Learn How Matt Perry Scaled His Business To Over 200 sides By Focusing On Referrals

All right, this is going to be an awesome chat here. I've got Matt Perry with us and he runs a team and is involved in several other business opportunities in the Raleigh Durham area. So first and foremost, all your referrals need to go to Matt Perry and his team. They will take awesome care of them. And Matt, why don't you just get us started, like tell us a little bit about yourself, like 60 seconds or less personally and the structure of your team and what you did last year.

Sure. Thanks for a lot for having me, Lawrence. Appreciate it. So run a team here in Raleigh Durham? We do. We did 215 units last year. Done that consistently for about four years. It was about 65 million in our area. Our average price point is about 300,000. We also am an investor in three market centers with Keller Williams and I run one of those as the operating principal. Also run a title company and so that the office, along with my business, pretty much occupies most of my time. I'm a husband and father of three girls, so I have 11, nine and six year old. Those are my world. Pretty much everything I do is motivated around those three girls and my wife. I love spending time with my family. So at the end of the day, that's my big why. And what motivates me to succeed in business is, you know, providing every opportunity I can for them.

Awesome. So what did you want to achieve? Like, what was the reason we connected and what attracted you to real estate? B school. What did you want to achieve? When we started working together, so from.

A business, my production side, my team was really stuck in a rut. You know, we've been consistently performing at about 200 to 225 units a year. And so it was just I needed something else. I needed somebody that could help me think outside the box and come up with different strategies to take it to the next level. There was a good level of achievement there, but I wanted to go from good to great. So what initially drew me was your background, your expertise, not just in business, but as I mentioned, I'm a family first guy. So seeing where your priorities are and how you take your family first and your faith, those things drew me to you. I want to surround myself with other people and other leaders that have those same priorities and that was what connected us.

Yeah. And what are the problems, you know, that having sort of multiple business interests and, you know, kind of spreading yourself in business. What are some of the problems you've seen personally from having that sort of approach in business?

Well, I think you Know, we talk a lot about God, family, then business, and that's certainly my priority list. So I think the challenge is, you know, you have a limited amount of time, and so where, as a leader, can you best use your time? Or as a business owner, where can you spend your time? And so not to cut out your faith or your family first, but then figure out how am I going to accomplish really, really high goals with the time I have allotted left to devote toward those. And then when you have more than one business, as a lot of us do, it just becomes the challenge of, you know, juggling all that in a limited amount of time. And so what we've been working on is just how to do that, how to develop leaders on my team. It can't all be about you as the, you know, the CEO or the rainmaker, whatever you want to call yourself. So just, you know, helping other people, achievement through others, you know, is part of what we've been talking about.

So let's dig into the three, like, let's call it three, three things that we've been working on together. Let's kind of break them down. Get on maybe how your mind has shifted around these things. What are the three big focus areas that we've been working on?

So for me, one's been leadership, one's been tracking knowing my numbers at a high level. And then the third has been time blocking and kind of what I talk about with getting my schedule under control. So those would probably be the three.

All right, so let's dig into. Let's start with the. With the time management. Let's kind of break that down. So what. What has changed or what. What have you learned or we've been working on?

So a lot of what boils down there is basically where I'm spending my time, and, you know, what am I doing with the limited number of hours I have. So a lot of that is recognizing points where I can either leverage something, get rid of it, or put a system in place to replace, you know, me having to be actively involved in it. So a lot of that has come down to looking at different drivers in the organization that can lead a charge toward a certain goal. And what you've really helped me do is break that down. So it's easy to talk in big picture. It's a lot harder to go from where you want to go in the big picture, which a lot of us can articulate, down to what do I need to do this year and then what do I need to do this month and then what I need to do today. And so you've really helped me with chunking that down into looking at almost like on a quarterly basis, some big rocks that I can attack. And then from there, you know, who's gonna. Who's gonna help me implement those? It's not gonna all be me. And then reviewing those, looking at them, and slowly making that progress. So day to day and then week to week, I can see what we're doing to get closer. And, you know, example would be we were trying to implement some systems around our numbers and our agents tracking how many buyer consults are. Have how many buyer agencies they've been having signed agency. And so what that's led to is we've had a really good first two months of this year, and that was a reflection of my fourth quarter rocks starting to come to fruition with the team. So we've talked about that in our meetings, and they really see the correlation there.

Yeah. And then you mentioned kind of knowing your numbers. Let. Let's dig into that a little bit. So what. It sounds like you just mentioned a little bit in the. In the tracking set. Met sign with. With agents, but what numbers are you tracking? What is the mindset shift been around numbers? You know, before I hit record, we talked about. I think, at least in my mind, it was. It was this call I've been. I've been recording all day. But there are some of these big teams around the country, guys that we know that are losing money. 2 million to 6 million GCI losing money. And it's like, holy cow. So talk about knowing numbers, maybe talk about the model that you're building. Give us some perspective on that.

