Hey welcome back to the podcast: what's up lindsay hello, hey so we just did a live, show uh lens, and i and i thought it'd be really fun for us to sit down and go down a little memory lane and talk about how the business has changed. Talk about early social talk about where you see it going now and whatever else randomly shows up so so take a second and tell the audience who you are, where you work, what you do and then we're just going to get into the hot mess: okay uh! My name's lindsay ale, i i'm with better homes and gardens gary green uh. I have been there since 2013.. I almost said in the great state of houston cause.

It's so big. Exactly you wouldn't have been wrong. No exactly it's already interrupted! That's how podcasts go okay, so so with gary green in houston, yep uh! I am the director of agent services there and um yeah, so i've been there for a minute, okay, so so just for contact. She's been selling real estate for 20 years three years prior to meeting me.

I did an event you were there. I think it was a summit signed up came my personal coaching client that lasted all of like four and a half seconds. It was a little bit longer, was i too tough, or were you too much of a candy ass? No, you know, i actually remember the distinct moment. Okay, because we you had challenged me to role play and then you're like okay, yeah, no, no, no you're going to need a different coach yeah.

We got to move you out of my calendar yeah. This is not working, but what was rad back then, because we're talking about like early 2000's is that you had already started a team yep. So so, let's let's talk about that for just a second, so it was like 256, something like that and you and laurie partnered up what was your sort of early sort of uh origin story like? Why did you start a team? What was it about? What were you trying to accomplish? Because it wasn't like teams today, which you know so well, no yeah, it was different. I i started out as president of the mom's club yeah, that's what i was doing yes, and so i had a three-year-old and a one-year-old, and then i found out.

I was pregnant with sarah, and i thought you know. I'm gon na need a little bit of help yeah, so i met up with another agent, a wonderful person and uh. She also had four well at the time. I think she had three kids, okay, and so that's how that partnership really was born.

I really wanted someone to lean into and support the business and one-on-one became three for sure, so we still see those teams being formed today where it's like. I just need weekend support. I need a buddy, i need an ally, but but that's a very different team model. Well, i didn't necessarily do it the right way.

I will say that yeah. Well, let's talk about that. Well um. Should we get lori on the phone right now.

I know i'm like hey lori and she's a fantastic person and it was a wonderful partnership in so many ways. I'm so thankful for it, but probably what i needed at the time was a working partner right um, but like a licensed assistant yeah, something like that. Yeah, but i you know i was making these decisions on the fly i didn't have. Any support didn't really have any um.

You know real business experience in real estate, yet so i just wanted to have someone to work with and um, so that partnership was great in a lot of ways and we grew a lot right. I made a whole bunch of bad decisions. I uh give us an example of like two or three bad decisions that we should avoid, or we should make because the decisions that we make that we screw up make us better. Anyone really that i walked through.

What are the questions that i should be asking before? We did that like now, when i'm talking in the formation in the formation of it, i was just, do we have a buy sell agreement? What are you gon na do? What am i going to do? There was no agreement. How are we going to split the money and also there was no conversation about what does this look like? What are we building yeah? Well, when it ends, you know, yeah like this isn't really a marriage and in most cases we find that people don't stay together forever right uh unless you're related - and i see mother daughter teams like the gallons. That's wonderful but they're related they're not going anywhere and those don't always last, and sometimes those don't last either so i think looking at it from the end game. First like what is if it's great, this is what it's going to look like.

If it's not great and we both have to go our separate ways, what does that look like yeah? You know whose leads are these? Whose farm is this uh? You know all of those whose name goes first on the postcards that we had figured out. But you know it's like those are the kinds of questions that we should have asked at the beginning, sure that we really didn't spend any time. Why do you think um? So you know you - and i were talking about the numbers like there's 54 500 teams right now in the us, from what we can determine based upon inside of the mls group associates team, like whatever the designation right. The name is so 54 500 teams.

