Welcome to the luxury code, where we decode the mindset, the marketing and the business approach of successful luxury brokers, hey welcome back to the luxury code, where we are trying to decode what it takes to be a rock star agent in the luxury market. Today, i've got the first female broker ever on million dollar listing new york kirsten jordan from douglas element. How are you my dear? I am great, i love. I love that we're doing this, even though we're not in the same place.

It feels really good. I know i know what we will definitely do another one of these soon face to face. So you know you know this show we want to. We want to unpack quickly for people your best insights, on what it takes to be a power broker, whether it's in new york, city or new brunswick or miami or wherever you find yourself in the world.

There's a high-end market everywhere. So i've got three or four questions i want to unpack, but i want to talk first about a given backstory, how long you've been in the real estate business and then, let's talk about like in your mind the three most important things a luxury agent has to Have to make it well, i've been in the business since 2007. I got in the business when i was 25, so i was lucky to be able to decide that this was going to be something i would go for early in my life um. Does it mean that i was able to like really take it seriously and own it soon enough, probably not, but definitely got into it early? So i have those years of experience and as far as talking about kind of what it takes, what i've seen that i think it takes top three to be a luxury agent and - and i'm really fortunate, because i actually started in luxury in the sense that the Person that i worked for, as my the first agent i ever worked for was is, is still a luxury agent, um she's, a top she's, a top agent.

You know at the firm that i am right now and i was really lucky to see how she did things, how she spoke to clients the way that she, you know, the the no commission breath no pushy. Very, very patient, really knowledgeable about the market really good. At big picture conversations about macro markets, somebody who actually reads the newspaper who gets up early sees what's going on in the real world and i think, like that's number one. Nobody wants in luxury truly wants to talk to an agent that they're gon na have a long-term relationship with, has no clue what's going on in the world.

So, and - and i am not - that person who's necessarily sitting there watching the news every morning, but having a macro understanding of the markets reading up on that is, i think so fundamental and i think the rest of us are so busy trying to network it. You know at the polo club or whatever it is that they're, forgetting that there are brokers, are a dime a dozen even at the luxury level they're everywhere. And if you can't differentiate yourself to have a confident conversation with buyers and sellers about. What's really going on because they want to know the bigger picture you're dead in the water, in my opinion, unless you really really have such a good relationship with them, that they're afraid not to use you yeah, but i would go with.

First of all, i think your insight around the person you worked for first, i mean i am such a fan and you know you run a team. I am such a fan of that mentorship relationship. If you could go to work with that power broker and all the things you said the way she talked to him, the language that she used. She never had commission breath her patience, which not a lot of people talk about, but you and i both know on the high end.

Oh, i met that client seven years ago and finally sold him. A 10 million dollar apartment right like, but it was seven years of lunches and dinners and hanging out in emails. So you unpacked a lot there tell me about your go-to sources like what apps, what news? What do you try and stay connected to so you've got that macro view of not just the new york city marketplace, but we have to look globally because of the buyers you're representing the sellers. You're representing well we're really fortunate, and this is a plug to the real deal, but we are really fortunate.

The real deal is active in our market. I think that they've become more active in other markets and now they're in you know south florida and all that, but los angeles. This is it's like a you're getting a morning email, it's a click. It's super easy to get through and then the question becomes like, depending on your political affiliation and what you know getting one of those one of those you know daily emails from something else.

That's about the world. I like morning, crew, it resonates with me. I know people like axios skim. All of that.

I think that you can do that um and then, and then this is where your team leaders and your relationships come into play where we we, as a team, are constantly sending each other articles constantly sending things into the chats hey. Did you see this trade? Did you see this? Did you see that and that i think, keeps it going and keeps it relevant for people? Yes, how important do you think it is to go beyond the headline um? I think it depends on the article. I don't think you necessarily always need to be going beyond the headline. I mean some of it's like literally yesterday, we have a major developer in new york city that just closed on a major site in the west village.

