Hey welcome back to the podcast so excited at the legendary katie day. Katie only has one name it's katie day, katie welcome to the show. Thank you so hold back. First of all, i'm gon na.

Thank you, uh we're doing a podcast. Thank you for making your way from uh houston to dallas yep. We are joined by jason, pantana and courtney. Aka the cat lady you're gon na have to start the cat lady with the dog instagram account with the dog instagram account.

Let's get into that later. This is not about youtube. This is about katie day katie. I am obsessed with people that have figured out how to scale themselves.

That's like my obsession like people that have realized everything is better on a team like like, if you what's, the old line like if you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go for a long period of time like you want to really I'm totally botching that story, but you all know what i'm talking about yeah but like you got to be on a team so so for the people that don't know you and you're on clubhouse, which still makes me laugh, i'm just busting your jobs. I'm aware, please give people some backstory like how long you been in the business. Where do you work? What's the size, your team look like today how many transactions you're doing and then we're going to get a bunch of the weeds yeah for sure, so um got into the business full time in 2017 um long time ago, a long time ago feels like it as An individual agent, my husband, got in full time with me in the summer of 2017., we both kind of did our own thing um and then in 2018 we decided that it would be a good idea to start a team um. I actually funny enough won a free coaching call with you back in 2018, and you basically, you know, told me for all the questions i had you're like throw those away.

Those are we're like digging in deep and like completely tore apart my business, so that was cool, yeah um, but one of the things that you you were like you need. You need to hire another agent asap. So we did that um and cause you guys were killing in your second year yeah. I think it was like 87 homes.

Yeah. That's that's kind of good. You know for your second year in the business is i mean you know for a part-timer yeah yeah? No! Yes, so we decided to go full time at that point. You know after i talked to you, you're like you need to go full time, um and uh.

Yes, we started the team in 2018. 2019 did a lot of hiring a lot of firing. A lot of quitting yeah a lot of trial and error um and then we kind of got a decent uh, decent agent avatar by the end of like 2019 into 2020, and then grew in 2020 uh. So we ended last year with four agents and now we're uh nine total agents and three admin and how many transactions for contacts will you guys do this year, 2021 we're going to end the year at uh, probably around 200 closed and pending a little over 200 And what's the goal for next year, the goal for next year is um: 400..

400.. I like it or minus scaling. I like it. Okay, so we want to unpack.

A lot here are youtube working together. Now we are okay, so i wonder why you got the like the eyes of like i'm going for 400 here coach. Are you buying this um? So what did you do before real estate um? I was in property management, so i did that for eight years or so and what did you do before property management um? I was in college, okay, where'd you go to school university of tampa. Okay, i was born right.

No, but i'm trying to people are always looking for connecting the dots yeah. So so, when i hear property management, and then i hear your success, i say well, of course, right like used to lots of transactions used to solving problems all the time dealing with a lot of different people like so that just like that makes sense to me. But then i want to get like the back back story, so college property management. So why did you leave property management and why did you go into residential real estate um, i mean it just it kind of sucked like i got to the point that and how everyone gets into real estate.

I was tired of managing people um. I wanted to work for myself. I it was. It was difficult.

I got to the point in my career that i was only managing people but, like i was responsible for a lot of things, but then like you would be responsible for something, but i would get in trouble when it didn't get done right and like that kind Of bureaucratic was just like not something that i was a fan of um and i was working really hard for like a decent six-figure salary, with like a 20 bonus. The end of the year so like the unlimited earning potential was definitely huge for me. Um in texas, like apartment, locating and rental, locating, is a big thing so like i would see the checks that we were writing to real estate agents and i'm like holy. That's like way more money than i'm making in a month right um, you know so it's like there could be potential here.

So i was like i got. I was leaving my job and i was like i'll. Try it for six months and see what happens and can i can. I ask a question intertwined please so when you went into real estate, where did you get your business from out of the game you're going right to where, like how did you do 87 transactions? Be in the business um, so these are cute, i'm glad we have these.

Yes, i feel like this needs a purpose. I don't know not sure why it's yours. This is so ugly, but i just you know this is like i want to do. Yoda on this side, that's why i thought it was first when i came in here.

