Production Mastermind - Focus and the Leverage Game

I'm gonna give this life/business lesson that I learned this weekend. Does anyone want to like key in on the business lesson that Janae just shared? Who, who can pick it out?

The most consistency for a long time.

Years.

Years.

Yeah, like it's the worst part about business and the best part about business. The worst part is that you got to do shit for a long time that you probably don't feel like doing all the time. And then the best part is that 99% of people won't do it. Worst part is that if you're going to be the 1%, you'll probably succeed and you just got to find something that's like you could bear to do. Like on your best days, you love to do it. On your worst days, you can like force yourself to do it. On your best days, if you're trying to do something that you cannot stand, you're not going to do it. Like on my best day, if I stood up at my desk and like, I got red X, I've got my dollar, I've got my headset, I'm going to cold call expired. On my best day with the best sleep, the best hydration, the best physical version of me, there's no way I could do it. Coming off vacation, fully rested, like, I just couldn't do it. So database and attraction marketing was kind of my, my jam, and just direct mail. I knew I can build a system and I can tweak it and test it and like, you know, be that, be that guy. So, but that's really amazing. And now it's like, has anyone heard the, um, Anybody read the book Compound Effect by Darren Hardy? Yeah, in that book, um, he shares the story. I've never heard Zig Ziglar tell the story, but Zig Ziglar tells the story. And Zig Ziglar, he's like a sales trainer, like an OG sales trainer. He tells the story of like succeeding in anything is kind of like, you know, it's a, it's a water pump well thing. Like imagine like water 400 feet down and you've got a hand pump and you're like pumping and there's no water coming out. Cause you're fighting like the, the energy and momentum you need to just get the water to come out. And then it finally starts coming out and then it's just like, now it's on maintenance and you can, you can't stop because the water's going to go all the way back down. So now if Jenae stopped doing what she's doing for a year, all the water would go down. All her leads would dry up. And, you know, so now it's just the maintenance part of it that you put in the 2 years of just like the furious pumping of the, of the well to get the water to come out. So that's really, really good. All right, who else has a good win? Joe Graham, what's a good production win last 7 days? And then, oh, Corey, let Corey go first. Joe, Joe, you can think of one. Corey is just like sitting there with her hand raised, so we're gonna let her know.

Oh my gosh, I'm so excited. I'm excited to share this with you guys because it's just a cool situation. So I just got a call from someone, um, this weekend because they saw a listing of mine with another realtor and they're buyers and they were so thankful with how detailed I was. I put like little picture frames all over the place that say like, electric HVAC or gas fireplace, even though that one's obvious, or granite countertops or what kind, you know, like just little details. And that meant a lot to them. And their realtor got them under contract on, within an HOA where the van that they have for their work can't be outside. And so they were like, okay, we're done. And they thought of me and that listing was 3 months ago. So just really sweet and just cool that, you know, you don't think about getting buyers because you're being diligent on your listing side. So that was really neat. And then another really cool one, I love following into Jessica Wade's footsteps. Many of you know her and she does a concert series in her town and she started it and she had to pull the permits. Well, I don't have a municipality, but we, I ended up starting a concert series and it starts this Friday. Um, but because I have it on Eventbrite and, um, Facebook and all the things, um, I had another buyer call me this week or this, this week because they were like, I love that you're doing this for the community and I want to work with you. And I just thought, how cool, like doing all these things that we love to do and getting some buyers from it.

Awesome. I love that. And you're close to— how far are you away to getting that book out?

Yeah, so May 4th during Jessica's event, we're going to have it published and ready. And Lars looked it over. Thank you so much, Lars. Appreciate it.

Yeah.

So it's the Power of One event and I can't wait to get it in everybody's hands. It's really short. It's sweet. It's got like checklists and things to do to do events and get production from it.

Awesome. Beautiful. Joe Graham, what do you got? Positive focus.

What's up, man? Yeah, I've had a couple of nice little wins here recently, and I'll share an idea that, that got me there. But one is just a story of consistency, like I've heard before. I know I trained a— I trained an AI script to write articles, blog posts, custom web pages, and social media posts around a topic of being a specialist, right? Because go back to Zig Ziglar, like you just talked about, right? You don't wanna be, you wanna be meaningful, specific, not a wandering generality, right? So in business, I decided that I wanted to label myself a certain way. So I had AI now create all these webpages, blog posts, and social media posts, putting 'em all out there, kind of branding me as a subject matter expert. And I'll be damned if I didn't get a couple phone calls and emails about this already, and it's all through AI. So these people are all searching on AI, and I made sure, made sure I had, you know, my script running to have the JSON scripts running. And this is how people are starting to find me with that kind of stuff. So that, that's a nice win, I'd say. Kind of gives you a little bit of fruits of your effort. And then, you know, I picked up on a little shtick also. So when you have a listing appointment, just to send out an email. So go, go through your database and sort it all out by people who have signed up for or live in that particular area, right? So let's call it my city name, Naperville, right? So I went back to my database and I said, all right, who are the people that are actively searching and have signed up in the past for this, this town? And then do a blanket or a mass email and it just simply said, I want to give you a, um, a preview, like coming soon preview, right? And then just say, hey, look, I'm going on a listing appointment tomorrow for a home, and I want to make sure that you had early access to this information. They're going to be listing their home in the next couple weeks. And then just give bullet points about what that property is, um, and then just say, if you'd like more information about this respond to the email or call me at this number. And I gotta tell you, like, that it's such an interesting thing because I'm having people respond who are interested, but I'm also having people respond who are not interested, but telling me what they're interested in.

