The Year-End That Changes Everything
How to Finish the Year with More Business, Deeper Relationships, and a Career That Actually Feels Worth Living
Every November, there’s a moment—usually somewhere between the last listing appointment of the day and the quiet clink of ice in a glass at home—when the year’s weight really lands. Deals that came together beautifully. Opportunities missed by inches. Clients who became friends. And the gnawing awareness that the calendar is closing in on December 31, whether we’re ready or not.
This year, that moment feels sharper.
The market has been choppy. Interest rates have behaved like a temperamental houseguest. Buyers and sellers are cautious, distracted, tired. And yet, here we are: almost Thanksgiving, hurtling toward year-end, staring down our goals, our bank accounts, and our sense of professional pride.
If you’re anything like me, you still need business between now and the end of the year. Not just for the numbers, but for what those numbers represent: momentum, relevance, the confidence that comes from finishing strong rather than fading into the holidays.
So the question isn’t: Will there be opportunity?
The question is: Who will be unreasonable enough to create it?
What “Unreasonable Hospitality” Means in Our Business
Will Guidara’s philosophy of unreasonable hospitality in restaurants is simple and radical: don’t just meet expectations—blow past them in ways that are human, specific, and unforgettable. Not bigger, not flashier—more caring.
In real estate, we’ve often confused luxury with excess. Luxury coffee table books. Luxury car services. Luxury staging. But luxury without heart is just theater. What clients remember is not the logo on the bag—it’s the way you made them feel at one of the most vulnerable, high-stakes moments of their lives.
Unreasonable hospitality in our world might look like this:
Taking time to write a handwritten note to the seller whose home didn’t sell this year, thanking them for trusting you and sharing three specific things you genuinely loved about their property.
Sending a client a small, thoughtful gift that speaks to their story—not your brand. The couple who always joked about needing a bigger dining table for Thanksgiving? Send them a beautiful set of place cards or serving pieces with a note: “Until I help you find the dining room that truly fits your life, I hope these make this year’s table feel just a bit more special.”
Calling a past client—not to “check in about real estate,” but to ask, “What did this year teach you? What’s one thing you want to change next year?” And then listening long enough to hear where you might truly help.
Unreasonable hospitality is not about spending more money. It’s about spending more of yourself.
The Whole Agent at Year-End
When I launched the Whole Agent concept, it came from a very real place in my own life. There was a season not so long ago when I lost my real estate firm to direct competitor aggression. Within 18 months, I lost both of my parents and nearly every aunt and uncle I had. It was a cascade of loss—professional, personal, generational. There were mornings I wasn’t sure I had it in me to suit up, show up, and pretend everything was fine.
But I kept going. Every day.
What carried me wasn’t just ambition. It was a decision to become a whole agent—not just someone who knew how to write a sharp offer or price a listing correctly, but someone whose behavior, character, and reputation could stand in the storm.
At year-end, when the market is slow and the temptation is to coast, this is where the Whole Agent shows up:
Not as the loudest person begging for business on social media, but as the most consistent, trustworthy presence in their clients’ lives.
Not as the slickest marketer, but as the one who remembers birthdays, anniversaries, and the quiet heartbreaks that never make it onto Instagram.
Not as the agent who pushes people into decisions out of fear, but as the advisor who walks people toward decisions with clarity and courage.
The Whole Agent understands that unreasonable hospitality is not a tactic—it is a way of being.
You Still Have Time
Let’s be extremely practical: you still have time to generate real business before the end of the year. But it will not come from wishful thinking or endlessly “tweaking your brand.” It will come from direct, human contact infused with unreasonable care.
Between now and December 31, here is what I’m challenging you—and myself—to do:
1. Make a Thanksgiving List, Not a Hit List
Instead of a cold call list, create a gratitude list: the 25–50 people who shaped your year. Past clients, referral partners, colleagues, neighbors. People who took your calls when you needed advice. People who trusted you with their largest asset.
Reach out with no agenda other than to say:
“I just wanted you to know I’m grateful for you. This year has been a lot, and your trust/support friendship really mattered.”
That’s it. No pitch. No ask. Just humanity. The business will follow—but only if the relationship comes first.
2. Create One Unforgettable Moment for Five People
Pick five people—current clients, past clients, or prospects—and do something unreasonably kind and specific for them before the year ends. Not extravagant; intentional.
Pay attention to a small detail in their life and act on it.
Show up when they don’t expect you to—in a supportive, unintrusive way.
Solve a problem they didn’t even know you could solve.
These five moments will do more for your 2025 pipeline than any generic mass email.
3. Be Radically Honest with Yourself About the Work
It’s almost Thanksgiving. Maybe you’re behind on your goals. Maybe you’re ahead but exhausted. Either way, ask:
What would it look like if I gave the last six weeks of this year my very best?
Not a performative best. Not a frantic best. A focused, whole-hearted best.
Clear two hours a day for proactive outreach.
Turn off the noise and write a personal note a day until New Year’s.
Have three real conversations every weekday: not about “the market,” but about people’s lives and what they want next.
You don’t need 1,000 people to say yes. You need a small handful of people to remember you showed up when it mattered.
This Is Not About My Ego. It’s About Your Future.
When I created the Billion Dollar Broker coaching platform, it wasn’t because the world needed another coach talking about “mindset” while never having sold a single home. It was because I have lived the peaks and the valleys of this business—and I know what it takes to not just survive them, but to grow through them.
I’ve lost a firm. I’ve buried parents. I’ve weathered markets that looked like cliff edges. And I still show up every day as an active broker, in the trenches, doing the work.
This is not about a book I’m trying to sell or a brand I’m trying to inflate. This is about you.
You, the agent who knows you’re capable of more but feels stuck in the same patterns year after year.
You, the mortgage professional who is tired of being treated like a transaction instead of a trusted advisor.
You, the leader who knows their name should stand for something more than “closed another deal.”
The Whole Agent is not a fantasy. It is a decision. And year-end is a perfect time to make it.
An Invitation to Finish Differently
If this resonates, here is a simple challenge for the rest of this year:
Commit to unreasonable hospitality in every interaction—from your listing appointments to your family dinner table.
Reach out, with courage and kindness, to the people who have brought you this far. Thank them. Ask what they need. Listen more than you speak.
If you want a guide, ask for one. If you’re ready to become a Whole Agent—not just in marketing language, but in daily practice—then consider this your invitation to step into a conversation with me.
Not a hard sell. A real conversation about where you are, what you’ve been through, and what you want the next chapter of your career—and your life—to look like.
Year-end doesn’t have to be a slow fade into the holidays. It can be the moment you choose to live—and work—differently.
Unreasonable hospitality. Whole Agent. Your next level of business and impact.
Let’s finish this year with intention—and set the stage for a 2026 that looks and feels radically better than anything you’ve built before.