Well, you guys, you have the graphic from the halloween post you all use. I do i do. Okay, let's go back to how. Where do your business come from like? How am i, the non-adv one in this interview, um yeah, anyways um yeah? So what did you do to get started? First year? I did all rentals okay um.

I sold two homes to two of my friends um and then i did like 50 rentals. It was just where'd, you get, the rental leads from i posted homes on craigslist and then when people called me, i would tell them that i could show them as many homes as they wanted, and then i was driving all over the houston metro. It was terrible. Yes, and like i thought like that, was in your script, it's terrible in my head.

This is terrible, but um no, i mean, like you know, i thought i was killing it right like sure, because you think like rentals, you get like a grand pop or maybe more, but you were getting study. Steady deals, steady income, so i did that um and then you recommend that for new agents so like no time time so like no, yes, no! No, i was i was trying to think of something like eloquent to say, but no, i wouldn't it's terrible. Okay, you know we we uh get on the agents on our team because they should be focused on the sale business and like the rentals, are great. I've had many repeat rental, clients, repeat clients, then turn into buyers turn into sellers, all that, but that's a long-term game, yeah um, focusing on buyers and open houses and people that want to transact now's way lucrative way more liquidity significantly.

So you said, i'm gon na give it six months and you fall into what sounds like the trap of rentals, good and bad. How did you then transition out and what what early stage lead sources did you get into? What did you test? What didn't work? What worked um so sphere obviously got a lot more business as i started to get more into real estate and all that from from sphere and personal clients um at the time we owned a gym. So you know, when someone's paying 100 to 200 bucks a month for a gym membership, they normally have enough money to buy a house, so that was a great source of business for us wouldn't recommend opening a gym just to get it why'd. You start a gym.

I'm looking for real estate, clients katie's, now selling franchises to her gym, which is really just an open house, but it comes with weights that was a great source of business. I mean we sold a lot of houses to gym members and friends of gym members, but right, but i mean all that's personal clients. You can do that at a gym. Were you like walking around like oh give me 20., you should buy a house um.

No, but we did i mean i have, as you all know like we had all of my shirts that i wear so they moved into texas on it. We had a banner in the gym, yeah um, you know yeah for sure, but um, yeah, so personal clients in sphere. We had a corporate client that sold a lot of houses. That was the one that you told me that i needed to stop doing that.

I remember you should tell that story about our our caller about about that. One specifically, i was like that's horrible yeah, but i was making in my head again similar with the rentals. I was making the store. Tell the story.

I want to hear it. Oh, my god, so um. Basically, i was working as soon as you said it. I remember the whole story like go.

I love this. I was hoping you had forgotten about that um. So basically i was working this corporate client that you know it was a discounted commission, but it was a large volume, so that was probably 50 or 60 of my 70 80 deals right on the year. So in my head, i'm like okay, cool, i'm making.

You know and she made no money - hey you just spoiled it moral, the story. I made no money um, but yeah, so i was making like decent money as a whole on a volume basis, and you know we have this conversation and he starts breaking it down. He's like what's the commission? Well, you know if that was a regular retail deal from a seller, that you were charging. You know a higher commission.

What would that look like and we start doing the math and he's like you're, basically lighting dollars on fire, to pick up pennies off the ground? You need to hire an agent or fire the client right, and i was too much of a wuss to fire. The client, so i hired an agent um here you go. I want a high five yeah, i don't even know high fiving's like 1975.. I'm not sure i love it.

I don't know so you so i was shocked because i really just being straight with you - did not think you're going to take the advice well, so that what i thought was really crazy about our conversation was that, like we had the conversation, i was like. Okay, yeah, like i got you thanks tom you're great, like i appreciate it, you're like okay well like when. Are you gon na? Do it you know like adding in the accountability? I was like. Oh, like i'll get it done man.

I really appreciate it like thanks. So much for your time i really like. I know our 30 minutes is up so like. Thank you, sir.

