Hey welcome back to the podcast, if you're an agent listening to this right now, who's ambitious. If you really are committed to grow and scale your business, if you want keen insights battle, tested lessons, and ultimately you want to know some mistakes to avoid along the way and really a model to follow. You're going to love today's podcast with our guest lisa chanati. Listen to these numbers, she grew her real estate business from 8 to 82 transactions in one year from 82 to 212, the next to 326 sales to 492 sales and this year, as we record that she said 570 ish closed.

She didn't know the exact number, but it was in the 5 7 mark and is skipping the fives and going right to 600 plus transactions this year. Listen to those numbers from 8 to 82, from 82 to 212, from 212 to 326 sales to 492 sales to 600 plus. Ladies and gentlemen, lisa chanati in the house welcome lisa. Thank you for having me you.

You look a little nervous, as i was saying all that how you doing good. Well, i got nervous when you said we're gon na talk about the mistakes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, i appreciate that hey lisa for the people that have not met you before whether they're listening on the audio or they're, watching us on youtube or any one of the social channels. Um give us just a little background.

Like are you married? Are you single kids, no kids, you know and then we're gon na get into all the details around these rocket ship numbers, but let them know who you and where are you from by the way so go ahead and give them just the quick state of the Union yeah so um lisa gennady. Obviously i am in the greater boston area so about 30 miles, northwest of boston, um married two daughters who are 14 and 16 now and running the team love it love it love it love it short and sweet and always direct which i appreciate so so, let's, Let's dig in i mean the people that get to know you. They hear these rocket ship numbers. I can remember you know when you join us as a client they're like hey this guy went from, like you know, eight deals to like 82 transactions, i'm like okay.

I got ta get to know this person which, by the way, you you, you know you and i have finally gotten over that little craziness, but we'll get into that in a minute. Go back to that first year. What happened to go from eight to 82 transactions? I think the biggest thing is that i had a mindset shift that i needed to either be in or be out right and what was getting me to eight deals. A year was never going to get me to accomplish my deals.

The number that i wanted to do right, and so i needed to change what i was doing or admit that i was just gon na be at that level of eight deals a year which is still like solid right, like still decent number um. But i wanted more than that, and so i needed to change, i needed to change a lot about what i did and how i did it yeah. So so i i understand everything you just said, but i, what do you mean like 8 to 82? Is a that is like a rocket ship that is not a okay. I finally just got committed and i'm reaching out to my database and making a few phone calls, and you know organizing my schedule a little more.

I mean like, like you, and i both know you added some lead pillars. You know, no doubt you had, but first what is that like to have that mindset shift because back then your daughters? This is basically six years ago, so your daughters were in there early. You know tweeny whatever that age is called right, uh one not even in the teens yet right. So what was the shift, and why was the shift? Why did you do this and what was it so for me, it was that i needed to prove to myself that i could right somebody doubted that i would actually be able to do it and for me the motivation was to prove to myself that i could Right, i think it as an agent.

We all often think that we can, but then we get this drunk monkey. That says we can't and so - and i also like you know me fairly well, like some people know this about me, but i'm not super extroverted. I tend to be very introverted, and one of the big things that i realized that had happened leading up to this is that i wasn't shouting from the rooftops. What i did who i was and why i was doing it and the moment that i was able to say, like i sell houses right like look at me like i sell houses, i'm really good and it's not just selling houses or being good, but it's i Help people right - and that was the connection for me - adding lead pillars of course, um understanding that i needed to start to treat it like a full-time job.

I needed to get up, get dressed, go to the office and not be the mom in yoga pants, um drinking coffee till 10 a.m. So it's a big. It was a whole change and it had to be a job that i love yeah. I know every person listening right now, a i hope has had that moment, but everybody can relate to it in a certain in a certain way, at a time in their life where they were like.

I was just kind of doing what i was doing, but then you you make this shift and it sounded like. It was a little personal and maybe somebody else told you you couldn't and that's probably all you needed to finally root but then ratching it up and letting people know that you sell real estate like there's a lot of people out there. I'm not talking introvert extrovert. Both that are just definitely afraid to sort of put it out there to say: hey, i sell houses and you have a choice.

I you i could be on your consideration set. How did you get over that the so i had to get so the wanting to succeed needed to be more than what the fear was right and i'll put it out there. What the fear was that i think most of us feel i was afraid of being rejected right. I was afraid that if i raised my hand and said i want an opportunity to to work with you through one of the biggest transactions of your life, and you don't choose me - i needed to get over that that wasn't about me right and hey real estate Agents, we're not we're not like we're like shoes, we're not a one-size-fits-all solution right and just because you don't choose me doesn't mean that i don't fit on somebody else really really well, but i'm never going to be the right person for everybody, and once i realize That and that it's not sometimes it's rejection right and i can't win at all, but if i i'm so afraid of the rejection that i don't put myself out there, i'm never gon na get the wins either yeah.

