Lars Hedenborg shows how to build a leveraged real estate business in one year by shifting your mindset and recruiting agents instead of doing deals yourself. Tom Nickley did 43 deals his first year starting in September 2013, then scaled to over 100 sides and opened a second office by applying these systems early.
Alright, myth number two, takes years to build a leveraged business. So of course here, sort of tongue in cheek, there's an older person getting into their car with their walker, right? We don't want to be that real estate agent that still is tempting to show homes into their 70s and 80s and not planning, never having thought about building a business asset that can throw off income. So let's talk about the problem, right? So most agents believe it will take 10, 15, 20 years, right? There are examples of agents in their markets that have been in the business forever and that's how they built a leveraged business and they were able to exit production and get some leverage into their world. So let's talk solutions, right? So a lot of this is a mindset thing. We have to suspend our disbelief and let go of bad habits and bad thoughts. Here's the thing, if you can inspire, enlist and train talent, you can exit production. Doesn't matter how long you've been in the industry. Third here, focus on recruiting. Recruiting, recruiting. Your job is to recruit, train and coach forever and always. So it's a shift, right? And building a real team and ultimately focus on taking the focus away from your job as a producer to developing yourself as a leader. Right? So Tom Nickley out of Orlando, Florida, he actually started in the wine industry. Real cool background. 11 years in that industry and he mastered prospecting, man. $300 a day was required in that position. Started in real estate only in September 2013. Knew coming into it, we joined up very early in his career, knew coming into it that he wanted to build a team, but he didn't know how. His first year he did 43 deals. He did it all by himself, including all the closings and all the listings management and all the marketing coordination, all that. Joined B school coaching to implement tracking and accountability and ultimately build a self managed team. He will do over 100 sides this year and, and he's opening a second office and expecting to double production next year. So really cool success story. He started using my systems very early in his career. Let's hear from Tom Nickley.
I saw an ad in the paper and it was for alcohol sales and I figured sounds good to me right out of college. Let's give it a shot. Spent 11 years in that industry, learned a whole lot more than you can imagine about prospecting. It was 300 cold calls a day, every day to successful people. And it was, I mean calling FSBOs and expireds, it's nothing compared to calling people over the phone trying to sell them wine that they've never heard of before. Lars, kind of like you getting out of a very successful career to get into real estate. I had a very similar experience. Left the wine industry, got into real estate. But I couldn't jump directly from the wine industry to real estate because I was the breadwinner for the family at the time. I needed some income. Actually. My first year in real estate I started September of 2013 is when I started in real estate. I was actually working another full time job at the same time, but it allowed me to do real estate during the day. I was working at night there. What game changers did Lars get installed for you right away? To really start focusing on working on my business. And I think maybe the game changer for me might be a little bit different than other people because I think I'm at an advantage because I was brand new. I was brand new in real estate. I was brand new to starting a team. I didn't have bad habits. I didn't have agents that had bad habits that I had to undo. So he really instilled in me. The first call that we had, Lars said, listen, man, with everything that you've got and all your background, everything you do, he said, you can do in your first year what it took me three years to do. He said, go out and hire three to four agents and teach them your systems and work on them and. And work on teaching them how to be successful at these things and you'll build the business that way. And I did it the next day. I mean, the day after the first phone call that we had, I took myself out of buyer business. I haven't been out with a buyer since the day that you and I spoke the first time.
