The Importance Of Cadence In Your Business (And Your Personal Life) w/Greg and Stephanie Sisson

Welcome back to Real Estate Team Builders. Lars Hiddenborg here, the founder of Real Estate B School. We are in for a treat today. I have Greg and Stephanie Sisson. They're in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. And I've known these guys for probably going on three years now. And it's been an awesome journey and I've learned so much from you guys and just how you live your life and how you run your business. And These guys did 414 transactions last year for $123 million in volume. And they did it the right way. We were chatting before we hit the record button and Greg made a comment. He said, we've done it organically and we just see a lot of people in our industry try to manufacture and force growth. And so we're going to break this entire conversation down. But first, kind of tell us a little bit about the structure of the team, kind of your individual roles, and then we'll get after it structurally.

Sure. So Greg started selling in 1997 as an individual agent. And we've been married since 03. And so about seven years ago, we decided we would expand from an individual agent and start growing the team. And now presently we have nine buyers agents, we have four licensed admin, and we have two, what I would call jack of all trades. These, these guys are amazing. One of our guys is a licensed drone pilot. He does all of our matterport camera work, does activities at the courthouse. And then our second kind of swing player is our stager, our closing assistant. I just love that this position, those positions are so, you know, flexible. I run the operations. And then we have a great guy who is our sales director.

Yep. Awesome. Anything to add, Greg?

No. She hit it. The four licensed administrators, though, are two on the listing side and two on the closing side. And then the closing coordinators that take it from contract to close do have the assistant that she mentioned. So we try, you know, the goal is to let our salespeople, Lars. Be salespeople and, and get them out of the transaction as much as possible.

Yeah, it's funny. I'll talk to, you know, someone running a real estate team. They'll have like 16 agents and they'll have like one administrator. And I'm like, wait, what? Like, that's not, like, that's not actually a team. A team implies that some people are better at paperwork and some people are better, like, loving on clients through repair negotiations. And, you know, if you're, if you're in real estate, it is a contact sales, you know, game. So let's dig a little bit into Greg. One thing that you said that really struck me and this might have been at our last, last intensive when you talked about, you know, and Stephanie just mentioned it before you hit record, but you know, what you had to go through to become a top player early in your career. Like just talk about, like what you did to play this game at a high level. And then now how we'll get into the challenges of running, you know, a team and getting agents to do those activities. But Greg, what. What did you have to do to become a top agent in those early days? What was your first sort of leading indicator of success?

It's a great question. I love talking about it because, you know, started out, I did a year and a half of on site sales, which is totally different, of course in general real estate. But when I started in general real estate In May of 99, Lars, my first day I had a list of an old condo community called Magnolia Place. And I called for, you know, six hours a day, just cold calling people. And so my first three years I made 60 contacts a day, five days a week. That's 60 conversations, double dialing, you know, two phones, a headset, no dialer. Dialers didn't exist. So I just cut my teeth having massive amounts of real estate conversations. You know, I think to accelerate a career or to get really good at anything. It's that old, the repetition of it. So, you know, when you talk to 60 people a day for three years, you pretty much have heard it all and you're very comfortable just with the back and forth, the dance of real estate. Real estate is just conversations. It's talking, it's, we get paid to blah, blah, blah. And I stole that from somebody said that. But we just get paid to talk. So once you know what to say, how to say it, the timing, the rhythm, obviously I was very scripted. I was very fortunate to be Mike Ferry Train, very script sales oriented, treating the business like a sales business. So that that was how I got started. Therefore, I just love the art of selling and talking to people, making presentations. I feel like that's where I can really where I serve our salespeople the best, just kind of dissecting their conversations and helping them make a presentation or helping them with the conversation of real estate. So that was kind of my background and how I was able to take a high volume of listings per year. I would take, you know, 200 listings a year pretty consistently every year, maybe as many as 240 back in the days when listings were really easy to get when 2008, 9, and 10. So that's kind of the story of how I got here.

