Hey welcome back to Team! Builders today I've got one of the unique teams that hires experienced agents versus new agents I Want to unpack that and how these guys have built this monster business Scott and Mike welcome to the show Thank you thank you sorry Mike Yeah that was a very good that was really great in unison. by the way that thank you so so fellas uh out of the gate. What I'm intrigued by is hey, you built this monster team So actually Scott unpacked this for us. What's your role? What's Mike's role just so we have context and then I want to unpack All this? Yeah, Sure. Absolutely. So Mike and I um are co-team leaders? Uh, we do have 30 active agents and five staff members in different roles. Yep, Operations Manager: uh marketing slash listing, assistant, executive assistant, and uh, virtual assistant that is full-time That helps us with marketing. Beautiful. Beautiful. So how do you do Co It's like co-ceos How does that work? Yeah, well, it's like having two. Batmans Tom So you know we. We look at it as like uh, you know. Uh, as we're we're both active in the business so we're both active in production. Yeah and then we have experienced stages on our team. As you mentioned, the average experience age on our team is over 10 years. So most of the ages we attract are people that want to grow their book of business and allow us to help them get there. We're doing it by from a place of example for sure and and this in our hiring experienced agents really gives us the opportunity to always play the long game. So like, there's certainly some training and onboarding that takes place of course. but the the fact that we are in the best position to help them like wherever they are in their business, we're able to put away the small like building blocks of like very basic levels of like building a business and we can just get right into okay, how can we execute on the highest production activity available to them Scott I Love it I Love it. I Still am going to go back This I Have to unpack this. You know you. You meet couples that you know run businesses together. You meet, you know, two, two and two couples getting together and trying to run it with four people making decisions. That's a lot of. um, that's a lot of mental work. So how do you guys divide and conquer? This because you're also personally producing at a high level. So who who makes what decisions and how yeah, uh, I'll touch on the first part of Mike if you want. So Mike and I certainly have two different skill sets right? Um, you know we approach it the business differently. you know Mike handles a lot of like the numbers aspect. I'm really good at building relationships and helping and being there being the the person that the agents can always go to Mike certainly as well. but uh, 27 years in the business for me. So I feel like I've seen everything I've been through four different Cycles right? Um, I am a voice of reason where maybe other agents may have only been through one cycle or none, right? So Mike you want to talk about? you know, generally we overlap a bit a bit of a VIN but Mike handle some of the numbers if you will. Yeah, totally. So we. as Scott mentioned, we have different skill sets and different approaches. but the one thing that's uh, aligned around the big rock item. so I think where someone were like, how do I start a partnership from scratch? Well it starts with over time, it starts with trust, it starts with alignment and it builds from there and that's kind of how things have happened. I've been to 18 years Scott mentioned 27 years so a long time it's more like a Brotherhood at this point and we come from that vantage point. Yeah, smart and so so Scott mentioned you're more the number side which is crazy because I when I see you on social with like a dog on the bed and just these sort of funny you know, interesting skits. don't think I'm not paying attention Mike I was like man, that guy's got a big personality now balancing two big personalities. We could spend a lot of time there, but I'm gonna move away from I think I got the gist. Um, you guys are still in production. Before we talk about these experienced agents, you've seen a lot of your friends. I mean last year, 295 transactions, 4.2 million dollars in GCI Um, you know this year already if I'm reading this correctly. now. where are you guys at year today? I don't wanna I don't want to misquote this. this may be a couple weeks old. Yeah, we're on track for 170 million and right at 300 deals, we've been able to increase our average price point, which we're excited about. We just ran those numbers and we had around 30 left. So it's been uh, you know those are exciting times to be. Continue to move the uh things and that ties in well with the fact that we are still in production. We absolutely, um, are really prioritizing luxury leadership and listings. So with respect to our production and what we spend our time on is the Three L's so I Love it. You know it's uh, whether we're talking big rocks or Okrs, or you know, wildly important goals, you're you and I are already talking about Scott The same stuff, which is my argument for everybody today is it's going to be listings, right? It's going to be brand and it's going to be leverage, right? those three and again, there's no right or wrong. Yours is luxury listings and Leadership and Leadership All right. So let's let's give the listener before we get into the experience agent thing which again, I'm fascinated by. um, give us an example of some of the projects you have under: luxury versus Leadership versus listings. Let's go listings first. Listings first. Certainly. Um, so as mentioned, Mike and I are still in production. we uh, we? also we obviously we're doing a lot of social media. We've jumped all in with video. We're generating listing opportunities through video and our Geographic Farms that you know we have a lot of time in on these Farms Um, they're producing at a high level. Uh, different areas for Mike As for me, um, in different areas of town and we're always seeking out other opportunities. Other: Geographic Farms that would