So what did you do differently in those early days to put yourself out there like, once you got the hey, i love the you know one size fits all. You know my dad used to always say: hey, there's more nuts than there are squirrels to eat them. Like don't worry about it like just find the next nut right, which always sounds funny if you're talking about clients, that's not what i mean, but you all get the metaphor. What did you do differently in that first year because we're going to go deep on this and there's there's a one component? Obviously, we know made a massive shift, but what did you do to start telling people like hey, i'm here, i'm active yeah so clearly like online leads became hang on.

One sec online leads became for the people that were on the audio only have no idea right. There, but you know the video people just saw her like leave the visual for a second, but yes, i dropped my noodle. I had a feel by the way. Yes, i'm for the people that are watching you're gon na see what i've got in my hand.

This is a gift from lisa gennady to prep me for my interview with her today, but go back to it again. So what did you do to let people know i started. Buying online leads right, so that was number one, and that was that was like my safe entry in because it wasn't me personally right and it was still very anonymous in a lot of ways. It's a voice behind the phone right and then the next step was that i started farming and i had a great geographic farm and that was kind of the next step, because, while my picture was on there, it was still a little bit more personal right and It was kind of putting it out there to a select audience of like 500 people like hey, i sell houses, but it still wasn't like putting it out there right and then the next step became really putting it out there on social media at the pto right.

In my my kids, are they remind me of this every year and they're horrified by it, but at one year at halloween, i wrapped all of the halloween candy into cellophane bags, tied them with ribbon and put my business cards on them. So then it was like. I love it. Some people just wrote that down by the way, that's good and but so like that was like as out there as it got right, because you were coming to my house in my neighborhood right and then not only are you seeing my face, like handing you, my Business card with my face on it, but it started some conversations.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, you're, like please hand this one to your parents, exactly because you know the parents are eating, half of it anyway, right, okay, so so, but a lot had to have changed both in your psychology and in your life to go from eight to Eighty two: i bet you went from having lots of free time, even though you probably felt busy to having very little free time. Did you do it all alone? Did you get an assistant? Were you insane? Do you? Wear leather at night enjoy a good beating like help us understand. The leather might have been all day, but i'm just kidding when you go from 8 to 82 deals. Everyone knows what i'm talking about like.

That is a that's a lot of eustress. That's a lot of positive stress: how did you do it um you know early on, i did not have an assistant, i didn't hire an assistant until july um. I yeah and i remember like it - i'm not proud of it. I would walk through my office and say, like i'm, a walking liability right and that's kind of how i felt i had a great coach at that time, who finally convinced me to take the risk and hire an assistant, and that became, i think, if i hadn't Done that i think i couldn't have gone past 50 or 60 transactions right, so that got me to the next level time.

I still worked a lot, i'm not going to lie like there wasn't. I know. First, first half of the year there wasn't a ton of balance. The second half of the year was slightly better.

What i'll say is i never missed anything that was important, but i did miss some stuff. Yeah, i mean listen. Every entrepreneur knows you know. Guy gal, you know, kids, no kids puppy like look.

This business is like a a black hole right. It can suck you in the more successful. You are the more it can suck you in, and it's only through trading shekels for time that we start to buy back some of that freedom, which most people just don't get right. You clearly got it, but then take us take us back.

So you go from 8 to 82, then you go from 82 to 212. and i know the backstory behind this year, but so help us just unravel it for us unpack it for us. So i think it was one of those things where i was. I was clearly very successful right and i think in this industry, everyone thinks, when you hit a certain level of success.

The next step is that you start a team um or even without a certain level of success, that everybody wants to start a team right, and i did that um, honestly, probably when i shouldn't have, i was still heavily in production out of those 212 sales. 110 of them were my personal production and just to be clear how many of those were buyers versus sellers 70 buyers, 30 sellers. So a lot of people's jaw just dropped because everyone understands how much time i don't care how efficient you are. That's time 100 and you there's no way to leverage out all of it right, there's still showings and there's still yeah.

It is what it is right offers counter offers negotiations closing table in massachusetts right. Were you going to every closing um? No, i couldn't i couldn't. I couldn't physically right but and i wasn't full disclosure - i was 27 - that was 2017.. I was neither a great agent.

I was not a great team leader, i was not a great business owner. I wasn't a good friend, i wasn't a good mother and i wasn't a good wife. I was like i was average at best in absolutely everything, yes and even though on paper in business, everyone's, like wow, look what you accomplished but was that the year the whole thing blew up talk about that so um in august. I'll, never forget the day! August 2017, i and the cracks were forming before right.

