Team Value Proposition: Just Plug In

Am I going to go out and hire all these people that are going to weigh your payroll down, or am I going to plug in somewhere and win on my own effort?

It's this orchestration that happens and the question is, do you want to build that or do you want to be a part of it?

An agent that is culturally aligned just simply is able to plug in and from there grow.

Could you be doing more business in less time if you plugged into something that was already established? Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel,

hey, basically turn on the faucet and opportunities come in.

It was like an aha moment. I said, wow, this is exactly what I need because I can just plug right into everything that he's already invested in. The infrastructure is there and I just need. I just had to sit down and get to work with everything that he provided at that time and build from there.

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 Real estate team. Here's your host, Ethan Butte.

Generating, nurturing and converting leads. Managing and coordinating transactions. Committing to ongoing training, coaching and development. Building a tech stack and optimizing that tech stack. Documenting processes, setting up systems and standards. Staying accountable to it all and through it all. No matter where you are in your real estate business and no matter what your ambitions are for it, all of these things are necessary for sustainable growth and sustainable success. But you don't have to figure it all out. You don't have to do it all. You don't have to set it all up. A real estate team has already made all of these investments and provides this leverage to agents. In this episode of Real Estate Team os, you'll hear from seven different team leaders on the ability to just plug in, set up and start growing in this context. And first up, we have John McCarthy who moved back to Texas from California and opted to plug in even though he had an entire detailed business plan of his own. Here's John

by the time I moved here, I have several years experience in real estate in California and construction sales. So when I was moving to Texas with my wife and daughter who was four months old, I knew that I had to quickly build a real estate business and I was prepared to create it myself. I even went to Ryan and showed him everything that I had in place. The technology, all the processes, everything. I need a CRM and Ryan. So I was referred to Ryan from a friend of mine. And when I was interviewing around town, it was either going to a brokerage where I was going to be an independent agent. I had to just do it all myself anyway, or find a team who was going to bring me on and, you know, I have to prove my worth to them, or Ryan just basically said, if you have what it takes, I've invested in my company with all this technology and leads, and here it is. And he showed me his computer and everything he had set up. And at that point, it was like an aha moment. I said, wow, this is exactly what I need, because I can just plug right into everything that he's already invested in. The infrastructure is there. Uh, and I just need. I just had to sit down and get to work with everything that he provided at that time and build from there. Um, so when I joined, I met everybody in the company, and there was a bunch of independent agents, people kind of doing their own thing. And I was able to really kind of harness. I was one of the only ones really working within the brokerage resources successfully at that time. Quickly, um, everybody else was kind of doing their own thing as well. Ryan was going to do it himself. He was like the platinum top 50 himself, you know, as he's growing this small brokerage.

At that time, John needed to build a new business in a new market. He already had a plan for it, but he recognized the speed, efficiency, productivity, and profitability in just plugging into the system that Ryan Rodenbeck had built at spyglass realty. Next up, we have Tiffany Galzinis, who really gets into this idea of investing in all these different pieces of leverage that the team provides. You. Could you do more faster by just plugging in to. Tiffany asks and answers that question right here.

I think what a lot of people would discover is if they truly understood their p. L, like, their profit and loss, if they really knew where their money was. And I think that a lot of times they just don't pay attention to that, unfortunately. So where is your money going? What are you spending money on? And could you be doing more business in less time if you plugged into something that was already established? Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, like, instead of trying to think of, okay, I need this marketing newsletter, you know, and I'm thinking of things that I constantly hear agents talk about. Do you have any ideas on this? Yeah, I mean, I got all kinds of ideas, but what are you trying to do with it? Like, why do you want it? So instead of spending their time trying to think of how do I get more business? Plugging yourself into somebody that's going to do that for you. And again, finding the right team that is going to give you the resources that you need. And, and what are those resources? If you sell a lot of houses, maybe it's access to showing partners so you can take a stinking weekend off, you know, like whatever that is. Like, there's value there, there's value there, and not having to figure that out yourself. But the first step in that is you need to understand, like, your GCI doesn't mean anything. What's your. What, what's actually staying in your bank account? Like, what's that paycheck actually look like? So figure that out and then figure out what's a split. Like, what are you getting for that money and is it valuable to you?

Finding your best fit isn't just about the split, but that's part of it. For a lot more on this idea of finding your best fit is a team right for me, and if so, which team and which team leader? How do we even go about figuring that out? We have a companion episode to this one called find you'd best fit. It's linked up right down below in the description of this episode. I know you'll enjoy that one too. But next up, I want to go to Veronica Figueroa, who gets into not just the systems and processes and some of the specialists that are right there to be plugged into and to start growing from, but also other investments, millions of dollars of investments that she and her team have made over the years and how an agent benefits from that. Here's Veronica.