That's a lot of teams and when you look at the totality of agents that are on those teams out of the 1.6 million ages of the us, it's it's it's like 200 000 people are essentially on a team, so this we've watched it explode since the early Days with you and lori and early days of us coaching um, what advice do you have for someone? That's thinking about starting a team today, like maybe even in the buddy team? Well, i think that's a new form of team, the budget, the technical term for that? Yes, i think you have to think about what is your intention, and i think that i i see a lot of folks just do what i do where what i did where i just grabbed somebody and said: let's do this thing uh, rather than thinking strategically about What is the long game here? What am i really trying to achieve? What is the vision for what this is going to be yeah? Is it a do? I want to have a buyer's agent. Do i want to have a real team with you know three. Four people do i want to grow so that it's a mega team like what am i really looking to achieve and before you start hiring folks and bringing people on think about those strategies. A lot of people will talk about.

Well, i'm going to grow a team. I'm going to bring people on or they've already done it and they're giving away half the farm before they've even started right. All the time didn't think through comp plans didn't think through lead flow, didn't think through how how how our lead's going to be organized who's responsible yeah is this. Am i going to be the rainmaker, or am i going to support people in growing their own business within my environment? Those are the kinds of questions you really have to walk through before you start building that team right and, unfortunately, i think a lot of times that never happens.

So i think it's a real challenge. I agree. I actually it's funny when you said uh, you know these people that have just these. They just throw these teams together, and, i won't say names from our past, but lizzie also coached for us as client and he's been a long time friend um.

So i i want to say the person's name, but i won't, but he had like 15 agents on his team in southern california and they were on 85 splits and he was on an 85 split, so they were on 85 of his 85. yeah yeah. So so he hires me he's like i'm not making any money, and all i do all day long is deal got a minute got a minute got a minute. How do i do this in this contract and you know about? Will you go with me on this presentation right he's like i'm doing all of their deals and i'm making the spread of the 15 of my 85 there 85 and mighty 5..

So what we figured out was every time one of his teams sold the house. It cost him like 1200 right, like that's, that's like that was the real deal number. We fired everyone on the team yeah and we had to because we couldn't just go back to him, say and think about a strategy like what do i really want to build here like? What's the pnl look like if i bring somebody on what does that? Look like for them. What does it look like for me? It's great when you have a picture and there's like 10 people behind you, but if you're not making any money right and we look at sometimes we'll look at the volume, the volume could be huge and nobody's making any money right.

So i think that you really gosh you got to really plan kind of. What is the vision? What does that look like? What does the p l look like? Where are the leads coming from? Who owns the leads after the transactions done? All those tough questions yeah? I think we need to be asking ahead of time. What's so great today is now we see buy, sell agreements, we see uh, you know ndas being signed. We see if you leave here's how it works right right, you don't own.

The leads we paid for the leads and they're like, but i've nurtured these people that that's great, do you know um speaking of so we're talking about earlier before we started this, how many teams have sold in the last six years. Venture capitalists are now looking at real estate teams and saying hmm yeah. It does make sense for us to give real estate companies that want to scale and grow more money right to go, buy these teams and one of the ways they're looking at teams now is how many people they have inside their database and then what is the Value of the people inside the database, even at the lowest conversion percentage and they're, getting a step up in value of the acquisition price based around stay with us for five years. Just get this conversion percentage stay with us three years: senior agent we're buying your business because we know your database will mature at this level.

But if you want to leave it's fine, we'll still give you a step up, but no referral fees, because we know and we're talking about agents today that you know you know - and i know that have forty thousand eighty thousand hundred and twenty thousand three hundred thousand People in their database over the last ten years, they've bought online leads. Facebook leads google zillow everything else, it's nuts, so it's it's. The game has changed, but even outside the team, because you know what i know we're dealing with it all the time and if i look at agents the very first question i'm going to ask: i don't care where you are in production right and and it's at Every level of production, what's the status of your database yeah, and so it's an asset, but it's only an asset if you treat it like an asset and unfortunately we have a whole bunch of people, even some of our top producers that aren't doing that. And here you're talking about teams that are selling a practice because of a database and we have teams or agents or that aren't doing a great job with their database.