Like i'll talk to you later, okay, no he's like i've got a few minutes like i don't have a plane to catch for a few. You know for a few minutes, so we can keep talking, i'm like no, no, it's cool and then you're like well. So if you say you're gon na do it in a week like let's circle back in a week like, let me get all my calendars. Does it sound familiar, you know, and i was like he's really gon na make me do this because i'm like you know if you're taking the time out of your day to like you know, hold me accountable, like i really got ta do this so freaking free Call yeah yeah! No! No! Now i have to deal with him kidding honey kidding.

So so you took that advice and then your business technically skyrocketed, but it tanked right because less transactions but you're making more money yeah so so talk to the listener about that transition because, like you, you basically said like here is sort of an imaginary baby of 40 or 50 transactions at a massive discount and she was still taking a split. You did take a split right. Yes, she did a split on the small transaction, but somebody else is now doing the work. Freeing you up to go.

Do what um. That was when we really started to double down on sphere events um like making phone calls to our sphere social media right. Can i get uh? Where are we at in the journey here like so it's like first year, you're doing rentals? 2018. 2017..

We talked in august of 2018., yeah, okay, and what year did you start again? 27 17.. So 17 was all rentals. Then you pick up this corporate deal and then your first year not doing rentals. He tells you to fire this person or bring on an agent, and you do okay.

I just want to know where he was yeah, i'm just getting the journey. We've already done, like the backstory in the past year. Like us, you know unpacking my i'm slo. I got ta take takes a couple times and i'll figure this in chapter 2019, so read the index.

When did you? When did you have the audacity to say? Okay, i'm going to scale and build the team and, like tell us all of the horror stories like give us the like the juicy like who like what was your most epic fail um. I don't think we have enough time for all of that, but you know i think, that hiring people that i liked, i think, was the first one because, like i think that we get distracted by people that are very similar to us and they don't necessarily fit The appropriate, like disc profile or personality for that role so, like i hired a broker friend who's like a great person, a great agent all of the things but like she doesn't really want to grind as like, as she didn't want to grind as much as we Do so like hiring her to like do all of the things like and be an operations manager didn't make sense so like that, didn't work out hiring uh age, people that want to be agents as assistants and then, like you, know, they're like they want to be An agent but like i want them as an admin, and they want to like cherry pick, leads off of the top right um every team there's like ouch yeah. I made that mistake: um, you know hiring like ryan, and i he's gon na kill me for saying this, but like we accidentally hired an agent uh, i brought her in. We accidentally hired an agent for like a meet and greet, and he thought that it was her final interview, so he basically was like hey it's really great to like meet you.

I'm really excited for you to start on the team, blah blah blah blah and like i was like, like i don't like her and you know whatever and you know so. She joined the team uh for a little while um until she decided to leave but um yeah. I mean we just had a lot of because we made her feel uncomfortable all the time. Have you met me? No but um yeah i mean we've had a lot of like trial and error.

A lot of like. What's the lesson, though, what's the lesson in hiring um, i think that you have to have process in it and, like so um one of the things. So, what's your process yeah, so now what we do is we do onboarding um and we do multiple times per year. Basically, a new agent training class or not even necessarily a new agent but new to our team agent training class, where it's now a three week process, um via zoom and in person where it's kind of like a long term interview.

So they join the brokerage. They may or may not join the team um and then, basically, at the end of the three weeks like we come to a mutual decision on, if it's a good fit for them to join the team um, what do you? What do you look for during that? Because that all sounds great but like what do you look for like what? What are the triggers along the way that? Oh, yes, no? No! Yes like yeah! How do you do that? So we do um, basically like a to z, of like sales operations, marketing right um. We do a lot of role play. We do a lot of like you know, script practice and things like that.

So it's like, if, if we say, hey, call a lead and you do and you're just like. Do you want to see the house okay cool i'll, meet you there, you know they're, like okay, hey like try, this lp mama try this and like are they coachable? Are they showing up? We have like homework, you know like watch this tom perry, video, clearly yeah um and you know right, write down some notes and breaks um. I have to suck up while i'm here right um. When did you start to put all that stuff in place, because you said it was kind of like chaotic before and then all of a sudden yeah now you're like you're speaking about it as though like well now we do this this and this like yeah yeah.

