Getting New Agents to 100% Proficiency with Jose Samano and Jeffery McGonigle | Ep 028

When recruiting the right people into your real estate team, people who will thrive in the systems and environment that you've created, very often means going outside the industry and bringing on brand new agents. You obviously need fantastic onboarding and training. You need a lot of support and perhaps some virtual assistants. You need standard operating procedures well documented and tested and iterated upon. You'll learn about all of that and more here on episode 28 of Real Estate Team OS, an episode in which we're bringing you two guests in one episode, something we haven't done since back on episode 10 with Ryan Rodenback and Johnny McCarthy of Spyglass Realty in Austin, Texas. Here you've got the co owners of a top 20 team in California, Power Real Estate Group. You've got Jose Samano and Jeffrey McGonigal here in this one episode. They took completely different paths into the real estate industry but came together in a great partnership. You'll learn about that. You'll learn about how they develop standard operating procedures.

Because what's really important is making sure that the customer comes first and as a team leads, are we really doing that? We aren't doing everything to make sure the agents that we're putting in front of the customers are the best agents.

You'll learn about the VA company that they run and tips to work more effectively. With VAs.

We're big on SOPs, staying very dialed in, making sure that everyone can clearly understand what they're supposed to be doing.

You'll learn about the way they develop.

What I like to call the Agent Advisory Board at Power and the way.

That that Agent Advisory Board informed their fantastic day onboarding and 12 week training programs.

I think our strength is really our training.

Among other things, you'll learn about the way they do collaborative call coaching and so much more in a collaborative fashion. Enjoy this conversation with Jose and Jeffrey.

No matter where your business is today or where you want to take it, you'll get there faster and more profitably with an operating system. Welcome to Team os, your guide to starting, growing and optimizing a real estate team. Here's your host, Ethan Butte.

For insights into starting, growing and optimizing your real estate team, we're talking with Jose simano and Jeffrey McGonigal. Quick background here before we get into it. Jose's the broker owner of Power Real Estate Group in Anaheim, California and he's been in the real estate industry for more than 20 years. Jeffrey's the co owner and director of Agent Success and he's been in the business for about Six years. Thank you so much for talking team Os today, guys.

Thank you for having us, brother.

Thank you for having us.

Yeah, we haven't done a two guest episode since way back on episode 10 with Ryan and Johnny from Spyglass. So it'll be fun to do again and I guess to get us going. I'll direct this one. Jose, what is a must have characteristic of a high performing team?

I would say grit is one of them that we really kind of focus on just because, you know, the tides change all the time in real estate. It's a, it's a definitely a tough gig. Especially now with some of the changes that are going and you need to, you need to have that, you need to muster up that, that energy and just that passion for really kind of what you need to or you want to accomplish in the, in the business.

Love it. Grit is the exact word that came up in the previous episode with Grant Wise. Jeffrey, do you want to add to that or offer maybe a different characteristic?

Yeah, I think it comes down to, yeah, grit, but also falling in love with the fundamentals of it. Because yes, things are, we have to adapt continuously.

Right.

Every time you log on, something new is happening. Someone is doing this, this is working, that's working. But also getting down and maintaining what the foundation of the business is going to be and then continuing to pour into those foundations, continuing to roleplay, continue to do a lot of the things that got you there.

I've heard this language a lot of like, we're moving back into a skills based market. And really this call to fundamentals that you made is dead on with that. And I know we're both basketball fans and it always flips me out when I see a guy go to the line or a woman go to the line shooting like 62% from the free throw. And I like, that's a fundamental, like those are the things we should be able to do with 80% proficiency.

Well, one of the things that I, I've been kind of telling a lot of the agents is like, we're shifting from a, I would like to say like 9 non professional market into more of a professional market space. And you know, we believe we're professional sales athletes in our office. And so one of the mantras, I guess you would like to say is like, Michael Jordan shot free throws until his last championship. Stephen Curry is still shooting free throws. Right. And then so sometimes we practice scripts that we know really well, but I tell them, are you shooting at a 90%, 95% accuracy? Like, are you Delivering that script with the enthusiasm, with every pause, with every single tonality point to be able to get your messaging across. Because if you're missing on that, you know, you could do the script, but there's people that do the same script just a little bit better level. Right?

Love it. I love the way you tied in free throws, too. Really well done for the sake of speed and time, because we've got a great topic that you all have kind of dialed into in your business that I want to break into, like, multiple components of, and that is getting the right people into the organization. But I want to tee it up a little bit by, you know, giving a little bit more background for folks. So maybe in, like, two or three minutes, Jose, talk a little bit about your path into the industry and your path into this partnership in power.

Perfect. Yeah. So, I mean, I got into the business at 18, got my broker's license. Like, I got my real estate license at 19, got my broker's license at 23, opened up a mortgage company, ran two real estate companies, worked at Berkshire Hathaway, fell off, did some investing, and then I ended up at ReMax, and that's where I got to meet Jeff. And, you know, one of the things that I had established before 2013 was that online leads and Zillow was going to be the thing. So that was my must have. When I went to ReMax, I said, hey, you guys have to have Zillow or else I don't know how to generate leads any other way. Right. And, you know, we started doing really well there, and that led us to exp. And now we're here at Real, and we've been in the top 10 at all three of those companies. So we're super proud of being able to accomplish that.

Awesome. What's your path?

Six years ago, I came out here for a wedding. The bride and the groom were like, you'd be great at real estate. I was at what I like to call the quarter life crisis. And at that point, I was at the top of the job. I worked for Jordache, and we were opening stores, and we were doing a lot of things like that, but I just wasn't happy anymore. Next thing I know, went home, packed the car up. Me and my fiance, we got in the car, we drove, and without really having a solid lockdown, it was like, hey, it's Hollywood. Let's just test it out. So we hopped into the real estate. Been in real estate five years. Started as an agent when an opportunity came by which gave us the an opportunity came by which afforded me the ability to go back into management. I hopped right back into it and, you know, started to run our team at ReMax. And then from there, you know, me and Jose have been, you know, just cranking it out. So a lot of training, a lot of process, a lot of systems, but falling in love with it. It's falling in love with, you know, you find your purpose, you know, so hopping in there. And that's what real estate is. Real estate's afforded us to be able to do.

That's awesome. You've already kind of characterized a little bit of the division of labor between you guys, but you want to, like, lay that out really explicitly. Like, what makes this partnership between the two of you so powerful and what does each of you do for us?

At least for me, I think it's. It's. We allow each other to have our own space, which I think it's really kind of important. Like, I mean, obviously I hear his feedback. He tells me things he's doing, but, you know, just having him have his own space and be able to just make his own decisions, and he knows that I got his back no matter what. I think that is super cool. We read the book Rocket Fuel, so I guess the visionary and the operator type of thing, I would say that is kind of our roles, or those are our roles.

Cool. And you bring a corporate background to the operator side of it.

Yes.

So everything. No, everything. We're big on SOPs staying very dialed in, making sure that everyone can clearly understand what they're supposed to be doing. Right. Because I think it's coming into real estate. I realized that most real estate brokers were. Have only done real estate, so a lot of the things that they were doing, it was like, hey, this. We're doing it because this is the way we've always done it. So a lot of the books that I read and a lot of the things that I try to implement come from outside of the real estate space. And bringing that in, it's. Hey, are we tracking everything? What do you mean? We're not tracking that. What do we mean? We're not tracking that sign and that phone number or that ad. Like, how do we know if it's working? Oh, it's working. How do you know that that's working? The way we train, it's an assembly line. First you learn one thing, and you move on through. We don't say you can't do something. We just make sure we're providing all the agents with the tools Necessary to be able to accomplish something that's systematic. Because what's really important is making sure that the customer comes first. And as team leads, are we really doing that if we aren't doing everything to make sure the agents that we're putting in front of the customers are the best agents? And that's our process. Continue to elevate, continue to focus, continue to pour in everything from staff to our virtual assistants, to management to the agents. Everyone knows what everyone should be doing, but also everybody knows where to find the SOPs and of what everyone should be doing. Right. Just in case someone can't come in, we can. We're a team. If your team, you're, you know, on offense or on defense, someone misses a play, you can pick up for them. So that's what we do.

You just communicated some of the spots we're going to go to very soon. But I want to do two things first. The first is to follow up on SOPs. We kind of do drive bys on it all the time. I've never done like good follow ups on it on this show yet. I'd love for you just to go one step deeper. Like, like, you know, you mentioned multiple roles. I assume that there are multiple, multiple SOPs for each of those roles. You mentioned that each, that people have access to them. I'm sure that's part of maybe training and onboarding. No matter the position. Hey, just FYI, but like where do they live? So how do you develop them? How often do you update them and where do they live? Are they like in a Google Drive? Like, just give us one like practical approach to someone that wants to tighten up their approach to SOPs.

