Real World Lessons on Leadership - Part 3

Welcome back to the Business Freedom Podcast. This is going to be part three of Lessons on Leadership from three team leaders. With a thousand homes sold per year, combined production, and if you missed the first two parts, this is one of those where you've got to back up a couple episodes to really get the full goodness of just real world advice. The good, bad, ugly about what it's like to lead. And some of it's timely in terms of what's going on in the world. And a lot of it, 90% of it, is just timeless in terms of just how to lead through change, which is constant in business. There's never a time where there's no change. Since this is a members only event, these intensive workshops, we hold them twice a year. I'm going to let you into our world. The only thing I ask is that you share this on social media and you leave us a five, five star review that will help us just further the mission of Real Estate B School. And it's really just to impact the lives of those agents and team leaders that have gone down a traditional path and it's not led them to a whole lot of time and money freedom. You know, there isn't a roadmap that I know of that is a clear path to owning a business that doesn't suck the life out of you and it leaves you in a place financially, which is just amazing. And that's what Real Estate B School stands for. That's what we live for. Our tagline is Roadmap to Freedom. And so if you enjoy this episode, you enjoy the podcast, please share it, and please leave us a five star review. Many thanks. Stay tuned for part three. That's great. Let me ask you guys, and then I want you guys to think about questions. Start typing them in the chat. We probably got 15 more minutes or so. I'm realizing in my personal life as much as in the business that there are things that I used to do that I'm not looking forward to doing after this is over that I don't need to do and things that I wasn't doing that now I'm doing that I probably shouldn't stop doing, if that makes sense. So what things can you think of that you've eliminated from the business because you're just focusing on the things that matter that you won't go back to. You know, business travel for me, you know, is something that when I was doing it, I was justifying that it was, it was good. And I probably canceled four or five trips, you know, and I'VE and I've just loved being home and have nothing on my calendar. And so that's something that I'm really going to think hard about going back to that. So what examples and one thing that I wasn't doing before that I'm doing now is giving a whole lot more grace with my team and I wasn't doing it before and I was just like let's all get our shit together. We all have stuff outside of work, let's put our head down and just work. And this is enlightening me to the fact that we all had all this stuff going on before. We all had families that we wanted to. So that is something that I'm going to do my very best to continue. So what can you guys think of that you're not going to go back to and things that you're not going to stop doing as a result of this thing? Dan?

Yeah, it's a good question. I've always been pretty simple minded and I don't actually I really like giving ownership of the team to the team but I do know and she's on here, she's going to hear this now. Kim on our leadership team, I've been giving this a lot of thought. She's ready for some more leadership and more responsibilities within the team. But I think personally just thinking through the business, just knowing our numbers inside and out of what we're not going to do and have to do even at a higher level is knowing where we were and how difficult it was to make the hires we did to end up with the proper, proper culture fits and the motivation level and the wanted get it capacity to make hires is we want to have to double down on the amount of people we actually speak to in order to get. It wasn't, you know, we were at 140, 12, four to a one to one hire, 100 applicants, all the way down to 40, estate license, etc. We're just going to have to double down and that's something I was a big part of and I will probably have to keep that for who knows how long but that's one thing I'll have to keep and actually be really deliberate on doubling down. So if it took us 100 people to get to the one hire but we kind of pushed on a culture fit and we let a six or seven slip in even though there were nines and tens everywhere else. How many more additional applications and dials do we need to make on the recruiting side to really build out what we're looking to build out. So those are a few of mine.

Awesome. Greg, besides the remodel that you have going on right now, what comes to mind when I ask those questions?

The first one that comes to mind is the business travel. I probably went to six to eight conferences a year. Six to eight. And I sent all my team members on a conference that I paid for. So we're talking 15 to 20 per year that now all of a sudden I'm like, wow, that was a lot of money and it a lot of time away from the family. So I'm reevaluating that in person. Appointments. I don't know how much I want to go back to sitting in somebody's house for two hours discussing sign. You know, waiting for them to sign here so I can get on with the work that needs to be done.

And.

