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. Have you ever thought? What would it be like to get into the mind of someone that does 3 000 real estate transactions a year, a billion dollars in volume managing a huge team across an entire state? Have you ever imagined that, like that that could be you? Well, today, that's my guest on the podcast george. What's up man what's up buddy, thank you so much for having me yeah man. Thank you so so george for the people that don't know who you are we're getting into the backstory and the dynamics, and you know what what george is magnificent at is solving problems like if that, if there was a superpower yeah, i think so, like you know, Inevitably, in business we face so many different challenges, so many different problems but like breaking it down, you know you get in those meetings.

You've been in them like okay, guys. What problem are we really trying to solve here right? Let's not just get caught in the minutia of the day get caught in like this group thing, let's make sure we're solving the problem that we have and who and who are we solving it for we're trying to solve it? For us consumers like what is this? Let's say focused on it yeah, but then also, how does it have impact in other parts of the business? Yes right, like yeah? Who might this affect? Yes? So it's so interesting about just the way you just opened that like uh, i was conditioned early on by all my mentors. That of your income is in direct correlation to the problems that you can solve and the value that you deliver to the marketplace. So true right and if you look at peter diamandis, who i get to spend time with he's like hey the bigger the problem, the more money you want to make a billion dollars a year solve a billion dollar problem, agree right, and that was some of my Disconnects sometimes in this industry, is you go to those big conventions? It's nobody's talking about the consumer's problems, right like what is the biggest challenge the consumer faces and those are those are things we try to answer on our team or also always circle back to that right, like hey we're doing this, but does it really does it Does it ease up the consumer's pain points? What are we doing to help with that too? Okay, so i think we need to unpack your your past for people to understand.

I mean you know, you know we're just coming out of a mastermind group of all these legendary people, we're talking about high-level leadership stuff. The listener might right now might be saying themselves like okay. This is, this could be overwhelming, like i'm, i'm selling 39 homes a year and i'm the number one agent in my office, this guy's doing 3 000. he's not going on that many appointments.

He has scaled himself and his wisdom and his insight is that fair, fair yeah, but take us back to the very beginning 16 years ago you and jennifer. So he hasn't phoenix, were you know so jen and i uh both bartenders students at the time, yeah uh. You know people are coming on. What is it about bartenders and real estate agents like? I think it translates really well so i agree my top four sales people were all ex-bartenders is that where you recruit now, that's where i go like if i'm going to the bar, i just tell jenna: hey i'm going recruiting honey, i'm not really going to have Drinks, i need some more salespeople and rockstar.

I mean they know how to connect with people right. They know how to problem solve. Oh yeah yeah. I love it for uh for recruiting options.

Uh lindsay delasol said the same thing about people that work in restaurants like service same thing, yeah same exactly interesting. Okay, so, 16 years ago you and jen go into real estate. It's 2006 2006.. Your timing was fantastic.

It it looked good like it was sexy right at that time. Uh we uh, i it. Actually. It was kind of a little bit of dumb luck.

Um. I was going to actually flying to re max uh for this quarterly meeting and uh. I just got my license. I was like it's like the launch off of the new agents, yes and uh.

The gal sitting next to me was talking about foreclosure properties. You know i've been seeing more pop up in my neighborhood, like i'm interested like i love segments of industries right, i like i, don't necessarily enjoy the retail space a ton and i was like okay well, this segment, i love a segment of the industry, and so She was talking about how they'd signed up for something and done it. I'm like huh. Well, there's always a convention, there's always something to go to so right, 2006 jen and i together, we did like 13 deals right, yeah 2007.

We ended up going to rio, mac with my partner, then scott gibson, yeah, uh and uh. We, i think we landed freddie mac fannie mae at rio. Mack, okay, did you have any idea? I do no idea what i'm doing the biggest idea right. How did you guys fake it? I don't know? Well, they saw your wife, they were like yeah.

She knows how she's smart, okay, so uh. We end up landing a couple. Big accounts there. At that time we probably had five listings yeah by fourth quarter 07.

We have 150 listings right peak point: um 2009, we're at probably 600 assets being held by from yeah 14 different institutions. That was a very like operational team. We had a team of 25 very operational transaction management, oriented yep, um clean up, organize, manage the construction pay for everything, high margin right. It was yeah.

It was it's a great for an operator, it's a it's, a great uh role, right and so um 2012 like we knew it was going to shut off like a faucet one day, sure, and so we've got to pivot, to retail yeah right. And how are we going to do that? Yeah um, basically dissolved uh, the team that we had for reo um started our retail brand in 2012 and then grew that this more traditional real estate model t model yeah. It was just me, my wife and an assistant at that time, one agent um and now we're to 150 agents, yeah um, okay, but there's okay. So so one of the things i've always respected the most about you is, you truly are a great operator and a lot of people talk about operational excellence, and you see some ceos of large real estate companies that can operate these businesses and that, like that, is His super like solving problems and then integrating it into the business and organizing the steps and making sure that everybody is empowered to go.