You're already doing it, honestly. So what you need to do is just record everything you're doing. Something as simple as the Scribe app or you know, go on Zoom and just record it and talk through it. So a lot of times Jose does this as well. He's like, hey, I want to work on this. He puts on his computer, he presses record and he records his screen and he records himself talking through the process. From there, through the help of our VAs and through the help of AI, we're able to then build out a step by step process for every single thing. Right. And then how do you test it? You test it by giving it, giving it to someone and saying, hey, can you do this? And when they do it, great. When they don't get it done or they start to ask a question now you know what you need to go back to, to Say, all right, cool. Let me tweak that. Because if they have a question, so will everybody else.

So one of the things that I think happens, especially for somebody that's been in the business a long time and doesn't have that corporate background, it's like we get lost in all of that, and then. So, you know, having Jeff, for me, has been like, one of those things that, like, as far as a partnership goes, it allows us to implement a lot of the ideas and a lot of the things and actually have a systematic process to be able to accomplish that goal. Because, you know, everybody has great ideas, but it's like, can you make it happen? And I think that's really kind of what for us. It really kind of gels together a lot of it. I mean, obviously, he comes up with a lot of great things, but every time I come up with something, he's all like, do you have an SOP for it? If not, don't come and talk to me about it.

It's like, the one. He's not gonna. Majority of the time, he's not gonna be the one doing it, right?

Yeah.

So if you're not gonna be doing it, you need to be able to deliver it as clearly as possible. Kind of like when you're working with a client. Right. Let's go over these documents. Are you sure? Do you understand that? I like to tell the clients when we're working with them is like, I want you to feel like you can do it by the end of this transaction. You can feel like you can do it, because that's when people go and brag for you and not market. They go and brag for you about, hey, how great of an agent you are. So it's the same thing on the running the team operations portion of it as well.

I love how simple you made that, by the way. It's like you're already doing it. You may not be consciously aware that you're doing it, but if you want to be able to scale your business in any meaningful way and welcome other people into it in a way that makes sense and allows people to do the things that you need them to do or things that you no longer want to do yourself, you need to document it at some point. And it can be as simple as a screen recording really good. Okay. I'd love for you, Jose, to characterize the power real estate group however you'd like, like, market size, culture, structure. Just share a little bit about the team as it is Today, we're about.

140 members that includes ISAs, that includes our team, our, some of our new agents that we have. And it's a lot of newer agents that we're bringing into the team. So our avatar is actually newer agents that are coming into the industry. We feel like the industry is changing at a lot faster speed than what most people can feel. And it's again that non professional to a professional agent. And I like to say that we're going back to the 80s. We're going back to a time where the brokers were in charge or basically needed to assist agents into having lower funnel leads. And there was a lot of support systems. So you know, that's really kind of how we characterize Power Real estate group. It's a ton of support to be able to help you have end of funnel leads. And we want you practicing transacting and prospecting. That's really all we want you doing. Everything else from design to video editing to posting to creating any of that kind of stuff. Listing, you know, listing coordinators, that's done by our team. That's not something that we want the agents to be doing, I feel like.

Unless they want to.

Yeah, unless they want to. Yeah. It could be a hobby for this.

Right.

But the main thing that we want them doing is prospecting, training and transacting. That's really kind of the, the money making activities that we feel are going to make a difference because every agent that comes to our office, we feel like we have a duty to them to help them, you know, expand their business and build on their business. And so if we're not, we're not doing that. I don't feel like we're doing our job like our agents are our clients. And I'm sure you've heard this quite a bit. And I think that's something that resonates with a lot of the top teams in the country.

Cool. Anything you'd like to add to that, Jeffrey?

It really comes down to creating a system where like Jose said, our agents are our clients. Every day we wake up and say, how can we make their lives better? What can we do? What can we implement? Is there some, is there? How can we add to our tech stack? What are we no longer utilizing? And then focusing on strategic training. Right. Because I've seen a lot of agents be more comfortable doing activities that don't benefit the client. Right. So it's like, hey, you're hired for a job, right? This is your career. You're hired to actually help people. So everything that we do is to support them, to be able to do that. So pretty much it.

When I hear down funnel, of course I hear like more ready to transact. And we're trying to put you agent, whether you're new to the industry or you have some experience into a situation where you don't have to like work and work and work and put a lot of time into something that may not pay off ever and certainly may not pay off soon. And I think part of that, that you guys do uniquely is ISAs. I feel like you have a robust ISA team. A would do feel that way as you talk to other like team leaders and team operators. Like, do you feel like your ISA function is robust? And talk a little bit about that ISA function, characterize it. Right. Is that part of what they're doing, Helping vet move down funnel opportunities so that agents are doing more dollar productive activity.

We looked at our talk time not too long ago. I think we had 165 days of talk time year to date. And so we're four months into the year and a lot of people say, well, how are you able to accomplish that? And it's a, it's a three header monster. Right? It's, it's, it's the agents prospecting, it's our team prospecting, it's our vendors prospecting. Right. It's like everyone is hands on deck because that's how we get in front of opportunity. And then so the virtual assistants are like probably one of the. Not probably. They're the backbone of our office. And what we do, we wouldn't be able to accomplish what we do without them. You know, it's, it's, it's really super crucial to me in my eyes, because we're moving in such a fast speed right now to be able to just give a little bit more opportunity. I mean, that's what Zillow does. That's what all these other companies do. And there's so much opportunity in our, in our B and C leads that we just don't capitalize on that. That, you know, our ISA team does an amazing job being able to take care of that for us.

Cool. So what I think I heard there too Is that your ISAs are also VAs in a lot of cases. Yeah.

So our ISAs, they are virtual assistants. And so they come from Philippines, Mexico, all over, really. Right. And the goal is we train them, we work with them to be able to. Everybody says they nurture, but it's more of a nature type of working with leads like, oh, you're not ready. Throw you to the woods, right? For us, it's like, no. All right, cool. You're six months. Well, here's the plan over the next six months. And the VA's and ISAs that we work with are trained to be able to continue to follow up, continue to find. Not just follow up, but based off of what Ethan is looking for. Hey, he's looking for something in here. Here's what's happening. Here's what's going on in that community. Keeping them informed. And we kind of got the concept with. I first started investing with Robinhood, right. So how do they keep you informed? You get a notification early in the morning, say, hey, the real stock just went up. Congratulations. You're like, all right, cool, right? So it's light touches that continue to keep them engaged. And once they are engaged, they link them with one of their professional partners, one of our real estate agents, and they hop in, get to work, and continue from there. It's a total team effort. And we look at them, they join our team meetings. They are like, they're a part of the family. When we celebrate birthdays in the office, we also celebrate theirs as well because we understand that everything works together when you build a cohesive community.

I'm definitely going to hit you up before we call it a session on more tips for working effectively with VAs, no matter the. No matter what kind of operations, opportunities and assignments they're fulfilling with your team. But I would love to dwell in for at least 20 minutes here, this idea of being careful about who becomes a member of the organization. This is something you guys kind of worked through, realized, and have made some moves on. Jose, do you want to set that story up a little bit and describe, you know, why does this matter? Is this consistent with the trend that you already spoke to, which is professionalization of the industry, like kind of shaking out some of the hobbyists, so to speak, like, how important is this? Wanted to come onto your radar? And then we'll move into some of the actions, specifically kind of like recruiting, onboarding, training.

Well, I mean, I think we've been toying with that idea for like, sincerely.

Max days of how long is that?

Five years, six years now we've been toying with that idea of, hey, wait a minute, you know, the agents who are here every single day practicing role playing, taking online leads, taking a combination of personal leads, SOI leads, all of that are just doing way better then our call volume needed to be 100, 150 dials a day at that time, or else you couldn't get any new Zillow leads. We were on a sync platform, so we would have to do quite a bit of dials. And, you know, we started kind of realizing that the agents that were just running under their own CRM, doing their own thing, we weren't really having a business.

Right.

Like, it wasn't something that was tangible. It's kind of like I tell people, it's like, imagine if you worked at McDonald's and every single person had their own SOP and every single person created their own customer experience. That is what it's like to work at a real estate office.

You pray and you get a good burger.

Yeah.

You're praying, right?

You're praying that you could sell it.

For $5 or that this person could even fulfill those menu items.

