Hey welcome back to the podcast, have i said, thank you so much for listening or watching or, however, you're consuming this content. Today i have a powerhouse couple with me: lily and chad, moore from right here in the great state of texas, and we are face to face in the podcast. What's up youtube well, super excited to be here today. Thank you so much tom for the invite.

I've been watching you for years and years even before i joined coaching yeah, so i knew one day i was gon na, be here sitting in front of you on the podcast. Did you really yeah? Did you really? I love that i mean it was like, and maybe that was like on stage at a summit or like okay, i'm gon na i'm gon na. Do that you can ask my coach uh. Whenever i join coach she says: what do you want to do? I want to, you know, sell a lot of houses, but i also want to be on stage and i want to be on the podcast and i'm going to work hard for it.

So i love it. I'm excited, and here you are well, you know it's fine. Okay, so, first of all, i'm going to flip it over to chad. Chad is the first official non-me redhead on the show, so i'm very inspired about this.

So chad, it's obvious that lily is like anyone that knows her knows her brand, like she's larger than life. She sells a gazillion houses and you got this interesting background m, a work from a t and then two years ago you transitioned to basically be the back end of superface over here. So so maybe just i want to just start by um, maybe explain to the the people that are listening right now, um. Why did you make that transition? Why did you? Why did you go from corporate america into real estate brokerage, yeah and and take not the shining star role, but instead that also important operations role, yeah absolutely well.

First of all, she deserves to be the shotting star, so that helps quite a bit, but you know in the corporate world. You know it's one of those things where uh. You know. I think that you always don't get out of it.

What you put into it. It feels like that sometimes sure and they're probably dying. Slowly is the way that i typically described it but uh. You know i'd like to say that whenever we were young that always felt like i was saving her.

You know a beautiful woman didn't barely spoke english. When i met her and uh and uh. You know i just fell in love with her right and then um sure enough years later, after spending, you know 17 years in the corporate world and she had done her real estate gig and it was going so so well and ended up being that she saved Me and i was able to leave the corporate gig and do something now that i truly love, so so what i'm? What we want to unpack today for the people that are listening, is you know it's? First of all, when you, you meet a dynamic couple that are clearly like hey my role. Is this your role? Is that, like that is the formula for success versus you know, we've seen it where everybody wants to be the face or nobody wants to be the face.

Everybody wants to run the back end. How were you two able to like, and i'm actually going to ask you, how were you able to accept your husband into this role right running ops when you have been selling real estate forever, and no one knows how to do it better than you like? How did you, how did you get through that? It was difficult all the time, but i also knew i needed somebody by the end of 2017. I did came to him and said hey. I need somebody to help me on the back end, because i was closing 77 deals, no assistant.

I was just running with chicken with no head yeah. I was the number one in the area, but i couldn't just put it all together and i knew i didn't even use that here i am that's how bad it was. That's that's bonkers. I love people, i love selling houses, but i knew i need some structure.

Yeah, so whenever i talk to him and we talk about, you know potentially doing a team together both selling real estate and we decided after the first meeting, we went to the brokerage i was with. We left the meeting and said you know what maybe it's time to start our own brokerage to deliver the old message we want to provide so, but at that point with definitely having his corporate background and business success, i knew i needed him to run the business Because, as a realtor as a broker, there is so much more, you can do right right. So so and answer the question like you came to him you're like baby. I need help yes right, but i didn't know and again you know we're here.

We are just live in this podcast. I didn't know that it was hey. Natalie join me, oh by the way, we're also starting a company, and somebody needs to get a broker's license and we need an office and we need space and we need a fax machine and a copy machine. And now we're going to hire an assistant.

And we might need a crm yeah how long this was only two years ago that was at the beginning of 2018, yeah favor, actually february 24 2018, when we decided just to go, you know as a real estate company yeah and figure things out on the way. Happy anniversary - that's two years from today, so so so give us some optics. What's happened in the last two years, then we'll unpack all of this yeah what's happened in the last two years. What's the growth been like? Oh, he can tell you that yeah, you know.

I think we're going to the numbers guys you know so in 2017 she was an individual agent right. She did 77 deals. You know, i think at that point. We weren't sure if we were going to be a husband and wife team or what exactly it was going to be, but we knew we were going to do it together.

We determined pretty quickly. You know what you know uh. We want to deliver our own message. Like lily said - and you know what we want to be on that stage - talking versus hearing somebody talking to us who we think we could do it better than right and so uh and so uh in 2018, we opened brokerage.

I think we learned very quickly that um well, you know what uh this is a lot of time and energy for uh, where sometimes when you're dealing with agents right and return on investment, you know what i think a team may be where the way to go. Yeah and uh, so did you start traditionally with like hiring agents on traditional splits and all like? Okay, i don't want to because that's an important distinction like how fast did you realize rutro there's a reason why they call them broke er, i'm not dogging you out. There, if you're a brokerage, i'm just saying you know what you know, what i'm saying it took about thin margin, business it took about six months and then we realized. You know what uh, when you have somebody dynamic as lily that can generate their own business.

