[Inside The Team] Aligning Sales and Operations with Alise Hannebaum

Vice president of sales and operations. That's the title of Elise Hannebaum Inside the Lawton Team. She's been with the team just since the start of this year, but she brings to the role more than a dozen years of experience in operations, primarily in banking and finance. Learn how she scoped up the role, how she invested time across her first 90 days, what's ahead in the next year or two as she works to bring sales and operations together. We talk culture, we talk alignment, and most importantly, we talk finances and cash flow. Check out this conversation in our Inside the Lawton Team series with Elise Hannebaum right now. Elise, thank you so much for sitting down with me. It's been a pleasure to go inside the Lawton team and I'm really glad that you found them and they found you and that you're a member of the team.

Yeah, me too. I'm actually very excited and lucky that they found me. So it's been a fun ride since I got here.

How long has it been? Two months? Three months?

Yeah, I started in January. Okay, so what are we on on month four?

Okay, cool. Well, we're going to dive into what your role is and how you connect to the rest of the organization. I see you maybe as the, as an alignment piece or a glue piece or something, but we'll characterize that as we get into it. But I'm going to start with the question I start with everyone on, which is a must have characteristic of a high performing team. When you think about a high performing team, what does it have to have?

Oh, wow. Honestly, I think one of the biggest must haves is just in the real estate world is kind of endurance and, you know, being able to push through change with the market, move with whatever's coming your way and continue that movement. I think a lot of times people, they'll start out running and they're excited. Real estate's an industry though, where that'll get you for a little bit, but it's not going to make you successful in the long run. So I would say off the top of my head, endurance would probably be the number one for sure.

Yeah, I love it. And I kind of hear in that too, a little bit of perseverance as well. So it's like you can't run out of steam. You need to pace yourself. You need to fight through the things that are hard. And now as I'm thinking about what I think your role is, which again, we'll get into, I think a lot of it too is like, how do we create systems and organize ourselves in order to support that endurance. To allow you to go longer with the same amount of energy.

Yeah, no, I mean, that's exactly right. And like you said, hopefully we'll define my job. I don't know here today, but yeah, a lot of it is that creating those systems and processes that will allow you to continue at the right rate and pace, that's a little bit above maybe your competitors are ahead of the market, but not to where it'll burn you out.

So when did you realize that operations and alignment and a lot of this, like, the guts of a business was like a strength and a passion of yours?

Oh, man. So we're gonna go back a little bit.

Feel free to walk us up.

Yeah. So in my early. Well, I was actually 19 when I started with a larger corporation, and I literally started at the bottom, but I had an amazing leader there, and she kind of developed me and grew me, and I got an opportunity to take on my first location. Right. So staff. And I was in my early 20s and someone had asked me, like, why, why are you doing this? Why are you pursuing it? And I realized I love operations. I love walking in and seeing this, like, jumbled mess of a picture and then being able to kind of put that together and get everyone moving in the same direction to create it kind of in my mind. And again, this might sound weird, so whenever you don't want to use it, but it's like if someone came in and you know those like, 10,000 piece puzzles where the pieces are tiny and they dump it out on a table, but they take the box so you don't know what the picture is. What's exciting for me is like, looking at those pieces and saying, hey, I think I know the picture we can build. And then having your team work with you on that, like, I need you to get all the yellow pieces together because I think this is a flower.

Right.

And watching that all come together and all of a sudden you've got your team that put together this beautiful puzzle picture. I don't know. It's exciting for me, and I know that sounds weird, but.

No, it's cool. It's finding opportunities to A, discover that and then B, exercise it. It's a gift. This is cool. What spaces. Like, I think you've worked in a couple of different industries in probably approximately similar roles. Where have you been and what is it about real estate that's interesting to you in terms of, like, that. That we'll stay with the puzzle analogy.

Yeah. Most of My history is with like the finance industry, the banking industry. So that's kind of where I was born and bred and grew up. The real estate industry wasn't necessarily like a intentional thought. It's kind of something I fell into, but I was intrigued by it because there is a lot of change in movement and it's very different moving a ship where you're working with, in essence, business owners, right? So it's very different than having employees. Right. You've got a ship that's full of both employees, they're their own business owners. You've got millions of different personalities and they're all coming together with like one purpose or one goal. So what's exciting to me about it is seeing how I can take a wide variety of these personalities, give them that one vision together and, and the stuff that they come up with, the creativeness when you get very different people in a room together has been very exciting. Whereas coming from corporate, it's very structured, which I love. Again, it's moving that ship. But in real estate, I mean, you're just on the go, you're quick, you're on your feet and there's a lot of personality variants.