be in the next tier price wise, right to. therefore, press that lever if you will. You want to talk about leadership? Yeah, I mean leadership. We're present. We're not an absent leader, so for our team, we're accessible. You know. I Think that's the big thing is, but we're calling. We have our limits, right? You're not calling at 9 Pm. But if that's what it takes to put out fires, you know we really want to come from a place of like, how do we you asked us a long time ago Tom in this respect, like what are you building, what are you building for right And like we came back with an answer like, what are the four ways we get the best workplace award That's what we wanted to do and so like you know for us it was discovering like our A-Plus agents on our team. Yeah, the NFL if you will. How do we motivate them? Keep them excited? You know, uh, our College athletes. They're hungry, they need some good plays and where do we direct them And then the high school And we don't take on too many high school. Most of them are brand you know, uh, or seasoned vets if you will. But you know our goal is to differentiate our team and spend time quality time because they have different needs at different levels. Yeah, we have to. We have to approach each differently based on where they are in their individual book of business. So we furthermore we are collaborative team. We are all about okay let's build your book of business and in other reality is I Think a lot of team leaders might hear us say that and they might feel like wow you must have a lot of people in League that leave and she had a lot of churn. We really don't And the reality is is we're constantly adding value. Obviously our coaching membership is huge. The Tom Ferry uh, referral network is huge. You know our company referral Network and others. So we're leaning into adding value. So then you know, compared to any other operation out in the marketplace, We Stand Tall I Love it. So you gave us a good little insight. you know, Scott on sort of Geofarms videos and what's interesting? Just coming back to that before. I Touch on what Michael's saying with leadership: Uh I'm never blown away when I meet a luxury agent solo team Etc That doesn't start with Geographic farming right? that it's You know, of course it's almost Empire Of course it's your past clients. Of course it's your sphere. but when you're talking luxury, unlike your past clients and sphere which you can't always dictate the average sales price you can with a geographic. Farm give us just a little bit of insight before we go back into leadership. Uh I'm running a big team, Am I doing farming for my agents or am I just doing farming for yourself? and how long does it take before you get the results? Yeah, so um, for my we we don't do the farming for our team members. we show them the value of general like getting into a farm their neighborhood first of all and then the feeder neighborhood neighborhoods that that feed that neighborhood. smart right and constantly be looking for what is the next level for where people are moving from your neighborhood, your home base to right. And then we have been able we've had people not to get too far off. Uh, but I think it's relevant. We've had people come in that have just killed it on Geofarm based on our directive. um to First establish a presence in their neighborhood, dominate their neighborhood, move on to the next right and so on and so forth. And you know we always tell people listen. it's investment, right? It's not an expense you have to buy in and who better to represent their neighborhood than them 100 and how long how long? Scott on average. Oh um, we tell people honestly. We tell people two years. But Mike The little secret is, if we do it right, we can. We can move the needle in nine months. Absolutely absolutely love it. Okay so so Mike you mentioned leadership and and a wonderful old example that I've used many times and I've had. you know mentors of mine say you know every person joining your team is basically in one of three tiers high school, college or Pro level right? and I I always love that and you used it perfectly. So how do you lead differently? Someone that is at the pro level you know they're I'm making this up Mike You know the numbers better. There are five or ten or fifteen million dollar producer. They've been selling real estate for the same length of time or longer than Scott. How are you? How are you coaching that person up? How are you leading that person when? sometimes not always, but sometimes they kind of feel they already know all the answers. Oh so true. That's not true. That is. That's it's a key. Point Yeah, I Mean you're talking about motivating millionaires. You know, like you're at the pro level. you've established yourself. You're credible. Um I think the moment. the one thing we really look for is people that don't have it all figured out forever. You know, like this notion that I I can't I'm stock I'm still too long I'm never thinking about what I'm thinking about. yeah and I've got it all figured out. We don't look for people like that. We look for people that say I'm here because I see what you're doing, you're having fun, you're killing it. and I want to learn from what you're doing because you're obviously doing something different. So it starts with the right people. Always like people that want to grow and want to be around that type of mindset of you know of growth. So like the vets that have been in the business, that may look like a lot more one-on-one time. So for us it's not a group setting. They're not coming to the weekly training that we provide. Not generally we may provide lunch and they may show up, but in general it's a lot of one-on-ones And it's like coaching. Like saying, all right, your Geographic farming, let's tweak your postcards. Have you thought about saying something like this? We thought about incorporating a QR code. Have you thought about doing this as a landing page? You know. Let's plug you into our regular coaching sessions because there's so much value there. it's like, right, Oh my gosh, every time we