Yeah. So I think there's kind of two avenues I've been attacking. One is more along tracking sales numbers. So having goals, having clear pictures on what each agent on the team is responsible for, and helping them accomplish those and then holding them accountable. So, for example, if we're trying to have, you know, 10 buyer consults a month, but yet they're only signing two, then if I don't know those numbers, I don't know where the gap is. So in that scenario, that helps me realize, okay, this person's setting the appointments, but clearly there's a gap or issue with the quality or what they're saying or closing versus the guy who's only closing or only setting three appointments, then we've got an issue of not having enough appointments. So you don't know those numbers unless you're tracking it on a weekly basis. And you can't coach your people to get better if you don't have those numbers to, you know, to reflect on. So that's kind of one avenue, and the other avenue is more on the business side, just looking at, you know, cost of sales along with your expenses. And I think as we head into the shift that we're already in, whatever that ends up looking like, it's even more important to know those numbers at a high level and hold your money accountable. And I think a lot of us talk about that, but a lot of us also don't dig into that at a deep level and know, you know, what those percentages are. And then if you are tracking them, you're able to make adjustments quickly, and it's not four or six months later before you're realizing, hey, I've been, you know, throwing money away over here, you know, so we talked a lot about that. Gary Keller talked about it this past week about holding your money accountable. So you can't hold it accountable if you're not tracking and knowing what kind of return you're getting. So taking the time to have a system around tracking those numbers and really knowing them about your business.

Yeah. Awesome. And then the third point that you mentioned was leadership. And I remember a conversation, a call we had recently, a lot of times. Well, there's a couple of thoughts I have on it. We became the team leader because we went through this rigorous process. We were educated in a university to become a real estate team leader. And like, no, none of that happened. Like, we just decided that we got busy enough where we can hire an admin, and then, like, working with buyers was, you know, it's just a lot. And then we became a team leader. And so when you think about leadership, the conversation we had was like, you know, how could we take the burden off of Matt Perry for growth? And how can we just. Just a couple people on the team that are obviously loyal to you and they want to see the best for you, but they also want to have opportunities for growth. So talk about when you say leadership and kind of getting stuff done through other people, but how do you organize it? Talk about 90 Day World. What's been impactful there.

Yeah, absolutely. So I kind of related to the spoke of the wheel. And to your point, a lot of us are just successful in our own right, and then we get to where we have teams, but it's really. It's really not a team. It's really more of a collection of individuals, just a group. And the rainmaker, the CEO, ends up being the Spoke of the wheel. Everybody's reporting to that person. They're responsible for all the training, all the guidance. Everybody goes to them for questions. And that model doesn't work at a high level. So it's about kind of looking at it from the standpoint of how can I find out deep down what my people's goals are and help them accomplish those and help develop them as a leader. And then by doing that, if the people below me are all achieving their goals at a high level, then I'm going to more than exceed my personal goals for the team. So it's pouring into them, identifying who the talent is on your team, who are the leaders, and then what can I do on a quarterly, daily, weekly basis to pour into them? And part of that starts with giving up some of the control. A lot of people in our business kind of have that control issue, and they don't want to give up the control. So taking, for example, if we have four major rocks for a quarter, four major things we're trying to accomplish, I should only be responsible personally for one of those. I'm the driver, the leader, if you will, of that one rock, and then the other three would be designated to other people. So it gives them the opportunity, A, to be a leader, B, to, you know, to drive that. That specific topic and have some responsibility, and it ultimately develops them. And now, you know, in a perfect world, I'm developing leaders who will then be leaders of leaders, you know, and if I get that kind of organization set up, then the sky's the limit for what we can accomplish.

Yeah. And what. And what's the big challenge? I think back to another. The conversation I'm thinking about was with. With these two functional leaders, what you have to let go and delegate, but you also have to be willing to be vulnerable and listen to what they have to say. Yeah, I forget her name in particular, but she didn't pull a punch.

Yeah. Mallory on my team is who you're remembering.

Talk about that.

Yeah. So you have somebody like Mallory who's. Who's uber successful and talented. And so if you're calling all the shots, then you're really limiting your organization because you have this talent, this untapped potential. And, you know, the whole saying of, you know, two minds are better than one. Well, if you're taking advantage of all the ideas, she's going to have better ideas and perspective on things and can bring things to the table or, you know, offer things that she's way better in a lot of areas than me. So I'M really missing the boat if I'm not tapping into that. So giving her that leadership role, hey, she's not always going to make the same decision I would have, but that's a good thing, because a lot of times she'll make the better decision. So being okay with that and then, you know, having the kind of relationship that you can still circle back and say, hey, you know, I might have done it this way, or let's talk about this before we make that next decision. But it's. It's almost looked at more as a partnership. And in return, you know, I'm growing her as a leader very quickly, and, you know, she's going to only help me, you know, grow our team together. So.

