shout out. Tito stands for top industry talented OSC. And this episode shout out goes to the one and only Brooke Bales of TrueMark Homes. Okay, so let me tell you about this, Mike.
Mike Lyon
Woo!
DYC Studio
They had a prospecting competition where they, in the month, they measured not only just like total outbound calls, but who did 30 a day consistently. And Brooke won both categories where she did the most consistent days of 30 plus calling calls and the most calls in 30 days. So Brooke.
Mike Lyon
Mike Lyon
Congratulations, Brooke. I love it. Anybody who picks up the phone and makes it ring the other way has a special place in my heart. Congratulations. What do they get when they win the Tito? Do they get something besides respect?
DYC Studio
Well, funny you should, well, it's really about just the shout out. However, I'm working on something right now. Funny you should mention that. I don't wanna say exactly what it is because it's in the works, but there's something that you will be getting from me, a very special little something for your Tito Award in 2026. So yes, we're taking it, we're next level. yeah.
Mike Lyon
Okay.
Mike Lyon
Okay. It's out in the universe. Now you have to do it.
DYC Studio
We're next leveling it, so get excited everyone. Okay, the next thing, one of my favorite things of the year is National Online Sales Day is coming up February 9th. So like basically a month from now. So I wanna start talking about it, don't forget. February 9th, National OSC Day.
Mike Lyon
yes!
Yeah.
Mike Lyon
forget.
Celebrate your OSCs. This is for leadership out there to hype up our favorite position at a home builder. yeah, elevating this role and putting it out there and making sure your team knows that they know that you care, the team knows how important they are, that's what this is all about. So we always love to see what people post and put out there. So, ooh, that's exciting. I forgot.
DYC Studio
I know I can't wait. I'm telling you, once we start January, hold on to your butts. Let's go. Like it's go time. what is it?
Mike Lyon
Man, are, time is flying.
Mike Lyon
Hold on to your butts. I have a housekeeping item. By the time this pod drops, Jen Barkin will have been celebrating her birthday. Her birthday is coming up January 10th. Isn't it the 10th? It's the 10th. Happy birthday, Jen.
DYC Studio
gosh.
It's the 10th this Saturday. Yeah.
Thank you so much. This is a big one. Yeah, this is a...
Mike Lyon
and
It is. Happy Gen Day.
DYC Studio
Yeah, this is a big milestone birthday. you know, I know that birthdays, it's just a number, but definitely when you, when you hit a milestone birthday, you definitely, and I'll let everybody guess what milestone it is. Uh, but Hey, that's a great guess. When you hit a milestone birthday, I think you definitely, it hits different. Like you, you pause and you reflect and you maybe think about things a little differently. Um, so
Mike Lyon
30.
DYC Studio
I definitely have been thinking about things a little differently and my word is intention and being really intentional with my time, being intentional with who I spend my time with and do with my time. So thank you for the shout out. I appreciate that.
Mike Lyon
Ooh.
Mike Lyon
Yes.
Mike Lyon
Yeah, so if you're hearing this and you haven't wished her happy birthday, text her, her, DM her. But also, this is unique. Your husband, Andrew, has a birthday on the 9th, the day before you. Have you enjoyed sharing the spotlight with him?
DYC Studio
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Not really, I don't like it.
mean, it's like, it's so funny because because this is a big birthday this year, like I feel like the attention has been on me, obviously, like, oh, what do you want to do for your birthday? It's a big one. And I kind of forgot that it was his. And like the other day I was like, oh, yeah, like, what do you want to do for your birthday? So listen, we've we have enjoyed over the years celebrating together for sure.
Mike Lyon
What? Hey, hey buddy, what are you on? What are you doing?
Mike Lyon
Well, that's good. Happy birthday.