So. Yeah, and again, to your point, like it's not in a corporate environment, generally speaking, you see, this is what we're doing. Do it or don't. You're not here anymore. Whereas here it's like it's a different balance or it's a different set of. I mean, you're probably to get people to see the vision and go along with it. You're leveraging different strengths and skills too. Because it's more persuasion than it is whip cracking, per se.

Oh yeah, absolutely. And I think one of the other pieces I like is it's a lot more collaborative, almost like I. You rely a lot more on your team to come together and sit in a room. So there, there's no room for ego. Right. Or to be successful. You have to put your ego aside, I should say. So it's not like I can walk in that room and say, like you said, this is how we're going to do it. Oftentimes it's walking the room and saying, you guys have all these vast experiences from different angles. How do we get here? Like, here's my vision, let's brainstorm it together. And I think that's one of my passions that has been there for a long time. And I think there's big companies that have done it right, like, you know, Google think tanks and Amazon and all that. Stuff they dedicate time where you sit in a room and you're not supposed to work on anything other than coming up with ideas. Right. How do we be ahead of the game? And that's kind of something I want to implement in this world too. And Lawton team is that opportunity by far. One of the things that I most appreciate and was excited about to join this team was kind of that freedom of. All right, Elise, like, let's go. Here's our vision. Let's think tank it. Let's be different. Let's, you know, how do we get ahead of the game?

So, yeah, I mean, you walked me right up to where I promised we would go anyway, which is like, how did you find the Lawton team? How did they find you? And what was the window and the nature of the engagement from this could be a thing to. I'm coming on board. Yeah.

So it was interesting. I had decided that I was kind of ready for that shift in transit transition and maybe next level in this real estate industry. And George happened across my LinkedIn, and I got a phone call. It was, I'm at home, like, trying to make dinner, and kids are screaming, and I get a phone call from a number I don't recognize. And of course, I mean, I know who George is. I've been in the industry for a few years now. And he's like, hey, this is George. And I'm like, george? And he's like, yeah, George Lawton. You interested in a phone call or in a conversation? And I'm like, yeah. And trying to cover the macaroni and cheese. Yeah. So that's kind of how it started. Is LinkedIn cool?

And when you. When you first started talking, like, what did they think they needed? And what did you see in that opportunity?

So as far as what they need, they needed me, right? No, I'm just kidding. No, I know that they were looking for a new dynamic and someone that had some experience more on that business growth, development, and movement side that wasn't necessarily just tied into real estate to bring some outside perspective and some positive shift in change. Cause I know they've done an amazing job to get to where they're at, and that's where that innovation comes in, is they're like, all right, how do we get to the next level? Let's bring in a different perspective. So I think that's kind of where I came in, was my history. My 15 years is outside of real estate and that excitement. Right. To kind of blend those worlds together. So I think it worked.

Out really?

Well, at least I feel like it did. You'll have to ask George and Billy. Let's talk again in six months.

Yeah.

And here.

Yeah, that's great. Cool. So as you scoped, so, so you, you joined the organization in January as you're kind of scoping things and let's stay with the puzzle thing. I guess we'll ride this all the way to the end.

All right, let's do it.

Let's see what it takes. Like, like is, is you're scoping like the pieces that are in play. Like what do I have here? What do we really want to do? What, what does George or Billy kind of see here? You know, what are we going to prioritize? Like, how did you shape up all the opportunity in an organization this large and this successful to date? Like, how did you maybe start defining projects and prioritizing them?

