The Identity-Based Team Model with Lisa Stafford | Ep 065

Over the past decade, Lisa Stafford has refined an identity based team model that blends the best of the independent agent experience and the team agent experience. Your individual identity with the team's collective support. A couple of years back, she changed the team's name to reflect this approach and philosophy from the Lisa Stafford Team to NJ Property Experts. In this conversation, she explains the model and value prop behind this 11 agent 2 staff team, a model she got grief for when she launched the specific elements of the accountability log her agents fill out every single week, the process for onboarding agents and jump starting their books of business, and the limitations to growth that she's strategically working through right now. All that and much more with Lisa Stafford right now on Real Estate Team os.

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.

Lisa, thank you so much for being a Real Estate Team OS subscriber. I don't know if you're are you a viewer or a listener?

I'm both.

Okay. That's what most people tell me. Like I usually will watch on YouTube but sometimes I need to move around so I'll like listen on a podcast app or I'll listen on YouTube.

Right. So sometimes I listen in the car on my drive to the office or sometimes yes, I do see the YouTube or on social media.

Well, I'm really glad you replied to one of those weekly emails I send out. Those come from me, I write them all and I'm really glad you replied. We connected and I'm super excited to have you here on this episode. Welcome to Real Estate Team os.

Thank you. I'm excited too as well.

The normal starting spot, as you well know, is what is a must have characteristic of a high performing team.

So I thought about that a lot and first and foremost is our customer service level. That comes before anything else. We pride ourselves in having a certain level of customer service for all of our clients. That's number one. The next thing I would say would be teamwork. We have a really good sync going on between all the team members. Several of us have been here for almost the whole time. From the time I started the team. We've just onboarded three new agents. But but there's a good camaraderie. Everybody is there to help each other out which again is another support level that you get. So that's another characteristic of a High performance team, let's say the other thing is the constant learning. So I don't care what anybody says, you'll never know everything. You have to continue. So we have coaching, training seminars, webinars, anything that I can do where I can grab a snippet here or a snippet there or even a full dialogue or script. That's the other part. It's very part of almost our daily, weekly, monthly strategy or, you know, what we do to stay informed up to date on current trends, what's going on, market data. So those are the three, I would say important things, at least for my team.

Yeah, that's great. You've given me three, at least three directions with some sub directions that I could go here. I'm just going to acknowledge the idea of a high level of customer service and doing whatever it takes. That makes me think a little bit about kind of front of house, back of house. Like we're going to keep the back of house as well in order as we can. But the most important thing is that everything on stage or in front of the curtain with regard to the customer's experience is the most important thing. But what I want to pick up for a tactical tip from you on is what you shared about constant learning. Is that something you do or has that become a cultural component where different team members are reading and watching and listening to different things, attending different things and bringing that back to the team? Is that. Are you primarily driving that or have you created it into essentially a cultural component where everyone's doing it?

So what I would say is I primarily, I started it and it kind of became a trickled down. So, yes, on certain things, I'm always the driving force. I'm always sending stuff out. I take that we just went to the Zillow follow up boss in Philly where I said, hey, who wants to go? Let's go. So that started with me, but then as time progressed, everybody started kind of doing their thing too and bringing it back. And at one point, which I'm thinking I'm going to bring back, we would start our meetings off with, hey, what did you learn today? Or what did you learn this week? Or what situation were you in that would benefit all of us to know how you handled it? And we would go around the table and kind of say, hey, I was, you know, at an inspection today and this happened and I didn't know this. And this may be beneficial for all of you to know. But the constant learning has morphed into everybody is continuing to learn because one of the biggest things I always try to tell everybody is you'll never know everything. Don't ever act like you know everything because you won't. You just won't. I've been doing this for over 22 years and I have so much more to learn. So to answer your question, yes, it started with me and now everybody kind of does it.

Quick promotional message for folks watching and listening. Those success summits are. We're taking them across the country. They're like, you know, almost a full day thing with tons of different education and programming. So really glad you made it over to Philly for that one. And we've got several cities on the list for the rest of the year. Here, share a little bit. You mentioned that you've been in the business for a couple of decades. It's been in a variety of iterations. You've been an agent. I think you've been a franchise owner. But feel free to correct me. You're obviously a team leader now. So give us like your path into real estate and walk us through any of like those key iterations up to the kind of the dawn of the team.

