Welcome to the team builder show where the most successful team leaders share, how to build scale organize and ultimately maximize your sales team results. Hey welcome back to the team builders show. Today. I've got a rock star in my presence, who has 23 people on her team 17 agents, six support staff and there's a little rotation inside there with their isa team and for context.

Last year, 140 transactions with an average sales price of 2.9 million enjoy welcome to the show. Thank you thank you for having me, so you know for the person that maybe has hasn't met. You hasn't seen. You give us some context, not only you know, fairfield county connecticut yep.

What are the markets that you serve and how long you've been in the business? Oh okay, so i serve greenwich connecticut, all fairfield county darian danbury. We do it all um and i've been in the business for over 25 years. I started my career in manhattan. Yeah then worked my way up to westchester county and now i'm in in fairfield county.

So you've moved markets three times which in and of itself, is worthy of a show. Oh it's true, because they're completely different with co-ops and condos and 100 percent no mls to ml, or you know no less to mls. There's a lot of dynamics here. But today we really want to unpack the journey of the last few years as you've scaled from sort of single agent assistant to what you have today and growing.

So so one of the questions that everybody asks is who do you hire? First? Who do you hire? Second, who do you hire third? Is it yeah you're on this journey and what are some of the lessons along the way yeah? So i'm putting you on the spot? Oh sure, okay, who'd, you hire first two years. Second and let's just let's kind of take them through the journey of when you started to build a team today sure. So when i started to build the team, it was because i was too busy right and i was like i can't handle all this. So i was like, let me hire someone who can help me so um.

I hired someone who was a licensed agent and was very much like me, and i was like oh this and and that's not gon na help didn't work out. So i guess one of the first things that i would tell people is to really look at yourself and see see what you're a superstar at and see what you suck at and then try to complement what you're not good at with someone else. Who's really good. At you know - and it wasn't until i got into coaching that i even like even heard of a disc profile.

I was like sure what do you mean i'm 99, 9 and uh d and 99? I i have no s and c so you know, but it was a realization i was like wow, you know so then i hired an assistant who really had that sc quality. Yes, more organized more process, more checklist, less hey! Let's do this right, so the first key hire you made the mistake, hiring your likeness. That's that's an insight that everybody should listen to, but the second person was, you finally said. Okay, i need somebody that really is the end of my yang and and what year was that first assistant, it was probably uh five six years ago, but but it really wasn't the second person who was the the the best assistant it actually took about four or Five people to go through before we got there: okay, so if we're being truthful here well, yes, yes, lie detector test, it was nine now you know we we've had multiple people that have had five and six assistants because they were trying to it's like a listing Appointment, i'm trying to get you versus yeah.

Are you right for me? Are we right for each other right? What did you learn in the process about recruiting and interviewing, or do you just get lucky and you finally got one that stuck? I finally got one that stuck and my husband takes um the credit for that he's like i found her and she's still with me and that's correct. She was, she was amazing and she really understood me and she really complimented me and i think that's that's. What's most important so before we move beyond this point, one of the things that i've noticed is there's there's two camps. There's the camp of people that you know we all have turnover every business in the world has turnovers.

So don't think that you're going to be perfect, never have turnover, it doesn't exist right people get divorced, people have to move, they decide, they want something else. They get moved away, blah blah blah yeah, but the two camps that i see are one there's tribal knowledge inside the team leader's head that they have not gotten into a dock or a google doc or a powerpoint. So they have to onboard and train and develop everybody verbally versus. I took the tribal knowledge and i got it into a google doc.

Welcome to the company read those 27 pages. If you get it you're with us, if you don't you're out so be honest, which one are you oh, i was definitely that one yeah you were yeah. I tried to to train everything and yeah. I think it's it's a very difficult process and i think um most people give up right.

Most people are like yeah. I can't do this. I tried an assistant, it didn't work, you know and then they just give up um, but it wasn't until i got the right one that i was like. Oh, this is great like she really got it yeah, so um and high level.

You know, i think we all get like one plus one suddenly equals four or five from a productivity standpoint. So if the assistant was the first move, what was the second move? So then? I i got other agents to join me and um. You know but but then, but then i joined tom ferry coaching right, and so what was interesting was when i joined coaching. They were like.

Well, we didn't change. You changed like because i started wanting them to do things like i, i held them accountable. I was like we should be doing this this and this and they're like yeah, that's not what i signed up for, so they quickly left and that was painful because boy there's a commercial for trump berry coaching. It was just you know they.