You know what i i skimmed it i got the headline and then later today i went through just because i was curious where the actual site was, but it's everybody's buzzing about it right and it was just like i read the headline. I knew what it was. I didn't know how to back into it, and i know the developer is, and i and i'm and people want to talk about that. So i sent it to two clients.

You know that it's relevant for and and and you're starting the conversation there, and so that's. I i think you can go. You can kind of go either way depending on the depth. You understand, if you're a new agent, you should be reading right, 1, 000 and then on the flip side.

Like i know you know, every good broker spends a lot of time looking at the daily hot sheets or you know manhattan. Maybe it's called something different, but you know it's all the new listings, all the new sales, all the new closings price per square foot. What buildings what's hot? What's not how much time do you spend there? I probably could spend more time there, but i do find that i kind of go where the client is in the sense that, because we have different neighborhoods in manhattan and so i'll get the leads i get you know i i often am fortunate that i have A little bit of time to prepare - or if i don't have time to repair i can. I can have an intelligent conversation regardless, because a lot of the assets that we're talking about are in buildings that have either been on the market.

For a little while or have already kind of been in the in the ecosystem of what's going on, because we do so much new development on my team, so yeah it's great to watch those if you're. If you have any idea that you're going out to dinner with somebody and you know where they live, and you know what building they live in you're stupid, if you're not going to figure out what the trades are like, that's what it needs to be. But you know: am i looking through random trades all day every day? No, i'm i'm talking to people on the phone, i'm doing my research before i talk to them and i'm trying to understand who i'm talking to so i can be intelligent about what they want to talk about. I love it.

I love it. It's very consistent amongst everyone. I've interviewed you know across the board. Let's go a different direction, i think so much of the mystique of being in the high end.

You know when you're talking to somebody that they're so funny like why the most expensive home i sold was 750 000 and i'm going this listing and it's like 3 million dollars and that seller is going to expect a certain type of marketing. And i'm just i'm just curious for you. What have you found from a marketing standpoint, whether it is pitching to a listing and or the launch of a listing or just the communication between your past clients, your centers of influence, video and everything else? What marketing you finding? That's, really resonating with people and what is it? Well, i mean i, i think you have hit the nail on the head, of course, with everything that has to do with video and anything that has to do with motion and imagery. You know imagery in new york is a whole even different level in new york city, and i think it's something that in the luxury markets we're seeing that more and more so it's finding really good imagery.

It's it's teasing things out. It's it's! It's a lot of multi-facets of making sure that you've got video with people in it, video without people, in it great great imagery, imagery that you're teasing out on instagram your tic talk video and then you need your youtube video that maybe has the drone, because the Drone really only works really well for the youtube and, and - and you know what i just listed - a 2.7 million dollar listing just the other day. It was a referral that came from somebody who is the house manager of a very, very prominent family that i haven't sold anything for yet we've been keeping in touch and we had somebody come through the open house from within the building, and they said we just Want to compliment you on the marketing that you've done for a home. That's of this price point which for new york, 2.7 million, is a price point where you see everything from iphone photography to drone videos, right and and and so we did everything, because i'm building a brand my team is less is - is about to be a year Old like tomorrow and and we're doing everything - and you know what i'm doing everything for every listing, because i want everybody at every price point to see that this is what our stamp of the christian jordan team looks like and, and so it starts with.

The 750 thousand dollar marketing that you're doing and making that decision and saying, like i said when i started my team, i don't care what our margins are. I won't present anything without being there, and - and that's just because i mean i've - been doing this long enough - that i know that as long as we do that it will come yeah, it's so interesting how many people that i've talked to about that like i just Chose right, no matter what like this is my standard. I don't care if it's a you know, a one million dollar deal or a 25 million dollar deal, i'm going to present that home in the most spectacular way possible. On the flip side, you know video video video, i mean you know.

