What a private eye knows about being a true partner in your client’s success

My realtor Linda is the Nancy Grace of real estate. She missed her calling to join the FBI, so instead, when we go look at houses, she channels her vigilance into sizing up homes and neighborhoods. 

It’s like being in an episode of CSI: Detroit with my own version of David Caruso inspecting the scene for evidence of what might be wrong with the house. 

“See that overgrown front yard,” Linda points out as we’re driving down a residential street. 

“You mean the English garden?”

“If you want to call it that. That’s a rat’s paradise. Trust me when I say you don’t want to live next door to that. It’ll only attract vermin.” 

“Linda - it has the neighborhood beautification award sign on the front lawn!” I say through my laughter. 

“I don’t even understand that,” she quips.

Later, Linda calls OnStar to get directions to our next house.

“Welcome to OnStar, can you hear me ma’am.”

Linda doesn’t answer. She just asks for her directions. 

This exchange happens repeatedly where Linda never answers their question.

“Linda, why didn’t you tell the customer service agent, “Yes, I can hear you?”

“Because scammers will record you saying “Yes” and use that to steal your identity,” she says matter of factly. 

I look at her sideways and start laughing. 

“I’m serious!” Linda laughs back. “You can never be too careful.”

Linda and I have been working together for six years, and her vigilance, which I frequently razz her about, has helped me tremendously in avoiding disastrous homes, sinkholes, homes with furnaces and water heaters hidden inside drywall (making their repair or upgrade a demo project) and so much more. 

Where I’m carefree, Linda is on high alert. She’s the yin to my yang, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The Oakland Township sheriff has described Linda as, “My favorite hometown detective,” for helping to bust a car theft ring by sharing footage of a failed car theft from her own home security cameras.

When I was selling my home, Linda insisted on me getting cameras for each room, so I could keep an eye on visitors and make sure nothing was stolen during showings. 

“It’s more common than you think,” Linda warned me. 

It won’t shock you to hear that Linda is extremely paranoid about wire transfers.

“Laura, there are so many scammers. When you get the wire instructions from the title company, call them and verify they sent them to you. Double check everything. I’ve heard too many bad stories of scammers intercepting wires and people losing hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

Linda repeated this refrain about wire transfers so often, that she really did scare the devil out of me. 

So when I finally did purchase a home and it came time for me to wire money over to the title company, I followed her instructions to the letter.

Which leads me to last Friday, when I sat in cubicle of the banker who was helping me execute my wire transfer for my soon to be new home. 

We had just finished confirming the details of my transfer and she was about to hit send, when a man came barging through the door to speak with her.

“Do you have special authorization for (something banking related)?” He asked her, frantically. 

“I do, but I’m with this client now,” she responded, cooly. 

“I need you when you’re done. We need to reverse a wire transfer.”

As you can imagine, I could hear Linda in my head screaming about wire-transfer scams. 

If I was nervous before, I was on high alert now.

Reverse a wire transfer?!

I could hear the bankers in the office next door. 

The bank was supposed to wire $100 dollars to an account. 

Instead they wired $100,000. 

We checked our numbers one more time, my palms sweating. 

The banker hit send on the wire transfer and I walked out and immediately called the title company.

“Please let me know when you get the transfer.”

I waited by the phone, channeling my inner Linda, rereading the numbers we sent on my confirmation sheet, when I got a notification in email, less than an hour later.

“Wire received. All good.”

Linda might be paranoid, but with good reason. Linda is right more often than she’s wrong - and that’s something that you can only learn through time and experience.

I’m telling you this story, because sometimes as consultants, our clients may find something we say hard to believe - despite having tons of evidence to back it up. 

This happens to me frequently when I work with clients and tell them:

The riches are in the niches.

This is a drum I beat with all my clients. 

Incessantly, kinda like Linda with her security tips. 

Most clients do not want to narrow. 

They are too scared it will limit them.

And they don’t believe it will work.

But my certainty is greater than their doubt, and so I keep beating that drum.

Which brings me to an interesting note my client Mel sent me last week. 

She said, “Laura, I didn’t believe you when you said the riches are in the niches. But you were right. I’ve had four sales calls this week, thanks to narrowing my target market!”

I’m proud of her for taking my advice, and doing the hard and very scary thing of narrowing down. 

I do what I do, because I know it works, if it’s implemented consistently.

Whenever we want to do something new, get to the next level in our life or business, you can try to do it alone or you can get help from a trusted advisor. 

Your clients have hired you, presumably because they need a trusted advisor to help them. 

We’re wise to not shy away from unpopular opinions, or bow to their whims because we don’t want to rock the boat. 

Like Linda, become an investigator of your client’s business, understand their problems, offer solutions and stay vigilant as you champion for their success. 

After all, that’s why they’re paying you. 

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Hi, I'm Laura Khalil (KUH-lil) and I'm dedicated to helping ambitious women find bigger contracts in the next 60 days, and rebalance the scale of financial justice in our favor!

I grew my consulting business by going after bigger contracts with GE, Intel and Twitter and today I pull back the curtain to help you find your perfect slice of business.

When you’re ready, here’s how I can help:

—> Go after bigger contracts in the next 30 days without dancing on TikTok, creating endless social media content, and without a huge list. Download the guide.

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