They didn't have that growth mindset. They were like stuck in their way. Yeah. You know, if you don't have a growth mindset, then what you stay the same and you shrivel up and you die and who wants that right? That's not us yeah, not us so um.

So when you started rehiring, did you change your methodology? Did you change your interview process? Did you create some standards, walk us through that yeah? So it was really about finding the right people who have the right mindset. So we we hire on a growth mentality and people that are coachable, right and and they're going to be open to that. And then the second thing is that they have a servant's heart, because i it's part of our core values and our mission statement that we give a five-star experience to everyone, whether they're, a section, eight client uh, who needs a rental or a 40 million dollar buyer. So that's just part of our our core and everyone believes in that and that's power and that that comes from you know.

My mom was a single mom. You know and she had financial struggles and like i want to treat everyone. The way that i wish that she was treated because she should be treated like a queen, you know - and i think everyone should so um. You know we kind of see if people are like that and if we i interviewed someone the other day and she's like oh, the great thing about real estate is that you get to pick and choose your clients, and i was like oh she's, not fun.

Yeah you're like no, actually you don't yes yeah, so so we want to get into marketing for the team. But let's go to the next. So you you had a couple sales people yeah. Then they sort of transitioned out yeah.

You started bringing in some sales people. How many did you bring in the beginning? Uh it? You know they all trickled in. I guess it was like three four or five it was. You know somewhat of a revolving door, but what we found was um.

The the athletes the young athletes were driven, they were team, oriented and - and i i love them so i also love young people, like i'm, the oldest person on my team, by a lot just because i love to listen to their ideas and it kind of goes To our culture right, it's like everybody knows that they have a voice and that's the best part of my day is when we all sit there and we collaborate and i'm like listening to their ideas. I'm like. Oh, that's a great idea right getting a 27 year old perspective versus a you know, just a 50 year old perspective, i'm pointing to me by the way in case you're wondering i'm in that camp yeah. Okay, all right truth be told.

So so you start to hire more sales people, but then more sales people create more transactions. So what did you do next? So then we needed a tc right um, because sales people socket paperwork, myself included. So you know this person really cheated up so that they wouldn't have to do paperwork, so they can spend more time selling um. So did you? Did you decide on the tc software? Did they already have tc software? You know what i mean to like: make that five-star experience beautiful.

We need better software. So how did that play out yeah so that played out from being part of the ecosystem and talking to everybody else here? What do you use? Yeah? What's your opinion? What's here exactly so um we bought our own and it just helped us with that client experience. Yes, because we do have checklists along the way with my tc developed, so that there's this client experience surprising delight along the way with with every buyer or seller. So so many people get lost in exactly what you just said right there.

So you know what i mean like they. We everybody want. Nobody says i got into real estate to deliver poor service right. You know what i mean like everybody says, i'm going in this.

I want to i want to wow people. I want to give my very best, but so many people run their business by memory versus by checklist right there's. No doubt there was a time you were doing it by a member for sure. How did you make? How did you make that switch as you were, adding people yeah? So it's interesting because i i think we we do this still today, after every single sale, we sit down, but i didn't used to do this.

We sit down and we say what did we do? Great and what did we suck at right and then we say: what can we do to make sure that that never happens again so i'll, give you a quick example. It was closing day we go through the walk-through and there's 20 paint cans in the garage and the buyer is like. I don't want those pink keys and - and this and the seller's like i i you know, they're in boston already and so who's taking the paint cans to the dump, make right yeah. So now we have checklist and we we ask.

If, if do you have any old paint - and you know and then and then we asked the buyer, do you want the old pain you know so that we don't run into that pain? Point again, so it's really finding all the pain points which comes from experience and then having checklists. But then we also have the surprise and delight which you were asking about and that's all you know you know what you should do, but you don't always get around to it yeah. So it's like you go to that listing appointment and then you know you should write a handwritten note, but then somebody else calls you and get distracted and then it doesn't happen. So we have a checklist.

My tc writes the handwritten note. Then she sends out brownies and then there's like all these things and then once the seller does their paperwork. We send them a little coffee thing like here's. A little pick me up because we know you just had to do so.

Much paperwork. Oh, i love that. Yeah we send them moving boxes and just little treats along the way, because it it is, it can be a long process between contract and and when they move out, especially now with these delays, you know right, so you want them to know that you're still in Touch with them and you know, can we get you any resources? So it's part of that five-star experience see what i love is. You know you go back to like walt disney right.