If you can take your ego out of it and just say, look, I am humble enough to know that I don't want to do this alone and I want to be able to borrow not only your authority, but your experience and your mistakes. You are going to fast track your business way more than anyone who thinks, oh, you know, the splits. Well, if you look at this, the cost of running a team, the cost of having an admin, the cost of photography, the cost of, you know, management support staff. And then on top of everything that they've invested over the years, I've invested millions of dollars, millions of dollars to build the trust mark that we have in our market. And an agent that is culturally aligned just simply is able to plug in and there and from there grow, their net profit is way more than what it would be if they were a solo agent. And, you know, I say don't step over dollars to pick up pennies yeah. And, you know, I think every agent who gets started, unless you have a large network and you have the financial means to go six months to a year without the stress of needing a closing, should join a team.

Of course, that clip with Veronica comes from an entire conversation, an entire episode that we did together in person at fubcon in Los Angeles last fall. And in that one, we spent almost the entire time speaking about two and four solo agents who are curious not just about joining a team, but also about starting a team. So feel free to look that one up. It's in our YouTube channel here for Real Estate Team OS, it's an Apple podcast and Spotify Real Estate Team OS, it's@realestateteamos.com tons of great information for solo agents in my conversation with Veronica Figueroa. Next up, we have Justin Haver. And here he talks about the team as a vehicle for better lives for everyone on it, including the agents who join. In addition, he talks about the way the team alleviates risk. And instead of plugging in, he talks about just turning on the faucet to generate opportunities for agents. Here's Justin.

The team is a very recognizable brand here in our marketplace, but I look at it as a vehicle for the agents who choose to partner with a team, for them to use this vehicle to create memorable life experiences for themselves and their families. And, you know, in this partnership, you know, the team alleviates a lot of the financial risk that an individual agent perhaps takes on. With proven systems, processes, brand, they don't have to sit and worry about where's that next opportunity going to come from. They basically turn on the faucet and opportunities come in.

Hey, a quick bridge here. We're going to go to Justin again. But when we talk about opportunities and lead gen, we're not just talking about company generated opportunities. In fact, the way Justin started his team is reflected in the culture of his team as it stands today. A culture in which it agents are sharing opportunities with each other when it's the best thing for the client. Here's Justin again.

I have never seen a sales environment where people get rewarded based on commissions, where they voluntarily hand off opportunities, where they're like, hey, does anybody want to have a client that's looking to, they're ready to view homes. Does anybody want this individual? It's yours. That happens on almost daily basis within our organization. And, you know, we've had some agents that have gone through some life challenges, injuries and so forth, and agents are there to step up and help, you know, we had one that, you know, broke both of her ankles recently at a charity, a charity golf tournament. Accidents happened, but, you know, the team was there to help support her. She was still able to conduct her business here for the last two months because of the support of the team, helping her with her clients. And, you know, if you're a solo agent out there and if something like that was to happen, I mean, it would be devastating to your ability to make an income because you wouldn't be able to go out there and meet with clients.

Opportunities, of course, to connect, to sell, to earn commission, but also an opportunity for trust, relationship support. Some lifestyle factors that are very often easy to overlook when we get into the dollars and cents of how we want to grow our business. Next. So great take there from Justin. Next up, a really quick clip with Kenny Trung, who is the founder of Fast Agent. He is very fast in this and we kind of double back into the idea of do I want to build all this and what, or do I just want to plug into it? Here's Kenny.

There's definitely a value at a scale because I talked to some top agents. Let's just say someone's making 200 grand a year, even 300 grand a year. Pretty, pretty solid. Well, you go hire a marketing assistant and train, then you got to pay another 10, 15 grand and you got to take the time to train them. And then you need to hire a showing agent and you want to coach and you need open house help. Like start really looking. Can we. Oh, we also have four or full time video editors in the Philippines.

Oh, nice.

We have a studio like this where we. Yeah, we handle that. But then like, not all things you hire, like, look at that. Like, do you really want to handle all that or you want to plug in the team and pay a small, small fee and have all that accessible to you?

Plug in and pay a small fee, in the words of Kenny. Or plug in and grow on your own effort, in the words of Lori Finkelstein, Reader. Here's Laurie.

