Profitability & Performance Pitstops for Real Estate Rock Stars and Team Leaders 9798708104168

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Profitability & Performance Pitstops: For Real Estate Rock Stars & Team Leaders All Rights Reserved COPYRIGHT © 2020 Ron Howard This book may not be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in whole or in part by any means, including graphic, electronic, or mechanical, without the express written consent of the publisher except in the case of brief questions embodied in critical articles and reviews. ISBN: 979-8708104168 Cover design: Peter Burch

Editors Hilary Jastram Scotti Cutlip Published by: Hilary Jastram. J. Hill Marketing, Inc. & Bookmark

“Everybody jumps in with passion, but they forget the planning part, and we get excited about productivity when we should focus on profitability.” - Terri Murphy

Dedication This book is dedicated to Flynn Orion Howard. Whatever you do, it will be great.

Early Praise for Profitability & Performance Pitstops “From page one, I was hooked! How many of us have experienced the Lambo illusion in our business? What a great analogy. Ron has a way of helping you see his experience as yours and provides a plan for getting out of the pain and into profitability with this page-turning book that you won’t want to put down. WSS is the real deal, and Verl Workman has transformed the businesses and lives of many along the way. Ron’s story is everyone’s story. Read this book to apply it to your life, and finally take that honest look in the mirror of your business and start performing as you have dreamt about through the power of coaching. Ron’s journey will be yours, and success that is real, not an illusion, can be attained!” Jason Hewlett, Hall of Fame Speaker and Author of The Promise to The One “Ron cuts straight through the façade of what success appears to be for a Real Estate Team Leader to what success actually is. This book goes into great lengths about the true performance indicators of success and profitability. The professional racecar analogy woven throughout the book helps the reader connect more with the principles in the race to profitability. If you want to learn how to build a profitable and scalable real estate team, look no further. The PainFuel concept is a reminder that the pain we feel can be our fuel for making positive change in our lives.” Casey Denby, Vice President | RE/MAX University Learning & Education “If the residential real estate industry had a mandatory university, Ron Howard would be its dean, and this book would be required reading. “From mindset to leadership to wealth and team building, this book has everything that anyone with a real estate license will ever need to reach their business goals. “For most, reading this book will feel like going for a long drive with a sage who is not afraid to tell on himself and who brings in the wisdom of others to enrich your journey. For some, it may feel like a needed wake-up call.

“Finally, the title of the book says it all. If you’re interested in higher levels of profitability and performance, this book is for you. Your family, team, and community are counting on you to implement!” Vlad Kats, Co-founder and Former CEO, Keller Williams Legacy Brokerage Group, Former Partner and CEO, the Five Doors Network “Profitability & Performance Pitstops is a great read when your goal is to build a big business that leads with profit, not with ego-serving, quick wins that may give you awards and accolades, but nothing in the bank. I am lucky to have Ron Howard as my coach. I value him as my coach and love that he not only talks the talk but walks the walk. His latest book utilizes a fun and highly relatable series of stories that create the framework and lay out an easy-to-comprehend foundation for building a big business through real estate, building teams the correct way, and zeroing in on one of your most important success indicators…profitability. If you are curious about what it’s like to have a great coach like Ron, this book is pure gold and a great start…and only the tip of the iceberg of what a great coach can provide to you.” Ryan Van Daele, Van Daele Group, Brokered by eXp Realty “This book is awesome. It is the road map to getting you from Agent to Business Owner without the pain of hitting every bump in the road. Ron lives his word and, as my WSS coach, has helped me focus on my habits and systems to increase my profitability and quality of life. Read and then re-read this book…Learn, Do, Master The Workman Way®.” Tina Johnson, Director of Agent Development for RE/MAX United “As a real estate author of three books and a life-long student of the industry, I try to read as many real estate books as I can. In 2018 I reviewed Ron’s book, Create Demand and Stop Chasing Business, which was an easy read full of useful ideas for building a highvolume business without the chase. In this book, Ron packs these many pages with ideas, models, and concepts to build a big and profitable business. Ron shares the right behaviors to adopt, key operational models, and team building ideas. If you’re looking to build a real estate sales business with a core of profitability and performance, this is a must-read.” Brandon Doyle, Author: Real Estate Marketing Playbook, Mindset, Methods & Metrics and Success Rate Marketing “The race metaphor Ron chose matches his fast-paced presentation of actionable insight that leaders and team members can emulate and leverage to adopt a mindset

for continuous improvement on both a personal and team level. Ron’s vulnerability is on full display as he offers us a path to not only avoid his mistakes but to courageously exit the broken processes and patterns that are not producing the results and sense of peace that we so desperately want and need. Thank you, Ron!” Kirk Weisler, Chief Morale Officer, Author, Speaker “If your business has plateaued and you just can’t seem to get to the next level, this is a must-read. Open your mind, put your ego aside, and move on to a more efficient business plan, more profitability, and more time to help others.” Vicky Sowden, RE/MAX of Midland “When a book comes down the road that shows you how to solve big problems and teaches you systems, processes, and models that you can immediately implement and practice, I take notice. Profitability & Performance Pitstops for Real Estate Rock Stars & Team Leaders is just that book! Ron masterfully sequences the behaviors you need to adopt and the models and structure you need to run a real estate sales team with operational excellence. Bravo! I will share this with any sales agent that wants to get to the top fast!” Ryan Paquin, Branch Manager First Home Mortgage “Profitability & Performance Pitstops is the perfect title. This book is an instruction manual and playbook…if you’re already running a good business, take a “pitstop” to optimize it (your team/business) and make sure you remain in the race. You will come away with a full tank and a clean windshield for the road ahead. This book includes many lessons from all of the must-read business books; however, Ron’s book highlights the most relevant parts to real estate and running a business. Profitability & Performance Pitstops is so valuable because Ron is willing to be vulnerable and share his journey. Success leaves clues, so be willing to learn and read this!” Ron Rocz, Broker/Owner, RE/MAX Nexus “Profitability & Performance Pitstops for Real Estate Rock Stars & Team Leaders is a fantastic book loaded with tips on how to develop your personal skills, business models, and team structure. A perfect playbook for any agent trying to take the direct route to the next level of success!” Amy Fichter, PRMI Branch Manager / Loan Originator

“Ron Howard has done it again. Profitability & Performance Pitstops for Real Estate Rock Stars & Team Leaders is an amazing book that focuses on team development. Whether you are an agent looking to build a team or a team that is looking to rebuild, this book is for you. It truly is a complete guide and is extremely thorough, providing you with the tools that you need to be successful and things you need to watch out for. This book reminds you that if you have the right people in the right places on your team and they are doing the right things with the right mindset, anything is possible! You never stop learning, and it is never too late to build your dream team. It’s a must-read, and I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did.” Emma Young, Regional Marketing Manager for a New Home Builder. “Ron’s book, Profitability & Performance Pitstops, focuses on many principles that are useful not just for running a profitable real estate business but for achieving success and profitability in any business venture. I especially enjoyed the chapter on The Eight Qualities of Successful People. As an actor, I appreciated the courage Ron displayed by allowing himself to be transparent in order to bring awareness to the possible pitfalls of running a business.” Lawrence Gilliard Jr., The Walking Dead, HBO’s Deuce, Gangs of New York, The Wire “As a junkie for learning new leadership skills and strategies to maximize both profitability and impact, I found this manual by Ron Howard to be full of practical and specific tools that can help anyone build a successful real estate enterprise. It translates very well to the mortgage business as well. If you want to be the best, learn from the best, and then pass it on. That is exactly what Ron has demonstrated in this work. Bravo, Ron!” Stuart Epstein, Top 1% Mortgage Leader in Maryland since 2003 “You can’t win without a Pitstop! And this book is your chance to refuel, refocus, and get back on track, ready to race and win! Ron’s ideas are insightful, inspirational, and, most importantly, actionable. This book is a toolbox for your business tune-up and will quickly help you realign yourself with the principles and practices that are proven to produce prosperity for your team members.” Patrick Wesley, Realtor with RE/MAX Advantage “He’s done it again! Ron Howard’s analysis shines a light on the convergence of management and production in the real estate industry, an essential step by step guide to running a successful sales team operation.” Jonathan Manekin, MSRE, Director, Greenspring Realty Partners

Contents Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .i Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii Personal, Business & Team Development Pitstops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix Use This Book at Any Stage of Your Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: Invisible Anchors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Revelations Over Edamame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 I Didn't Know I Needed That… . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 I’m The Man… Right? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Take Small Hits to Avoid a Big Crash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Your Ego Creates Blind Spots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Chapter 2: Follow Our Footsteps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Achieving Higher Levels of Personal Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Achieving Higher Levels of Business Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Team Development Connects What You've Learned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Your Guided Journey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Chapter 3: Close Your Eyes, Grasshopper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 The Eight Qualities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 #1: Serve Regardless of Opportunity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 #2: Accountability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 #3: Growth Mindset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 #4: Believe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

#5: Successful Habits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 #6: Grit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 #7: Zen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 #8: Transmute Pain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 The Eight Qualities Recapped . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Chapter 4: Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Assume [You're] the Worst . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Figure Out Your Motive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Simple Laws of Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Practicing Maxwell's Laws . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Play the Long Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Wrong Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Eating Last . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Teach Them to Fish… . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Truly Care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Leadership Checklist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Chapter 5: Negotiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 The Ackerman Bargaining Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Mirroring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Tactical Empathy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 “No” and “That's Right” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Negotiating Checklist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Chapter 6: Finance & Building Wealth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Cash is the Foundation of Any Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Think Profit, Not Expenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Adopt a Few Basic Operating Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Simple Budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Personal Finance Checklist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Personal Development Checklists Personal Development Mastery with Verl Workman BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Chapter 7: Your Pivotal Pitstops Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Where Do I Start? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Chapter 8: Stop #1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Create a Strategic Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Chapter 9: Stop #2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Nurture Your Top 50 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Fear of Rejection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Chapter 10: Stop #3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Targeting & Conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Chapter 11: Stop #4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Categorize Your Leads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Chapter 12: Stop #5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 Track Your Daily Success habits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 Chapter 13: Stop #6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Ready, Set, 3-2-1 – Get Your 61 Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Chapter 14: Stop #7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Time Blocking - My Perfect Week . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 7 First Steps to Your Business Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Chapter 15: Listings, Leads, Opportunities & PainFuel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Listings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Leads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 Opportunities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 PainFuel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 Chapter 16: Score to Win . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 AMP Scorecard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 The Scorecard Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .129 CRM Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 Marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Lead Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 Transaction Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 Business Management and Accounting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 Virtual Real Estate Mastery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 Using the AMP Scorecard for Recruiting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Score to Win Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 Chapter 17: Your Ultimate Aim, Goals, & Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 Business Plan Workbook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 Business Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 Strategic Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 Personal Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 Core Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 My Team's Core Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 Mission Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 SWOT Analaysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 Income Goal Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Four Pillars of Income . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Business Marketing Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 Goal Achievement System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Cash Flow Budget Worksheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Until You Start Writing It Down… It's Just a Dream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Using Your Business Plan to Align Your Team and Developing Metrics . . . . 148 Keeping Your Business Plan in Check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 Chapter 18: Perpetual Improvement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 Agile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 Establish Normalcy for When Sh*t Hits the Fan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 Sprints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 Prioritize Your Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 Organizing Those Aha Moments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 Shifting the Entrepreneur Mindset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 Retrospectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 Chapter 19: Track Everything & Stay Profitable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Lead Tracker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 Lead Data to Track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 Key Business Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 The Numbers You Need to Know . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 Chapter 20: Your Marketing Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 Create Demand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Top 50 Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Sphere of Influence (SOI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Lead-gen Website . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Prospecting Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 E-Marketing Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 Sharpen the Sword and Stay Up to Date… . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Notecard Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Social Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 An Open House That Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 Lead Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 Virtual Open Houses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 Look Outside Our Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .181 Chapter 21: MVP Fan Clubs & Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 Shotgun Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 MVP Rewards Clubs, AKA Top 50 on Steroids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 Why It Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 Six Steps to an MVP Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 My First Touches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 Chapter 22: Virtual Operational Execellence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 Virtual Operations Checklist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 Business Development Checklist Business Development Mastery with Verl Workman TEAM DEVELOPMENT Chapter 23: Build a Team or Join a Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 Starting Your Own Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 Team Build 1ST Stop: Growth Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 First Things First . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 Organizational Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 Managemetn Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 Systems, Software, & Tech Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 Chapter 24: Team Build 2nd Stop: Hiring & Developing Talent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 Step 1: Your Value Proposition Elevator Pitch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

Step 2: Find Talent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216 Step 3: DISC Behavioral Assessment & Resume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218 Step 4: Are Core Values In Alighnment? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221 Step 5: Interview for Integrity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221 Step 6: Interview for Intelligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224 Step 7: Check References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226 Diversity & Inclusion Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 Agent Development & Coaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229 Chapter 25: Team Build 3RD Stop: Accountability & Non-negotiables . . . . . . . . . 231 How You Can Overcome a Lack of Accountability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 10 Commitments To Be On Our Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 Daily Huddles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 Role Play – LPMAAM & FORD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 Time Blocking – My Perfect Week . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 Chapter 26: Eight Evolutions and Growth Phases to Team Build . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 PHASE 1: Solo Agent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240 PHASE 2: Your First Admin Employee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245 PHASE 3: Your First Buyer Agent (You're a Team Now) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251 PHASE 4: Three Full-time Buyer Agents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256 PHASE 5: Listing Partner & Additional Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261 PHASE 6: Management, Agents, & Additional Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265 PHASE 7: Operational Excellense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270 PHASE 8: Expansion Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275 The Eight Evolution & Growth Phases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280 Chapter 27: A Guide to Commissions, Salaries & Ideal DISC Behavior Types . . .281 The Right Way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283 Roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284

Buyer Agent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285 Listing Partner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287 Lead Buyer Agent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289 Lead Listing Partner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291 Showing Assistant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293 Employee or Contractor Positions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295 Customer Care Coordinator / Administrative Assistant . . . . . . . . . . . 296 Transaction Coordinator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298 Listing Coordinator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300 Marketing Coordinator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301 (ISA) Inside Sales Agent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302 Executive Assistant / Office Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303 Sales Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304 Chief Executive Officer (CEO) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306 Chief Operating Officer (COO) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308 Runner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310 Contract Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312 Chapter 28: Will it Work in a Luxury Market? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313 Team Development Checklist Team Development Mastery with Verl Workman Need a Coach? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319 Interested in Becoming a Coach? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320 Must-Reads for Team Leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321 Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322 About the Author

Acknowledgments The idea for Profitability & Performance Pitstops for Real Estate Rock Stars & Team Leaders came to me at the end of a Workman Success Systems (WSS) threeday coach training session in the Fall of 2018. After being blown away by the knowledge shared at that event, I knew I’d found “my people” who could help me get off the volume track and onto the profitability and performance track. I was asked to attend as a speaker but didn’t think in a million years that I’d become a coaching client and coach further down the line. Verl Workman, the CEO of Workman Success Systems, and his team have spent the last six years bringing together top agents and coaches from across the country to build an army of “givers” who have shared and refined the concepts, processes, and systems that became “The Workman Way®.” WSS has spent thousands of hours crowdsourcing, brainstorming, sharing ideas, and collaborating models that you’ll read in this book. Special thanks to the Workman Success Systems coaches who agreed to be interviewed for this book. This group consists of the best in residential real estate sales. I’d also like to thank all the behind-the-scenes people at Workman Success Systems who make it such an amazing company. WSS is a family-owned business based in Salt Lake City that was founded by Verl and his daughter, Brianne. His wife, Coleen, and two sons Nate and Ryan, also help run different parts of this 30-plus employee business. They’ve quickly become a part of my family, too. To Verl Workman and everyone at WSS, I’d like to express my gratitude for your willingness to let me pull back the curtain and share the ideas and stories that make WSS one of the fastest-growing coaching companies in the US. Love you, your family, and everyone at WSS.

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Foreword Everything good I’ve ever accomplished in business has come from building a strong team around me. We built a great team at Automation Quest before selling it to Homes.com in 1999, and my current team at Workman Success Systems is excellent. When built properly, your team can be a sustainable platform where every team member reaches their own definition of success. When Ron told me he was writing Profitability & Performance Pitstops to get a real estate team on the right track, I pictured a high-performance race team. That’s because a racecar driver, like an Agent, has to be highly skilled and completely focused to win and compete. And like a real estate agent’s business, a racecar has to fire on all cylinders and remain fully prepped and tuned to operate at a high level. While a racecar driver could race without a crew, they could not compete against those who put together high-performance teams. The same is true in real estate; agents and brokers can run more efficiently and allow the driver to stay focused and on their task at hand so that everyone wins when the leader wins! Many of the most successful and profitable agents and brokers run their businesses as high performing teams. The trick to building your team properly with refined discipline is what we call “operational excellence.” While there is more than one way to build a successful team, by following proven systems and processes, we can make your journey shorter, faster, and more profitable. As Ron experienced, even the most successful teams can deceive us. After a legitimate Gap Analysis, Ron realized while his performance was legendary, his profitability was shrinking. By applying the right tools and systems for everything iii

from his CRM to his hiring process and properly compensating team members, Ron was able to ascend to the top of the charts, in profitably as well as performance. All too often, I’ve seen highly competitive agents like Ron get on the sell, sell, sell track running a piecemeal team built with homemade business models, opportunity hires, and zero accountability tools, while not clearly understanding their role as a leader — until their engines blow out. These issues have helped us identify the right pitstops that Ron and his team made on their journey to achieve operational excellence.

“Pitstops are key to winning a race.” In the same vein, teams that use the right systems and processes, share core values, do daily huddles, track their daily success habits, role-play, and so much more will end up on top while increasing the quality of life for everyone on the team. These same pitstops can help you, too. Here’s my point. People expect a team with just about every business they deal with, whether it’s a teeth cleaning, surgery, or an oil change. But in order to make it profitable, that team needs to be strong, and every role on the team clearly defined. Creating expertise builds confidence, creates better client experiences, and drives more referrals into the business. Real estate is no different. You have an obligation to provide a powerful team to your clients. Ron was skeptical of coaching when he started with us and wasn’t sure it was the right move but mentioned that if using “The Workman Way®” to turn his business around worked, he’d write a book about it. And I’ll be darned; he kept his word. I built Workman Success Systems to help agents get better step-by-step, achieve iv

extraordinary success, and transform into profitable and high-performing team leaders. The reality is when you are great at this business; you attract more business and opportunities. And with that comes a choice. You either have to stay where you are and start turning down opportunities, or you have to start saying no to other important things in your life. Building a high-performance team allows you to have it all. You can serve more clients, make a difference in your community, and intentionally create the life, business, team, and family you desire. Verl Workman CEO of Workman Success Systems

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Introduction “Change happens when the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change.” - Tony Robbins

I was 21, barhopping in DC when I first laid eyes on the Lamborghini Countach. I watched, stunned, as the ultimate poster car weaved its way closer to the street corner I was standing on. Holy cow… Equipped with a 4.8-liter V-12, the Countach should sound as good as it looks. But as this one passed by with its reality-defying, frenetic, angular looks, I could hear something familiar yet out of place. It was the distinctive rattle of an air-cooled VW engine. Turns out, I was starstruck by a kit car, not the Italian dream car. I’d been duped by a mail-order, do-it-yourself, home-built creation. Holy cow was right… I fell for it. A lot of top-producing real estate team leaders remind me of that fake Lambo. Strutting across stages and winning all the “sales volume” awards gets you the same envious looks and social media likes as you would if you were cruising down the highway in a Lambo, fake or not. And when heads turn your way for a moment, you trick yourself into thinking you’re a success. That’s where we can get off the track. For years, I drove a fake Lambo of a business. I was self-coached, grew a team to 30 agents, had over 540 transactions, and topped off at $4.1 million in gross vii

commissions. The only problem was, like most self-coached mega-teams, as sales went up, “net profit” came down. The fake Lambo gleamed brighter when my first book, Create Demand and Stop Chasing Business, sat on top of the sales charts and made the Inman Top 10 list for 2018. This was a prime example of surface-level success at its best. Vroom, vroom. But if you continue driving that fake Lambo with a whiny fan belt VW engine, the wheels can and will come flying off. While you are busy crossing stages with your pearly grin—whoops—you’ll lose focus of the most important gauge of all: profitability. Take a quick lesson from my smartest, most conservative pain-in-the ass rehabber client who always says, “I don’t rehab homes. I make money.” His strategy? He’ll only buy a house that he 200% knows will make money, even if it means looking at 150 properties to find one that has close to zero risk. Whereas most other rehabbers take the risk and finish rehabs after a small market downswing and end up with no profits or lost money. Many agents who start teams find themselves in this same predicament. After a few months (or years) of working with a patchwork of systems and getting the glory of being in the top “whatever,” they break even or endure a money-losing operation. In truth, they’re probably making less than individual top producers in the same office; only they have the ballooning expenses and ten times the headache. It’s important for you to learn how to build a profitable and scalable business model before you hit the high-performing team gas pedal. It took my phony Lambo bouncing off the wall and enduring too many painful moments to learn that my business was on the wrong track. I had to drop the “if you ain’t first, you’re last” mindset. But I didn’t get here on my own, and the experiences shared in this book aren’t viii

just from my journey. You’re about to learn firsthand experiences from top coaches and team leaders and how they used business models, concepts, trackers, planners, and ideas. It’s important to remember that success leaves clues, with many hiding in your blind spots. Every NASCAR driver understands the physics of drafting to slingshot ahead of your competition. You can make the same moves with Ricky Bobby’s voice echoing in your ears as you make your move to profitability, then performance: “Shake and Bake!” Personal, Business & Team Development Pitstops There are three areas of focus you need to develop, each one adding a foundational layer to the next, which ultimately creates your future success. 1. Like a racecar driver, we’ll first develop your Personal skills. 2. Then we’ll get your Business running like a fine-tuned racecar. 3. We’ll teach you how to build a winning Team. This book shares the proven business models, accountability and tracking tools, and non-negotiables for you and your team. You will feel the tight cohesion of these strategies and concepts in just the way that a buyer matches up with a great lender. Each concept will get you one step closer to profitability, performance, potential, and the possibility of success — as it moves you farther away from that kit car of a business and the shallow prestige of a wall full of awards.

