The Most Effective Way to Hire to Your Core Values
23 Jun 2022 · 21 min
Podcast episode in which Lars Hedenborg (founder, Real Estate B School) teaches real-estate team leaders how to hire to core values. Drawing on his own hiring timeline (first admin 2008, first buyer agent 2009; founded REB School in 2013) and experience serving ~5,000 families, he emphasizes hiring for patterns rather than potential, offers three concrete core values (hustle/work hard; accountability & discipline; positive attitude/growth/team defender), suggests interview prompts to surface patterns, and closes with a partnership/promo call-to-action (partnerwithlars.com, joinrebs.com).
Foreign welcome back to Real Estate Team Builders. This is Lars Hedinburg, the founder of Real Estate B School. And we're going to have a conversation around people and team building and specifically most of the mistakes I've made in my journey to building multiple businesses and all the good, bad and ugly of bringing people into your world, serving those people, getting frustrated with those people, doing it right, doing it wrong. We're going to cover all of it today. This is a follow on to the conversation that we started with Gary Rodriguez. He's the CEO of Peopleistic and a guy that has given 35 years of his life to understanding what makes people tick, how they're hardwired, and how that hardwiredness impacts other people. When we put these teams together, we hope everything's just going to go awesome. And they, you know, very rarely does it. In my journey in, you know, building a real estate team, you know, I started as a solo agent in 2007, hired my first administrator in 2008, my first buyer agent in late 2009, and the rest is sort of history. 5,000 families served, made all the mistakes you could possibly make in this area of hiring and I'm going to share a lot of them with you today. But then in 2013, that's when I started Real Estate B School, mostly to make the journey to business ownership easier for others that come after me in the process. And here is what I've learned most of all when it comes to not only having done it myself and most of it, maybe 60% of it right and 40% not so right. So a little bit better than than not. But mostly having seen into many, many high level businesses, high level real estate teams, anywhere from a million to 6 million plus in GCI. And it really comes down to and if you follow the podcast for any period of time you've heard me talk about this, it's the dynamic between patterns and potential. And so really valuable clip that I would love to actually maybe I'm going to just play it. I have talked about it enough where I think maybe it's just worth playing. Here, give me a second. It's a clip from a sermon. So I'm going to play this clip for you because it's straight up business training. And when I heard this in person, live, this is back in 2000. Well, this clip is from 2017. It had to be before that that I heard this. Everything clicked for me in terms of like, yes, this is exactly, exactly what he said is exactly what I'm doing wrong over and over and over and over again. So listen to this from the mindset of, you know, people that you let into your world and the mistakes. Like we want to see the potential and it very rarely translates that way. And then I want to get into a conversation around core values, like really developing a set of core values and really living by these core values and how to do it. So I'm going to share my screen. I'll share the sound here as well. If you're only on the podcast. So yeah, so listen to this and this will be helpful, I promise you.
If you are considering marrying someone, don't look for potential, because potential is unpredictable. Look for patterns. That's a bad reason to say I do, because he has potential. Yes, he may have potential, but he also has credit card debt. You might want to understand some of the patterns that created his credit card debt because his patterns have the potential to keep you very broke until death do you part. He has potential. Yeah, but he has a porn addiction. If you don't pay attention to the patterns, you can project potential on somebody. They don't have to serve a purpose for a need. You need to be met. I'm not saying they have to be perfect, but don't marry somebody because they have potential. They have potential. What do you think you are, Joanna Gaines? Do you think this is a stickser upper?