If you read sort of the origin story of disney, he was with his daughter. He was at a park in l.a and there was a merry-go-round and he looked at the merry-go-round and he's like. First of all, not all the horses jump and a lot of them have chipped paint, and he said what if there was a park where all the horses jumped and there was no chip paint - and that was the origin story of what became disneyland in the park. Right but then talking to my mentor mike fans who worked for them forever, he said, but we would map out the exact experience right down to how long would they be in line and then what could we do to them while they were in line to make Sitting in line which is a miserable experience, especially when you have like two young kids or whatever, how can we make it better yeah? You know aesthetically musically right so so do you go that far like it like it sounds like that's the direction we do.

We we do that now we didn't do it back then, but yes, that's definitely have you. You know, because again, so much of your business is in the high end. Do you ever get intimidated by oh, my god? Well, these clients are buying like a 10 million dollar house or they're selling, a six million dollar property. They don't need coffee, people love free stuff, so it doesn't really matter it doesn't really matter, especially if you can personalize it right.

So i i had someone really famous and - and they had a common last name, so i found like a popcorn place that like made their their name popcorn, you know it's just that they they they loved it yeah yeah. So it is the it's the little things. It's the thoughtful things definitely and the handwritten note, especially to someone in the high end. If you have a connection with them, you say hey, you know i thought of you because of this and you referenced the conversation they're like.

Oh, you know right so so back on the journey five years ago, you hire all the wrong assistants. Then you finally get the right one and we've heard that story a hundred times. Then you start hiring a couple sales people. Then you meet us and realize.

Okay, they got ta go and i got ta start over again and that's painful right. It is but that's another piece of advice is that change can often be painful, but you can't grow unless you have change, so don't be afraid of the change and and just be ready to pivot. You know so today if we were to fast forward - and you know now, you look. You've got an ops leader, yep, you've, you've outsourced marketing, which we should unpack, that yeah sales leader.

You got an isa department, you got a virtual assistant plus you got a transaction coordinator on 140 transactions right that guy regales busy. They have to use software, yes unpack for us. What do you have for your management team? What are you doing in terms of standards and how do you hold them accountable and can you can you run a sales team and not be the sales leader and still be joy, because i imagine they're some of that they're there, because they want to be close To you, the agents you mean yeah yeah, so i'm always there for them right so, but but the sales manager is really there for the got ta moments and to deal doctor right uh. But i think it's important that they know we're still small enough that i'm i'm there on a regular basis.

I love that you just said: you're 23-person team, we're still small enough well compared to some of these massive teachers. Yes, you're doing just by my hair 23 is monster. So talk to me about your managers. How do you develop them? How do you move them forward yeah, so we huddle every morning so as as a team we huddle every morning, and then i have the executive team, we huddle individually every morning for just 10 15 minutes right.

What's the what's, the meeting look like: what's it sound like what are you focusing on yeah go a little tactical with us yeah with the team, it's um monday. We we do what was your weekend when and what's your intention for the week and everybody has a voice and that's really important that everyone speaks tuesday. We do our affirmations uh wednesday. We we actually do role play war yeah, which is a lot of fun yeah.

What's that what's wrong, so we have two people that role play a situation against each other and they're teams, and then everybody uh anonymously votes on slack later on. Oh, i love so it's like on zoom or something inside of slack on video. I love that yeah yeah, okay and then what do you do? On thursday uh thursday? We listen to a zillow call and we we unpack that good, uh and friday's gratitude friday. I love it yeah.

So so that sounds like a lot of sales and isas and all them back to the management team. What do you do with them on a daily basis to elevate their game, to transfer your skills yeah to help them become better managers yeah? So they have big rocks that they have to do so. We talk about what what what's going to push us forward and we kind of break it down so that it's simple um and then they have to report back on slack of of how what? What has what have they done to move things forward? So do you find it um? First of all, do you ever wake up and just go? I have 23 people on my team. I i love it.

It's the challenge right. I think i told you this. The other day i was like i get bored so easily, my husband's always like, i'm so glad you didn't get bored of me yet, but um i get bored really easily. So this has been like this whole like growth thing, which is amazing.