Yeah. And if you do the math on that. So if you're struggling in your real estate business right now, and you pick up your calculator, which I'm doing, and I do 60 conversations a day, times five days a week, times 50 weeks. Let's say you took two weeks off, which you probably didn't, that's 15,000 conversations a year. Times three years is 45,000 conversations in your first three years of real estate. And I think some agents come into the business and they're, like, not successful in their first two or three years. We have an 82% fallout rate in our industry, and I think it's because they don't realize it's like a sales. I mean, it's sales. Like, to succeed in any sales organization, like, you need to be. It's a numbers game. And so, Stephanie, I want to hear you transition a little bit. And Greg, I want to get back to personal leadership here in a second. But talk about, like, the team side of it. So you guys, seven, six, seven years ago, you transitioned to kind of monetizing the buy side. Mike Ferry, high level Mike Ferry guys, like, all listings, all leverage. Buyers can figure it out, right? So it was, come in, let's monetize the buy side. And. And you guys have built an amazing business. I tell people all the time, there's only a few teams that I would even ever want to own, and yours is one of them in terms of the way that it's run. But talk about, like, you want to make it easier for your agents. You know, you want them to have it easier than you had it. But then there's also the struggle of that and the accountability. And there are moments where Stephanie gets.

Mad.

Looking at the numbers and, you know, and so talk about, like, that part of it, Stephanie. I think that'll be helpful.

Well, I think one thing I do want to say that I'd love to come back to is his schedule. So if you'll make a note, let's come back to that. I do think one of our biggest leadership mistakes is not being really frank at the beginning, that this is a hard business and talking about the failure rate and talking about really what it takes. We do want it to be easier for our team. We like these people. We want to be with them. We want them to be with us. So we kind of, oh, look how amazing. And we do have amazing systems, but it doesn't do itself. Someone has to make the ball start rolling. Once the ball is rolling and we have a contract, we can make it as seamless as possible because of these amazing, experienced, licensed closing coordinators and all that. They can make things just magically kind of put the bow on it. But it has to start somewhere. And that is a grind. And, you know, the paid leads have gotten very expensive. I mean, it's something we use as an arm of business. But our majority of our business, we want their sphere, we want our old contacts, we want our events. You know, we want these to be what they make a part of their real business. And if you're not upfront with them, it's kind of shocking and, and just holding people accountable. It, I, I have to remind myself it's love. It's love. Because it's hard when we're very, you know, we want to get along, we want everything to be happy. Sometimes you have to just say, hey, guys, this isn't working. We need to have a higher ratio. And yes, we're experiencing burnout and yes, inventory is terrible, but we're in one of the most lucrative businesses in the world. And we're not, he says, we're not digging ditches, we're not on a roof. I mean, we've got it made. Let's just go to work.

Yeah, that's awesome. And Greg, one thing, and I want to get back to personal leadership and your schedule and some of your mindsets and I'm not sure I even told you this, but something that you challenged me on, and I forget where I heard it or how I was challenged, but you made a comment like, the family's going to bed. No, no, I'm going to bed. And the family. I'm like, I'm saying goodnight to everybody. Like, Greg is. He's committed to sort of his routine and what it takes to perform at a high level and lead by example at the highest level in your organization. And it comes with some sacrifices. Like I think you said, like 8:30, everyone's going to be up for two or three more hours and it's like, all right, good night, everybody. You miss like a chunk of the night, but you're up early. And so talk about, like, personal leadership. What are your routines? When do you get up? What are you doing first? You know, I know you're, you're in the word every day. So talk about some of that.

Well, I think the quote maybe you remember is what I said. My daughter, who now is 12, probably 10 years old, 11, I said she puts me down. Now I don't, I don't put her down. She puts me down. So Yeah, I mean 8:30 is really my goal to be in the bed and then usually I'm reading a couple pages of a good book or something and then by nine be asleep. But my goal is to get up at 4:30. But I'm, you know, sometimes it's 4:45, but 4:30 to 4:45, crazy.

It's in till 4:45.

I mean, I know, I know.