So it's really unfortunate you're totally onto something i'm going to give you a little clarifying point ready. Um agents or teams that are selling right now, i'm not talking about they get recruited by a company and they give them a signing bonus. I'm talking like straight up. You bought my s.

Corp c corp llc like a true transaction right, um agents that only work their past clients in sphere. Their business has almost no value. Let me say it to you again from an acquisition standpoint. Yes, yes, it has almost no value because lindsay is the rock star who makes the money rain and when lindsay is out of the equation, how do i make the transition? So here's the caveat you ready, you might get.

First of all, we're going to look at your numbers and say: let's take your last three years: gci, because you can't just take 2021 and say well: oh my god, she's making a fortune! No, you got to go back to 19, maybe 18 and then say on average you're doing this much right. You market this much to your database. You get this many referrals, but if you're doing all of them right you're doing all of that. Okay, therein lies the problem, so we have folks that are making that transition out of the business and they are selling this app sure sure, but it's being co-branded and they're handing it off are they? Are they getting three times multiple five times multiple or are they getting hey i'll? Give you 20 grand and i'll pay you a referral fee for the next five years right for sure? Okay, so, let's be clear like? Are they really selling their? I mean they're getting something: yes, that's right, but but okay, so i can't say names but one of my clients.

We were in the middle of a trying to get to a 10 million dollar valuation on his team. We got to over 8 million and he should have just taken the deal like the first offer that every seller gets right. But you know, but whatever we'll get there, because we know the game is: he's got to continue to have more outside lead generation, because that's where the value is right. So you have all this outside lead generation, exactly a system of hiring training, developing retaining and producing results with your sales team, even with sales agent churn, the value of the business is still there.

We almost got the 10 million dollars for a team, yeah yeah for a team that was a 6.7 multiple to get there. The the buyer was stuck on five. Five is the market. You know, agents should have asked for less.

I should have just taken the money, but hey side note. You know you know if you're listening, i love you, you should have taken the deal anyway. So let's go back to this. You you sit today as director of agent services.

What the hell is that what does that actually mean like? What are you? What are your okay? What are you accountable for like what's your job, so i love what i'm doing um right now, uh when they brought me in. I really i kind of talked to them about what my vision was before they hired me, because i was really excited about executing one clear vision around bringing together the coaching, which is a lot of my background and bringing together marketing and tools so that, as a Company we're launching these things in a comprehensive and cohesive way. Far too often, i think that uh, we see brokerages that are launching marketing assets, they're not tied to a system right or they're, launching tools that aren't tied to a system. So getting adoption around that stuff can be tough because seeing how it fits in with everything else, an agent is already doing, and then the the other question is the agent doesn't have the ability to be discerning about what they adopt because you're just getting all of This stuff - that's just constantly coming at you.

How are you able to be discerning and say you know what this doesn't fit into this particular system? I'm doing this sphere system, i'm doing this farming system, i'm doing this and does this fit into that right and i think that it helps the agent become real clear about. Does this fit into my strategy and this i can let go of, but this i'm going to adopt so you're like an internal strategist and performance coach yeah. I guess you strategize, but it's about it's about also finding like what are the constraints of growth, getting rid of the things that aren't like. I got um hired by a big bank and, i won't say the name, but they had a stagecoach in it and they uh they came in they're like we don't understand why our loan officers don't use any of the tools we have, and i was like well Show me all the tools this is like.

This was probably right when we were meeting, i was gon na say i think right, because they became a great partner and lots of lots of friends that were there. So you guys figure out who it was right. It was a ding ding bank, but they they basically said. Okay, we'll show you everything, so so we're in this giant conference room and there has to be like 90 different, like chunks of paper, this big and i'm like so you're, not getting a lot of adoption.

They're, like no i'm like okay, so i'm a new loan officer which one do i start with that's right. What's what's my career path, they're like uh, that one this one this one and that one okay, i i do 20 million a year in volume. Where do i go, i'm like it was so overwhelming and they were so great they're like how would you prioritize it and what would you cut and we literally cut it down to like seven things yeah if you're joining the company do these right? If you're, if you're an existing lo doing um five million dollars a month, here's the four things you need to do. If you just do those you win yeah, is that kind of what you do yeah.