DYC Studio
So yeah, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And thank you. Happy birthday to Drew too, that's good. Okay, what are online people talking about, Mike? They're talking about what is 2026 gonna look like? What's gonna happen with the market? What should I be focusing on? And you know, man, I wish we had a crystal ball and we could know exactly.
what was gonna happen and I wanna pick your brain, I want to know what you think is happening out there with the market. But I know sometimes that creates some anxiety when we start thinking about like, my gosh, what's gonna happen? What's the market gonna be like? So I always like to go back to what do we know for sure right now? Like, what do we know and we can count on and we can lean into.
And so I want to kind of go back and forth with some thoughts on you on this. You know, the first thing that I think about that we know for sure is that when we look at like web traffic and, you know, builders websites, there's a lot of eyeballs still coming to website. The traffic is still coming. Like people are still looking and I take comfort into that. Yes, we saw a decrease in lead convert or traffic conversion last year, but there's still traffic.
What are your thoughts on that?
Mike Lyon
Well, I would even step back one, you know, just one step and go online sales. Your job is never to go out there and create a market or do things that are unnatural to drum up the business. Like we're not creating a market. We're serving a market. So when you
When you just think of that first, whatever market we have, that's the market that we serve, that takes a little bit of that pressure off. However, I do understand every one of you want to make an income, want to be successful, want to support your internal teams. And that's the most exciting thing that no matter what happens with the numbers, as long as you are contributing and focusing on those conversion rates, magical things will continue to happen. Now, you're correct. We're having a lot of people
DYC Studio
Yeah.
Mike Lyon
in the search phase and discovery phase that maybe aren't taking the leap into the lead phase. That's okay. Our job is to really go as deep as we possibly can with the leads that we have. So that adjustment, that's the first thing I would say is you just have to adjust your style of work, right? Where there were some years where everything's flying at you a million miles an hour, you're just trying to get people out.
DYC Studio
Mm-hmm.
DYC Studio
Yeah.
Mike Lyon
On-site and it's basically you are redirecting walk-in traffic. Well now is not the case. It's more back to normal and I would even say You know, maybe a little bit harder than our normal process, but if you've been working on those skills that make you an awesome Investigator curious person who's reaching out to people you're gonna be okay And when things do crack open which they have a tendency to do around the beginning of the year You're gonna be in good shape
DYC Studio
Mm-hmm.
DYC Studio
Yeah.
DYC Studio
Yeah, and the second thing we know when you kind of touched on this is the process and staying consistent with the process. And what we know is that based on the benchmarks that we're seeing is that despite all of the ups and downs and variables and market shifts, online sales benchmarks and conversions are staying consistent. I'm excited for Amanda to wrap up this year. She's working on that right now just to kind of see the year in a whole.
we look at through this year, we were still right at that 50 % contribution and 20 % conversion to sale and 40 % conversion to appointment. And that is amazing. I get so excited when I think about that, because I'm like, holy cow, the online sales specialists that are doing the things that they're supposed to do and they're focusing on serving the market and their processes, then...
Mike Lyon
Right.
DYC Studio
they're still showing success.
Mike Lyon
That's right. And that is a hard thing to think about when you say, well, I used to be setting 48 appointments a month and now I'm setting 38 appointments. It feels weird. But if you back it into total sales for the company and those benchmarks are still aligned, that is success. Let me repeat that for everybody listening and write it down. That is success. Pay attention to your benchmarks.
DYC Studio
Mm-hmm.
DYC Studio
Right.
DYC Studio
Right.
Mike Lyon
because we have seen very few be able to dramatically manipulate those benchmarks unless they're, you know, funneling a lot of unqualified people out to appointments. And we really don't want to do that, right? We want to focus on the right quality, appropriately qualified. We don't want to slow anything down, but focus on those benchmarks and leverage that success. And like I said, I do believe that it will change a little bit in 2026. We are seeing positive signs.
DYC Studio
Right.
Mike Lyon
for builders everywhere.
DYC Studio
Yeah. Mike, the third thing that we know to be true is that prospecting does work. We, we, I know people are sick of us talking about it, but we're talking about it still because it does work. And, know, two years ago we started really tracking this because we're like, we want it. We're telling everybody to do this. We got to show the results. We got to show how it works. And, you know, we're seeing 20 % of appointments coming from.