Right? And then. And then you could even charge $5 for it. Right. That the compensation in that you're going to get repeat customers. So it's. That concept started coming about, and then Jeff kind of honed that in a little bit, and then we just really decided to create what we consider is a mega office, or I think a team bridge is kind of what you guys call it, right? And then so that concept really kind of resonated with us. It was like one of the Zillow events that they kind of were really honing in on. Hey, there's these mega teams, but above a mega team is this, right? And there's this structure where everyone lives in your CRM. Everyone has the same process. Everyone is having that opportunity now. They could choose to play in on some of our leads or not, right? They could do their own soi business, and we'll help them and we'll support them with a lot of the processes that we have, because we don't want to change somebody. We want to enhance them in a way, is what I like to say. So I would say about five years ago, and another thing that happened that was kind of funny is a lot of the seasoned agents that were at that office were a little bit intimidated by Jeff because he was doing 35 transactions his first year. Right. Something like that. So they were like, wait, wait a minute. This little thing works, right? Or these online lead things work. What do you mean? You're calling all day and making appointments and showing houses and that works. And it's like, you know, all of these things started kind of gelling together, and naturally, some of some of these individuals, unfortunately, started kind of leaving our office space because, you know, opening up one deal versus somebody, you know, five or three or Four especially being so new and, and this is across the board with a lot of the new agents that were coming into the office. They were starting to, we were starting to create that culture of this is a team that shows up every single day at 8 o' clock in the morning. At 8:30 we're role playing till 9:30. By 9:30 we're on the phones, we're calling, we're following up. And it really created this mini culture. Started with like maybe three or four people and it just grew to about 20. The office at that time was about 40 people and it ended up being only 20 people because the rest of the people had to leave. They just, they didn't really kind of.

Feel comfortable pick up on that and where we are today. Jeffrey, with, with like recruiting talk a little bit about like pace and process. What are you looking for when you're actually engaging with a potential person to join the team? How like what percentage of the time are you actually vetting them versus selling the opportunity to them? Like talk. Just, just run through a little bit your philosophy, approach and maybe a couple tips on how you're recruiting. Consistent with this idea of getting the right people in.

I think it comes right down to the fact that we want to attract the right people. Our number one recruiters are the agents in our office. Right. So they, they know what, they know who's going to be a good fit based off of personality.

Right.

Majority of our office is here by 8:30. Roleplay starts at 9. They hit it from, from 9 till 10. Then they understand that they have a workday and they work on this, this, this, this, this and next thing you know they've had an accomplished day. They, we try to build in little wins right throughout. Hey, did you, did you knock it? Did you follow up with all your submitting offers people? Did you follow up with all your hot people who you've already met with? So the agent is our number one recruiter. Then they go and find like minded hungry individuals. Like sports. You got to have that grit, you got to have that hunger. You want to be able to work this. They know that to be able to do this successfully on our team you gotta be full time. And what do we learn by that? Why? It's also to be kind. What I mean by be kind. It's not fair to bring someone into our team and into our environment knowing that they can't, they can't or won't move at the pace. What's going to happen is they're going to be measuring themselves and comparing on themselves and they're going to get really, we've seen it. They get really depressed, right. So for us it was like, is it fair to just, hey, get in here. 200 agents deep, 300 agents deep. No, let's take our time and let it be a great relationship. A relationship between us as the coaches and the agents coming together and actually systematically attacking our goals. Right? So the agents that we're looking for, like Jose said, not necessarily you don't have to be a new agent, but you do have to be willing to take on new ideas. You have to be willing to also give your feedback on what we can do better. We'd be lying if we told you we came up with everything.

We.

And before any changes happen, we go through what I like to call the agent advisory board at power, right? It's 10 agents who are at different phases in different groups within the office. And we just ask them, what do you think about this? How can we improve that? And across the board, they wanted to build a team where it was productivity first. They didn't want to be most. A lot of we fell short and we fell into being popular, right? And we wanted everyone. And now it's like we don't want everyone. We sounds a little Jeff here. It's want to be most. A lot of we fell short and we fell into being popular, right? And we wanted everyone and now it's like we don't want everyone. We sounds a little Jeff here. It's not that we want everyone, we just want all the good ones. We want the ones that fit, the ones that are going to embrace our office culture, the ones that are going to enhance and jump in and dive in and really, you know, go through it. We have a 12 week program like a lot of people DO. And that 12 week program, 10 agents will start and four will get through. We have a scrimmage program, which is our onboarding program and it's a 30 day program before your phone starts to ring from an online lead source. And 10 agents will start and four will get through. But you know what? The agents that get through both of Those are averaging 12, 13, 15, 25, 30 transactions. Right? There's a hot. And why do we do it? Because at the end of the day, the North Star has to be the client. We're confident that the agents that are going to get in front of the next Ethan or the next Jose or next Jim or Sally is an agent that is prepared and they continuously push each other. They continuously work and collaborate. Oh, you don't know how to do that. Well, come on in. It kind of got. It gets a little taxing on everyone when that agent who doesn't show up doesn't really want to pour in and they, they want your success, but don't want to follow your process. It slows everyone down. And honestly, it was the vote of the agents. Every move, every big thing we've ever done, it got unanimous votes from our agents to be like, nah, let's change that. Let's do something different. Well, we're showing up. Why can't they? You know, I have kids. We have an agent, she has four kids. She's a single mother, and she's one of the top producers here. So her question is, why not, why not do it? Why not buy in? Why not give it your all?

So, yeah, and I would say even just them chasing, you know, just understanding the sop, like just the way that we open escrow, right? Our process, we think it's extremely simple, but if you've never done it and you've never been here and you've never been a part of it, you just break it. And we're like, what are you doing?

Like, come on back, come on back. Let's, let's go through here. Step one, all right, Step two, no worries. It's okay to mess up, but it's not okay to just stay in the way.

Correct. Keep making the same mistake over and over.

Stay in your ways. I should say.

I think our strength is really our training and the amount of time and effort that we put into that. Because like, like Jeff said, like, even just, it's just 30 days initially when you onboard. So it's not even like a one day thing. It's a one day. It's just for systems. And then every single day you're getting better, whether you're a seasoned agent. Because I can tell you I've been in the business 20, 22 years now. I started at 16 with my first job as a receptionist. I don't count those years, you know, but, you know, I've. I told Jeff one day I went into one of his classes. I was like, this is the best class I've ever had. And he's.

And I was like, what?

I'm like, yes. I was reading the listing agreement word by word and interpreting it amongst other agents. And I've been a part of a lot of brokerages. I've never really kind of gone into it in that detail, gone through it in that way. And we are, I feel, producing some of the best agents around our community. And that is our goal. To produce an agent who's going to be at a top tier level that's going to benefit a client, is going to do the right thing for them, is going to be honest, that's going to have integrity. And I think that's a part of what we do as power. And that's the one thing I can say we are super proud of.

Nice. Really well done. I want to get into a little bit more detail on the first 30 days and then that 12 week program because I want to know what produces such a great session that you'd walk in and be like, I've been doing this for 20 years, by the way. I do count the receptionist. There's so much to be learned just being around people, period. I think it's one of the reasons it's so important that you have people physically in the office by 8 every day or 8:30 every day. Before I let this thing go, I want to learn a little bit more about this agent advisory board inside the organization. I think a lot of people seek agent feedback before they make important decisions, but I think some share of that is just ad hoc. Like, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait. Let's just ask a couple people. But the fact, Geoffrey, that you said 10 agents, like I feel like this might be a semi formal or even formal thing. Talk a little bit about how the agents advise some of your decision making. How buttoned up is that? Do you like meet with them regularly or do you only go to them when you have a specific decision to make? I think this is a really important layer and I would love to know how you guys do it. Yeah.

Though it starts by picking those 10 agents. Right.

You.

Yeah. So they know who they are, they know that they're respected, they know that their opinions count. And they know that everything that we do is to pour into them. Right. And to pour into others. So those 10 agents are. Have different personalities. Right.

For.