leave our jaws drop like oh, we have so much to do so. Uh, I think it looks differently for the ones that are over our five million dollar club and the vet on our team versus the folks that are, you know, lower than that for sure I mean sorry. One additional point is to Mike's point I Think it. Bears repeating. Even the folks that have been in the business a long time are Learners they're leaning into trying to get better, right? Do we have folks from time to time that want to Twilight their career? Absolutely. and we hope to help them do that. So so of the of the two of you who's the better recruiter of those senior agents laughs Yeah, I'll be humble. but I'll let Mike say that I would say also I agree. Yeah, Okay, so so then let's talk about that. So how do you recruit a senior agent? Are they only coming to you? Are these layups because they're coming to you? or is there some outbound recruiting directives? Yeah, I will tell you. Um, the most recent folks that have come on board that classify in this category I would say are folks have been had relationship with for a long time through transactions. Uh, just being connected in the community having signs in yards for a long time. Yeah, so yeah, some kind of lay up to be a pretty Frank with you. We don't do a whole lot of the traditional recruiting. You know we're not burning up the funds to strangers. Um, for us, it's been more about attracting the right people. Social media and video has been a big part of that of late. Yeah, and it's It's something that you know honestly. But before, probably two years ago, we we didn't really consider the benefit of of Video and Social on our recruiting strategy. Uh, so we've seen. Definitely seen, uh, some really Improvement in that respect. Yeah, totally. And we this year we're excited. We eventually have 30 active agents including us. We're also in two expansion markets, so we launched two different markets outside of our primary market and we would only do that with seasoned professionals and we worked a great Business Partnership It's fruitful for all involved and I think that's that's the case. If you come from the place of this is a win-win you don't like doing XYZ How can we take XYZ off your table and help you increase your book of business? That's what we can provide as a solution. And if you're Twilight your career and you're a vet 25 years in the business maybe are some things that you know like you can do a little better that you don't want to do. We could take an offload on your plate and by the time I checked, there's not a retirement party for a real estate agent. there's not and there's no succession plan. So we've developed a plan that we can help people in place so that they can move on in the next phase and they can have a fruitful partnership going forward with that next phase of life may that look like I just I Just had Tim Smith on a live show I think it was last week or the week before and he was mentioning as this topic is brought up more and more I think I wasn't sure if it was on or off camera but basically Mike you said the same thing he's like I'm finding these agents in my Marketplace that they have. They've been Legends forever. They just don't want to go through this. Market they're like I own enough real estate I bought enough houses. but the argument is their book of business whether it's a hundred raving fans or a thousand raving fans evaporates into the real estate atmosphere unless somebody else takes it on. So is that is that A Is that a Is that an only out of Market strategy or are you doing some of that in Market as well? In market for sure. both out of market and in Market Yes. So so talk to The Listener right now if Scott you go first Mike second whoever right like talk to The Listener about how you approach that person uh or how you make that offer as hey, come with me and you can do less and keep getting referral fees or whatever the pitch is. Yeah I mean obviously these are folks that we have a long-standing relationship with. There's a level of trust that they have with us. Yeah, and these folks that that have used this particular agent to represent them over you know, 15 20 homes and transactions through the years, right? Um, the the agent that's Twilight in their career really needs to have the trust in the person that they're going to to use as that referral partner. So for us, the conversation is Hey Listen, you know we're looking at the numbers. We've seen your numbers. uh, slowed down a little bit. I know you're wanting to do some traveling. Maybe you have grandchildren you want to go visit more frequently. We want to allow you to do that but still continue to earn and to leverage those relationships that you've worked so hard to build. Yes, yeah, totally. I Think it really comes down to where what they Envision a good partnership to look like. It starts with that like what are the pain points of what their current operations look like and how can we provide solutions to that first? Because that's like everybody like if you lead in and you have a good you know why question like you know. So you got this business 25 years ago. obviously a lot of fun about like what is the next phase your your journey look like if you're given much thought like in five years you want to do more traveling. do you want like help us unpack that and we're trying to ask really probing question to get deep so we can provide a solution with that and we have a variety of different options for those that may be interested. So I think it's so smart fellas, what you're up to and and you know we. We see it in our ecosystem. and I I can't name names but I'm literally I'm helping two two different groups of Mega teams merged together. one of which because basically this this dominant team. She basically said I don't want to sell houses anymore at the scale that I'm at I don't want to manage the team that I have anymore and this group over here they are ascending like you guys and they're like come on over right I mean like we'll we'll make it and you know, co-branding and co-marketing But they do have some agreements in