That's uh a force in the industry right, you know her time is best served in mentoring, other agents, but working with her clients, most 100 and uh. When she's giving away her time to you know, handle broker issues right then uh, then that can hurt your cash flow and so for us it was making that transition to where, if she's going to invest her time in uh in our team right what she needs To do, then, it needs to be in areas where we have a better return on investment, so so break it down. For me, you're six months in you, two are scratching your head. One day, your your personal sales were probably not 77 right, so you were you're on track to do far less you're, bringing in all these traditional agents on traditional splits, and you realize this is stupid.

What in that like in that moment, like what did you do? Did you say we're going to fire everybody we're going to give them an option to be on the team at a new split like how did how did you guys so lily talk to us? How did you, how did you make that transition so, like you say, i realized my production was being affected by you know, bringing in agents and just for a split right, so very quickly realized. I was going to make less money than what i did as an individual solo agent without having to train agents. Yes, so, like you say you know, and sometimes i tell brokers it's like babysitting and i remember a broker friend of mine. He did say if you want to have your own brokerage: your production is going to be affected and i couldn't understand why.

But i didn't realize pretty quick within the first six months. I wasn't. Being a successful selling house is what i truly enjoyed doing yeah. So what we decided at the point, six months, we were like: okay, we're gon na switch this a little bit and we're gon na go team.

So we did give the agents the option to stay within the brokerage, with the team split having everything as a team. Creating this more processes and more complexity to it, but it's way better yeah, better culture, better systems, better organization. It has been awesome how many agents did you have and how many stayed and how many left or did you ask to leave? I guess yeah. So we didn't ask anybody to leave.

You know, i think, there's only been one or two where we found out it wasn't a good fit for the most part. We always believe in our people and give them the benefit of the doubt and try to see it through to the end. All right, corporate america - hey, you know, uh, you know we haven't done a lot of recruiting to be honest with you, and so our people have kind of come through us. Naturally, you know i'd say that uh that first year we got six agents um.

Four of those are still with us right and now we have uh uh 11 agents and um i'd say that uh for the most part, it's uh, you know we call ourselves a boutique team brokerage right, yeah, smart and uh. But you know culture is everything for us. You know our uh, our team. You know i'd say that it's not the agent out there.

That's a hot shot agent right that uh. That was killing it doing tons of deals right, we're probably they're not going to look for us for that right. The team model yeah, but the people that we have under us are the people that were uh business people on their previous uh. You know careers right.

You know: we've got somebody that uh ran the town right, town manager, right we got someone that was a school teacher for a number of years right. We got another guy that was with the department of corrections and we're tired, yeah, another guy that was lily's former boss actually in the corporate world right and joined us now as well. But what we found is that good business translates and if you've got a good heart and if you're a good person and you've, given your own another line of work, then real estate might be for you and it's paid off really well for us, and i bet All those people didn't go in the way you were like. I love, i love selling houses.

I can make all this money like this is great like they were like. They were used to resources and people and people that had roles and responsibilities and they were - and i hate to say, like they understood their role in the transaction and it wasn't to go from top of the funnel all the way through close to the transaction. But to go, show houses or go work with buyers and sellers. So do you think that do you think the corporate america background, like the blend between the two of you and obviously you had your own corporate experience before you got into real estate? How much do you think that impacts the way you guys view this, this very well-known sort of mom-and-pop real estate industry, not referring to the berkshire hathaways and the major corporations, but i mean like the regular everyday people that 80 percent of all brokerages are couples like You yeah, you know, i think that, like i said, good business translates, you know uh, you know for us, you know growing up in the corporate world.

You know i mentioned to you earlier. You know offline that uh. You know you really have to be a jack of all trades in the business world and i think, if anything when you become your own brokerage right, you're a boutique brokerage like us, where you you know, you got to figure everything out right. You got to figure out payroll right.

What do you know insurance? Why do we need that exactly exactly and so uh, but a strong business background right where you deal with a lot of different lines of business and where you have big commitments and you have to partner across you know different lines of business. You know all that comes through right and owning your own business and uh, and i think that's why we've been able to expedite our process is because we do have that corporate background and we know the importance yeah of doing things the right way, but ultimately, how To solve problems yeah so so this saturday will be day 343 since the pandemic started. Since, since we went into lockdown yeah so think about that we're you know two weeks away: ish from a full year tell us about 2020 lilly, because now you're ready 2018. Then you switched to team, and i know i'm i'm skipping some parts of the chapter here but tell us about 2020 2020.

Whenever we went into lockdown here in texas, that was around march um. I almost cried. I freaked out, you know, like everybody else, the uncertainty, the unknown uh. It was really helpful to have the support with you guys, for example, on the podcast on the sessions we were doing like you were.