So those agents, some are, you know, going to be more like me. Is it on the paper? What does it say? Doesn't make sense. Others going to be Jose. Super creative. Looking at it from a different angle because in our positions, the one one decision that we make impacts the lives of 140 different families. Not people, but families and friends. And when you have, when you're this size, everything you do is kind of like staring a ship. Right. If you move by one degree too far, you might end up on a whole nother continent. Right. So we like to go in there and write out the SOPs, test it and bring a B test. Like literally hey, a new lead source or new this or hey, what do you guys think about implementing this type of training? And a lot of the things that we get come from actually sitting down. We do one on ones with everybody but these 10 in our positions. The one one decision that we make impacts the lives of 140 different families. Not people, but families and friends. And when you have, when you're this size, everything you do is kind of like staring a ship, right? If you move by one degree too far, you might end up on a whole nother continent, right? So we like to go in there and right out the other people. What are you seeing in the industry? Because majority of the day we're in here, right? So what are you seeing? What are you going through? What are you overcoming? One of the very first things we we did to build out that scrimmage team was we took a pilot team and that's the same 10 agents that we selected and said hey guys, SOPs test it and bring a B test. Like literally hey, a new lead source or new this or hey, what do you guys think about implementing this type of training? And a lot of things that we get come from actually sitting down. We do one on ones with everybody but these 10. I really want it or we really want to improve the way we train. We wrote out an SOP of all of the things that we think that you should know within your first 30 days before your phone rings, right? So it's little bit of hey, do you, can you go to your zip forms and go to glide or skyslope or whatever? You're utilizing people. What are you seeing in the industry? Because majority of the day we're in here, right? So what are you seeing? What are you going through? What are you overcoming? One of the very. Can you access these? Do you know how to run comps? Do you know how to do a lot of the, the little things? First thing we we did to build out that scrimmage team was we took a pilot team and that's the same 10 agents that we selected and said hey guys, that can actually you should be able to do before you meet someone. And we took them through that and they understand that they are going to have to go through more things than everybody else. But be but it's for the overall good. So when we're going through it, we are learning together. For instance, this morning with those same people, we are not. We're done with the nir. We got that right. Jesse B. I really want it or we really want to improve the way we train. We wrote. He was telling us four years ago that this was coming. Like, come on, guys. Right. So we're here what we're focusing on. All right, cool. That means listings. And we're focused on listings. We are going through an out an SOP of all of the things that we think that you should know within your first 30 days. Answering simple objections such as, hey, what are the top 10 most things that you're getting? And then we ace before your phone rings. Right. So it's little bit of hey, do you. Can you go to your zip forms and go to glide or sky slope or whatever you're utilizing all come together and we learn it and we build it and then we take those things that we're working on with our agents and distribute it to the other hundred and thirty people. Right. So they understand that though they show up because they show up and they're winning. Everyone else shows up and they start to win as well. So the culture starts with me and Jose doing what we know we are supposed to do. Can you access these? Do you know how to run comps? Do you know how to do a lot of the little things that can actually you should be able to do before you meet someone. And we took. Then everybody else will also come in and start to fall in line. I tell people, whether you want to or not, you're going to become a leader.

Right.

If you do the right things and you've been through that and they understand that they're gonna have to go through when you are going to be a leader. Charles Barkley had it wrong. No matter what, you're more things than everybody else. But be but it's for the overall good. So when we're. The kids are going to look up to you. So as new people come in, it's utilizing that advisory board to also spread the benefits of why we're doing what we're doing. Because from the Jordache days, I I went from being hey, welcome to going through it. We are learning together. For instance, this morning with Those same people, us polo. My name is Jeffrey McGonagall. Hey, welcome to us polo. And telling them about the sale or we are not. We're done with the nir. We got that right. Jesse B. Paid Polos are two for one to. All right, cool. We're opening a new store. When you get to the new store, he was telling us four years ago that this was coming. Like, come on, guys. Right? So we're here. What we're focusing on. All right, cool. That means listings and we're focusing on listings. We are going through an. You're the one that's opening it. No one tells you truly what's going on, right? They don't. They'll. I hate this. Oh, Jeff. Yeah. This is amazing. The advisory board to come back at Jeff. It is not working. Pull the plug. We have to do an adjustment to it. So letting them know that their thoughts and ideas are respected and answering simple objections such as, hey, what are the top 10 most things that you're getting? And then we count and need. That really helps us grow and maintain a cohesive team that is going in the right direction.

Really good. I'll never forget the first time when I was leading a team.

All come together and we learn it and we build it and then we take those things.

Team of people that I. That I truly understood because someone who was really close to me on the team shared with me. No, they would never tell you that. Oh no, they would never bring that to you.

Like.

No. I think I'm friendly and approachable. But it's so true. I really appreciate that. You also kind of gave a glimpse into one of the questions I wanted to ask around this kind of 30 day, 12 week split like that we're.

Working on with our agents and distribute it to the other 130 people.

Right.

So they understand that though they show up because they show up, draw that.

Out a little bit. And that question was going to be like, how do you determine this?

And they're winning. Everyone else shows up and they start to win as well.

Sequence, essentially the sequence and packaging of the stuff. But I mean, you just offered it a little bit like, what do people need to know in the first 30 days? Like you already have some ideas on that yourself, but I'm sure the agent advisory board probably helped you with, you know, what needs to be packaged in the first 30 versus what goes in.

So the culture starts with me and Jose doing what we know we are supposed to do. Then everybody else will also come in and start to fall in line.

I tell people, week three versus what goes in week nine of the 30 day, 12 week situation. But A, did I characterize that approximately correctly in terms of their kind of insight and advice and got.

Whether you want to or not, you're going to become a leader. Yeah, right. If you do the right things and.

Guidance and support of what you're doing and then B, just kind of walk through both of those a little bit. Like what are the. I think one of you told me that. That you wind up making a thousand.

Calls when you are going to be a leader. Charles Barkley had it wrong. No matter what your first 30 days.

Or something like that, characterize what's going on in the first 30 days.

The kids are going to look up to you. So as new people come in, it's utilizing that advisory board to also spread the benefits of why we're doing. What we're doing is in a little.

Bit about kind of. Because this is part of the vetting process as well, making sure the right people stick around.

Because from the Jordache days I. I went from being hey, welcome around.

But break those two programs down a little bit.

So it all started with a idea of 75 day hard. But we wanted to call it a 90 day hard real estate edition. Right. That was the kind of the premise of it. And then we went into. Well, 90 days is a little too long for any sort of agent to actually.

My name is Jeffrey McGonagall. Hey, welcome to U.S. polo. And telling them about the sale or.

Become proficient in real estate. We need to get these people kind.

Of in paid polls or two for one to. All right, cool. We're opening a new store. When you get to the new store.

Quick and going and getting a quick win. Yeah. You know, it was the Alex remote.

You're the one that's opening it. No one tells you truly what's going on. Right.

Oz thing. Right. Which is. Is, you know, he talks about how like if you're going to go to a great gym, like you got to lose weight right away or else it's not really kind of working. Right. And so, so, you know, we utilize that kind of thought process. And. And so the one thing that was that we knew we needed.

They don't. They'll. I hate this. Oh, Jeff. Yeah. This is amazing.

The advisor to focus on was, you know, contracts was something that was super.

Crucial to come back. Jeff, it is not working. Pull the plug. We have to do an adjustment to it. So letting them know that their thoughts and ideas are respected and we count and need that really helps us grow and maintain a cohesive team that is going in the right direction.

Really good. I'll never forget the first time when I was leading a team of people that I. That I truly understood because someone who was really close to me on the team shared with me. No, they would never tell you that. Oh no, they would never bring that to like. No, I think I'm friendly and approachable but it's so true. I really appreciate that. You also kind of gave a glimpse into one of the questions I wanted to ask around this kind of 30 day, 12 week split, like draw that out a little bit. And that question was going to be like, how do you determine the sequence? Essentially the sequence and packaging of the stuff. But I mean you just offered it a little bit like what do people need to know in the first 30 days? Like you already have some ideas on that yourself, but I'm sure the agent advisory board probably.

And the second thing that was crucial was skills training. And the last thing is practice actually putting all of those things in, into practice and getting a feel for it. And I feel what we ended up doing was we just allowed the actual natural real estate process to dictate how you would learn and how you would go about. Wasn't like we changed it and we said, okay, this is going to be what you're going to learn today. It's like, no, we just wrote out the real estate process and literally went step by step by step jumping through every hurdle. And that's really kind of how we created the 30 day scrimmage team. And then we found out with scrimmage we're getting agents that are brand new into the industry, somewhere between 35 and 50, maybe 60% proficient. Right. Depending on how much attention they put in.

In 30 days.

In 30 days.

Awesome.

And then Jeff created a 12 week program which is our real estate sales athletes program that ties into that and that closes the gap because that at 30 days they started receiving leads. So the training that he's on is now live. And, and it feels real, right? Like it's there, right? No pun intended. Or maybe it was right. It feels real, right? Like it's, it's there. It's like this is what you're going through. Like you, you just went to meet this client and you're going over this agreement and you wrote, helped you with.

You know, what needs to be packaged in the first 30 versus what goes in week three versus what goes in week nine of the 30 day, 12 week situation.

But this request for repair and we do call listening a lot of call A.

Did I characterize that approximately correctly in terms of their kind of insight and advice and guidance and support of what you're doing and then B, just kind of walk through both of those a little bit.

We do collaborative.

Yeah.

It's, it's not just, hey, we're gonna have a call night and we're just gonna make phone calls. It's like, well, before the we tell you to make phone calls, why don't we teach you how to make phone calls. That way you might be a little bit better at it and not have to spend so much time spinning your wheels. It's. It's sharpen the ax, you know, if you want to cut a forest down. Right.

Yeah, I like that. Call Jeffrey to collaborative. I feel like you guys do hands on stuff. I like probably most people do, but I feel like the default these days is let's package it up, let's sequence it, let's put it in some kind of like lightweight or heavyweight, you know, learning. Like what are the. I think one of you told me that. That you wind up making a thousand calls in the first 30 days or something like that. Characterize what's going on in the first 30 days. And a little bit about kind of. Because this is part of the vetting process as well, making sure the right people stick around system and say here you go, here are all your modules and C sequence. It sounds like you're listening to calls together, role playing together and these kinds of things. Because it's not just us in our own experience in that one on one. It's what we can learn by other people's questions, feedback on other people's work, seeing and hearing how other people are doing it. Did I characterize that correctly around. But break those two programs down a little bit.