Like you, i think anybody who's run a team and who's been through something where things aren't good. You know it right, you feel it in your gut. You see it every day. Sometimes we don't want to admit it to ourselves.

Sometimes we just don't know how to change it. So we try to ignore it. I saw it, i felt it like i, but i didn't know what to do to fix it, and i woke up one. What was it, what was the it everything right? So i one of the things that i've shared somewhat publicly this year that i hadn't felt comfortable sharing until like 2020, and i don't know why it became okay this year, but my company wasn't profitable right.

So everybody looks in from the outside and they're like holy you're selling 200 houses, and you know the gci is millions of dollars right right and from the outside. Looking in, i had like everything but from the inside looking in. I knew that i sold 110 houses and i was barely making money right. I still made money no doubt, but i didn't make the money that i should have made grinding at the level that i was grinding and the team actually cost me probably about a half.

A million dollars is what i lost yeah, how um. So i, when i was starting the team when i was recruiting agents that, like i, can tell you straight away. That was like number one mistake. I didn't know my own value.

I didn't know how to convince people to come work with me outside of promising leads and money right and come join me, and i'm going to give you a ton of leads you're going to close a ton of houses and you're going to make a ton of Money and those splits that i was paying out, weren't sustainable. I was at a national brokerage where i was providing all the legion, all the staff, all the systems. I was paying some of the agents caps to the brokerage that we were at. I was paying off yeah it's bad.

I was paying the monthly fees, i was paying all like absolutely every expense, and so they were walking away some of them. Full honesty were on like a 70 30 with the team only keeping 30. and some of them were like. I had one agent who was on a 70 30 on company provided leads and not 90 10 on on sphere stuff, but then it just became so contentious because there was no delineation between what was sphere and what was company and it's it's not profitable right and I would look at it and so like that those splits were one big mistake and then the other part of it, but i want to just talk about this just for a second for the people that are listening right.

You have to understand, like you know, you're a typical team or agent or forget brokerage. You're 15 of your cost is just going to be in salaries just to manage everything that she's doing so, if you're, if you're getting 30, you might be, like god, 30. That's still a lot new because half that's gone to salaries, then she's acquiring leads. I bet more than half right that the the delta, the other 15.

I bet she could have been at 18 or 20 percent in her zillow, spend plus everything else. Every time. One of those agents sold a house, it cost her money, it did and that'll it and not and not. Just like hundreds like we're talking, like thousands, thousands yeah right like that's what it ended up being at the end of the at the end of the year.

It was - and i i knew it like by june by the time we got to june and the numbers were starting to come to be. I saw what was happening, but i didn't have the leadership skills to fix it. Um and i didn't know how to vocalize to everybody around me what was going on, and i think it's really tough to be vulnerable about finances right, and i think that there's a certain level of like pride, that's tied to that too um. So that was all kind of factoring in along with i didn't get into this industry to be a business owner right, like i think you and i have talked about this - is this was all like.

It was an accident, yeah yeah, but tell tell people so they understand like, and you know, share a little more around that well, like i said i, you know i i always say i'm a mom first right like when somebody asks me about my identity like before The business i always talk about, i'm a mom right and i i got into the industry to sell a few houses pay for my kids dance lessons and you know maybe run to target every once in a while. Like i didn't i never. I didn't. Wake up dreaming of owning a massive real estate business and it just in some ways like i know it's crazy for some people to look at what it is now and think that it was organic, but really early on it was just organic.

That's the best way that i can say it is it just kind of started and i think at a certain point i was like yeah. I want this, but i also didn't know what it meant to want it or what i was wanting right and um leadership skills. I i was just going to say to you the thing that most people don't get is it's who do you? Who do? I need to become as a leader right, which is also as a spouse and as a parent, because it's not just shift there. You got to shift everywhere, so you were going there so talk about it, yeah! Well like nobody, i don't think anyone trains it right.

Like it's not like something that you can look at it and say like oh, like i instantly know how to manage people right or i instantly know how to have conversations, and you know i think i've gotten better at it over the years, especially since you and I have known each other right but, like i am very direct and that's not great right, not everybody reacts well to that. They react it's not always well. Yes. Yes, at least they know where you stand right, because because we both know some people and listen for everybody, listening right now like like i'm very direct, but you can be direct and not punch.

Somebody in the face right, there's an art form to that there is. There is an art form that took me years to learn um, and it took me years to learn that that i've got to be me right. I can't leave like you lead and i can't leave like other people leave. I got to be me and i've got to find.

I had to find a way to finesse. That being me with being relatable to the people that were around, that are around me right and in a way that inspires them instead of makes them feel tiny right, i mean for everyone listening if you've ever. If you know any of my early work six seven years ago, i would talk about all these different types of teams, and one of them was hero in the minion right and that you know these people would maybe not intentionally some intentionally surround themselves with minions. If you know the little character, you know he write the little goofy little uh, you know cartoon characters, but that's how they treated people.

