Kevin Yoder grew his real estate team from solo practice to a chaotic operation, then implemented documented systems like database segmentation and deal tracking that improved operations by roughly 50%. He credits structured coaching from Lars and annual planning for helping him shift toward CEO-level work, aiming for one day a week in the business within three years.
I was a solo agent from 2000 until about 2010. And during that time I had no team to speak of, no assistants. Right around 2010 and a half, 2011, I decided to start a team, got my first assistant and then started hiring buyer's agents and did everything the wrong way. Didn't have any systems in place. It was not a solid foundation whatsoever. And we kind of hovered in that mode. Even though we grew, we doubled in volume year after year for three years straight. The systems were non existent or the ones we had were a complete mess. That led me down this road of this year, slowing things down and identifying what systems needed to be put in place and which ones we had that were faulty, insufficient. Also really never before really tracking my numbers real well. This is not a good place to be for a business that's going to breach a million in gross revenue. So we had to make that happen this year. And I needed to align myself with somebody that had done that before, had really great systems, processes, understands from where it is that I'm coming and has done it. He done it himself in his own business. And that's why we ended up lining ourselves with Lars, because he's been there, he's been in the trenches.
So what were those systems? What did he notice that you had to start working on right away?
How much time do you have? It was everything from our database, even the way we used our top producer wasn't the most efficient way. So even our database, the way we were categorizing our clients, not allowing us to segment. So segmenting the database to tracking, putting in place what's called a business tracker, which allows us to track not only our deals, but our ROI and buyer agent accountability through tracking. Everything. It's all encompassing. 20 things we've done since we started that are new and have improved the business. It's a work in progress. We're still right in the middle of it right now.
Yeah. So what kind of results have you been seeing since? Kind of making those adjustments.
Building a solid foundation. It's not like you just go, oh, this is great. Overnight. It's a work in progress, I would say from last year, where I was last year, where the business was. From a system standpoint to today, we're at least improved by 50%. It's not even in the same realm. And that's a scary thing to think about. But it's also very comforting that we have improved and that's really all we can look to do. So we really are taking. It's pretty much Every day there's something that we're doing to move the dial, just to tweak a system, add a new one, revise, improve. And we're leaning on Lars and his expertise and by the way, his systems that are just documented, we have full access to everything and sometimes we pull up something that we didn't know existed and we find it and we were able to put in. Put in place in a plug and play way. And that's the other benefit, is that he has a lot of that stuff available.
Yeah. Okay. So do you have any stories of your life improving outside of business and your personal side?
Yeah, we went to the event in Charlotte and it was recently in November and it was just awesome. He had us put together a for the next year, 2015, for business and personal areas of improvement and just going through that process and which parts of our life we'd like to make an improvement in, both in the business and then on the flip side in the personal life. Taking the time, slowing down and doing the exercise and then getting back to reality here and then really reviewing that daily. It's made a huge impact, not only my personal life, because you're actually holding yourself accountable through this document and seeing that. And then it kind of comes to fruition because you're reading it every day and you're identifying where you want to improve and you're making it happen because you're looking, you're staring at the document that you've told yourself you're going to commit to. So that's just one recent example that comes to mind, and it's a good one.
Had you done any real estate coaching in the past?
Yeah.
And how would you say Lars has been different up to this point?
It's not the same. It's not even the same type of coaching. It's definitely deeper. He offers a lot more content, a lot more items, things of value. It just goes way deeper into the business. And it's not your typical coaching call where it's rah rah and you spend 30 minutes and you just kind of like talk about stuff. It's delving into what it requires, that you tell them in advance of what your main objectives are now in the business and what you want to cover in the call. That way when you go into the call, you have a clear objective and you make sure you hit it during that 30 minute call. He also has other group calls during the week that you can hop onto. And those are helpful too, because some things that you don't get covered during your 30 minute call. You can definitely get those handled during the group coaching call. My other coaching companies didn't offer that. It was pretty much a 30 minute call, sometimes once a month. And that's not enough. You really can't get done what you need to get done in 30 minutes and do it once a month. There's not enough time. And then there wasn't any preparation for the calls on those other coaching companies and there wasn't any accountability like making sure you did what you promised you would do. And that's why this is different.
Were you skeptical at all because of that? Going into working with Lars, I already.
Had this sense that this was going to be different. So I'm smart enough to realize that some people just do things better than others. And I had seen what already, had a glimpse of what he does. And so I felt a little more confident going into this than I had the other companies. But yeah, a little bit. You always are a little bit. Right?
Right. Yeah. So if we were sitting here, say, three years from today, what would have had to have happened for you to feel successful with Lars program.
Three years from today? Well, I would have grown my business to the seventh level. I will be operating as the CEO of my business. I will be working one day a week. My business is running without my daily intervention. I will have increased my annual vacations to at least six weeks. I will spend more quality time with my family than I ever have in my life. I will have, through the success of the business, built a business that we are proud of, that's serving our clients in a big way and we know it. And impacting the lives of others. And the income from the business will support not only my lifestyle, but also the lives of our, our valued team members. And I really look forward to that opportunity to be able to invest some of my energies and passion in other businesses as well.