So it all started with a.

And also share a little bit about how that manifests throughout that 12 week.

Program idea of 75 day hard. But we wanted to call it a 90 day hard.

Yeah, I think you did. Look at the call listening and look at that portion of what we do as remember we're talking about sports.

Right.

Watching film. Like when you. You watch what you did yesterday and even if you guys still won, what could you have done better? And then we sit around the table and we press play our real estate edition.

Right. That was the kind of the premise of it. And then we went into. Well, 90 days is a little too long for any sort of agent to actually become proficient in real estate. We need to get these people kind of.

And then. Hey, did you hear that? Did you hear that? Did you hear that? What do you think about that? So a five minute call can go 45 minutes because we're diving deep in.

Quick and going and get him a quick win. Yeah, you know it was the Alex Hermosi thing, right. Which is. Is, you know he talks about how, look, if you're gonna go to A.

Great gym into what are you doing and saying the things that are going to push the needle. Right. Were you listening to the way he or she said their objection or said where they wanted to move or said what the next steps were or what their concerns were? Or were you just presenting? Because no one wants a present presentation. They could Google that. Right. So continuing to be personable is like.

You got to lose weight right away or else it's not really kind of working. Right. And so, so you know, we, we utilize that kind of thought process. And, and so the one thing that was that, that we knew we needed.

A transactional world is what we're really, really trying to focus on. Because no, yes. I can easily put the 12 week program together and say hey, go over here, click the link, buy it, go through it, sold. No, that's not what we're doing to.

Focus on was, you know, contracts was something that was super crucial.

We're actually in the game with our agents. That's, that's why.

And the second thing that was crucial was skills training.

We're coaching with them when they come back from appointment. I want to know how it went.

And the last thing is practice actually putting all of those things into practice and getting a feel for it. And I feel what we ended up.

Doing was in that live feeling. For instance, George came, George got two listings signed yesterday. Right. And he got interviewed and they had a list of those 12 questions. Actually it was two days ago. So I told him, give me the 12 questions and we're going to solve them as a team. So when we go through some of.

We just allowed the actual natural real estate process to dictate how you would learn and how you would go about it. It wasn't like we changed it and.

We said okay, this is them are on the phone. And then overall he wrote down the questions, objections, whatever you want to call them when he got there. Either way he won. But I needed, I knew he handled it, but I got 139 other people that we need to get prepared for because the market is coming. It's becoming a more professional market. The clients are doing their research. So when it comes down to that, it's taking it step by step, our team and base. And we also put people where they're at. We kind of look at it like driving in the highway in California. Right. I'm from Florida where you might get, you know, i4 might be, you know, now it might be like going to.

Be what you're going to learn today. It's like, no, we just wrote out the real estate process and literally went step by step by step, jumping through every hurdle. And that's really kind of how like.

Five lane, six lanes. No, in California, there might be nine, 10, 11, 12 lanes. So you've got to have based off of how fast someone is moving you.

That's where you created the 30 day scrimmage team. And then we found out with scrimmage, we're getting agents that are brand new into the industry. Somewhere between we're coaching them, we are.

Going and meeting them where they're at. That way, that way we can give them the attention that they desperately need to move into the next lane and to move faster and to build the confidence. That's why we do it, is building that confident agent. Because they've seen this so many times. I love it when someone gives them an objection or we're going back and listening and they get an objection that.

They practice 35 and 50, maybe 60% proficient.

Right.

Depending on how much attention they put in.

In 30 days.

In 30 days.

Awesome.

And then.

And you can hear them smile. You can literally hear them smile on the phone and be able to say, all right, cool. Well, here's what I would do to declutter your property, right. Like you told me to talk about decluttering. Of course. Here's what I would do. I would love to come by your home, walk your home, room by room, and let's figure out what your wants versus your needs are. You know, what do you need?

Jeff created a 12 week program, which is our real estate sales athletes program, that ties into that and that closes the gap. Right.

Because that over the next 60 days, as we sell this property. So it's just the little things that.

We practice at 30 days, they started receiving leads. So the training that he's on is.

Now that are gonna get them there before all of that. Establishing that comes with treating agents the way that we wanted to be treated. Right. So the scrimmage program and the 12 week program are literally mimicked off of what my experience was, what should I be doing? So. All right, cool. Agents need a calendar. User suggested calendar.

You should be here live. And. And it feels real, right? Like it's there, right? No pun intended. Or maybe it was, right? It feels real, right? Like it's. It's there. It's like this is what you're going through. Like you, you just went to meet this client and you're going over this agreement and you wrote this request for repair. And I. And we do Call listening. A lot of call listening. We do collaborative. Yeah, it's. It's not just, hey, we're gonna have a call night and we're just gonna make phone calls. It's like, well before the we tell you to make phone calls. Why don't we teach her at this.

Time each hour what you should work on? So we work with them through those hours. They move from me to Jose to Ruben to Maria to Ozzy. There's that way we can still service the entire team. But as you're moving through different stages throughout your first 30 days, you're getting different angles on it. You're learning how to do follow up boss.

The correct make phone calls. That way you might be a little bit better at it and not have to spend so much time spinning your wheels. It's sharpen the axe, you know, if you want to cut a forest down. Right.

Correct way. All of that compounds into a day where you get to test. We give you a property. We say run us all the way through on the buy side. And they have to input it into follow up boss. They have to go pull up the comps. Have to run the comps just like we're on a recording. They do a live recording explaining the entire process.

Yeah, I like that call Jeffrey to collaborative. I feel like you guys do hands on stuff like probably most people do. But I feel like the default these days is let's package this and then.

We create that and hand that back to them at the very end saying hey, for reference, it's always there for you. Now let's start the 12 week program. And in that program we take an agent from hey, I get, I got the fundamentals. I'm still going to practice every day. Like, like we started with make sure you keep the fundamentals. But the 12 week program is like, how do I learn listings?

How do I get up? Let's sequence it. Let's put it in some kind of like lightweight or heavyweight, you know, learning management system and say here you go, here are all your modules in sequence.

It sounds like you're learning how to do investor things. How do I learn how to do probate? So we go through, we kind of pick your lane, but It's a systematic 12 week training. So yeah, there's office leads, but how do you door knock, how do you do open houses and listening to calls.

Together, role playing together and these kinds of things? Because it's not just us in our own experience in that one on one, it's what we can learn by other people's. Questions, feedback on other portion of that.

Is learning it in the office, but also having the team leads in the office that are saying, hey, Tuesdays, every Tuesday we teach door knocking. Every Wednesday we teach open houses. Every Thursday we teach something else. And that way they can feel comfortable once they're going over that to go and meet that team, lead where they're at and learn from them.

Yeah. And then like all the fundamentals transfer into every single one of those people's work.

Think, seeing and hearing how other people are doing it. Did I characterize that correctly and also share a little bit about how that manifests throughout that 12 week program?

Yeah, I think you did look at the call listening and look at that portion of what we do as remember we're talking about sports, right.

Watching films, aspects. Right. Like we utilize, when we engage with clients, we utilize a lot of the same scripting and it goes into, you know, you have the same form when you shoot a free throw. Right. Like you wouldn't come up with a different free throw shots. You know, when you're trying to win the NBA or even like, you know, I joke around with the agents. It's like imagine Tiger woods went to the tee and today he decided to hit with his left hand or right hand. And, and then so I, I tell him that's kind of what you guys do when you guys don't have a system in place to have certain conversations with people. And they actually get very surprised when they hear us because I still make some calls, right.

Like when you, you watch what you did yesterday and even if you guys still won, what could you have done better? And then we sit around the table and we press play.

And then, so when they hear me and they're like, wait, you sounded just like the script. And I'll go, well, yeah.

And then, hey, did you hear that? Did you hear that? Did you hear that? What do you think about that? So a five minute call can go 45 minutes because we're diving deep.

That's what it was meant for, is to give you form. It's not for you to sound exact. But, you know, when you shoot a free throw, there's a certain way you want to go about it. You know, you might bounce the ball twice, one person might bounce at once, one person might do the little spin.

If you're Giannis, you're just gonna sit there all day.

Yeah. You know, you might do it a little different, but at the end of the day, you're still following through and, and you're still Doing that. And then another thing that Jeff said and you know, it's, it's like you treat, treat people like how you want to be treated. And I think that real estate is a direct reflection of you how much you put into it and, and I.

Feel it falls into what are you doing and saying the things that are going to push the needle, right. Were you listening to the way he or she said their object was the.

Golden rule of, you know, treat real estate how you want it to treat you. Right? And then so if you feel like you're a, you know, multi million dollar business or producer, you got to treat it as such in order for it to pay you like that. So I think those are all things that are kind of important.