You were doing such a great job, trying to keep us calm and knowing that we were going to be okay and knowing what to do at the time to me, it was such an important moment to have a coach on my side. To tell me: hey it's going to be okay, reach out to your clients, that's the moment where you're going to either stand out or you're going to go away. What is what is it going to be you're, like literally talking pivot, like in march, like the third week when we first started, i'm like people, you can't be afraid you've got to lean in to your database and tom. I listen to you.

I listen to david caldwell, my coach, yes, and i have to because if you did enjoy it, i saw many people that i know you know realtors. They got out yeah. They they already have another job. They do on something else.

They they move. Unfortunately, a lot of people did so what we did at that moment. Yes, it was uncertainty, but i tried to control what i could control, which is reaching out to my community reaching out. We were doing some videos trying to showcase.

You know some businesses trying to help the community right reaching out. The first thing i did is what you say: reach out to the community and say on social media. What do you need i'm seeing they have you know? How can i help you today? That was the response people needed. Having somebody telling you hey it's gon na be okay.

How can i help you yeah? You, i'm not here just to sell you a house. Let me see what i can do you need this. You need medicine. You need water, i'm healthy.

I can go to you, so let me help you so what i did with the transition and again i was so afraid 2020 we're gon na go broke. 2020 was the end of the war end of our business. You know we didn't have the corporate america paycheck, so we have to go and do it ourselves and around what was in may june thing just exploded. I know 2020 was our best year ever.

We closed 213 transactions over 70 million in volume over 1.8 million on gci. Congratulations, i mean you think about it because it was probably january february was decent march april. It died, but those that did the work, those that you know that that scaled, the unscalable i'm just going to make a difference. I'm going to help i'm going to reach out i'm not going to be a sales person, i'm going to be a human being and try and help people and then bam it explodes so so i'm going to i'm going to switch.

I want to from chat from your perspective. You know you go from, i mean, even though you're on the m, a side which we both know is like i'm in the middle of helping a buddy right, now sell a business, and it's you know like it's. His first time selling yeah, it's a it's a big company, that's buying them. No, it's not zillow or anybody like that.

But it's you know, but it's a big company, that's buying him and he's like what are reps and warranties of what you know like he. Just doesn't know right, yeah you're, coming from that world into this, but there was so much uncertainty happening in middle of march, even even really in i mean truthfully, there's still uncertainty today, but at least by may people were selling houses again right like how we viewed Homeless different, what did you do during that time period to kind of stay, calm and stay focused and not react? Well, i think, being calm is the most important thing that you can do, and i think that we did a good job of that. You know. First, you need to stabilize your team yeah right.

Let them know the market's up markets go down, but you know: we've got a great culture. We've got a great brand um we're going to be here to support you and we're going to get through this together right, because really at that point we didn't know what to expect right. You know uh, you know, for us, we'd had to examine our own uh costs right, you know, uh, you know we were looking at growing the team. You know we put a little pause on that at that time.

Right. You know just to make sure that we didn't bite off more than what we could chew operationally sure uh in hindsight, maybe would approach that a little bit differently right. You know, probably that'd been a great time to uh to push the envelope a little bit more right, operationally and uh, but um we're able to do that this year. Yeah.

You know, i think, ultimately, it's just where you have to take a seat back. Take a look at the business. Take a look at the numbers, get the you know the troops on board and ultimately make the biggest difference that you can yeah yeah staying calm is really the key. I mean i remember you know how many times we were saying that on all those pivot, trainings it just breathe, be calm.

You know headlines do more to terrify than to clarify, like you know, don't get wrapped up in that stuff um. So so, let's go back to 2018 you're six months in you make the transition. You start the team. What happened in 2019? Give it give me optics, because i understand 77.

I understand 2018 was probably not as great for you personally from a transaction standpoint, but by 2019 were things starting to come together. Was it still kind of a burrito? You know sorry just keeping it real on the podcast, but you know what i mean like i've started many companies. I know what that's like first year, it's all exciting. Second year you're like wait a minute.

We might not need to actually organize this thing. Otherwise, we're going to burn ourselves out absolutely yeah. What was 2019 like 2019, was a pivotal year for us, because it's really the first full year when we went all in on team and kind of our new approach and said you know what this is a way to go for us in the future. With that being said, there's so many things now that you have to figure out right where the beginning of 2018, we were focused on creating different processes and different structures and uh, and in 2019 we had to re-examine all of that.

So ultimately, uh created a lot more work, a lot more things to figure out yeah. We had a excellent year that year right, we ended up doing uh close to 50 million in sales volume right. So it's good! You know it was a good growth from our previous year, um, ultimately uh. You know we learned a lot from a staff perspective right and uh and uh, and what we were looking for to help grow operationally.