Obviously, you have a huge advantage with television, and yet you - and i both know all these - you know million dollar listing agents that spend a lot of time. Creating a lot of other content to you know, spread their voice, create more trust, build their brand. So so, if the person isn't already following you first of all, where should they follow you and then i want to talk about the content you're putting out, and maybe what are you finding that's working and what's not well, you can. You can follow me on instagram.

It's kirsten.jordan, you can follow me on tick tock and there should be a way to get there from my instagram. I know we had to do like a handle. That's either kirsten jordan or kristen jordan, one or something like that. Um and then, of course, we do have a youtube channel as well and as far as what's resonating the most with people um, you basically throw a bunch of spaghetti against the wall and you have no clue what's going to hit and i get requests from people Of i want to know questions about this, i mean remember.

I also put out i put out a blog. I also started moms of real estate, which, by the way, is crushing. I never ever expected this. I had done moms of compass when i was at compass and then i switched from compass to buckle solomon, and so i had to kind of leave that behind and restarting it has been incredible had glenda baker on this week.

Um, she i mean, listen, i'm excited or obsessed we're all obsessed with her um. But but you know what it is is it's like you got ta do something you got ta, try things you got, ta put it out there and i still wish i was putting out more and it's something that i'm focusing on putting out more. So what resonates and what's working um first of all the algorithm, makes no sense, so you can post something and it won't get any traction. And then, two weeks later, it gets traction um, some of the stuff where i've said stupid stuff in the videos like actually dumb things that i wish i hadn't said.

People have ripped me a new one, and it's working really really well like they're, like really going crazy on me about how dumb i was, and those do really well um. So the key the key is is just is just putting it out there and evolving. Between now and 2025, all the great economists are saying the housing industry is going to continue to boom. So the question is: what are you building? This is the essence of my blueprint event where i ask you to take a few days away from your business and dream about the type of business you ultimately want to build, so you are empowered to go back and decide how you want your business to be So, to make your reservation go to tomferry.com forward, slash blueprint.

I look forward to seeing you at the event it's the body of work, i'm so glad you brought up moms at real estate, because that was all my like short list of um there's just something special about carving out a niche and owning something. So could you for the person that maybe has not uh looked at your blog or doesn't understand we're talking like what was your inspiration behind it and then what's your execution? If i was on that list, what would i what would i expect to see so the inspiration for moms of real estate for me is that you know when i was cast on a million dollar list in new york. It was like it was like a moment in my career, where i had hit like a serious bottom as far as like. Should i be in this business? Why am i here? I was on a team, it was the wrong place for me and it was the kind of situation where i was a team member and i was like i can see that in order for me to get what i where i need to go, it involves me Investing in myself and as a team member, the position i was in that was something that the team didn't see eye to eye with me about, and, and so i i feel like i had years where i made less money than i paid in child care, and I still held on for dear life to this career and i feel like this incredible duty to mothers out there to tell them that, like it's, okay, if you have really hard years in real estate, it doesn't mean that you should drop.

You should walk away because, yes, every single time, you have a kid every single time. You have to walk away and you have to go through that three months, six months, six weeks, whatever you decide to take right, you need to own the fact that it doesn't mean you've lost it all and i think, in this real estate mentality we're only as Good, as our you know, best our last deal we feel like and when you have to when you have this real rollercoaster that comes from child like having children right, childbirth, it's really a big deal, and so that's kind of you know and my and what i Decided in 2019, in in in november of 2019, coming out of actually um, you know an in-person tony robbins event. I had decided that i was going to stop my living beliefs about being a mom, and i decided that i was like. I refuse to any longer say i can't do this because i'm wrong and it's the kind of thing where you know there are totally moms.