So I really don't feel like I'm sacrificing that time between 8:30 and 9:30 or 10 when the kids are still, they're, they're finishing homework, they're maybe in the shower after an activity. So we engage and we're having good time. And then the freedom comes when you're disciplined is you get to choose. I don't work on the weekends. I mean we have that time. I'm home by 4:30 or 5:00 clock is late. I mean I'm always home by 4:30 or 5. But yeah, I mean my morning routine. You've interviewed so many great people and the more you dig into the top producers and people that are successful, they all have, they love talking about their morning routine because it really builds your, that's your, that's, that's really your world or your foundation of how you can be successful and lead. Well, I have to create a bubble between 4:30 and really 8:00 until I get to the office where you just, I just don't let anything else in besides them. There's, you know, do I mess up? Yes. I mean I play the game. I take the email off in settings off of my iPhone and iPad. So I can't check email because we all do it without thinking now. So I have to train myself to get up, do my coffee and my little water drink. I do my greens coffee, read my Bible. You get 30 minutes of that time. I am doing something fun this year. Lars, I haven't told you it is a journal Bible, which I have never done. And the coaching from my mentor is read, pray, read, pray, read, pray. So I am writing down as I read, which has been so helpful because we all struggle with our prayer life if we're being honest. So that's been helpful. So then after that I, you know, I can, I just start, you know, I get outside, I go do my walk. That's been what I've been doing now. I'm a former marathoner. My body doesn't like to do that anymore. So 45 minutes is probably my average to get out. Always listening to real estate team builders podcast or something else, because that three hours is where I can pour everything in. And the rest of your day, we all know this. Everybody invades your space, your bubble. We have to choose to control our space for at least the first part of the day. So I'm just, I'm real fanatical about that. My team hears me talk about that, and that's. I don't get it right all the time. Yes. I've checked ESPN while reading my Bible before. Okay. But you got to kind of create some. Some hacks where you don't have the phone when you sit down at your desk or wherever you are. So that's kind of the morning routine. And I'm usually here in the office by 8, maybe 7, 45, 8 o'. Clock.

Yeah, that's, you know, it's. I don't know if this is. I would imagine this is with every business owner there. And it's. It's straight up e myth, you know, it's the entrepreneurial myth. It's just because we decide to go into business for ourself, like in real estate, all of a sudden, like, it's like we're our own boss. We can set our own hours and somehow magically, something that's good is going to come of it, and it never does. And we're the worst boss because we don't hold ourselves accountable. And in a business that's set up that way, where the team leader doesn't have the personal leadership, they haven't played the game at a high level. I forgot to mention that of the 414, Greg had a down year at 160 listings. So that's off like a 200 to 220s where he normally operates. So he was working part time last year, so. So it's just an interesting dynamic. I want to talk about one more thing, because you guys, and this is a big differentiator, I think, for your team and for you even to have nine, I know, is a big deal. For the longest time, you were like, we only have eight seats.

There's a reason.

No, I'm not picking on it because I know there's a big deal to even have a nine. But you guys were so particular about, you know, what. What sort of set of core values or, you know, patterns does a person need to have to be on our team? So talk about core values. What you. How you've missed them in the past. And people haven't fit. Cause that's a struggle for every team builder. And I think that's the crux of most problems in these teams is that it's just a loose collection of wildly different, not connected with any common core values. So talk about core values, maybe. Stephanie, you start.

So the reason we have added one, we have one of our wonderful agents who's expecting, and she is now going to be a listing agent when she comes out of maternity leave. So we will kind of go back to having eight buyer's agents who are on call. And so it is our sweet spot. We're not going to say never say never, but it's been a great number for us for a long time. And I do hire a little differently. And I always say this is an experiment that we may find doesn't work at all eventually. But I use Wise Hire as our software. And when you are hiring for a hunter gatherer buyer's agent, someone that is not going to receive leads that they're going to need to cold call, they're going to need to work their entire sphere. You really want your D and your eye to be very high and you want your economic to be very high. But because we provide a very good lead source, our past history. Greg's been the business for 25 years. We have a lot of past clients, we have a lot of sphere. We have online leads. We have all this to kind of hand over to them for them to say the word babysit. But you know, they're going to take care of their babies and serve. I don't need people to be as aggressive. I need them to be less commission breath, more caring. And that's what I'm looking for. I feel like I enjoy people that have the score, I think is called an altruist score. And it's your basically your empathy score. And I hire on a high empathy score. Now I realize now that I'm in the business for a little bit longer, it does create a slight bit more of burnout in your agents, if truly care about their clients. So I did find that out like this year, realizing, okay, because I hired people that actually sincerely care about these people, that that's your trade off. But when I have not hired for that, when I'm like, oh my gosh, this person can sell me anything, they're amazing salesperson. Almost inevitably, six months into it or quicker, they think they know more than Greg. They're telling me how to do things and they're piecing out. You know, they have just been A huge time suck because they think they know everything. And so it just depends on what kind of team you're building. But for us, I want to like them. I want them to really care about people and just take care of our clients. And if they can do that and be steady and organized, they're, you know, we're on a good path.

Yeah, that's awesome.