You know we deal with some office space issues right and what's the right place for us in the future uh, you know as a new company there's, so many no lack of things to to figure out yeah, but in 2019 we moved into our new office space And uh - and that was a pivotal moment for us right - it really gave us a chance to why. Well, it gave us a chance to spread our wings right, gave us a chance where we could market right, beautiful light, bright, open floor plan right yeah. You know you can do your own. Have your own marketing company out of a nice office space like that right, yeah and uh, and for us you know as being business owners right here, we're doing our our our own thing for really the first time in life.

Together - and i just can't tell you - you know how energizing it is to walk into a place that you're proud of that, you call your own. I know exactly what you're talking about. I know exactly yes, so so i'm gon na i'm gon na throw something at you guys and for all my listeners out there um. There is so much debate happening right now on like what a team is today.

So if you, if you go back to like 2018, when uh the national association of realtors surveyed 90 000 people or whatever the number was anybody, can google this and um? Basically, what they said was if you look at the math based on people, that identified as a team or on a team, it would show that basically there's about between 60 and 90 000 teams right now in the us and what we both know is like there Are so many different flavor profiles of what a team is now so so my team, and i we we basically are trying to synthesize like what are the rules and standards of like if you're a team like as an example, you know if you're a brokerage and You own a team, they might say no you're a brokerage and you're like no no, but we run it like a team right versus hey we're a team and we operate under somebody else's brokerage they're a team, but even then you've got family business, seal teams, large Teams what i now refer to as industrialized teams, my client george, who hangs his license with the brokerage, but has 200 agents and did 3 100 transactions last year, a billion dollars in sales volume right like you know, but they're all teams. So here's my hypothesis, you ready i'll, run it past. You guys don't want your input to me, you're, not a team unless you have a defined culture, unless you say this is who we are, and this is what we stand for, and this is what we're all about right: you're, not a team. If everyone uses a different crm, but if we all use the same crm and in the same reporting the same transaction management, the same tech stack, then we're a team.

But if you know, but if sally's on something different and maria's on something different, you smell a lot more like a brokerage right leads right. If there's a unified methodology. For you know the team lead says our credit card is in we're buying the leads. We turn them over to you with a defined split as an example you're, a team, if everybody's on their own you're, more like a brokerage yeah, i'm looking for feedback here, i'm not looking for you, i'm looking for like no you're full and here's no you're, absolutely Right why? You know what you're saying? Because there is a lot of people who get together and say, and i have seen it you know firsthand, because i do have a lot of friends in the industry where hey tom yeah.

You know we are on the same brokerage: let's become a team. Okay, you go run that way. I run this way hey. I need you to open the door.

For me, we are a team yay. We took a photo and we both wear the same outfit and we look pretty yes. So that's that's! Not a team team is having that culture having the same crm. They let's get distributed to the team right.

That's the team. Splits splits are a factor too yeah. You already have that in place when somebody joins your team either as a brokerage or as an individual team. Yeah yeah there is, there is tons of teams.

Let me give you, let me give you a few more right. So culture tech leads splits standards, standards which, which implies that we hold you accountable to. If we're going to spend money on these leads, you have to convert a certain percentage or we're not giving you the leads where that's unheard of in the brokerage base. I'm not knocking a broker, it's just a different model right then operating systems and the way we do transactions it's one way.

This is how we do it you're not involved right. We have a tc that manages this and then also like team marketing versus solo marketing and to me, when i put all those things together when i see that i don't care that, if you own a brokerage or you're inside of a brokerage, this to me is Sort of the the makeup of a team, what what are your guys thoughts on that? What am i missing? You know, i think that uh, you know whose license is itself going under right. That's a big part of it. You know when you talk to the individual agent out there right it's.

What's the commission split right if it's not x amount, then you're offering me a team role right. So commission split is a big part of it and then ultimately, who gets a sales credit at the end of the day with that license number is a big part of as well in the industry. Yes um, you know. I think that everything else that you mentioned is spot on.

You know, uh marketing, team versus individual is key as well yeah. You know uh lilly and i talked a lot about uh. You know not confusing our audience. Yes, right, we've got to make sure that our audience and that our market is very clear who we are yes and who the marketer is and what we're about and then uh.

Who does what and then. Yes, we are collective and even collective individuals. Working together to you know, do something really really good but uh, but we are a team, and this is our team name right and uh, and the agents have to buy into that right and some don't so. You could really put under standards branding right as a part of that right, you're not going to shy away from the branding and or do it your own way, um.

It's really interesting. This is a really interesting time right now in our industry, because you know that you know, as we sit here right now, on your birthday, happy birthday as we sit here. I have, i don't know 10 friends and clients 20. If i went to a little outside of my immediate sphere, that'll do more than a thousand transactions.

Some are on pace to do more than a billion dollars in sales and they're competing quote unquote against other teams in their marketplace. Yeah like that. That seems to be almost like the the sort of trifurcation of the industry solo agent right, that's just harder today. Sorry, if you're listening to this right now don't be offended.