And how can I leverage that? In retrospect, maybe I would have went on all the listing appointments in my entire career from my office from 9 to 5. If I would have went on every single one of them. I doubt I'd be talking to any of you right now. I'd probably be somewhere, who knows? I'd have too much money to talk to any of you. And my focus on being in the office, I love that. I loved being in the office with my team. And I just find that it's very peculiar, a waste of energy, resources and time for all of us to get there. And I don't know how to unravel that, but there seems to be, just in those few things, monumental savings. I canceled all my car insurance. I haven't. Gas is like a dollar a gallon, I guess. I don't know. I haven't bought any. But it seems very peculiar that everything that I valued and thought was good, that's really not necessary. And the time savings that is coming out of this, if I can get the technology to actually work right, is phenomenal.

Yeah, I think that's a really good point on the virtual consultations. Like, what seller or buyer, like, wouldn't prefer to just jump on. Everyone is going to be so schooled in the entire world on digital meetings by the end of this, you would be missing the boat. I think, like, if you just went back to like, you got to come into the office, you know, maybe. I mean, we do 100% in office consultations on the buyer side. And at least, if nothing else, we're going to have a solid set of data, you know, based on listing and buyer consultations done virtually for those that show how many did we close what's the percentage set to met, you know, so we at least we can make a good decision around it going forward. So I think that's awesome. Drew, what. What comes up for you? When I ask the question about starting stopping personally and professionally?

Thing I can really think of is that I had been building a plan to get myself out of prospecting as much with my team probably by June ish. And that'll go a good bit later. I'll stay in there shoulder to shoulder with them for a longer period of time. So I'd say that's probably the one item that I was looking at elevating into a different capacity with some mornings a week, and that'll hang tight for a while.

Awesome. Anything personally that you've discovered that you want to keep or you've gotten rid of that you don't need?

Yeah, I probably can speak for a lot of people on this call that I didn't realize personally how much money we spent eating out a week. And I people shaking their head. I didn't think that we ate out that much as a family. We might eat out for dinner like twice a week and then maybe myself for lunch and my husband once for lunch. But it is incredible how few items are on our own personal P and L right now. And in saving throughout that, I think that has been a huge eye opener. And I've talked to many members of our team who have felt the same as well. Yeah, we don't need to get back to all that.

Yeah, all the unnecessary expenses. Although I know my wife misses our date nights with our beautiful martinis that we drink. I have not been able to recreate that at home with the kids here and the insanity of it all. All right, so let's get into some questions. I know, Brian, I think we answered the question. But if you still need clarification on how they're going to change work re ask it if. If it wasn't answered. Chip says in asking the agents to engage with their clients, what is the number one way they're using or saying to engage them with was the number one way? So what would you say that the top thing that's working the best, like handwritten cards, bombbomb videos, a personal phone call, a text. What's working really well?

I mean, ours have mostly been personal phone calls. We've been calling them wellness checks. Just checking in on you and your family. See if there's anything you need. See if you know anybody who has anything you need that we can serve through our nonprofit Project Lamplight and then from there, so many people just automatically will say, you know, how are you guys doing? You know, how's it going? And it gives you the opportunity to speak about real estate and ask for the referral.

Yeah, that's awesome. Any thoughts from the guys on that one in terms of like, real, genuine engagement with your. With your database?

Same thing, just a different conversation versus hey, Lars, you reached out not too long ago about a home idea. You know, the reason for the call is, you know, not to talk real estate. Just check in how you're doing. Bomb. Bomb videos make a little more personal and. But yeah, I mean, it's. There's only so much real, like what I consider real prospecting you can do. It's just a change of conversation.

Yeah, we've been doing the same and it's never gone better for us. Our call, our work effort is worse, but our connectability, our contact is just through the roof. People are responding and people want to know. People want to know. They assume their value of their house has dropped in half. Of course, I'm in Michigan, where we're used to 20% unemployment. We just recovered from that a few years ago. And they think it's happened again. And be able to have conversation like that? No. I know there's a chance people will be offended, but let's face it, they're offended. A month ago, we were offending nine out of 10 people we called and now we're offending one out of 10. This is a win.