place that say things like you have to continually shoot you know, four videos a year so we can push that to your database. You know you need to make sure that you, you know, generate X number of transactions. otherwise it's not really worthwhile for you or for us. Do you have some of that stuff in place as well? And if so, what is it? Yeah, so it really comes down to like the like the first year to The Five-Year model so someone said in the next five years I see myself kind of fully out of production. Okay, well then let's build out the plan. custom to you what that looks like so that might look like year one. You know we have a partnership of X and Y split and we're doing most of the work we would still require that you're involved like host a client party, introduce us to your database, like warm us up to the idea. These are people you know, love and trust and have been forever. Yeah, so let her partner with you in that in the marketing messaging and we'll build out these templates. We'll build out these things for you and we'll execute on them. So then you know year two. Maybe it's a little less of what you're doing and by the end of year five, maybe it's full on. We've just kind of taken over. So if somebody has that desire, what we don't want and we're not the place where you just come to hang your license, we don't want to be that camp. No, we want to be more productive people. go to grow. I Love it. I Love it. So I think for the listener right now you know you're listening to team. Builders show you got Scott in my like really revealing a very different strategy that one could argue is more of a traditional broker model, right? How do I get experienced agents who bring a book of business and help engineer their success? Now here you two are in this great brokerage and doing it as a team. So someone's gonna ask? So I'll ask it on their behalf. How does it work financially? Are they on? Are they on scalings splits? Are they all on the same split? You know? Is everybody different? How do you guys work that out? I Mean you can give as much detailers a little bit. just help us unpack that like someone's gonna ask. Are they making any money? Yeah, no worries. Absolutely. so importantly we have. We've had people with us for a long time. Um, you know. so we have varying degrees of what that Compensation Plan might look like. Yes, Um, you know. And for the folks that have been with us the longest, Um, it is different than for folks that have. Come on right? I'm not saying it's actually better, it's just different, right? But we are all we're We're absolutely value-based So what I mean by that is we're ha. We have all our team plugged into the coaching platform right? We're attending events so most smart business people will recognize you gotta You Gotta Give Something up to get something right? So yes, um. we're making money. Our team's making money. Um Mikey What else you want to add on that? Yeah. I mean we are a profitable team. You know we're constantly looking at those numbers saying you know, how do we add more value and what kind of things do after we give it a year didn't work, you know and being real with that. What point are you saying? All right? I'm not going to dig my heels in after six months of a year. If it's not working, we need to Pivot making some adjustments And so we're looking at that constantly and saying, you know what can we do to do it better. And so the folks that come on, uh, you know there is a tiered system that we have in the beginning, uh, of the year and then it kind of graduates from there based on a tiered schedule. Uh, but that being said, the folks have come on in like expansion markets for example. We're generating opportunities for those involved and that comes at a much lower opportunity and a much Lower Split threshold rather so I Think it depends on where they're at in their career and what that partnership looks like. Uh, from you know in the beginning. we started as a boutique Brokerage in Charlotte North Carolina where we're based to, you know, a team that kind of covers this entire region. We really want to Brand ourselves at the Carolina boys if you will and the Carolina group because our goal is to help everybody all over the Carolinas North and South Carolina included. Yeah, well said. It sounds like there might be some more M A in the future here this is. this is getting exciting. So so fellas if if I didn't ask you somebody would smack me the next time I saw him. So as we stand here today as we film this, interest rates are now at seven. Uh, you know inflation is rampant and doesn't seem to have any. There's no, there's no tell that says anything other than we hope by the end of summer next year it'll curtail, which then interest rates will follow 90 days afterwards. there's political unrest, there's economic woes, the job market is uncertain. Oh, let's buy a house like there's a lot going on. What are you guys doing today personally in your production? and Advising These you know these other 28 agents to be relevant, to be thoughtful, to be understanding, but also get the job done and help people buy and sell real estate that want to what what plays you running differently? Yeah I love that. Love that question. Um I'll tell you you know I am just utilizing my experience I Know this is different than 2008 Yeah, but 2009 was my best year to date up to that point. And for for me and us we are, We're putting the throttle down. We're we're going. obviously more video, more social. We're not going to stop spending on our farm. In fact, we're going to expand our farm. The pieces that hit the mailboxes Now we have great. We're going to have greater attention because everyone else is pulling back. So um, going all in with farm and then video? um and I would also say Furthermore, getting face to face, we're doing more client events. Obviously, we're calling our sphere of influence our database more regularly, but we are looking for every opportunity to go all in with face-to-face opportunities. We do. Uh. tailgates for all of our, you know NFL Panther opportunities here. And you know we're