Remember, there's 1.5 million agents in the country and, as of today, 43 of them have not sold a house what 57 have sold all the houses? Oh, my god right. So when they talk about the per person productivity, you have to cross out about 43 of 1.5 million is but it's a lot yeah right. It's a big number, 700 000 ish right like they haven't, sold a house, and then you got this group in the middle that are crushing like crazy, and then you literally have these these mega teams that my my foreseeable future, i think we're going to be in A place in the next three to five years, where it is completely common for teams to be doing three thousand four thousand five thousand seven thousand transactions a year and and literally gobbling up market share. What do you guys think? I do believe that as well, like you say, the solo agent and the the way things are now think about everything is instant right from a consumer standpoint, a consumer expectation.

If you want to go and see a house city you're going to come and say hey, i want to go see this house at 4., but i have another three four clients working with at the same time and i have a family - and i have this and That i can't reach out to that person and say yeah, and if i tell you hey, let's, let's go saturday, because you know i have these things going on yeah. What are you gon na? Do you're gon na go to the next person you're going to go online on this app contact agent? I want to go see the house today, yeah right immediately so having the powerful the power of having the team is. I can go right now. Hey get this lead, oh you know.

Can you help me with this interesting? Let's just have exactly. Can somebody help me with it because i'm tied up in dallas city, i can go to show a housing forward, but having that flexibility and and i'm glad you're mentioning numbers, because you know our goal is to become one of those teams - who's closing 400 500 deals Which initially sounds like it was something crazy is that per month or for the year for the year, i'm putting it for now. For now i knew i was putting you off. I remember when i started in real estate.

You know back in 2011, i got my license. I saw one house because i was doing it part time and then i went into 2016.. I went uh full time in uh july 2016., so i sold 33 houses and i was like, oh my god. This is awesome right and i wanted to become the number one in my center 77 deals the next year.

But then you know, then you start seeing the possibilities of doing more. And if you have that culture, because it's not just about closing the deals and that's something i tell my agents - i don't want to necessarily have a mega team. I still want to be a little bit in control. Yes, control freak.

I knew that. Okay, i knew that of making sure everybody's well taken care of our clients, our customers, whoever it is they're gon na - have that position where they can come back to us. Every time we reach out and say how was your? How was your experience yeah? Can you give us a five star review? Okay can can what else can we do so? I wan na make sure the deliver it's excellent. So i'm afraid, if, if i'm doing you know thousands of transactions a year, i mean i'm sure we can scale and do it.

But it's going to take more stuff, it's going to take more processes and that's ben's got ta. Have him to take care of the processes and see our and websites and everything else, because to me to me it's just a matter of delivering the best service, yeah and providing the best. I can the excellent to the consumer, but that's the beauty again of your partnership. Yeah right, that's the end of the yang right, i would say, like you know, i think, of like my mentor a million years ago said to me.

I was like you know, my wife is just so different from me and he's like. If you were both the same. One of you would not be necessary. Oh absolutely, and i was like oh yeah, so so so chad when i say a thousand transactions.

What goes through your mind, i mean this year last year, you guys did 213. What are you going to do this year? What do you what's the goal for this year? 300, okay, so all right so just 213 to 300 right, 300 to 500 or 600. The next year 700, a thousand, i'm i'm just putting words in your mouth man like what do you? What do you think is the difference between 213 and 300 operationally and that that ops is marketing? It's staffing, it's you know, process management, it's five-star reviews. It's the whole, you know how many sales agents it's a capacity issue.

What do you, what do you think from 213 to 300 and then 300 to a thousand? What does it look like? Well, you know it's definitely going to take some more operationally some staff to get in place to make that happen, what staff, what roles need to be filled uh. You know i'm a jack of all trades right now, so i'm doing a little bit of everything for the company. You know i need to get somebody in that's more of a director of operations right lowest paid, most work guy in the business. Absolutely absolutely! And yes, dear you just say yes dear, you know i need to get somebody in to get help with coaching and development of the team right.

You know we need to work on sales manager, yeah sales manager. We got to work on scripts, more yeah, you know for us, we're in the you know, for us, we've been uh really coming from a place of uh figuring out what we need to do from a staff perspective, and this past year we really realized. You know what we need to bring our staff in house. You know versus trying to save a buck or two and go independent contractor for your staff.

You know virtual yeah. No, we need our people in in-house and people. We can tap on a shoulder and uh. Hey, where are you at with this transaction and then ultimately just make things run more smoothly, yeah and so as a business owner.

That's definitely a leap of faith that you have to make and as i spend this money, obviously it's going to make me more money. That's the only reason you make that decision and we're in the process of making those decisions every day right now, it's gon na be more of those decisions that need to be made yeah. You know by the way, isn't it easier when you work for corporate america and you say of course yeah: let's just okay, let's deploy a hundred thousand dollars over there and then you're like wait, a minute wait a minute! That's my hundred thousand dollars right, i mean i get that like it feels different. It was easy running somebody else's company when it's your own checkbook.