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Use This Book at Any Stage of Your Business If you’re just starting a team or trying to change your model before the wheels come off, the pitstops I share will give you the best insight from experts in our industry. If you don’t have a team yet, or you have a small team that needs adjusting, no sweat. And if you have a big team like me, the perceived pain of changes won’t be as bad as you think. It wasn’t for me, and I was in a pretty big rut. Think about it this way. How often does the perceived pain of making big changes prevent you from making those changes? And how has that served you in the past? My team is now a lean twelve agents. In 2019, we sold 265 homes and netted nearly as much money as when my previous team sold 500+ homes. When I experienced this, I thought I was onto something. I pictured handing this book to the CEO of my business someday and saying, “Here you go, this is what you need to run my business.” So, here you go; this is what you need to run your business. It’s all here. I took a lot of time poring over all the content you needed so you can get your head on straight, get your business in order, and finally build a profitable team. Take heart; if I can successfully take giant steps back, deconstruct and rebuild everything to get on the profitability track, then you can, too. Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines.

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CHAPTER 1 Invisible Anchors “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma—which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.” - Steve Jobs

Changing lanes to get on the profitability track wasn’t a quick swerve for me, but more like the slow turn of a half-full oil tanker. It didn’t happen until I met with my good friend and top producer, Lee Tessier, to discuss a group coaching business idea I was developing. I hoped to walk away with a potential business partner and P.F. Chang’s leftovers from our lunch meeting, but instead left humbled, in awe of a business that had been built from the ground up for Operational Excellence. I was self-taught, successful with my sales volume, and had a lot of wisdom to share. Create Demand was a best seller and getting decent attention at the time. On the outside, I looked successful. But I ignored so many smaller problems to the point that they became big clunky ones that would regularly sneak up and punch me in the face every time my sale reports gave me a false sense of true accomplishment. I wasn’t as successful as I appeared to be. Under the surface, it bothered me. Revelations Over Edamame Lee Tessier serves Harford County an hour north of my market in Baltimore, running a business that is a real V-12 Lambo.

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In addition to being a top Real Estate Agent, real estate investor, and 30-Agent Team Leader, Lee is a WSS Coach. I hadn’t heard of WSS until our lunch that day; I only knew he was an experienced coach. Since I was well-versed in Facebook private groups, video streaming, and the credit card tech that coaching systems require, I thought we could potentially partner up. I knew of a few groups doing a decent job offering “group coaching” online, but the coaching itself seemed lackluster. During lunch, I learned Lee had been coached since the second year of his career and has been a coach for six years with WSS. My version of “being coached” was calling Lee every year to ask what he’d learned from all the conferences he’d attended. No joke. I didn’t get why he put so much time and effort into training and coaching conferences. I thought I’d lose money being away from my operation that much, and since I was so intertwined with the day-to-day, it never seemed feasible. On the outside, our businesses looked the same. We had opened our doors around the same time, realized early on that a team is the best way to deliver great service, and our sales volume rankings were in the same ballpark. But I always had Lee beat on sales volume, which, remember, is the great “false marker” for success in our industry. At the end of lunch, it was clear who was winning the profitability and Operational Excellence race. And it wasn’t me. I Didn’t Know I Needed That… Lee propped up his iPad between the chopsticks and soy sauce bottle holder to share some of the ways he tracked his business. Looking back now, I can see he was also probing a bit like a coach would, to see if I was doing something comparable like he was about to show me. 2

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Spoiler alert: I wasn’t. Lee: How does your Business and Strategic Plan look? Me:

I’ll have to find it. [I hadn’t written one since 1995 when I’d launched a small tech company].

Lee: [Describing this as a 10,000-foot overview] Here’s my six-month, one-year, and five-year Strategic Plan with a checklist for what I’ll accomplish this year. Me: [Thinking back to when I was a Cub Scout forgetting about the Pinewood Derby every year until the morning of the race. I’d show up with a spray-painted block of wood and race it against painstakingly crafted masterpieces. All Lee got from me was the same smile I’d used when explaining my silver block of wood]. Lee: What are your Core Values? Me: [Attempting to blurt out a few words made up on the fly but getting nowhere. Nada. Another silent smile.] Lee: I have them displayed on a big wall in the office. They’re honesty and integrity, attitude, team, exceed expectations, and so on... My whole team aligns with the values, and if someone doesn’t, this is where we feel the friction. Me:

Boy... I could use some of that.

I was about to learn that accountability is the backbone of the coaching world, which we’ll dig into a little more later in the book. Despite the fact that he’s a coach, Lee talked about his coach, “Verl,” and explained that most coaches he knew also had a coach. My mind reeled. Coaching for coaches? I was even more intrigued. And I was beginning to contemplate my negative take on the value of coaching. 3

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Lee: [Matter-of-factly] My assistant is a “High C,” and this Agent, here, Josh, is a “High D.” [Motioning to the screen.] You’ve gotta hire the right person for the right seat on the bus, so we interview for intelligence and integrity. Me: [Nodding in agreement. Even though I had a very loose understanding of DISC, I wasn’t anywhere close to being a blackbelt DISC ninja like Lee.] Lee: We discuss Core Values and role play in our daily huddles every day at 9 AM to practice and convert at a high level when prospecting and talking to leads. Me:

[I was ignorant of the lead conversion increases that were possible but kept my mouth shut because my curiosity was building.]

Next, we dove into discussing commission plans. As I listened to Lee explain his in a way most agents could understand, I finally understood why splits had to be structured in a certain manner to properly fund a team. I’d always thought in my market that I couldn’t attract the right agents with a comp plan like Lee’s. But his splits brought him two to three times the revenue over mine. That was how he could have such a robust and necessary staff to sustain his business. Lee: I use a transaction tracker, lead tracker, and revenue tracker so that I know how many appointments are needed based on the conversion rates of the numbers we plan for. Having a tight budget, we need to know where every dollar goes. Me:

The only thing I’m tracking is what we have under contract and what commission that should bring in. [I was using “fuzzy math.”] I’m not tracking where my conversions or leads are coming from. I know I should be, but how can I find the time? [The admin team I could afford was tapped out.]

Lee: Here’s a spreadsheet of all of our projects to track. We use BoomTown 4

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as our marketing database and CRM. At a glance, I can see my current and past eight years of Key Business Numbers. Me:

[Shrinking behind my menu. A sudden vision of the piles of sticky notes I’d scribbled on about my projects and stuck all over my desk and walls surfaced in my mind. I thought, I like our current system, but it’s not doing what his is. Besides, it will take me a month to compile the business metrics using my system.]

Lee: I’ll be honest, we spend a big chunk on lead gen—$30,000 a month. But it’s for TV, radio, pay-per-click leads, Zillow, and other sources. Generating listings and leads are the lifeblood of our business. You know, if you market your listings properly and generate 6-8 buyer leads, you can plan to do 1.5 buyer transactions per listing transaction and hire an admin for every three agents. Me:

Could you repeat that...?

Lee: Verl coaches me to make sure our buyer agents only have three jobs: prospect, show houses, and negotiate contracts. We take all the admin work off their plates and let them focus on what they do best. The Agent is just one part of the service proposition our clients hire us for. Me:

[Slinking lower in my seat.] I can’t afford to do that now but will figure a way to do that soon.

Lee: [Pulling out a spiralbound notebook] This is what all of my agents use to track their Daily Success Habits. We've used these notebooks for the past five years, but now we use this new app that does the same. It tracks your daily habits to hit monthly, quarterly, and annual goals. Have you heard of it? Me:

[Head spinning.] Nope, I’ve never seen anything like that…

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As if that weren’t enough, I was shown a scorecard for his business. Every year, Lee evaluates and scores every meaningful measurement in his perpetual quest for Operational Excellence in each phase of his growth. It wasn’t until we got into the community involvement part of the conversation that I momentarily felt at ease. Between November pie parties and December Toys for Tots, among other events the team hosted, we were good in that category. But Lee had a whole system that he used to touch his circle that would fill in the gaps for what I was doing when we put on charitable events. He mentioned something about a Top 50 Sphere of Influence, which I laughed silently at, thinking I have a top 2,000. Maybe I have him beat here? But I soon learned I didn’t as he explained what a Top 50 was. Lee moved on to talking about categorizing A, B, and C Leads before rattling off what that meant and that there were simple action/follow-up plans for each type. I had always wanted to section up my leads…but since I’d always done 50 things at once, I’d just never gotten around to it. It became clear that Lee was an action man driven by potential and possibility. He was and is focused 110% on great service. He knows his why; he thinks big, and he’s not scared of failing forward. Lee has an epic plan and is an astute student and teacher of running a real estate team with Operational Excellence. To the outside world, I looked more successful than Lee. But I was no different than many larger teams — The Fake Lambo Owners of America. Each of the areas Lee covered included things I wanted to do but didn’t have the time for or didn’t even know I needed. I was rich with glory, but Lee was rich with cash. I was on the sell-sell-sell-till-I-implode track, and it was time to get my act together.

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Besides, how sustainable was it? My piecemeal systems didn’t work as my business grew to over 20 agents. I had hit my self-coached ceiling, and by ignoring the smaller problems, I’d created bigger problems that could no longer be ignored. While writing this book, I interviewed Lee and revisited that lunch. I asked if he’d had any idea that I wasn’t doing any of the stuff he was talking about. He responded, “I assumed doing your volume, you had to have been doing some of it, but your numbers didn’t add up.” I laughed, remembering that during our initial lunch conversation, he’d asked a few probing questions about my gross and net profit, and I’d just made up numbers on the fly, which I’d thought sounded right. Fuzzy math, you know.

“You will ultimately lose business and have crappy customer service if you can’t keep all the plates spinning. Your revenue drains. Your team starts falling apart, and you will wind up broke, broken, busted, demoralized, and beaten to death—physically and emotionally.” Terri Murphy WSS Master Coach Speaker, Author Terri Murphy Communications

I’m The Man… Right? One day, early in my career, when I had 14 deals under contract, a very attractive, sharply dressed Italian lady wove her way through the bullpen section of the office. Everyone stopped to follow her movement, which ended at me. She reached out 7

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to shake my hand. “Hey, I hear you’re the man.” And so begins the new phase of life when the world starts to tell you that you’re the man or woman. Or it was that way for me. Right then and there, I was about to find out that my new belief and the emotional stroking would cost me four custom suits. In addition to not using proven systems, I got my energy from the wrong sources. I swear, these custom clothier sales reps get ahold of our sales reports and know exactly what we want to hear when we have multiple deals, and the money starts to pour in. Of course, I reasoned that I needed those custom suits to go along with my monthly awards. And, of course, they had to be made from the most exclusive material from The Presidential Platinum line. After all, I have to look good if I am “the man.” Those custom Presidential Platinum suits pale in comparison to what many other real estate agents have had to pay for being the “Top Real Estate Agent.” Nate Martinez is a WSS Master Coach, RE/MAX Broker/Owner, and Team Leader with three decades of experience, personally completing over 6,000 transactions. For him, being a top producer in the 90s came with a heavy price, forcing him to endure the worst pain in order to understand what he really needed to fix. “I was so driven in being number one that I let everything else fall apart.” Nate, like many of us, had a blow out on the volume track, but then he rebuilt and got on the profitability track. Our stories are not unique. It’s never too late to shift 8

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gears when making the changes you need. Take Small Hits to Avoid a Big Crash “It's going to be a season with lots of accidents, and I'll risk saying that we'll be lucky if something really serious doesn't happen,” Ayrton Senna, the three-time Formula One World Champion racecar driver, famously proclaimed before he later died when he crashed on Lap 7 at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix at age thirty-four. In the documentary, Senna, footage shows him under extreme stress the day of that ill-fated race, despite his strict routines that had allowed him to succeed at optimal speed. That’s what you do in F1 racing, go, go, go, so even if you’re having problems, you don’t let off the gas. I have felt just like Senna on the day his crash took him out. Although I realize that his situation is far more tragic, what I mean is that I was trapped in a business structure that pounded me into the ground. I felt the pain points of a team in the volume-ranking race that didn’t scale. Naturally, I was always stressed and always worried, but I still had the pedal to the metal. That’s what I had learned to do, too—even though it wasn’t serving me. Like a speedy racecar without functioning brakes, you keep going, faster and faster, outracing others. It’s not a matter of if you will crash, but when. Here’s an example of one of the issues I was fighting and see if you can relate: Right out of the gate, many teams have too generous of a commission structure that primarily lures successful agents without any calculations of the expenses you’ll have to cover. It is only months or years later that you’ll realize the money being made doesn’t cover the expense to operate your business properly.

“What is the real versus perceived pain that makes you not make changes sooner?” It could be that you’re worried you’re going to chase away all your top producers, 9

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but even if some leave, you likely won’t get cleaned out and lose your team. Remember, when people do move on, it’s also not the end of the world. And not to be an eternal optimist, but you can replace people. Those who leave, you don’t want around anyway. You want people who want to be there. Because so many team leaders worry about losing their team, many of them attempt to offset rising expenses by adding agents. The problem with that strategy is that your current commission plan likely has too low of a margin, and it won’t cover your staffing, marketing, and lead-generation expenses. In my first year of working a new commission plan, I chased away 20 of 30 agents, and because of my big team expenses, my net-income was the lowest it had ever been in real estate. But I survived. By the end of year two, it was four times better, and (bonus!) I had rebuilt a scalable team. The pain was worth it! I shake my head when I think about coming to the realization of why I waited three years to make changes. I didn’t want to lose my ranking. I was willing to accept the pain of a shrinking margin to stay number one. Social proof of my social network had taken over all logical decision making. Thankfully, I found that after all those years of worry holding me back from making changes, the changes I made didn’t create anywhere close to the pain I expected them to. If your team gets really big—with over 300, 400, 500 transactions—and those transactions don’t cover your growing expenses, desperation will kick in, and you’ll find yourself at a crossroads. Then you’ll need to make a massive change as I did, or let your ego continue to drive you down the wrong track—as the small problems snowball.

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If you go down the wrong track, you’ll do whatever it takes to feed the volume machine. You’ll give away listings at a huge discount, make opportunity hires, and give them enticing splits that will ensure you’ll stretch your already overstretched resources. Sure, you can have a big team and boast the shiniest awards. But big teams that don’t scale properly end up bringing in new agents, only to give them leads for a few months while ignoring the more established agents who do a decent amount of volume from their own book of business. Doing this means you’re not making enough money to properly spread out leads and services to the whole team. So, your structure becomes a revolving door that does whatever it takes to keep the volume machine running. Does any of this sound familiar to you yet? If there are “Super Mega teams” in your area giving away listings at a huge discount and giving Agent splits that you know don’t make sense—these are telltale signs that their wheels are coming off. Watch out. Our market is overcrowded with a steady flow of big team member refugees. I often get approached by those who tell me they are shopping around for a new team due to all the problems I described above. Every conversation is the same; they shift their interest in talking to me into thinking I have an automatic interest in them. In most cases, they are overpaid agents with basic skills, but I’d rather hire someone new and teach them a sustainable system that helps them build a career. A lot of these refugee team members go out and start up their own teams that fall apart years later as they fall victim to their own and similarly limited expertise that they originally fled. Your Ego Creates Blind Spots In his book, Principles, Ray Dalio identifies “radical open-mindedness" as the solution to prevent your ego and your blind spot from getting in the way of being profitable and performing at a high level. “Sales volume,” “successful Real Estate 11

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Agent with a big ego?” Nah… Never heard of it! Let’s face it; we both work with these two realities every day. The big Real Estate Agent ego that I built from sales volume success fights against you in two ways: 1) it makes it hard for you to accept your mistakes, and 2) it also makes it hard to accept the weaknesses in your business. This was a problem for me. But I now realize learning from my mistakes can be the most powerful form of learning. I can also now see how a big ego prevented me from focusing on the areas in business where I was failing. Your blind spots come from your way of thinking, and you’ve been developing them since birth. They prevent you from doing two things: seeing things as they really are and seeing things as most others see them. Becoming radically open-minded involves having to constantly question your big Real Estate Agent ego and check your blind spots. You want to question your ego-driven decision-making. You want to believe that to attain success in real estate, you must be “radically open-minded” to find the direct path to success. And you need to know that it’s more important to find the right answer hiding in your blind spot than to look good rolling down the road in your fake Lambo. Jim Knowlton is a Director of Coaching and Master Coach with nearly three decades of real estate experience—including 15 years of coaching with Verl. He has “seen hundreds of agents self-sabotage and absolutely not do what they're supposed to do intentionally because it's easier to say, ‘I didn't do it,’ than ‘It didn't work.’ Therefore, I didn't fail.” If you make ego-driven decisions based on subjects you know little about, you’re going to make a lot of preventable mistakes like I did. I asked Verl what he thought the key to having a successful team, was and he said, 12

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“As teams, we must focus on progress, not perfection. Egos do indeed create blind spots because your focus is on looking at yourself and celebrating your greatness. When you focus on yourself instead of others, you lose sight of all of the great people, systems, and things that can help you grow. “ You can’t expect to be perfect all the time or make every right decision. Changing my mindset didn’t happen overnight; I had to undergo a series of radical changes for my business and future. I’m now building a future from a solid foundation, and I can say I genuinely have high confidence. Because I’m radically open-minded, I can say I’ve done the best I can. You’ve bought this book, which is a great first step toward being radically open-minded, too. So, you are doing the best you can. If anything, remember this paragraph, especially if you’re a natural, your business is on fire, everything you touch turns to gold, and it is all seemingly coming too easy… As your sales volume hits a fast sales trajectory and you’re not doing the things Lee is, each one will create an invisible anchor pulling on your profit margin, and as your expenses balloon and your invisible anchors start pulling down, your profit margin will be squeezed. You will end up either in a pitstop like I did or go bust like many unfortunate others. The invisible anchors to your growth line and ballooning expenses can make you broke while you’re going for broke. It is unfortunate that all our continuing education focuses on lawsuit prevention instead of how to work well in this business by creating positive client experiences and building a profitable enterprise. That class would never get approved! Because of this, it’s up to each Agent, Team Leader, or racecar driver to educate themselves through reading, case study review, networking, coaching, and personal education if they want to grow. And trust me, you do want to grow—but grow in the right way, a way that will allow you to keep the doors open for a nice, long time.