Okay. So I had so many different jobs, like anything and everything you can think of. Bartender, waitress. I managed the salon and spa. I was an IT headhunter. And one day I said I actually got my titles license first and hated it. And so I decided my kids were on vacation for two weeks with their grandparents. They and I just went to real estate school, didn't tell anybody. My husband obviously knew, but nobody else knew. Took the two week class passed. And that's what started it. And my mindset was I just need to make enough money so that if my kids want to go to college or I want to be able to buy them a car or that was my goal, that was my motivation that my kids would have maybe what I didn't have. And so my husband and I, who he's a third generation realtor, but really has his license, but doesn't practice in the business though he's on my team. He. We decided to open an office and we opened one right in Cranford and it was a little boutique office and it was doing well. And I had, you know, I think we had at that time like seven agents in our office. We were right in downtown. And I said to myself, this is great, but how am I going to get these seasoned agents to realize, and I hate to say this, but you don't need to be in a big box office. Okay. So I decided I was going to buy a franchise. And I looked into several different franchises. And at that time, the manager of Caldwell Banker in Westfield, Michael Scott, reached out to me and he said, listen, you just need to meet with me and I go, not going to Caldwell Banker. It's not happening, it's not coming. Don't waste your lunch, don't waste your money. And he could just sit down and meet with me. I did. Best decision I ever made. I am so grateful and thankful to him for everything. Fast forward. I moved to Caldwell Banker in 2008 when companies weren't necessarily acquiring other offices at that time. And everything that they said they would do for me, they did and still do to this day. So I came into Caldwell Banker. Yes, my. My office came over with me, but some of them fell off. Some of them were doing it part time. And I would say it was about a year or two into being at the office that I said, I need to create a team. I need to have a team. I can't do all of this. And also my vision was to also spread out and go to Monmouth in Ocean County. And I knew there was, unless you cut me up, there wasn't a way to do it. So that's kind of how the team formed. I had one or two agents in the beginning, and I had no idea what I was doing.

Were you functionally what we would call like a broker owner at that point? And were you also in production when you decided to start the team, or were you like when you brought the office over? What does that mean exactly?

So we were an owner and Caldwell Banker said, I can bring any of the agents on my team, but they were coming over as individual agents. It wasn't like I brought the office over and we were already a team, so they were individual agents. I came over as an individual agent. And it was after being here for a year or two that I decided I wanted to form this team. And there's a right way to do it, there's a wrong way to. I've made a lot of mistakes along the way. A lot of learning lessons. I remember going to, like, Caldwell Bankers, Jen Blue and meeting one of these, like, top team leaders. And he said, how many assistants do you have? How many of this do you have? I had none of it. I know that the format is get the assistant first, you know, maybe then get a buyer's agent. I just jumped in.

So what was jumping in? So you said you brought one or two agents with you that were independent agents in the office that joined you as Team members. So it was you and a couple of agents to start?

Yes.

Okay.

We were three. We were three. And I was in production. I'm still in production and I still work seven days a week. Like, that's just what works for me. I don't expect everybody to work that way, but that's what works for me. So brought in, you know, we were three people. Then we grew to maybe four. And listen through this. You bring on some agents that are not a good fit, don't have the same mindset, and you know, you scale back, then you grow again. And it's kind of like right now we have 11, but at that time it was a solid three or four.

What was your, you know, promise to them or what was their expectation? Like, why was someone joining your team? Like, like in the field when you brought that fourth person on? Like, what did they think they were getting? Like, what, what did it mean to be part of the team there? Like, what was the value prop or what was the expectation?

So my team has always been run differently. I don't have buyer agents. So my philosophy when to someone to say, hey, let me tell you about my team structure always was you're going to maintain your own identity. You get that listing appointment and you get that listing signed that goes in your name. That's not going in my name. So anything you see in my name is my production. So at that time when teams were becoming more well known or being declared, let's say, agents didn't necessarily want to lose their identity or. But they like that support system. Especially if you're in an office of 200 agents, you're going to get lost in the shuffle. You're going to come in. Everybody has the best intentions to spend time and train and coach and do all of that, but they just can't because they have to prioritize down the list of who needs what. So what you, what you were able to have on my team was one on one with me, coaching, training, shadowing me, any situation you were in, you had access to somebody who had years in the business that maybe could guide you, bounce ideas off going on your first listing appointment, bringing me in with you. I wouldn't take over the listing appointment. I would just sit there and jump in if it was needed, but always supporting that team member and not going in and talking about me. So the other thing was, is, hey, if it doesn't work, you have your own identity. When you go off on your own and you want to go in front of that seller or you Want to have that buyer agent consultation and they go, well, what have you done in the X amount of years you've been an agent? They have nothing to their resume, but on my team you do. So that was the value proposition, was it was kind of the best of both worlds if you think about it. You get to be a solo agent in a sense, but you get all the support and systems that I'm providing to you. And I actually really get passionate about helping them get to that next level. That was the other thing. If you're stuck at a plateau, like I've had seasoned agents that have been in the business 12 years and just were stuck, come try it. If I don't get you to the next level with accountability and structure and systems, then you had nothing to lose. Just go back to doing what you were doing. But if you do succeed, well, that's a win win for both of us.