It is different right. It feels so different. It feels so different and and yet like the opportunity in your marketplace and the great state of texas, my buddy just told me the other day that 550 000 new jobs are coming into texas, just in the next 18 months. So that's not that's not individuals.

That's jobs which have spouses and kids and puppies and lifestyle, and some are single and some aren't like the growth opportunity is just bonkers right now, so going to a thousand transactions is totally realistic. It's there, the opportunity is there sales manager what else uh a director of ops right somebody they can take over some of the uh office management, uh stuff from us, uh yep marketing company right. You know we're really known in our marketing place for uh for some innovative marketing tech techniques. You know we're really good in the digital space yep for the most part.

It's me running those algorithms and doing things like that. Um, we're gon na have to turn that over right, so i can work more as a president or ceo and oversee things versus getting into the weeds yeah. You know. That's gon na help lead you in right.

That's gon na help, branding it's gon na help. You know everything and uh, but ultimately you know she is a control freak, i'm a little bit of a perfectionist and it's a bad combination. I mean it's a wonderful combination for people that are watching and listening, but it's a bad combination because progress over perfection. I have learned to let go you're really good with that microphone by the way you're like come fly with me, because i always tell him and that drives him crazy.

He's like come on. Let's cheat this video well hold on we're going to have to put it together. Let's just do it, let's just shoot the video yeah, so it is technical. That's good! That's good, but i have learned to that's what i didn't want to have an assistant to begin with.

You know, because i just couldn't think of somebody doing it as good as i did so. That's to me. I have learned to rely on the admins on him and everybody else to do things, one of the one of the best pieces of advice that was given to me years and years and years ago i was sitting with a buddy of mine who said to me: Uh, do you think uh? Do you think madonna gets her own coffee and i was like no. Do you think madonna packs up the tour bags and organizes all of her stuff? I'm like no he's like what do you think madonna does i'm like madonna sings and she writes and she creates, and she does yoga they're like right.

So tell me why you're moving chairs in the back of the room at your seminar - and i was like? Oh, it's so painful, but there there is the transition right and that's for the people that are listening. We're talking about how do you go from you know i can't have an assistant. I have to do everything to. I really only do my haboo my highest and best use you.

You know you, you can overspend yeah, you can over invest right, forget market conditions. You could just find yourself at the point where, like okay, we're bringing in five million dollars a year, but we spent three - you know 3.7 to get there. Oh taxes, uh-oh we've made no money like that's very real. So how do you two balance that, like the desire to scale and be competitive - and you know you're totally comfortable with being the number two agent in your town? How do you, how do you, how do you balance that, like, logically and and financially, i don't know if we figured that out yet you know it's uh.

It's definitely a lot that you have to learn um to get to where you want to be. You know. I think that we're enjoying the ride you know for us. You know, i think, that uh we focus so much on where we need to be and and what we want to do, and i could tell you that for us, um there's so many experiences you get when you do some of these things that yourself right, you Know just uh the know-how yeah and what really works and uh, and it's been so invaluable, as we've owned a lot of these things for ourselves over time that uh that i'm able to say you know what i know a little bit: how to do this or At least enough to what i want to do and uh, and so now i know what that expectation is for whoever i bring on board to do it right, and it's been very, very powerful for us to know some of those things.

I can tell you that lily will sell real estate until she's a little old lady yeah. I know it's my wife right, i know about anybody else. She will not stop and uh, and that gives me the freedom to to mess some things up right and to make some mistakes, and i i said earlier, you know you know she's enabled me to leave a corporate gig right and to do something that now i Truly love and uh, and i know that we're going to make some wrong decisions along the way of course, but having that that home run hitter by your side, you can count on you know when those poor decisions are made. Hopefully uh.

You know those are few and far between sure but uh. You know that's what i'm counting on is uh having that person. That would get me through those times, and i can tell you that uh lilly ultimately is a very driven person, but at the end of the day, she's not short in giving me the feedback on what i need to be doing right. I would.

I would expect nothing less honey. Let me say if i was doing that, how i would do it yeah last year yesterday, so so lily. Let's go tactically on the. We would talk very operational here and your and your growth - and you know, chad, by the way chad didn't know, he's gon na be on the podcast.

So chad just showed up. I'm like chad, you should just be in the podcast just come on. Man like, let's be good, like ying and yang here um. So let's talk about uh getting listings right now.

Yes, because a whole bunch of people listening right now, uh are like okay, i get it. I need a team. I should look at this. Maybe i need to marry.