I think a single agent feels like they're waving the white flag and they're caving in and giving in because they joined a team. And I see it the opposite, right? I see it that, hey, I'm an entrepreneur. I want to serve my consumer at the highest level. I want to run 50 transactions or 100 transactions. I want to make a million dollars a year. Am I going to go out and hire all these people that are going to weigh your payroll down, have to pay for marketing and all of this because, again, the consumer demands it, or am I going to plug in somewhere and win on my own effort? So I do think we are heading more and more and more and more into teams.

The foundations of the team model are decades old. I've collected stories of people who set up teams 30, 35 years ago, but it's really been emergent over the past several years. That trend is going to continue. Last up, we're going to hear about a $20 million producer joining a team from Tom Ferry. We're also going to hear some cautions, though. He's going to challenge you to be a little bit introspective. And if you like that challenge, if you want to spend some time in this thought, be sure to check out the link right down below to the two companion episodes we have on whether or not you should join a team. The one I'd point you to on this topic in particular is called find you'd best fit. Again, linked right down below in the description.

But.

But without further ado, here's Tom Ferry with a caution and the story of a $20 million producer.

There's people that are joining teams today because they got in the business, they sold a lot of houses during the pandemic, and now they realize they have no operating system, they have no marketing, they have no consistency. Somebody was feeding them deals or all their friends were buying a house, and now they're like, wait a minute, nothing's going on here. They're I love Lucy. Remember I love Lucy at the chocolate factory, Ethel, Right? The. The conveyor belt isn't bringing chocolates down any anymore. And you gotta go to work and go find the chocolates. And for a lot of people, that's hard to do. So if you join a team, it's great. Cause maybe they've got the conveyor belt and lots of chocolates and they need you to put the wrappers on and. Right. Do all that stuff. That's called selling houses. So some people are looking at it now out of necessity. And my concern is, is it desperation? And if it's desperation, maybe, just maybe you need to gut check yourself and be honest and say, am I doing this because I'm unwilling to make the calls? Because I'm unwilling to figure all this stuff out. And by the way, it's okay if, like, just, just be honest with yourself. Like, I knew when I started my business, I left in the morning and I came home with 11 employees and my wife was like, I thought you were just going to have lunch with your mentor. And I said, I did. And then we leased 3,000 square feet and I hired Aaron McGovern and Steve and this. And she was like, what? Right? Yeah, but see, I knew when I started that I needed all those people for me to be effective because I'm only good at a couple things. So if you can be honest with yourself and say, I'm really good at showing houses, I'm really good at negotiations, I'm really good at that first time buyer, I'm really good on a listing appointment, then you fit well on a team. Then it's just economics. But you got to be honest. Is it desperation? Is it necessity? Is it desire? Do you want more time off? There's a gal, and I won't say her name. In fairness to her $20 million producer in La Jolla, California. She joined one of my clients teams, right? $20 million producer, she joined, right? She said, can't hire an assistant. I hire them, they quit, I hire them, they quit hiring, they quit. This is stupid. You guys have had the same team forever. Can I join you guys and basically just drag on your resources? That was a smart thing. She didn't go from 20 to 40. She does $20 million a year. She's totally comfortable, made the economics, you know, the finance side of it work, right? Teams making enough money to offset the cost. She brings a little more signs to the marketplace. It's now her name and their name. It's a match made in heaven. But it's not for everybody, because most people, A, won't be honest with themselves and B, they want all the glory. It's this orchestration that happens. And the question is, do you want to build that or do you want to be a part of it? And if you could be a part of it, it's pretty magical.

Any successful real estate business is in fact, an orchestration of a variety of skills and specialists and systems and tech stacks and so much more. And the question is, do you want to build that yourself or do you want to find your best fit somewhere else and plug right into it and get going that way? There's no one right answer. There are a variety of ways to do this. Our goal on real Estate Team OS is to bring you a variety of faces, voices, stories, perspectives, strategies, tactics, backgrounds to inform you, to provoke you a little bit, to guide you to your next right decision, to your next right step in your own business. And that may or may not look like joining a team. I hope you found this helpful. I hope you enjoy the two other companion episodes about joining a team. They're linked up right down below in this description of this episode. In addition, every single one of these comes from a full length conversation that you can find when you look for Real Estate Team OS in Apple Podcasts or Spotify Real Estate team os in YouTube or realestateteamos.com if you want an overview of everything that the show's about and what's available to you, go to realestateteamos.com subscribe thank you so much for spending this time. I hope you found it really helpful. And again, I hope you enjoy these other companion episodes on Joining a Team. Take care and continued success to you.

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