Is this something you identified as the, as a particular type of agent that you prefer recruiting onto the team? One of these folks who's stuck. And even if the answer is no, what does stuck mean? Is stuck. Like, I've plateaued at selling, you know, one house a month and I really want to do, you know, I want to get to 30 units a year or something. Is it. I'm just kind of burned out. I'm kind of bored. Like, my production is good, but, like, I'm bored. I feel disconnected or lonely. Like, what does stuck mean? And what share of stuck agents have been kind of good team members for you?

So the first question, yes, you would like a seasoned agent because they can almost hit the ground running. And then you just have to show them some systems and some structure and accountability. Accountability is huge. However, they come with bad habits and new agents are kind of like, you can give them the structure to not go into those bad habits. I wouldn't say I gravitated towards just a seasoned agent and it was coachability and also had to be a good fit for the team. Right. Because I think of all of us as a whole and I don't ever want to bring in one person that's going to be disruptive to, let's say the five that have been here the whole time. So it has to be a good fit in that sense. Now the second question I think you asked me was, what is stuck mean? So stuck. So maybe you got your real estate license and then you started a family, you had kids, you were, you know, doing a deal here or there, maybe five deals a year now the kids are older they're in school and they don't know how to kick start their career. That's one form of stuck. So what I would do is, you know, you have some transactions behind you, you kind of know what you need to do. Now I'm going to hold you accountable, I'm going to give you some structure, I'm going to give you some systems. There was a thing, I'm going to segue off. I'm sorry. But everybody was saying when the market was changing, you have to go back to basics. A lot of agents don't know what back to basics is. They have no idea because either they got their license during COVID and they were new and they don't know basics or basics was so long ago that maybe basics back then wasn't the basics we know today. Right. I mean if you had your. Not to date myself, but when we got, when I got my license, there was no email. I think fax machines were just coming out. Right. So it's like what's back to basics? You know, someone, it all depends. So if you were someone that said, hey, I'm doing six deals a year, I want to double it, I want to triple it, if you show me the map of how to do that, I'm in. If you help me, I'm in. Now my 22 years of business and my six or seven, seven years of having the team, I've kind of gone through a lot of things of systems to see what works and what doesn't work. So they're gaining my knowledge of not having to go out and go, I'm going to buy this, I'm going to buy this, I'm going to try this, I'm going to try that. And then you know, hey, I've already tried all of that, I've already done all of that. Come here. This is a well oiled machine. I'm going to train you on this, I'm going to show you how to do this. And agents on my team, even from the first agents have to give me what's called an accountability log every Monday. And that shows me everything they've done for the last week.

And it shows that they actually went in to organize the information for you. Right. Which is also a pre accountability step.

Right. But not only that, if I see it's the same thing and you're just changing the date at the top, we have to have a conversation. If I see you're doing all of this and all these man hours and something and nothing's clicking, we have to Have a conversation. But one of the things I've noticed with a lot of agents through this journey is they don't track anything. They don't track their numbers. And I remember one of the first coaches I had was like, what's your numbers? And I was like, I don't know, what are my numbers? So that's something over the years that I've like, you have to. If you don't know your numbers, how do you know where you are? And then what? Everybody worries about Circle of excellence in, like, September and they find out there are units short or they're this short, short. Track your numbers all the time. So, so stuck could mean going back to that. Stuck could mean that.

What are some of the key elements? We're like the top three to five things that people need to report every week. What's on that report?

So what you, what, what was your win for this week and what didn't you do this week that you should have done that you're going to get done by next week? So those are the two top things. Then it's, you know, I do my business planning with them and it's your, your market, your, like your market calendar, your. What are you going to do to pop by to your clients? It's all that's laid out. So if somebody says, oh, first quarter, I'm going to go do this. And I know it's the end of February and you haven't wrote on your log that you're going to. When are you going to put this together and do it? So holding accountability for that, then how many listing appointments have you gone on? How many buyers appointments, how many interactions? The biggest thing is how many conversations did you have? That's huge. And that's on there. And if you're not having the conversations, then obviously nothing else is going to happen. And then it's also your mindset. Like, on a personal level, what are three things that you want to change on a personal level to put you in a better mindset? And if I see like someone saying, oh, I want to go to yoga or I want to go do this, or when I'll be like, let's all go, we're going to all go to yoga, or we're going to go here, or I try to push them, they. They haven't forgiven me yet about taking them to the ropes course, they keep telling me they will never do that again. But it was great team bonding and it got people out of their comfort zone, which is where you need to be to make Phone calls you have to get out of your comfort zone and tracking their numbers. So it shows what your goals are, it shows where you are year to date and it shows what you need to do to reach your goal. And when you see that weekly, I feel like it pushes you. I have to stay in tune though with the agent that maybe isn't hitting their goals and finds this to be almost work against them. Like I'm so far away, why try? So it helps me specify with each agent where I need to focus on with them as well.