Chad is chat available in the market like how do i find my findmychad.com, we should launch that site right away. Um brenda my podcast producer already grabbing the url um. How? How are you like, what's working today, to generate listings? What's working today from a marketing standpoint, do you make phone calls like what like give us a typical like what are all the things you're doing? Yes - and i can tell you - okay, because i've been doing it for a while five years ago, i wasn't doing the phone calls. I wasn't really into my crm.

I was just you didn't, have a crm, i didn't have it. It was my phone in my memory that was about it, so i was just running around trying to figure out things right now. The way the market is, i always say, to agents listings are the king of real estate. You have to listen to less yeah.

Okay, if you don't uh, the market is tough right. Now i mean we have buyers, and sometimes you know with the overbidding and everything else. So what we're doing right now and i'm thanks god, i'm getting listings and i'm getting you know still. Those come list me calls, but i make sure i purposely do it every day to get on my crm and start calling past clients.

I start calling jesus just because i have so many past clients. Now all my crm houses sold seven years ago six years ago. People you know that i thought they maybe never gon na sell. Well, they actually having those questions.

Now, hey the market is so good. We may be downsizing. What may be doing this, so i'm reaching out to people i'm going through expires, i'm going through council. I'm doing the dirty job, i'm i'm rolling up my sleep and i'm calling people.

I don't know, and i always hate it. You know i was. I was a person who used to tell people, i don't do cold, calling who why why all this business is coming to me, things change baby and if they chain, i want to change things, change baby. Yes, yes, they do.

They do so. You have to adjust to the market and you know that's to me, i'm very big into geofarming, so i make sure i take care of my community. I make sure i reach out to people how many homes in the farm, 550., okay, so 550 and and like is the turnover high mid level. 50 houses, 55 houses solely uh a year.

Okay, so like a ten percent, it's a ten percent at least yeah. That's above average it's a little bit about average and out of those 50 homes. I sell like around 30.. That is bonkers.

That's really good, but i've been working that uh farm for probably seven eight years, uh we're trying now to expand to a different one, which is actually working very well. You do have to do a lot of social media. You know in in the social media, the marketing is switching from hey. Do you want to buy a house to hey mr seller? They want to sell your house, you want to see the possibilities right, a lot of people they don't want to sell because of the pain of selling, because you don't have the possibilities to know what the alternative.

Well, let me talk to you and tell you: how can we you know, what can we do? Can we sell your house and maybe get you a lease back for two or three months, yeah? Well, we're looking, can we sell your house and get you a bridge loan yeah? So we can get you into the new house and then sell your house because selling your house is not going to be the issue yeah, but as a homeowner, you don't want to think you're not going to have a place to go because it's like okay, i Sell my house: where do i go so going again to be the provider of those solutions, so i can sit with you and say this is what this is my plan. We have alternative a b and c what works best for you, so just reaching out to people more than ever. It's important to make those calls to your people. You know past clients reach out on uh.

The marketing again is going to the sellers talking about selling and i'm no i'm. I see a lot of agents. What they doing online on social media is creating this frenzy telling people - oh my god, multiple offers nobody's buying a house. Oh guys, creating a panic.

They are so what's happening if you were thinking about selling - and you see this agent, you trusted a friend of you telling you there is no house is for sale. Oh my god, it's the end of the war! Well, you know what would you sell so they holding on to the houses and saying i'm going anywhere? What are you talking? You just told me: the market is crazy, so we always try to give that alternative and give numbers. In fact, this is what's happening on the market. Again, geofarming is important.

I'm reaching reaching out to people i'm going out of my comfort zone. Doing those calls uh visiting people in person. You know even with the coveted restriction i make sure over the mask. If people don't feel comfortable and i'm going to go reach out just to visit you - and i remember uh talking about with my coach - he gave me an idea recently and i'm sure he's going to be like don't be sharing my ideas just kidding.

He knows he knows he's not that way, um, but why you don't meet with your clients once a year yeah every year, no just this year, but this year is more important than ever to give them a little real estate market report. It's not a cma. Let's talk about the equity, you have bill in your house, i'm not asking you to sell, i'm just going to be the provider to give you information, so the best way is to bring value sellers need that right now stop the frenzy. Yes, it is crazy and we know that as a real estate agent, if you're a buyer's agent right now there is a lot of struggle yeah.

But if i have a buyer, i'm going to try to get a listing before i even put it on the market. Yeah, if before i even go with the multiple offers, i'm going to go find the place for my my people, so i'm trying to do that. Uh intense guy would be very blessed. We we're still getting listings heck yeah and that's that's the game right now.

Okay, so past clients, farm social, do you do any online? You were mentioning online advertising switch to chat, so tell us about your online advertising strategy. You know, what are you doing? Where are you doing it is it? Is it google is it bang is it zillow? Is it realtor, like all of you, above all, the other okay, the traditional players? We do it all yeah, you know, don't you love it? We now refer to them as the traditional players. Yes, i love it. You know we believe in meeting the customer where they want to be met, yeah and uh, and so we look good everywhere and we advertise everywhere and we got lead gen funnels that go everywhere right and uh.