And Lars, I could add, I mean, the three core values that I'm looking for or attributes in a salesperson is going to be attitude, work ethic, and coachability. And I think those are three things that even my children, I mean, I talk to them all the time about exhibiting those three things. And that is success in life. Really, if you are coachable, you are humble, you don't know everything, you are willing to take advice from someone that knows more than you and that is not trying to hurt you. So that is called coachability. If you are willing to work hard, put your head down and grind and you have got good coaches around you, that means you are moving and working hard in the right direction versus the rocking chair mentality where a lot of motion but you are not getting anywhere as long as you got good work ethic and you know you are on the right path. Like when we joined B school, we had the work ethic. We need a better blueprint. And then attitude. This business is hard. There are ups and downs. It's a roller coaster. But what is your attitude? That's what's a reflection of what's going on in the inside. And so, and that's why it starts with that morning routine. Because you're pouring good stuff in, good stuff comes out hopefully most of the time.

Yeah, that's awesome. I'm going to ask you, I want you to each answer these next two questions. So what's been the biggest blessing that you didn't see coming from having a real estate team versus the way things were with, you know, Greg being a solo agent. So what's the biggest blessing, unforeseen blessing.

That you guys have seen me go first?

Yeah.

Impact. You know, I lost my dad two weeks ago today. When you lose someone, my dad was in sales, real estate. He was a real estate trainer, worked for Floyd Wickman. I mean, Floyd got the call almost second to the family. So when you see a guy like that who impacted me at such a high level, people coming out of the woodwork, telling me stories, the more people that you're surrounding yourself and as you grow a team, it's an opportunity to impact more lives. Impact Their children's lives and people that are coming in brand new that can make six figures plugging into a system in their first year. You're impacting people now financially, but also, you know, for us as Christians, we can impact them spiritually. We can influence them and help lead people. I mean, there's such. There's so much more going on. Not to over spiritualize it, but for me is simply impact. I could do what we do and be really profitable and just be me and Stephanie. But what a gift to have all these people around us that we can influence and impact. Can you top that?

Yes. I'm going to make you answer as well. What's the biggest blessing that. That you've been able to experience with the team last six. Six years or so?

I mean, I think the fun part of it is expanding vision. And so. And just having just, you know, everyone said, why? How are y' all working together? Why are you working? You know, all that. How in the world do you stay married? And the good thing is we have a good balance, and we literally are not, like, standing by each other every day. I'm like, we're kind of doing our own thing. But I love seeing. I love creating vision and then going to the vision. And so that's exciting to me. And I kind of forget until you're in it. Oh, let's do that. Why can't we do that? Let's do it, you know, and sometimes, you know, it doesn't work out, but I love to dream. I love to visualize and kind of seeing those little things, you know, like when we did buy ReMax and then we did buy a building and. Okay, okay, now the team's this big, you know, it just kind of feels fun to have those goals and. And reach them.

Yeah, awesome. And I forget what the exercise was, and I'll probably get emotional telling the story about this, even though it's you guys.

Where.

Stephanie, it was a breakout session at one of the intensives where essentially, Stephanie, you were like, I'm good if Jesus took me home today. Like, and it was so touching, you know, like, with the kids and just how you've lived your life. So what was. How'd that come up again? Maybe Greg, you remember you shared it with everybody when we came back together.

Do you remember?

I don't know. I mean, maybe, like, if we have regrets or, like, what do we want to do before we die? I mean, like, I feel like, I guess because I love the season I'm in with my children, because I'm a really big theater fan, if anyone knows me at all. I love it and my children are into it, so I'm getting to be with them and, and they're still at an age that they tolerate me and, you know, they're not like kicking out the car. Although still is very soon to be driving. So he wants to. But I don't know, I just, I feel like, you know, being present and being with, you know, the people that you love, I mean, that's kind of. Yeah, I was just feeling very, like, loved and, you know, I love that.

And it is. I think it's a lesson for every. You know, there are a lot of sort of hard charging, honestly, mostly guys. Hard charging guys. And there obviously are women that are hard charging that forget to enjoy the ride, that forget. It's like, you know, this is a season that if we miss it, we'll have regrets or. And you mentioned sweet spot. You know, you could easily go from 8 to 16 agents and just like, grow for growth's sake. And you've just decided almost to like, temper growth because, like, this is manageable. It's, it's, you know, we're having impact. So I just love that about you guys. So here's it going to be a fun question and you both have to answer. What has driven you absolutely nuts in the last six years of building a team? What's been the biggest frustration? You have to answer first this time.