Really good. I love that balance of qualitative and quantitative. Some of the just quantitative roundup information, but a lot of it is qualitative like reflection and allows you to understand where they are and gives you more puzzle pieces to work with as you figure out what they to hear, what they need to be driven or how they need to be driven or supported in the week ahead. And I love that, just that constant rhythm of it. Before we get any farther, I'd love for you to characterize your team today. I think you said 11. I don't know if that's 11 people or 11 agents with some support staff. What does the team look like today? And then we'll probably double back into some of what you've already shared.

So I have only one support staff that's a transaction coordinator. There are 11. Like I mentioned earlier, my husband is on my team, but not so the team today we have, most of the agents are seasoned. We have two brand new agents that onboarded and then one that's about a year and a half in the business. So that's the team today. We are very in sync with each other and I think that comes from our monthly meetings. Our weekly meetings. And it's not always all about the numbers. We actually generally talk to each other, know about each other's families, know about each other's kids, spouses. The one thing I will say is there's a group text that everybody communicates through. So it's kind of that we're in sync right now, which is nice. And I like it when it's like that. I feel also too, I have to say this. Whenever you bring a new agent on, everybody is kind of like treads lightly until you. It's almost like the new kid in school. Yeah, but for, but, but everybody is always. One of the things I say is our culture is we're there to help each other within the team. Somebody's sick, somebody helps them, somebody's, you know, has to wants to go on vacation. We support you while you're away. It's so. I find it gratifying because sometimes we see in our, within our office, oh, I need help, I'll pay somebody. Oh, I need this, I'll pay somebody. We just write, hey, I'm in a bind, can you help me? And usually somebody says, I can do it just within our own little network. So that is something that's really important to me as far as the team.

Itself and people step up because reciprocation is just part of being a good team member.

Yes, exactly. Exactly.

That's great. When did you bring on a TC for yourself or for the team?

Probably four years ago. She wasn't. So she was an agent on my team. She's also my daughter. And then so she was handling. So to back it up a little bit. So she was an agent on the team and she was an active agent Covid hit. She ended up meeting her husband. Now, well, she met him prior, but staying in Massachusetts, getting married, buying a house there. So she's able to do transaction coordinating remotely. But what the reason why I brought her on was because or changed her into that role, let's say was Caldwell Banker changed their systems and you have to upload your paperwork and your all of this. And not to get into the nitty gritty, agents were missing a form, agents were missing a document. And because it's my team, who did they go to? They didn't go to the agent, they went to me. So I was getting bogged down with, you're missing your lead based paint, you're missing your seller's disclosure, you missed the MLS sheet to submit. So I said to my daughter, Alexa, this will be great. You can do this. And she is like a stickler. Like they, they, they love her, but they complain about her at the same time because nothing gets past her. And it gave me free time. I don't want to sit and look through your documents of 15, 16 pages to make sure it went in okay. Or have someone say this is me missing and then I have to ask you for it. So that kind of gravitated into Alexa's role and now Alexa does everything. So nobody on the team touches anything that has to do with any of the systems in Caldwell Banker. It all goes through Alexa. So before it even gets to Caldwell Banker, the packet is complete. And that like helps me tremendously. It just gave me so much more time that I don't have to stress about it, I don't have to worry about it.

That sounds like good creative problem. Solving.

Yes, yes, yes.

What do you rely on the brokerage for that maybe precludes you from having to hire that role for yourself directly?

Okay, so one of my biggest problems is I'm too independent and I don't like to ask for anything and I don't like to rely on anything. So that's a problem. I don't, I'm. I have to relinquish some control and I have a very hard time doing it. So I still have my hands in a lot of things that I should probably, if I talk to anybody, they'd be like, get out, get out. You shouldn't, you should be doing this. And not that it's a work in progress. I rely on the brokerage more. My lean in is my manager. That's my lean in. My manager, John Bradley is my go to. He supports me. But as far as transactional stuff, I don't really lean on Caldwell Banker too much for that.

Tell me about the change from the Lisa Stafford team to NJ property experts. When did that happen? What was the motivation? We don't have this conversation that often on the show. Like, I feel like it'd be fun to do like a big roundtable of pros and cons of naming the team after yourself. You obviously have a clear, strong feeling about it because you started one way and then shifted to the other. So share anything you want about that decision, that process and how it's helped you.