So good, man, I watched that, I even watched that now and it's like, man, it's just pure, pure truth around hiring. And it wasn't about hiring. It was talking to the ladies that see potential in men that really there's a pattern of destructive behavior, non productive behavior. So when we flip that over to hiring, I think it's because the way that we're wired. So if you're a business builder, an entrepreneur, someone that, that, that we just think we can turn nothing into something. And you know, one day we, we decide we're going to build something and then we're just building it and it becomes, it becomes a thing. And so we have this. We are, we're actually wired to see the potential. So that's part of our, of our wiring. Like we can't shed it. And it's what makes us, and this isn't an ego statement, but it's what makes us amazing at some things for sure. There's so many limitations that come along with this personality type of being in the future, seeing potential and then getting to work on making that vision, that potential, making it a reality by putting the things in place to get there. But with people, it does not translate. So it just does not translate with people. So when it comes to bringing people into your world, even if you're only ever going to have an administrator in our industry, it's like 85% of real estate agents don't even have an admin yet. More than 90% of the work that an agent does is administrative in nature. So like if you want to make more than the typical agent makes, which is, you know, I think the average agent makes about, I think 42 or 49,000 gross commission income and that's I think an average of seven years experience. Two year agents make like $12,000, 16 year veterans make like $80,000. So if you want to make multiples of that, like many, many multiples of that, you have to bring people into your world, you have to build the systems and get someone else to run most of the basic administrative operational systems in the business. And so let's have a conversation around core values, but specifically in a way where I'm going to arm you with the ability to create core values, but then also look at someone through the lens of these core values in a way where you're looking for patterns and not potential. So let me actually, let me go along. So if you're watching this on YouTube or jump over to YouTube and watch it, I'm going to share my screen because I'm going to actually share a visual here of core values. I'm out of my real estate team at this point, but I worked really hard on putting these core values together. I'm only going to go through, I'm going to go through three in terms of this actual exercise. But when you think about bringing people into your world, you have to be clear on who you're willing to invest in. It'd be great if we had an unlimited amount of emotional and physical energy where we could kind of do our thing during the day and then have like all this energy available for our children and our spouse and you know, after we're done working, just doesn't work out that way. So if you even person into your world, that is a mismatch. You know, they have all this potential, but they haven't shown a pattern of, you know, 1, 2, 3 core values. These may not be your core values, it's what's important to you, what has given you the level of success that you've had up to this point. That's how I created these core values. Then I looked at my most successful team members through the lens of like, you know, what do they embody that makes them amazing? You know, one of our agents, two of our agents were selling over 100 homes. What's. What makes them, you know, amazing? And is that in alignment with what made me really good when I was in production and who do I want to surround myself with? 3. You know, these are meant to disqualify people from coming into your role. So number one is we hustle and work hard. I can't imagine being successful as a real estate team builder if you're going to look for people that don't hustle and work hard. So you can wordsmith, you can change it, make it whatever you want.
Right?
But that's sort of a baseline requirement to be successful in real estate. Especially when you're establishing your career as a team builder, you're mostly finding people that are early in their journey in real estate. Right. They need the support of a team. There's nothing wrong with that. But if they're not willing to hustle and work hard, they're not going to succeed in real estate, even given the support and systems that you offer as a team leader.
Right.
We're not afraid to put in the hours.
Right.
No task is too big or small. We're hungry for success. We don't wait for things to happen. We're not afraid to fail. The faster we fail, the faster we succeed. We don't overthink things, we just do it.
So, right.
So there's actual words and emotion behind we hustle and work hard. There's scripture behind it. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart is working for the Lord, right? And then Abraham Lincoln. Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle. Even Abe Lincoln had it right in terms of, you know, the hustle required to be successful in real estate. So when you look at this core value and there's no coincidence or there's. It's. It's on purpose that it's number one and you're looking for. You're sitting down to interview somebody and they're telling you that, like, okay, Lars, are. Or James, let's say, okay, James, are, you know, our core values. You saw them, you know, hanging up right behind you. You can see them or right in front of, you know, me. We have them actually in our interview room, and they're thinking like, okay, what do I need to say to convince this guy Lars that I'm a hustle person and I work hard?
Right?
That's what they're thinking. They'd Be like, oh, man, yeah, I love hustling and working hard. It's great. And then we're like, okay, that's great. It's great that you think it's great. And this is going to be great.
Right?
But we don't ask the question. So, you know. So, James, give me examples of, you know, 10 examples of how you out hustle and outwork other people. Like, man, I could tell you in high school when I played football. I started as a sophomore. I could tell you in college when I had to work two jobs and I graduated in three and a half years and I was a student council. Whatever. I could tell you with my first job, even though I didn't like it, I had to go door to door, and other sales reps would find ways to sit under a tree, and I was out there sweating and pitting out, you know, and I made it happen with newspaper sales, whatever that looks like. There's actually patterns of hustling and working hard in that person or not in that person. We're not looking for, like, okay, from this moment on, you're going to become a person that hustles and work hard. That is the fundamental thing I've done wrong many, many times over is to not be clear on my core values, or even if I was clear on my core values, to not actually use them in the process to bring people into your world. And also, you can use this to reward people. You could use this to relieve people of their duties from your team. So that's one example. Number two, core value is we embrace accountability and discipline. Here's the thing between hustling and work hard, working hard and embracing accountability and discipline, there are not a lot of people that even embody those two core values. And so that's, you know, I think these to run a really good business in the real estate space, as competitive as it is, I think those have to be sort of sprinkled into what you're looking for, at least in the sales side. You know, I mean, if you don't. I just don't know how you're gonna. How you're gonna get there. You want people. The Jim Rohn quote here, discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishments, right? You want people that want to succeed in your world, and you want to be the vehicle. You want to give them a seat in the vehicle that allows them to succeed, right? And just to make it easier for them to succeed. But they have to bring the core value of really embracing personal accountability. And so this comes out in the Whole patterns versus potential conversation. Like, all right, James, give me examples of like, how do you hold yourself accountable? Like, maybe give me an example of a goal that you set and the steps you took to achieve it. And they'll, someone that embodies this will not have to think very hard. They'll say, well, you know, there was a time in college where, you know, I. Freshman and sophomore year, I let my workout slip. I gained 30 pounds. This is actually an example for me. I gained a ridiculous amount of weight freshman year. And between my freshman year and my sophomore year of college, I dropped 45 pounds. So I played basketball like three hours a day, like six, seven days a week. I only ate salad and plain chicken for like 10 weeks straight. And so that's like a clear example of how like, all right, I got off the rails, right? That's great to admit that I did that. I got back on the rails and then I really embraced accountability and discipline. And I just drew a line in the sand that, okay, this is what this needs to look like. And, and I remember people thinking when I came back to college, like, what the heck happened?