Oh, nice.

So that's, that's been really good. And one was a past client. I mean, they, they built a beautiful, gorgeous, you know, very expensive home, uh, just 5 years ago, and I was their agent on that. And now they're talking about building a much more significant home and selling their home. And so they contacted me about one of the things, and they said, hey, you know, that property is not going to work for me, but do you know of any place I can get a lot so that we can build our next home? And now I'm re-engaged with them about that and then also about selling their home.

What inspired that marketing tactic?

I was watching videos online, you know. Is it, um, I told you the guy's name, right?

Mackey, is it?

No, it's, it's that, it's Sharon.

Okay.

Yeah, and it's just a simple— God, such a simple gosh darn email. So now I have it as part of my process that if I'm going on a listing appointment, um, or maybe you see a house, maybe you're out touring homes and you see a home that's really interesting that could fit a lot of buckets for people and email them, say, hey, you know, I just toured this house, here's the information on it. I think it'd be a great fit for you, you know, give me a call.

Yeah, Jimmy Mackey has good— I think he's mostly Instagram, not a ton on YouTube, but his stuff is like super, like just, yeah, like one-off marketing tactic ninja type stuff. Like, what's the other guy's name that has Jimmy Mackey on all the time? I think his name is Jimmy too, Jimmy Burgess. I think, yeah, yeah. So there's, there's some good guys that are giving tactical stuff. Yeah, um, that are really helpful. And there's a service, I think it's Jimmy Mac— Mac—

it's not—

it's Macin, I think, or Mackey. Macin partnered with Tom Ferry on— I think it's like $100 a month. It's like listing leads or whatever. Yeah, yeah, that, that, that's along the lines of just really decent marketing tactics.

Man, I'll tell you what, like, it, it's a, it's a totally different group, right? But that guy, or those guys that do, um, BAMX— I don't know if you've heard of those guys. You know that, that, uh, that kind of funny account, The Broke Agent? Do you see that?

Yeah.

So the guy that started The Broke Agent, he's got this conglomerate now of all these high, high-powered agents across the country and coaches. That are inside this BAMX group and they're just peeling back the curtain for all sorts of good stuff. And a lot of it is like Jimmy Mackin's stuff because Jimmy Mackin doesn't just come up with this stuff, right? He gets it from other people too.

Yeah.

And so they all kind of collaborate. But yeah, it's $97 a month and I'll tell you what, the information's—

that's a listingleads.com or whatever?

No, it's— no, that's, that's Jimmy Mackin's. BAMX is just—

BAMX is a paid service too?

Yeah, B-A-M-X.

What does BAM stand for?

Uh, I think it's like Broke Agent something or another.

Mastermind. It could be a mastermind, like the, the anti-name. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like you can, you can go broke like spending $100 a month on everything, but some of these groups that give you like legit marketing tactics, if your database is big enough and you've got the box checked on some basics first. Like, I wouldn't jump into all of these things. You'd probably get a little overwhelmed if you don't have like a, a cadence for social media or a cadence for your database. But you could layer in some of these things pretty, pretty, pretty well. What did that— and, and that's the, and that's the future. I mean, like, hyperlocal like crazy over-the-top service. Um, you know, whatever you need to do to build the, the deepest and widest moat around your database is the game of any— like, if you got out of real estate and you opened up dry cleaners, or like whatever business, local business you got into, it's the same. If I could put Janae from a real estate agent into owning dry cleaners around town, into— it would be the same game that she would play to attract business on social media or database or whatnot. So it's, it's all the same, same stuff.

Um, yeah, I just put in the chat there that email script, like verbatim.

Beautiful.

You guys just want to cut and paste. It's unbelievable.

Yeah, that's awesome. I am, I'm not often disappointed in my son, but we looked at a lot of colleges and he wanted to play volleyball in college and Joe, I was legit disappointed he didn't choose North Central. It was my favorite school. It was my favorite city, Naperville. Although I imagine if we visited a different time of year, it'd be miserable. It was like springtime, so we probably— I love the college and like just the downtown area was like just legit.

But yeah, man, I thought we were going to have like shrimp boils and stuff together.