Do it like. I'm, obviously very like excited about this. So here's the thing you went from two to ten, but then you got introduced. Was it 2017 you? So what would be pre-meeting the zillow group so pre-meeting zillow um? I was at 10 agents, eight ten agents yeah and where was the business coming from and how were they doing? Um lead generation right, so zillow ad spend adwords facebook.

All the traditional traditional stuff right running through our our boomtown crm right inside sales, one or two inside sales members that was really for isas yeah. Eight wow i've been following you for a long time right so um and then come 20. Was it 2017.? I remember so i'm uh talking to my zilla sales rep and they just announced. I think it was inman new york that year uh they announced that they were getting into the buying business and right - and i saw that i mean you - look at open door offer pads models.

Uc is a really great type of funnel seller lead generation right and i was like: okay can't buy them all. I just want what you don't buy. I have the opportunity to list right so scheduled a meeting had a few conversations and then uh the zillow team came out and um. I got to meet them a little bit so uh founders, um, lloyd, frank, stan humphreys.

It was really great meeting just 2017 and they go we're gon na. Send you some more leads. I go okay, all right, so i probably need more agents, and so i went from 10 agents to 50 agents, uh 2017, so 2017, 2018 and now to where we're at today. Okay, so, let's, okay, let's just stop for a second there.

Are you that good, or are you just that lucky um lucky? I think? No, so i it's identifying opportunity right, right and then you're going off and then going all in on it right. So um prioritizing, i think, is super key and that's what there's always more great ideas and there's a capacity to execute yeah sits on my wall, say that say that again, there's always more great ideas and there's the capacity to execute. So staying really focused on what your priorities are, but also knowing when you see an opportunity what it takes to seize that opportunity right, and so sometimes these big opportunities come along, that you have to push pause on some other things and be like. I can't tackle all of this.

Yes, here are my focuses for this quarter that i'm going to stay very committed to, but i'll be damned if something big comes along, i'm going to pivot for a minute and decide if that's worth it we're going to fire some bullets right. That's why i say like hey guys: we're always firing a bunch of bullets and then once one of those really hits and we think it works we're going to fire the cannonballs right right exactly so, let's back up, so you get fannie and freddie yep, because clearly You there was something that you guys said to to those managers. They said, okay, all right. We need somebody in phoenix yeah, here's 300 listings.

So because that's how it worked back then yeah. It was nuts you're talking disposition right or yes and somewhat property management um. If you can talk just like these, you know the funds coming in and buying in in the phoenix market stuff like if you can speak their language understand their language. Um you've got a good chance of capturing the accounts right um.

If i can talk dyspo, if i can talk yeah um at that time, it was like understanding. I'm just i got ta learn the jargon here right right: cash for keys, um, proactive asset recovery right like these things that you you're, like all you got to do - is flip it. You did these news, there's nothing in the real estate testing exactly right. So you're just i'm trying to learn more yeah about that specific segment of the industry and then talk intelligence.

Were you doing that recon with jen before you got there yeah? So it was so at the time i had a partner, scott gibson, yeah and he's like a savant and that kind of stuff too and uh just talking through um what we need to know and what it you know how to speak, that language um. He was really good at that. So like there's, always a convention, there's always a magazine or newsletter or something and like ds news, do your homework. Do your homework right, exactly right, know what you need to say.

So, let's go back to the meeting at 17. right. So you're there i mean you got lloyd, who's, the co-founder right and clearly because of the reo background, like you're able to say i was managing x. I know what i'm doing so.

What i think so understanding the jargon in uh in reo days was really what captured that plus scott's resume for property management. Um was the other thing that really kind of solidified it for us yeah. Now the reo resume solidifies the zillow relationship right right. There's a little relationship solidifies another relationship right and it just keeps building not to be named because there's some hot new relationships yeah exactly but go back, go back to you.

I could just imagine cause. I mean i've been there as an entrepreneur like you're sitting in the meeting and they're like we would like to do this and you're like. I can do that in your mind. You're, like i have to go, hire this many people organized like and you're, not really even sure what the structure looks like right right, so we got to get sit down and brainstorm and like figure all this stuff out um.

So what was the meeting after the meeting? So so? Let me i'll just yeah i'll tell you about the meeting so yeah, it's it's a it's a tuesday! I think and um a good friend of yours, austin allison yeah calls me he's like hey we're going to be in town friday, we'd love for you to sit down and just kind of tell us about the nuances of the phoenix market. Like help us understand the transaction a little bit better, i go great i'd love to help you um come on in and uh who's going to be there. Oh by the way, it's going to be lloyd, frank, you know founder yeah, yeah, exactly i'm like. Ah, okay, okay, and what do i need? Do you want a deck? What do you need prepared like no, no just be prepared, i'm like now.

I got to prepare for everything. Boyd's brain's, like a super computer right, so he's gon na ask eight billion questions right. Yeah exactly and so uh we sit down and the first thing uh. You know we just started talking about the real estate transaction.