Who judge me for how much child care i have. There are moms that judge me for the fact that my personal assistant is in the mom's chats at school, and you want to know something i and i still treat myself like an absolute diva, even though i am not filming right now, i'm only doing my own Personal social media for and all of my own business creation and all that and it's something that was a huge shift for me and i think clearly it helped with casting. Because i was, i was so ready and i was so committed because i wasn't going to limit myself but, like my whole premise, is this idea that if you can treat yourself like the star that i realized, i had to treat myself to get on the show To then be able to own the screen and be able to actually perform in that situation, i would have been making what i'm making now 10 years ago, but i didn't do that and if i had just if i could just share that with everybody and say: Hey before the show actually aired, my whole career had changed, because i believed in myself - and somebody had given me that validation that i was waiting for from somebody else would, by the way you don't need somebody else to give you that validation right. So i mean for me: i get teary i tear up because it's like i'm like i'm like people just get the picture like this is, i can't believe all of us.

Women are sitting around thinking. If i don't get cast on selling sunset or million dollar listing or something like i'm, not some badass woman who can crush it and be an influencer or a you know or or this public profile, you know public figure. I you know i liked you and respected you before, like just it. Just went up like five or seven like notches like, and i'm watching, like katie over here is like 25, like yeah like owning that right, like i'm gon na, be a badass no matter.

What, like everybody's, got a story. Everybody's got an excuse right, but you, but you owned it and then the best part is that you turned it into something that is so meaningful for others right, you're, empowering these women with children to say yes, you can right and don't buy into the noise. Certainly in your head right, but let alone you know out the marketplace so kudos to you all right i want to. I want to touch the last subject, so you mentioned uh, my team will be a year old tomorrow.

There is we there's, probably a seven hour show we can do on this, but give us like high level. Why did you do it? What have you learned and knowing what you know now? What might you have done differently? There's a lot there. I know i'm like um, why did you do it? Why did you build the team? Why did i build the team? Well, you know i was putting so much investment into building my personal brand. I had shifted and started putting investment into my personal brand in 2017.

I was pregnant with my third child. My brother has a digital marketing agency um and he was starting his digital marketing agency. Then so he was doing everything he was like taking pictures of me. He was posting he was making.

He was, you know there was all there were all kinds of things you could do back then, with instagram that you can't do now. Let's just say that um and - and he was he pushed me to say - like listen. Let's just make this badass real estate. Mom thing and like you should be, you should be pushing your instagram, so i started doing that in 2017.

Had my had my third child. Definitely that was a rocky time period and you know, like long story short fast forward, cast a million dollar listing. You know. 2020, i start filming.

I finally get my first assistant in the beginning of 2020, because i decided to do that anyway. It was like a major shift. I had this, you know like i got, ta build it and they will come. You know idea, and i did a whole year of filming while i was still on this team - and these guys are killers - they're amazing they're, like killer killer agents, everybody knows who they are and they they they had this incredible structure.

It didn't work for me because i basically was growing a brand under a brand, and you know i've been talking to juggle solomon uh. I i've i i was at douglas solver before so it wasn't like. I was talking. I i just yeah.

You know. I knew that it was a known entity. I knew they supported me. I knew they were going to be supportive, um and honestly, i came over thinking.

All i need to do is make sure that i keep my brand for me, because i want to make sure that leads that come in from the show, because i'm just going to yeah. You know air and, like people are just going to call me. Oh, please come miss my house and just be like come list, my home, because now i know who you are yeah by the way, that's a whole other show. We could talk about yes, and - and so i just came over saying, i'm just gon na start this.

I'm gon na start something and i'm gon na have an assistant and i'm gon na have a showing agent and and that's all, i'm gon na have and it's gon na be great, and then what happened was i had somebody who i had known for a long Time who her name is jill prashell? She was in real estate new development for 15 years. She came. She was in a transitional period in her career. She had been.

You know a major sales manager actually um at a large developer, a large developer, running sales, and so she was like hey. Could i come on your team as a result broker and i was like yeah i mean you can come in my team as anything you want, because i've known you forever and like so you know, then she kind of stepped in she did a co role. Now. We're transitioning to her into more of a sales manager, role um, but what what happened with that was as soon as i had this other person who validated this vision.