Right?
I got down to £176. I remember I was up to like 225 or something crazy. So that's an actual example. And I can personally give a hundred examples of how I embrace accountability and discipline. So the 23 year old version of a guy like me would be able to give five or six concrete examples to show you the person that's considering coming into, you know, us joining forces and the team leader feeding into the team member. You can really get clear, is this someone who is going to embrace accountability and discipline? Because on our team we track our numbers, we time block, we do all the things necessary to be a successful salesperson, right? And so, and then you can see positive attitude, growth, mindset. And so you need to really consider your core values.
Being.
The defender of the team, right? When you're talking about building a close inner circle. Now, I'm not talking about building necessarily an exp organization or I have 1300 people in my exp organization at this point and I don't really know the core values of most of them. I do have the people that I'm personally partnered with. And then it kind of gets away from you. I'm talking about like you're building a Navy Seals, three to five real estate agents that are selling, each selling 25, 30, 40 homes a year and you're working on SOI listings. Like that is the model I love to, to Prescribe and teach folks how to do at this point is like, how do we sell 200 to 250 homes? That's a sweet spot. You could do it with a couple local admins, you know, a couple VAs, less than a handful of agents, and you're doing SOI listings, you're working less than 50 hours a week, you're taking home, you know, probably 8, 900,000. Right? I mean, that's a sweet leveraged income stream. There's some linear income involved, but there's leveraged income for sure. But it requires that those people in your inner circle, they're all aligned around the patterns of what you know to be important in yourself. Like, if you're a guy, I'm not the kind of guy that, like, needs to have fun all the time. But if you're the kind of person, team leader that, like, you want to be around people that, like, I want to have fun every day at the office, you better make sure that that's one of your core values. If you attract someone like me who's like, more like, I want to be like, totally dialed in to the business side and I want to make the most use of my time because I want to get home to my family. I don't want to cut up with my colleagues during the day. It's just the way I'm personally wired. Nothing. It's not good, bad, or indifferent. I had to train myself how to bring in some of those elements. But if you bring someone like me into your world and every day you require your team to take off two hours and go have beer at lunch, you know that's going to drive me crazy, that everyone's totally unproductive and you're not going to keep a person like me. But if that's important to you, it's going to be hard to run a business like that. But if it is, you better make sure that you hire to that core value of we have fun every day. And here's what it looks like specifically, can you handle it?
Right.
So we want to get as much out of the way up front and ask the questions about patterns versus potential. So I'm hoping this served you. I am looking for probably a handful more people to directly partner with. I'm talking directly work with to get into your business. This is not a paid coaching gig at this point. The platform that I'm building on and the way I'm integrating real estate, B school and my personal involvement in your business, it's something special. If you've been following me for a period of time. I really don't care what you think of exp. More so what you think about me and my ability to impact your business and help you scale and grow without losing your life. You will have more to show for it financially in this platform. Let's just have a conversation about it. Go to partnerwithlars.com, partnerwithlars.com or partner with rebs.com I think they go to the same site. Just check it out, click on Learn the Truth and then just book in a call and we'll have a conversation about your business. I mean for sure, sure we can talk about a paid coaching relationship. I'm more interested in getting into and really locking arms with somebody that wants to do something big in terms of building significant wealth, building significant residual income, you know, significantly growing and scaling your business, but doing it in a way where you have more time, freedom, less stress as a result of how you built the business. So go to partnerwithlars.com or partnerwithrebs.com and we'll see you over there. Be good.
Thanks for listening. Would you please take a minute to share the show with other team leaders who may be struggling? And if you love the podcast, please leave us a five star review on Apple Podcasts. If you want to learn step by step how to build a profitable real estate team that allows you to get out of the real estate grind and live the lifestyle you've been dreaming about, Visit us at JoinReb. That's joinrebs.com our coaching, training systems and support will help you get more high quality leads, increase your conversions and sales, improve your client experience, and allow you to scale your real estate business, all while reducing the amount of hours you work and the stress you endure. Just go to joinrebs.com for more info now. See you on the next episode.
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