I think that we're designing systems that are like here's, your farming system, if you want to plug into this here's the assets, here's the resources, here's the tools that allow you to execute it. Here's your sphere system! You want to do these things, here's the resources, the assets that allow you to do that right, and i think that it's becoming. I work really closely with our director of marketing elizabeth heckerth, and we are constantly having this conversation about. How do we enhance what the agents are doing and the assets that we're providing them right and when they are launched? They come in? The context of these are the places that you would use those assets and the same thing for our technology tools and all of those kinds of things.

I just think that we've really evolved in terms of our messaging around that stuff and it becomes much easier for the agents to understand how do i use all of this stuff, because that is the one thing you hear all the time like i'm overwhelmed with. So many choices their phone rings every day with a new vendor. That's offering some other thing. If you just got one deal from it yeah, you know those kinds of things so they're overwhelmed, i'm hoping to give clarity to that yeah um switch gears.

Let's talk about tech for a second, so so i'll say a name jim mark's going way back uh. So you know jimmy who passed right so very, very tragic. Jimmy was one of those people that i got introduced to a million years ago. Who was like? Let me explain the real estate.net, the art.

Remember the re.net. I do there's an elusive group of 50 people that i don't think ever did anything except talk about social and it's a social network. It's a cocktail party. You can't sell there, and these are a lot of my friends.

I know - and i was just like you guys - were all full of like what are you talking about right? It is. This is like a fax machine. This is like the printing press. This is like a billboard.

It's like televisions like radio. It's all the same right, maybe maybe i was spending too much time with gary vaynerchuk back in the day, so it was like he was like screw all that uh. But the point was, you were very early in all this yeah talk to me about what you've seen in terms of trends from social networks and tech from an agent perspective that you think kind of like what have you seen trends and where do you see it Going well, i think we we started out. There was so much interest around that this is but it's a pain point for me like i'm excited about it, there's lots of opportunity in there, but my god, i've been to conferences where you'll have a room filled with here's specific strategies on how you can build Your real estate practice yeah and then next door.

There will be some obscure tech tool, yeah here's like factual stuff about either the market or how to build your business and there will be nobody in there. But here's like a thing about clubhouse in this room and it's like there's people like lined up outside the door and that's a bummer um, and so i think that or it's a great thing. Well, it depends well, it depends on you shiny penny. The problem is, is that as a coach and and someone that's working in an environment where i'm trying to get people to engage in the things that move the needle, it isn't challenging environment so certainly in in the time like 2006.

When a lot of this really started going uh, whether i was on twitter right um and a huge bunch of my network came from that um everybody was highly engaged, but in everything blogging and twitter and all of this stuff - and i think over time - hopefully some Of us have kind of refined what we're doing and not we're not feeling like you got to be in all these places um. But that being said, but it was a small community back. Then it reminded me of like growing up in southern california, like the punk rock scene, like you knew all the bands like everybody was gon na play on friday and saturday yeah. It was a kegger yeah.

Whatever is it somebody's said, ian's backyard right like whatever, but but everybody knew everybody, and then it got really big really fast and it got really confusing really fast, yeah and everybody said so it became like. Are you getting the results? Remember right: what's the roi in social media, that was the the big question. Are you getting the results and in some cases the answer was no um i killed. I know you did yeah i killed, but i spent a lot of time making relationships going beyond just posting created content on a consistent basis, and you were really focusing.

I mean once you got in front of that thing. You were staying in front of it and pivoting around like what's the latest content and video. That was a big thing for you um here we are still saying you know what you should do is video. I mean like how many years has it been? It's like.

I have an idea how about video you should you should check out there's now, there's now three camera lenses on your phone for a reason. Yes, so so what do you think is? What do you think is next, like? I think i think i'm just gon na make a statement. I think facebook is over um. I know i'm sorry and i'm not talking about the like political nonsense of just how much of a just jerks they are, but i mean because and look i still invest a lot of advertising dollars in facebook um, but i think facebook is over.