In addition to, of course, like you know, the coaches, the tom ferry coach, the you know the their the you know the life coach. All of that all this, this just like all of a sudden, it was like oh wait like we. We can't do this with just one agent, you know if we want to hire this incredible director of operations, we need another agent and then and then it was and then maybe and then somebody came through. That was another agent from a top producing team, and then it was - and so it was just kind of this thing where then you you hit this click point where we are right now, where we have four agents, we have a, i have a pa, we have A um, you know we have a director of operations and we have jill who's in this.

Hybrid role was really moving into a sales manager position and a director of new development position, which in new york, is actually a big deal. So, there's a lot of stuff that has to do with networking with developers providing them even just like offering memorandum, like you know, really really deep comps. It's not like. Hey here's, a couple of houses.

It's like hey here's, a deck! Yes, everything: that's happened in the last six months that we update all the time. Okay and - and so that's that's something that you know is, is really really important. So that's a big piece of our business and so essentially that's kind of what happened and i did not. I did not plan on it being like this because i was like i don't manage people.

This is very hard for me um, because i don't manage people. I don't so uh so for the person that's listening. They don't get to see your eyes. I see your eyes like.

I don't manage people but but kirsten you've gone from like like basically you and an assistant to like eight of you. It sounds like all in combined, i mean that's, that's a pretty big team. We did. We did 90 million last year, um, which was amazing to do in your first year as a team which was big, and i think you know, and of course we have lofty goals this year.

I think it's more, it's really, but i think that they're gon na happen like we're, and can i tell you yes how's very network is coming through. Oh, you know that makes me happy, you hey, it really is, and you know they're loving right back out on you yeah. They are there and um and i just got off with with uh yeah with him before too so he's. Listen, i'm i'm we're all in yeah all right! Well, listen as we wrap this up.

First of all, i there's so much to unpack here. We should definitely do a longer form show next time we're together face to face. You know i'm bringing the crew we're gon na do a longer form, but you know we unpacked like what it takes. You got a lot of insights there.

We talked about marketing and sort of expectations and i love your standardized approach to like hey, i'm just gon na deliver this every single time doesn't matter what the price point is because then you get known for that, and i do appreciate you know unpacking this whole Thing around you know moms in real estate, because there's you know for everyone watching, like you, saw your eyes just lit up, as you were talking about that. So you know i may have to share a couple of those out on my instagram just to like keep keep pumping that for you um and then the whole team thing. We know like it's such a journey right going from rockstar solo agent into a team. So as we close it out, one piece of advice: you'd recommend to everybody, doesn't matter what their price point is.

They just want to have a little more confidence. A little more. You know energy and focus to get out there and just say no more excuses. I'm going to make it happen.

What would you say? Oh my god um you know i you do have to figure out where your zone is for um having confidence around around around conversations like for me. It's not sitting in a room where other people are listening for me. It does involve a lot of like walking around talking on the phone. I think that you know we talked a lot about having the market knowledge and taking things too big picture.

But i one of my most important skills is the sound bite. It's the it's the practicing, what you're talking about over and over again and making sure that it sounds really good and - and you need to you - need to have that because a lot of the stuff we talked about right now is stuff. I've talked about a lot of times with other people and that's why it comes out really really well, yes and, and you got to figure out what it takes to be in that zone. For me, it's having a super structured morning.

It's having a lot of practices that are incorporating me showing up in my peak state. It involves putting really really incredible stuff into my body to make sure that i am not running off of crap and it involves you know, just just really treating people in a very respectful and gracious way. There's a lot of other things and making sure that i see my biggest motto for my team is see something say something and, and, and that is there is nothing more important you know than than making sure you like live, live and breathe. All of those different.

You know values that you have so so for me, it's like you got to find. You got to find your way that you show up and are like i, these people are lucky to work with me. Yeah yeah. I know you're writing a book, but i can't wait.

I know i know it's a ways out there, but i'm telling you that's going to be a hot book. I can't wait. We're going to have to do another show just around the book too. Oh kirsten jordan.

Thank you so much for being on the show, love to you and the fam of the team keep up the great work. I will see you soon. This is a luxury code and we are out you.