Yeah, I mean, it was, it was between— honestly, I think that his second visit where he was, he was sick and he slept in a dorm room with two, like, a bed in between two beds and like a dorm room that doesn't even fit two beds. And I just think it wasn't the best. I think, uh, it didn't, it didn't work. Um, all right, so I've got a quick lesson for you guys, and this is something that You know, as, as you push, let's say, let's just stick to a, a part of— let's just stick to business. So if you're pushing to grow your business and you're, um, you're involved in more transactions and you've got moving pieces where like maybe you're bringing on a VA or you're testing marketing things and, you know, You send out an expired letter to someone who's listed and you get a ding. The MLS is arbitrating, or you're mediating with the MLS, or you're, you know, whatever. You've got a lot going on and you're pushing hard for growth. Inevitably, shit is gonna hit the fan. And, um, this, this weekend, so less so in my business, uh, life at this point, but this weekend, Um, yeah, it was just one of those weekends. So I shared last week we are selling our home, um, and we had these interested buyers. They didn't contract because they had a home to sell. They put their home in the market, they get under contract. We, we— the, the day before they came in with an offer, we— I came home after getting my son home from the airport, and it's— water's pouring down into my dining room. So we had a clogged toilet. Water is just so really, really bad. That's my agent. I'm like, it's going to be a few weeks. He's like, well, we got an offer on your home. So we get under contract. Everything is good. I wake up 2 mornings ago, Sunday morning, and I hear water. Like, I shit you guys not, I hear water and I'm like, No, no. I go into the dining room and there's water coming down and I'm like, okay. I did not freak out like the first time. The first time I like glitched, like my brain lost it and I was just like tapping. I remember talking to Julie, like she thought like someone died. It was not a good response the first time it happened. This time I'm like, well, I don't know. I'm not gonna freak out. It just— it is what it is. Um, then my daughter— the night before, my daughter had a party, so sanctioned by me, just people from her school, very chill, good group of kids. 50 public school kids show up at like 10 o'clock. Cops come. These kids bring alcohol to the party. Everyone has to exit my home and take a breathalyzer. So that happened. And then my son drank that night for the first time, and I caught him, and he was like, he was tipsy. So my daughter, the cops, my son drinking. The next morning, literally 4 hours later, we go to bed, water's coming down. And then I had a moment on Sunday, and I'm just like, God, like, what are you doing here? Um, and, and I remembered that. And then we get an email from an anonymous email that's posing as a parent from the school saying that my daughter is— they're going to bring her to the school for like whatever, being a bad whatever. So that's going on as well. I'm pretty sure it was a student just sort of playing, playing on her or whatever because it was like anonymous Gmail. But we're thinking in our heads like, okay, so that's going on. So all these things are going on at the same time. And then I had a moment on Sunday where I'm thinking like I remember in business as I was growing and I had team members coming in and I was hiring and like I didn't know how to do anything, any part of it. And I had young kids and I was trying to be a good husband and I was just new to my faith and like all this stuff, none of it was perfect. There was like 10 shit shows going on at the same time and they were all unrelated. And sometimes We have a tendency to like lump, you know, one, you have a physical ailment and you kind of lump it in with like your marriage isn't where you want it to be, or you had a deal fall through, or you had a failed hire, an admin that didn't work out, or a showing agent, or like you have all these things happening. And there's a tendency, because it happened to me on Sunday, I just felt like, I just felt like I felt a lot of pressure. And generally I am like, good, give me more and I can carry it. And I felt like, holy shit, this is too much for me to carry right now. And then I remembered it's— they're all unrelated. It's all these little things that are completely unrelated. And it's like the water leak has nothing to do with my son drinking, has nothing to do with my daughter and her challenges, has nothing to do with like whatever. And so I don't know if there's value in that, but you know, if, if you feel heavy at times and you have like a few things going on at once, sometimes it's helpful just to sit for a minute and just to remember that there's a good chance none of it's related. I remember, um, uh, I don't know who told me this, but they said like Richard Branson is outside of his business entities, he's personally named in typically over 100 lawsuits at a time. So he's personally like, you know, for whatever reason, people are just suing him, right or wrong or indifferent. Um, and he's trying to do big things in the world, right? So the more you push and you push for growth and you're trying to like get after it, just expect that a lot of different things are gonna go on and just remember that they're, they're not related, you know. And even unlike, you know, my— yeah, anyway, so hopefully there's value in some of that, you know. Uh, it was just a reminder. And as soon as I had that thought, because I used to think that all the time in business, I had to always remind myself that this agent doing something stupid, or me like literally having to go to the board because I sent out a letter to a property that relisted quickly and the letter went out. And like, I had all these things going on all at the same time and none of it was related. And it just, it gave me a lot of peace just knowing that I'm going to keep pushing hard. Because a lot of times you get those things all bubble up and you, and you pull back and you don't push as hard because there's discomfort. But none of the things in and of themselves, if one of them was happening at a time, it's like it's no big deal, you know. But if, if 5 of them are happening, you will retreat. And just remember, in those times, they're all individual None of them are linked. None of them are going to take you out, and you got to keep pushing and don't retreat. So anyway, that's my mini sermon of the day as we're having all these new things happen in our, in our world. All right, so let's everyone get into the chat and give me your biggest challenge. What's one thing we could work on? It also helped me get a good sense of where you guys are in your business and what what we can focus on. Does that story relate to anybody? Every day. Yes, right? Especially if you're married and you have kids, and we have 3 dogs, which is like 2 too many, and business.

And Lars, have you seen Nate Bruggetts's, uh, video about 1 dog to 2 dogs?

All his stuff is hilarious.

Oh my gosh, he's got— I'll have to send you. It's so funny.

Yeah, send me that one. I saw the one where, um, it's— he's talking about dogs and he's like— and someone says like, you know, you haven't like showed this dog that you're, you're dominant over them. And he's like, these are Labradoodles, these are pe— these are almost people. Like dominant, Like they're not dominating. And it's like a picture, it's on Instagram, and a dog like, you know, laying in bed, tucked in the, in the actual bed. All right, so lead gen prospecting when I get busy, but I guess I'm doing that with events. Uh, so Salim, uh, you got to give me a little bit more than lead gen. Legion is— some people think it's paying For leads, something some people think it's standing still or sitting still long enough every morning to generate opportunity. Uh, time management. Jim, can you be more specific?