Yeah, that's awesome. And, you know, a lot of times we have such unique opportunity as team leaders to give the right people an opportunity that they may never have gotten otherwise, you know, and it's not always about the money. It's just this opportunity to build something that in some lemming corporate job, they would never have the opportunity. Even if you were doing great job at sales for a pharmaceutical company.

Yes.

You know, it's going to take 20 years to become a manager, and then another 10 years to become whatever. So that's really cool. When we first got started together, what were some of the objections that you had? You know, I almost didn't join real estate B school because.

I don't know, I guess I was probably bought into, you know, what you were doing a lot. So I probably didn't. Was maybe skeptical on how much. How many tools were out there. So what, you know, was. Was just gonna be another coaching program. And then once I got in, I realized, you know, just how many, like, tangible things were out there that you had already put together and kind of laid up on a platter. So in other words, what I'm saying is, instead of in the past where it's like, okay, you need to go do this, Matt. It was not just go do this. It was, hey, this is something you might want to consider because it's been highly successful with other people doing more business than you. And, oh, by the way, here's the exact platform, here's the layout, here's the game plan. Just have it. Just take it and implement it. You don't have to worry about creating it, because a lot of times we get too busy and working in our business and not on it, and we definitely don't have time to recreate the wheel. So we just kind of throw our hands up and Keep doing what we're doing. And you know, with, with B school I'm able to just go grab something and quickly implement it and worry about the implementation and not worry about creating the system, you know.

Yeah. And I think it leads a little bit into. My next question is like, what's been your favorite part of real estate B school and why?

Favorite part has been surrounding myself with not. Not only I knew that there was going to be a lot of high minded business people, but with. Around people that, that have the same priorities as me that you know, that are family first and focused on their kids and their spouse and their faith and you know, they want to achieve at a high level, but a lot of them, you talk to them and they want to achieve a high level not to drive a Ferrari, but to go give more to their church, to go do something with that money. So I just love being around people like that that not only are very, very intelligent, high minded business people, but their, you know, their hearts in the right place. So that, that was probably one of my biggest draws. And you have both, you can have both. You can have the huge business and you know, still be a family person. Family man.

Yeah. It's funny, there's lots of stories of the opposite, right. Guys like, you know, there's a famous quote about Sam Walton, you know, on his deathbed he's like, you know, I got it all wrong, right? Who wants to be that guy that's a billionaire, but he's, he's on his fourth wife and yeah. Three sets of kids. Like what's the point? Like how, how bad would life suck?

Absolutely.

Regrets. So that's really cool. Let me ask you, who would you recommend real estate B school to and why?

I mean really, any, any agent that's looking to grow their business at a high level, I think it would particularly help, you know, anybody from a. Somebody that's just getting started that just needs the systems all the way up to. I mean I'm, you know, doing 65 million 200 something transactions and I'm not even a little fish in a big pond. So it's really, you know, something that's available to any agent. And there's different. All the things that we look at are, you know, you're going to tap into different things depending on where you are in your, in your career. But you know, I've just been very happy with how things have gone and it's, it's our, I'm already seeing a lot of results in our business.

Yeah, that's awesome. Well, I mean, if you're listening to this or watching this, you know, and you've achieved what our industry calls conventional success and there's sort of either your business isn't as tight as you want or you just know there's a next level, but you don't want to sacrifice other areas of your life. That means you need to take action. Go to realestatebschool.com you know, Matt had a great business before we met. And what I hope to impress upon Matt and what his, you know, his time with real estate B school will be about, you know, how do I build out, you know, my business in a way where it really ultimately serves my life. And I think that's the message that you got across today. So just go to realestate b school.com the only step with us is a free business growth strategy session. So we do one thing only. We do business coaching for real estate agents. So go to realestatebschool.com Matt, let me ask you one last question here. So there is even in a good market, which sometimes a good real estate market doesn't mean a good market for the three times too many real estate agents that we have all over the country. But what advice would you give somebody that's, that's struggling in real estate right now that maybe they're there, they're trying to scale a team or they're a team leader and they don't, they don't feel well equipped to do the job?

I mean, it sounds cliche, but get into a high level coaching. I came from, I coached high school basketball. So I was kind of a. Always believed in coaching. And that's really what, you know, how I built my business was not on any original ideas, but rather on just shared ideas and implementing them at a high level and then having the accountability along with that, you know, with the coach. So whether, you know, I obviously recommend B school, but just get yourself a coach and you'll get to the next level faster.

Yeah. Awesome. Well, I know you're busy, man. I appreciate your time. I know everyone that hears this or watches this will be inspired. So I appreciate you, brother. Thanks so much.