We started talking about the phoenix market uh, we sit there for a good. You know four and a half hours just going through different nuances of the transactions and and how we can scale. You know and uh, and you were basically tank in the matrix and they plugged into you and they're like tell us everything about pete. Did you feel in that moment that they could have said? Thank you and gone someplace else, or did you feel a connection that, like hey, this relationship is going to work? I felt the yeah, i felt the connection, or would it even matter yeah? I think so.

Um for me, it was, it's always been a good partnership for us right, but i mean offer pat was already in the market. Open door was already in the market. They really were the the third to jump in, and i remember when that was happening because you know watching watching just the movement of their business um but, like that's, did you guys sign ndas? Oh yeah, okay, all right and we so we. But we could talk about stuff yeah now, that's maybe i should invest.

No i've done other illegal yeah. Yes, i've given this story in other interviews: yeah, okay, just yeah all right! So so, but go back to you're sitting there and an opportunity hits and you're like okay. We need to add potentially 40 new sales people in short order. So let's talk about that.

That's model match agent right. Recruiting initiatives. Do i need a recruiter who's going to onboard them? Do i have enough software to manage this? What are the leads going to be like? What do we need to say to actually convert them? How am i going to do the commission splits? Do i have space who's going to pay? I mean i forgot about it right i mean but like, but for the person? Listen like that's, that's what go we just had a company calls and say we would like to turn over x, number of agents, and i'm like that sounds great, except in my mind, i'm like i need to now go hire all these people. I'm like.

I can do that for you in like four months, yep and they're like four months, i'm like because here's where we go quality control right, i have to do it. The right way walk us through that process. For us it always starts with. What is it? Who do we think we need right and what are those job descriptions? Look like yeah um, what's capacity per person, so my mind always goes towards an org chart and workflow right like okay? What is the org chart for this and there's very traditional? I mean you can go we're not reinventing them is good exactly right, like i want to make that point clear sales industries right this is yeah.

This is how business is done, so uh we're gon na model it that way, and so okay, i do need a recruiter, yes um, but i can't hire a recruiter yet so this person, 70 of their job, now becomes recruiting right if you're my sales team leader Sales coach, like i need you to focus more fully on recruiting yeah and somebody has to carry to carry over and handle the coaching and the day-to-day kpi stuff right, and so it's just figuring that like who do we need okay, who can cover down in the Interim and then what's the key hire within this too right. Okay, this is the most important hire. That's gon na unlock the next level for us right, then this is the next one and then this is the next one right and so um, sometimes that's filling just with the the inside sales portion of it right and then the manager comes after um, but sometimes You need the manager first, it just depends right, but i need i need tactical support. Yeah i put a leader on that.

The interesting thing about good managers is, you can't hire? You can't hire a good manager and ask them to build too usually right, but you can build and then hire a good manager right so right or build with them, build with them right. I book plenty and then put somebody in charge, and then you, then you put somebody in charge you're like when. Are they going to do something yeah? Not all of them for, like my team, might be listening like hey you're, talking about me right now? Yes, i'm talking about you um, so so you take on that relationship, but you have all these existing. You know you already have business going so so it would be fun like for the person listening right now or watching.

Imagine, if imagine if you're you're doing 15, or i think about like one of our clients, carolyn young, is a good example. So she's a re max agent out in maryland. She goes to a tom ferry event. She sees tom toole who you know you met over the last couple days and she's like she went to the conference saying i am a 20-year veteran.

I make 400 to 500 000 every single year, just working my past clients in sphere, and she was pissed she's like i'm so sick and tired of watching these people. Leapfrogged me i'm going to this conference to find one thing i can do that, could double my business at no cost now think just think of the logic of asking that question tom tool's up there and he's like expired listings. This is what i do. This is how i do it he's like.

I do all these other things, but like specifically that yeah she goes back and operationalizes just that one thing goes from 450 to a million two to like two eight to last year: four million dollars. I love it right and she's like this is bonkers, but we know there's a scaling process, so the person listening right now. Maybe there are 25 or 30 transactions, maybe they're at 25 or 30 transactions a month. If all of a sudden you take on a new opportunity, walk us through that process.

Again, you said job description workflow, but go more detailed like give us an example of it. Um, hey ready, i'm gon na i'm gon na i'm tom ferry's gon na buy uh 80 homes a month from you in the phoenix metro, and i know your business you're already at capacity. You have no one that can take that on yup you're, not going to say no, no, yes right. So, for instance, if we're going and looking from like an acquisition model, you need to purchase 80 homes a month right.

The first thing i'm thinking i was like what is: what is the model right like what do we have to do, and then what are the who? What's, the job descriptions look like once again the org chart, but i'm really getting down to like. I can understand people's capacity right like if we're for an acquisitions team um. How many offers can you write in a day, i've got to understand your kpis. I've got to understand um what what the avatar is for that person right like what's going to keep them driving comp plans too, like i'm, going to go in and we're going to start just reverse engineering everything we can right.