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CHAPTER 2 Follow Our Footsteps "If you could get all the people in an organization rowing in the same direction, you could dominate any industry, in any market, against any competition, at any time." - Patrick Lencioni

Real estate agents are one of the largest half-ass trained sales forces in the nation. Many are proudly mediocre, set in their ways, and, like the old me, think coaching is for losers. But it’s a lot easier to follow the clues left by others who have failed before you and already know what’s sitting in your blind spots. Those who avoid learning from others actually lack the motivation to change. There is nothing driving them past mediocrity and into profitability. On a recent Zoom mastermind Adam Contos, RE/MAX CEO, described the three forms of motivation: “pain, gain or competition.” It’s certainly taken a lot of pain to spark every breakthrough I’ve ever had in life. The ultimate goal is for you to become a strong leader and have a healthy business. Getting there won’t be easy, but we truly believe that focusing on your Personal, Business, and Team Development will get you onto the profitability and performance track. Achieving Higher Levels of Personal Development Ayrton Senna knew it wasn’t just being fast that won him 41 races and three Formula One world championships. He understood cars on a deeper level and 15

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never slacked off, even in the most hostile conditions. To win, a driver needs the physical and mental training of an athlete throughout the entire year. Little by little, Ayrton improved as an athlete, and his natural talent was only compounded by his drive to hone his mental and physical strength. Senna was a true leader, not just on the track when he was ahead of the competition, but with his pit crew. He even wrote a book detailing his racing strategy, Principles of Race Driving. In it, he explains that “Driving is essentially a matter of control. For a driver, getting into the car must be like going to the office for a top manager: it is his everyday job.” Like Senna preparing for a world championship, you need to develop skills and qualities to transform into a Real Estate Rock Star or Team Leader. Your training won’t be as rigorous as Senna’s, but you will have to develop key qualities like he did if you plan to ascend to the top of the podium. I’ll show you the massive impact these personal development qualities have on our success. Achieving Higher Levels of Business Development Whether you’re cutting a bend along a tight race or easing through each lap, a business built on proven systems and business models is like a finely tuned racecar with all the pistons firing in order. If you’re like I was, with 30 agents and a fake Lambo of a business, you might say, “Holy cow, where do I start?” And if you’re just starting out, you’ve still got a ways to go, but it’s better to start strong on the right track at the beginning of the race. Think of your real estate business as a tuned-up racecar built to put you on top of the podium of the only race that counts: the race for profitability. Team Development Connects What You’ve Learned The third level is connecting your vision with analysis, processes, systems, and 16

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people to build and support an elite team. In 1988, Senna wanted a better car and a better team, so he moved to McLaren. He knew that to be a champ, he would need a race team with excellent ownership and management. His pit crew alone had tire changers, a jackman and gas man, tire catchers, spotters, a technologist, and even a meteorologist. In addition, he had physical therapists, nutritionists, and a host of other team members. Senna custom-built a winning team that made him one of the best drivers in history, and so can you. The concepts that we share in the team development section are the golden thread that will pull your personal and business development together and help you build a strong team with a shared mission, Core Values, and the vision that will land you in the winner’s circle. Your Guided Journey You know, at this point that I initially had a hard time accepting a coach to help me. If I’d ignored WSS and Verl’s guidance, you wouldn’t be reading this book right now, and I would either be on the side of the road with a wrecked fake Lambo or on the completely wrong track. I wrote this book with WSS coaches because they have broken through the barriers you are just starting to think about. From the outside, it’s hard to believe that Verl has assembled the level of coaching talent that I pull from each day. It would be like creating your perfect Fantasy Football team only to realize they’re all from the same team. After spending time with Verl, you realize what attracts people to him: it’s his authenticity in trying to help others get to the next level. He takes his last name, Workman, quite literally. Verl’s success is a product of hard work and tenacity, which creates a winning 17

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formula for his company and the agents they coach. When I chose WSS as the company that would coach me, I quickly learned that Verl is the driving force of the company he built. His expertise has helped countless clients and WSS team members throughout his life and coaching career. Our WSS “guides” coach and/or run real estate teams from just about every background possible. They use dozens of tried-and-true models, methods, systems, and processes you will need to use if you are running a business. Consider them your pit crew that will make sure you’re equipped with the core concepts that will lead you to Operational Excellence. In these pages, you will find advice and experience from over 30 real estate and business guides who have excelled in everything from scaling a profitable team and hiring the right people to showing how these concepts work even in a luxury market, and so much more. You’ll hear more from Lee Tessier, the Chapter 1 hero whose optimal real estate business setup left me in a slack-jawed stupor while running a 30-Agent highperforming and profitable team. He’s a Senior Coach, Broker/Owner, 12-year industry veteran, and respected leader. He’s a mindset expert who also knows his way around accountability tools, implementing proven models, hiring the right people, and marketing and lead-gen systems. Christy Buck is a WSS Master Coach, Broker/Owner, Team Leader, influence expert, and creator of the “7-Figure Ride Along” event, which allows attendees to shadow her business to see up close what Operational Excellence looks like. She shares key takeaways that only event attendees have had access to learn previously. Christy, like Lee, is a great leader driven by a big “why.” She leads by example, tracks her key business numbers like a pro, has a system and process for everything, and also, like Lee, her team lives and breathes their Core Values. Lee and Christy are prime examples of what you can achieve when you build a driven, modeled, perfectly staffed, high-performing team. Jim Knowlton, a KW Team Leader, has become one of the top REO (real estate 18

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owned) agents in the country. He does the initial WSS inspection of your business, understands how to cut through the BS, and will have that tough conversation on how you’re running—or ruining—your business before helping you create the foundation to build upon. Jim has onboarded hundreds of coaching clients, is literally in the trenches and can spot the problems we set out to solve in this book. Jim helped create many of the models we share and holds an enormous wealth of knowledge when it comes to building a highly successful team. Jim’s true superpower is connecting the right coach with the right client. He matched me with my coach, Sara Guldi, who had the areas of expertise where mine was lacking. Sara is a Master Coach, Team Leader, and a 15-year real estate veteran. She challenged me to be accountable, which allowed me to regain perspective. She helped me break down a 30-person team and rebuild it to make it profitable in order to grow and scale properly. Sara shares ideas about making swift changes, understanding where to start, building good habits, going Agile with your project management, scoring your existing business, and the importance of Core Values. Cleve Gaddis, Rick Geha, and Terri Murphy are not only founding members of WSS but are extremely successful and sought-after keynote speakers, coaches, and team leaders. They and 25 other talented coaches will be dropping knowledge bombs throughout this book. These are my guides—who gave me a plan and called me to action—and now they are yours. The advice and experience shared here will help you avoid failure and end with a success story. Verl likes to say, “Do you honestly believe there is another level you could be performing at?” The answer should be a big YES. Then he’ll follow up with, “Okay, how bad do you want to get there?” Senna wrote his book, Principles of Race Driving, to teach “…how to overtake...drift and skid in a controlled manner on fast bends, how to concentrate at the start of a race, how to set up the suspension and save your tires, how to win pole position, 19

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and how to get fit for racing.” I wrote this book with a similar goal in mind—to equip you with the tools you need to grow and succeed in ways you never dreamed possible. You will see everything from new angles and gain clarity on what to do next to grow your business. As Verl would say: “Now double it!”

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CHAPTER 3 Close Your Eyes, Grasshopper “Get out of judgment and into curiosity. Instead of saying, ‘That won’t work,’ ask yourself how do I make it work for me? And all of the sudden, it will open more possibilities.” - Howard Briton

This past January, my team and I were at Leverage, a phenomenal three-day training seminar held by WSS in Orlando. At the tail end of Jason Hewlett’s keynote address, he asked if anyone wanted to step up and make a promise to the other 600 attendees. One of my agents looked at me and marched over to the microphone in front of the huge audience and explained that he didn’t feel like he deserved success and that every success had an asterisk — a reason other than himself that caused the achievement. He promised to work on fixing what he called a bad case of “Imposter Syndrome.” Most of us have heard of Imposter Syndrome. It is essentially the feeling of inadequacy that continues despite obvious success. According to the Harvard Business Review, “Imposters” suffer from self-loathing and a sense of intellectual fraudulence that overrides the feelings of external proof of their success.” It’s not that different from the feeling you get when you receive high-volume awards without the matching net profit. I get it, and I suspect a lot of other real estate agents get it, too! Once my Agent and I got back to Baltimore, we worked on establishing qualities that he could embrace and use to help define himself. After studying top real 21

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estate agents and business leaders, we picked eight qualities that epitomized a great human and Real Estate Agent that would help remind him what an awesome guy he is while building his confidence and giving him a 180-degree change to his mindset — so he could feel worthy of his success and lay a strong foundation to build a Real Estate Agent business. Successful business owners are strong in all eight categories. They either come naturally, or you rigorously work to develop them. Can you build a successful business without them? Yes. Will it be tough? Also yes. If you take the time to learn them and practice, your ascent to success will be twice as fast when you develop these qualities in yourself. High levels of one or two of them can also take you a long way. Awareness and focus on all eight will properly prepare you to be a business owner. Let’s just say that as long as you have at least an average level of each and excel at a couple, you’ll be in good shape.

“Our profession is a shock collar business.” Terri Murphy WSS Master Coach For many of us, there’s never a steady flow. That’s why you need to focus on developing these eight qualities upfront in case you don’t have time to fine-tune them later. If your business is up and running, and you are past the startup phase, make the time to work on them. Period.

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Rick Geha, a Master Coach, speaker, and eXp California Team Leader, spent three decades helping people improve themselves and over 40 years selling homes in the San Francisco Bay Area. He remembers getting into self-improvement around 2006 with a pretty good-sized ego. It’s hard for him to look back now as he’s not proud of his former self. “I didn't realize a lot of things about myself. You just don't know what you don't know. My self-improvement journey opened my eyes to all my crap.” Rick regularly stands on big stages, telling people, “Your success in business is going to be directly proportional to the amount of time you spend working on you.” I want you to do the same thing these people did. Print a list of all eight qualities and hang it next to your mirror for 30 days, so you see it every day when brushing your teeth. Seriously. This is partially what is meant when I reference being radically open-minded. Doing so allows you to reach your goals. Many people fight with this goal, but as long as they hang in there, they can reach it! The Eight Qualities

#1: Serve Regardless of Opportunity Just a few years back, an easy way to explain servant Leadership was by saying, “I practice SBO (Serve Before Opportunity).” Since SBO insinuates an expectation of opportunity, WSS Master Coach Cleve Gaddis changed it to SRO (Serve Regardless of Opportunity). Having no expectation of anything makes SRO work. The SRO basics have been written thousands of times, but I am going to add them here because they will make a huge impact in your life.

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SRO Track

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Do a lot of good in your community.



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Don’t get carried away promoting your good deeds.



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Don’t expect or ask for anything in return.



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Make doing good deeds a lifestyle. The lifelong benefits are endless for you, your causes, and your business.

In other words, don’t spend all day doing something good only to ruin it 30 seconds later by saying, “If you know anyone buying or selling real estate, have them give me a call.” Do that, and you’ve just zeroed out any possible benefit from your day’s work. There are those who do a lot of community work but who don’t do a lot of business. I guarantee that even though they can’t help themselves from giving, they always tie it to an expectation or a hope for business. Let the mental trigger of reciprocity—where people want to give back to you because you gave to them — do its thing — without you expecting a thing. Brooke Sines, WSS Senior Coach and REMAX expansion Team Leader in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Charlotte, North Carolina, says the key is to “Think about others and serve their needs without thinking of your own." In my first book, Create Demand, I described four ideas that had a huge impact on branding. These ideas helped me get hired over the ten other real estate agents everyone seems to know. Two of those ideas, getting involved in the community and being thought of as a great friend versus a pushy sales guy, proved to be a gold mine. Getting involved in non-profits over 15 years has built an extensive Sphere of 24

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Influence of do-gooders who know me first as a dependable friend. These ideas, born out of being broke and ready to compete in an ultra-competitive city market, continue to deliver a return on the SRO approach. Anthony Marguleas, a WSS client, Broker/Owner, and Team Leader, founded Amalfi Estates 26 years ago and has personally sold close to $1.5 billion, with an average sales price of $2M. He gives 10% back to charity and has helped 1,077 families or pets by donating over $1M over the past five years. He has helped 354 cancer patients, housed and cared for 295 dogs until adoption, granted 15 wishes to kids with terminal or very serious illnesses, helped 239 gang members get their tattoos removed so they could get jobs, and provided housing to 174 homeless people. I asked Anthony why living with a Serve Regardless of Opportunity mindset was so important to him. He said, “By putting others first, clients don't see you as a typical salesperson who is just after the sale, but rather as a trusted advisor. I am always striving to give as much as I can with no thought of a return. People recognize when it is genuine, so a long-term relationship and trust is developed. When you help someone with a giving mentality, most people want to give back and return the favor. True connectors have the same mindset, as they just love to connect great people, and their satisfaction is knowing the good they are doing. When an Agent leads with their own self-interest, clients can sense it very quickly. I like to say I have talked more clients OUT of buying and selling homes because it wasn't in their best interest.” I think Verl and I get along so well because he, too, lives a Serve Regardless of Opportunity life. He likes to say, “If you trust this, it will deliver what you want tenfold. With every opportunity, there is opportunity to serve.” I’m a big fan of quiet philanthropy. And it comes across as more genuine when it’s not used to boost your ego. I asked Paul Wheeler about living an SRO lifestyle as 25

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a salesperson. He said, “Most people sell to accomplish their goals. The old ABC’s of selling are ‘always be closing.’ In today’s world, you will be much more effective by focusing on your client’s goals and serving them. I propose the new ABC’s of closing should be, ‘always be contributing and always be connecting.’ With a focus on your client’s needs, you will build trust, rapport, and create a raving fan. They will let you guide them, and selling is just a lot more enjoyable this way.” Remember, nothing kills the benefit of an SRO lifestyle more than the expectation of what it will bring you. When you give from your heart, you will always receive something in return. So, forget what’s coming and give as much as you can.

#2: Accountability Accepting accountability will win you the race. It’s like making a pitstop where not only do you get new tires, but an engine twice as powerful as the next racer. I’ve avoided accountability my whole career. Thinking, I can’t listen to what other people tell me. That’s the opposite of being an entrepreneur, right? I don’t want someone telling me what to do. But not too far toward the back of my mind, I knew it was what I needed most. Many times over the years, I’ve consciously thought of implementing some of the things Lee shared with me. But I was comfortable with my mild dysfunction for years until it got to be too much. There was no third party making sure I got done what I needed to do, and that was my downfall. The number one benefit for a large percentage of real estate agents is “not” having accountability and doing the job any way they please. But that also creates a vulnerable service gap that can lead to industry disruption. This is why venture capital-backed disrupters, tech companies, and others knock on our doors—big time.

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When those invisible anchors in my own business became clear during my lunch with Lee, I finally made the decision to not only accept that I needed to be accountable but that I had to implement accountability tools for myself and my team members ASAP. It wasn’t enough to want it. Implementing it became non-negotiable from that moment on. I needed to be told what to do to reinvent my business and to be held accountable for doing it. Reading this book will not give you accountability. That’s on you. You need to get an accountability partner like your Team Leader or Broker, or you can hire a coach. But believe me when I tell you that embracing accountability will get you where you want to go in half the time.

“Motivation is a bonus, but action is what gets the work done. Put your body in motion, and the motivation will follow.” Joe Peoples Jr. WSS Senior Coach Team Leader Sales Management Reinhart Realtors Ann Arbor, MI

Emerald City In the New York Times best-selling book The Oz Principle, authors Roger Connors, Tom Smith, and Craig Hickman believe that the problems I had with accountability would be called the “victim cycle,” which is a mindset based on the refusal to deal with certain problems, accept accountability for them,

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solve them, and implement the fix. They explain that a fine line separates achievement and its opposite, failure. To stay above that line, take these sequential steps to accountability: “Muster the courage to see it, find the heart to own it, obtain the wisdom to solve it,” and execute your solution by “exercising the means to do it.” Opposite actions to these goals live below the line in the realm of nonachievement, victimization, and apathy. These actions include making excuses, blaming others, refusing to accept responsibility, and covering up problems or denying them altogether. Accountability is certainly a solution to many things. My business hit serious difficulties because I refused to make myself accountable for the tasks I knew I had to do.

“It’s important to not only ask for your team members and admin staff to do certain tasks but inspecting what you expect is key. Don’t miss out on this huge step.” Brooke Sines WSS Senior Coach Team Leader of the Brooke Sines Team RE/MAX of Grand Rapids | Grand Rapids, MI RE/MAX Executive Carolinas | Charlotte, NC To be as successful as the dozens of team leaders I introduce you to in this book, you have to accept accountability. It’s non-negotiable. Stop confusing sales volume for success. Holding yourself accountable to make the changes you need to or build your business properly from the get-go will help you find the true marker for

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success: profit. Holding yourself accountable is your promise to complete a commitment. Winston Churchill said, "The prize of greatness is responsibility." To achieve success, take ownership and be accountable.

#3: Growth Mindset The book Mindset by Carol Dweck has a simple premise: the world is split between those open to learning and those closed to it, and this trait affects everything from your view on life to your closest relationships. Agents who view their personality or intelligence as “it is what it is” have a "fixed mindset." They believe that “they are who they are” and oddly feel the need to prove themselves constantly in every situation. You know the type. Anyone with a fixed mindset often develops this outlook at a young age, usually due to influence from their parents or teachers. When I look back on my childhood, my dad always encouraged me to “give it my best,” which thankfully nurtured my Growth Mindset. The funny thing was as I got older and realized both my dad and brother were exceptionally gifted, I thought I was possibly slow. It seemed “giving it my best” was a way my dad taught me to blend in. Later in life, when I got my pilot license, I was finally convinced I wasn’t slow and didn’t care, as you can see from my glamour shots. After all, they may be the geniuses, but I still have my hair! Alternately, smart agents, and team leaders with a "Growth Mindset" believe they can improve or change their business over time. They believe that by being radically open-minded, accepting accountability, and serving regardless of opportunity, the future will bring them endless opportunities to grow, even during the challenging COVID-19 times we’re in at the very moment I’m writing this.

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“When you are open to possibilities of creating something more, better, or different, then you are open to the concept of ‘I can.’ Growth Mindset is simply being open to possibilities, then taking the steps to make it happen.” Paul Sessum WSS Master Coach Team Leader of Team Sessum KWWMC Burbank, CA

Your mindset choice will directly impact your success or failure in real estate. Most ego-driven, emotional decision-making agents and team leaders are completely off the mark in describing their own mindset.

“I hate when people say, ‘Well, that’s just who I am.’ No, that’s just who you’ve decided it’s okay to be.” Rick Geha WSS Master Coach Team Leader of the Rick Geha Team eXp Realty of California, Inc. San Francisco Bay Area Agents with a fixed mindset tend to take little failures personally. They dramatize and compound problems the wrong way. They internalize setbacks that span being fired by a client to losing a listing appointment and take it as a personal rejection. Most with fixed mindsets work hard to hide their weaknesses while building a low self-esteem and thinking that things won’t change. You know, the painin-the-ass, know-it-all real estate agents whose bed you want to short-sheet 30

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every time you are forced to deal with them. In contrast, real estate agents with Growth Mindsets believe they can change everything. They love to learn and grow and build on their talents. They can’t wait to develop new skills.