Yeah, I just, um, you know, so it's the very beginning, right? And so I feel like there's, uh, just the number of times with, um, like all the calls that, that we get on. Like I have a couple calls, I do one with you, sometimes two during the week. Jason, it's 2 during the week. I just finished with Fast Attract and, and, uh, the Fast Attract, and then starting the next one in April. And so trying to get my production business started, try to build that foundation at the same time, um, and you're looking at the amount of hours and without production as of yet, right? And so you're going, all right, so you need this foundational stuff to make sure that you're going through. And I picked the specific peers that I'm focusing on, but you need to— it's trying to balance that production to get that rolling. And it's still early in the game. You know, I just, I came from a place where I was very strong in the new home sales. And, you know, that's a very quick transactional piece with high pay. And so, it's just an adjustment. Financially, it's fine. Um, but it's just that mental piece inside my head.

Yeah. What, what percentage of— because I know there are new home reps that like really trying to get after it and make business happen, and then there are other like builders that allow for an opportunity where it's, it's order taking. What, what kind of— not salesperson were you, but what kind of community or builder were you with? Was it like 80, 90% order taking?

No, no. So I worked for Horton, extremely aggressive. You compete against every other agent that you work underneath that brokerage because they're reaching out to agents that are out there, some real sharks. I mean, for the first time ever, I felt intimidated with the people that I worked with. And so like, you'll have the top 3, like they're, they're over a million bucks a year that they're generating. in, in revenue to themselves.

And so, but how much of your, like, in that world— so the difference, um, and this is for, for everybody, let's just tackle the, the conversation about, um, how insane being a real estate agent and trying to scale that income really truly is. So, so what you're feeling is not, um, you came from a world where even if you're a shark and you're playing at the top of that game, yep, you're, you're in someone else's business.

100%.

Yeah. So, so now, yeah, now you're in a world where, um, there's no marketing that happens unless you put it out. There's no for the most part, there's nobody calling you unless you do something to trigger that. Um, and then there's no one that, like, the client signs and then, like, the, the, the service department takes over for that client and there's a handoff. Yeah, you know, so, so, like, you, you're in a totally different world. So you're trying to do the, let's just say, 5 or 6 jobs of a real estate agent, and then you're trying to do attraction on of it. Sure. Which is a whole nother, which is a whole nother animal. And you probably didn't do social media or database much.

Most of my database stuff was just geared toward, and that's kind of the challenge with the sphere.

So my point is like, just, just be aware that you're trying to like do every function of a business.

Yeah.

And you're probably taking on too much. And there probably are some calls that you don't need to be on right now. Now.

Okay.

And those are the hard decisions, right? Like, who am I gonna— like, okay, does— is Lars gonna notice that I don't show up? Is Jason gonna care that I don't show up? How do I reclaim 2 or 3 hours? Am I— this is not you, but for anybody— am I scrolling, doom scrolling on social? Am I watching Netflix or YouTube? Am I whatever? Like, am I drinking wine too late and I'm sleeping in and I'm groggy and I'm not on my game? Like, In order to achieve this impossible game, there are things that need to die, and that's just pretty much for everybody. And there are decisions you need to make on what to focus on and what the priorities are.

Yeah.

If getting money right now is the priority, then everything needs to revolve. And it's not the answer that I like from a selfish standpoint, from attraction and from Jason's standpoint, like you have a legit opportunity to go out and do agent attraction. But do you need to start selling homes first?

Right.

And if the answer is yes, then you need to focus on those things.

Yeah.

And then you need to prioritize as, as if your life depended on it until you get to the point where you can hand off the 80% of crap, which where Janae is at is that she's thinking around like, how do I build the systems? Either get someone who can run AI and build that world for me or get more off my plate. So it takes on a life of its own. Right now, and this is 90% of agents, nothing runs unless they run it.

Yeah, it's a mental shift because like, I, I, I did really well with the other company, but it just gets to a point where it's just this grind that you just can't continue to go through. And I've literally put away 2 years of bills, so it's not, it's not the financial need to pay the bills it's the lack of watching that stream come in and just tweaking my mind to it. That's the piece.

Yeah. And then, well, but then also in production, you said you're trying to— and this is for everybody— you can't do all the things, right? So like you could spend a year just building out your database touch blueprint, building that database, and then layering in social media on top of that. But you're adding in— and it's, it's your business, you can do whatever you want— you're adding in geographic farming. Yeah. So now inevitably you're focused on like, okay, what's going to work? What do I mail out? Which is different than database touchpoint, which is different than social media. So you're— this is— everyone does it. You're, you're diluting your focus by bringing in a third and a fourth thing. And then on top of it, you're probably wondering like, AI is taking over everyone's business and everyone's selling all these homes using AI, which nobody is, um, but you're probably spending time during the week like consuming some of that stuff perhaps. And this is sort of typical of most agents right now. Um, um, Tristan's a perfect example.