Yeah, don't be stealing my answers. No, I'm just kidding. I do think the true accountability of it is super challenging. I mean, if you went through the list, it would be comical of all the software or special things or, you know, hey, we've. Hey, guys, why don't you put your numbers in ct? All right, just, just stop. That is hilarious. No one knows their numbers and they don't put them on correctly. And you know, oh, yeah, I had, you know, four appointments and I met eight people and what. Huh? You know, it never matches. You know, we are using ers that is helpful with just the sheer watching a lead come through the flow. Are they calling them? Are they texting them? That that's helpful. We do that every Tuesday and have our daily and weekly reports. Okay, that's good. But I mean, we've tried SISU and we. I mean, it's just like it. That drives me crazy when any report again says like, oh, yeah, I talked to two people and I set, you know, 17 appointments and then I met 32. You know, it's just, it's like, no, you didn't. That doesn't make sense. So that, that is really cringe worthy. I'm sorry.

I, you know, I'm. I couldn't even. I'm thinking of something. She knows I have short term memory when it comes to like negative things. I mean, I.

Very good for our marriage.

I mean, I don't, you know, I don't really. Yeah, I think tracking numbers, but I don't really know what to say about that. What would I be frustrated? What do I complain about?

Maybe something for you. Maybe someone not living up to their potential. I don't know. That'd be fascinating for someone who's a high performer.

I mean, there's certainly times when I do feel like. And some of my team members may listen this and that's okay. It's just, you know, I think it's kind of like the dad that says to his grandkids or his kids, I walked up the hill in the snow, you know, and it was backwards and forward, you know, So I feel like that they do have it pretty easy. And all I'm asking is to just, just, just make calls for two hours a day and you will crush it. And it's. Sometimes it's hard to get them to do that. So that, that's my biggest frustration is like, just go ahead.

And I would say he really likes people to come in the office. That's his. He's born and bred of. You come in the office, you have your routine, you have your schedule. You do not let anyone interrupt you and you do not break your schedule because that's. These are all success pillars. Right. So things like that. He likes for the agents to be in the office.

And with COVID you know, everything kind of changed there and people are more working from home, but so we get them in probably two out of five. And then I have a few agents that come in three or four days a week, which is nice. So, yeah, if I had my way, we'd all be here together, you know, calling together.

Yeah, that's awesome. So the last question. And you know, this definitely isn't like the Expedition. Not Expedition, whatever. This is not the EXP Show. But anytime someone's on the podcast that's playing, you know, real estate at a high level, and they pivoted their, their business into the EXP platform, I like to ask them, you know, what are your goals with exp? Why exp? What's something you can share about exp?

I think one of the biggest things for me, and this may not be for everyone, But I want our team to stay together as long as possible. And I just felt like EXP offered the most for my agents who, whether they want to go build a team later on, which would be hard for us because that is always an emotional journey. But this way I could see a path of, you know what? If someone want to go build their own team, I could do it with full, wholehearted blessing, like, okay, we're going to build this together. And that felt really good to me. I really like the health care option and I love the idea of just the mentorship. We have an agent that's taken that very seriously, so it's kind of customizable of what could be beneficial for them. But I just saw of all the other brokerages, this is something. And the stock options, I thought, you know what, everything, it may not be right for every player on the team, but there's something for everyone. And for the longevity of what we could offer, I didn't think we could offer a better package.

It's the only platform that you could really, because there are. There's at least one or two of your agents, and I will say there's one of your agents who listens to the podcast and all of the comments Matt said out of love about frustrations. It's all out of love. So I don't know if anyone else list except Matt, but Matt, that's, that's some props for you because, you know, there are a couple agents on your team that, I mean, they are performing at a high level and there is a natural, like, I wish they all stayed forever and they never do. It's so, like, it hurts so much when they're like, they leave you. But it's the natural progression, perhaps of their career and it's, it's in love. We say goodbye to them most of the time when they're like five, six, seven, eight years on the team. So I just, I love that answer. In terms of the EXP platform, that's it. You guys are awesome. You guys run an amazing business. I'm honored to be in business with you and be your partner. If anyone has any questions about EXP and why the systems would have pivoted in, what's the best way to reach out to you guys?

Stephanie, Greg Sisson.

Yeah. Stephaniegsisson.com or 843-455-9017, give me a call.

Awesome, awesome, awesome. And if you have any, you know, if you're listening to this and you're sort of navigating the journey of, like, team leadership. And the one thing I could offer you is I put together this six stages of growth. It's called the Real Estate Business Growth Navigator. So if you go to realestatebusinessgrowth.com, you can pick up a free copy of that. It's realestate Business growth dot com. Greg and Stephanie, love you guys. Appreciate.

Love you, your relationship.

And we'll talk to you guys soon.

Thanks, Lars.

Thanks, Lars.

Yeah.