I think people want, i think, netflix is now made it very clear with their shorts that it's about tick tock, it's about short form. What was the old uh seven. Second, video app that lasted all like nine days. Does anybody remember vines? Fine! That's right! That's right! Well, no, that was another one.

No, no but vines want to talk about like vines that was like for a hot mess in and out or vine yeah, whatever it was like. Seven second videos yeah yeah, and i remember people like i was doing long-form stuff like an hour and i was like what am i gon na say in seven seconds: hey it's time. I'm out, you know, like that's, not gon na be good, but but i think it's whether it's attention span um. I think it's, it's just people looking for the next place.

People want to belong to something they want to feel early. They want to feel special or they just want to be entertained. Where do you think it's going? I i mean you just get so bummed when i say facebook, you know what, because i've i've made a lot of money and i've even still out of my old business, not from advertising from the personal profile and facebook. It's been huge for me.

Okay, i want to make i want to make a statement, i'm not saying that facebook is closing anytime soon right, they're, a global juggernaut. My point is: watch the eyeball traffic. Well, there's the traffic today, as we were talking like my kids, would never spend a minute on facebook ever ever ever and probably instagram is falling under that category. Instagram is abs; all the data is showing instagram is, is now our age, so this is, but this is an interesting that thing that if you're looking at your own social strategy, there are going to be people that continue to be on facebook, so it doesn't mean That we're like abandoning ship here my 94 year old mother-in-law, is on it every day.

Okay, oh boy, she clicks on my ass. I saw some of the you're you're, i'm like stop clicking on my ads nana. I have to say this morning my dad or last night my father went on to facebook. I posted our event on there yeah and my dad said this is my daughter and if you work with her you'll increase your business tenfold.

I was like oh dad. Please really, and then he posted a photo of you when you were four. You know it's almost that bad. So where do you think it's going? I think you're right.

I do think i do think it is. Definitely i think you've got to get over the video thing like as much as people have been talking about that that ship has sailed and if we're not doing it, and that falls on me too, but i do think that that's that's a big deal um and I think you're right about that about some of these other social media areas, but i think right now you need, unfortunately - and this is painful for everybody - you're - going to have to maintain a presence on both because you're going to have a population of folks and a Lot of connections that you can maintain on facebook - and i think that's going to be around for a bit again - i'm not saying it's going anywhere, it's just not it! It's not growing with the young people, that's for sure, and so some of our last time i checked right when you look at the seller, demographic, it's probably higher on facebook and instagram - that it is on tick, tock or snapchat right, there's somebody's other sites, linkedin is, Is performing incredibly well changing big time, yeah big time big shout out to microsoft, i thought when they bought them for sure that was the end over. I was just like. Oh my god, it's gon na look like microsoft.

Dos, like it's just gon na be the whole thing, is just gon na change for the worst, but they actually did. I think they did really really well and, and it just plused and enhanced some of the features that make it even more like linkedin is now the place where you go to say: okay, i'm interviewing somebody, i'm talking. Okay, let me go look at this profile. Let me go check out her profile and like see more about who this person is more than that are people actually on a feed there and suddenly it does seem like people are looking at a feed and hanging out there in a different way than they used To be yeah, so yeah yeah, so let's talk about video for a second, so most people um.

I say it's never too late, because i see uh clients of ours women in their 50s that finally just go okay, darling! I'm just going to go! Take it easy on the women in there i'm i was not. I was you know, you're in your 30s or whatever yeah, but i mean literally, i have clients that, like they finally just said, okay, i'm getting over this i'm going to find my voice, i'm just going to go after it it's time for that they're yeah, killing On instagram reels facebook reels, but i think the the thing that nobody is paying attention to at scale in in the real estate space i mean i certainly have you know. We know a few people are, is youtube and specifically youtube advertising like creating creating content. That's meaningful to the community or the tribe that you're serving right and publishing that content and then running ads to ramp up the number of views.