Mike Lyon
yeah, baby. Yeah, baby!
DYC Studio
age leads. Like huge. It never used to be like we we always talked about. Yeah, we always talked about like we need to do this, but we're seeing some of those older leads, you know, even from, you know, the pandemic time, you know, research, you know, through the efforts of online sales, reaching out, nurturing. I see, you know, people chatting at me all the time going.
Mike Lyon
That number's huge.
Mike Lyon
I was like 10%. Yeah.
DYC Studio
man, I've been working this lead for four years and they just wrote a contract. So, we know it works, so don't take your pedal off the prospecting gas. Keep it going.
Mike Lyon
Yeah. I think it's the dirty job. If like Mike Rowe, you remember when he had it, what was it called? Dirty jobs or something like that. If he were to go step in into the role of online sales, be like, wait, so basically you're just like cold calling and emailing people who haven't talked to you and like, what, this is what you, man, holy cow. And it's like, yeah, it is the hard work. that's why,
DYC Studio
Yeah. Yes.
DYC Studio
Yeah, super fun.
Mike Lyon
Brooke getting that Tito award, like the fact that you are making those dirty calls a day. If you were to have her on to talk about her now, she probably like, yeah. And I got like 26 voicemails, but it's, that is all there's a process to it. And I'm telling you, you know, when you think about everybody trying to automate everything everywhere, I know AI was the buzzword of 2025. It'll probably still maintain a little bit of that into 2026 with it comes the slop.
DYC Studio
Yeah.
DYC Studio
Right, exactly. Yeah.
Mike Lyon
And when I say slop, it's bad experiences, bad chats, automated robots answering the phone. It's like, golly. When they know humans reaching out, that makes a huge difference. So keep on the prospecting gas. I like that.
DYC Studio
Yeah.
DYC Studio
Yeah.
DYC Studio
Yeah. And the last thing, you know, Mike just kind of seguing into that is personalization will make you stand out. It's like you said, you know, think consumers. Consumers are are sniffing out AI. I we have this running joke at our house right now and our family because my husband, Andrew bless his heart, like he'll send these like real like videos or whatever in the family chat and
Mike Lyon
yeah.
DYC Studio
My kids are like, my God, dad, it's AI. Dad, it's AI. Like, stop sending, you know. There's just this, you know, thing around it that if you're personal in your approach and it's a human, like customers know that. They can sense that. And so, I mean, that's the key.
Mike Lyon
Yeah.
Mike Lyon
I heard a stat the other day on a blog post or something. can't remember where I read it, but new users to YouTube, they're looking like it's more than 20 plus percent of videos served to them are AI, fake, because they haven't worked on their own personal algorithm. It's like, y'all, that's just a lot of stuff. So yeah, it's out there in visual form on social media and things like that. But also everybody's trying to solve this problem of
How can we do this without humans involved? How can we do it 24 seven? In the customer journey for home building, it's so intimate and it's so high stakes. We're big on people being involved because the math works when people have a good customer experience and journey. It turns into sales. You try to over automate everything. You try to AI the heck out of everything. It doesn't work. Now, all that being said, like I'm going to tell you, like I got another point we'll make here in a minute.
AI can help you tremendously, but in certain ways. yeah, personalize everything. Just be as human as you possibly can, because that's the definition of luxury. Like I'm dealing with it. That's what it's going to be. If AI keeps progressing the way it is, it's like, wait, I talked to a real human who's just awesome. Man, there's something special going on over here.
DYC Studio
Absolutely. Yeah.
DYC Studio
Hmm.
Yeah.
DYC Studio
Mm-hmm, yeah.
Love it. Okay, so I wanna get inside your mic brain and ask you, yeah, no, you're low maintenance, you're low maintenance. Come on, yeah, yeah, yeah, low maintenance, Mike. Come on, yeah, yeah. Okay, so what do you think is gonna happen with the market in 2026? What do you think? Yeah, like broadly, like.