They also treated people like they weren't intelligent, they weren't bright and therefore that's how they acted. And then people wondered why their teams were horrible right. I don't think you went through that, but i think you experienced some of that as you learn to hire more talented people and then how do you work with those more talented people to get the best out of them? Even if it's not the way that you would do it so so speak sort of just around the maybe the lessons learned and, i think, really from 17 to 18, because you went from 212 to 326 and in august the whole thing completely imploded yeah. We went from, i went from having six agents and three staff to having one agent and two staff, and then i had to start all over right.

Um did that. Did that impact you, your psychology, your belief, your mindset, or were you like? Okay, knowing knowing what i know now, i know what i got to do. No, i i ugly cried. I ugly cried for days right and i think it's tough because i didn't like i said i knew i knew what was wrong, which was part of what was impacting the way that i led right and i could see it like.

I think when you, when you're under that level of stress, especially financial stress, it leads you to be like edgy short direct, overly direct, which, when you're already direct, is not good um and it leads you to focus on the wrong things right um. But i didn't know all of i knew part of those mistakes, but i didn't know at that time what i needed to do to correct the leadership skills and to to switch from. I guess, maybe like a a punitive kind of leadership style to one of inspiration. Right and that took it i mean full honesty.

I had to stop and ask myself if it was really worth it and if i really wanted it right, because it's it was a lot of work. It's still a lot of work to kind of remind myself that i kind of have to keep evolving and figuring out. You know what worked for in some situations will work in others, but not all of them. We're actually because because it's you, i'm actually going to go into some systems conversations a little bit, but i want to go back to 212 to 326 to 492..

You you went from six agents and three staff down to one agent and two staff, and yet you finished the year at 212 and and added 50 to your business in one year walk us through the. How and what were the lessons along the way. How did you start rehiring again and what were the lessons so great, so rehiring um, i mean it just it was, do or die right kind of like when i was going from eight to eighty two once i knew i wanted it. I just needed to figure out what the problems were, how i was gon na fix it and then just do it right.

So i needed to switch my recruiting strategy, but first i needed to understand who i was, who i am right and what my value prop is my usp, just like when i'm selling to a buyer or seller right? Why would somebody hire me? Why is somebody gon na come join my my company um and that couldn't be leads or money right, because everybody can promise that, and i didn't i don't know, that's not who i am. I jason and i were just chatting the other day and i said you know what we're not a lead generation company, we're team right and it's in the culture and the mentality, and once we understood that back in like 2017 right that it's it's the training. It's the collaboration, it's it's having fun right! It's coming to work for the shuffleboard that i see you know below the stairwell there right right, yeah, totally, yes, um, and so once we kind of understood that, then it was easier enough to say okay. So we kind of get the usp and finding people where it was also switching the avatar.

You know it wasn't super experienced agents who were bringing a book of business right. It's understanding that my my niche still to this day is helping brand new agents or ones that are in the business less than 12 months, who sold less than five homes, yeah right - and i i play to that strength still today um. So it was understanding that figuring out where we were going to find those people to attract how we would attract them and then being so positive on that financial thing, because that was what started the demise the first time. Yes, right and understanding just to be clear.

That means the right splits, some some awareness around cost right, not making any stupid decisions when it comes to the money. And if someone doesn't like the money, you don't change it, or did you change it, and even today, so here's like even today somebody will walk in and they'll say. Oh golly, like really how about. If i, if you offer me x and i will say no once and if you ask me again, i just simply say you know what thank you so much for taking the time to meet to meet with me.

I've loved getting to know about you, but i don't think that this is the right fit and that's it. You can ask me once i'll say no, but if you ask me again we're just done because you won't ever see the value in what i can bring to the table, and i think you know this and i want to just make the point to everybody that Agents that repeatedly move for money repeatedly move for money, so they're not there for the culture, the team, the camaraderie, the connection, what it means to be a part of something and i'm not making those agents wrong. I think every team leader knows you know it right. Every broker knows it: you got to be very careful with those people because they're not going to be loyal, they're going to skip to the next shiny penny, whether it's in a year six months or five years - yes, 100! Well, that's me right and that's what i always say.

I would never hire me to be on my team right, but it's knowing that fine line of that avatar and understanding exactly what fits into that avatar. So so lisa, you said earlier. The first key to scaling is really knowing yourself and getting clear on the value that you deliver your unique selling proposition as a team right and then remember you're still, you did 110 transactions that year, you're still out showing property and writing up offers and encounter offers And negotiating - and you know i got two daughters and i got a husband wait now i need to go interview more staff and i need to hire more salespeople and i need to write out what our new training program is like. How did you do all that? I worked smart right.

