The Not So Sexy Side of Real Estate - Part 3

Welcome back to the Business Freedom Podcast.

Lars Hedinborg, founder of Real Estate B School. This is part three of not so Sexy Part of Business. Dave Friedman. If you're jumping in now, make sure you go back to part one, then listen to part two and then join me back here for part three. Dave Friedman sort of takes apart his business, his journey from, you know, working 70 to 80 hours a week to, you know, making a little bit over six figures, sort of clear income to a 10x increase in income over five years. And what had to happen to get there, and that's why it's called the not so sexy side of Business, is that there's a lot of things we don't like to talk about as an industry that really has to happen even if you're a solo agent. Some of these things have to happen out of the gate for you to be able to truly scale your business without scaling your hours. You know, in Real Estate B School, we talk about money, we talk about freedom, we talk about impact. You know, Dave's ability to make enough money to afford some freedoms, to have a true impact was limited when we first connected, right? And now he's working half the hours, so about 30 to 35 hours a week. He owns multiple businesses that he's managing in that timeframe. So cut his hours in half 10x his income. He's making the money, he has the freedom and now he has the ability to impact in his team at a very, very high level. And he has a compassion program. So he's serving his community. He's more present with his bride Haley. And so it's just a different game that he's playing right now. In five short years, and I think about two and a half, three years in, he was able to make the transition from, you know, full on agent to manager to leader to owner. You know, he was probably took him about two and a half, three years to get out of production and really sort of truly empower his team. And so awesome journey. He started out as a solo agent with Real Estate B School. He had a part time assistant at the time and the journey is epic. So if this is your first, like I said, go back and listen to part one. Start there. The thing I ask though is that you share the content because this is inner circle content only. Member content only. Share it and leave us a five star review where you listen to this podcast. It helps us get rankings and get the word out about Business Freedom Podcast. So hope you enjoy and we'll talk soon.