If this is the end goal right here, let's say: angle's a thousand transactions next year right from this one source, call it flex or call it somewhere right: okay, let's reverse reverse engineer it and to say: okay. How many do we need in? How many leads do i need in yeah how many inside sales people do? I need right, how many do i think they can handle how many product leaders do? I need right um? How many agents is it going to take to facilitate all of that right? How many tcs do i need and then i go okay, but i don't need those all today. No, i need them by when yes, okay, we need to hire this many agents or onboard this many agents of the flex program right. Do you ever do like a visual of like okay, so my future state? Is we added and he's saying a thousand transactions like the person watching or listening right now might say adding 10.

yeah and it's? But it's the same right. It's just at this level. 1000. 1010 is 10 right.

It's it's just you're, adding right you're at capacity. How do i scale more? Do you ever do like a future state and say here, i'm at a thousand and what it looks like and then what does it have to look like in january and then february and then march and quarterly right so um whenever we have an idea or we Have a new subset of business, a an ancillary anything along those lines? It first goes into a shared mirror board. So i don't know if you operate anything out of mirror but yeah. It really is.

What is that something that was like um? It's just where you can share mapping of different things. Oh it's like the mind map, mind mapping, anything that i'm concerned about right. Anything that i think is the most important yep and then we segment it out and my operations people are in there billy hobbs. My director of ops, you know justin yeah, like these guys, like they're they're rain man right right, they'll get in there and they go okay.

Well, what else do we need to do and then i'm just gon na say they're right yeah they they are. They get in i'm like he's like yeah, but george definitely got a good drive yeah. That's where i think yeah. I know they're like okay.

This is what you're saying yes right and uh we all get in there. We just start plotting out ideas right, like okay. What else do we need here uh? If this happens, what do we do? Yeah, if that happens, what's going to be our biggest hurdle, yeah um and that's that's first step, like that's super helpful for us to just kind of get stuff dumped out before we do anything else. So you do you do sort of that visual mind map of every possible good, bad worst case scenario.

It sounds like correct. Do you think every agent should do that before they even start a new initiative like things geographic, like you're, you're, changing crms right like this is a problem right like what all what i should. I didn't think about all these people. Now i've got to get them to opt into the new database right right platform right so i mean i can't just dump them and then they're automatically how they like those things.

Those are questions i would put in this mural board right and then we're all working together like okay. What are some solutions here right then we'll sit down. We kind of go through that, but yeah definitely just mentally dump yeah. Whenever you have an idea, you have a new segment of your business, you have a problem, put it put it there and collaboratively work together on it.

You know what i love about that uh. So shout out to john leslie on my team. So john is like the unofficial wikipedia of our business right. Like he's been with me for 12 years, he has never deleted an email in his life.

So literally i can say hey what did i do on stage at the 2009 summit he's like uh? The theme was, and gary vaynerchuk was there and like tell the whole story, and i'm like yes, but what i like about, what i'm hearing it's there for maybe today we use asana or monday or trello or or any project management tool. But it's all that stuff. Archived, yes, so right it, but the mind mapping starting with you, know, mirror or something and then put it into monday. Once you create your action for sure yeah, but i'm just saying just the archiving aspect of it because then it's like hey have we done that before we have right exactly right hold on.

We got a mindmap for that right, like that's, hey, oh hey! We went from this crm to that crm. Seven years later and now we're doing another change. Didn't we do a project like this before? What worked? What didn't work? Let's look at it again! You talk about building, you know the flex conversion model right, zillow, conversion model - you go okay, all that started out in a mirror board right um. All of that now is a very you know, systematized process yeah that we can go back to and say: okay.

Well, not this, then this yeah, it looks exactly the same. Can i ask a random question? Of course, there's got to be some mad respect and there's also got to be some like death threats because of how much business you do in your marketplace. Death threats is strong, but you don't mean like like screw that guy he got the reo account. Then he got the zillow offer account that went away right.

Then you got flex and you do all this other stuff and you have all these other channel partners and all this like, but you're, saying you're so chill like yeah, i don't um, i don't get a ton of death threats. Okay, uh now i'll tell you, though, like phoenix it's competitive for the person. Listening like let's be clear. No, i i'm sure, there's people out there that don't like me but right, but i mean oh, you know like tom the rumor about, i cannot say the woman's name like she said the rumor about me.

Is i sleep with all my sellers. I'm like - and i said it in front of her husband he's like well. That explains it. I'm like oh you're, not getting any, but she said and she's like she's like 65 year old, like mother teresa right, but agents create rumors around people that are wildly successful.

I deal with that honestly, like i eliminate the noise, if it's out there, i don't know um. I've always tried to be really good and understand, like the holistic aspect to our business like right, i believe in karma. I believe in all that, like hey, i'm going to treat everybody great yeah, even on an exit from our company um treat the consumers really well and honestly that all comes back and as competitive of market as phoenix is. It is and some of the top teams in the country i get along with all of them right like there, isn't many that that's key yeah.