Okay, so yes, it was the Lisa staffer team. And then two years ago about, I said, you know, this doesn't really fit my model. So my model is identity. Right? You have your own identity. Yes. You're doing this and that. But everything is the Lisa Stafford team. Email the Lisa Stafford team. Like it didn't, it was missing. Right. It was a missing piece. So I said, okay, so here's the thing. Is a seasoned agent going to want to come and be the Lisa Stafford team when they have their own name out there? And why is a seasoned agent going to come to me? Or why is a new agent who feels they need to start their journey with everything in their name going to want to be under my name? And while yes, we have agents that were doing that and my core team was the Lisa Stafford team. They were, and they had no issue with it. I came up with the idea because I said, this has to be a team. It's not me, it's all of us right outside in that world. It's all of us working together. My name shouldn't be on it. I had to rebrand everything, it was a little nerve wracking. I had to, hmm, what do I do? And then finding the name, that was another thing that took months. That took months of me overthinking everything, right. But I came up with the name and I first spoke to the team. That was the first thing I spoke to them and said, how do you feel about this? And they were all ecstatic. So that even more said to me, this needs to happen. Right. And so we created the name. I ran the name past the team. What do you guys think about this? You know, because I always want it. I don't want to say it's always at the end of the day, it's my decision, but I want it to be a collective decision that we all agree on. And for the most part, we do. So that's where that started. And then my thought process was, okay, to take it that step further. I, I have, I have a team. I have an agent on my team that's in Monmouth in Ocean County. And part of my growth is to grow down there. Okay. So, yes, I live down there and I've dabbled a little bit in real estate and have sold some houses down there. Mostly my clients, beach houses. But who's going to care about Lisa Stafford, you know, in Seager, at the beach? Nobody. So that was another reason why it should be okay. So wait, it's all of New Jersey. I cover eight counties and I sell in all eight counties. It's not just I joined those MLS's so it had to be something that includes, encompass the whole state. So that as I grew in this area, in this area, in this area, it made sense. So to go back to the question that was part of, I would like to say I wish I had it all planned out and thought from the beginning, but I didn't. It was all trial and error and the pieces kind of fell into place. And I think the team appreciates it because it's not my identity, it's our identity. And also too, like at the Caldwell Banker Awards or like if you get something monthly, it would say the Lisa Stafford team. But it wasn't all my business, it was my teams. So it should be a name that reflects all of us and not just me. So that was kind of the mindset I went towards. I got a lot of grief for it from a lot of people. They thought, well, first of all, they thought my team structure was never going to last, that you have to have buyer's agents, you have to have this, you have to have that and it's never going to last and it's lasted and I'm only perfecting it more and more as we go through. But that's how the team name came across.

I love that. I love a couple key pieces, of course, which are this is about all of us. I also think it's interesting that you're building a brand that can outlive you personally. Not like in a like life or death situation, but like if you choose to walk away, you can walk away and it still has a strong like there's a lot of promise in that brand name.

Yes.

In addition, the geographic expansion you're talking about I think is critical as well. I think some people could spend their way to some amount of relevance in a brand new market or you know, there, someone could argue that there's a freshness about a, you know, Lisa Stafford, who's that, you know, when the signs start going up the yards and things. But like at the same time, I think geographic expansion in terms of where you're actively practicing and where the team members are on a regular basis is another compelling reason to make a bigger promise than some one individual's name. Right? Yeah, I like that for a lot of reasons. I also think it just, it fits the same reason well the way that you're building the team. And so, you know, you described it a bit as a model. What were talk a little bit about that grief and talk a little bit about that that people gave you about your model. How would you describe your model and where was the grief coming from as you started to push forward with what you thought was the right way to build your team?

So again, when I first decided to form a team, that was a time when there were actually teams out there, but they weren't declared teams. Right. So you saw a lot of agents that had, whether it was an assistant and an agent under them or maybe a few, they weren't declared teams. And at that time a lot of, you know, managers were getting kickback or pushback from that agent that they didn't want to declare themselves a team because if they declared themselves a team then it was going to take away from their identity and it was going to take away from them. Fast forward now, all of a sudden, I think like two years into it, teams started taking off and everybody was a team. Right. So when I said I was going to form my team at that time, the team structures, those who were declared teams were very, you know, team leader, buyer's agent, everything went in the team leader's name. I don't know if I got grief out of fear of someone thinking, hey, I won't be able to do what I want to do because you're offering X or I don't know if it was. I got grief because it was different. It was not the norm for the team. So there was a little pushback. You know, I'm always asking questions and I'm always saying, hey, what do you think about if I did this? Or you know, and not asking other team leaders per se, but just having general conversations with other agents. And at that time it was like, I don't see it lasting. I don't think it will be sustainable. I think you have to stick to that structured team model. Now we're in 2025 and I could probably name several teams that are structured like mine or morphed into some other type of. Where it's not just team leader, business, buyers, agents. There's plenty of those teams out there. Don't get me wrong. They are the mainstream teams. Right. Especially the mega teams. That is a totally different team model and just different. Right now it seems to be, hey, maybe I'll start a team and I will. We'll be sales partners or we'll. Whatever we label it as and they're out there and. But I think the grief in the beginning was the unknown. I think people weren't saying it won't last to be mean or, you know, kind of, you know, poo poo on my idea, let's say. But, but I think it was, hey, no one's done that at this time. Why are you going to rock the boat? Like, why are you going to try something different? Why don't you just do what everybody else is doing and you'll be successful. And I just had this, this idea that it just wasn't about me. It's just not about me. It's about us actually looking back, how we've morphed into this new name, this whole like experience has been where I originally wanted to start. Just my process of getting there was a little different. But I don't know, I, I don't. I just think it wasn't the thing to do at the time. And that's, you know, why they probably felt that way.