Mike Lyon
No, no you don't. I'll tell you right now, you don't. You don't want to do that. right, right, right. Yeah, nevermind. It's going to be great. You're going to love it in here.
Mike Lyon
Like broadly speaking like ooh Well, I Mean I always run up to the filter of what we like you said What do we know is true what we know is true is that rates are starting to? Hover down towards more attractive rates now even with that happening at the end of last year We didn't see a dramatic movement, but that's also the end of the year So it's it's hard to tie tie a rate drop to I need to make a move type of thing But there are green shoots popping up everywhere
DYC Studio
Mm-hmm.
Mike Lyon
in home building. And so that's a positive thing. So if the rate environment can, it can stay lower, five and a half, that would be pretty magical. Then that creates an environment that people go, I don't, don't have to worry about staying in my 3.5 % house. can, I can move and it's not going to be a huge difference. So that's, that's a positive thing in the overall market. The other side too, what you see in general resale is that
DYC Studio
Right.
Mike Lyon
We're seeing price improvements, as they like to say, as realtors like to say, huge price improvement. But also builders are starting to race towards the affordability side too. It is hard for builders to change a pro forma and a business plan and what they're doing in a community, but they are starting to recognize that we got to get this price right.
DYC Studio
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mike Lyon
And that's the encouragement to all the online sales specialists and everybody out there is builders need to sell homes. They're going to figure out how to do it. And I think this is the year where those two things converge and people want to move because the other thing that was holding us back on even seeing some higher interest is that people just weren't willing to sell. If they're not willing to sell, they're not willing to buy. Obviously you got to go for that first time market, but there's not a lot of builders in the first time market. As we start seeing all those data points start to converge,
DYC Studio
Mm-hmm.
DYC Studio
Right.
Mike Lyon
I do think there's going to be better activity in 2026. Do I think it's going to like double what we did last year? No, but I do think we're going to see better activity and a more willingness from our customers to make a move. I'm excited. So I said like, yeah, more normal. Yeah.
DYC Studio
Yeah.
DYC Studio
More normal, more of a normal market. I have noticed here in my little niche, mean, tons of homes, like there was like no homes on the market and now we got them coming up. We got them coming up. I mean, there's like 10 new ones that just came up in the last two weeks. So, yeah. yeah.
Mike Lyon
Exactly.
Mike Lyon
Absolutely. We see that in our own neighborhood walking around. like, driving around when Corey and I get the itch. Like we're going to move. We're like, well, how's there for sale?
DYC Studio
Yeah. Online sales specifically thoughts there for 2026.
Mike Lyon
You know, I said this on the pulse. The pulse is what we do for our client. Like we have an internal, Kevin and I will get on to like a podcast just to our clients, essentially. That's kind of the short version. But I said this on there. Number one, I'm excited about one of the things I said because it's a Mike Lyon original. I have very few of those. But I believe this is the year that leads come back to life. You know, the ones that have been in there, if you've been working them and if you've been here, you like this because you're a gardener, right?
if you've been fertilizing them, right? We've gotta be fertilized. can't just expect something to grow. In the wintertime, you still gotta fertilize. You still gotta do some things to get it ready for that growth. And I know that prospecting without that immediate results feels crappy. see where we're going with this? But without the immediate result, that's not failure, that's fertilizing, right? See, the crappy and fertilize, see what I did?
DYC Studio
Ooh, yes, gotta be fertilizing.
DYC Studio
Yeah.
DYC Studio
Hmm, okay, got it. I saw what you did. anything goes. Yeah.
Mike Lyon
Is that allowed on this podcast? Okay. But it's not failure, it's fertilizing. The 30 calls that you're making and 26 are voicemails. Those 26 voicemails are fertilizer. That's what it is. The email that goes out, that's personalized, the video that no one responds to, you think that's not, man, I failed. That's right. It's the stuff you use in fertilizer.