So when did you get that we did it in 2020 um, which was last year? Yes, we did it in 2020 um two times and then we did it um this year, two time three times and then moving into next year, we're going to do it six times. Yes, is what i've been told? How did you figure out the process of what the onboarding would be like now, you're saying, like oh included tom ferry yeah? How did you figure out like and did you use like an lms she's, pretty fancy? Actually, because it's pretty cool, you tell it, but it's it's impressive yeah! I don't have my bag in here, but we have like a little workbook yeah just talk just like we have apps like for fourth graders. We have no idea what you're talking about yeah like make it that, like, like that detailed yeah. So we start out with business plan um and like i want to know how much money they want to make right and then work the numbers of how many calls i need to make appointments and all that stuff um.

Then i want to know like where they think their business is going to come from, and you know them do their business plan and all that um and then, from there sales operations, marketing so operation sales, marketing operations, marketing sales operations, marketing sales, we've been arguing, ryan Runs it a lot he does. He does but like it's, it's all about the training or the lms. You guys are using too yeah, so basically um, then we're going to go into basically a week of sales, a week of market marketing and a week of operations. So, like everything like monday, through friday, eight hours a day, training monday through friday, our time commitment.

As you know, team leaders and as the team is from one to three p.m: um, either via zoomer in person, um and we'll have them do kind of like their homework of watching a video reading. Some sort of you know article or something i don't know, reading something script: training whatever it is something, and then we come in and practice that so we'll go through um. I wish i had it pulled up, but like we'll go through disc profiles, we'll go through scripts, we'll go through buyer consultations, we'll go through the contract, we'll go through all of the addenda. The contract process, from a to z from you know, escrow to close um.

So we would call that, like total immersion training right, total amount, like i'm going to immerse you in everything. What have you learned coming out of that like how proficient are they? How long does it take before they're? Actually, what we would call a net effective sales person, yeah so um, we ran it last time in october or we had agents joining october. So i guess we ran it in september they joined in october. All of them have one under contract and or closed right, and then one of them has two so far um our goal is to get them to have a deal in their first 60 days, like joining the team for real uh.

Are you hearing new agents or experience agents, a combination, so um new agents? Obviously like is you know it's a great program because they're you know brand new and needed right and learning teach me everything. I'm clueless, but i said the mean way, but you know just new yeah yeah, but we i mean we have had great experience with with experienced agents that have been in the business for a year or two years have seen some sales have written a contract open. A lock box done that yeah um to where you know they just need more accountability, more training and kind of just the team environment. So why did you build such a complex system to onboard people um because, like i think that if they go through that and do the stuff do the homework, do you know the script practice show up every day that, like once they're actually on the team, they'll Do they'll be there, but, like everyone interviews? Well, everyone says they want to sell real estate.

Everyone says they enjoy. Looking at people, you know and like you interview well and then they get on the team and they like don't actually need to make money. They said they did and they you know, have no bills and they're. You know whatever right so right, um, it's a good way to see if they're gon na work just to enter the building, we're in the middle of a podcast but erica.

What's up hi guys, we'll you'll, we'll you'll be over here in a minute, okay, yeah! So let's keep breaking this up. People are like what the hell is going on like we do need the yeah. We need the 80d cam. It's right! That's we're going to call it brian.

Can we just get a drone in here at all times, brian's really good on the drone? Okay, so you built it because people were probably failing and you were probably frustrated and you realizing like you were hiring the wrong people that so you ran them through almost like a military-esque experience or like ibm. If you joined ibm or microsoft or tom ferry, like you, go through a learning process and not every coach makes it not. Every sales person makes it it's like novice concept. Is it also because you didn't get that um? I wouldn't have been good in something like this like i'm, i'm not interesting, i'm not great at it.

I am good at following directions like but you're a leader, but like i'm, i'm not great at people telling me what to do like, but i think one of the things a lot is clearly hey unless they say well. I have some extra time for a while. That's how i get it. That's right, uh.