I kept a great schedule. I got up early, my favorite times to work were before my kids got up and after they went to bed when it was quiet, and i could that's when i was doing the stuff for the business instead of selling. I surrounded myself with amazing people. I think one of my what i've learned we all kind of have super powers in the industry.

My super power isn't hiring. I can recognize talent and hire like everybody in this office who has a staff job they're, smarter than me, they're, better than me, they're, faster than me and they're amazing right, and so i figured that out early on that. If i hire people who are smarter than me and better at me at what they do, it's better for all of us right. So it's a really great leverage.

I don't write the training plan. I never wrote the training plan. I have some input into the training plan, but um i don't own it, but in those early days somebody had to train those sales people. Somebody had to do the ride along somebody had to say this is how we answer the phone.

This is the way we follow up on a lead. This is how we use our crm. Was that your admin, or was that you was that the one loan sales person that was wondering did i make the right decision to stay here like who was it? So it was a combination like i, my admin rachel had been she's, been with me since the beginning that first hire that i made back in 2016. So she knew the systems and would step up to train the sales people and then, as i hired our sales manager, that was very collaborative between myself and rachel, really working with jason, because jason, it's never sold a house knew nothing, and you know i i joke That he was like my shadow for six months right attached at my hip would come on every appointment, every showing and while we were driving from here to a listing appointment and then to the buyer appointment in the car, he was just taking notes and talking and Asking questions and how important is that, as a strategy for for really on board, because jason did you hire jason with the intent to go right into management, or was that part of his role was to like just go into sales? And then it just happened? No, i hired jason in um july of 2017 right before everything fell apart.

He was one of the three staff members, because i recognized that i couldn't fix what was wrong and so in my head, the solution was to hire somebody else who could fix it, but it was too far gone. There was no fixing it right, um and then so jason was hired straight management and it it back. When i first started coaching with my current coach. One of the things books that he had me read was called the slight edge and it talks about this j curve right, where you kind of take a dip back and step back, so that slow it down.

So you can fix things and then watch it. Take off yeah, and that was the strategy with hiring jason right a step back and for me it was financial right i had to take on his salary without really having any benefit or roi to put to it. But i knew that if i hired him and did a really great job training him to to train, to manage to recruit that it would take, that was the only way it was going to be able to take off right. Did you ever? Did you ever along the way to say to yourself? Maybe i should just go back and just sell houses.

This is just nuts, i don't love selling. So i i that's so funny coming from somebody. Who's 110 deals in one year. I love selling.

I don't love it. Some people are like what imagine if she actually liked this job, i love winning. I don't love selling um. I like i it's it's.

Some people are people, people right and they love that it drains me. So i don't. I don't love it. Um, so no i don't.

I would never go back, that's good! Okay! So so, let's go back to the leadership thing. If i said to you, okay, lisa, i'm gon na take notes. Tell me the four to five most important leadership adjustments you made to be able to scale and sustain, because that's what you've done like you had the breakdown then you've had we've all had breakdowns along the way, but your your production has just skyrocketed. What would be those four to five most important sort of leadership? Lessons antidotes management philosophies, approaches that have been able for you to really become who you are and have all these amazing people around you winning.

So the number one is that i had to be. Okay, being me right and i had to own who i am. I know you - and i have talked about this before and i talk about it with anybody who will listen, but that was the most powerful thing for me is to understand that when i'm, the truest form of myself in every single way, there's something it's genuine and Sincere right, as opposed to, if i try to be all professional and it doesn't work, it's not me yeah. If you tried to not be twirling someone some one of these little goofy things and - and you know even before we started this, you know tristan.

What were we listening? The entire time? It's just her and her team laughing back and like that's just you being you yes right, but then you turn right around and you punch people in the face because you're very direct, that's also you right, yeah, totally yep um. So that was number one, and that was the biggest one for me is once i realized that i have to be me in every single way that was most powerful. The second one is that i can't expect from everybody else what i expect from myself and actually i'm going to edit that i can't expect from anyone else what i expect from myself and i can't hold them to. I can't hold anybody accountable to a goal.

That's not theirs right if i hold the office accountable to my goal of selling a thousand houses everyone's going to be miserable, including myself, but if i can recognize that everybody's got their own goals and dreams and desires and help them accomplish their goals, dreams and desires. It's going to help me accomplish mine 100. That was number two yeah um. What's number three number three was learning that it's okay to not have all the answers and to be vulnerable enough to admit that i don't have answers, then i'm not perfect and that i do make mistakes and letting everybody else around me hold me accountable, not just Like my coach, but like my agents right, if i tell you that i'm going to be somewhere for something - and i don't hold me accountable to it right if i promise you that i'm gon na deliver x - and i don't hold me accountable - yeah and that's okay Right and and to admit that i'm never gon na have all the answers.