DYC Studio
It's like the good crappy.
That's the good... hey, they don't call it miracle grow for nothing.
Mike Lyon
That's right. See what we're doing here, folks. This is what you signed up for. It's not failure. It's fertilized. So as long as you're fertilizing those teams that stayed consistent, work their CRM, kept the human touch, right? They start to see those leads sprout when demand rebounds, right? It's not about getting them to, you know, go, we're not trying to make them move in market or, hey, you, you've got to move now. That's not it. It's just being there when they're ready to make that decision. And I can't tell you the number
DYC Studio
Yeah.
Mike Lyon
of builders and even online sales teams that just don't stay in it long enough because they think, I'm not getting a response. This is worthless. No, it's fertilizer. So stay in there, stay with it, be human, keep it personal, and leads will come back to life when that demand starts to rebound. that's my prediction and prove me wrong, right?
DYC Studio
It's hard.
Yeah.
DYC Studio
I love it. And we know that like that long term personalization is a huge opportunity because when we did the home builder survey and we went back and looked at the last, you know, 11 months of follow up, there was only one personalized video email that came through in that 11 months. That was Presley from Simmons Homes. Let's go Presley.
Mike Lyon
Yeah.
Mike Lyon
shout out.
DYC Studio
And second Tito award goes to Presley. out of the 3,500 emails that we got, Mike, only 3 % of them were personal looking. Like the rest were just marketing templates or whatever. So huge opportunity. OK, Mike, you're talking to.
Mike Lyon
Yeah, right. Now you get to send her something.
DYC Studio
our online sales specialist listing. What are three? I know your favorite people jinx. I know. Yeah.
Mike Lyon
near and dear to my heart, my favorite people. They really are. You know, hey, little side note. You guys really are the best people in your organization because they're the nicest. They say yes to everything. They're happy. They're bubbly. Some something, maybe a little weird sometimes, you know, I just love it. Little quirky, got their quirks.
DYC Studio
They are.
They're just good people, right? Yeah.
DYC Studio
A little quirky. Okay, what are three things you want to say to your favorite people right now as they start this magical 2026 year?
Mike Lyon
man.
man. Well, here's what I've observed. I like to consider myself observant. This last year, there's been such a huge push on outsourcing a lot of things to AI. And everybody just, they chat GPT everything. And I know that this will eventually happen. And there's studies that are showing this that
That can actually degrade your ability, your cognitive ability, how you think, how you process, how you communicate. If you outsource all your thinking to chat GPT, that's gonna decrease your mental edge. And so I would say, number one, maintain your mental edge. The mind is an extremely powerful thing and that's our tool. As a knowledge worker, our mind is our tool. You get paid to connect, you get paid to be curious, you get paid to be quick on your feet. You've gotta be sharp. So maintain.
DYC Studio
Mm-hmm.
Mike Lyon
your mental edge as an online sales specialist. Don't outsource everything. Make sure that you are always learning and growing. So that's why I say is number one. What you think about that?
DYC Studio
Yeah. well. I have a follow-up question. How do you maintain your mental
Mike Lyon
Okay.
Mike Lyon
I go to chat GPT and say, summarize this book. How do I maintain my mental edge? You know, I just learn and absorb so much from podcasts. I'm a big audio book fan, obviously. I like doing summaries of books too, of even ones that maybe I'm halfway interested in. I use an app called Blinkist. And you can, know, within...
DYC Studio
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
Mike Lyon
usually 20 to 30 minutes like a mini podcast. So that's one of the ways that I think of educating myself. Like it used to be listen to books on tapes and books on CD and then audio, know, or stuff like that. And you can just put it your car when you're driving. So usually when I'm in the car, I'm always listening to something that I would consider not bubble gum podcast. So that's me personally. I'm not a huge reader reader, but I'll read a book every once in a while.