#4: Believe

“If you want to fight for a belief, you get to keep it.” Jim Knowlton WSS Director of Coaching & Master Coach Team Leader of the Jim Knowlton Home Team Keller Williams Realty Hopkinton, NH The first time I met Verl, he gave some good clarity on this topic. It’s simple. “Your experiences create your beliefs. Your beliefs create your habits (actions), and your habits get your results.” Sometimes he expands on this saying with: “You have to get rid of your limiting beliefs and create new experiences.” To make any of what I am talking about work, you need to believe you can do it.

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Most of us haven’t had the experiences to create those beliefs, so we need to find people who have.

“The business is not as competitive as you make it out to be. If you show up every day and commit to constant and never-ending improvement, you’ll outpace 99% of your industry.” Mark Boyland WSS Senior Coach Broker/Owner Team Leader of the Mark Boyland Team Keller Williams Realty Partners Bedford, NY Every single one of the agents and coaches I interviewed for this book learned what they know from someone else. None of us naturally figured out how to get our operations running correctly. And if anyone says they have, they’re lying.

“But you have to believe first — before your team can.” Retired Navy SEALs Jocko Willink and Leif Babins define Extreme Ownership as meaning you have to believe if you want to win big. Willink uses their time as members of Task Unit Bruiser as an example. Their unit was known for being the most bad-ass unit in the Iraq War. Meaning that when they were performing missions, they were ordered to bring along Iraqi soldiers. Being directed to go into battle with someone they didn’t know, who had inferior training and questionable loyalty created big problems. This was because the company commanders wanted to give the Iraqis “on-thejob” training. If they hadn’t, the securing of Iraq might never have happened. Without that, our soldiers might never have come home.

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Once Willink understood the “why” behind the Iraqi soldiers, he shared the reasoning with his unit ensuring that he explained it with crystal clarity. Once the team understood “why” they had to deal with more danger, they felt okay to move on and do their dangerous work. As a Real Estate Agent in a much safer workplace, this also goes for you. You have to understand the “why” behind your work, or it will prevent you from believing in it, and that’s a big core problem you need to fix. If you’re going to influence and motivate your sales team to accomplish big things, you need to be a true believer first. If you believe in what you are doing, you will develop the habits to get the results you’re after.

“Our why is the burning fire inside of us that keeps us moving towards our goals. I say ‘fire’ because it needs to be fed; you have to tend to it, and as long as you do, it will fuel greatness.” Sara Guldi WSS Master Coach Trainer & Master Practitioner of NLP Former Team Leader of the Guldi Group Keller Williams Three Bridges White Plains, MD

#5: Successful Habits Once you believe in something, then you can implement the habits to get there… I had an epiphany while writing this book when I was thinking about my own bad habits. It struck me. Why am I okay with bad habits? We all seem to accept bad habits as the norm. I won’t go too deep into this 33

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subject, but it’s connected to Freud’s studies. He spoke of the id, the ego, and the super-ego. The id tells us what we want to do. The super-ego is the part of the mind that makes good decisions. As you get older and wiser, your super-ego gains more and more control as your ego helps to balance what you are doing in terms of instinct and morality. And the more you take from your id, the better your chances of not ending up in prison for one bad decision or another—as you learn to control your impulses. In The Happiness Hypothesis, Jonathan Haidt explains how the mind works with the metaphor he uses when he lectures on Freud. He encourages people “…to think of the mind as a horse and buggy (a Victorian chariot) in which the driver (the ego) struggles frantically to control a hungry, lustful, and disobedient horse (the id) while the driver’s father (the super-ego) sits in the back seat lecturing the driver on what he is doing wrong.” Once you win that internal struggle with your horse and buggy and let yourself become uncomfortable with doing things you don’t like doing, that is when the magic happens. You open up yourself to becoming accountable to good habits.

“We all have habits; that is undeniable. And some get us closer to where we want to be, and some take us further away. The key is to figure out which is which and do more of the ‘good’ ones and stop the ones that take us away from where we are going.” Sara Guldi WSS Master Coach Like I’ve said before, I avoided accountability for a long time. But now I embrace it, and my business reflects that change. I don’t label myself a writer, but I write a minimum of one hour a day while working up to writing four books. This is the second. 34

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I’m also not a morning person, but I get up at 4:15 AM, get a workout in, and start writing at 6 AM. I’m 50, and I feel thirty. Here are a few more ways I have challenged myself: I love to drink socially, but it created too many problems, so I quit. I also avoided the accountability of time blocking. Now, I love squeezing every minute out of every day. Doing all of this has allowed me to become laser-focused and accountable. You get the point. Wildly successful people make themselves do something despite their subconscious telling them it will be painful or uncomfortable because they know that is when all the good stuff happens. And guess what? It’s not painful. It’s just different. Become Highly Effective By now, all of us have heard of—or hopefully have read—Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. It’s still the most referenced and recognized book for today’s business leaders. The first three habits center around the move from dependency to independence. Habits four to six focus on the move from independence to the advantages of interdependency. According to Covey, the seventh habit, Sharpening the Saw (defined as “Preserving and enhancing the greatest asset you have—you”), helps keep us there. The first two habits: Be Proactive, and Begin with the End in Mind, have stuck with me from the time I saw Stephen speak at the US Naval Academy back in 1993.

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“Every business starts with the end in mind…except real estate agents. A surgeon does not start surgery without first planning it out, getting his surgical team in place, making sure the right equipment is available, and that the proper paperwork has been processed. All too often, real estate agents just jump in the water, hoping to swim or catch a fish.” Jason Fenwick WSS Senior Coach Lawyer Speaker Multiple Office Owner Keller Williams Preferred Properties Upper Marlboro, MD Habit #1: Be Proactive According to Covey, proactivity is more than taking initiative. It concerns assuming responsibility for ourselves and making things happen. Real estate agents who are highly proactive recognize that responsibility. They don’t blame the situation or its circumstances for their behavior but understand that their behavior is a product of their own choices based on personal values. You can become more self-aware by looking at where you focus your time and energy. You know you have control over some things and no control over others. So, keep your promises, set goals, and work toward achieving them. When you start out small, you’ll grow over time. Habit #2: Begin with the End in Mind Covey phrases this concept like this: “It's incredibly easy to get caught up in an activity trap, in the busy-ness of life, to work harder and harder at climbing the 36

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ladder of success only to discover it's leaning against the wrong wall. It is possible to be busy—very busy—without being very effective.” It’s easy to build the real estate business we want, identify our target market, create marketing to meet our business objective, and so on. But it is how clearly we have the end in mind that will govern our success. Not taking control allows other driving forces outside our Sphere of Influence to shape our future. Covey’s solution, which we address later in this book, is to craft a mission statement that focuses on what the goal is and what our principles are based upon. He describes it as our own constitution that helps with decisionmaking. The difficulty in shaking a bad habit is between your ears. But when for whatever reason, you decide to get up early instead of sleeping in, not pick up a cigarette, or spend late nights in a bar, the results can be magical.

“As my favorite author, Og Mandino said, ‘I will form good habits and become their ‘slave.’” Verl Workman CEO Workman Success Systems I put it this way: “Beat your mind. Win that internal struggle with your subconscious and implement good habits”…then you can do anything.

#6: Grit When we see successful real estate agents, we assume they were born with some amazing out-of-reach talent or that they have somehow deviously gamed a system we can’t figure out. We admire their success but make up reasons not to like them because that makes 37

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it easier to swallow what they have accomplished. He does 500 deals, but he gives away listings or is crappy with this or that, I’ve thought, and I’m sure the same or similar has been thought of me many times. It is our deep-down admiration for high performers that makes us curious enough to try to figure out why some high-performing real estate agents are successful, and others are not. Albert Einstein didn’t think he was exceptionally smart but famously describes his opinion of himself: "It's not that I'm so smart; it's just that I stay with problems longer." I’ll never be confused as an English literature major, and I’m no Einstein, but I stick with writing something until it makes sense—even if I am not on the quantum field level. Angela Duckworth, the writer of the amazing book Grit, is a classic example of success. First of all, Duckworth has quite impressive chops. She is a PhD-level Psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania, has a BA from Harvard in Neurology, and a degree in Neuroscience from Oxford. As if that wasn’t enough, she founded an award-winning summer school for low-income children and, on the side, advises NBA and NFL teams. In her best-selling book, she explains what it means to have “grit.” That it is “…the ability to carry on in the face of setbacks and challenges and continue to improve even while achieving high levels of success. “ I see real estate agents quit way too often and way too early. During the tough times of 2008, an Agent on my team had the unfortunate bad luck of having eight deals fall apart in a row—all for different reasons. It was crazy. His girlfriend, who he had been with since the 8th grade, thinking he was a loser, left him, but nothing stopped him from grinding along. Today, he is one of the most successful real estate agents in our market, is married to a beautiful wife, and has two kids and a stunning waterfront home. 38

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“Regardless of the roadblocks, there's a way around every obstacle.” Cleve Gaddis WSS Master Coach Speaker Consultant Team Leader of the Gaddis Partners RE/MAX Center Johns Creek, GA Grit made that happen. David Wiesemann, WSS Senior Coach, Team Leader, and a RE/MAX Broker/Owner of multiple offices, likes to say, “If you are not improving every day, you are losing ground. Your competitors will be gaining ground. I must be better tomorrow than I am today.” That starts with getting up early every day, and the next day, and the day after that. It means doing the right things and whatever it takes to get things done.

#7: Zen Mention the word “Zen,” and most people think of robed monks, quiet remote temples, or lighting incense. But you don’t have to be a dedicated follower or travel too far to reach a state of Zen in your life. However, you should understand Zen principles so you can develop a strong sense of mindfulness needed to accomplish your goals. We won’t get too deep here, but I want you to master the main Zen principles on your own. In Create Demand, I explained needing the focus of a thousand Zen masters to survive my first long-distance solo flight in flight school. As it turned out, I was hardly a Zen master that day, but I still somehow completed the difficult flight in one piece. 39

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So, what is a Zen master? Merriam Webster defines the practice of Zen as a “state of calm attentiveness in which your actions are guided by intuition rather than by conscious effort.” It’s a frame of mind made famous by Zen Buddhist monks. Real estate agents should aspire to be like these monks because they could use a little more concentration, tranquility, and mindfulness in their lives and real estate business. Zen principles can be applied to every aspect of your life, too, not just to your business. With Zen, you can infuse spirituality into your day-to-day existence, soften your soul, and make yourself more likable and hirable. A great Real Estate Agent—or any person really—should, at the very least, be aware of or nurture these Zen-like principles. As I said, I’m no Zen master, but certain principles can be applied to anyone’s life, regardless of religious beliefs or one’s standard of living. I recommend that you practice the following Zen principles: 1. Do one thing at a time. This is a Zen monk rule: single-task, don’t multitask. When you’re showing properties, show properties. When you’re talking to a client, put down your phone, and stay engaged. Stop trying to knock off a few tasks at the same time. Simply put, follow this Zen proverb: “When walking, walk. When eating, eat.” 2. Do it completely. Focus and keep your mind solely on the task in front of you. Don’t move on to anything else until you’re done. This principle reminds me of flight school, where I had to execute procedures correctly and completely every single time I attempted to perform them. I teach my agents to hustle through their day but then shift into a calm, complete mindset when working with contracts. 3. Designate time for certain things. Having a certain time each day for work, errands, cleaning, and eating ensures these tasks are done regularly. As a high-performing Real Estate Agent, I call this “time blocking,” and it's 40

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what I used to finish this book. From 6:00-8:00 AM, I wrote every day. From 8:00-9:00 AM, I reviewed contract issues. At 9:00 AM, my team and I had the daily huddle. At 9:30 AM, we role-played. From 10:00 to 11:00 AM, we made calls. You get the idea. 4. Devote time to sitting. Sitting meditation (called zazen) is one of the most important parts of a monk’s day. They dedicate time just for sitting, which is a practice used to learn to be present. You can devote time to sitting meditation or do what I do: use mountain biking as a way to practice being in the moment. Any activity can suffice here. The caveat is to do it regularly. That’s how you will strengthen your ability to be present. 5. Smile and serve others. An Agent’s main focus should always be to serve others, and we naturally spend the majority of our days performing tasks for our clients. Zen monks dedicate their time in service to others, too. Doing so teaches humility and gives us the space to devote our time to others. 6. Think about what is necessary and live simply. If something isn’t necessary, you can probably live without it. We can’t all live like a Zen monk who has only their basic clothing, tools, and food, but we can incorporate the same practice into our lives. You can start by attempting to rid your life of as many unnecessary or dispensable things or habits to make room for what’s essential. I don’t expect you to become a Zen master after reading these principles; I haven’t gotten there myself and have incorporated these practices into my daily life for years. What you can do is practice them one by one until you can master them. It’s still important to hustle and get the right work done, but having these Zen principles under your belt will enable you to accomplish your goals with a steady hand. Take time to strengthen your mindfulness muscle. As the saying goes, “If you wait for the perfect time to make a change, you’ll wait forever.” 41

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I’d rather remain in the present and get going.

#8: Transmute Pain If you read Create Demand, you already know I had to hit rock bottom, sitting on my ex’s couch, to work toward the change my life needed. That pressure to change hit me again when I realized volume awards meant nothing in comparison to profitability. At the start of writing this book, it was March 2020, the early days before the COVID-19 lockdown went into full effect. We all remember thinking that 2020 was supposed to be “our year of clear vision,” but it brought a different sort of pain no one expected. My wife Jeni and I began 2020 going through IVF treatments—an all too familiar journey for some. For those who don’t know how it goes, the hopeful mom-to-be has to withstand multiple shots while experiencing physical turmoil, as you both grapple with the mental distress of wishing, hoping, and trying not to get your hopes up when things are going smoothly. On January 28, I was preparing for a Zoom call with a new client when I got a text from my wife. It was a picture of a little baby onesie saying, “Baby H, due October 2020.” I teared up just as the Zoom call went live, and my new client met me for the first time—in tears. The pregnancy progressed on track with no issues as the virus developed in the US. Maryland went into a stay-at-home order in mid-March. My sales team went fully remote to keep business going and serve our community as best as we could with virtual fundraisers and Zoom masterminds. Many friends were out of work with stress at an all-time high. But I had a secret. We had a baby coming and couldn’t wait for our first-trimester sonogram and genetics blood test results. With hospitals stretched to their limits, having to go to 42

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Johns Hopkins was stressful in itself. Still, we left smiling, the technician’s praises of “Your baby looks perfect” ringing in our hearts. We were cautiously happy. The next hurdle was getting the blood test results. Then we could tell our friends. About that hurdle... “If the baby survives, the best case is that it will have severe Down syndrome,” Jeni quietly explained. I was in disbelief. This couldn’t be… Even though we’d already done the genetic tests, it turned out they might’ve tested a healthy cell but missed other cells that had issues. Our confusion and pain deepened, wondering about all the health issues our baby would have to endure. Jeni had to go back in for tests, with the results taking 13 days to return. Those were the most painful days of my life. I’d get to work every day at 6:00 AM to work on this book, but each of those days, while waiting, I was paralyzed. All I could do was sit at my desk and cry. I prayed and grieved, then pulled my act together by 8:00 AM to handle business. As I went through the motions, I leaned into our new virtual ways of doing things. 2020 quickly became uncomfortable, scary, and unbearably painful. After that first week, I self-reflected on how painful life was. But when I was thinking the word “painful,” I heard in my head, PainFuel. I had to laugh; in my deepest moments of grief, I came up with a play on words, a tagline for how I achieve everything good in life. After a quick Google search for the “word that means one thing turning into another,” I found the verb describing what I was experiencing: “transmute.” That’s what I was doing: embracing pain and transmuting it into motivation. Pain continued to fuel my writing.

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Looking back, I’ve found that the ability to transmute real pain into motivation is the best way to fuel past perceived pain keeping you from making changes. WSS Coach Ascanio Pignatelli uses this equation to explain this phenomenon: Growth = Pain x Acceptance. Sure, change can be painful. You have to run through that forest of pain to get to the mountaintop of success. It’s the only way, and you know what? You’ll be okay. Jeni and I spent nearly two weeks trying to grapple with a tough beginning for our first child, but that test turned out to be a false positive. Holy smokes, I wanted to hug and punch the doctor at the same time. Our baby kept on keeping on and luckily developing with no problems. As this book sits in the editor’s hands, our boy Flynn has been born. He is now three months old.

Our little happy ending: Flynn

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I’m not saying that you need to experience pain to accomplish what you’re working hard for, but it’s important to develop the techniques that will allow you to transmute your pain. There will be struggles in life. So when you’re up against a painful obstacle, learn how to turn pain into motivation so that you can set yourself up for success. The Eight Qualties Recapped The exceptionally funny speaker, Jason Hewett, who I mention at the start of the chapter, wrote the book, The Promise to the One. In it, he explains what a promise is, which stuck with me. “The promise is simple: it is the highest level of engagement we commit to in any experience.”

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Promise yourself change.

“Your relationship with yourself is directly proportional to your relationship with your word. You won’t let your friends down, now do the same for yourself.” Rick Geha WSS Master Coach If you keep your word, you might even change who you are and the way people see and describe you when you’re not around. Your word is your personal brand, and if you’re successful in developing these qualities, it will be a good one.

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CHAPTER 4 Leadership “He who thinks he leads but has no followers is only taking a walk. If you can’t influence others, they won’t follow you.” - John Maxwell

Being a successful Real Estate Agent doesn’t automatically unlock the Leadership level, like a bonus round in Candy Crush. Going from top Agent to Team Leader, like your title implies, means you will have to lead people. In my best Vince Lombardi voice, I like to say, “If you want to be successful, you’re going to remember Leadership basics and make sure you’re executing them well.” Verl would say, “Your superpower is doing the basics really well.” If you were never a sports team captain or a manager of people, you might lack the Leadership skills you’ve read about, or your natural abilities might need to be honed a bit more. We talk about Leadership in “Self-Development” because it takes time to develop Leadership skills, but you will need them to convince talented, sought-after agents that you can lead them to success. Being skilled at doing 50 transactions a year means you’re really good at selling houses, period. Leading people to do the same means you have to get good at a new skill—sharing what is in your head. Most people like us who are exceptionally good at selling real estate and building a high-volume business are not good at explaining to people how to do it. Here’s my simplest advice in a nutshell.

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Lead by example. Make sure you have clearly defined and communicated the expectations of your team. Making stuff up as you fly by the seat of your pants might work with a couple of agents, but it won’t work with the rest of the team. Do everything you expect your team to do and go out of your way to know them at a deep level.

“What happens is we need to lead them through the training and coaching process, the systems, processes, and ideas we used to get to our high volume, and that’s where a good coach helping you can help set you up for success.” Jim Knowlton WSS Director of Coaching & Master Coach If you don’t know where to start, Google “Mackay 66”—a customer profile made famous by Harvey McKay in his book, Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive. I use it as a checklist of things I need to know about my team members. In short, focus on making your employees and agents successful, and your success will follow. Lee believes the number one reason he is a good leader is that he really listens and leads by example. “I'm in the office pretty much every day,” he says. “I'm in there early every morning after my workout. If my team sees me in there working, it sets the tone for what is required to be successful.” Leadership skills are the lynchpin to having agents join your journey of developing a profitable sales team. There are plenty of books, articles, and workshops on the subject, but I’ll help clear the noise and make this simple by sharing information about my favorite thought leaders in the business world.

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“Be willing to recognize how horrible you probably are at being a leader. It isn’t self-deprecating, just humble.” Sara Guldi WSS Master Coach

Assume [You’re] the Worst Once you’re able to reflect on how you’re doing, be “radically open-minded” about learning how to be a better leader. The biggest roadblock people have to being a good leader is thinking they already are when they haven’t taken the time to focus on what it takes to be one. Lack of self-awareness is a predominant Leadership flaw.

“All leaders should demonstrate self-awareness, humility, and focus on serving others.” As Cleve Gaddis, a WSS Master Coach, Business Consultant, Speaker, RE/MAX Team Leader, and radio show host, explains, “Many leaders like to constantly find fault. Nobody good will stick around for this.” Figure Out Your Motive In his latest book, The Motive: Why So Many Leaders Abdicate Their Most Important Responsibilities, business expert Patrick Lencioni challenges leaders to understand why they want to lead. He explains that people become leaders for two main reasons: responsibility and rewards. And yes, pursuing Facebook and Instagram “likes,” unprofitable sales volume, and being the top Agent in your office would be considered reward driven.