That's such a i mean that that transcends uh, this business, all business parenting. You know the like, with the fixed mindset versus the growth mindset. The growth mindset says, i don't know who does know. Does anybody know how we can solve this right where the fixed mindset's like this is the answer just because it is even though it's wrong, but don't tell me it's wrong right, like where did that come from? Were you always that way, because that's a that's a big one for people, especially as they ascend into leadership roles yeah? No, that one's probably one of the more recent ones.

That's probably like the past, like 12 to 18 months, yeah always be evolving there yeah. So, what's number four all right number: four um leadership stuff. I think it's really just comes down to communication right and that, especially just because of my personality that i have to calibrate um to the people that i'm with yeah yeah. How have you? How have you learned, i mean i think, of how many like team, plus meetings and meetings and masterminds and just being together right with this amazing.

You know posse we run with that. I always find myself role playing with people in like how would you say this? Like how would you say this to the team, what would you would you put this in an email? Would this be on video? Would it be face to face how have you taken you're? Obviously, if you were whether you liked it or not a phenomenal agent, so you knew how to talk to buyers and sellers with different personality types and where they were at in their own sort of life. Evolution now you're shifting that over to staff to recruits to other agents to all these people associated with transactions. How have you improved in that area? So we got a really good example.

I will never forget this. It was like it was probably about like 18 months ago, and i was looking in some of our dashboards, and i noticed that an agent had dropped off right. Their conversations were down, their production was down and i'm sitting at my desk and i whipped out my phone and i took a picture of it and i texted it to the agent and copied jason on it. And i was like dude what's going on and in my head like it's like supportive and friendly right, like i wrapped it with like dude, i added an emoji, so in my head, like i'm golden i've just become expressive and like soft and all of a sudden, I see jason going like this, i'm like, where are you going jay and he's like i'm going to clean up the mess you just made? And yes, so i follow him and he's sitting down next to the agent whose face is like this, and they were horrified right, of course, because in text, how did that actually sound dude? What's going on, you loser right exactly exactly so.

I have learned right that, like i've got ta like i can't i've, it's got, ta be one-on-one, it's got, ta be personal in everything right and that, like celebrating the wins is so super important and, like i don't often stop like before we started. I accept like when we were talking about numbers. I was like we're gon na be in 600 somewhere, but it's not a thousand right because that's been my goal and i have to stop and realize that, like 600 is still really celebration worthy right through a pandemic. Through this year, through any year - yes, yeah, no doubt right, but, like my my head just goes to like if i had done this, and i had done that - and i had done this - would i still have gotten to a thousand right and - and it does that, My head does that naturally, with everything - and so i had to learn to stop and like check that and say, i've got to celebrate that, like all the wins, the teams wins, the individuals wins, everybody's wins yeah.

It goes back to expectations. Right yeah, i mean like it's actually a very nice or you should. You should think about writing a book. My dear this is this is some good insight here.

So is there a fifth? Is there a fifth big? What's been the biggest mistake, and how did you correct it on the leadership side? Oh god, there's too many that i could that i could give you like endless mistakes right. So i think one of the biggest ones is that, as into my business as i am, and as much as i look at it that i often get to big picture and lost track of some of the nitty gritty and some of those nitty gritty cost me Hundreds of thousands of dollars - yes and so biggest mistake in that respect, is losing sight of the day-to-day for the big picture and the day-to-day is still so important right right. It's uh! You know, it's said that ceos. You know myself included and i think you're you're speaking to the same thing.

We have a tendency because our role is to create this future that people can live into that we're thinking. You know, 18 months out three years out. You know what are the things they're going to get in our way? What do we need to do about it? Who am i hiring today, who's going to make an impact in you know 15 16 months, but if you're not also looking into the day-to-day operations and the details, you know you can be in trouble real fast, you run run out of money, lose your culture, lose Your people, i mean it goes quick. So so how do you balance the two now uh balance, so i've hired more people right so this year, i think the most like instrumental hire was somebody who puts the the data into into forms that i can see right.

Like i, i can't look at spreadsheets all day. I blow my brains out, but i can look at a pretty colored graph right, dashboards, um yeah exactly and you know, even for like a solo agent, i'd say the same thing right like understanding that not knowing like it's so easy to say. Oh, i prospected for three hours, but was it really three hours or was it an hour and a half because you walked around for 30 minutes, got a drink at the water cooler for five minutes and you know yeah. Okay, let's go a totally different direction.

I actually wrote down uh. How does an agent scale in your mind and then i wrote down being so systems oriented like what does that agent need that solo agent, then small team, then large team. So so, let's i want to walk like tactically through even even your own career right. How does that? How does that agent scale? What systems do they need in the beginning right and then along the way, what people they need? So it's kind of thinking, systems and people walk me through that journey first system is a crm right.