DYC Studio
Yeah. Mm hmm. Yeah, I love it. I love. Well, I love Blinkist. I love I've I've always been one to like I've got to have a physical book in my hand for some reason. Like the the audio part is harder. But in the last month, I've started doing audio when I'm walking. And so I'm it does take practice. That's the other thing I just want to say. And we're to talk about that in the skills check is.
Mike Lyon
What about you?
Mike Lyon
Yeah.
Mike Lyon
Yeah.
DYC Studio
Maintaining a mental edge takes practice. Like it takes intention. It takes just even carving out a little bit of time a day to focus on it. So just start small. know, can be listening to this podcast. That's 30 minutes of your day. It could be listening to an audio book in either motivation or in sales or, you know, in your profession, whatever that you're listening to 30 minutes a day. So.
Mike Lyon
Yeah, I like it.
DYC Studio
Okay, what else do you want to tell everybody?
Mike Lyon
Well, you know, we talk, it's the first of the year, people have been talking about goal setting, wrapping up last year, looking at this year, but don't just set the goal, break things down into tangible weekly or daily actions. It's actually pretty straightforward. I'm not going to use the word simple. I'll say straightforward, but many online sales specialists just because of the nature of the job are too reactionary. And I say that with love in my heart. I was an online sales specialist.
DYC Studio
Yes.
DYC Studio
Mm-hmm.
Mike Lyon
It's too reactionary. So if you're not carving out that time to be proactive and break those goals down into tangible things, let's just call it professionally. What are my number of outreachs that I need to make? What are my prospecting goals? What are my appointment goals per working day? Things like that can get simple. A lot of times people just kind of look at the end of the month and go, okay, well, I got 20 appointments. Is that what I want? Well, I don't know. Is that what you wanted?
DYC Studio
Mm-hmm.
DYC Studio
Yes, that's big.
Mike Lyon
How many sales came from it, et cetera, et cetera. So working that backwards and breaking it down is huge. What got you here won't get you there. So if you look back at 2025 and say, need to do better, I need to do things different, I need to change it up, you're gonna have to break down those things into more tangible weekly and daily action items. So that's a.
DYC Studio
Right.
DYC Studio
I just wanna pause on that. What got you here won't get you there. I like that. I got that, but I just wanna double down on that one because that's a great one. What got you here won't take you there. Did I say that right? Yeah. Right.
Mike Lyon
Pause.
yeah, you like that? That's someone else's quote, I don't know who, but...
Mike Lyon
Yeah, you don't want to be stagnant. and it's not, I want to, I want to make sure you like, some people have been in this role for five years or so and they go, well, what else do I have? Am I going to get to 80 % contribution? No, that's not always the answer, but are there efficiencies that you can do? Can you do things better? Can you focus or refocus things in a different way?
DYC Studio
Mm. I love that. Well, you know, listen, everybody's doing their goals right now. So I love that. And I love the daily. I think having a daily like I got to hit this many appointments today is huge. Like it keeps you super focused because listen, if it's if it's two o'clock and your phone stops ringing and, know.
inbound e-lead is non-responsive and you go, okay, I've set one appointment. I gotta go find another appointment because maybe your daily goal is two. You gotta go prospect to get that second appointment. Like it helps you stay super focused. Okay, what else?
Mike Lyon
That's right.
Mike Lyon
Okay, final thing is definitely leverage AI tools for time saving and to free you up from the monotonous or hard work. And I want you to think like how you are processing notes, how are you creating notes or passing things along to your sales reps? How are you taking those phone call summaries and turning them into something that can drop into your CRM or if it's already in there, what kind of summary are you using? Appointment reminder, automation, know, things that you just press.
clicks and press clicks. Anything that you have, you don't need robots to answer your calls. I still am a big believer in that, but you can't have them transcribe your calls. So using a lot of those AI functionalities on the backside to make you more efficient on the front end. Again, you're redirecting your time towards the things that matter. When calculators came out, everybody goes, people are going to forget how to do math.
DYC Studio
Yeah.
DYC Studio
Yes. Yes.