It's about focusing on conversion rate for each one of those funnels some better than others. You know uh cost per lead caught. You know it. Cost per acquisition is a big part of it too, but we are everywhere yeah.

I was really happy um. I was going through and looking at your google page and i was like yes, so i did a service remember back in january at the elite. I'm like listen, everybody like you know, don't don't don't get mad at all these other portals go to google build your like so right now, based upon our estimation, we think about 40 of all of our coaching clients, have a google page set up and have at Least, 10 reviews there right. So when i went on yours - and i was like 55 google review - i was just like yes, yes, because i heard you i heard you at the you know at the event and - and i went immediately and i started asking for google reviews, because traditionally we asked For zillow reviews, this is the five-star review.

Everything is changing, so you have to adjust it yeah, you know, so we we're very good and fortunate to get those reviews and we're going to increase even more. Sometimes it's like. Oh, i forgot this and the request. So you know so we have to clear that a little bit more.

Do you operationalize, speaking of just the review side, do you guys operationalize, that is it like in a checklist or is it like left every individual agent to be reminded yeah, yeah? Okay, you it used to be by memory now it's my system, yeah! You know, we've got three different touch points. You know in the process to ensure that the test give us the detail on that team. You know for that. You know it's preparing for the review right, you know uh.

Second, one is to make sure that the review is done right and the third one is to make sure that uh that the positive feedback was received, post review right and so there's three different. Thank you for the review. Yeah, absolutely yeah, there's three: how do you prepare for the review? Well, you know, i think there you have to examine the experience of the client right, examine the results of the client right. You know there might be some instances where you know, especially in the lead conversion game right.

You know sometimes you'll get a client and uh through your no fault of your own right. You know, you know. Maybe it was a difficult client right and in that case you have to make sure that you get that five-star review right. Well, you don't ask for a review from everybody.

You know you uh. Hopefully you can right yeah but realistically there's some that you that you don't and so that's the self-examination there is. Can i honestly in good faith, ask this person for a five-star review and know that they're going to give that to you, yeah yeah cool cool cool. I love it because i'm just i i'm just meticulous around system and process, like i can remember, i mean you've seen me, speak live where i'm like.

I remember when you and i met 1991. We were at the marriott of minnesota, like i have that kind of memory, but when it comes to sometimes the business checklist checklist and process stuff, if it's not my schedule, i don't follow it. If it's not in a checklist, i don't do it like. I just i it's just the way, i'm wired.

What would you say to the person? That's listening right now, who's like i, don't have a chad and it's not fair right. I want to get more organized like what advice do you have now kind of knowing what you know now know as a veteran of the industry yeah? What do you recommend from a systems in like what crm do you recommend yeah? Is there a project management solution tool that you like, like what are some of the things that you're using that that you would encourage others to take a look at yeah, absolutely and that's the, and that was one of the most difficult parts for me right now, In the industry is uh what to use you know, there's a system for everything in real estate and an app for everything, a checklist for everything. If it's a software for everything yep and if you're being honest, they all try to be the all-in-one resource. But none of them really are no, none of them really are, and so you have to fail there, sometimes along the way, and we've done that you know right now we are using a uh chime for our crm.

I think a chime is like a you know. Like a boomtown right and some of the other traditional players out there right, you know something that is your website. In addition to your crm, it has the ability to do lead capture and for you in legion as well. Do you want a fun fact on chime sure, so the guy that started chimes a guy named joe shen, joe shen is one of the richest man in the world right, i think, he's last time i checked.

He was like number 65 on the billionaire list of china right, so he started renren, which was the facebook equivalent in china right and i actually sold one of my businesses to this guy. So i got to spend a bunch of time with him like you. Have no idea like who you're meeting with until like every meeting i go to i go to linkedin, then i go on crystal knows and in his case i happen to google him, i'm like. Oh.

I just met with him. This guy's the shizzle, like i don't want to just sell this. I won't actually get to know him right, so not not just the shameless promotion for time, but just the way my brain works so chime. What else chime for our crm yeah and the crm is everything you know we do use dot loop for uh contracts and e-signature.

You know in texas, you know it'll upload the documents in their forest. I know you can't do that in every state yeah, but uh yeah, our state forums are in there and that's our e-signature yeah uh. In addition to that, we've recently launched uh sisu sisu. Yes, this is going to be our uh.

You know there we can do task lists detailed tasks for this and also agent accountability, yep, tracking and measuring on every lead pillar. I love knowing everything inside and out knowing everybody's cost per lead, knowing everybody's conversion on each lead, i mean it's, it's bonkers. What they allow you to do. The reporting is great yeah.

What i love about it most is it gives me the ability to download my own data and slice and dice right be surprised at how many different platforms. The data only exists in their platform.