Yeah, that's a good point. A question on recruiting and real quick on that. I sent out a bombbomb video to. We spent the first quarter getting our SOI databases in order on our team and. And I sent out a bombbomb video. Really personal, but it was personal. But mass sent out with a link to an article I read from Tony Robbins on crisis. And I was able to share my faith through this bombbomb video. And it was really well received. So this is the time where you're not asking for business. If anything, your email signature can do a little bit of lifting for you, but it's just value. Like, hey, I just read this article. It gave me an interesting perspective on what's going on. Hopefully you'll find it useful. And a bombbomb video. So that worked really, really well. John Porter asked question, how are you qualifying applicants and even current team members for your culture fit? What questions or format are you using?

So I guess that's referring to me. So I talked about the recruiting side. So several things that we look for and we kind of, you know, give a score. 1 to 10 is number one, obviously being culture, confidence, work ethic, especially from previous jobs, drive, you know, economic. We look at it, you know, put a lot of weight on a disc. What sort of high level job has there previously been? Coachability. And then their. Why, essentially. And between three of us and then a couple of agents, we make those determinations of know where they fit. Our issue, you know, was some of these were really good people that we're referring to that we wanted to part ways with, but just not 100% on culture. And when we hired them, we did recognize, you know, they were kind of that seven, maybe a six they could probably sell. And we made the exception and we knew it was just a matter of time. And then coachability, for example, you know, around culture, putting those two together for us. Coachability, when you have someone who wants to do something their way, you know, and it's just like pulling teeth to get them to, hey, come over like you're doing something. Okay, I get it. But do it this way so everyone else is doing it to keep it uniform. Those are. Those are the majority of things that we look for and just kind of, you know, make mental notes on where everyone's at before we make a decision.

Yeah, it's really, really good. Any other thoughts on that from Drew or Greg?

I've probably. I'm not saying this is a better perspective, and probably it isn't, but I. My goal is to help Realtors. That's. That is my. It's just my mission in life. I just enjoy them at all levels. So when I'm looking for somebody to hire, I'm looking for somebody that I can help, which kind of gets a little wonky on the back end for culture because, let's face it, these are difficult people to manage, to hire, to retain, to work with if they're going to be good salespeople. So the economic indicator on the disc, High D, high I. Something on that. But somebody I can help if they have good sales skills, I'm just convinced I can assimilate them into a culture of success and teamwork if they have the ability and the willingness to want to be great. And I'm willing to work with people on that. My natural inclination would be to fire everybody on a daily basis. So I try to keep that and focus what I'm really trying to accomplish, which is help others.

Yeah. And Drew, I'm going to ask you a different question. You know, we've worked really Hard. We. I mean, collectively to build a culture of productivity and, like, get into the office. Let's just be shoulder to shoulder. This is hard work we're doing. Let's be. Let's. Let's get after it together. Is there anything you're going to change going forward? Are the Zoom meetings as effective as in the office? Are you definitely bringing everyone? Well, you guys are probably dying to get out of your houses, so I would imagine everyone's going to be. My sense is that we haven't had to change our cadence. But, Drew, what's your take on that?

Yeah, our agents are ready to get out of their houses and into the office. Somebody told me the other day that they had to stop into the office to get a check, and they just, like, stood in front of their, like, prospecting station for a few seconds and took a deep breath, so they're ready to get back in. We do really enjoy being, you know, that. That culture of productivity together. So I think most of us are all looking forward to getting back to the office for sure. I do think that there's. Somebody asked the question, are we going to require them to come back in? And I do think that for safety protocol, you know, there may be some questions about who is working at home and who is in the office, but as far as I know, as soon as it opens up, I do believe we'll be getting back in, because I think that it. While we are super productive at home and our cadence is going really well over Zoom, it doesn't replace the physical being together. And as Greg said, you know, you don't know what Everybody is doing 100% of the time. And whenever we're here together. You have more of that.

Yeah. That's awesome. I'm gonna ask one last question, and it's kind of around recruiting and interviewing and hiring brand new versus experienced. And I think everyone's gonna have different take on it. So I'm gonna ask one question that can kind of consolidate all together, and here is the question. So what. What have you guys been doing? And what do you think is gonna change with recruiting as it relates to new agents versus experienced agents? And what's your interview process like? It's a big question, but real quick, any. Dan, I'm going to start with you. And if Greg and Drew, you don't have anything to add, it's okay, too, because we're good. We got a break here. But, Dan, what do you. I mean, my sense of it. I'll answer it first, is that there's Going to be a lot of experienced agents that don't know what to do right now. They're completely unproductive. They're very fearful. We've been approached by big teams that are just struggling. They're totally like on the Zillow train and they're just not effectively run businesses and they're really struggling. So solo agents are have that need to make money are going to be our primary target going forward versus potential talent. But any sense Dan, on that and your interview process?