Mike Lyon
There was like, what are they going do with the map? when, when word processing came out, you know, what happens to the type? Like there's always disruptions. And what we're starting to see is there are specific things that AI is really, really good for. Um, but use it for those things that it's good for not the, uh, you know, responding to customers when they're really trying to get ahold of the human, because right now it's just not quite there yet. And it's just creating frustration, but leverage those tools to help you with that backend work.
DYC Studio
or trying to pose as a real person. It's like, if it's a bot, like say it's a bot, know, like don't try to be like, I'm Mike here to help you. It's just not, it's not good, it's not good. Okay, so let's do a skills check, Mike. We gotta do a skills check.
Mike Lyon
There you go, yeah.
Mike Lyon
That's right.
Mike Lyon
Ooh, let's do it. That's the end. That's the end of the podcast when we do the skills check, right? Okay.
DYC Studio
Yes, we got to do a skills check because we got to check ourselves before we wreck ourselves. And I think in honor of you being on the on the pod, my birthday, I'm going to take.
Mike Lyon
Okay. Yes. You're giving yourself a Tito Award? For your birthday?
DYC Studio
Yes, I'm giving myself a T &O or you guessed it. Yes. I'm going to take for the skills check. I'm going to take kind of what you've summed up and go with my word of intention for my birthday year. And so for your skills check, here's what I want you guys to do. I want you to take 30 minutes of intentional time to sharpen your sword, you know, your mental edge. What does that look like? It could be,
Mike Lyon
Okay.
DYC Studio
Refining your goals like Mike is saying like coming up with that focused goal that plan of action It could be mapping out. Okay here for 30 minutes. Here's what I want to accomplish today Here's one thing. It could be 30 minutes of listening to a podcast. It could be 30 minutes of listening to an audiobook in in you know, New home the new home industry profession something like that, but take 30 minutes of intentional time to focus on
yourself in that big beautiful brain of yours or 30 minutes to learn a new tool. You know, we've got all these new things out there that we could learn. Even our CRMs have new features. Our call tracking has new features. Take 30 minutes to learn it and try it out. So that's your skills check. Any final words, Mike, as we wrap?
Mike Lyon
I love that.
Mike Lyon
Well, what is 30 minutes a day equal in a month? Right? That equals 15 hours. Let's say we take a weekend off or so and break that. And maybe it's 10 hours, but that 10 hours a month rolled out over a year and you spend 120 hours. I can't do math because I have calculators. Catch EBT. What's 10 times 12? 120 hours.
DYC Studio
Man, we can't, yeah, we don't have calculators.
Mike Lyon
is a college class or two, right? You can learn a lot, but it is, hard to put down the phone, it's hard to put down Instagram and stop scrolling and focus on that stuff. But if you carve it out and you are intentional about it, that's the compounding effect where magical things happen. Our society is moving to a society where the people who can tell a good story and have a good conversation and ask great questions,
DYC Studio
Yeah.
Mike Lyon
are gonna keep rising to the top. That's why online sales are so well positioned to make an impact in their role, but you do have to be intentional about it. I love it, Jen. I think that's a great one. Happy birthday.
DYC Studio
Thank you so much, I appreciate you. Happy birthday, happy new year. Are you down with OPT?
Mike Lyon
Thanks for having me on.
I am, you know, I'm down with OPT. You know me. Yeah. You know me. you've done a great job. You've done a great job this past year, in 2025, keeping the podcast rolling. know so many people appreciate you pumping out, good content. You authentically care, Melissa, Molly and Amanda and the team, everybody you have on everybody loves it. So thanks for being.
DYC Studio
Good job.
DYC Studio
man.
Mike Lyon
for building a community that people can be a part of. I wouldn't have anybody else run in this cult besides Jen Barkin. Jen Barkin, your cult leader. Happy birthday.
DYC Studio
Aww.
DYC Studio
gosh.
man, thank you so much. Thanks everybody for listening. Go get them.