That was, that was the toughest one i paid for that for like a year and didn't even log in. I was the bane of my existence. Yes, yes, all right, so crm everyone's like laughing and you know they're all going to say, but which crm should we use the one your broker gives you for free that you haven't opened up yet right. We i had many of those and i didn't even know the login information too.

Yes, um. I am a huge believer in whether it's cte or csu, or something that's going to track the financials even for a solo agent, if you're spending any money on marketing whether it's client gifts, postcards mailers right, you got to know what money's coming in, what money's going Out and i think it, what money do you have to spend right to increase budget, but also like csu and cte, are really very transactional because you're looking at hey, i'm spending money on this? Am i getting the conversion right? Those are all those levers that we love to talk about. Like i can pull that lever, i can get greater conversion. I can make more phone calls.

We could book more appointments, um, but i think a lot of people don't get like again, whether it's that or even an excel spreadsheet, just knowing where your business is coming from and then what you're forecasting really to me is all of those so crm. Some method of tracking, what's number three, i don't think there is when you're starting off like, and i think that that's one of my biggest like things with when people call me is, i don't think you. I think we think that you need more and that spending more money is better, but i think if you have a way to manage your leads or clients and a way to manage the money, what more do you need until you're crossing a certain point? That's it! That's it show me the money, clients and money all right so so take me into that small team, um yeah small team so same things right, a crm that everybody's a part of definitely need an admin before you hire any agents. That's always one of the things that i i hope team leaders stop and realize is that the first hire should be an admin and not a buyer agent, right um.

Why and why? I know why, but why? Why, oh well, for a whole bunch of reasons right, so one is a really skilled admin max out what you can make as a solo agent. If i can pay an admin, 15 or 20 an hour and double my production, it's going to be a lot less money going out the door than paying a buyer agent. 50. That's right like on the order of like, depending on your market and your price point.

Like we could be talking like a six figure delta right, the order of magnets - that's crazy, tremendous yeah right, so you hire the admin, but what what? What software systems is? The admin need fully baked, so they can support you at the highest level. I think the same ones at that point right like we threw in we use um. We use zoho now for transaction management so that everybody can log in and see the status of every transaction. But that being said, i think you can also do it in dot.

Loop at us, you know, depending on how many transactions we're talking about and how much money we're trying to save and the. I think one of the things that i always that makes me sad is when i see agents who and small teams spending so much time and money trying to build the perfect, mousetrap and overthinking. How much time do they need to spend like building out all these asana or trello checklists they're, all in dot loop right and we're already spending money on some sort of that loop or sky slope or whatever yep, like my note, was use the transaction management solution That your company provides right or the one that might even be free with your mls or for a very small fee through your mls or association, so crm track tracking, which includes financials transaction management, and then you go to scale. Then you want sales.

People does anything change with the systems. I don't think so. We still use the same systems now so truth. We, i still use the same crm that i used when i was a solo agent.

I still use the same. We still use cte, which is what i used as a solo agent for all the agents in the company. We still use that loop right. It's all the same.

It's just it's kind of grown with us yeah. Well, i mean hello from eight to 600 plus transactions. So i it's important. I really want people to get this because you - and i both know - we have other friends that if i said okay, what systems are gon na go well, there's 43 things.

I use this and i use this and i use this and i think i think those people just really like software, do you know what i mean they like having like? I have enough apps on my phone. You know, i don't need i'm lucky. I can turn my computer on, like that's like the truth, like the fact that, like i haven't frozen on my screen yet today, yeah and the sound is like in my airpods and not going back and forth is a huge win. That's how i roll i.

I love you for that. I love you for that. How do you install a new system or process with a team step by step, so we back into it right and it for us like? If we're changing like when we added in zoho for project management, it was. It was literally step by step.

It was. We did it first with the buyers, and then it was the you know: contract offer to purchase and sale and we nailed it down and then purchase and sale. The commitment nailed it down commitment to closing nailed it down, post, closing, nailed it down and just kept building upon it because for the staff, if we, if we changed everything overnight for both the staff and the agents, it wouldn't be good for the customers yeah so Step by step, yeah and and patient, and keeping it keeping it installed and reminding people which we're gon na talk about management. Next, you will you'll appreciate this because you've been inside my office multiple times and - and you know you brought with you - i'm sorry i'm spacing on the person's name but worked with amanda on my team to create some new dashboards.

So you will get to know my new co who just celebrated yesterday's 30th day on the job, and we had this wonderful conversation. He said tom did, you know we have a thousand dashboards currently built inside of between salesforce and everything else, and i said how many do we actually look at i go because i only look at like 10.. He said he goes. I don't think anybody's.