It's it's one thing to say like i've grown so much and we've made this much money, but i feel like my brain is also grown and it's it's it's exciting to build right. You know um, what's been the lowest low, i used to critique the role play right and i guess i i did. I was really harsh yeah and i guess it's realizing that you can't treat your team members the way you would treat your children and i'm really hard on my kids right and so, and my mom was really hard on me, so it wasn't taken so greatly. So you know so, then i had to make an announcement to everyone.

Just saying: hey, i'm sorry! I was wrong. You know, i think, there's a better way to say things and to critique but yeah. You know, i think the bottom line is they all knew that i did it because i was trying to improve their skills, yeah right, and so i was easily forgiven, because i i put my my heart out there and i was like i've - been doing this to Try to make you better, it's not like i'm just doing it to be mean right, so you're, like my mother, was just me. I mean i'm not that way i promise, but that that was that was hard.

It was a learning moment from yeah. What was the highest high, so okay? This is the thing i i set this goal of how much money i wanted to make in one year right - and i was like - oh my god, it's gon na be so great and i finally hit it - and i was like oh my god and the next Morning i woke up and i was like: oh what like nothing changed. I was like there's no fireworks like what's what's wrong and then i almost went into a state of depression and i was like oh my god. This is horrible, and so then i realized it wasn't so much about reaching that pinnacle.

But it's kind of like climbing, a mountain and hiking right. It's like you, you climb to the top, because you can see everything that you've done and then maybe it gives you a high to do it again right. But it's also about the journey right and so i've chosen to have teammates as part of my journey and to learn about them and learn about myself along the way and and provide them value and there's obstacles in the road right yeah. But we're able to overcome them together, and that makes it even better, and so i kind of feel like it's more about the journey than just reaching the goal.

You know i mean yes because that's been said so many times, but you know what i mean like people just like, but you, but you just had it right. You had such a monster year in 2021 right. I know we were texting about it. I'm like that was a lot of del rey me.

I know right. That was a big 10 10.99 number, but then you got people like andy who you know who did like four times the amount. Does that piss you off? Oh, that i'm even bringing it up! No, no, i mean i talk to andy every day, and so that's what's great is like these are people that push me forward and they're like you, can do more. I'm like okay, okay, like like you, you push me forward and that's you.

If you're listening only you had to see the video version, then you push me forward, but it's good, it's good. I i need it and i guess that's that's the way i was brought up and - and i i that's how i thrive - yeah yeah yeah yeah. So what i love about this show is just the uh like just the interesting people and everybody's got a background and a story, and you know you're different from george or you know anybody else that i've had on this show um. I would ask you, though, like it's three years from now four years now, five years now, what are you building? What's this thing look like when it's quote: unquote done yeah, so i i i don't know, but so it's interesting because you i always bring up that five year letter that you made me write.

You know two or three years ago and i've already hit some of those goals and uh when i wrote that letter i was like this is crazy that i'm i'm even writing this letter to myself but yeah um. You know, i i don't know, i'm excited for the future. I i have three kids that might may or may not take over the business. You know so we'll we'll see they will definitely be a younger, better version of me.

Listen, i mean we see that all the time with the maxine and marty's the carol and janelle. So there's so many of these mother-daughter teams. You know mother-son teams that have just thrived because they watched i watched my dad do it and i was like i think i could do it differently. I think i can do it better yeah.

I hope you have the same yeah. I mean the thing about this business. Is it's it's so rewarding because it's a people business right like i know so many people that go to work every day and they just they make they may make a lot of money but they're not changing lives like i feel like we're. Changing the lives of the people that we we work with, that are our clients, but also our team members, and i mean you've changed so many lives right, and so that's what that's what's rewarding and if you can have those golden moments with each one of those People and make a difference.

I mean that's what it's all about right for you know when you're past and someone says god. I remember when tom ferry said this and and tells that to your kids, i mean that's, that's meaningful right, right, right, that's kind of a mic drop moment. Joy, i'm not sure where we go from there, so so hey. If somebody wanted to reach out and hear more about how you built this luxury team, what's the best way for them to connect with you, oh sure, on instagram or facebook, or call me directly joy, metallio's from greenwich, connecticut and uh, i run the metallia team at Houlihan lawrence, i love it.

Thank you so much for unpacking your team and just so proud of everything you've done this year is going to be even better. Yes, all right, hey! Thank you. So much leave a comment if you haven't subscribed, absolutely subscribe and definitely follow this one because she's also killing it on video all right. This is the team builder show and we're out you.

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