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I know a great Agent with a small team on a bad split, in a rundown office, but they love being number one in that office and would never leave—that is reward driven. Lencioni explains that a leader should be responsibility-driven and focused so they can serve others above all else. They should accept that sacrifice and a bit of suffering are stops on the journey to becoming a great leader. To be a true Real Estate Team Leader, you need to realize that serving your team members is as equally a top priority as serving your clients.

“‘Servant Leader’ is a redundant term. True leaders are servants, so this can go unsaid.” Patrick Lencioni, best-selling author If status, power, and attention are the main focus of being a Real Estate Team Leader, Lencioni warns that these qualities won’t sustain the true demands of Leadership. Spending time and energy to get recognition and awards instead of focusing on Operational Excellence and serving your sales team—as explained earlier, means you’re not only doing it wrong; you’re allowing even more problems to develop in the future. Even if you consider yourself a “mostly” responsibility-centered sales Team Leader, it’s okay to not have service on your mind 100% of the time. But it’s important to make responsibility your default motive instead of rewards. And when you get down to it, it’s not that different of a mindset than the Serve Regardless of Opportunity. Too often, we see our Agent friends start teams for all the wrong reasons. Make sure you have the right motive before you start a train wreck of your own.

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Simple Laws of Leadership The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell, a former pastor, shares a treasure trove of easy-to-learn Leadership concepts for real estate agents. He offers simple techniques that will make leading a real estate team easier. After all these years of reading his book, two of the laws have stuck with me and will help your journey as well.

#1: The Law of Magnetism

“Let’s face it; real estate is a social game. Who you are is who you attract.” Look around you. Whether we’re talking about a sales team, kickball team, fraternity, or whatever group you belong to, people are drawn to groups that reflect themselves. According to Maxwell, Leadership also follows this law. That’s because people naturally want to follow those whose Core Values are in alignment with their own. They also want to follow those who are stronger. As a Real Estate Team Leader, if you rank a strong eight out of 10 on the scale of being a leader, you’re likely to attract sevens and sixes who have similar abilities to yours. Your sales team’s collective ability to do their jobs is a reflection of who you wanted to attract. Adopt the eight qualities in Chapter 3, and you’ll attract the same. Party four nights a week, have a proud fixed mindset, and refuse to accept accountability, and well, you get the picture—you’ll attract the same.

“Simply put, the better a sales Team Leader you are, the better team members you’ll attract.” 51

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The breakthrough realization I had at that first Workman conference was that I needed to hire a coach to help me grow in the areas where I was lacking. We all have shortcomings and need to figure out how to fill in the gaps. You can fill your Leadership gaps with your brokerage staff or an employee or coach like I did. Then accept your gaps and hold yourself accountable for filling them. My coach, staff, and brokerage team fill mine. Maxwell suggests assessing where you can improve in the areas of character and Leadership—just take a good hard look in the mirror.

#2: The Law of the Inner Circle It’s easy to think that talent alone makes gifted people successful. But it’s tough to achieve anything alone...especially effective Leadership. As he states: “Besides, if you’re alone, how can you expect to lead anyone?” Maxwell’s Law of the Inner Circle affirms that we surround ourselves with people we like and who make us feel comfortable. But remember, those who you keep in your circle will impact your real estate sales potential, so choose wisely and get used to being uncomfortable. Discomfort encourages growth. The law also states that the only way we can reach optimal impact is through others. Your Inner Circle should include influencers, those who add value, and those who make a positive impact. And you become what you read and watch and who you surround yourself with. For example, 95% of news is negative until the very end, when they leave you with one uplifting story. Show me someone who is mostly negative, and I’ll bet that they avidly watch the news. The takeaway is to look around at your circle and make sure they add value. At 52

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the very least, ensure that they don’t get in the way of you developing your true Leadership potential. Practicing Maxwell’s Laws Join a mastermind with people who are at the level where you want to be. Next, look at the seven people you surround yourself with and know that will be the level to which you rise. Do you want to rise to that level, or will you fall short due to the company you keep?

“Success leaves clues, and having a high score in Fortnite isn’t one of them.” Mark Ryan WSS Senior Coach Team Leader RE/MAX Victory in Dayton, Ohio

Follow what I am sharing, and you will evolve into the leader the team you are developing needs you to be. Play the Long Game

“Leading a real estate sales team is not an opportunity to do less but a responsibility to do more.” Author Simon Sinek wants you to wake up each day motivated to come to the office. He wants you to feel valued for the good work you do. If your brokerage can do that for you, you’ll be happy, and you’ll keep coming back. Well, now, you have to do that for your team, too, and very few real estate team leaders do this well. In his book, Leaders Eat Last, Sinek digs deep into how different types of leaders

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can have positive or negative effects on the success of their teams. As I’ve noted a few times, real estate team leaders are often distracted by the wrong numbers. Between the number of likes, followers, and unprofitable sales volume they see, it has never been easier to socially show off what looks like success to the outside world. But maybe you just don’t know the right numbers to track. Rest assured, we’ll get to that in Chapter 19. Knowing your numbers is one thing, but knowing the right numbers is crucial. Once you become more “data literate,” it will be easier to pass it on to your agents. Wrong Values Sinek noted that as a CEO of GE for 20 years, Jack Welch was the king of maximizing shareholder value. His strategy was firing the bottom 10% of his management team and offering the top 20% bonuses. Years later, he declared his idea, named “shareholder value” as “the dumbest idea in the world,” but the concept had already spread to the business community at large where it promoted a global “numbers over people movement.” Being reduced to numbers creates low morale for agents, especially on larger teams. In my market, the largest teams seem to have a revolving door of people coming and going for this very reason. When agents aren’t happy, they look for a new team or brokerage. More often than not, “why” they leave is due to a lack of real Leadership. Eating Last Sinek also examined the values of the former CEO of Costco Wholesale Corp, Jim Sinegal, who got that Leadership wasn’t just about putting numbers on the board. Although he’d been called “too giving,” he treated employees like family and made sure they were taken care of. 54

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In the short run, GE was more profitable, but Costco’s stock rose slowly and steadily over the years. If you invested in GE stock in the mid-80s, you would have achieved a 600% return. If you invested in Costco stock, you would have seen a 1,200% return. A key to Leadership for your sales team is to take care of your agents as Costco continues to do for its employees. Do this, and you, too, will see nice, steady, and sustainable growth. Sinegal knew putting his employees’ needs in front of his “short-game” interest and focusing on building a culture where employees knew Leadership “had their back” would deliver great value in the long run. I believe Sinegal perfectly implemented Stephen Covey’s habit “Begin with the End in Mind.” His “end” wasn’t an annual profit report; it was a “long game” approach at treating people right and encouraging low turnover to see amazing long-term gains in his business. Sinek named his book after an actual practice in the Marine Corps, where leaders actually do eat last. They put the needs of their people over their own. I urge you to do the same: play the long game and live long and prosper. Teach Them to Fish… Cleve has gotten better at being a leader of a team by allowing people to think things through and do them on their own. Micromanagement isn’t his style. In fact, it can’t be. He often jokes that he’s not in the office enough to dictate what others are doing, so he has built up the trust needed to rely on his team. Growing up in the corporate world with a corporate structure gave him exposure to all of the different business models and relationships to build upon. Helping his agents grow their businesses fascinates him and drives the growth of his business.

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Truly Care Christy Buck shares the best advice on leading a brokerage team that she received from Rick Geha: make sure you truly treat your clients and team like you care. Remember their birthdays; learn about their families, and aim to spend time with them outside of work. Christy is driven by seeing her agents hitting their goals. It’s like the domino effect when she helps her agents with their business so she can meet her business goals. Of course, despite her own advantage, she wants to see them reach their aims. It’s powerful to see an Agent, a single mom, for instance, purchase a house she never thought she could buy. She clarifies that you should never sit there, asking, “What’s in it for me?” Realize that you will never have all the answers, so try and show more humility by listening better and not overreacting. Great leaders know when to have the “difficult conversations” with their team members when they aren’t pulling their weight and when to say nothing.

“Practice loyalty, correct wrongs when you see them, and coach continuously.” Leadership Checklist 1. Walk the walk. If you want your agents and employees to be on time, make sure you’re there on time. Follow Lee and get to the office at 6:00 AM every day. If you want professionalism, make sure you’re professional and treat everyone with respect. Set the vibe, and your agents and employees will follow suit. 2. Keep meetings and daily huddles productive. Limit trailing off or getting lost in tangents and other timewasters during meetings and daily huddles. Get to the point and leave time to get questions answered so 56

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that everyone is clear on priorities and expectations. 3. Strengthen your emotional intelligence. Real estate business is about the relationships between people. To make relationships last, be emotionally intelligent and sensitive to different points of view and backgrounds. When doing what’s best for your team, don’t forget to have a heart and be empathetic. Your ability to regulate your emotions and help others when they need guidance will take you to great heights as a leader. 4. Be a leader, not a boss. Even though both bosses and leaders are in charge, a leader shares the spotlight and is comfortable crediting others for their accomplishments. For instance, I give my agents credit for their transactions. My ego doesn’t need me to run all the wins under my name. Being humble takes more confidence than basking in glory. Your employees and your clients will appreciate it, too. 5. Communicate effectively. Effective communication is crucial, both in the office and in life. Great leaders make sure they are heard and understood but know they need to listen as well. 6. Find a mentor, coach, or accountability partner. The best leaders are resourceful and know when they need help and where to turn to get it. You can’t know everything, but you can find someone you trust for advice when things get tough—which can make all the difference. 7. Be aware of (and avoid) the common perils of Leadership. Some mistakes we make as we strive to become better leaders are avoidable. Being aware of these common mistakes, without obsessing over them, is the first step toward not repeating them. 8. Learn from the past. History is chock-full of successful business models and spectacular business failures. In fact, a lot of history is being repeated today. All you have to do is flip on a news channel. Try to focus on following the success of others and learning from their mistakes. 57

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9. Never stop improving. Great leaders prioritize improvement and learning over everything else. There will always be skills to master and lessons to learn, so make sure you’re radically open-minded to the possibilities.

“Celebrate the wins.” Verl Workman CEO, Workman Success Systems

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CHAPTER 5 Negotiation “Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.” – John F. Kennedy

Negotiation is part art and part skill. Everything in life is a negotiation. If you want somebody to say “yes” to anything, you are in a negotiation. If somebody wants you to say “yes” to anything, you’re in a negotiation. Negotiation is the intro, foreword, preface, or prelude to the simplest of agreements with your kids, partner, husband, or wife. So why is it when you ask most “expert negotiator” real estate agents what type of negotiating system or process they use, four out of five of them will give you a blank stare? Or, in some cases, they will describe their technique on the fly as if it was something learned in school, “I come in high…they come in low. We meet in the middle and call it a day.” That’s the “I just made this up” system that most agents use. Negotiating is a high-level skill most aren’t born with, and not many are “naturally good” at it. Almost all real estate agents say they are “expert negotiators” in their marketing, and many of them suck at it. Obviously, if you’re in a market with low inventory and upward pressure on pricing, it’s a different story. But if you’re in a balanced market or leaning toward a buyer’s market, you should use a “negotiating system” and tactical skills that can be explained to your buyers. But it’s not enough to negotiate well. You have to know what does and doesn’t work, and you should be able to explain the 59

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techniques you use. Here are the negotiating concepts that will make you the expert negotiator Agent your marketing claims you are! The Ackerman Bargaining Method Most real estate agents use something resembling this method without realizing it. The Ackerman Bargaining Method involves anchoring a low starting price, devaluing the other side’s position, countering with prices, and decreasing your offer until you have reached the price you want. Remember, as you continue to negotiate, and go back and forth with the other party, empathy and stall tactics will both increase. An example in Ackerman Bargaining encourages you to “Think back to your last home purchase. You likely experienced something like having hopes of getting the house for $300,000, and so you started off with a lower offer. The listing Agent countered the offer; you had to call your lender; the sellers had to think about it for a day, and then you ended up getting the house for $305,000. When you go through this type of negotiation, sometimes you leave feeling like you won, and other times you leave with the nagging hunch that you left something on the table.” Now, let’s look at how The Ackerman Model works step by step. We’ll use purchasing a house for our example. First and foremost, combine what you qualify for, the current market data, and other financial factors to determine your target price. In our scenario, the house is listed for $520,000, and we want it for a target price of $500,000. From there, we will identify our anchor price, which is our low first offer. 60

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We’ll make our anchor price $450,000 (90% of the target), which will raise some eyebrows. But what we’re doing is devaluing the seller’s perception of the home’s worth while trying our best not to be offensive. If you offend the other party, the negotiation is off. But if the tactic goes as planned, they’ll respond with value-adding facts about the home and give a counteroffer. That’s when we’ll go up to 94% of the target, hopefully allowing the other party to understand where we’re coming from. Following their counteroffer, we can go up to the 98% offer and then the 100% target price. This 90%, 94%, 98%, and 100% method creates the illusion that you’re being squeezed out of every available dollar to get the home. Throughout the process, make sure to show empathy by using different ways to say "no" to their counters that are above your target. But how do you win the negotiation on the listing side? Simply put, don’t let the other party’s anchor prices skew your strategy. Research the market; know your data, but most importantly, know that you can walk away. This is important because if you feel trapped and can’t say no, there’s a great chance you will end up at the buyer’s target price. The Ackerman Model isn’t rocket science, but it’s an easy-to-understand-andexplain technique that will help you back up your claim. Techniques Remember that negotiation is a practice that takes time to master. In his book, Never Split the Difference, Former FBI Hostage Negotiator Chris Voss teaches you how to negotiate to the extent that your marketing says you can.

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Mirroring During bank robberies and hostage standoffs, FBI negotiators use mirroring methods they’ve developed that are similar to what we use in selling any product or service. When you use this tactic, you observe and become like the person you are dealing with. You focus more on the other person and encourage him or her to talk and feel comfortable. You figure out what they need. Time is a negotiator’s great friend. Never rush a solution. As you negotiate, speak at a slow pace, calmly and softly. Make your delivery light and playful, and never combative or adversarial. “Mirroring” and being on time are the two things I remember from the first sales training I ever took. Mirroring is a behavior that many adopt subconsciously when they copy other people’s body language and pronunciation. It is a great negotiation tactic, as it establishes rapport and puts people at ease. Tactical Empathy Control and know your emotions, and help your counterpart understand his or hers. Be cool, relaxed, and show empathy toward the other side’s position. Say things like, “I respect where you’re coming from. I’d probably feel the same way in your position.” That is tactical empathy, and it can be employed to get your counterpart talking about how they feel about their position as they drop clues on where you can take the negotiation. Empathize with a chatty Agent, and you better get your notepad ready, for they are going to spill the beans. “No” and “That’s Right” There’s a misconception in sales that I’ve seen affect our industry. You might think that the end all be all is to get a “yes” out of your prospect — that doing so will move the process along to a win. But people say “yes” for other reasons— sometimes, they say it, and they don’t even want the sale. As a society, we are accustomed to thinking if we want one thing, we don’t want what we have 62

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deemed to be the opposite of that thing — the “no,” in this case. So, consider this…a customer who tells you “no” feels like they are safe and as if they hold all the cards. I like to remember that when I hear that two-letter word, I might be on the receiving end of learning my customer feels like the conversation went off the rails somewhere. Maybe they are simply trying to tell you without knowing how that they need more information. That’s okay. And hearing a “no” is okay. Give them what they need, and you will be back in control. If you take some time to change your perception of “no,” the next time you hear it, you won’t feel rejected. But you will be able to stop to find out what your client really wants and how you can give it to them. Establishing a relationship is like climbing stairs. Each step in the conversation brings you closer to developing trust and influencing responses. When your counterpart says, “That’s right,” they feel heard and understood. If you don’t feel like a natural negotiator, the following tactics have proven to elicit a “that’s right” response and can steer your conversation further up the stairs. Go ahead and give them a shot. 1. Effective pauses – Stop talking and let the other side fill the silence. 2. Minimal encouragers – Prompt people to continue speaking and show you’re paying attention with short phrases such as, “Yes, I got it.” 3. Mirroring – Repeat what your counterpart just said. Agents, like most people, do anything to avoid negotiations. It makes us uncomfortable, nervous, or even scared. Don’t overcompensate your lack of negotiating skills by being too aggressive. Be tough but not vicious. Don’t forget; there’s a great chance you will have to deal with the Agent you’re dealing with again. And don't get too carried away. I see a lot of agents negotiate themselves right out of a deal and crash it.

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“The key to good negotiators is their ability to keep their emotions in check.” Cleve Gaddis WSS Master Coach

Negotiating Checklist 1. Ask for what you want without fear. To be a successful negotiator, you must be assertive and have the confidence to challenge each aspect of the negotiation. Everything is negotiable when it comes to getting what you want. 2. Shut up and listen. I am amazed by the people I meet who can't stop talking. This will help your strategy when it comes to negotiation. Negotiators are investigators. They learn by asking probing questions; then they shut up to listen so they can get intel from the other party. All you have to do to negotiate well is listen. 3. Do your homework. Smart investigators do their due diligence. Gather as much relevant information before you negotiate. Figure out the needs of the other side, what they feel pressured by, and what options they have. Doing your homework is crucial to a successful negotiation. 4. Always be willing to walk away. This tip goes out to all the impatient people. You have got to be able to walk away if the pendulum doesn’t swing your way. If you don’t, then you lose your power to say no. When you don’t have that power, there is no point to negotiating. Keep the power and keep the focus on promising yourself you will walk away if things go south and the negotiation isn’t benefitting you. When you retain the power to walk, and the other side knows it, it gives you leverage. 5. Don't be in a hurry. I guess this lesson can’t be repeated enough, but 64

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your power is truly in your ability to be patient. Too often, we want to rush to the next step in the sales process, but we all know haste means mistakes, and mistakes mean lost money. Slow down and stand firm until the tables turn your way. 6. Aim high and expect the best outcome. This is the epitome of the power of positivity. As you enter into the negotiation, hold onto the control within the options you can exercise. It can work out in your favor—but it won’t if you don’t believe that. We get what we focus on, so if you expect more, you will get more. 7. Focus on the other side's pressure, not yours. Maybe easier said than done but hold onto the mindset of the pressure the other side is feeling. Be cool as a cucumber on your side. If you get fixated on what you have to lose, you will create mental obstacles against yourself. Cave in to the pressure, and you give your opposition more power. Stay focused on the big picture, and you reject pressuring yourself. 8. Show the other person how their needs will be met. When you enter into a negotiation, leave the bulldog at home. Successful negotiators use empathy to gain strides with the other side. It’s hard to want to do anything with anyone who is not compassionate toward us, after all. So don’t aim to win. Instead, try and learn the motives of the other side. You want them to feel happy with the outcome and the steps it took to get to the ultimate agreement. 9. Don't give anything away without getting something in return. While you are going to exercise empathy, remember to give a little but only if they give you something in return—that you want! If you don’t stand firm here, the other side is going to see that you can be influenced, and they will ask you for more than you might want to give. 10. Don't take the issues or the other person's behavior personally. In other words, don’t bring emotion into it. Both parties want something out

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of the deal, and you are in competition. Play any lively board game, and you know how things can get heated—even though the emotions have nothing to do with the end goal. The same holds true here. Negotiations can get sidetracked if you get all tangled up in your feelings. Remember both of you want to get to the finish line: the agreement, but You want to get there in a respectful manner. When the other side makes a move that could be seen as offensive, if they are a good negotiator, they are centering on their actions, not the feelings behind them. Follow suit.

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CHAPTER 6 Finance & Building Wealth “Beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship.” - Benjamin Franklin.