Looking at almost 950 of them, i said, are we just packrats we're just holding on? He goes, probably probably he goes, but i'm gon na like wipe all that clean and and my message, everyone listening and lisa. I want your insight on this is when you're managing a business you're just trying to what what are the levers, leading and lagging indicators that i can tweak and adjust to make it better and that doesn't need to be 500 things right. It's usually like we're in sales. It's like five things.

How many leads are coming in? How many sales people are managing them? How many appointments are we getting? What's our conversion? Did we get any five-star reviews like like that's and it's all yes or no right in percentages? How do you manage it now? What are the dashboards you look at and what? What like? What's your frequency of looking at them? So all right, i have about 250 dashboards and because i was like i just realized this the other day i was, we were going through something - and i said, oh so, what pops into my i'll send an email at night and i'll be like to the to Our analytics guy and i'll be like oh i'd, like a dashboard. That shows me this and i look at it once and i'm like. Oh skip that it didn't give me what i wanted to know. So i get why you have a thousand, because i i look at like five right, like that's truth, be told, i look at five um, so so tell tell the person listening or watching right now, my friends we're talking about a dashboard which is like on your Screen or on your phone that shows you a bunch of dials and levers of you know.

Are we winning or not, based upon a percentage right, i mean that's the basics of what a dashboard is. What are the five you look at and what's on them, yep? So number one is the financials. Where do where does the company stand? What's closed? What's pending? What's coming in over the next 30 days, the basics right yeah, totally, the second one would be for us it's since we work a lot off of probably 70 of the deals closed here. Come off of company generated leads, so we have dashboards that monitor.

All of our inbound leads how many, where are they coming from the average price, the source that they're coming from, so that we can see any changes in either location or price or volume? Sometimes we make a mistake and don't realize it right so to be clear. We're talking about, like basically quality of leads by source yeah, and you know, with the team being as big as it is, we're like 60, something agents, 65, 67 agents, then they're spread across geography. So i've got to make sure that we're balancing leads in the geographies. That agents are need right.

If i, if we over, generate in one geography - and we have three agents - and we under generate in the geography where we've got 20 no bueno um. So that would be one my suit, my newest favorite, one that just they just put together for me like this week. It's so it was super cool, it's a funnel and they broke out in our database, which are at like the submitting offers phase, which ones are currently actively being shown, which ones are engaged in communication and which ones are sitting there and meeting a lot of love And that was that was fun to look at. That was a great point, so you're taking instead of you, know top of final middle final bottom of the funnel.

That sounds like all middle into bottom and then breaking bottom into like three or four pieces. I love that yeah yeah all data nerds were like ooh. Everyone else was like what, but i okay, so yeah. We we have that same thing, so so what what does and we'll go to four and five? But when you look at that, what does it tell you like like for everyone listening, we don't just look at these numbers.

These numbers are designed for us to say i see a problem. How are we going to fix it right? How do you, how do you look at it? How do you interpret it? What do you do so for with this particular one? It was looking at it and we were seeing that we had a ton of you saw a couple things right. So first thing that we saw is that we had a ton of clients that we were actively showing homes too. This was all on the buy side, not on the listing side, but we hadn't actually signed buyer agency contracts with interest a whole bunch.

So that became a coaching opportunity for jason and i to start working with the team about the importance of getting buyer agency contracts signed so that we can protect that business right, we're doing a ton of work. We should protect it, yes, um and then the next set of it was looking at. You know if we're booking appointments so like one of the cool things was, you know again. Internet leads where my my business comes from.

Is our agents are scripted to book an appointment on the first phone call and what we noticed is that we do a great job booking that first appointment. But if the property is contingent, which happens a lot because our inventory is so tight, we weren't making the pivot to get the agents to booking us an appointment at a like a similar property and getting in front of the consumer right. So it allowed us to see that i think we've got a really big opportunity if we can make a script pivot on the return phone call to help move some of them down um. So that was really cool and then one of i think you know go back to the dashboard about money.

It helps us see, potentially what's going to start filling into that dashboard. 30. 60. 90 days from now, so so for everyone listening right now, you either just took more notes and you hit rewind or you're like what, but i'm gon na, like i'm gon na tell you you, you know my business pretty well, we generate 14.

000 leads every single month, if you're, not a b testing the script, to know which one gets a better response in what geography. At what time during the day and on what day and on what month? Do you guys get all that? Because it's it's, a cyclical business people are in a different emotional state, around election they're in a different emotional state, around taxes, they're in a different emotional state new year new you spring market summer, market, the fall um, that's some heavy stuff and i know you're. You know you're you're, pushing in this direction because you want to make better decisions um. What's the fourth one uh so the next one that we're looking at is individual agents and the profitability by agent, so that we can see you know.

Are we at the at the me at the heart of it?.