So we're Very clear on these things. And you know, standards without any kind of consequences are just recommendations, right? So people, you don't follow through with anything behind those, they're not going to respect or appreciate them. So for us, you know, if somebody violates one of our standards, we just put together a performance improvement plan. I absolutely like hate the idea of that. We print them on pink paper. It's the most annoying thing. I hate looking at these things in our office just because it's not who I am as a person to like go deliver something like that. However, when we do it, we're doing it for that person. We're doing it to help elevate them and to help help them understand that they're not in a place that's going to serve them. And when they, when they came to our office and asked for a job and we said we're going to help you get there through accountability. And then if we don't deliver on this, we're letting them down. Because every day that we allow them to not come in and prospect, it's going to hurt them in 90 days from now. Every day that we allow them to come in and not track their business to know where they need help, it's going to make them be really inefficient in their business and it's going to help and it's going to force them to work twice as hard to get the same result. So this is all for people. So if something happens the second time, we just take them off of appointments and also leads for the week. If it happens a third time, we just extend that a whole other week. If it happens a fourth time, if we have to sit down with somebody and have the same conversation four weeks in a row, we just, you know, we might love them and like who they are, but we just probably feel like at that point they're not the best fit for our business because we just can't get in alignment with how we do business. So we're either going to, you know, consider terminating them or, you know, just have some more serious conversations with them. So this is what our agent scorecard looks like. So we want, we want people to have visibility into what their CRM looks like. Like. And so there's some requirements that we have for every single lead that somebody has in their CRM and it's pretty simple stuff. They just have to have their home alerts active. You know, so the prospects are actually getting homes from their agent. They have follow up calls scheduled to make sure that we're calling People when they want to do business. I think a lot of real estate is, is the luck or intentions of talking to somebody when they're ready to do business. So executing on that follow up call at the right time is essential. So we don't want to have any missed follow up calls. Apply the appropriate hashtag. So A, B or C buyer or seller. We can have our agents keep up to 100 people in their profile. I'll tell you when they follow all of this, the people that nail this every single week, they generally have 40 to 70 people in their profile. And they find that it's too hard to manage more people than that when you're actually squeezing the lemon as hard as you possibly can. And then every single person in their profile has to have it should be a nurturer. So they have to have LP mama notes. So that helps us understand that they're just not keeping leads from other agents on our team, but they're just keeping in touch with nurtures. Then we have our Trello accountability, which essentially helps us track. So they update their set to Met board. They're making their weekly buyer and seller calls that are active and following the set to met process. I learned there's a book called Checklist Manifesto and I recently became a pilot. And one thing that I learned in getting my pilot's license is that they massively reduce the casualty rate in general aviation or aviation in general when they have pilots follow a checklist. So when people follow a checklist, it provides very consistent results. So when we identify that something works in our team, we want people to execute on that. And again, it's for them because it makes their job more efficient, more effective. And so in that with our set to met process, there's a checklist that agents follow on our team. Here's a script that we have and if you want to email me, I can share this with you. But this is how we hold people accountable in our one on one conversations. So we always have them share some positive focus. Sometimes people get a little frightened to walk into a one on one meeting. So we just want to create some positive mindset and we just ask them, hey, what was your goal last week? That's great, you know, I love that goal. And how did you do? And if they, if they crushed it, then look for things to celebrate. And even if they didn't crush it, still look for things to celebrate in there and ask them how they feel about that because you're building momentum and encouragement for them to go and do the same thing. Again. And then when you focus after that, you focus on what their goal is for the next week. And if they didn't hit that goal, then it's a different conversation. It's like, great, what got in the way of you hitting this specific thing this week? And just get into appreciation for their discovery of what got into their way. Instead of you telling them what got into their way, then you can ask, what can you do differently in the next week ahead to make sure that that doesn't happen again? What are you gonna change in your habits, in your skill and your knowledge, your attitude, to make sure that doesn't happen to you again? And then also asking them, you know, when are you going to get that done by, you know, was a week not enough time? Do you think you need two weeks to get that done? And allowing them to come up with the solutions and the accountability and the deadlines behind the impact that they're trying to make. And also, you know, when you recap on people's goals, just ask them, hey, do you feel like this is achievable? Allow them to let you know if it's not. If there's other things going on in their life, they might have, like, relationship issues, they might have some family issues, they might have some, you know, things going on in their life that might impact them. So you have to get really curious about what's going on with them personally to make sure that this is achievable. And then ask, are you fully committed to achieving this objective and are you willing to do whatever it takes to get there? Some of the things that people are trying to do are new to them, right? When you're growing, you're always uncomfortable. The second you get comfortable, you become complacent. So in all of this, you're constantly trying to grow people. So you want to then ask them, are you willing to do whatever it takes to get there, even if it makes you feel uncomfortable at times? Because I promise you, most of what they're doing in the next seven days to hit that goal is going to make them very uncomfortable because it's new to them and it's forcing them to grow. So just getting them to acknowledge that there is going to be that point where they're uncomfortable and they don't, you know, at that point, you don't want them to quit. So. Yeah. So here's some good notes that I'll share with you too, about accountability and having really good accountability sessions. So remember that accountability is what we do for people, not two people. And getting Your team's minds wrapped around this is extremely important because it's going to change the way that they look at accountability. And for them to change the way that they look at it, for them to change the way that they think about it, you have to change the way that they look at it. So it's our commitment to help them get to where they want, when they want it. So we shouldn't be setting goals for them or deadlines for them. It should be them, right? And be certain that they're their goals and not our goals. And goals must be defined and measurable. For example, you know, 10 appointments this week or getting to a weight of 185 is measurable. But just saying that I'm going to get healthy is not measurable and then push the system, not the person. It's going back to managing out of the data and not what the person is saying that they're doing. Because they're sometimes two different things. And just avoid judgmental thoughts and words. And the way that you can do that is just remain really curious because you might uncover things that are going on in people's lives that are impacting what they're trying to do. And it's important for you to understand that because they're people and we're dealing with relationships and experiences. And so it's not just about the data. So you have to get really curious about where people are. So bring encouragement, bring consistency with accountability. Every week, do not skip out on a meeting and if you have to, you reschedule it and follow up on their action to remove things that got in the way of them hitting their goals. And don't skip the questions. You know, the repetition is what keeps them growing consistently and removing obstacles in their way. And you're training them to think about how to get through some tough situations that that they might be going through. And don't confuse accountability with self managed in the growth control relationship chart. So has anyone seen the growth control relationship chart of like the first 100 days of training? So we have to continue to provide accountability for people and it does not go away when they become self managed because you want to constantly grow people. When people become self managed is when they could possibly flatten out in their growth. And if they want to continue growing, then you still have to have accountability meetings with them. So how do you do this yourself? So if we're having a conversation six months from now, and what would have to happen between now and then for you and your team to have a very predictable, predictable income and that's going to be through lead generation. So what do you have to do right now in your team? What kind of changes do you have to make to look at new business development differently? And then what are three things that you can take back with you in your business and implement to make sure that your ROI increases? How do you squeeze the lemon more and get more out of what you already have? And what are your personal standards and professional standards? So the goal today has been to just show you the tool systems and strategies to be more confident and prepared to go to the next level in your business with the least sexiest thing that you could possibly be doing and have more time, money, and less stress in your life. And there's a great quote that I wanted to share here. So do not wait. The time will never be just right. Start with where you stand and work whatever tools you may have at your command. And better tools will be found as you go along. And the CEO of LinkedIn, he has a great quote where he says that if you launch something when you find it to be perfect, you've probably done it too late. So what that means is just jump in and fail forward. Awesome.

Give Dave a big round of applause. All right, let's take some questions.

What technology are you using to. When you said in the beginning to follow up the leads, to do the voicemail drops and everything?

There's a few different ones. There's Agent Legend. There's also.

But do the API from your. Because I know Agent Legend. You have to manually put them in.