I mean i've seen it because we spent time together where, like you know, other other mega teams and you guys are like what's up brother and i'm like mike. You know i respect that yeah right, because i i just i think we both come from a mindset of like there isn't enough. There's everybody right but like i want my unfair share, of course, but there's enough for them to have some too so so you're we're talking through like the mind map side. So if you, if you identify all the potential problems and challenges and on that timeline of future state, here's what it looks like we're, adding 10 or a thousand transactions.

First, it's a mind map, then what's next project management, right, so um and then ownership of each one of those items. So this is when we would say: okay, we've got it to a point where um we know the challenges that may come. We kind of have a good idea of where we need to go yep and now, let's operationalize it right um you can go uh 135. You could do we.

We just put it now in project management and monday board, um, assign timelines and assign owners yeah right. So if the key is um for this, we you know for this account. We knew we're gon na have more agents. Well, we got ta, recruit more agents.

Well, there's gon na be ads put up right, so we need ad creation and and and top of funnel middle level, and so and here who's doing this and by when right, and so that's the way we set it up and monday's been an amazing platform to Be able to do that on for sure for sure monday assange like yeah today's show is brought to you by summer.com. No, no, i don't i mean i don't i don't care it's, but it's funny, like you know, we're sitting inside these masterminds and it's like one person's using this and five more people say yeah, that's what i use and someone else goes. No. I like this one, because it's like do you like mercedes or bmw, yeah, apples, apples, yeah as long as you're using project management, we're happy, google docs, we don't care yeah.

So one of the questions i know that people are going to be asking is, if you, if you go to today's state right and and you're at you, know 3 000 transactions, a billion dollars in in sales volume, which is just bonkers right, like so, for the Person listening i'm going to give you a little a little rundown. I was sharing this with george earlier, so so from all that we can document, it might say. Oh steve, murray, st stefan swan pull all the sort of you know real players of paying attention to these killer data points. For us they say: there's 54 500 teams in the u.s of that 45 000 ish have less than like five people right.

So it could be like mom, it's you and jen, and one buyer's agent right, like that's a perfect example and there's no right or wrong in this. Just giving the data points, then there's like seven thousand ish that are have between six and fifteen people. That includes admin support transaction management, maybe a videographer, a bunch of sales people, the team lead, maybe their spouse whatever and then there's only like 1600 that have 16 plus people right, but we think there's like 22. That looks something like you and and for the record.

He's not a broker owner, you don't own your you and your business correct, but you don't own the brokerage yeah. We call it like team rage. We've been hearing that phrase i mean so you you live in such a rarefied space of real estate right. So i just i want people to get that.

I want to dummy it way down for a second okay, because your your skill set really is problem. Solving okay, like that, like i just i said it in the very beginning: it's one of your superpowers. Let's play a game for the person: that's listening right now: who's like okay, i'm dreaming of one day, maybe doing 300 transactions and right now i'm doing 30. right.

It's one of the questions. I get all the time on q and a on instagram. So so i'm going to ask you some of the questions that i get. Okay and i want you, i'm gon na i'm gon na this is gon na, be hot seat right and you can you could like.

I can go. That's bananas, let's go by the way. This is my new joke. That's tom ferry! This is yoda, you see it.

I see it totally, yoda all right so so they asked me this ready. So how do i generate more listings? Seller lead funnel is really really hard to do um i won't so we can go to traditional routes like expires fsbos right, but really we found the best way to capture sellers. Is they start out as buyers right and having a 64? Some crazy number like that? What's your buyer funnel look like first and foremost, and then are you doing a good job, asking the right questions to make sure that you're converting those that also have a property to sell or the repeat, referral from your buyer pool right and so, as you build That book of business, traditionally the the volume of listings goes up right. They think of a trajectory of most real estate agents right.

You start out on the buy side right, but if you're not doing your follow-up, if you're not staying in touch with your past clients right their goal, you're listing opportunities. So we believe that if i'm solving that problem, i'm gon na start out. If i'm at 20 transactions, i've done predominantly buy side, i'm going to continue to ramp that up, but really focus on my repeat: referral right markets like phoenix expires. Fsbos are really saturated right.

We don't spend a ton of time in that, but we see it as a key of having a great repeat referral, client care campaign right. That's how i would solve that problem, so juice up your buy side, yes leads yes, and the sellers will follow. If you do the right things on the right side, so you and i answered the same exact way which is like, like everybody says like like, i was early on yeah. Let buyers basically help educate you to become a great listing agent and like it'll, mature you over time and you'll.

If you help enough buyers in the beginning you're going to get, i just want to accelerate that right. That's what i say like take your book. Yes, accelerate your book of business with you know. Flex is a great tool for that.

Zillow leads builder.com, like these are great tools to accelerate google facebook, google, local services, that's facebook ads like there's, it's endless right, exactly right, so many! So what about um? Just on that same point, there there's a lot of people in our camp that talk about um. If you really, if you really really really want to connect with that buying couple to have a more natural opportunity for the listing or even an immediate referral, do a buyer consultation and yet the market is so frenzied. I'm seeing so many people just like this. Okay, georgetown, okay, i'm gon na.