He—

I don't know if he's just wired this way. I don't know him more than just— I had a long conversation with him in Miami, uh, and from what he's been on— he's 24 years old He is a robot as far as like, this is how I'm going to sell 50 homes this year and nothing's going to get in my way. And everything else, he's not spending a minute on it. So if I were to put in front of him like, hey, do Fast Attract, you could do— he's like, not this year. It's like, but you're 24 years old and you have this amazing story and people would love to align with you. It's like, I'm going to sell 50 homes and I've got to move into my new home this year. And that's enough for my plate this year. He's 24 years old and he has the discipline to cut every freaking thing out. And he didn't go to Cabo, not because he didn't have cash in the bank. He's like, I can't afford to take 6 days away and go away for a whole week when my goal is 50 homes. Most of us with $170,000 in the bank at age 24, F yeah, we would go to Cabo. He's the small sliver of a percent that is so committed to his one goal of selling 50 homes. So whatever that looks like for any of you, it is that level of— and I'm not that, I was never that focused, but I typically run at a very high capacity and I was able to get busy super fast. So I could bring on admin support very quickly. And as the good Lord would have it, the admin I brought on spent 7 years working for another agent, a top agent in my market. That agent retired. This person said she was going to retire too, but something about my ad kind of, you know, inspired her to put another 7 years into real estate with me.

Sure.

You know, so, and like, so my 11th month in the business, I brought someone in that could do like 90% of the to-dos so I could just focus on building marketing systems and generating actual consultations. So like, and that's different for everybody. Some agents will never ever ever hire an admin, and they think, why would I ever hire an admin? Or why would I ever hire a showing agent? Why would I And it's like, well then, okay. I mean, I don't know what to tell you, you know, but, but that's the ultimate key to anyone really running at a very high level from a financial standpoint and from a, um, just a quality of life standpoint is to get to the point where you can afford to have somebody doing all the things. Yeah. So Janae, let's, um, why don't you unmute yourself and, and give us a little Give us a little bit of a backdrop, because this kind of goes right into the, um, where's your production at this year? How many did you close so far? When did you bring your admin on? Kind of give us the, the, this, because this is the next chapter of what I'm just talking about. So give us a little bit of an update on where you're at, and then we can handle your challenge.

Yeah, so this year so far, as far as production is concerned, I've closed 6 transactions. I've got, uh, 7 pending and, you know, just trying to work, work through with those. Um, as far as like the systems is concerned, uh, I just hired an admin recently, use Follow Up Boss, um, as my, my CRM got like a system running with like Calendly to Follow Up Boss, um, and using Zapier to connect some of my newsletters and so on to it. But when we were in Cabo, we were, you know, introduced to just having some autonomous bots working in our business in the background, just being able to respond to some of the emails and text messages and inquiries that I get online. One of them that I was able to implement was ManyChat on Instagram, just so, you know, as I say something, if I, if I say, you know, respond back to or comment, whatever word, basically it does a response back and it goes into my CRM. So, you know, my goal this year— so last year I was able to close 30, so this year I wanted to close 50. That's my goal. I want to close 50 this year. That's my goal. Still a ways away from getting there, but I'm thinking that if I could, you know, connect some systems that could be running for me in the background, just with as I'm posting to social media and standing up my YouTube channel, um, that I could, you know, get there. So pretty much that's where I'm at.

Okay. And so I want to say this in a way where I don't sound just like old, but also I don't dismiss kind of like what you're actually going through. Um, it is easy. 10 years ago, it was easy to get distracted by stuff. I'm not saying you are getting distracted by stuff. I'm just saying your ability to sell 50 homes may— it may have something to do with— I mean, ManyChat is an older platform. It's not like revolutionary or anything like that. So highly Like you have to have an instant responder like that. I don't know if integrated AI, like if it's like super spidey AI at this point. I used it like 10 years ago. So it was like, it's been around for a long time. So that something like that, um, works really well. Just make sure using Tristan, the 24-year-old, as an example, he doesn't have any uncertainty about when he gets up in the morning and when, what his morning needs to look like for him to hit 50 transactions. Sure. It's not good, bad, or indifferent. He's probably calling expireds, FSBOs, and others. Like, he's probably doing something that I wouldn't want to do. He's wired in a way where he doesn't care. He doesn't— you could just tell his emotion is like, he's very, I don't care, you know, I'm just— it's numbers and I'm going to make my contacts. And now at, at this young age, 2 years into the business or whatever, 3 years into the business, he's building his database, which is the right way to do it. Um, So I would just say, if— is it more important to you, Janae, to build out, be like on— and it's not bleeding edge, but for real estate it's like more leading edge— is it more important for you to have like an AI-enabled real estate business or to sell 50 homes this year? I would say to sell 50 homes this year because, and this is for everybody, just make sure you're spending time on the thing you actually want to achieve. There's no right or wrong answer in that. Janae could say like, yeah, I'm completely liquid financially. I have no pressure or desire to sell 50 homes versus 25 homes. This could be the year that I sell 25 homes. Because 2027, Janae's coming out of the gate with like a tricked-out AI systems-driven— I've got a VA hired in who knows where that knows how to run all my systems. Um, but it could be hard to do both of them. If, if I made Tristan— I wish he was here— if I made him this year integrate a whole bunch of like AI stuff and He would tell me no, but if I forced him to do it, it would, it would put his 50 deal goal at risk.

Mm-hmm.

You know, um, and you, you have kids? 2.

Yep.