Yeah, I think the biggest thing, that first step has to be just the observation piece. So I spent a good 30, 45 days those first few days asking questions and just learning anywhere from reception to in depth ops and integration with follow up boss. Like, tell me what you do. Like, where are we at? Where are these projects at so I can get a better idea of kind of like you said, clearly defining scope and then who's owning what scope and do we need to move it around? Right. So we do have, as you scale, you'll have people who are taking on marketing and they're taking on backend and they're taking on event planning or you know what I mean, like a lot of mixes. So just figuring out what all those pieces are and getting through that step and then keeping communication open as were going through it. Right. Because you come into a new team and they have new leadership. There's going to be that, that worry and that fear and it's normal and it's okay. But that communication through the process being super clear really helps with that. Fear of my goal is not. I'm not coming in here to like change what everything or fire you or you know what I mean? That's not my goal. Let's teach me so that I can learn alongside you and then let's sit down together. Back to that brainstorming. Here's what I'm seeing and that's kind of where you give that feedback. How do you. What do you see? All right, where can we improve? And all the while you have to keep the big goal in mind of like, this is where George and Billy want us to go. So how do I break it down into manageable pieces kind of a thing. So. And right now we're in that. I've finished the observation and the analyzing piece of it. So now it's kind of getting to that coaching and correcting and brainstorming phase is where we're at now. So.

Cool. This is a crazy specific question.

Okay.

But like, as you're going, it'll be.

Easy for you to answer.

I'm just like. But I think it's interesting. Like, so you're going essentially on a learning and discovery and conversation and relationship building tour inside the organization. You're collecting all. Are you like, this is the, this is the specific part. Are you like, ever noting this? Are you like notepadding it? Are you keeping like Google Docs? Like, how are you organizing all of this? Because you're getting a lot of input, A lot of input. Are you, are you the kind of person that's like, you're just keeping it all together in your head? Or are you like, organizing all this information? Are you turning it into like quantifiable stuff? Or is it all just like, how are you organizing all this stuff to make sense of it? Because this is, you know, you're coming in as a vice president into an organization with hundreds of agents, like, what, 70 staff? 75. Yeah.

We're not that high anymore, but yeah, we got a lot. Yeah.

Dozens of people. Like, yeah, this is not a small organization. So I assume there's a lot of information here. Like, how are you organizing it all and sorting through it to kind of make sense and discover some themes to kind of vet and validate with some of the people.

Yeah. One, I wish I could tell you that I have, like amazing brain power. I'm super organized with that. Yeah. But the answer is no. It's whatever I have in my hand. So what'll happen is throughout the week, if it's a notepad or a sticky note or my phone, I'll take notes on my phone or voice to talk. And then at the end of the week, and this is something that I have found very useful over the years and I'm very protective of my Friday, I try not to schedule any appointments on Friday or do anything outside of taking all that data. And then I do organize it on either a spreadsheet if I need to quantify data or, you know, Google Doc or something. But I have a folder that's actually called Observation Phase. And so in there is where I will combine everything. But yes, I have to remember this notebook and that notebook and this part of my phone. But like I said, every Friday I spend really analyzing, going through it, figuring out what I can quantify, what's useful. And then Notion is actually a new platform that I got introduced with Lawton, and so I've started to try to integrate that in there a little bit more. And I'm enjoying it. But yeah, it's a little bit of a curve. It is a little. Well, it's just different. Right. So I'm learning to attach my documents in there and plug things in together and then connect it to a lot of our dashboards that have data, which is cool. It's helping me organize a little bit better. But yeah, I am. Like I said, I wish I had the eidetic memory to just, you know, hear it and retain it.

But I'll tell you, the discipline to have a Friday that's preserved to, you know, reflect, organize, etc. Is like, that's, that's the magic. So flash forward for other people that are trying to get a better handle on operations, no matter the size or scale of their organization, flash forward two years from now. And by that or a year or whatever, I'm just imagining like you're, you're well outside of the observational phase. You're actually in full motion and you're, you know, helping organize and move things according to the way that you want to and the way that the organization needs. What does that Friday look like then? Are you like reviewing dashboards and in these kinds of things? Like what is your different type of note taking turn into in the future? See what your contacts are doing on Zillow. Monday, December 8th join follow up Boss for a sneak peek webinar where you'll be among the first to see how to get Zillow searching, browsing and saving insights for the contacts in your database directly inside. Follow Up Boss so when a past client of yours gets that late night and extra bedroom would be really great right now. Kind of feeling you'll know before anyone else who's showing high intent to buy or sell insights about what's happening right now so you can deliver a personalized touch at scale. See what your contacts are doing on Zillow. Monday, December 8th at 1pm Eastern, 10am Pacific. Learn more and sign up through the link in the description below. You're in your podcast app. Check out the description of this episode right down below. It's the first line and the first link. Now back to the conversation.