Yeah. And so the time, just for reference, was 2015, 2017. In that window there.

In that window, yes. Yeah. And you know, we would have our numbers come out right, for rankings within the team and you'd go, oh gosh, how's that person doing all that? You know, and there Are agents that do that? But then you would find out, oh, but there's like four people behind that person. They should be declared a team. But sorry, it all works out.

Yeah. For folks watching and listening, I did a conversation with Mark Adams at Real Trends. He's SVP of Housing Wire Real Estate Group Group, which includes the Real Trends ranking. So we have a very extensive conversation about how they defined agent versus team. And we got into some of this stuff like are they trying to produce business? Are they like, you know, how do you, what's a small, what's a medium, what's a large, what's a mega, you know, all that stuff. And it's tricky because again, there are like everyone is kind of doing their own thing. When someone seems to get some momentum, some other people start to kind of mimic or model that, but maybe add their own, add their own flavor to it. And I think the one thing that's proven out is, you know, some of the elements that you've offered here, Lisa, are the keys to doing it successfully, no matter how exactly you do it, which is a focus on the customer above all, period. Like that's, that's where it's at. And then, you know, giving agents what they need, some accountability, some training, support, etc. And then figuring out who are the right people to be around here and what is it like to be around here. Some cultural components and making sure that we find people that match the cultural components. I think if you get those things going that you can be successful. I think the other thing that we have not talked about that that has been key to kind of a more traditional model is a lot of lead gen, typically paid lead gen or online lead gen, whether that's, you know, organic or driven by social, or whether it's, you know, paid advertising. My guess is that a lot of your personal business and a lot of the business of the team early on was just in relationships and network and database. Is that, is that the case? And if so, how are you helping brand new agents? Because you've got, you've, you've had a few of those now build their books of business.

So yes, majority. Well, most all of my business is referral, past clients, sphere of influence and, and again the agents that have been on for a while, they also have that. What I do have though is we do participate with Zillow, we. So I don't take any leads from that that gets round robin to the team. There's extensive training on before you can take a call because every call is important. So anybody new coming on gets that opportunity to kick start their business. I had an agent that came on about a year ago. She'd been a realtor for about a year and a half or so and she just needed that kickstart and she took a couple of leads and converted them. We have a new agent that just joined that has a deal in escrow now. That was from one call from, you know, so there is the Zillow component of it. There's also, you know, if I have a listing, you do my open houses, you have open house opportunity. The problem is our inventory is so low, but I wish it was a little bit more. But you have the open house opportunity. If I have a lead that I, I can't, you know, service or have time to meet with them or my timing is not right, they'll also benefit from that lead. I do pass off leads to people, you know, referrals and stuff like that. So that's how they can get started in the business. And it's also that accountability component. Right? Anybody could pick up a phone and take a lead. It's the training and all of that that goes with it on how you convert that lead that, let's say you're a single agent, you just became an agent, you have money, you pay for Zillow, you get those calls and you convert nothing because you've had no coaching training and no accountability. You know, the biggest question is how many times should I contact somebody before I give up? Well, don't ever give up. Keep contacting them. Right? But if you don't know that or you're not taught that, so. So anybody kickstarting will get, you know, the open house leads from Zillow sphere of influence and also telling them how to create their database. Because I'm going to tell you right now, if somebody told me 22 years ago how to have my database and my sphere of influence, it wouldn't have been so difficult seven years into the business to organize it. So just from becoming new and adding to it each time is so easy for them. I had to go back and put it all together or, or then like it's like putting it, you know, I've tried every CRM that's out there over the course of my career. We have follow up boss, which is the most user friendly, I have to say. But putting everything into follow up boss. You know, anybody starting off new who joins the team has follow up boss from the start. I can't make it any simpler for them, you know, so for a New agent. I think that I know that's how they get, they get kick started.

If you're actively recruiting, what does your like recruiting and onboarding process look like? Because you're in that kind of that zone where. And I feel like I kind of know your answer because of the way you described yourself about 20 minutes ago. But, you know, being involved in all the things, but to the recruiting side, not like, you know, what are all the things you're doing to, you know, bring. What does that look like in general? But more specifically some I would love a little bit of detail on because of the size of your team. It's not like you have, you know, a sales manager who's doing all of the onboarding and training and active coaching. You're doing all of that while running your own business as well. So what does onboarding look like in particular at this stage of the team and what kind of folks are kind of coming into whatever that experience is?

So again, you're right. I do everything which I need to change.

It depends.