What ages?

Uh, 9 and 12.

Yeah. So that's another part of it, right? So Tristan does not have kids. I'm picking on Tristan. I love Tristan. Um, you've got a 9 and 12-year-old. You know, so you're trying to sell 50 homes. Do you have a, uh, is your admin local, licensed, local?

Local. Yeah. She's not licensed yet, but she's local.

And how long has she been working with you?

Just since December of last year.

Okay. And what, like, what caliber of talent is she like? What's her background and is she getting after it? Does she want to be a real estate agent? Is she more like an admin type or what's her deal?

Yeah, so I put her through your whole hiring admin training to get her going, right? And she is not— she doesn't have any prior experience on the real estate side, but she's an extreme go-getter, right? And so she takes her exam next month to get her real estate license, but no lackadaisicalness with her at all. I gave her the 60 60-touch program, and she stood it completely up in my business, did the Trello boards. Okay, awesome.

You're happy with that? Sometimes, like, 3, 4 months in, you're like, uh, I wish I can go back.

No, she's perfect. Like, I—

okay, awesome. Um, yeah, so you just need to make a decision. Like, are, are you gonna have an AI-driven, AI systems-driven business that has an admin running 80% of everything going into 2027? Are you going to be at your kids' sporting events and cook dinner every night and guard the family? I'm not judging, whatever. Yeah. Or are you going to sell 50 homes or are you going to do all of it? And then you have a husband?

Yes.

Yeah. You're going to be a good wife. Are you going to get a workout in? Are you going to, like, spend some time with your greater— are you going to, like, you start to add all this shit up and you can't do it all.

Right.

So, so Dave Hook, I wish you guys could have been in my world when Dave Hook came up. Um, he was already a top producer, but he was working like 75, 80 hours a week. He had, um, and he had an admin and a showing agent at the time. I think he sold like 80, 90 homes when he first came to us. Um, but he was wired a little bit like Tristan. Where he just knew that he— systems were going to be the solution in his business. And he said his biggest growth year, I think he went from like— I think the first year we started working together, he did like 105 transactions with just a 3-person team. And that was like mostly before I even met him. He didn't sell— I think he sold 110 the next year. But he said it was his biggest growth year ever. So like you going from 30 to 50, you're measuring growth by going from 30 to 50, where maybe this isn't the year you go from 30 to 50, but you have like rocked out systems in your business and you still maintained a home life that you're, you're proud of. Because you could probably do 50 and, and do the systems AI-driven and you and your admin, and you're gonna probably fall short in your marriage and being a parent. And I don't know, do you take care of your body? Do you get a workout in?

Yes, I do. That, that I do.

Former military. So like, so just think of the insanity of all of that, you know. So, so it's really just picking the things you, you, you want to be good at. Um, if I were you I don't know your financial situation, but if you're like drawn— it all depends. Make sure— I mean, you have a real opportunity because you're, you're 2 years in on the social, and if that takes hold, then you can go from 30 to 50 to 100 deals in the next 12 to 24 months because of that platform. So choosing to build out the infrastructure for that and sticking to that as your You know, there's nothing wrong with— I just wouldn't judge your growth just by the transaction growth, because then you're just going to be losing, like, I'm behind. Like, are you really behind? You know, if you're struggling financially, that's one thing, but if you're not— are you struggling financially?

No, I'm not struggling financially.

Yeah, so then I would just be careful about, like, how you measure growth. Got you. Because you could sell You could sell 10 homes this year and like your marriage is stronger. Your kids saw you more. Your physical body is dialed in. Your faith is super strong. You've nurtured like 3 close friendships, you know what I mean? And, and you can have the best year ever, but you know, if you add the other thing, it may knock out the other things or you may lose out in the other areas.

No, I really appreciate that, Lars. I mean, it is something for me to think about. I mean, cause I was thinking about doing all of it. I mean, but you know, the way you put it, it does make a whole lot of sense and, you know, chasing it down. I do see my time becoming more and more limited, although I am very present right now. I, you know, I can certainly see, um, as the phone is ringing, as I'm getting these contracts in and so on, that it is something that is going to fall by the wayside.

So, yeah. And if you're signing, I don't know the nature of like military, if they come in for a weekend and they buy a house or like what the nature of those buyers are, but your ability to, to, I mean, to bring on a showing agent, like, if cash, if you can allow for it, and maybe you could do it really just based on a percentage at closing. There are lots of agents right now that aren't signing for buyer contracts since Thursday, yeah, 4 days ago, you know. So like, that's always like, you know, you're always tempering, like, you know, you don't want to bring someone into your world and then not be able to provide for them necessarily. But a showing agent's a little different. They can do— it can be a little informal. It doesn't have to be like a rigorous, like you're going to prospect every morning. Like, there are different flavors of— they can still do their 5 or 6 personal deals, but they're dedicated to you to show homes to your clients. And this is the system that they use to do it, because that'll give you like evenings and weekends back. And you, maybe you give away 15% All in, you could do an hourly plus a bonus or just do a percentage at closing, but that'll be well worth like a huge leverage point for you. And then you just have to decide when you're ready for that. But if you have another week where you sign another 4 this week and you're working with 8 active buyers and they're like, all of a sudden it's like you, you're not doing anything except showing homes when people want. And it's usually times where you don't want to be working.