That's a really good question. So I, I think a year or two from now that's where the exciting stuff comes in. To be honest, when you get, like, your team on board with the vision, kind of leveling them up in their ownership and leadership, that's when I get to spend that Friday focused on how do I now coach that individual and take them to their next level. So that Friday will probably turn more into meetings with my direct reports, going over what their week looked like, helping them learn to analyze and map and plan. And then also whatever their target goal might be for their growth, implementing whatever strategies I think will be helpful for them, coaching, trainings, you know, whatever that will be. So those Fridays, that's. That's the exciting part for me is when I'm like, all right, we're operating now. We can start dreaming, and then I can start relying on my team to help get us to that dream without so much of the, like, putting the pieces together. How do I get you to. To be the leader? Right. How do I get you to take this on and develop in whatever way you want? I mean, you. I have employees that love the back end ops piece, and that's all they ever want to do. That's awesome. Cool, right? Like, how do we become more efficient in that then whatever their dream is? So that's. That's what my Fridays will hopefully turn into. Cool.

And this is staff side. Yes.

Yes. Sorry.

No, no. You just. I just wanted.

Yeah, I'm a little more. I'm focused on the staff side for sure.

So. So. So title is vice president of sales and operations. Where do they overlap? Where do they diverge? I mean, I get that there's. That you can't. You need one really to have the other or certainly to make it effective. Essentially, it's top line and, like, midline bottom line at some kind of. But, you know, not all operations expenses are expenses. They're investments. Yeah. And we shouldn't confuse the two. But, like, talk about. Talk about that. Like, as. As you look at, you know, where do they. Where do. Where do they overlap? Where do they diverge? And do you see this as, like, I'm doing this and I'm doing this, or you're saying, like, I'm gonna bring all of this together.

It's. I think it's a little more of a mix than maybe some people will think. But like you said, there's clear defining lines. Ops is ops, sales is sales. But as far as, again, keeping that big picture in mind and that big goal at the end, understanding those really have to come together. Right. So without that smooth running back end operations, you'll have a huge impact on sales, which will impact our agents and client experience and it can all just kind of fall apart. Same with the sales. You can have a well oiled operational machine, but if you don't have anyone using it, what's the point in having it? Right. How are we paying for it? So they integrate a lot more than I realized when I was younger. And that, that relationship, again, it comes back to clear communication and vision together. And how do I get very. Those opposing personalities? The salesperson is very different than an ops person.

Right.

How do I get them in a room together though, to brainstorm together on making this entire process A to Z, an amazing experience for the agent as well as the client and our back end.

So how would you define the role? I know that it's relatively new and we've talked a lot about it, but like, when you're describing to someone who understands your business a bit, I sometimes say like, if I was describing this to my dad, I would describe in different terms because he doesn't do this type of work. How would you define this to someone? To a friend of yours? Let's. A colleague. Okay, let's say it's a colleague that you worked alongside. Also an accomplished ops leader. They're maybe not in the real estate space. How do you describe this role to that person?

Oh man, that's hard. Because real estate is just a whole different world.

Right.

Like, unless you're in it, you really don't understand it. But I usually, I usually tell my colleagues or my friends, it's my job to make sure everything gets done and it gets done well and we make money. I don't know if that's a good answer, but you know, I would probably. Honestly, I think it would more closely be related to identifying people's skills and abilities and getting them to collaborate and work together in a common goal. Yeah, it would probably be hard, truly define it.

Your first one wasn't bad either, honestly. And it's like things are getting done that they're getting done. I forget the second part, but like, like better effectively so that we can. And then I would just translate that last piece to be like, you know, and that we're doing it all profitably.

Yeah. Oh, there we go. That's way better. Can we edit that out?

It's just, I just changed, you know, that we're making money. And like making money is, you know, common parlance for now. Actually this leads us to a place I wanted to go with you anyway, which I think a lot of People think when they're making money they're successful, but in fact they may not actually be.

Oh, they may not be making any.