Really good. It reminds me one of the true.

Action or said where they wanted to move or said what the next steps were or what their concerns were or were you just presenting because no one wants a presentism the way that you're.

Both kind of talking about how you're constantly building into and building with the team and the entire team. By the way, I was going to say agents, but it really is your entire team you've referred to. Bringing other people into this ongoing training indefinitely reminds me of truism I picked up when I first started selling and serving into the real estate community myself, which is practice builds confidence.

They could Google that, right? So continuing to be personable is in a transactional world is what we're really, really trying to focus on.

Confidence builds success. And this like you truly are practicing and I love Jose, that you're making calls and that other people can like, you know, watch, learn, listen, engage, talk about it too.

One of the questions because no, yes.

I can easily put the 12 week program together and say, hey, go over here, click the link, buy it, go through it, sold. No, that's not what we're doing.

That I asked agents that were interviewing, especially seasoned agents, you know, as we're going through, because what we're telling them is like we practice every day. And I'll say, how many times a month do you practice your listing press?

We're actually in the game with our agents. That's presentation.

And usually the answer is zero. And so, and then, so then I'll.

Say, okay, we're coaching with them when they come back from appointment, I want to know how it went.

So you like to practice on your clients and then that becomes a shocking statement for them. They're like, way I didn't realize that I was doing that. And I said, look Some of the agents that we have here have already done 60 to 80 listing presents in that live feeling.

For instance, George came. George got two listings signed yesterday. Right. And he got interviewed. And they had a limitations year to date.

That's with clients and without clients. So somebody who's getting more at bat, is getting more proficient. They're gonna outpace you just because of the fact that they're actually going through the experience. And we are some of the hardest critics. Like, we make it really hard.

Sometimes I tell them that's my job. My job is to like, hey, I love you, so don't take this the wrong way, but we got to work on that. Like, we got to really dive in there. And if you really care. So those 12 questions, actually, it was two days ago. So I told him, give me the 12 questions, and we're going to solve them as a team. So when we go through, some of them are on the phone. And then overall, he wrote down the questions, objections, whatever you want to call about someone. You understand that growth comes through struggle, and you have to be honest with them. And honestly, let's work on that. And I know you had mentioned Jose hopping back when he got there. Either way, he won, but I needed it. I knew he handled it, but I got a hand in putting on different hats. I think that is one of the key things Jose's able to. He's encouraged and pushed to be able to say, all right, cool. Hey, you know what? There's a new program. Let me hop in there. That way we can follow and see and be able to talk to the agents and understand what they're actually feeling out there. 139 other people that we need to get prepared for because the market is coming. It's becoming a more professional market. The clients are doing their research. So when it comes down to that, it's taking it step by step. Our team and base, and we also put people right, and then he can come back and put on a different hat. In sports, sometimes you. In real estate, sometimes you are the gm, sometimes you are the coach, sometimes you are the player. So a lot of times you are, you know, their cheerleader. Pump good. You go, guys. You got this. So all of those things are what you have to do when you're running a team. Where they're at, we kind of look at it like driving in the highway in California. Right. And a lot of people tend to forget or haven't built up. I'm from Florida, where you might get, you know, i4 might be, you know, now it might be like five lanes, six lanes. No, in California there might be nine, 10, 11, 12 lanes. So you gotta have based off of how fast someone is moving you, that's where your process to where they can hop back in, put on a different hat and work on a different role to un. Kink, you know, kink the hoses in your business.

So that's actually one of my favorite things to do. Right. Like to get back on the phone, you know, because it's kind of how you started. Right. Like for me, it's in sales. Right. So it's the chasing of the client, the. The. The creation of like maybe certain steps. Like even right now we're on the solo seller program, right. And you know, some of the initial type of scripting that we're coaching them.

We are going and meeting them where they're at. That way we had.

Was something that we had worked on already. So we just really kind of. We just went into it, right. And then, you know, a lot of the things that we do on the presentations, it's. We do a lot of it through loom. We've been doing that for five years. So we have precept that way we.

Can give them the attention that they desperately need.

Presentations through loom. We feel transparency is key. And then. So then all of that kind of stuff goes. Gets filtered out to the agents and then they bring in stuff and they're.

Like to move into the next lane and to move faster and to build the confidence. That's why we do it. It's building that confident agent. Because they've seen this so many times. I love it when someone gives them an objection or we're going back and listening and they give them an objection that they practice like, hey, we should do this.

And we're like, dude, I don't know everything. Like, let's bring that in. I think that's super cool. Right?

And then so just giving credit when they do that support as well. Yeah. Making sure, you know that, hey, that was Sonny or that was Calvin or that was this person, you know, so that they can. They can feel the impact of their decisions and their input. Everybody needs that. So.

Yeah. And that's another big thing because a lot of times we try to come from a point where it's all about our agents and they're the ones that are really pushing. That's how we feel, you know, because without them, I don't think we would be here. Right. And then they're allowing us to lead them and to do a Lot of that. Obviously, we're putting a lot of things together too, but, you know, it's all. For us, it's all about them.

And you can hear them smile. You can literally hear them smile on the phone and be able to say, all right, cool. Well, here's what I would do to declutter your property. Right. Like you told me to talk about decluttering.

Of course.

Here's what I would do. I would love to come by your home, walk your home room by room, and let's figure out what your wants versus your needs are. You know, what do you need?

And, you know, just them giving us the opportunity to be able to help them through this journey of real estate, which is kind of crazy.

Yeah, man. I. This is. I mean, this collaborative nature to what you're doing feels so not just, like, important, but, like, natural and fundamental to everything that you're doing. Okay. We're pushing up on an hour over.

The next 60 days as we sell this property. So it's just the little things that we practice.

I promised probably 30 minutes ago, just one tip, like, from each of you. I would like one either definitely do this when you're working with VAs or selecting VAs, or don't and never do this if you're selecting or working with VAs. One tip from each of you on working more effectively with VA that are.

Gonna get them there before all of that. Establishing that comes with treating agents the way that we wanted to be treated. Right. So the scrimmage program, and it's either.

Something to avoid or something to always do.

Something to always do.

12 week program are literally mimicked off of what my experience was. What should I be doing is going.

To be to sit with him every single day for 30 minutes. And I am guilty of not doing that. The only way they're going to get better is if you train them, help them, you know, get together with them as often as you can. They have to see what you're doing.

If they're going to mimic doing so. All right, cool. Agents need a calendar user suggested calendar. You should be here at this time each hour. What you should work on. So we work with them through those hours. They move from me to Jose to Ruben to Maria to Oz.

You know, I think there is something. It's like, first I do, then we do, then you do. Right? It's something that. That. That really kind of resonated to me. And. And you know, Jeff, like, I would always, you know, Jeff would give me a VA and I would always just like, it wouldn't work out.

Give me back. You know, Come on, girl. I'm sorry. I don't know. There's that way. We can still service the entire team. But as you're moving through different stages, I apologize.

And it's like, what are you thinking? Like, read your mind. And I'm like, oh, that's true. Yeah. And so I, I had to kind of start learning.

Throughout your first 30 days, you're getting different angles on it. You're learning how to do follow up.

Off the career to be able to kind of do that, understand your role.

So we have a VA company and the company's called Sidekick because you're the superhero. Correct way. All of that compounds into a day where you get to test. We give you a property. We say, run us all the way through on the buy side. And they have to. You're Batman without. What's Robin without Batman? So a lot of people, they, hey, I have a problem. I'm just gonna give it to someone. And they don't write out what they should be do. Input it into follow up. Boss, they have to go pull up the comps. After run the comps doing, you're not showing them, you're not following up. And a lot of times they're left lost. And it's not because you can't work in a broken system. So the system is broken. So a lot of times I like to sit down with people and actually, let's work on your SOPs, let's work on your system. That way whoever we put in here can be on a path to success. So before we bring on a va, just like we're on a recording, they do a live recording explaining the entire process. And then we create that and hand that back to them at the very end saying, hey, for reference. It's always there for you. Now let's start the 12 week program. And in that program, we take an agent from. Just like everything else that we do in here, we document it. We have the correct expectations, we write out how we're going to hold them accountable, we communicate that with them, we test for proficiency. And like Jose said, we continuously check in and pour into them. And because we've been able to do that with five to seven ISAs, we're able to create an extra systematically pulling from, hey, I get, I got the fundamentals. I'm still going to practice every day. Like, like we started with, make sure you keep the fundamentals. But the 12 week program's like, how do I learn listings? How do I learn how to do investor things. How do I learn how to do probate? So we go through. You kind of pick your database. An extra 60, 70 transactions a year when it comes down to helping lane. But It's a systematic 12 week training. So our TC department run not only our office TCs, TC for our office, but our office TCs for other brokerage. We have one person with three BAs doing 6, 7, 800 transactions some years. Right. And it's because it's. Everybody understands what they need to do. And if everybody does their job correctly, including the person who brought on the VA of training, implementing and holding them accountable, then the world's gonna move around. It's gonna, it's gonna go good. Everything's gonna be all right. So that's the very first step. Document what you're doing. When are you gonna have time? Now there's office leads, but how do you doorknock, how do you do open houses? And a portion of that is learning it in the office, but also having the team leads in the office that are saying, hey, Tuesdays, every Tuesday, we teach door knocking every Wednesday to check in. How are you going to hold them accountable and how are you going to reward them for really, really being there? Everyone's screaming for hey, Robin, help me. But they don't know how to fight because you didn't teach them.