As I write this paragraph, it is May 13, 2020. In my state of Maryland, there has been a stay-at-home order for nearly two months. Our office has been closed since, but we, fortunately, have been deemed essential and do our best to keep the ball rolling. I was ready this time for the upheaval, not like 2008, when I had three cars and lived a bit more like there was no tomorrow. After 2008, I became a saver to prepare for anything life threw at me…even a pandemic. Although this wasn’t exactly what I thought I was preparing for, we’ve adapted. But not everyone has been able to. On top of not being ready to operate virtually, agents are running out of funds. I know you don’t want that to be you, and you don’t want your agents to be affected by poor planning either. When you build a team, one of the benefits you will promote to your agents is that your business is financially stable and sustainable. Well, is it? Go ahead and ask yourself that question. Believe me; you need to know the answer.

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Because if your personal finances are a mess, your business probably won’t fare much better. And if you have shortcomings, building a team with staff salaries and increased expenses will quickly expose them. Cash is the Foundation of Any Business Right out of the gate, you must have the right mindset and plan for your money. You have to replace self-defeating financial habits, so you can plan and save for a stable business and a properly funded sales team. In 2005 I was talking with some agents I worked with about how some pro athletes go broke from mismanaging money only a few years after retirement. That same crazy busy year saw lenders not using income ratios and a whole group of real estate agents on my team (except me) who went out and bought the dream home they couldn’t afford. I had already left that team, but a couple of years later, the subprime market went away, and so did their houses… According to Investopedia, the sad fact is that at least 45% of businesses fail in the first five years, and many more continue to hover on the brink of collapse. It’s a good thing that most real estate agents love what they do because it seems the majority of them give their lives to their businesses. Maybe you can relate to sacrificing every part of you to your business—including your life savings—while racking up debt without making money? Think Profit, Not Expenses Michael Michalowicz wrote a revolutionary money management book, Profit First, that provides a paradigm shift from the normal ways that most small business, real estate agents think about their finances. This is a book with such a simple premise that it was hard for me to understand at first. Essentially, it’s building a business around profit and removing the two mistakes that kill most businesses, 68

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which are, bigger is better, and income equals cash. Profit First is built on this simple idea: Before you pay your expenses, take your profit first. Run your life and business based on what you can afford now, not what you hope you can someday afford. It’s a simple concept, but it requires that you unlearn what you’ve learned about accounting and that you fundamentally change the way you think and do things — as well as face up to the hard facts so you can fix them. Adopt a Few Basic Operating Principles Anyone can improve his or her financial situation by adopting a “change mindset” for their finances, a few basic operating principles, and by staying disciplined. If you’re going to be successful with a business, your personal finances have to be in order. It’s crucial to master these primary skills: To launch your real estate business, most people need at least 3-5 months of reserves. If you’re starting a team that brings dozens of additional expenses, you won’t have the capital you need unless you make handling your personal finances a number one priority. If you ignore your personal finances, your business will be a mess, and when you pitch a team member to join the stability of your team— that will be an empty promise…and a lie. Figure out what you need to do to produce versus what you want to produce. Oftentimes, the gap between what we need and what we want is large, but it’s easy to figure out. Simple Budget What is your monthly expense to run your household? I’m talking rent, mortgage, kiddos, pets, groceries, dry cleaning, everything you spend money on — get that number. Let’s say it’s $24,000 a year. Next, add in work expenses — let’s say that’s $6,000 a year. That means a total of $30,000 a year will cover your expenses. 69

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Now, let’s say your husband or wife doesn’t work, and you don’t have any outside income. We’ll also say your average commission check is $7,500. In this case, you would only need to sell four houses to break even — that’s one house every three months to cover your $30,000 expense. Now we’ll assume your goal is to sell 24 houses at a minimum. Our formula to figure out our net profit before taxes is: 24 x $7,500 = $180,000 ($30,000 expenses) = $150,000 net profit before taxes. These are not bad numbers that are very doable if you can adopt just some of what I share in this book. And they are even better when you have defined them.

“What you’re going to spend hours studying is the profit margin, and if you can’t do it with your personal finances, what makes you think you’ll be able to when you have a big team? A dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow. Don’t let time slip away on your savings plan.” Cleve Gaddis WSS Master Coach Know your expenses. Know your average commission. Know what you need to sell to cover expenses. Personal Finance Checklist 1. Spend less than you earn. Sometimes our unnecessary wants are bigger than our bank accounts. Consider the Zen principle we went over in chapter three to “live simply.” It doesn’t matter what you’re paid; if you don’t have a handle on your budget, you will never get ahead. Debt can get ugly. 70

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2. Stick to a budget. The best way to keep the spending down is to budget and track expenses. How can you run a stable business if you don’t force yourself to get good at budgeting and tracking expenses in your personal life? Short answer, you can’t. 3. Use cash and pay off credit card debt. Credit card debt will hold you back. Some people never fully get on top of their credit card debt, either. Put the credit cards away and try to work out a two-year plan to pay it all off. 4. Contribute to a retirement plan. Consider contributing to a 401(k) plan or an IRA. 5. Have a savings plan. Developing a saver’s mindset is critical to properly funding a stable business and team. You should have at least six months of money reserved. Right now, I have one-year-plus reserved for myself and my team, and I sleep well. 6. Invest. Even if you have money going out into multiple accounts, you can still invest—then buy income-producing real estate. It’s what we do—and if you do it right, it pays off. 7. Maximize any group benefits. Get the lowdown on any group or individual benefits your brokerage offers, such as medical and dental. Maximize your benefits while taking advantage of those that will reduce your taxes or out-of-pocket expenses. 8. Review your insurance coverage. Protect your dependents and income in the case of death or disability. But don’t let yourself get talked into buying coverage you don’t need. Always research what’s best for your current situation and your family. 9. Update your will. A will is practical to have. You need one. Period.

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10. Use a professional accountant. You will need a good accountant and someone to help with bookkeeping. My accountant does both and is very affordable, considering the time she saves me.

“Family, Faith, Friends, Fun, Fitness. When we put Finances in front, it’s at the expense of the other five.” Verl Workman CEO, Workman Success System Take a page out of Verl’s book and make sure you prioritize those in your life who you’re planning for. If enduring this Covid19 pandemic has taught us anything, it’s learning how quickly we’re able to pivot. You most likely have faced a list of difficult decisions, but at the end of the day, it’s those First Five F’s that matter most. A virus doesn’t care about your financial situation or business. But if you use the principles shared in this chapter, you’ll have the right resources in place to keep yourself, your loved ones, and your business on a smoother track.

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CHAPTER 7 Your Pivotal Pitstops Guide "If you're offered a seat on a rocket ship, don't ask what seat! Just get on.” - Sheryl Sandberg

The goals of the Business Development section are to help you build a business model that will provide consistent value to your customers, employees, and agents, beyond what they expect.

“Most real estate agents create jobs for themselves; very few create a business.” Verl Workman CEO, Workman Success System If you build your business model Like Lee Tessier and Christy Buck, it can be operated by people with moderate skill and will stand out as a place of standards and order. Everything will be documented in an Operations Manual or a video library, and you can provide a predictable service to your customers. It really can be that easy. It’s just a matter of adopting a new SOP (Standard Operating Procedure). If you have an endless drive but nowhere to focus it, this section will provide a realistic path to success for your business — that doesn’t require sacrificing your friends and family.

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Show me someone who serves their community regardless of opportunity, who has developed high levels of accountability, and an amazing Growth Mindset, who believes in a strong “why” and has great habits, who uses grit and determination to get things done, and leads a Zen life, putting out good vibes, as well as they know the simple tactics of creating demand, demonstrating Leadership qualities, negotiating with purpose and managing their finances and I’ll show you a perfect candidate to start a business! When you become a Business Owner/Real Estate Agent, you’ll run into many predictable frustrations such as not having enough profit and personal income, not having enough clients, being unable to find good employees, and not having enough time, so your business depends too much on you. But most real estate agents experience the problem of not knowing where to make the right changes. I’ll give you a head start. Where Do I Start? Whether you’re going 150 mph like I was (before I was about to crash and burn) or you’re pulling up to the starting line of your real estate business, you should learn how to avoid crucial mistakes and disappointment as you progress to the next phase of building your business. I had joined a long line of other self-coached top performers. For one reason or another, we came to the realization that we needed help. This was my true starting point. As entrepreneurs, we rejected people’s help to our own detriment. Not anymore. The problems I had at the beginning seemed insurmountable. Since I was selfcoached and didn’t have a playbook to what I thought was success, I assumed I was unique and had unsolvable problems. But I had the same problems that many self-coached, self-taught Real Estate Agent entrepreneurs before me had. 78

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Sara Guldi, my WSS coach, made sure to let me know that there were so many like me who had failed forward in creating the models and plans we would use to rebuild my business. I’ve found that WSS coaches are no different than good appraisers. Most would agree to my first seven pitstops as they are detailed throughout the coming chapters, but many would have minor variations. It was a relief to learn I could make adjustments in my business and that I wouldn’t be in danger of losing it all… in fact, I wouldn’t even be close. You may be on a similar path. If that’s the case, pace yourself. If you’re just starting to build your real estate business, do as you would if you were training to run a 10K. It’s important to know your ability to absorb change. Even when we know we need to make important changes; we first have to fight the internal battle with our subconscious that likes everything la-di-da comfortable. Once you reach some level of acceptance to changing, find a pace that doesn’t overwhelm and freeze you into inaction. So start slow, if you have to, and let’s go!

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CHAPTER 8 Stop #1 “I’m tired of hearing all this talk from people who don’t understand the process of hard work—like little kids in the backseat, asking ‘Are we there yet?’ Get where you’re going one mile-marker at a time.” - Nick Saban

Create a Strategic Plan The Workman Way® is to lead with revenue and use core programs developed over 20 years to continue progressing your business. Our first pitstop is creating a Strategic Plan. Your plan entails developing a clear understanding of what your short and long-term goals are and writing them down. This is basically a written pact for you to follow. They are your marching orders, as Paul Sessum, a WSS Master Coach and Team Leader who grew a KW office to 256 productive associates, describes. He notes that what you are creating is “a 10,000ft. Google map overview of where your business is going.” It will include what you want your business to look like in six months, one year, and two years. As my team felt like it was imploding, I found it extremely difficult to take time out of other activities to create a Strategic Plan. But I found it oddly rewarding when I completed it and had a new road map of where I wanted to go. Verl compares a business without a Strategic Plan to getting into an Uber with no address for the driver. I’ll up the ante on his analogy and assert that it is like getting into an Uber so drunk, you can’t tell the driver where to go. This piggybacks on Verl’s saying that: “If you don’t know where you’re going, you will never get

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there,”and your Uber driver will get pissed. My Strategic Plan stays in my portfolio and goes everywhere with me. I look at it every week to confirm I am on my route and hold myself accountable. A Strategic Plan is fluid and can be changed as your short and long-term goals are met and checked off. I went from not having a plan to reviewing it weekly. It’s expected you will make adjustments as needed.

“Agents get on the hamster wheel and run and run and run. They’re not thinking about where they want to be in a year or much less where they want to be in five years.” Lee Tessier WSS Senior Coach Broker/Owner Team Leader of the Lee Tessier Team Lee Tessier Real Estate Bel Air, MD Not everyone views success and motivation the same way, so it’s important for you to think about how you’re going to measure success. But you can’t measure success without a plan — yet another reason you need it, to celebrate your forward momentum. Paul Sessum compares the Strategic Plan to a different take on a Google map: you have the highlights and the cities in front of you. And you can see a glimpse of what you’re going to pass through and when to spot major turns. It’s your outline. He warns of your situation without one, stating: “It’s critical if you have no definition of what the Plan looks like. So if you don’t have an established Point B, you just start at Point A and wander around, without understanding if you’re succeeding or not.”

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Developing your Strategic Plan shouldn’t be complicated. Cleve Gaddis recommends how “Even just one page would be better than what most teams have. The bigger teams or offices I work with develop strategic plans on steroids. They have businesses that do 3,000 sales a year, so everything is very convoluted and confusing for them. This is where I spend all of my time helping people— sorting through the crap and figuring out how to apply it to their overall strategy.” This Business Development section requires multiple downloads that you can get at www.profitpitstops.com. They include:



• • • • • • • • •

A Business Plan workbook with a strategic planning section 86-50-1 ultimate marketing handbook Top 50 Tracker AMP Scorecard Project Backlog (Agile) Daily Success Habit Tracker ABC’s of Leads Transaction Tracker Virtual Business Resource

Creating Your Strategic Plan Download the Business Plan Workbook and use the following questions to guide your Strategic Plan. You will update your Strategic Plan every October for the upcoming year, and it will need updating as you reach some of your shorter-term and a few long-term goals, so keep it close and look at it often to stay on track. Your Strategic Plan also requires that you answer the following:

•

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• • • • • • • •

Where do you want to be in six months? Where do you want to be in one year? Where do you want to be in five years? How will you know you are making progress? What does your life look like two years from now as a result of this implementation? What else needs to happen for you in your business? What is the biggest pain right now in your business? What is going really well for you in your business right now?

After your Strategic Plan is in place, and you have been using it for a while, make sure you stay in touch with your main motivations. Every week I ask myself, am I moving closer or further away from my Strategic Plan goals? As I mentioned before, correcting your course and making new commitments is almost as important as having one to begin with.

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Strategic Plan vs. Business Plan While your Business Plan has value, it is not needed until we are further into our success journey. I’ll cover the Business Plan later in Chapter 17, but for now, I want you to work on developing your Strategic Plan. It serves as the master checklist to your overall business, which allows you to break it down into accomplishable goals that you can check off one at a time.

“Strategic planning is a snapshot of a benchmark that allows you to know you are on the right path. One-month, 3-month, 6-month, 1-year, and 2-year benchmarks keep you from veering too far off the path of where you are going. It’s simple and brilliant.” Paul Sessum WSS Master Coach Building out your strategic and business plans will help you stay off the hamster wheel and get onto a more grounded path.

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CHAPTER 9 Stop #2 “Time never stops. Life never pauses. Now is the time to do everything you’ve wanted. Don’t wait for anything.” - The Keeper Diaries

Nurture Your Top 50 One of the first things Verl teaches WSS coaches is the importance of leading with revenue by pulling together a “Top 50,” and that was also one of the first things my coach, Sara, helped me build out. When you don’t have the money to spend on lead gen, advertising, or websites, the practical thing to do is tap into and pull together the Top 50 people out of your Sphere of Influence—those who think of you any time they hear real estate. These are the Top 50 you will keep in contact with at least once a month. Jim Knowlton explains the Top 50 program as a perfect way to “lead with revenue” that doesn’t require spending money. You can build a successful business with this one concept alone. When I first heard about the Top 50, I laughed, thinking I had a “Top 2,000.” But Jim Knowlton put it to me this way. “You’re already keeping in touch with the people who know, like, and trust you. Your Top 50 are those who are most likely to refer you business now or within the next year. Putting this list together is the best way to build better and stronger relationships without having to spend money. Now I embrace my Top 50 more than ever.” Terri Murphy partnered with Verl Workman and Mike Parker and created the 8687

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50-1 marketing system handbook, which was developed for agents who want to close 86 deals or more a year. Some would call your Top 50 “low-hanging fruit” because they include the leads and prospects that are most easily reached. Those who belong on this list are multi-transaction-per-year investors, anyone who regularly refers you anytime they hear the need for real estate services, and clients who have done multiple transactions with you. These could also be people you want to get to know better, people you already give your business to (doctors, vets, dry cleaners, nail techs, hairstylist, parents of your kids’ friends, etc.).

“The high-producing teams are usually busy chasing cold business. They may have a ton of leads coming in, but they’re not doing the followup. Someone brand new to real estate coaching doesn’t know where to find business. A Top 50 is critical to teaching them how to create warm leads and build relationships because they will sustain you through any market.” Sara Guldi WSS Master Coach The promise (not the goal) you make with your Top 50 is to have meaningful contact and actively engage with everyone in your Top 50 every month. Mathematically, this works out to three personal touches per day. We can break it down further into one call, one handwritten note, and one face-to-face with three people every day. It’s simple; you just have to do it. Brooke Sines took to managing a Top 50 naturally. She left a job in the entertainment industry that had her traveling four days a week. She then switched to real estate 88

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because it was equally relationship-based, and she loves people, especially her family.

“I’ve always stayed in touch with people and maintained relationships over the years. And I think that really helped me in getting started. I reached out to everyone I knew. So, I sold 30 houses my first year.” Brooke Sines WSS Senior Coach

I started in a similar fashion by calling 250 people I knew in the first couple of weeks of opening my doors, which landed me 10 deals in my third month. Starting your business by reaching out to your sphere as we did with the Top 50 is an organized approach to staying in touch with the important people to your life and business.

Top 50 Tracker WSS encourages you to use the Top 50 Tracker to keep tabs on who you are in touch with and the results of those activities. It also includes an outline for events to schedule throughout a calendar year. Now, you don’t have to recreate the wheel.

“Your Top 50 is the group of people who are probably your superstar referrers and who you want to get to know really well.” Sara Guldi WSS Master Coach

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It’s Not One-Sided If you’re having a hard time coming up with your Top 50, Paul Wheeler recommends that you “Start with people who you already know and love and who trust you to build stronger relationships in general. In turn, they’ll appreciate getting more involved in your life, and the business will follow.” Your Top 50 will purposely be full of people you want to build better relationships with. Get to know them better and see where you can help them and how they can help you.

“It’s all about that two-sided exchange.”

Having That Personal Touch I asked Lee for his thoughts on how his Top 50 developed, and he emphasized the importance of referrals: “You can do lead generation and online campaigns, but referrals from person to person convert at a much higher level. We need human interaction. My mom is one of my Top 50 because I talk to her more than once a month. For those you contact less frequently, think about who you enjoy doing business with and who has previously referred you to the most business. Then invite them to events. I go to the beach or out to dinner with my Top 5, but when it comes to the other 45, it could be those who come to a group happy hour or holiday party. It’s basically those who want to see you succeed.”

Don’t Force it According to Christy Buck, your Top 50 relationships are those “super intentional” relationships. “We have to be super intentional. We break it down to sending out cards and gifts every week. Each Agent has to do five notecards each week. It’s these personal touches that trump the cold calls and trying to get a stranger to work with us. Relationships are the biggest thing we have to go on right now. 90

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They allow you the opportunity to get in front of people and explain what you can provide versus the competition.”

Including Your Clients Your Sphere of Influence (SOI) refers to people who know, like and trust you. These are people with whom you have had personal and positive contact in the past. You’ll learn more ways to strengthen your business for the profitability track, but the starting point for us all is having a well-thought-out Strategic Plan and a Top 50.

“Focus on deepening your relationships with these 50 each month, [while] not asking for referrals. This will ensure you’re always top-of-mind to them.” Brooke Sines WSS Senior Coach In Chapter 21, I will show you how to take your Top 50 and turn them into an MVP Fan Club.

Build Your Business with Top 50 Events Christy Buck believes bringing your Top 50 into your business in a big way and making them feel like they're a part of the family is important. This is why I think it's integral to the Top 50 to hold events. Lee will never forget a Gary Keller mastermind, where Gary said, “Whoever figures out how to build a club around their database is going to win the game.” … Which was great info. Lee does several big events a year, but his huge ones are his Thanksgiving pie 91

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giveaway and his Toys for Tots drive. Last year, his team had over 1,000 attendees for the pie party and gave away over 450 pies. When Christy Buck had her first Top 50 event, she was scared no one would show up. It turned out a large crowd, but she and her team weren’t as organized as they could be, so it felt like they’d missed opportunities to learn more about their clients. Each event they put on got better, and she and her team included sign-in sheets, updated information, drink tickets, and more purpose behind their actions. My business and SOI were built by getting involved with new charities every year and meeting good people and inviting them to our nice events. Now we do nicer events for our Top 50.