Holding on to any of that money. Right. So share some advice. Whether it's, you know, a peer of yours and like a, in like a large team organization or whether it's like a, an early stage team leader that's building their own business or maybe it's even a solo agent that's watching or listening that doesn't quite have the right handle on their business. Financially, I think it's a very, very common issue. I almost feel like it's cliche to mention it in those terms, but it is. As you get into this business, as you did a, would you observe that, that sensitivity to. Because they are all business owners, but most of them, not most, a lot of people think that they're. I'm in the client service business or I'm in the sales business. You're actually a full on business owner and it comes with that.

Yeah.

What advice you have for someone just needs to get a better handle on their finances or to understand better to prioritize it differently.

Well one, I mean, I think you're absolutely right. I think a lot of times coming into the real estate industry and understanding you really are a business owner is not necessarily something that they teach you when you go to real estate school or that you really understand about the real estate world. So as far as handling your finances, if you don't understand how to look at that, get that help, ask the questions, no matter how silly it might be. And it might be a Google spreadsheet, but like you said, you can be bringing in money and not actually making any money. Right. Because it's going out. So having a clear understanding of what your expenses are, but also a realistic expectation of a couple things. One, where you should actually be spending your money. I know a lot of times real estate agents will come in and think I need the fancy business card and I need this or that. You know, talking to the right people who are successful and ask them where did you invest your time and money so that you can target that in the beginning and as you grow your business, absolutely flashy cars, whatever it is you want. Right. I don't know, whatever makes you happy. But keeping in mind too that you're not going to walk into this and make hundreds of thousands of dollars. Right. Having that clear budget, adjusting where you need to and talking to people who've been successful and actually taking that advice, you know, and on the flip side of It I've seen people spend tons of money on all of those things and again, it doesn't get them in the right spot because really they're not controlling it. They're not seeing where it's going and they're not looking at the results. And that's a question I think more business owners in general need to ask is I think this is the right direction. But having the foresight and the humility to ask yourself, all right, I'm going to do this for 30 days, but I'm going to look at the results objectively. If it hasn't helped my business grow, then I'm okay letting it go. Even though I was convinced this was the right way to go, you have to be able to pivot.

So cool in terms of assessing. And this is really is a difficult, unfair question. So I'm asking for you to generalize a response, I guess. But like, you know, essentially you're having an ROI observation there. Like you know, you're gonna spend and am I getting a return on it? What's a reasonable return? I don't know. And what is the right amount of time? I think for some things, 30 days is the right experiment. For others, if you're, I mean this is like way down the line but you can't run billboards or you know, so different thing. I just offer that to say like different things have different like windows of appropriate testing time. And some things are more expensive to experiment with others.

So for example, billboards might not first investment. I'm just saying if you talk to.

Anyone, they'll probably tell you the same as you suggested. But like this I, I think that discipline of, of roi, like breaking something down over on a per transaction basis so you can get an actual cost of individual sale or breaking things down not across the lead sources at large, but by lead source. I think some of that any other kind of like there I just offered per transaction or per lead source. Any other kind of like per things like, like metrics, sorry ratios or, or I guess, yeah, even, even key metrics that you think are underused. Again, I'm asking you to kind of scale down from the operate level of operation that you are are at and have operated into, you know, more of a frontline scenario. But you know, what are some, what are some other like practical besides talk to other people, actually know where your expenses are going, pay attention with some kind of a experiment type mindset of like do X for, you know, Y amount of time and see what happens. Any other kind of basic tips around that again. Because I think it's just such a challenge to do this.

It is. It's really hard. And you know, it also makes it hard too, because what works for me might not work for you.

Yeah, true.

And so, like, I'll try it and I'm gonna get a great ROI. You'll try it and you're like, I just wasted six months and you know, $2,000 or whatever it may be. And that's what kind of makes it hard. And that's where building that community around you, that's where teams come in. Like, and I'm not saying you have to. Everyone has their own path. I just want to be very clear about this. But having that community around you to try different things and ask questions and learn as far as like a direct correlation of something to look at even the cost of like what you're doing at your open houses. And I know it sounds very simple, but I've seen agents pour a lot of money into prizes and raffles and what they have at the open house and not drum any business from that. So again, are we focusing on the wrong thing? Is it the approach when the client walks in the door that it's free that you can change? Right. Maybe looking at those things of instead of that kind of expense, what is the experience when they come in the door, did those fresh baked cookies and the raffle prizes and the teddy bear I get, did that matter or.