I think a lot of agents um, who start out really strong, like i think about like a phil gerdes, your story, there's so many rock star agents in our ecosystem, who just zero to 60. Like deals basically in their first year, stephen chem yep, they just crush it, and then they hit a point where they need help and there's sometimes an assumption that everybody's as aggressive and ambitious as i am and then they come in. And you realize oh they're, really not they're, not wired like this, and so what i need is some kind of a scrub test or a filter that helps me separate. The people who are all in versus those who are not going to be a part of this process and end up draining the potential of what our our scaling team model is supposed to be.

I also think like tell them about the um software. You guys were using just to help run this tranuli. Yes, uh train, train training right now, whatever it's an lms, a learning management software. Today, yes, yeah, my discount code is okay, kyle whissel love, you kyle, anyways, so um yeah.

We basically have taken all of the modules and put them in there because, like we have them all in google drive, so we took all of our policy and procedures all of our um, i'm working on getting all of our role play calls and everything into the System so that it's like a searchable system where once you're on the team, then you can hop in of like hey. We did this role player. We did this, you know, and it also checks the boxes that you know katie went through this and that that right so also, how did you figure out like what to keep and what to remove from the training process? Did you do like surveys at the end of it like? Let them know, did you do one-on-ones? Like that's a good question, it's a great question. Uh! No, we didn't know surveys, but that's a good idea.

She's like noted something new um and then um. We do one on one so, like you know, kind of go over the highs, lows um. The problem is is like. When i'm like, hey what feedback do you have most people like? I don't have any.

It was great. Thank you. You know so i'm gon na go. I'm gon na go fail over here in the corner, yeah yeah, but um you don't exactly pack a lot of fluff in there either like.

If you know katie, it's pretty much, here's what i need you to know and be able to be cog. Let's go, do more deadlifts yeah, exactly yeah yeah! That's also part of the training it's on week, three deadlifts for sure, of course, of course, rdl. Let's go start a gym step, two right, okay, so the lesson for the person listening right now: that's thinking about scaling their sales team and and maybe sales team, and then the mix of sales and support admin, transaction management marketing. Before we start talking about some other marketing stuff, which i'm going to invite some of these cast of characters to join us, what would you say would be the two or three most important insights or lessons for someone that wants to grow sales and admin appropriately at The same time so everybody gets served and we do a lot of business um.

One of the things i always tell people when they say they want to start a team is that they need to start getting stuff like out of their head and onto paper. So for something as simple as showing a home as open houses, as your initial phone call with a client, what do you do when you hang up that phone like? Do you then go into the mls and set up a portal? Do you put them in the crm like getting super detailed on all of those things, because again, as you said like you expect people to do it the way you're going to like when we would go like check on our agents and open houses like lights, wouldn't Be on the blinds would be close like what the hell are. You doing you know, but like some of those things, just like don't make sense like you're like oh, it doesn't need to be light in the house. It's fine right, so um getting everything out of your head.

Not a paper, i think, is the first. It's the first right, no sop! It's mary jet 101., like everything, has to be in sop. You are a genius even like when i said so break down your onboarding. You were like you went little bits and pieces of it high level.

I'm like you know, go deeper. It's the same thing when you're asking somebody like hey. This is how we do an open house yeah. You know we show up 30 minutes early.

The signs are already out. We make sure this is done. We light and brighten this right, walk through the house. Make sure there's nothing strange.

That's sitting out right! Yeah! You get that on paper, then they, you know what i'm talking about, yeah anybody. Anybody i mean it's like if you like a checklist. Yes, exactly remove all weird things. Yes, so one is sops, get it out of your head.

I have totally funny story to tell you later. I want to hear it not on this podcast. No, it's not, but it's good can't. Wait! Sorry leaving you hanging.

What's the number two thing um, i want to scale my sales team and my ad admin. At the same time, the right way profitably. What else do i need to do? I mean, i think, that it's a delicate balance, but i think you need to hire admin before you hire agents, because, obviously you have your stuff all organized now, because you have all these sops right, but then we hired an agent first right and like we still Didn't have a lot of stuff organized like i was still doing transaction management at that point like so really when i gave up that business i was still like. You were still the dc yeah.