So, instead of getting 397 views on your how's, the market show getting 30 or 40 000 views for 800 right yeah. Like like the thing we had, we had one of my coaches, david caldwell, he and my brother, patrick, and so we've been in this dialogue, a bunch because it's it david cobble said it best. He said disney publishes a new film. Did they run ads to? Let everybody know it's there, yeah yeah, of course they do for sure right and yet the audacity for some agents to get upset about the fact that they only got 22 views or 800 views or under a thousand views and they're, like you know like i want To have more people see it well, you got to play the seo game, which is the long form right right.

You have to publish. If you want to win on youtube, you have to publish a piece of content every time, i'm just going to say the consistency has to be there for sure and then use things like tubebuddy and others to make sure from an seo standpoint, you're playing the game Right and even then yeah you might get to three thousand four thousand five thousand. Unless you do something outlandish, you know you see like. Do you see the guy who got fired from compass because he was like? Yes did, the video of himself? Yes, that was hysterical.

I mean big shout out to the guy and big shout out to compass for firing him both were probably equally as controversial and crazy, but this is not what the show's about um, but again like that kind of stuff on youtube and then spend money on it. Like get the word out in your marketplace, so people say i see you everywhere, that's we we talk about all the time. That's the layering effect that you want. I see you everywhere i in at this point everybody that is well.

Everybody should be doing some type of market update. That is the simplest and easiest thing to do. That's the easiest con content to create and if you're, not providing that value. What is going on in the market in those communities that you're working somebody else is, and everybody knows more than one realtor, so we can't just hope that, oh they know i'm in real estate.

That top of mind awareness thing. That means i'm going to get a phone call, that's not going to do it. No, so it's like how am i showing up providing the value providing the things that people are looking for, it has to be. You've got to be putting that information out there and video.

That's the best way to do it right. So what do you think you know you've got. You know, 20 years in this industry, i've got 31 years. Why do you think the vast majority of people? Just don't do anything i think forget video, like i don't know anything well, no, no, not not the people.

Listening, there's a lot of dabbling. It's a lot of damage, one of my favorite words dabbler. I think that it's um like, for example, the the video thing. I think there's a whole thing about.

I got ta figure out how to do that. I keep hearing that. I got ta figure that out. I got ta get my head around that i don't know how to do that and it becomes one of those things.

I'm gon na get to yeah someday i'll yeah, and so i think that that creates a certain barrier to entry, which is actually fabulous for the people who are executing right because there's always that barrier to entry and if you're willing to go through the steps to Get through that then you're going to be one of the people on the other side, that's creating the content when everybody else is still sitting there getting ready to get ready to get going right right. It's so interesting! I've had so many conversations with people and i'm sure you have to like. Well, i got to learn this. I got ta figure this out.

I got ta make sure it's i'm talking to one of my clients, i'm not gon na, say her name, but this gal does so much business in the new york area and not like a new york city broker like, but she just she just kills. It mom started the company she took it over and has built into this monster empire and we're chatting the other day on a saturday. Just like a helpful call right friend a friend. Well, i can i need to learn this.

I need to understand that i'm like look. You don't need to know how to make the damn sausage you just want to own the sausage right like. I have no idea how getting in front of this, how the camera works to capture everything that i'm doing. I just know if i hit go, live and go yup.

Yup, yup, yup, yup good, happens you're with me, but they i want to understand. The technical side. Is the lighting right. What, if i say the wrong thing, i'm like no one's watching your stuff anyway.

Who cares just have to just get it done start my mindset monday video done, is better than perfect yeah just get it done. Yeah yeah and i struggle with that. Do you struggle with that? Is this like a therapy session between the two of us? It's like coaches, i'm sorry, all right, totally different direction. Okay, what's the future of real estate? Oh gosh, what's gon na happen in the next 10 years, so nice light question yeah, just a nice easy! You know softball question i don't know.

I think we have a lot of things that are are changing and i think that it's going to be a tough. I think it's going to be a tough thing for agents. I think it's going to be a tough thing for brokerages. You know i've heard you talk about the amount of referral business that is going to be pulled out of the industry revenue specifically from referrals right.

