Why Hard-Working Real Estate Agents Feel Trapped and How to Escape the Grind (S01E00)

Welcome to the Freedom Driven Agent Podcast. My name is Lars Hedenborg, founder of Agent Freedom Collective. Now this is a brand new podcast, but this is not a new journey for me. This podcast exists because I've seen where traditional real estate success leads and where it doesn't. And oftentimes that is not to a place of complete freedom. Most agents got into real estate for just that freedom. Freedom of time, freedom of money. For most agents though, traditional success actually creates a trap. And that's the contradiction. This podcast is all about a little bit of context on me and my journey. Just so you have an idea of where I'm coming from and why I see the industry the way that I do. My early days in the business, first 10 months, I sold 27 homes, 44 transactions my first full year. Five years later, I built out a fully leveraged. I was working one day a week. I had 10 local agents selling over 450 homes. I think we did 453 in 2014. And I learned a lot in that process. In 2013 is when I launched Real Estate B School. I decided to help other agents build out their systems so that the systems in their business can do some of the heavy lifting in reality. So after 5,000 plus families served in my own real estate sales journey and a few thousand agents that have been through Real Estate B School, all of that is a lot of complexity, typically leading to more pressure and more stress. And not everyone was able to build out the kind of business that I was able to build out. And even what I built out, even though I got it down to one day per week in my peak year and I took home a seven figure income that year, it didn't come without a lot of overhead, a lot of complexity. You know, I remember multiple times I was doing the job of a real estate agent during the day. I was in a brokerage of maybe 20 agents. I was the number one agent in that brokerage and it was a REMAX brokerage. I was like the number one or two agent in my first full year in the business. But it didn't feel like success because I was working probably 60 to 70 hours a week as a real estate agent. And then I was working multiple late nights. So like 10pm to 2 or 3am, three or four nights a week. I had young kids at the time. I would sort of kiss the family good night and I would go upstairs and I would sort of work on the systems that allowed that business to scale ultimately. And that's what I got really good at, is Becoming a systems builder and having those systems doing the heavy lifting. But for the average agent, you know, as we look back on the last 12 months, 99% of agents won't sell 25 homes. The rise and grind mentality in the real estate industry is a common outcome. I got tired, I was super weary in the business and ultimately what suffered was the fact that I did want to be a good husband, I did want to be a good dad, and luckily I figured out and I cracked the code on being a business builder and having systems doing the heavy lifting in my business. And I like the word system. So if you're an agent listening to this, you know that you need systems systems in your business. But the problem is you don't really know what systems are. And a system is anything that repeats in your business. The most common are lead generation systems. So these are not paid systems. Anything you'll hear on this podcast, Freedom Driven Agent, is about helping you generate leads organically without having to pay for leads or cold calling or door knocking or paying expensive referral fees at closing. So a good example of a system that scales is like your database. I had a member recently reach out to me, closed 10 million in GCI 900 transactions and 60% of those transactions closed from the two foundational Legion levers, as we call them. So lead generation systems that we helped them put in their business, this was seven, eight years ago, that they were coming into our world and we helped them build out the systems that allowed them to scale. So if you don't have a system that generates multiple closings per month from your database without you having to beg for referrals, that is a baseline system that we can help you build out. And again, there's no paid coaching here. I'm not selling anything at this point. I actually wound down my coaching company, so I don't even offer paid coaching at this point. But that's a good example of how a system does the heavy lifting in your business. Social media is another example of a system, so we call it brand authority Builder, where if you have the proper system set up in your business to get content out there, not like I just listed this house or there's an open house or like actually putting valuable content online and expanding your digital footprint, that's another example of how a system can lead to multiple closings per month. And you just need to set the system up and then there's a little bit of daily and weekly maintenance to the system. So those are probably the highest leverage systems that you'll Install in your business are the lead generation levers, as we call them, and then the lead conversion systems which are the email and text nurture sequences or whatnot. So Getting back to 2013 is when I started real estate B school and started coaching agents. It's not so much that I wanted to be a coach. I just had figured out some things that I didn't see other team leaders doing. So the big benefit of me figuring the systems are the solution and a business is a system of systems. Local agents without any experience could come on my team. My first agent was in the business 18 months. I think he was 23 years old when he started with me. He closed one home his first 18 months in the business. His first 12 months with me, he sold 27 homes. Another agent I brought on was selling insurance, B2B. So business to business insurance. He sold 35 or 37 homes his first 12 months with me went on to sell one hundred and twenty two homes in a single year. His best month was 19 transactions closed. So I had figured out some things around leverage, lead generation and leverage client care, which allowed agents that came into my world to only focus on generating appointments, setting appointments on the leads that we were already generating, organic inbound leads, and then meeting with those buyer and seller clients for consultation. So setting appointments and holding consultations, we took off their plate. The pattern that I saw, even with agents that came on my team that were successful, the reason they were successful is that we took all of the busy work off of their plate. And that was a big difference. A traditional solo agent that's selling and this is the 1% selling 25 homes per year. There is this burnout. You working 24, 7, it is like a hustle. You're on your phone, the first thing you're working whenever your clients demanded of you, and every year you're starting over at zero. In the traditional model, there is no exit strategy. And for me, I remember every year when I would reset all of my trackers for the year. I would copy over the tracker from 2025, rename it 2026 and zero out all the transactions. That feeling was brutal. Having to start over again and again. When I talk about Agent Freedom os, the new operating system that I've developed that has three parts, it is because production alone isn't enough to provide freedom. Having served 3,000 agents on the coaching side, it's not that agents are the problem. For the most part, agents