Right.

Like they still didn't fill out my questionnaire card. But there's other ways that you can do that and other options that might not be cost you that money up front might be more successful for you. That is one that over the last few years, I've noticed there's a lot of expense that goes in without the roi. Off the top of my head, the ones that you mentioned are actually really good ones. Also, do you need to be driving your giant gas guzzling truck? I love trucks. I'm a truck girl. I'm just saying what's the expense there and are you getting the return on? I don't know, things like that where it's just little expenses.

Yeah, really fair. One expense, especially for a young team like growing team, is hiring to plan versus hiring to opportunity or hiring to anticipated opportunity. When we're hiring staff, it's different than bringing on agents. If an agent flames out because they just don't have the discipline or they don't actually like it, you know, you haven't invested that much. Whereas a direct employee with, you know, benefits and you Know, the cost of like hiring and all these other things that's different in and against it's fixed overhead. Yeah. So maybe with some variable cost too. But advice for folks on, like, pace of hiring, like throughout your career, are you in? Qualify it by, are you a conservative decision maker? Are you following the lead of like the leaders around you? But, like, that's a constant challenge. I think when people go deep into their red, it's probably too aggressive or miscalculation in that zone blended with, you know, the natural ebb that comes in the industry because it ebbs and flows, you know, pretty consistently.

Yeah. You know, and that's a hard question. So first of all, I, over the years have gone on both extremes. I will tell you that. I have. I've had the experience where I'm like, we're going to hire everyone a backup person so that nothing goes wrong. And then I've watched changes in the industry I'm in and then all the layoffs. And I'll be honest with you, even the bottom line, it didn't hurt as bad as over hiring too quickly and then having to let people go. That was probably a big lesson for me. That pushed me on the other side then. Right. But then I learned on that side, I wore out my team. And so. And you know, I would love to say that I didn't learn these things the hard way. I absolutely did, and I still am, and I always will. Like, this is just how it goes. But on the other side, I started to burn out my team. So then I watched the culture and the drive and that fizzle away. Right. So there is no magic. Like, this is when you should. I try now to pay more attention to the culture as an indicator, a lead indicator of am I getting close to where I need to hire and have my bench ready. Right. And then what position is that most important? It has worked out well for me that way because you're right, I don't want to over hire and go through where I'm letting go. 20 people again, that was awful. But I also don't want to go to the point where I'm burning out my best employees because they are so dedicated and loyal that one of them quits on me and I'm like, oh my gosh, we've been together for 10 years. Like, how is this happening? So now I actually, I pay more attention to my people and I know what the numbers say, I know what our finances say, I know what the market is saying, and I can watch trending that way. But When I'm starting to feel that burnout on my most hardworking. And they don't always tell you so you really have to be in tune, which isn't always easy. Right. It doesn't come natural for everyone. But when you start seeing a little bit of habit changes or just culture shift or even how they say hi to you in the morning, pay attention to that for a little bit and then understand I'm at that point where I need to forward, hire and take a little bit of the load off. As long as we're feeling like the market, you know, is moving in that direction. But you can never get it right. I wish I had a crystal ball to be like, I need five people tomorrow and we'll be good for 10 years.

Like it's like everything part, part science, no hard rules, that everyone's got to kind of figure it out on the fly. High level. Now that you're in, this is the second real estate business that you're in.

Yes.

Okay. What are some key metrics if someone wants to like, get everyone onto the same page with regard to key numbers in a real estate team model? You know, if you were going to recommend to someone without going too deep into their business, hey, here couple things you should be bringing to a monthly meeting so that everyone understands the business from a financial perspective. What are a few key things that, that are worth reporting to, you know, a team of leaders who are helping make decisions for the organization?

Yeah, I think one noi. So because that's where that balance of what's going on and what's coming in. Right. So understanding that impact. But also.

Did you say noi?

Yes, sorry. So your net operating.

Got it.

Income. Yeah, sorry.

No problem.