So that's concerning to me. I think that, but i also think that we have a tendency to go. Oh, my god, this is happening and then there's all this fear-based thinking about like oh, my gosh, the sky is falling yeah. What really you need to do is continue to maintain your relationships, enhance your relationships, provide value to your relationships, and i think that um, that is the best thing an agent can do, i think, um as a brokerage.

We have to look to find ways to enhance that um, at least that's my side of things. How can i enhance that for our team yeah? That's what i'm, how do you think asia, ai and automation, impact housing over the next 10 years? I don't know i mean yeah, it could be really um, there's a lot of change coming, but i've been hearing that for a long time too sure - and so i'm, but you see the date - the data that i see like how much money is poured into our Industry from a venture capital standpoint, just in the last 18 to 24 months, it is insane it's it's 17. The gdp in the us. So there's no question that it's a disruptible opportunity, i'm not saying agents, are disruptable.

I'm saying parts of the transaction along the way are massively disruptible austin. My buddy austin starts a little company called dot loop, just trying to get people in communication visually. He disrupts a piece of of of one little tiny piece of the business and sells this company for 120 million bucks. Showing time sells for 550 million bucks.

What did they do? They gave us access on our phone to build a book, schedule, appointments and then track date. I mean it's all these little micro fractions that i think are being disrupted um. But i think that's also exciting, because it also makes the business easier well and if you're, using it all the right way and you're figuring out the ways that an agent can take advantage of some of those assets and those resources, then you look better too right. So i think there are some opportunities there.

I think we also have to really watch out for uh, like i said, the ways that we're providing value, because there is some vulnerability there, um yeah, i don't know yeah all right. So what about uh the data right? So you look at right now. I've been talking this a bunch since i did this this thing with pat feeling huge shout out to pat feeling. Thank you so much for letting me send you lots of money and do a consulting agreement to say i want to know in the u.s one point: rounding it up: six million agents top one percent - do seventeen percent of the business top five percent did like 32 Percent of the business top 10 did 50 of the business.

The top 10 percent of agents in mls are doing 50. When you got to 25, it was 73 and the top 50 are doing 91. The industry has changed. We used to talk about 80 20 and the numbers never added up.

You would look in the mls and say the numbers didn't add up today. It is like it just feels, like teams have taken over the world and agents with brands that have learned how to scale their trust right have cremated everybody for sure, and that's going to continue to be the case. I think that, as the market changes, we're not going to be looking at that many agents, but i do think that an agent has to focus on building those relationships and enhancing those systems, because this isn't going to go away. Teams are not going to go away.

It's going to continue to be a bigger and bigger factor and you've got to have real systems. So this you know, look at it the number of agents that are dabblers or that are doing. You know how the percentage of them that are doing. You know these one, two, three, four, you just can't: it's not sustainable! Well, it's 40.

40. The last time we look at the number 40 of the agents in the us had not closed the transaction right. So really, if you go top 50 you're really saying 60 to 50 did 9 of all the transactions right and then you know whatever it would be. 61 percent to 100.

Did none yeah brutal? None! It's crazy! Do you see that trend changing? No, i see that that'll probably be getting worse, yeah, uh, better or better, better yeah, depending on your perspective, but yeah. I think that this is, i think, because of some of the tech changes, some of the the um, the things that agents have and the opportunities that you have. I think it's making it easier for the teams easier for real people that are operating real businesses right to do better and better the agents that are coming in thinking. Well.

This is great, i'm going to get my real estate license and, let's just see how i do yeah. That is, i like people, i like houses, yeah, i love showing houses. That's what i love. That's probably to be a showing agent on this team.

Yes, absolutely yeah! Yeah yeah, by the way, do you do you see in in your firm because you guys recruit a lot of agents? Are you seeing the teams getting bigger and bigger? Do you see the teams doing a lot more hiring of agents? Is it still coming mainly from the brokerage side like yeah we're streaming teams like? I just had two meetings last week, uh people that are growing teams. I think it's uh for us we're definitely looking at it and it's going to continue to be something that's growing and is a factor for the the company for sure yeah and we're looking at it a lot yeah smart, smart. So we talked about tech. We talked about your team.