Yeah. So if we're one, I mean our preference is to have somebody who's newer, maybe who's done 10, 12 transactions or even somebody who hasn't depending on personally where someone's at in their business and how much time you have to train. Fair enough. I can see how somebody wants somebody who is more experienced. My preference, if you do have the time to take someone and invest the energy and time with someone who has the drive who is coachable to get them early on in the process. But there's a good argument for both my take on the experienced person is and what I've seen in the past on an experienced individual's hiring is the lack of being coachable. And that to me is just the biggest red flag. Almost close enough to job hopping but just not being coachable. So I think that's just the one word. It comes back down to culture, fit and being coachable and then everything else kind of falls into place especially on the experience side.

Yeah. Any other thoughts, Greg or Drew?

Yeah, I think our sweet spot on our team is agent. Is a licensed agent just like Dan said, who maybe has a little bit of experience. Like I don't have to show them how to, I don't need to teach them how to docusign a contract type of thing and maybe has some experience as a solo agent or maybe had a not so great experience with another team because then they can really see the value of what we can provide and they just get totally bought in. And like you said Dan, you can shape their habits because they're more coachable.

Yeah. I have both on my team that have succeeded and both that have failed. So I typically we're not hiring people with 10 or 15 years experience. They might do that 10 to 12 transactions like Dan said and they have some knowledge which is ideal. Ideal. If they don't have to go through the licensing process. That's a real hang up and where you lose a lot of people. I treat recruiting the same way I would treat listings is I'm always out There looking for listings everywhere I go, you know, 2000-005000-00800,000. I'm going to want to bring that in and see what it's about. And I'm trying to get most of those by referral and I'm trying to get a lot of my recruits by referral. So I kind of look at it same as I'm out there looking for houses to sell. I treat recruiting the same way. And always interviewing, always looking, really looking for people with high economic drive, high desire to win, high desire to compete, that they have to be willing to want to work for a six figure income and a seven figure net worth. That's my bottom line requirement.

Yeah, that's really good. I just, we used to have a list, this was back in the day and I posted in the chat where I made so many misfit hires because I was just, I was going to grow and I was going to get out of production and so I was willing to fail a lot in the area of recruiting. And every time I failed though, I put on a list like the things that, oh, that person wasn't the primary income earner. Oh, that person really had no reason to want to make a six figure income. That person has never achieved, I'm going down the list here. That person has never achieved anything in their life and all of a sudden I thought they were going to actually do what they said they were going to do and come on my team. Stability of resume. So they've had a couple other jobs before they join our team and they've already learned life a little bit. So 25, 26 years or older, they've done some phone work before. So they have to have had a job where they've spent time on the phone. It's really, really, really, really, really hard to be a successful real estate agent if you can't spend half your day on the phone. It's just, it's hard to be a salesperson in any vertical if you haven't done that. And then, you know, we are looking, we're bucketing agents in our market so we're looking for licensed agents. We've had success, success in potential and emerging. We have not brought up, brought on someone that is doing a lot of deals yet. But that's the buckets that we're, that we're looking at. Thanks for listening to the Business Freedom Podcast. If you're getting value from the podcast, would you please leave us a five star review and share it with others who might benefit from the content? I'm Sharing. And if you're ready to scale your real estate business sustainably and profitably, there are a couple options for you. If you're doing under 500,000 in annual GCI, our business foundations Program is for you. Head over to getbusinessfoundations.com that's getbusinessfoundations.com and and learn how you can make the shift from overwhelmed real estate agent to true business owner. If you're doing more than 500,000 in annual Team GCI, there's our graduate program designed for top producers and team leaders who want to grow their team and scale their business. If that's you, go to realestatebschool.com and apply for a free Business Growth Strategy session. No matter where you are in your business growth journey, we have the tools, systems, strategies, training and coaching to get you where you want to be. Remember, only you can create your future, so take action now.