Great.

All right, hopefully there's— you know, this is the entire game. It's not like there's any shortage of ways to generate business. I think a lot of ways, you know, work. Some of the old school ways still work. You know, there are guys that are still standing up every day and just calling on expired FSBOs, notice of defaults, geo-farming, and it still works, you know. So, um, Corey, what do you got?

Well, I was just gonna add on to this conversation cuz I'm, I'm, Janae, it sounds like you and I, our businesses are very similar right now and where I wanna go. And I have 2 kids, all the things. But I was talking to old ChatGPT, which apparently is like old school now that Cabo taught us. But I just kind of was trying to reverse engineer and the measurements piece I have never measured in my business. I mean, you know, I have an Excel sheet of my closings and like, I know where they came from, but that's the extent. Um, but something— and Lars, I would love your, your input on what it was telling me, but it was like, okay, because you have 6 closed now and you have this many under contract and this is how many contracts you need to get every— and it was 1.3 every week until December 31st. And I was like, Oh gosh. So that really, and that I've been able to track that the last 3 weeks, but it's springtime, you know? So I'm like, okay, well, how, so trying to like come from it from that perspective has been helpful for my brain because when I just think about 50 and when I think about 50, it's a salary that I want to make and what my average is and all that. But it felt a little daunting. But I also was like, okay, well, if I hit spring running and then October and our market is wild too, then maybe I'll be okay. But just trying to reverse engineer that. So Lars, I'd love to hear what you have to say.

Yeah, I mean, I always put— what's the expression? Like everyone's a billionaire based on a spreadsheet. But I had a spreadsheet for everything. Um, there is a, um, there's a tool. It's more like an annual tool that does break down like into as many, you know, the, the, the whole, the whole game of real estate. And, and there are like, to Janae's strength, it still ends up in a conversation. So conversations end up in consultations booked You know, you had that first consultation and you signed them as a client. Those are the 4 numbers, like you have to track those numbers because a lot of times we can really just kind of kid ourselves. And I know Janae's not doing this, but let's say Janae was like measuring her productivity based on this feeling of integrating AI. And I learned this thing in Cabo and, you know, like now I'm like, I'm doing stuff, I'm a business growth person. And, but Janae goes 3 weeks and has like 12 conversations in 3 weeks and set like 2 consultations and, and still wanted to sell 50 homes, where that's just not, that's just not going to happen, you know. So if you want to sell 50 homes a year, you're probably having to sign 100 clients. That's 2 a week. To sign 2 a week, you need to meet with You need to, um, let's back it up. So sign 2, you're meeting with 3 and you're setting 4. So the 4-3-2 was like a typical outside sales agent cadence. We didn't have anyone in our world that wanted to sell less than 50 homes. And we had some leverage to Jim's point. An outside agent on our team was expected to sell like minimum, I think by their first full year, we increased it to 60 transactions a year. But they had a lot of leverage, you know? So if you're wanting to get to 50 sales and you don't have any leverage, you're gonna lose your mind doing it. Like, it's just not, it's just not gonna be good for anyone around you or your, your physical body or your mental wellbeing.

Yeah.

Do you think it's possible with, I mean, I, we have, it sounds like we both have full-time assistants.

100%. Yeah. So 50, 50 with a, a, a a full-time assistant that is— it's hard if they're new. So Janae is like, you know, let's train this girl. I'm, I'm facing, you know, I'm putting a lot of faith in this person. You know, they seem to be demonstrating 4 months in what I wanna see in this person. If I could go back in time, I wouldn't. Or if I could do it again, if I did it again today, I would look for someone who— I posted the ad at 2:00 AM. She responded at 7:00 AM in a city of 2 million people. She lived 5 houses down from me. Like, if you don't believe in God, I wasn't even saved. Wait, was I even saved then? I didn't even believe in Jesus at that point. But that was like one— if you don't believe that, that's like some divine intervention. That's what I would want for all of you. She had no desire to do sales. She was licensed and she had worked for many years for an admin. She came in with a photographer, inspectors, And I was only 11 months in the business. Granted, I sold a lot of homes early on, but so, um, they say that for every 50 transactions, you need a full-time admin person. Your first admin person is doing marketing coordination, listing coordination, um, uh, closing coordination, and everything else coordination. They're running signs, they're, they're a courier for you at that. That's why the local part of it is, you know, it's, it's preferable. Um, but then guys aren't going to like this. Maybe they'll agree with me, maybe not. I come from a single mom. I see women in real estate— hopefully, maybe this is your husbands or not, I have no idea, I'm not judging— but a lot of time women are expected to still do all the things. They're still cleaning, they're still cooking, they're still getting the kids, shuffling them around to all their things. So if that's you in your marriage, there's no judgment. Like, I just see that happen a lot where like you're slaying dragons in business. Your husband may not even know that selling 50 homes is 0.2% of agents or some like— they don't know that you're even trying to attempt something that just doesn't happen. It's a freak of nature, someone that can can sell 50 homes. And so sometimes there needs to be more of an alignment in the home to be like, hey, listen, you know, I even did that with my wife. Like, it's gonna get out of bounds here with time, but let me show you the vision of what I'm building and what it could look like financially for our family. And at least there's buy-in. And then still, I was like 10 PM to 2 AM, 3, 4 nights a week where I was just working on the systems, and I was exhausted all time. And, you know, so there's just no part of it. But if you're clear you want to get to 100 transactions, say 100 transactions, a million GCI, that's where you want to get to, that's only like one local admin that has a really good VA that they hired and managing themselves, and like two junior agents doing 25, 30 deals each, mostly buyers, and you're taking all the listings. You know, so that's the vision. So then how do we support it? We support it with, you know, digital footprint, database, maybe one other lead gen lever, open houses on every listing when the junior agent comes in. Um, but a lot of times people aren't thinking, they're not beginning with the end in mind, so they don't know what to work on today. Like Tristan, again, I mean, I don't know the guy. He's not even like a product of me, but he knows where he wants to go and he's willing to say no to everything else. So, so just whatever that means, like whatever that means for you. This could be the year— this is not the year of business for me. Like, business is the last thing I'm focusing on this year because my marriage has drifted and I've got kids that are leaving the home and my faith is not where I want it to be. So I'm like, I'm going to put as little— I show up for this call, I do my best for this call, but I'm putting as little time as I possibly can into business because I know I need to. Like, I'm not going to be that statistic where it's like you look at your spouse and you're like, well, kids are out of the home, let's leave each other. Like, that's not going to be me, you know. But like, we've gotten apart, you know. Julie has something cool to focus on. I've got business to focus on. We've got the kids to worry about collectively. Um, you know, so, but there can't be all the things all at once. And that's why I let the coaching company go. Not because I didn't want that extra half a million dollars of cash into my bank account. It was taking up 99% of my stress. And I was like, F it. When I realized that my marriage was, was a little strained, I've got only a little bit, and I've been a good dad. I've been present. So I'm not like, coming down on myself. Um, but then like I wasn't spending like quality time with God. I was just like, that money's not worth it. And I literally blew up the business as a result of like knowing what I needed to focus on, because that was taking like over 40 hours a week for me personally at that point. Um, all right, Corey's gotta go.