You know so i was still the tc. So, like you know, you have to get out of your own head when we hired a good tc she's she's uh. She had left to go into uh like therapy and stuff like that. After working with us, she had to go into therapy as a therapist, not into therapy sure you know whatever um, but no like once i had a good tc and like they were doing all the paperwork like i literally, would just take documents and for them i Didn't have to say what they were right.

She would just figure it out and do it and tell me what i did wrong right. How many was it a first try or how many tries um? She was our third hire. So what's the lesson there, because i think this is a big one for a lot of agents, they get an admin or they get somebody who's, not the right fit for the role. But i hear again and again that it took me, my third or my fourth try to find the right person.

Well, i i think that it depends on what the the job is so like our first try was hiring someone that did both marketing and tc and those are two different people right like, but i was just thinking i need an admin and, like i'm, very marketing, Focused and i'm i am good at paperwork like i'm a like dc personality like i don't have much eye dc. Really, i really don't i'll pull out my dad. I'm kidding it's obvious yeah, okay, anyways, so um yeah, so like in my head, hi, i'm katie day. It's very nice to meet you, i'm really excited to be here.

I was like hold back your enthusiasm. You know okay, so um! I the book was great yeah, yes, okay, so so the the delicate balance hiring the right disc group. So, finding the right people for the right positions, um and yeah - i mean i think that that's that's really important um, but the ad should come first. Is there a profile solution, software that you you find that you liked more insight versus bank versus disk versus? You know strengths finder, like um, i mean we use disk and, like crystal knows obviously like and just kind of kind of search them out right and see because, like like, i want people in positions.

I tell them that i want them to be drivers, and i want them to tell me when i need to do things or that things need to be done, but, like the my tc that left like she - and i bought it at this point - that like we, Would like hang up the phone on each other and like things like that, but like when we left like i i was like: can i pay you more money? No, like can i pay? Can i buy you another cat like? What can we do to keep you on the table that lady shirt right um but yeah? No, i mean so like you know, finding the right personalities and finding like the ones that are going to mesh for sure with you, because, like you're going to do a lot with them and they're going to support your business yeah, did you put a timeline on That, like a 30 60 90 like when, did you decide like? Oh, this, isn't a good fit um. Probably i decided in my head way sooner than when it actually happened, because that's what most people do is they get like complacent and like scared, and you know whatever and throw away money but um yeah. I mean i think, that, looking back on it now, like you know you you know way sooner than when you actually pull the trigger. So what do you say to somebody because i think a lot of people they think to themselves? Well, maybe my expectations were too big.

Maybe i didn't. Maybe i don't know what to expect or what's reasonable for this person, this role until you find that person, then you look back and you're like oh, i should have done this way sooner. What do you say to somebody who's kind of questioning that now i think that um, if it's in your gut your problem, your gut's, probably right, like just initial, like snap decision right like it's probably the right thing to do is to like let that person go Or find another person but like i think, some of it choose training like so i look back on some of our hires and i'm like okay, like i didn't, spend enough time, because i assumed that you knew how to do it or i showed you once like You need to put the time in on the training to to make sure that they're the right person and give them you know the full opportunity to succeed or fail yeah, it's good. I think too many team leaders think of like uh someone joining their team as like a listing like, even though you know it's stale and it's ugly and it's not dressed well and it's never going to sell.

But what, if it does, what? If it does and if someone else gets it versus like cut bait and move on right like it's just and there's a graceful way to do that, obviously did you make any bad fires um i mean some people may say so sure they may say. So i don't know you're, like my lack of green in terms of my disc profile survey, says: yes, you did where's the exit interview, i'm like what i just yeah. I just told you i'd pay you for your two weeks and see you later right, um, no and and like in full transparency too, like ryan. My husband is is far better at like the feelings and emotions and all that so he's great at telling people like that, he really appreciates them, and you know they're no longer with the company do more deadlifts yeah you're flabby get out of here.

We've never said that you've thought it. I guarantee right, okay, so so this is going to be one of those fun podcasts we're going to transition. Now i want to talk marketing and i want to talk video. You.