It depends, yeah. If the growth continues, there needs to be a change. Right. So for right now, the process is always been the paperwork side, all of that, that's Alexa. As far as the day to day activities, how to get business, how to get your database in order. That's me. That's me. So for example, the two new agents, you know, the first meeting with them, obviously recruiting them yet bringing them onto the team, then having a meeting with them to see, okay, where are you exactly? Like what, what have you done so far and what do you need to do? So that's me. And then as we go through the process, I may hand you off to Alexa or you may shadow somebody else at an open house that's actually hosting an open house. You know, maybe I don't have something for you to do right at that moment. I mean, when you have an agent that joins you in December, it's like, I'll sit with you, I'll go through everything with you, but I don't really have that much. I'll prepare you for January and February. So if there's an agent on the team that has an open house, they'll shadow that person for that. Back in the day, I mean, before COVID you would just drive around in the car with me all day long and just listen and just listen. I mean, because you can't. Some of those conversations, you can't plan, right, or come and sit in the office with me and just listen to the conversations. It's like I always refer to when you went to real estate school. They showed you how to fill out a contract. You didn't retain anything to the day you had to write your first contract.

Right?

Right. So it's like I could sit here and talk till I'm blue in the face, but until you actually get into a situation, we. I can't. I can help you, but it's like gonna go in one ear and out the other. Right. I don't care how many notes you take. What are you gonna go back to 50 pages before when something happens? So that onboarding process would always be shadow me, spend time in the office with me. Now it's a little different. It's more scheduled time. If you're. You're new. New. It's. Let me see where you. Let me take an analysis of where you are. Let's take inventory of what you need do to. To do. It's amazing. Like, you don't have a Zillow profile, you don't have any social media presence. You don't have a social media business account. So it's like that basic stuff and then going on to your database. In your sphere, if you're seasoned, you kind of hit the ground running a little bit. It's more systems and processes within the team. And then really where I tend to shine is when you have a problem. Right. Like, my biggest thing is don't try to figure it out yourself because you go, you don't want to bother me, and then you don't do the right thing, and then you come to me anyway because then I can't fix it, then I can't help you. So bother me all day long. I'll never be bothered. But if it's something where it's that important that you have to make a decision and you're just going to wing it, come to me, because more than likely I'll know the person on the other side, the other agent, or I'll have some type of relationship or I'll fix it. I look in this business, and I don't mean to like, go off on a tangent, but, you know, like I said, there's always things that we can learn. We don't know everything. And I don't care if you've been in the business 5 years, 20 years, 30 years, you're not better than anybody else. And sometimes these newer agents get treated like, so poorly. And one of the things I say to them is, you're now on my team, I have your back. So if something happens or doesn't seem right. Come to me. That's where I am the most useful in this whole thing. Like, I could. Anybody can. You can. You can Google it. You can go on to any coaching site. Here's what I need to do. Here's my stuff script. But I'm holding you accountable. I'm practicing, I'm role playing with you, and I'm there when you get yourself jammed up. I'm here to help you.

Something I'm curious for you about. As you've said a couple of times now, like, you know, I need to maybe change that. What is your plan for the next or what is your goal for the next, you know, 12 to 36 months. With regard to the team in general, not like, what is your production goal? But like, what do you want this thing to be? Like, do you see yourself continuing at this pace and like, keeping great people around you and continuing to balance your time between all these different demands of your own production? And, you know, when the right fit comes along, I'm going to bring them in. Or is this a, you know what, I'm going to actually put my hand up and say, hey, if you want to be a part of a team that operates this way, come on over. And then actually have to maybe build an onboarding program. And, you know, some of these other things, like, I only drew two paths. There are multiple. But, like, where do you see this going over the next, maybe 12, 24, 36 months?

So one of the things that I'm trying to do is not repeat what I've done in the past. Right. Which is try to control everything, try to handle everything, because you can't and something gets lost somewhere. So, yes, the goal is to, as this grows, and especially if we grow here and in Monmouth and Ocean, I have to bring somebody on board. My problem is, is that I have to relinquish control. And it has to be the right person that can gel with me a little bit or kind of understand the way I am so that they can have a little patience with me. Believe me, when I relinquish the control, I feel great. I feel wonderful. It's that part of doing it so down the road. Yes. To bring someone in. Do I have a plan of how to execute that right now? No, I don't. It's something that is in the process that I'm working on and trying to figure out how I bring that person in. Where is that person located? Because again, my office is Westfield, but I'd like to have a space down in Monmouth and Ocean. How do I do that? How do I. So that's why I have, I haven't really done that or executed that yet because I'm trying to figure out strategically where that person is. And it can't be remote. It has to be. You're here. Right. So I think if I continued what I was doing today, we would get stuck. There would be no growth because I can't. Something would have to give. And honestly, I like having production. I don't think I have the mental capability of, not at this moment of not being out there and working. If I'm not doing it, like I get into like total panic anxiety mode. It's not good. So I like so for. So if you take all of that and you say, okay, so she still wants to, to be in production, she still wants to work. You know, how does she then can't grow. I then can't grow because something's going to break and I want to be ahead of it before it breaks. So in the future. Yes. Strategically figuring out where, how I want to grow, how big I want to grow. When I set this out, I never even thought I would have 10 agents. So it's, it's a work in progress. I'm just trying to stay ahead of it. So I, to be honest with you, when I drive back and forth, you know, I'm always on the parkway. That's when I have these like brainstorms. I don't know, like my, when, when my daughter used to work with me and drive with me every day, she. I would all of a sudden be like, write this down, write this down. How she's like, why do you have all these thoughts when you're driving in the car? You don't have them when you're sitting at your desk. Desk. You know, I don't know what it is. So it is something I am working on. I'm trying to structure it out and figure out the best way to do it. And then how does that look and what does my role become?