I love the way you wrapped that one up. That's really good. I also like that you stepped out of the sports metaphor doors, which do work really, really well for that lab.

We teach open houses. Every Thursday we teach something else.

And that's what that was great. Okay, for the sake of time, I need to call this a session with you guys. I've really enjoyed it. I know I opened up what could have been like a second hour of conversation with that last question, but I didn't want to miss it while I have you guys here. Not that we can't do it again. So I'm going to go one and then the other with my favorite three pairs of closing questions.

And they can feel comfortable once they're going over that to go and meet that team, lead where they're at and learn from them.

Yeah. And then like all the fundamentals transfer into every single one of those aspects. Right. Like we, we utilize, when we engage with clients, we utilize a lot of this.

I'll start with you, Jeffrey. What is your very favorite team to root for besides power Real estate group.

Or what is the team scripting? And it goes into, you know, you have the same form when you Shoot a free throw.

Best team you've ever been a member of.

Orlando Magic all day. But overall, I. I'm. People will tell you, I'm pretty locked in here. I'm always zoning in. I love everything Lawton and the guys are doing locally. Ehomes and their crews crushing it. Followed sunit for years. Gary Ashton, I can name a lot. Like, like, you know, overall, I study, I tell and I've told them, like, I'm studying what you're doing. I know their numbers just probably just as good as they know theirs, right? So for me, it's studying.

Right. Like, you wouldn't come up with a different free throw shot. You know, when you're trying to win the NBA or even, like, you know, I joke around with the agents.

It's like, imagine and understanding what are their problems, what do they have have to overcome so that I don't have to do that. But also, where are they winning? What can we implement here to be of benefit to our team?

Awesome. Well done. I've had every one of those people on except Elmer at ehomes. I've not had him on yet, although I have reached out to him on it. So we will get that. We'll get that thing closed.

Tiger woods went to the tee, and today he decided to hit with his left right hand. And. And then. So I tell him that's kind of what you guys do when you guys don't have down.

But that's what we're trying to do on real estate Team os is to, like, open some of that stuff up. Of course, connecting directly is the real deal, but we're trying to do, you know, a precursor to that. Jose, what is one of your most frivolous purchases or what's a cheapskate habit?

A system in place to have certain conversations with people, and they actually get very surprised when they hear us because I still make some calls, right? And then so when they hear me and they're like, wait, you sounded just like the script. And I'll go, well, yeah, that's what it was meant for, is to give you form. It's not for you to sound, you.

Hold on to, even though you probably don't need to.

I. I mean, I'm kind of funny about that. I like to. Yeah, no, but purple is like, I, you know, I overspend on tech. I would like to say I like to find moments for my wife, Zach. But, you know, when you shoot a free throw, there's a certain way you want to go about it. You know, you might Bounce the ball twice. One person might bounce it once. One person might do the little spin if you're young that I kind of have a joy of finding the most inexpensive but best experience that I can find in. And I can say like right now we have a candle lit dinner. I think it was like 39 in LA and it's a violinist playing and doing a tribute to Adele and it's all candlelit and it's, it's in this.

Like you just gotta sit there all day.

Yeah, exactly. You know, you might do it a little different, but at the end of the day you're still following through and you're still doing that. And then another thing that Jeff said, I forget what the place is, but I found it online. I found this company called Gold Star and so I, I tend to just try to find the cheapest thing. I think we went to a barbecue event, it was like seven bucks. We went to Lobster Fast, it was like $12. So I like to go to all of those small little venues, support local places and just kind of get lost. And you know, it's, it's like you treat, treat people like how you want to be treated. And I think that real estate is a direct reflection of you, how much you put into it and, and I feel it fall lost in that space. So I think that's kind of cool for me. You know, I don't get out much, man. So for me, anything, anything outside these walls, I'm like, oh my God, this is crazy.

That's awesome. I just love that you're so devoted to. I mean, it's still a constant build mode for you that you're just zoned into what you're doing. Last one, Jeffrey. How do you invest your time in learning, growing and developing? Or how do you invest your time in resting, relaxing and recharging?

Plane rides have become the recharging and learning. I get a lot done on those. I've been traveling a lot last few years.

You a WI fi guy or a. No WI fi guy.

I'm a WI fi guy. I gotta get it in the reason because like I'll see a word and I gotta know what it means and how to use it in different ways. So like that's where it really came in. But always, always staying in a book, right? Staying in a book that is going to pour into me, pour into the office, pour into the agents inside of a book. People have told you how to navigate life and navigate the problem is the.

Golden rule of, you know, treat real estate how you Want it to treat you right. And then so if you feel like you're a, you know, multi million dollar business or producer, you got to treat it as such in order for it to pay you like that. So I think those are all things that are kind of important.

Really good. It reminds me one of the truisms, the way that you're both kind of talking about how you're constantly building into and building with problems and navigate the business.

But are you. A lot of times we try to figure things out on our own. And books have been really, really helpful on that. Those are some of the best teachers. Pour in and give back. And then also diving in and not being afraid to ask for help.

Like, I know the team and the entire team, by the way, I was going to say agents, but it really is your entire team you've referred to. Bringing other people into this ongoing training indefinitely reminds me of truism.

I picked up the names that I named, and I know some of them are local. I will call you. I will like, all right, cool. All right. Hey, how you doing that? How does that work? Hey, here's what we're doing. It's staying open to it and embracing it. So for me, it. I'm. I know where I'm trying to go. And the books help us get.

When I first started selling and serving into the real estate community myself, which is practice builds confidence there.

And then the coaching and the collaborative. The same way we're collaborative.

It's confidence, build success. And this like you truly are practicing. And I love, Jose, that you're making calls and that other people can like, you know, watch, learn, listen, engage, talk about it too.

One of the questions that I ask agents that we're interviewing, especially seasoned agents, you know, as we're going through the.

Office, is the same way. We'll call just in time and be like, hey, bro, how do you do that? Or call, you know, the Perry group? Like, Mike, you're crushing it. What are you doing? Give me some feedback. I'm having this problem, I think, because.

What we're telling them is like, we practice every day. And I'll say, how many times a month do you practice your listing presentation? And usually the answer is zero. And so, and then, so then I'll say, oh, okay, so you like to practice on your clients. And then that becomes a shocking statement for them. They're like, way, I didn't realize that I was doing that.

And that is one thing that we are super, super focused on, because we're all in. We're all in this together. Whether no matter what the team name is, we're all trying to make real estate a better place. Mahatma Gandhi has a quote, be the change that you want to see in the world. And no, collaboration is one of the things that when I came into their industry, everybody was like, no, that's mine. Like, no, it's not. It doesn't belong to anybody. Give it to the people. Like, leave it behind. So books. Books are a great example of that.

Cool. I appreciate you both so much. I love what you're building. I love the collaborative approach that you're taking to it both inside and outside the team. The way that you're investing in each other, investing in the people around you. I appreciate.

Look, some of the agents that we have here have already done 60 to 80 listing presents that you're spending all.

Of this time with me and of course, with all the folks who watch and listen. I wish you continued success stations here today.

That's with clients and without clients. So somebody who's getting more at bat is getting more proficient. They're going to outpace you just because of the fact that they're actually going through the experience. And we are some of the hardest critics. Like, we make it really hard sometimes.

Yeah. I tell them that's my job. My job is to like, hey, I love you. So don't take this the wrong way, but we got to work on that. Like, we got to really dive in there. And if you really care, I look.

Forward to seeing you guys out and about somewhere in the world within this calendar year.

Thank you, brother. We'll see you soon.

See ya.

Thanks for checking out this episode of Team OS for email exclusive insights every week, sign up at realestateteamos.com.

Care about someone. You understand that growth comes through struggle, and you have to be honest with them. And honestly, let's work on that. And I know you had mentioned Jose hopping back in and putting on different hats. I think that is one of the key things. Jose's able to. He's encouraged and pushed to be able to say, all right, cool. Hey, you know what? There's a new program. Let me hop in there. That way we can follow and see and be able to talk to the agents and understand what they're actually feeling out there. Right? And then he can come back and put on a different hat. In sports, sometimes you. In real estate, sometimes you are the gm, sometimes you are the coach, sometimes you are the player. So a lot of times you are their cheerleader. Pump good. You go Guys, you got this. So all of those things are what you have to do when you're running a team. And a lot of people tend to forget or haven't built a process to where they can hop back in, put on a different hat, and work on a different role to un. Kink, you know, keep the hose in your business.