Take you out, there's one house: let's and they never say what are your non-negotiables? What are we really trying to accomplish? Has anybody taken the time to sit down with and show you guys? So what i mean you have 150 sales people. Not all of them are, you know, you've got them in different price points. Some are on the listing side somewhere on the buy side. What's your take on buyer consultation, uh? So the way we think about it, um a buyer consult can help happen anywhere.

We used to push for it to be in surface right um. What does a consumer want? That's the question. I always try to answer right. What does the consumer want? They want to see a house, let's not be a barrier, to show the house yeah, let's not be a roadblock in showing them the house.

Let's just show up yeah right, let's show up. Yes, let's show them the house and let's have the buyer, consult there, build rapport face to face and then convert right, but you can have a buyer console they're, the first showing right. We can learn more about you right, it's not about this house. We all know that it's probably the next house, so the next 10 houses you're going to show them, especially in a marketplace like yours, where correct on average, how many offer? How many different houses would a buyer write an offer on on average, with your team before they get one before this market, or so like this yeah? So i mean now, depending on the price point right of course, of course area and price um.

But there are some that we're in you know. 15 16 offers yeah writing before they actually get a property before they get a home, yeah um. You know it used to be one two offers uh. You know you show them.

Seven houses uh. We write an offer on one of those properties exactly and now now yeah you're, showing him 40 houses, he's writing 15 offers and yeah uh the agent fatigue and the buyer fatigue is a real thing from that. So that brings up a question. I get all the time on instagram, so how do i keep my buyers engaged after they write two or three off? They fall in love with the house.

They don't get it. They fall over that one. They don't get it they kind of like one. They don't get it we'd settle for this.

They don't get it yeah. How do you keep that person engaged? I think you know. Building really good relationships is key right, um, building that rapport understanding their needs. Understanding too.

Sometimes people just need a breath right um. We saw that like uh this summer, there was a little bit of fatigue right. We had a really low point, um second quarter, uh and then summer people like they just took some time off right. Stay in contact like two weeks doesn't mean they're, not your clients, yeah right, take a pause.

I mean you can still try heavy sales, but we're not push push push. We we just understand where they're at in their life take a break. Let's come back. Let's revisit this, and i'm still going to send you properties that i think might fit what you're looking for right.

Yeah people want properties and we're going to continue to send them to them, whether it's our inside sales or our sales agents. What are your thoughts on? First of all, i love that, because that's i mean that that i mean it's always like it's a better experience and it's relationships yeah like so so my my the one of the points i'm trying to make to a lot of people is even if there's nothing For you to show them or send them, you should at least just check in yeah george jens thinking about you guys. You know, i'm scouring, there's nothing out there, but know that i'm looking, i got your back. If you need anything, let me know what are your thoughts on that i love that it gets hard to scale it.

Does it does uh you can make it easy, but it's not it's not uh. It's not going to be easy to scale like if you're working with you know 20 buyers and with today's market. A lot of our agents are right. Uh, 10.

15. 20. Buyers. That's stuff to do right.

It's tough to stay on top of yeah, but good crm. Good database management yeah should be able to get it done. I agree: okay, let's go to the next one. We get ready.

So all right, george, i'm i'm getting a bunch of business going now. I've got them under contract and i stop all my marketing generations right. How how do i become more steady and consistent? How do i i want to? I want to provide that amazing client experience, and this is a super important transaction for them. This is when i stop my marketing.

This is really where we have to as an agent you've got to be working on your business right, instead of in it all the time right, and so how do we build that um? When do i do that dependability of your cash right, like how my say that again so depend like i want to have a very durable p l like yeah month over it's predictable. In that sense, right, like i i can say okay, this is, i know, i'm not going to have this up and down right. My marketing is consistent. My follow-up's consistent well, what happens a lot of times once we put a bunch under contract? Is we're really focused on you know, i'm not sure what i have exactly and um having good people around you that you trust a good transaction manager, a good assistant, um, good virtual assistants.

There's you know super cheap to be able to do that check in automations. For you're already going into my next one, but you know yeah, we call it the pizza tracker of the transaction. Yeah people want to know what happens next right and if you can get in front of that, you communicate it through video through email, through text message, and you can tell them what's next what's happening, like obviously, there's always the one or two transactions you're dealing with That are just fire, of course, but deal with that first thing in the morning last part of the day make sure you don't give up your time prospecting. How do how do you help the this person, which is a high eye right? Who is just like you know, boing boing, boing all day long, just about flowering around throughout the day, get them in front of customers.

They kill great products. Ask her to follow a checklist exactly right, it's not to happen. What do you say to that person? We spent a lot of time working on checklists you're, like i just have my team. Yes, i delivered the checklist too, i'm going to say hey guys, because these people are amazing with clients they're they're great.