constantly reaching out to our database to connect with them, invite them to the tailgate. We have tremendous participation, but better than that, everyone is so thankful that we're inviting them, right? Yes, so not everybody is able to come and be there to for the face-to-face but it gives us another reason to reach out to our database for the invite. What else? Mike Oh, totally. I've heard it said like complexity is the enemy of execution and you got to keep it simple. You just got to do it. So pick up the damn phone and start making calls every day. You know, like that part of it. And there's The Hourglass where we get our Hour of Power We're going back to the Beautiful Basics right prior to coaching. We are very random in terms of regular trainees. we would do it, but it wasn't as intentional as it is now to date. Um, and so you know we just tell ourselves every day I Refuse to participate in this recession I Love it I Love it And what's great is you guys I mean with I you know if you're listening only I Hope you go to my YouTube channel or watch some of this because they're they're making these statements. You could see them physically engaged in what they're saying and doing as many podcasts I do as many interviews interviews I Do you can see guys I can watch you and I can see they're doing it every day like your physiology is congruent with your words. Everything is aligned like there's no BS meters going off. You don't You guys know what? I'm talking about? Absolutely totally. Yeah. I mean so controllables. You know we're just. we're just dialing into what we have control over and just really trying to keep the blinders on and keep dropping wood. Absolutely absolutely. Um, there's so much opportunity in your Marketplace I'm so proud of you guys. So so closing thoughts: If you could just talk to every person that wants to start a team every season team uh, team leader or somebody on the team who's listening right now and like, yeah, these guys really resonate for me. What's what's like the next big thing for you guys to inspire somebody to move forward? Yeah, I mean I mean frankly, you know what you gotta You Gotta Buy You gotta invest in something bigger than you can What you can create individually. Okay, so for me Mike and I connected it's easier. Like many hands make light work that term for Mike and I being co-team leaders, it's a less difficult lift to create a team right? A team that you want to be a part of that. You're very intentional about building. So I would tell you like that'd be my initial advice. Find someone that you align with someone that maybe have a different skill set but you there's a level of trust and you feel like you're on the same path. Yeah Mike hurting up for us? Yeah I mean I Think in part like it all comes down to like really knowing like what do you want to accomplish like are you starting a team to make yourself feel good? Do you genuinely need the help or do you want to expand like something bigger As you mentioned Scott bigger than yourself? like go down to what are you really doing? What are you building Tom You ask a great question. We answered that question earlier. You know our goal is to create a great environment people want to come in to the office to be a part of. So what that looks like for us is Friday Dance parties We like Friday Dance parties. and yeah, we document we have fun but we're also slaying in the marketplace. and so I think it's a combination of like building something bigger than yourself and also having fun while you're doing it. and just don't lose in sight of like what is right in front of you and where are you going from there? Yeah and I will also add I Feel like you know? For those folks that are listening, you know it's okay to join a good, solid team, right? You've been in the business a long time. You should have no qualms about aligning with somebody who already has something pretty special. So let it like: either start a team or join a team, right? I Think that's the long-term play, operating as you know, a solopreneur I think if you're really pushing a Bulger up Hill on the long run I loved your lines and I never heard it said this way before Scott many hands make lighter work I mean I've heard variations of the same message but like that was spot on. So fellas I appreciate you both so much I Can't wait to see you again face to face soon! If somebody wants to reach out, what's the best way for them to connect with you? If they've got a question, they want to go deeper, they want to understand more. How do they reach out to you guys? Yeah, totally. They can always give us a call or find us on Social. So our Social Channel as a team is Pridemore Properties and Scott Pridemore Mike Hagee Compass Pride More Properties! Yep, and your phone number 704-491-9445 704-562-0792 and we all we would. Definitely we cannot stop without giving a shout out to Jeff Mays Our coach I mean he is really really helped us tremendously to think bigger. Okay, that's another thing. like let's rewind another another aspect that I really want people to hear? your coach allows you to think bigger. Okay, that's huge. That has been like the mic drop for us. Okay, it's thinking bigger so that's Jeff that's Coach Jeff at his best. Come on guys, let's go. let's do something bigger. Let's go All right you two I Appreciate you. Thank you so much for delivering value on this session today and for my friend out there listening. Look, there's no wrong way to do it. You got to decide your path. That's what I kept hearing with these two that you know you just got to know yourself. You got to know your customer whether that's the agent or a brand new agent or experienced agent or the buyer in the seller and then just deliver massive value. Which it's a vague statement, but they've given you a bunch of insight on how they're doing it here. So listen to this one a few times. Reach out to me if you've got more questions and make sure you hit the like and notifications and all those fun little buttons all over the place and we'll see you on the next team Builder show Thanks so much fellas! Foreign.