Yeah, there's a lot there. I have a few ideas for you, but for the sake of time, we'll do that and maybe a one on one conversation because I want to share to ask you my three pairs of closing questions which you may be familiar with. The first one being what's your very favorite team to root for besides your real estate team? Or what is the best team you've ever been a member of besides your own real estate team?

Well, so I'm going to go right to football because Eagles are my team. So that's my team that I root for outside of real estate. I really. This is going to sound cheesy and corny, but I really mean it, Ethan. I root for everybody. Like, I do want everybody, everybody to be successful. I'm not one of those, you know, green with envy jealous person I kind of look at. Okay, what should have I done better? Or what could I have done better? So. So if you want to root for a team, it's the Eagles.

What is one of your most frivolous purchases? Or what's a cheapskate habit you hold on to even though you probably don't need to?

I don't really have a frivolous purchase. I don't. And I don't have a. I'm, like, right in the, like, I don't have a cheapskate thing, and I don't have a frivolous purchase. I, like, thought about this for the longest time. Okay, I'm gonna totally change it on you. Sorry if it doesn't answer your question, but I got into this business so that I could provide for my daughters so I could buy them a car when they turn 17 so they could go to any college that they wanted to. To go to. So I wouldn't call it frivolous, but I was able to pay for my girls to go to the colleges of their choices, and that's the only reason why I did all of this. That was it. So it didn't really answer your question because I don't really have one or the other.

It fits with so many. Like, with sometimes people are just straight up frivolous purchases. Let's just say, like, an obscenely expensive car. But so many of the, like, the frivolous categories category wind up being like, yours, where, you know, I bought this thing and it seemed, like, kind of extravagant or expensive, but it allowed me and my family to spend all this time together, for example, so it's, like, frivolous after all. Lisa, what does it look like for you? I think you kind of touched on this a little bit in the beginning. What does it look like for you to invest your time and attention in learning, growing, and developing? What are you doing? Or what does it look like for you when you're investing time in resting, relaxing, and recharging?

Okay, so the first one is, we are constantly training seminars, webinars, coaching. It's constant. I'm reading books constantly. If I read a book, I send it. I'll send it to the team. It's a con. I like to Learn. It gives me this level of if I've read something, I kind of feel better. Right. Like, I'm always wanting to know more and more and more. So as far as myself or the team is concerned, even specifically myself, it's constant learning web. And like I said, webinars, books, seminars, coaching, bringing anything that I've learned back to the team, which I have to say too, is. Has become like a twofold. When the team sees something, something, they send it to more and more. So as far as myself or the team is concerned, even specifically myself, it's constant learning web, like I said, webinars, books, seminars, coaching, bringing anything that I've learned back to the team, which I have to say too, is has become like a twofold. When the team sees something, they send it to me now. So it's kind of like worked out that we're kind of all out there and like we're, we're sharing it with each other. And then. I don't know if you want me to answer the, the second one. I go on vacation one time a year, and that's in January. My husband and I, I don't totally disconnect. I do work while I'm there, but we do go somewhere that's warm and sunny and, and get away for I think it's like 10 days.

That's great.

Yeah.

Lisa, if someone has made it here to the end of this conversation, they may want to learn more about you or about your team or any other things we covered. Where would you send people who maybe wanted to follow up on this conversation?

So you can follow me anywhere on any of my social media platforms. You can. I don't know my website, NJ property experts, but I'm on every social media platform I do. One thing, I forgot to add Ethan, which is horrible that I didn't do this, but I do have my social media manager that is part of my team that handles all of our execution, you know, videos, posting, everything. So the reason why I have these social media handles that people can follow me is because of Madison. But yeah, if anybody wanted to, you can DM me any of those, any of those areas you can find me.

Shout out to Madison. And all of the links to those channels are right down below. Whether you're watching in YouTube, listening in Apple podcasts or Spotify, or watching or listening@realestateteamos.com where you can do both of those things. I put descriptions right down below and I link up all the things we talk about. Lisa, thank you so much. I really appreciate, appreciate you, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.

Thank you. It was great. It was wonderful. You too, Ethan.

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