“Start building your database from day one and never stop building and maintaining those relationships. It is by far, your biggest and best asset over time. Business gets easier and less costly if you maintain and stay connected to your database.” Paul Wheeler WSS Senior Coach Broker/Owner of Accent Realtors Tulsa, OK WSS Senior Coach and RE/MAX Team Leader Reed Martin says that teams love having in-person contact with their Top 50. “We try one on one personal interaction with our Top 50 at least six times a year, but we have four main staples that have gone over really well. In March, we mail scratch-offs to coincide with St. Patrick’s Day (luck of the Irish). In May, we submit a bet on our client’s behalf for the Kentucky Derby race (this year, it’s in September because of COVID-19). In October, we deliver pumpkins. In December, we deliver rolls of wrapping paper (the small $1 rolls you can purchase at Target).”

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Fear of Rejection Anyone who does this job and does not have something like a Top 50 is set up to fail. I asked Jim Knowlton why he thought some agents would rather door knock for a week and get no business than stay in touch with their Top 50 or SOI. “People won’t do Top 50 or SOI because they are scared of rejection. In most cases, even with a simple apology-for-not-calling-you-sooner script, and the FORD script that simply gives you topics that everyone likes to talk about, they are too scared of [receiving] rejection from people they know. Once an Agent makes a couple of calls to their Top 50 and realizes that there is zero rejection involved in staying in touch, it opens the flood gates of staying in touch and the transactions that come with it.” I asked Jim how he got agents past the fear of rejection, and he, in turn, asked me, “Do you believe that most people in our business don’t do a good job?“ “YES,” I said. He went on: “Do you believe most people do this for money and not to serve their client?” “YES” He then asked, “So, what you’re saying is that it’s okay for your friends to use someone else and get that crappy service because you are scared of being rejected?” “Got it.” Don’t be scared. Just PainFuel through it and realize it wasn’t painful after all.

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CHAPTER 10 Stop #3 “The first step toward getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are.” - Unknown

Targeting & Conversion In Chapter 15, I explain that if you focus on listings and leads, you will fuel a business that is a great precursor for a team. But if you target a higher price point and a better conversion, you will make more money for the same amount of work. Let me be clear; the easiest way to make more money and have more free time is to target higher price points. It’s that simple. If your average is as high as you can get it, great job. If not, read on. If I had to drive 15 minutes to target $500,000 homes versus $250,000 homes in my neighborhood, no question, I’m driving those 15 minutes. I’ll still do a great job servicing the $250,000 neighborhood and spend a little bit of marketing money in those areas, but in this case, traveling out a little further is the simplest way to make “maximized money.” If you’re going to farm (target) a specific community, do pay-per-click advertising with a website, send postcards, or even door knock in neighborhoods with nice and high prices. When you push yourself into higher price points, you will make more money for the same amount of work. My average sale right now (and it has been for years) is $300K. If I can get it to $600K, I’ll only need to sell half as much as what I am doing now to make roughly 95

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the same money.

Conversion When I had lunch with Lee, he explained how his team role-plays two or three times a week. At the time, I was proud I didn’t need scripts or role play because I was “gifted” with talking to people...remember that ego? Boy, was I wrong! Lee regularly targets his marketing on higher price points to make bigger commissions. Essentially, he makes more money for the same amount of work. But by role-playing a few times a week, his agents have gotten really good at converting leads. If you’re spending any amount of money on a lead, you want to make sure you have the best shot of converting it into a commission, and that is where the ROI is. If you’re calling leads, get really good so you can make more money. Sarah Bernard, a WSS Senior Coach and Team Leader with a background in corporate communications in talking about increased conversion through scripts, says, "Having difficult conversations must be rehearsed ahead of time. Doing it regularly, working a script until it's natural for you, is the best way to confidently go into any situation with ease. For some people, this comes easily, but everyone can get there with practice. You can do this with teammates, colleagues, your dog, your mirror. Focus on conversations and dialogue that you struggle with; create your own scripts if it's easier than memorizing someone else's. The key is to practice boosting your confidence when working with new clients." If only one out of 10 good leads you receive proves to be legit, you need to make sure you don’t waste any time with the nine bad leads. Set them on drip campaigns and nurture until recipients tell you to stop. To improve your conversions, get good at two basic scripts (LPMAAM & FORD), and your conversation rates will go through the roof. Trust me; I went from making fun of scripts and role-play to embracing it and earning more money for the same exact effort I had exerted before.

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“Some agents think scripts sound artificial, but they are missing the point. Scripts are supposed to teach you a path to follow, and all you have to do is follow it.” Cleve Gaddis WSS Master Coach

LPMAAM and New Leads LPMAAM is the basic script you should be using to qualify buyer leads. Without proper training and practice, LPMAAM questions can feel like an interrogation for a buyer prospect, so read on and make sure you practice. LPMAAM is both an acronym and a conversation checklist. L= Location, P=Price, M=Motivation, A=Agent, A= Appointment, M= Mortgage. Each word designates a topic of conversation you will causally talk the lead through. Your goal is to get better at setting appointments with a higher conversion rate. When you learn how to use LPMAAM effortlessly, your conversion rate will go through the roof. If done right, a real buyer lead should have no problem conversing through most of your LPMAAM questions. The goal is to only show buyers homes that they want to buy. If a lead just wants to see a house and not talk about these topics nine times out of 10, that talk is going to be a waste of time.

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FORD and Your SOI So often, we’re given advice by well-meaning office managers or mentors, not realizing the advice has been mistakenly misquoted, misattributed, or even misunderstood. For example, Dale Carnegie’s quote: “To be interesting, be interested” has been reworded so many different ways—like the examples below: “Better to be interested than interesting.” “Be interested, not interesting.” “Don’t be interesting; be interested." They all mean the same thing, which is focus on learning about who you are speaking with, and they will enjoy the conversation. FORD is the perfect solution to show your interest in someone…including team members. I often talk to agents that have been in the industry for 10+ years that don’t stay in touch with their database because they don’t know what to say. FORD is an easy reminder of topics to talk about with anyone. FORD is an acronym that stands for "Family," "Occupation," "Recreation," and "Dreams." Use FORD in conversations by asking questions about these topics. FORD can be used on first dates, business lunches, and in many different scenarios. The point is to get good conversation going. As a Real Estate Agent, you want to use FORD questions when you stay in touch with your Top 50 and your SOI. Later, when you create your MVP program, you can use it there, too.

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CHAPTER 11 Stop #4 “Problems are not signs; they are guidelines.” - Robert H. Schuller

Categorize Your Leads In the early 90s, at 19 years old, I traveled the country teaching accounting software that after a year evolved into selling, among other things, CRMs. In my contact manager was a category for everyone, leads, friends, possible dates, you name it. I had 20-plus categories, and things got confusing fast. The first time I heard WSS coaches explain A, B, C Leads, I chuckled as it reminded me of my early 90s dating system and because it was simple like I was back then. The ABC’s of Lead Follow-Up is a simple way to identify leads as a certain category: A, B, C, or SOI. Each category has a specific follow-up plan. When you add contacts to your database, you will label or tag them properly, so you have automatic action plans that will remind you to make the required contacts for the specific lead type.

“If agents stayed 100% up to date with the ABC’s of lead follow-up, tremendous income and freedom would result.” Cleve Gaddis WSS Master Coach

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Your B and C leads are future A leads, but only if you tag or label them properly in your CRM.

Lead Tracker (or CRM) category definitions:

It’s that simple… Track where leads are coming from. Categorize them (A, B, C, or SOI) in your tracker. Track conversation rates for the different lead sources and then invest more in better-converting leads! Initially, people don’t follow the system because their teams are usually successful in spite of themselves. They're cherry-picking the leads coming in and working 102

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the ones they want, but there's no follow up happening. When you use ABC, it reveals that you haven't been following up and that you've left a lot of money in your database untouched.

“We lose the people that are most likely to buy. Agents go after the lesser quality A deals, then the guaranteed B or C deals because they can’t manage them in their brain. When your B and C leads are ready, they become A leads. The goal is to build your funnel that continually enables the B and C leads to become the A leads.” Jim Knowlton WSS Master Coach The key is to make sure your B and C leads make it into your CRM with the proper reminders set; that’s your gold mine.

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CHAPTER 12 Stop #5 “Some of the world’s greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart enough to know they were impossible.” - Doug Larson, English gold medalist

Track Your Daily Success Habits Envision building a pyramid. Working with a coach has the same premise. Everything a coach helps you with revolves around building that strong foundational base first. You need this base, so you are not layering your business on top of a pile of rocks. If you do, you’ll crumble. When you rinse, lather and repeat, you focus on leads, bringing in business, and mastering the systems. Then you keep going through this process until you take yourself to the next level.

“We have to be thinking, what do I have to do today that will generate income 90 days from now? Nothing you do today will pay you this month. Focus on your future, and don't be distracted by shiny objects.” Verl Workman CEO, Workman Success Systems WSS provides the building blocks to equip you with the right tools to show where 105

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you are on your journey. The Daily Success Habit (DSH) Tracker is one of those tools. Tracking your habits — small or large, good or bad — is an important exercise that helps you fully understand what you’re capable of. In Atomic Habits, James Clear, the expert on how to make you the best version of yourself, explains that you have to develop an awareness of your daily routines. You need to realize, for the most part, that you are your habits. The repetitive behavior you perform so often is automatic. James’ message is that you shouldn’t overlook the impact of small (“atomic”) changes in your daily routines. It’s critical that your habits align with long-term goals. The DSH tracker will do just that.

(DSH) Daily Success Habit Tracker The DSH will give you awareness of your daily routine as it enables you to see exactly what your money-making moves are and understand what activities are time-wasters.

“Ignore the irrelevant.” Mark Boyland WSS Senior Coach Work to form a solid DSH because it will pay off. Many people find it’s tough to get going, still…keep going! Jim Knowlton describes DSH as “The intentional tracking of money-making activities and their results.” This tracker allows you to be more successful, which is a hard thing for people to wrap their minds around. Don’t think of using it as someone telling you what to do and that they are holding you accountable; think of using it as the accountability 106

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that needs to come from within you to prove to yourself how successful you are. DSH is critical and gives you the formula for your success. It’s the closest thing to a silver bullet in real estate. Here’s a peek at one in action: When you start out, you’ll document your current habits and discover that some should be improved. They have the “I’m doing what I should be doing” mindset. Understand, the purpose isn’t to be a slave to your good habits; it’s to show you that you can always do better. There’s always a level above where you are.

Activity Tracker Using Clear’s First Law of Behavior Change, start recording what you do in 30-minute increments. You already have a calendar; use it to simply track what you actually did, not what you are going to do. The goal is to see if you are actually being productive and doing MMAs (money-making activities) or if you are spending too much time doing busy or “fake” work.

61 Points A Day You should be dedicating time each day to make calls or knock doors and you should also track the number of hours doing it. Don’t be the Agent who puts it off to tomorrow. Why not complete it today and check that box? WSS has broken down the activities for purposeful prospecting into a point system, with the ideal goal being to get to 61 points each day. Keeping track of these daily efforts will show you exactly where your strengths and deficiencies lie. It’s good to have goals for the number of points needed, but depending on each person’s circumstance, there should be flexibility as well. Christy Buck’s team 108

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shoots for 61 points. But this can’t always be the target. Some of her agents have 7-10 under contract, so she’s not cracking down on them.

“If you want to change your current circumstances, you must change what you know and what you are currently doing. The only way you can do that is to grow and learn on a regular basis. If you’re planning on growing a team, Leadership development is your highest priority. Every day you should be spending an hour or more on your personal growth.” Paul Wheeler WSS Senior Coach The DSH will help you to see exactly how many calls are needed before someone will actually schedule an appointment. If you work with a WSS coach, you’ll track the DSH and Activity Tracker in their online system, “WorkBench,” as well as on a sheet of paper to watch your progress and pinpoint improvement areas.

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CHAPTER 13 Stop #6 “If you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail.” - Mark Spitz

Ready, Set, 3-2-1 – Get Your 61 Points One of the ways WSS teaches a simple way to get most of your 61 points a day is called 3,2,1s. This is how it works:

Paul Wheeler has seen a big impact with his clients, who have actually started tracking their Daily Success Habits. Even those who reach less than 61-points on 111

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a regular basis see results. It can be a constant battle of commitment to track your daily activities. So, I believe it’s best to go all in! People who do some sort of tracking can break down what’s really happening with their results—and why they are not what they want them to be. For example, if you’re spending time doing X and you examine the result you have, are you okay with this result? Or should you consider changing the habit to get the result you want?

“Never underestimate the long-term importance of things seeming insignificant. Often, it’s these (insignificant matters) that make the biggest difference.” Cleve Gaddis WSS Master Coach

End Goal: Gaining Awareness When coaching brokers and big team leaders on their Daily Success Habits, Cleve Gaddis makes tracking their activity all about awareness. In other words, are they in the group of wanting to do the right thing, or not? It’s not rocket science for your coach to figure this out. And coaches need to find out whether clients are doing sufficient work toward their goals or not. Tracking Daily Success Habits gives the group who wants to do what’s right the framework for being successful. On the flip side, the group who doesn’t do what’s right helps coaches understand they’re not willing to track, and so, they can stop

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investing time in them.

“To gain momentum in your business, start with small wins, and build on them.” Mark Boyland WSS Senior Coach DSH tracks your dollar producing activities and small wins that turn into sales. We do need this analysis, not only in this area but in others. It is generally understood that our subconscious is lazy and doesn’t like change— this makes changing habits difficult. There’s a reason behind this. Dr. Joe Dispenza, noted neuroscientist, states that “95% of who you are by the time you are 35 years old is a set of memorized behaviors and emotional reactions that create our identity subconsciously. Five percent of your conscious mind that is plugged into reality is working against 95% of what you’ve memorized subconsciously.” In laymen’s terms, if you want to make a change, just 5% of your mind wants to go for it. The other 95% is happy to stay exactly in the same place. So if it feels like making a change is a monumental task, you’re right. But it’s also worth it—when it’s a good change. DSH is a great tool that shows how your habits are what have kept you at 12 deals a year. In his bestseller, The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg introduces the habit loop so we can understand how habits work. The habit loop has three steps, 1) a cue, 2) a routine, and 3) a reward. The cue is an automatic trigger in your brain that tells you which habit to use without thinking. The routine incorporates the cues into a physical, mental, or emotional manifestation. The reward enables your brain to figure out if the loop (your cycle of habits or “habit loop”) is worth remembering. 113

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Based on how you actively or passively interpret your habits, this loop becomes more hard-wired. But you can change the habits you want to. You just have to know how to do it. Understanding the habit loop is the key to changing bad habits. To accomplish this, keep the old cue and deliver the old reward while inserting a new routine into the loop by identifying the cues that trigger your old habits. Then, take the time to identify the rewards once you introduce your routine. For example, get up at 4:15 AM, write every morning, and get rewarded by finishing a book a year later.

“Most self-coached agents are wired as entrepreneurs and like to do things their way when if they could time-block three hours a day and do one hour of Top 50, one hour of calling ABC Leads and one hour of Daily Success Habits, they’d do 50-75 deals a year and not have to spend a ton of money on leads. It’s that simple.” Jim Knowlton WSS Director of Coaching & Master Coach Habits are powerful, and the ability to improve upon them can change your life for the better. Using them as a force for good in your life and knowing exactly what to do to create new ones can transform your career.

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CHAPTER 14 Stop #7 “Don’t stop when you’re tired. Stop when you are done.” - Unknown

Time Blocking – My Perfect Week Time blocking has by far made the most impact on my business than anything else I’ve learned from WSS. As I revealed to you earlier, this book was written in chunks every morning beginning in October 2019. Every day, I worked on it from 6:00-8:00 AM. I stuck to it because I time blocked my calendar to write. My daily huddle is time blocked at 9:00 AM every weekday.

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appointment, the “My Perfect Week” calendar reminds me of what I’m supposed to be doing.

“Never let the things that matter the least get in the way of the things that matter the most.” Jim Rohn American entrepreneur, author, and motivational speaker

I love the quote by Sarah Michelle Bliss, WSS Master Coach, author, speaker, Real Estate Trainer, and RE/MAX sales agent with over 20 years of experience: "Before your feet hit the ground in the morning, you should know who needs your services today." Jim Knowlton impresses that “The other thing that's very important in My Perfect Week calendar is scheduling vacations or time off, date nights, etc. We need to put all of those things first. Time expands or contracts to fit what we try to put into it. We all know the Friday before vacation, we become superhuman and can get two weeks’ worth of work done. That’s just one benefit of this calendar! If you do the three things that you should do every day in real estate, it drives the activity you do for the rest of the day. And remember, you cannot be purposeful all day long, but you can be purposeful for short periods of time. You also cannot do two things in your brain at the same time. This is why time blocking is crucial.” As I was learning more about time blocking my calendars, my only question was, what three things in three hours? Here’s your spoiler alert, so you can get right to it: “one hour of Top 50, one hour of Calling A, B, C Leads, and one hour of focusing on DSH points.” While what we have talked about here is different than doing 3, 2, 1s, you can use either process and still be successful.

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“Narrow it down to three hours a day so that it’s more about scheduling the opportunity that comes out of your daily prospecting over your three hours in the morning—to make sure you don’t miss or mess up your day.” Jim Knowlton WSS Director of Coaching & Master Coach

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CHAPTER 15 Listings, Leads, Opportunities & PainFuel “I was already on the pole, then by half a second and then one second, and I just kept going. Suddenly, I was nearly two seconds faster than anybody else, including my teammate with the same car.” - Ayrton Senna

The biggest misconception agents have is the idea that you must do more to get more. Many real estate agents proudly spend their whole careers wearing every hat needed to run their business—accounting, general admin, sales, listing management, transaction coordination, marketing, etc. I am telling you to do less to get more. You’ll find instead of distributing your focus and energy on wearing all the hats, just concentrate on two; it will unlock your ability to grow and fuel your business and then a team. At the end of the book, I’ll even show you how to get your business to work without you and how you can spend time doing the work you love to do rather than the work you have to do. But before you can get to work, you must get focused. It’s 2020 right now, and I know I don’t need to provide much more explanation. Your focus needs to be on fueling your business with listings—which leads to moving to the next levels. Too many new team leaders try to operate beyond their abilities. Agents will read a book or take a class and decide they want to build a team, but they don’t have 119

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the structure or the business, and then the team falls apart. They are missing so much, the sales volume, the leads, the processes, systems, training, and so on. Remember, just because you took a class on how to run a successful team, it doesn’t mean you automatically have one. So, be patient. Put in the hard work for a good period of time and work the kinks out before running your empire poolside.

“You can have it all if you realize you don’t have to do it all.” Verl Workman CEO, Workman Success Systems Now, let’s talk about fueling your business. Listings Here’s a huge takeaway for this chapter: the most successful real estate agents focus on listings.

“Listings drive everything. Let me repeat that… everything!” Cleve Gaddis WSS Master Coach On the job we quickly learn that in the same amount of time, we can secure 2-3 listings for every buyer transaction we can complete.

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WSS studies show a listing marketed properly on the internet, social media, postcards, ads, signage, and open houses should generate 6-8 buyer leads. How many leads are generated working with a buyer other than a referral here or there? I spent my first year working with buyers as a Buyer Agent on a team and then left that team to start my team. I educated myself on how to do listings right and started my second year with 100% focus on listings. The focus on listings is what allowed me to build a team. Listings are the foundational building blocks to build your business and grow a team through all the growth phases. Listings generate leads for your business when you are sleeping. Every single coach and top producer I interviewed for this book grew their business with listings as the primary focus.

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In Chapter 20, I share all of the marketing ideas you will need to correctly market your listings and generate 6-8 leads per listing per month. The goal is to get your business to work without you and have more time and money or both. Being listing-focused is the first step. Leads On top of requiring less time than buyer transactions, listings, done right, will generate buyer and seller leads for your business. As you are getting started, there are countless lead-generating strategies to choose from. But if you market your listing properly, you should generate 6-8 leads per listing per month. What strategy is right for you?



• • • •

Staying connected with your Top 50 will generate a ton of leads. Some agents cold call, door knock, and prospect. Others do a lot in the community in a big way to generate a lot of great leads. Most real estate agents supplement their lead needs with Homesnap, Realtor.com, Facebook or PPC website leads.