They convert right, building a durable business, yeah, it's not, and so that's with my i coach, some of the 150 agents. I coach the top 10 producers on the team, yeah um, that is the conversation, guys build a business here right if you're, consistently in the transaction and addicted to the transaction you're not going to. Sometimes you know we don't want to go backwards on income, but sometimes you have to take a step back to move forward too right, and so that's what i coached them on. I was like what are we defining or how do you define winning yeah? I need to figure out.

Is it like? Hey, i i you know. I closed 75 transactions on my own last year. I'm like that's amazing, yes and i'm getting a divorce. Yes, my kids, don't know my name exactly.

I say that jokingly but, like we hear that all the time and that's why, like i'm just coaching them for more balance, right and business principles right along that way and you just repackage it and say it differently, yeah every other week right like hey guys. So, let's work on this and let's break it down on what your quarter we're going to move your business forward this month. This quarter - and here are the three things we're committing to to move your business forward. We're not talking about transactions.

We know you can slay it in conversion. I don't like great. I love you, i care about it, but i don't care about that right now, yeah, let's build the durable business here right right. So one of the questions i get all the time is like: when is it right for me to scale and, and most of them are asking: when is it time for me to hire my first assistant you know like? Can we just? Can we just like? Let just talk conceptually for a second: most companies have transaction coordinators or they have outsourced transaction coordinators that are aligned with a company that you can use.

Most companies have a marketing department, most agents, don't use them right. Uh there's vc vc yeah, i'm thinking venture capital right now cause. I was in a different conversation. Vas thank you vas and then maybe there's hiring your first assistant.

What what do you recommend for people that are like? I know i need to scale because what they're saying they're screaming i'm out of time exactly exactly and that what we would do in this instance right, so somebody screaming amount of time amount of time is. I need a needs assessment like what do you when you say you need help like? Where do you think you need help right like why? I want somebody to help me with showings um that can do this client event for me and can make sure my calendar is in line. I'm like well you're, probably talking about three different. You know skill skill sets here, so so let's narrow it down like what are we looking for? Are these one off or are these consistent? Because this is because the event's like a one-off, exactly and like you, can hire something you can outsource.

So many things now right, um outsourcing event planning outsourcing. I mean we can figure out a way, for you know to pay somebody 50 bucks for showings and to automate that right so um, that's where i start with them. It's like okay. What do you think you really need, and then we break it down and say: okay, so so for the person listening, should they write down like like what are the things? I know i do that.

I do inconsistently if i did them consistently yeah. This would grow right, and so that also comes down to your like. What are we agreeing? We need to do right. I want to create more sellers.

Well, we we agree that um moving forward through a great buyer funnel and creating a great repeat, referral client care campaign is super important if you're really bad at that, bring somebody in to help you with it right right, like that's, that's going to be the key In building your business and then we're going to decide that hey this is the number one priority next quarter, so we're going to find you a virtual assistant, that's going to be able to knock this out for you or we're going to i'm going to. I know what tiffany has a virtual assistant, but she doesn't use full time. So why don't you guys share in that virtual assistant? They both work on your client care campaign, us as a team too. We're gon na help you with this by this xyz right um.

That's the way that i would look at it is like what is a you still got, ta prioritize it and then execute on it by really setting it down to like quarterly objectives to move your business forward. How do i hire my first salesperson and how do i train them? Oh geez um go to the bar right, so is there a type of bar? I need to go to i'm looking for specifics here. Yeah yeah margaritas. Definitely are they here in the great state of texas? Yes, very easy! Yes, yes on every other corner, um yeah, i think uh know who you're looking for.

Should you be hiring uh, a mini version of you, the same person as you, someone different as you. I like that it depends on what you're trying to accomplish, but for me um, i initially - and this worked out well - was attracting people that were like me. Yeah um and they've they've stayed committed, we're loyal to each other um, but where the business really started growing is when i started hiring people not like me that thought differently than i did looked at things differently than i did so it depends on where you're at Right so i'm just hiring this sales person. I want to connect, because you know what they're going to do they're going to go like this katie and i've been friends for a long time, yeah katie's, pretty friendly yeah, and you know what her car is clean.

So she must be organized she's, good, let's go she likes houses she's good. She can show a house right. Is that the wrong strategy? Because you know sometimes it's just that they go to what is the most natural and easy? Yes, i i still think either way right. So, if you're going to go to your friends um, if you're going to go for a different personality type, you just got to understand what it is you're trying to accomplish right.

So i don't think necessarily either way is wrong. Yeah. I think what is better is going after somebody that compliments. You well yeah right, so finding that person that's just a little bit more operational than you are yeah that can help fine-tune other pieces of the business, making sure that you're.

You know you have your automation within your crms, like you can do all those other things that you don't necessarily do well, and that would be ideal, but the first salesperson like having somebody like-minded and same personality that you enjoy being around is pretty cool too. It is yeah, it is, i mean you know, like i think when i started this company. My co-founder right is steve almani, who also comes to me and my brother-in-law and the best man of my wedding right. You know, and and in it right and it was like - we could just talk about the business 24 hours a day - seven days a week, but our skill sets were very different.