So, yeah, that's actually one of my favorite things to do.

Right.

Like to get back on the phone, you know, because it's kind of how you started. Right. Like, for me, it's in sales. Right. So it's the chasing of the client, the. The. The creation of, like, maybe certain steps. Like, even right now, we're on the solo seller program, right? And, you know, some of the initial type of scripting that we had was something that we had worked on already. So we just really kind of. We just went into it, right? And then, you know, a lot of the things that we do on the presentations, it's. We do a lot of it through Loom. We've been doing that for five years, so we have preset presentations through Loom. We feel transparency is key. And then. So then all of that kind of stuff goes. Gets filtered out to the agents, and then they bring in stuff and they're like, hey, we should do this. And we're like, dude, I don't know. Everything. Like, let's bring that in. I think that's super cool. Right? And then.

So just having credit when they do that's important as well. Yeah. Making sure, you know, that, hey, that was Sonny or that was Calvin or that was this person, you know, so that they can. They can feel the impact of their decisions and their input. Everybody needs that. So.

Yeah, and that's another big thing, because a lot of times it's like, we try to come from a point where it's all about our agents, and they're the ones that are really pushing. That's how we feel, you know, because without them, I don't think we would be here. Right. And then they're allowing us to. To lead them and to do a lot of that. Obviously, we're putting a lot of things together too, but, you know, it's all. For us, it's all about them and, you know, just them giving us the opportunity to be able to help them through this journey of real estate, which is kind of crazy.

Yeah, man. I. This is. I mean, this collaborative nature to what you're doing feels so not just, like, important, but, like, natural and fundamental to everything that you're doing. Okay. We're Pushing up on an hour. I promised probably 30 minutes ago, just a one tip, like, from each of you. I would like one either definitely do this when you're working with VAs, or selecting VAs, or don't and never do this if you're selecting or working with VAs. One tip from each of you on working more effectively with VAs. Either something to avoid or something to always do.

Something to always do is going to be to sit with them every single day for 30 minutes. And I am guilty of not doing that. The only way they're going to get better is if you train them, help them, you know, get together with them as often as you can. They have to see what you're doing if they're gonna mimic. You know, I think there is something. It's like, first I do, then we do, then you do. Right. It's something that. That. That really kind of resonated to me. And. And, you know, Jeff, like, I would always, you know, Jeff would give me a va and I would always just, like, it wouldn't work out.

Give me it back. Yeah. Come on, girl.

I'm sorry.

I don't know. I apologize.

And he's like, what are you. Read your mind? And I'm like, well, that's true. Yeah. And so I had to kind of start learning to be able to kind.

Of do that, understand your role. So we have a VA company, and the company's called Sidekick because you're the superhero. You're Batman without. What's Robin without Batman? So a lot of people, they, hey, I have a problem. I'm just gonna give it to someone. And they don't write out what they should be doing. You're not showing them. You're not following up. And a lot of times they're left lost. And it's not because you can't work in a broken system. So the system is broken. So a lot of times I like to sit down with people and actually, let's work on your SOPs. Let's work on your system. That way, whoever we put in here can be on a path to success. So before we bring on a va, just like everything else that we do in here, we document it. We have the correct expectations. We write out how we're going to hold them accountable. We communicate that with them. We test for proficiency. And like Jose said, we continuously check in and pour into them. And because we've been able to do that with five to seven ISAs, we're able to create an extra, systematically pulling from our database an extra 60, 70 transactions a year. When it comes down to helping our TC department run not only our office, TCs, TC for our office, but our TCs for other brokerage, we have one person with three BAS doing 6, 7, 800 transactions some years, right? And it's because it's. Everybody understands what they need to do. And if everybody does their job correctly, including the person who brought on the VA of training, implementing, and holding them accountable, then the world's gonna move around. It's gonna. It's gonna go good. Everything's gonna be all right. So that's the very first step. Document what you're doing. When are you gonna have time to check in? How are you gonna hold them accountable? And how are you going to reward them for really, really being there? Everyone's screaming for, hey, Robin, help me. But they don't know how to fight because you didn't teach them.

I love the way you wrap that one up. That's really good. I also like that you stepped out of the sports metaphors, which do work really, really well for that last one. That was great. Okay, for the sake of time, I need to call this a session with you guys. I've really enjoyed it. I know I opened up what could have been like a second hour of conversation with. With that last question, but I didn't want to miss it while I have you guys here. Not that we can't do it again. So I'm going to go one and then the other with my favorite three pairs of closing questions. And I'll start with you, Jeffrey. What is your very favorite team to root for besides power Real estate group or what is the best team you've ever been a member of?

Orlando Magic all day. But overall, I. I'm. People will tell you, I'm pretty locked in here. I'm always zoning in. I love everything Lawton and the guys are doing locally. E Homes and their crews crushing it followed sunit for years. Gary Ashton, I can name a lot. Like, you know, overall, I study, I tell. And I've told them, like, I'm studying what you're doing. I know their numbers just probably just as good as they know theirs, right? So for me, it's studying and understanding what are their problems? What do they have have to overcome so that I don't have to do that? But also, where are they winning? What can we implement here to be of a benefit to our team?

Awesome. Well done. I've had every one of those people on except Elmer at ehomes. I've not had him on yet, although I have reached out to him on it. So we will get that, we'll get that thing closed down. But that's what we're trying to do on real estate team OS is to like open some of that stuff up. Of course, connecting directly is the real deal, but we're trying to do, you know, a precursor to that. Jose, what is one of your most frivolous purchases? Or what's a cheapskate habit that you hold on to even though you probably don't need to?

I, I mean, I'm kind of funny about that. I like to. Yeah, no, but frivolous. Like I, you know, I overspend on tech. I would like to say I like to find moments for my wife that I kind of have a joy of finding the most inexpensive but best experience that I can find in. And I could say, like right now we have a candle lit dinner. I think it was like $39 in LA and it's a violinist playing and doing a tribute to Adele. And it's all candlelit and it's, it's in this. Like, I forget what the place is, but I found it online. I found this company called Gold Star and so I, I tend to just try to find the cheapest thing. I think we went to a barbecue event, it was like seven bucks. We went to Lobster Fest, it was like $12. So I like to go to all of those small little venues, support local places and just kind of get lost in that space. So I think that's kind of cool for me. You know, I don't get out much, man. So for me, anything, anything outside these walls, I'm like, oh my God, this is cr. Easy.

That's awesome. I just love that you're so devoted to. I mean, it's still a constant build mode for you that you're just zoned into what you're doing. Last one, Jeffrey. How do you invest your time in learning, growing and developing or how do you invest your time in resting, relaxing and recharging?

Plane rides have become the recharging and learning. I get a lot done on those. I've been traveling a lot last few years.

You a wi fi guy or a no wi fi guy.

I'm a wi fi guy. I gotta get it. And the reason, because like I'll see a word and I got to know what it means and how to use it in different ways. So like that's where it really came in. But always, always staying in a book, right? Staying in a book that is going to pour into me. Pour into the office. Pour into the agents. Inside of a book, people have told you how to navigate life and navigate the problems and navigate the business. But are you. A lot of times we try to figure things out on our own, and books have been really, really helpful on that. Those are some of the best teachers. Pour in and give back. And then also diving in and not being afraid to ask for help. Like, I know the names that I named, and I know some of them are local. I will call you. I will. Like, all right, cool.

All right.

Hey, how you doing that? How does that work? Hey, here's what we're doing. It's staying open to it and embracing it. So for me, I know where I'm trying to go. And the books help us get there. And then the coaching and the collaborative. The same way we're collaborative in the office is the same way we'll call just in time, be like, hey, bro, how do you do that? Or call, you know, the Perry Group and be like, mike, you're crushing it. What are you doing? Give me some feedback. I'm having this problem. I think that is one thing that we are super, super focused on, because we're all in this together. Whether no matter what the team name is, we're all trying to make real estate a better place. Mahatma Gandhi has a quote, be the change that you want to see in the world. And no, collaboration is one of the things that, when I came into the industry, everybody was like, no, that's mine. Like, no, it's not. It doesn't belong to anybody. Give it to the people. Like, leave it behind. So books. Books are a great example of that.

Cool. I appreciate you both so much. I love what you're building. I love the collaborative approach that you're taking to it both inside and outside the team, the way that you're investing in each other, investing in the people around you. I appreciate you spending all of this time with me and, of course, with all the folks who watch and listen. I wish you continued success. I look forward to seeing you guys out and about somewhere in the world within this calendar year.

Thank you, brother. We'll see you soon.

Thank you. See you.

Thanks for checking out this episode of Team OS. For email exclusive insights every week, sign up at realestateteamos.com.