are well intentioned, they're willing to work hard, they don't really have a Clear focus like there isn't this. Even brokerages don't provide this. They don't provide a clear path to time and money freedom. The traditional brokerage model, they succeed when a lot of agents sell a handful of homes. If every agent was able to sell 25 homes, all the agents that couldn't sell 25 homes would have to get out of the industry. And then only agents that were selling 25 homes or more remained in the industry. It's probably 10% of agents. We would only need to service the amount of home sales we have. Every MLS would go out of business, every brokerage would go out of business because they wouldn't get the monthly fees. It's an industry that thrives off of a lot of agents doing a little production. So it's a business model problem. And so if you're struggling to achieve any level of financial freedom through sales or time freedom through leverage or systems, or building out true wealth pillars and leverage or residual income pillars, there isn't any built in leverage in the current model. And there is nothing that carries over year to year. And the focus now, this agent Freedom OS is the real opportunity. I actually ended up selling my real estate team, which is pretty rare to be able to exit a business that shows you the strength of the systems to be able to even exit that business. I shifted into a highly leveraged platform. I went from a local team of doing a few hundred transactions, six to eight productive agents, highly dialed in, very profitable, into a different type of real estate team that now expands almost all 50 states in the US, most of the provinces of Canada and four other countries. Yet yes, it's on the exp platform, but it's Agent Freedom OS is the operating system that I now have the opportunity to share with agents and there's no additional costs associated with it. So that same year that I sold my real estate team in 2020, I sold my real estate team, pivoted into exp and it took me. I still did focus on real estate coaching, paid real estate coaching until five years after I came into EXP was when I wound down my paid coaching company. So that was a fun business. It had its headaches. I think every business has a set of headaches. And I had built the very best system in my 1213 year journey in paid real estate coaching through real estate B school. In early 2023, I built the Million Dollar Agent method. So four distinct stages of growth, 100k GCI annual, two 50k, 500k a million as you send those four stages and we have members doing 10 times that that over 10 million GCI. But the basic four stage growth is getting to a million, working less than you did when you were making a hundred thousand, so 5, 6, 7x in your take home income as you navigate those four stages. I built out the best system you could ever build out. It wasn't that I was dissatisfied with that model, it was just that I had the ability, because of the leverage of the platform and this unique real estate team that I had built that defied any borders. It was in all the states, all the provinces of Canada. Agent Freedom Collective on the EXP platform, it allowed me to make the decision to give away what I used to charge $9,800 for 90 days and then $1,800 a month for free. And now that I distilled it all into one opportunity, there are three elements to it. There's Production os. OS stands for operating system. So Production os, Attraction os, which is the agent, attraction, opportunity, and then ultimately Freedom os. So what's the mindset, the productivity, the time management necessary to be able to get all of that stuff done in business. Those two income pillars, one being highly leveraged, which is attraction os, and one being more linear income, which is production os. But Freedom OS allows you to get all of that done and still be able to have a meaningful impact in the areas of life that matter most to you. So that is where the operating system lives now. So Agent Freedom OS lives in aging Freedom Collective and real estate. B school. I just did a webinar the other day and an agent asked like, hey, can I just, I just want access to production os, you know, just let me pay for that. You can't even pay for it. The big promise is to add two to three transactions per month very quickly without any paid leads, without any cold calling, without any door knocking, without any expensive referral fees at closing. And you cannot buy it anymore. And it's the best thing I've ever made. So that was the major strategic decision. And this podcast is not going to be about any kind of pitch to get you to come into our world. If you ever want to have a conversation about it, go to agentfreedom os.com and you get more information about it. You can watch a deeper dive about what it looks like, but this is going to be pure value. The goal here is to help you envision a future where you have freedom. And when I say the word freedom, it's freedom of time, freedom of money, and freedom from stress. And so you want this lifestyle, but A lot of times traditional success does not allow for it. So there's no paid coaching that I will sell you at this point. I have an awesome operating system for production, but I am not a guru. I will guide you through, even for free, some of the methodologies around Agent Freedom OS and what this Freedom Driven system even looks like. At least this first season. You know, I expect to have about 10 or 12 episodes in this first season. It'll be less tactical, more of a different way to think about the potential in your business. And then we'll probably, in seasons two and beyond, probably get a little bit more tactical and I'll try to theme the different episodes. Each episode is going to build on the other episode. This first season is based on the book that I just wrote called the Freedom Driven Agent. So it's available on Amazon, there's an audible version of it as well. It is easily the best thing I've ever created. A very clear and concise representation of how this industry works and where it's fallen flat and how you can take advantage of this opportunity if we ever get the chance to work together. So the next episode will be an introduction. It's called the Illusion of Success. And we're going to be talking about, you know, why selling more homes isn't the answer. Like, I realized that a lot of agents need to sell more homes and I can definitely help you with that. But that doesn't lead to the level of freedom most agents are looking for, whether it's financial time or freedom from stress. So never been more excited about this next season of growth. For those that are already in our world and for those of you that are just going to be consumers of this podcast past, I have nothing but love and respect for you. This is a tough industry. There is not an easy path in this industry. The system that I put together is the easiest path to not only the now income of production, but the longer term income associated with, you know, attraction, operating system and then ultimately Freedom OS. We've got eight Fs that we track in Freedom OS. And the ultimate, which is the bonus, is all about fulfillment. You know, we sit out a three year vision, one year plan, 90 day cycle, and then we break that down into daily actionable items that you can focus on. So there's no guesswork in what you do. We'll unpack all of that here in season one. It is my honor to be on this ride with you and we'll see you in the next episode. Be good. Bye. Bye.