He was uber tactical on sales and marketing and i was like let's go, create the content. Let's go do events, let's do coaching right so so there was that connection, but very different skill sets. I think, about the number of clients that have done without naming names. So hey i work in silicon valley and i don't speak mandarin.

Maybe my first hire should be a mandarin speaking by relationship exactly a different set of problems. Right like find a solution to it exactly yeah exactly so so there is a there's. Definitely the strategy of what is missing in my business that this person could complement. Okay, so let's say once you get them in what kind of interview questions should we be asking that it's your mother? Well, mom you're, like you know, or a friend or a pal, like to figure this out yeah what i'm trying to uncover um a lot of times in when i'm talking to somebody.

So what we found so we've disprofiled pretty much everybody that's joined our company. Why? Um data we love data, but but too like we, we know that certain values, certain i wouldn't say even personality profiles. I think any personality profile can win yeah in a sales business um. But what are your drivers like? What are your values? Um? There seems to be some patterns and who succeeds, or what's the who's committed, the one key value i like winning, i like winning right, like i have a strong desire to win and so on a disk profile.

That's the economic indicator right, and so i want people that are money motivated um in most positions right, maybe not my data analyst but, like you know, for most of the positions in my company like i want you to be motivated by by winning yeah right, we're A sales organization, and so that's what i'm trying to uncover that so disc, you want to understand personality, personal understanding about what's their motivation. What's your value driver yeah, i'm trying to listen, i'm trying to listen for keywords of like victim mentality, um abundance, so yeah um go there when i ask them like you know, why are they thinking of making a change and if all they do is bag on Their last team yeah like okay yeah, it's not i'm just giving you the next person if they don't come up with solutions right. Everyone listening right now knows that person that they have just been the victim and everyone else is an idiot or wrong, and you confess and you're like don't, have completely been wronged right, but there's a right way to say it too right, there's a right way to Come across and and uh, if all i get is scarcity mindset and victim mentality or even small traces of that yeah um, i'm we're we're exiting right, yeah, um and then also from the disc profile. The other thing we we stay away from is high individualistic.

So yeah those in uh, i know some really great people so but the ones that uh don't tend to that have left the team and taking people with them too, or we just never quite aligned. Um was high economic high individualistic right because they wanted to do their own thing. Yeah they were riding their ship until they got super collaborative yeah exactly, and so we tend to stay away from that. But i don't put all the weight in the disc profile or anything but uh, but yeah.

That's why i'm looking for a mindset of abundance, yeah right, i'm looking for somebody who has a strong desire to win and is collaborative like i'm going to say something. I would love your opinions to every one of my luxury agents. Listening that the one thing i hear more than anything else that almost never works. I have this guy.

I have this gal. She doesn't need to work she's married to who do they know everyone, and if they're on my team, i'm suddenly going to get all this business. I you never works. Yes, ever you, you know deviated from your values right, like you've gone away from what it is that you said you know these are the type of people that we want to hire, and these are the type of people that build our culture right and you, like You've got to stay committed to that right.

You get the wrong people in it is it can cause some create some great chaos for sure yeah. How about training is there? Do you use uh any software um? So all of our stuff is online uh hosted on kajabi um. We do live trainings too. So the way that we set up the team now is we want a very consistent training experience, so any new agent there's a different for experienced and new.

So it's a little bit longer with a new agent, but they all enter into what we call our hub team, which goes through the basics of being part of our team right. So getting you signed up for the orientation pieces, but also teaching you how we view leads and how we convert and what are the benefits of the team? What are different marketing pieces like? What are the things you can tap into, and so we they all, have to be housed in this hub team for the first 90 days and then then they're released to their regional team leaders or we also have teams within the team they'll go to those team Leaders as well, but we want to just make sure like that foundation, is very consistent right and so um the trainings the way they write their contracts, they understand all of our backend stuff. So i'm gon na that's brilliant and that's certainly what you do at 150.. I'm trying to hire my first person to train them.

What do i like? Should i document what i do that works? Should i write down the scripts that i like? Should i pull some videos from youtube that i found to be effective? What do you think you had super high level, which i was like i'm going to? Let him go because this is super valuable. I was like okay, but like okay, but i'm hiring my first person you're first person um, you know he's like it's a team inside the team and the regional on everybody's like holy crow. You know he's got this going on i'm operational, so the um. You know where i would start with the brand new is, if i'm hiring my first one yeah uh, you learn a lot by shadowing right like shadowing you come here, let's go like and then they do right and then they teach right.

That's kind of the that's a lot of our model within um like inside sales, world right, yeah, hey, come shadow watch me i'll help. You like write this contract. Do this right? That's where i'm gon na start, i'm gon na make sure i'm gon na sit down and spend some time with them, um going through uh. You know if they're not an experienced agent, i want to make sure they understand the contract really well i'll, make sure they understand the mls really well, but, most importantly where the money is made is in the crm and the prospecting.