And I've been trying not to use any acronyms, but understanding exactly like where our bottom line falls, but also transaction count, because we all know that has a direct impact. But you have to have both pieces to understand. I could have 2,000 transactions, but again, if we're spending that and more, we're not profitable. So just understanding their profitability line and then having a goal of transaction count, agent head count, the basics that I think everyone does. I think if you give them the basics but also give them that bottom line to understand what levers we can and can't pull is probably where I would start. Honestly, when you're growing, start small. I think a lot of newer teams, not even in, just in the real estate industry, they kind of want it all. Right. They want all the information, they want to tackle all they want to do it all today. And it's like, pick your top three. Pick your top three things that are. You think are really going to move the needle and help you on that next step and get your whole team focused again. Big vision. They'll start helping you plan out all the little pieces underneath that will help you hit that. So I try really hard not to go over three, to be honest, because I feel like after that it's hard to really stay focused. Right. Yeah.

I think that blended with a clear direction is like, you start to wonder, like, what does this mean for me in my seat? And they figure it out.

Yeah, exactly.

Cool. So that's your vision of alignment and drawing a picture of what the puzzle is without the box top and having people put their sections together?

Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. That's it.

There we go. It's a great metaphor.

You got your yellow flower.

There you go. Yeah, it's really good. Kind of last in this financial zone is for the ignorant among us. That's me and probably some percentage of people watching and listening.

And probably you're going to ask me.

You know, from a. From a cash flow perspective, you know, you have all the stuff that's pending, you have this revenue is probably going to come, but it's in the future. You have these expenses that are current or, you know, within 90 days that you need to pay, like in terms of snapshotting. And I'm thinking about this because I've worked in a number of software businesses and this idea of the timing of revenue and the snapshotting is so hard. And I see some of it a little bit here. So you have subscriptions that may or may not renew, and you know what that rate is and is it monthly or is it annual and all these other things, Just the timing of the revenue. Do you have any in terms of how should we time this? How should we. When we're creating a financial snapshot of where we are right now, how much? Because the default. Default is the promise of the future. Like, I think we're going to have all of this, but it's not been realized yet. It's not here. But we have these real expenses. And like, how do you manage the timing in the real estate business in particular?

Yeah, so the real estate industry is hard, but it is very comparable, I've noticed, to seasonal industries. Right. Where you'll have your peaks and your lulls and all that kind of stuff. One thing that I have noticed. Well, first of all, don't count your commission check before it shows.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah.

Don't do that. Yeah. So like you said, the dreams of the future or we think these will close or any of that stuff. I would highly caution against any of that. I think in the real estate industry you have to always take a year prior look at trending and then always compare that to what you're trending currently looks like and where you're at. So that you can understand Q2 expense might be heavy. Traditionally Q3, like you said that forward looking Q3 we can make up for that. But how can I kind of ride in that middle line? Right. Like if it's plotted out like this is where I want to live. Right. So that we can handle the above.

Here and we're going to be below here. Probably based on the season.

Yes. And that's what I would strongly recommend because you're right, they'll look at. Hey, we're slated for this many closings. Next month's going to be amazing. Let's go spend our commission check before it came in. Please don't do that. Save it, save it for that next lull. And that's how real estate is, is those ups and downs are very seasonal. So as a newer business owner in this, just being aware, like keep your nest egg and keep building that and try to run that straight line. Right. And I mean that's probably where I'd start.

Awesome. Thank you for formulating both a question and answer from my observation. I did good. Yeah, it's great. This has been an absolute pleasure. I'm so glad that you found the Lawton team and found you. I think you're on the right track. I'm excited to see how this shapes up for you over the next, you know, 12 to 24. Before I let you go, Elise.

Yes.

Pair of questions. You can answer one or the other or both if you want to. What does it look like for you when you're spending time resting, relaxing and recharging or what does it look like for you when you're investing time in learning, growing and developing?

Well, the learning growing might sound boring for people, so we'll go with the rest here. Relaxing. Honestly, in a pool on a floaty with my yeti, there may or may not be water. It's a clear liquid.

Yeah.

In the sun and that's it. Like I am not any happier than when I'm there. Although I do have a bunch of children, so there's usually splashing and yelling and dogging. So it's more relaxing if they're not home, but yeah. Yeah, that's kind of my relaxation.

Awesome. Well, I appreciate it so much. Thanks for spending this time with me and again, continued success in the future.

Thank you. It's been awesome. I appreciate it. Thanks for checking out this episode of teamos. For email exclusive insights every week, sign up@realestateteamos.com.