We talked a little bit about your yob talk about the future of real estate. Uh. Two last questions we talked about. I like the conversation about what's gon na happen, the next ten years, so i'm gon na make a statement.

You ready agents will be here in ten years right, no question at all. The question is what the hell will they be doing. I looked at an open house a couple or actually i appreciate this. I looked at a potential investment property the other day and kath and i walked up and i was like oh awesome cool.

I do download for the first time in my life the redfin app and go and go through. Take a look at the house and i was like well that's an example of if you think that that's your value then you're in deep trouble, i'm not a fan of redfin, i'm talking about the ease of access into a property. No, it's not going to be your house or my house for sale. It's clearly.

It was a vacant home like so it made sense, but my point is: like agents are going to have a place, the question is: what are they going to do? I think they're going to be consultants and negotiators, yes, because everything else is going to be outsourced everything else i mean, i think it's no different than having to rethink. What is your role when everything went from the book to an mls right? I mean, i think it's that dramatic. I think that you have to be the resource. Yeah you've got to be the resource if you're, not positioning yourself as that person in your community with your network, then you're going to have some problems, because it's no longer not only opening doors or letting people in or finding the house.

It's they're finding the house and they're letting themselves in so and and then the question is: how are you showcasing those skills? How are you showcasing that you're a great negotiator in what way, because you may be a great negotiator and you may know a bunch about your market, but if i don't know about it, who cares then? So that's going to be the real yeah when people talk about, though, like oh, you know, agents are going to be like um like the travel agent and i'm like no agents are going to be more like attorneys right. There's a lot of software that helps attorneys become more efficient with their time. There's a lot of portals. You can go to and get you know free information, yadda, yadda yadda, but when you're getting divorced or you're being sued or you need to sue somebody or you're dealing with some issue inside your business.

You're like i need law, firm, fear, fear and screw you, like. That's the team. I want to hire right and you know you can get attorneys at about 20, an hour 500 an hour 1200 an hour 2 000 an hour and it's you're getting what you pay for, and i think that's going to also happen inside the real estate industry right. It's already happening, i mean people have choices.

I could go online and sell my house, but there are still the people that are going to go. This is back to like. Have i created that trust relationship? Have i created that like um? I am the resource, i'm the value yeah. If you've created that, then you still are going to be the person when they are in those moments.

Gosh. That is the person. I call right right. Um mark davidson just spoke to our top 300 teams and he's like he said it and seth go to at two of my events.

Ten days apart. Who do you have to be to have people type in your name right? I remember that, like that's it like so they're, not so so, going back, circling back around video content and then nurturing those relationships, but today how do we nurture relationships? Email text phone call face facebook, dms social gatherings. It's all that stuff. It's the whole! You know banana that makes it all work well.

One of my one thing that i do think that we need to talk more about is a lot of these things that we're talking about whether it's email, whether it's a video or whatever, those things, are really at the end of the day. All that is trying to getting us to is a conversation with somebody touch point exactly, and sometimes we get lost. I think that's a challenge is that we get lost in all the technology and all of this stuff. We forget that really the end game is to connect in a have a conversation with your people.

So i think we, if we're focusing on that more because that's really all this stuff is trying to do right. Yeah mic drop all right. That was a fun little podcast, i'm so just so you guys know we just did a live. Show together, i'm like hey.

We should do a podcast you're like what do i have to prepare for nothing? Let's just have a conversation um, so if they want to reach out and find you where can they find you on social, i'm sure they can, can they find you on myspace, also or just facebook? That's what you do to old friends. Okay, where can they find you lindsay ale uh? My last name is e-h-l-e yeah um and uh yeah yeah instagram linkedin linkedin. All those spots, hey thanks for sharing and then just hanging out with me on the podcast yeah, very nice. Okay, guys, hey see you soon.

Thanks so much bye, you.