Yeah. Agent Legend is not the easiest software to do that with. I'll think of the other one and let you know. I can't think of. The Call action is another one.

Call action. That API is right from your CRM.

That one does have a better API.

Okay.

Yeah. Dave, over here.

Thank you very much for presenting your audits that you do with virtual assistants. I have a limiting belief on getting virtual assistants to do that and for me to train them.

How do you.

How do you source them and. And train them to do that?

I am very lucky to how we've come about that. I needed to compile a list of like every Realtor in Charleston because I wanted to market to them about our team so we can attract talent to our team. And at the time I had an admin. I felt really bad about having her go through our entire MLS and copy and paste all the name, number and emails of these people. And at that time, I happened to have a virtual assistant send me a message on LinkedIn about asking if I needed help. And that's how the whole thing started. And so now he's our hiring manager in India and all of our virtual assistants are college educated. I think they're all between like 25 and 30 years old and have worked with Fortune 500 companies. So I think the key in that is hiring the right people, which is no different than what you do here. Right. So I think you just have to think about who you want to hire and you can go on like onlinejobs, ph and find virtual assistants in the Philippines, or you can go on. There's a lot of different organizations and if you reach out to me, I can give you some more resources on that too.

I just wanted to mention, just to piggyback off that comment, Dave just took your question and answered it. But the reality is Dave did a 10 minute talk on his scorecard systems about a year ago and I implemented similar scorecard systems that he has. And a virtual assistant does help us run it. But what I realized afterwards, it took about a year of my life to build it because it's super, you know, it's fairly complex to build. He says that it's not, but it took a lot of time. And the reality is, what he didn't tell you, because this is the kind of guy that he is, is that he has a company called ers. And I hope it's okay that I say this out loud. I don't know how, well, how much they can take clients right now or not, but make sure you ping him or his operations director. They have a company that if I had to go back and do it again, I would not have built it myself. I would have simply hired Dave's company, ers. It's already all set up. They'll do all the accountability for you. They'll plug into your CRM, integrate it, and they'll audit your leads on your behalf for a fee. And it's totally worth it. It doesn't make any sense to do it the way that I did it.

Thank you for that. Because I didn't want to come from. Wanted to come from.

He asked me if it was okay.

Before he did it. And I also told Lars, I said I don't feel right about even bringing it up because I want this to come from contribution and not looking for anything in return out of it.

You mentioned onlinejobs.ph.com yeah, better. Is that one of a few that you like or if you really narrow it down to go, I really like these.

We don't have any virtual assistants in the Philippines. They're all in India. So that one is in the Philippines and I know it works well and I had hired a couple in the Philippines early on and I think it depends on what you're looking for. If you're looking for like prospectors or customer service people that are going to be on the phone, I think the Philippines is probably a better place to go. And if you are looking for data entry, spreadsheet management, that kind of thing, tracking, I think India is a better place to go.

I just want to say I really enjoyed all that you said and that yeah, the company Dave that Dave mentioned, working with your company has been amazing.

Awesome. Thank you.

I wish you the best in growing it.

Any other questions? Yeah, one more.

Dave, can you talk a little bit and maybe this tension doesn't exist for you, but what I found is that the level of accountability that we have is super helpful for me as a team leader and I think helpful. You know, I've heard some of my agents thank us for the accountability that we've implemented. With that said, I definitely have different behavioral profiles and I have people that, you know, personally would spend more time out in the field, a little higher in the eye and a little less organized. Their results is, you know, fairly consistently strong. But it is a little bit more difficult to get the same accountability on their scorecard. Do you have any tips on managing that tension? Have you experienced that tension or anything around that?

I agree that, you know, salespeople are not. Their strong suit is not in the details and tracking. Right. So these reports really help them with that. It gives them visibility and otherwise where they wouldn't have it. And it's just, it's just a part of the job. You know, if you want to be successful in sales, whether you're in real estate, on our team or not in real estate. And if you're doing anything in sales, you have to manage a CRM. You have to have a place where you're managing relationships. And unless you're working on like one relationship over the course of three years to come to fruition, which is not the case in real estate. You're working on hundreds of relationships at the same time. You have to just keep really detailed notes and follow up calls and alerts going to them. Otherwise you won't know where to pick up in your current conversation from the last conversation because that phone call to somebody that you haven't talked to in six months sounds a lot different when you're like, hey, this is a Realtor, you know, at Dave Friedman Team and we talked a while ago, you know, I promise you that they've talked to like probably 30 realtors since you've talked to them. And that conversation sound a lot different when you call them and you had a good note in there and you're like, hey, last time we talked you were dropping your kids off at softball practice. How did the season end up for you? Right? And you're making that connection. They feel like they know you. So I think like those things are just like the necessary parts of the business. I think the only way you can get around it is not having your agents lead, generate and just having an ISA department do it, which creates less data work for them.

Awesome. Let's give them a round of applause.

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