Awesome job.

All right, any, uh, final thoughts? Or comments, just unmute yourself. No. Joe, what's your final thought of the day? Joe's a grizzled— how many years you got in the business? Is that a term, grizzled veteran? Is that the right term? Would that describe you, Joe? A grizzled veteran? He's going to get a picture of me.

You're talking about me?

Yeah.

Okay, Grizzle.

How many years you got in the business?

Uh, coming up on 22.

22 years in the business.

I know.

So what's your, what's your final thought leading out of this call?

Uh, it's a good one. Um, I, I think kind of, kind of hopping on what you had just said, um, Keeping some perspective, you know, when you're trying to compare yourself to others, uh, particularly in production, is, is a tough thing. You know, like where you see all these people doing 100 transactions a year or 50 transactions a year or whatever, when you really break that down, I mean, the numbers are, they're pretty tough to do as a single agent. Um, you know, it, I guess that's it, right? I mean, because So much disappointment comes, you know, when you don't feel like you're achieving what you want to achieve and just having that realistic framework that surrounds it all. Um, and just kind of running a system instead of like running a process with systems rather than just trying to, you know, chase a check.

Yeah, that's really good. That comparison game, that's a great way to end this call. If you haven't read the book, I was in Strategic Coach for about 4 years. I forget what years of my growth journey, but one of the takeaways from that time that is like still with me today is this, the, the gap and the gain. Benjamin Hardy partnered with Dan Sullivan and wrote a, a series of 3 books. One of them is called The Gap and the Gain. I highly, highly recommend it if you haven't read it. It's this constant, like, even you could do it with yourself. So using Janae as an example, if Janae has this 50/50 goal and is constantly— let's say that's the goal, it's on the horizon, Janae is constantly looking at it. And let's say Janae doesn't achieve the goal. And so it's like a constant striving. But let's say Janae had an awesome, like, year with the kids and the super close with her husband and her physical body is like dialed in and she's got stacking cash in the bank and she put all these systems in place. Her admin is killing it. She's got like 4 legit AI autonomous whatever working going into 2027, but she didn't hit her 50 goal. It's like, eff it. Like, I missed my goal. And it's like, you're not— so, so the antidote to being in this like gap where you're never achieving anything and you're comparing and like, how come Jim can do it or Joe can do it or whatever, is that you're not giving yourself credit for the gain. The gain is like, you're always moving forward unless you just like give up. You're winning, especially in this shitty market. We're like 3 years into a unit recession. If, if you're selling homes consistently, you are winning in this market. Like, you're probably crushing it and you don't even realize it. Because you got those like super humble social media posts. Like, I'd like to thank all the people that helped me sell 107 homes this year. I'm so humbled. Like, you're not humbled. You're literally going on social media and telling everyone to say how awesome you are. There's no humility in that. Like, I hate those posts. They all come in in January. It's like, oh, it's so— so anyway, so The Gap in the Game is a worthy book to read. It's super simple read, and the concept, I promise you will stay with you forever. And that's, um, that's Joe's point there. It's just like, just play your own game, keep your blinders on. This market, you know, you're going to be ups and downs, and your personal life is going to come and go. And you're always looking on social and everyone's winning all the time, but they're not sharing the shit that's going wrong in their life or their business or whatever. So, all right, party people, pray for me as I will pray for all of you. We'll see you guys. Be good.