The math to getting leads, no matter how you get them, doesn’t have to be complicated. It’s simple. You need 25 leads per month for yourself and 25 leads per month for any of your agents. The industry seems to agree that 25 leads per month is the right amount for an Agent to properly manage. It’s not too much or too little. And getting those leads should never stop. Hoping and praying isn’t going to work but connecting with your Top 50 will. Buying PPC leads will work. Buying Homesnap leads will work. Implementing an MVP program, which I’ll discuss in a later chapter, will also work. Just pick

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something and do it consistently. If you focus all your energy on generating listings, and let’s say you’ve gotten four listings, you’ve done a good job marketing (see Chapter 20 on marketing); it would be conservative to say you could generate 28 leads. Let’s keep this simple and say if you have four listings generating 28 buyer leads, then you have enough leads to hire a Buyer Agent, but 93% of agents don’t. They fumble this part because they are overwhelmed wearing the other 10 hats involved in running their business. A 2018 NAR study shares that 74% of agents work individually, and 26% are on a team. The median number of team members is four agents per team. So, of the 26% that are on teams, one in four is a Team Leader. That means roughly 7% of real estate agents want to turn being a Real Estate Agent into a small business. That also means the 74% (who are not on a team) have chosen to perpetually stay in what I believe is a startup mode. They work their four listings and try and work their 28 buyer leads. They will spend their whole careers wearing all the hats of a real estate business and never takes things to the next level… But why? Opportunities Remember that listings marketed correctly generate leads, and both create revenue-generating sales. As your sales numbers rise, you create a unique and life-changing opportunity for yourself. But the sad fact is that most real estate agents don’t take advantage of this position because they are scared or don’t know what to do next. When you’ve just settled a bunch of deals, have good revenue, finances are in order, and you hold over four months’ worth of reserves, that creates the opportunity to

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grow your business to the next level. I know if you’re a solo Agent, that opportunity has probably reared its head a time or two. If you haven’t taken advantage of it yet, that’s okay. You have this book, so the next time that opportunity pops up, you’ll be ready. PainFuel If you wear the right two hats: 1) Listings and 2) Leads, you, as a Real Estate Agent, will have a shot at becoming a small business. You’ll have a business that needs to hire both a Buyer Agent to help with leads and an assistant to wear the admin hats as well as implement the operational models and accountability tools shared in this section. Also, according to NAR, 74% of agents don’t embrace this start-or-join-a-team opportunity. Instead, they make a decent living with a handful of listings and scramble to convert buyer leads and service their Sphere of Influence. Even though many of these agents bump their heads on the low-income ceiling that the 74% embrace, the pain they’re experiencing isn’t enough to push them through the perceived pain of everything the Team Development section of this book is teaching you about. My buddy Jeremy Lichtenstein is an individual RE/MAX Agent in Bethesda, Maryland, doing 50 deals a year at a $1.4 million-plus average sales price. With my $300K average, it would take four or five deals for every one of his to make “Jeremy money.” He makes great money and has very little pain that would push him into building a team. He’s not my audience, although I think we could build a killer team around his business. My audience is part of the 74% who have averages closer to my $300K average but who want to make Jeremy kind of money. If you are not making the money you need to take care of your family needs, have

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growing credit card debt, don’t like where you live, can’t afford to lease a new car every three years, can’t go on the kinds of vacations you want, don’t have money saved up for your kids’ college, have to closely budget your lunch money, and aren’t living the life you want because your income isn’t enough that is pain. Use that Pain to Fuel your motivation into building a better life. It’s PainFuel. Less than 7% of agents use their pain to push themselves to build a team. The other percentage lets perceived pain hold them back. It’s an invisible cage that you and everyone who hasn’t taken the leap could simply walk through… Sure, hiring the right people for the right position at the right time, and implementing systems and processes is work. But it’s not painful. Since you have reached the end of this chapter, you now have at your disposal a Strategic Plan, a Top 50, good targeting, better lead conversion, ABC categorized leads, and 61 DSH points daily. With those tools, you can take advantage of the opportunity sitting on your doorstep, PainFuel your business with listings and leads and join the other 7% of agents unlocking this new and exciting chapter of their business.

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CHAPTER 16 Score to Win “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit.” - Aristotle

If you’re getting ready to sell your house and you’re smart, you do a home inspection and all the necessary repairs before it hits the market. This takes all the guesswork and anxiety out of what needs to be done. You can also share with the buyer what you’ve done. It’s just a smart way to handle a transaction. Now imagine your real estate business is a house that you’re getting ready to sell, and you need to inspect it. How would you score its condition? What would you inspect? When starting out with a coach, you quickly learn that it’s important for someone to look at your business and its problems from a different perspective. They see what you can’t see. This is especially true for “self-coached” people who aren’t used to following someone else’s lead. Enter the AMP Scorecard. AMP Scorecard WSS developed the “AMP Scorecard” to measure your business against six core areas so that you can get a clear picture of where your business stands while working toward Operational Excellence. Make sure you download your scorecard at www.profitpitstops.com.

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WSS breaks your business into six key indicators on the scorecard that you will inspect and score:

This isn’t just a glorified spreadsheet. It’s critically important to those who are starting out as a business leader or who need to make the right moves to save their business.

“The AMP Scorecard is a big ol’ flashlight to your business. It exposes a lot of opportunity for you to do better and how much money you’re leaving behind.” Sara Guldi WSS Master Coach Just the facts, ma’am. This was my first thought when Sara Guldi gave me this scorecard for my business. Even as the top gun, you know you’re missing a lot of pieces, but it was sobering to see all my gaps in one place. Walking through my business from A-to-Z made me feel smaller, but I was also relieved after taking a look at the scoring, and now I am working to make improvements. 128

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I’m not the only one who felt this way about the scorecard; even Lee had this to say when he was introduced to it: “You’re in denial at first. Even after you start coaching, you think you’re doing things great. Then you realize, oh…maybe it’s not so great. You have to look inward. The AMP Scorecard is like taking your car to the service shop and realizing, wow, I haven't serviced this in quite a while. I'm lacking in all these areas. “Or it’s like poking holes in a boat. Where can you improve? If you establish those baselines, you can figure out how to get better, improve your processes, and so on. When you’re thinking about what you can do better, it's time to go back to the Scorecard.” The Scorecard Tab The AMP Scorecard is organized into tabs and gives you a rundown of how your business is doing. You’ll see examples of each focus area within the AMP Scorecard throughout this chapter. The Scorecard tab represents the sum total of each of the six areas. There are three potential scoring dates, as you can see: the First Evaluation Date, the Second Evaluation Date, and the Third Evaluation Date. Note that the First Evaluation Date marks the initial download of the scorecard.

“Clients are like teeth. If you don’t have a system for taking care of them, they will leave.” Julie Timms WSS Master Coach, Broker/Owner Hilton Head Island Real Estate Broker Hilton Head, SC CRM Tab

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Each subsequent tab has questions and categories to be answered honestly based on how your operations are running at the time of assessment. Scoring is based on a scale of zero (we never use it) to 10 (we use it all the time). For instance, if you do something all the time, you’d rank at a 10; if you do it sometimes, you’re a five, and if you never do it, you’d score a zero. CRM Tab

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The CRM Tab consists of 24 areas to measure your capability in using your CRM, with a total score of 240 points. Give scores based on how you think you are using your CRM at the time of your assessment instead of how you want or should use it.

“We lose the opportunity because we try to manage all of the leads and remember everything instead of writing things down. You could have a 25-transactiona-year business if you captured leads in something other than your brain.” Jim Knowlton WSS Director of Coaching & Master Coach Sara Guldi explains how your CRM takes care of the organizing of the contacts and allows you to label them properly as ABC, Top 50, or SOI. “A CRM eliminates the opportunity for systems failure and follow up. When you have your CRM set up to do automation…it eliminates human failure. We're human. We're going to forget to follow up.” Lee doesn’t call his CRM a database; he calls it a data bank because it makes him so much money. He used a CRM to do 36 transactions in his first year by calling all his past clients he had previously sold cars to. Marketing The next tab is Marketing. There are 20 categories available here, each with a potential score of 1–10. Again, go through each line and score your business operations in marketing as they are working right now.

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Lead Management The third tab is Lead Management, with a potential total score of 40. It measures how you are currently tracking and managing your leads.

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Transaction Management Tab number four is Transaction Management. How are you currently doing with managing any and all transactions in your business? Each of the six questions should be answered honestly; add notes if necessary.

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Business Management and Accounting The next tab is Business Management and Accounting. You are able to reach a potential score of 110 through the 11 questions that are directed at the overall management of your actual business and how your day-to-day operations are working. Again, there are no right or wrong answers, just areas in which you can improve.

Virtual Real Estate Mastery The last tab is Virtual Real Estate Mastery. You are able to reach a potential score of 200 through the 20 questions that are directed at your ability to operate virtually. After going through each section, any area that was rated less than five should go

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into the Recommendations tab. Later I will explain how to turn all the areas where you are lacking into a project, so you can manage and track your improvement in that specific area.

Using the AMP Scorecard for Recruiting When I asked Cleve his thoughts on using the Scorecard as a tool, He suggested using it while recruiting to gauge a potential team member’s gaps in their business that you can fill when they join your team.

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“A driver’s job is not limited to racing and qualifying laps… The racing driver must take on the boring and demanding task of development testing throughout the season.” Aryton Senna Formula One Driver’s Championship (1988, 1990, 1991)

Score to Win Summary If your business scores high, you will have a better platform to build a team. If your total score is low, you now know the work you need to do to prepare for building a team. FYI, you can score a total of 850 points. Knowing this, let’s get your business scoring in the 600s or better before you start to build a team. This book will guide you through this process and help you prepare for the growth that will happen when you get your house in order.

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CHAPTER 17 Your Ultimate Aim, Goals & Objectives “Take the time to write out life goals and understand the passion and drive behind them. It will keep you going through all of life’s challenges, distractions, and setbacks. Trust me there will be some.” – Paul Wheeler

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If you want your real estate business to serve you and not the other way around (like most agents), you need to answer the questions on the prior page with 100% clarity. The WSS Business Planning Workbook will help you with a lot of these answers. Your Business Plan will be a clear statement that lists what your business ultimately has to do to achieve success. It's broken down into sections you can use to measure your progress toward your ultimate goals. In getting feedback for this book, I learned the value of setting a target goal, a dream goal—if everything goes amazingly well—and a fallback goal for when life happens. Business planning helps us to establish all three. Remember that the Business Plan you write for your business will ultimately become the business you strive to create. Surprisingly, many entrepreneurs skip the step of creating a Business Plan when they start. As a result, they can never climb their way out of the day-to-day operations of their business—until that plan is in place. We can all relate to that feeling of setting major, ambitious dreams only to fall short despite working hard to achieve them. After enough failed attempts, it’s easy to think you’re the problem. But it might not be you; it’s most likely your lack of planning.

“In the next decade, it will become harder and harder to compete without the proper leverage derived from hiring the right people, implementing the right processes, and buying the right tools.” Jason Fenwick WSS Senior Coach

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Hiring a coach made me think a lot about my lack of business planning. I had gotten far in life, making what I thought were smart decisions and building a business without having a guiding plan. I figured I was doing everything possible to be successful (I wasn’t) and that I would magically work my business into success even though I knew it was full of problems. Benjamin P. Hardy said, “Success is 20 steps in one direction instead of one step in 20 directions.” He was on to something. Most people take one step in 20 directions. If there are multiple factors preventing you from moving forward, such as distractions, people who don’t inspire you, and so forth, get rid of them. Elimination is the most efficient path to progress and forward momentum. But what we all desperately need to add is a Business Plan. Business Plan Workbook The Business Plan Workbook is another downloadable tool that you can access at www.profitpitstops.com. This workbook starts with your Strategic Plan and then moves right into your Business Plan. Don’t forget; the Strategic Plan is like a 10,000-ft. Google Map view of your business and where it’s going, and your Business Plan is more of a detailed breakdown—call it a 5,000-foot descent.

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Business Planning The Business Plan Workbook covers a lot of ground, and this exercise should be taken seriously. Paul Wheeler told me that real estate agents should be very specific and detailed when designing their Business Plan. For instance, think about what you want your days and life to be like 20-plus years in the future in every category of your existence. Consider the areas of Finance, Family, Friends, Fun, and Faith, then back into them to figure out where you want to be in 10 years. Walk backward from 10 years to five years and then one year, one month, one week, and finally, one day. Ask yourself: what do I need to do today to move toward my life’s vision?

“The Business Plan Workbook eliminates the fake work and keeps you highly focused and productive.” Verl Workman CEO, Workman Success Systems

Strategic Plan A great Business Plan starts with a great Strategic Plan. We covered strategic planning in detail in Chapter 7, so feel free to flip back and forth to the tools you need and this chapter as new strategies are introduced, and you need a refresher. I keep my Strategic Plan in my portfolio and look at it every week to let me know if I’m on track or not. Personal Objectives When you dig deep into your “why” in the Personal Objectives section, you will make some real traction and improvements in your life. Here’s a hint: you can’t be 140

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all work and no play! Map out why you’re doing what you are for yourself, your family, your faith, those with whom you surround yourself, and your spirituality. Remember the ive F’s: Family, Faith, Fun, Friends, Fitness.

“We manage with numbers—how many transactions and the total dollar volume we need for the year, the month, the week. Everything we do is driven off those numbers, and when we put it in writing and talk about it daily, we inevitably achieve it.” Sarah Bernard WSS Senior Coach / Team Leader of the Sarah Bernard Realty Team Red Key Realty Leaders Chesterfield, MO

Core Values The way you represent yourself to the world has a huge impact on the way you make professional connections. You must have a clear idea of your own identity, values, and mission so you can present your best self to everyone you meet.

“Core Values are the qualities, values, and character traits that are most important to you. They are the specific traits that you value most in your business and life.” Take the time to brainstorm a list of 5-10-character traits that are important to you. Each of these should align with your “big why.” My business went 13 years without defined Core Values. Now, I talk about them a couple of times a week during daily huddles. Every Agent and employee we hire

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has to be in complete alignment with our Core Values. I could talk to a perspective Agent for an hour alone about them and how they might live the same value, one by one.

“Values are like fingerprints. Nobody’s are the same, but you leave them all over everything you do.” Elvis Presley Legend When WSS Coach, Broker/Owner, and Team Leader Tammie Slay went through her Core Values to define them, the process of doing so made such an impact that she realized her current company name didn’t represent what she stood for anymore. Not only did she identify and choose her Core Values at that moment, but she changed her company name to better reflect who she was and what she wanted to attract. Check her out at hiprealtygroup.com. My Team’s Core Values



• • • • • • • •

INTEGRITY: with everything we do TRUST: Build trust with our actions COMMUNICATION: Direct, open and honest communication CONTRIBUTION: Give back to the community RELATIONSHIPS: Focus on long-term relationships CHECKLIST MENTALITY: Be accurate with all we do PERFORMANCE MINDSET: Give a 110% effort EDUCATION: Embrace continuing education 142

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• • •

MEANINGFUL BRAND: Be the best version of yourself HUMBLE: Stay humble, work hard, be kind DIVERSITY & INCLUSION integrate in everything we do Mission Statement

“To know yourself is to know your values. Most people will never be happy or satisfied because they have no idea what they really want or stand for.” Ascanio Pignatelli WSS Coach Speaker In addition to your Core Values, it’s important for you to establish a mission for your business and then state it clearly. A mission statement is a formal summary of the aims and values of a company. When writing your mission statement, use vibrant, exciting words. Get really clear about your passion and values for operating your real estate business. This is my mission statement:

“To provide the best real estate services possible, while reflecting the highest standards of performance and customer service.” Use these questions to guide your mission statement: 1. Why are you in business? 143

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2. What makes you unique? 3. What do you want to be known for? 4. What do you intend to do (or what do you already do) better than everyone else? 5. What do you want to accomplish in your business? SWOT Analysis SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, and a SWOT Analysis is a technique for assessing these four aspects of your business. Completing a SWOT Analysis allows you to get the full picture of your business’ current state before making decisions or incorporating a new strategy. You’ll find out what's working well and not so well, as well as where your strengths and opportunities lie. This assessment will make it clear as to which weaknesses you need to improve upon and which ones you might outsource.

“Pay special attention to the ‘O’ and the ‘T’ to help formulate a plan that messages to the current market.” Cleve Gaddis WSS Master Coach

I subscribe to Reed Martin’s philosophy that completing a SWOT for your business makes you focus on both the internal AND external factors that you can control. You will know the areas you need to work on or capitalize on. You might also discover what you need to outsource to someone who is better than you at a

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particular part of the business—or, even in an area where you don’t want to do the work. Income Goal Sheet Fill out and complete the Income Goal Spreadsheet so you can plan the necessary dollar-producing activities around the numbers you are planning for. Once you know the income you are targeting, you can plan your day so that you will achieve your weekly goals. Then your weekly goals will meet your monthly goals; your monthly will hit your quarterly, your quarterly will hit your annual, and so on… You want to build all your activities around achieving those goals.

“We regularly revisit the Income Goal Sheet, play with the numbers, and break down our income goal to the number of appointments we need to make weekly. We also create one for the whole team, so buyer and listing agents know they can work together to achieve the team vision for the year.” Sarah Bernard WSS Senior Coach

Four Pillars of Income What are your four pillars of income? If you don’t know how to answer that question, that’s okay. That’s why you’re here. Simply put, your business should have four strong and defined pillars of income. Most of us have our Top 50/SOI as the number one pillar. Pay-per-click leads as the number two pillar and open houses, finding properties for builders, social media 145

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advertising, and all sorts of other income streams for pillars three and four.

It’s time to pick your four and when you do, follow WSS Senior Coach and KW Team Leader Mark Boyland’s lead: "Pick a niche in your market that interests you and make that your main focus for growth until you dominate that arena, then go pick another niche, repeat." Business Marketing Plan The Business Marketing Plan Worksheet makes it easy to select your marketing activities. We will take a deeper dive into it when we cover marketing in Chapter 20. Goal Achievement System The Goal Achievement System is broken down into business and personal goals. 146

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Business: You should have five business goals, each with its own Sprint Action Plan Worksheet. Personal: You should have goals for Family, Faith, Fun, Friends, and Fitness, each with their own Sprint Action Plan Worksheet. Cash Flow Budget Worksheet The Cash Flow Budget Worksheet is an easy-to-use budget tracker for all your monthly, quarterly, and yearly expenses.

“It’s all about whether or not we can make a profit. You can’t spend your way to prosperity.” Cleve Gaddis WSS Master Coach

Until You Start Writing It Down… It’s Just a Dream Who would’ve thought that writing down what you intend to do has such a potent impact? But as I have learned from conducting interviews for this book, you can use your strategic Business Plan as a checklist to hit your goals. Another way to be creative with “writing down” your goals is to build out a vision board. Doing so allows you to create your vision as you see it so you can focus on what you can actually do to create that vision and turn it into a reality. Writing down your goals enables you to establish specific actions that are needed to accomplish the goal and remove obstacles. Cleve Gaddis offers a great piece of advice: "Make your Business Plan simple so you can see what changes you need to make in your production and how you can change your financial structure." 147

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Using Your Business Plan to Align Your Team and Developing Metrics Tammie Slay uses one vision board in her office, along with her team’s vision boards. Each vision board is in a different office so everyone can see each other’s goals for the year. These goals come straight from the Business Plans. Each week, her team reviews their yearly goals and breaks them down to monthly and then weekly goals so that all of their weekly goals are set for each meeting. This allows the entire team to align their monthly and yearly goals. They constantly come back to this focus, and if a team member starts to veer off, they write up a new goal to pull them back in. Keeping Your Business Plan in Check The Business Plan layout you’ve learned about in this chapter simplifies the process of writing a plan and breaks down each section by laying out what you want to accomplish each year. You could put being a functional team at year one, have all the divisions built out at year three, and have a listing team and administrative team at year five. Then you could progress to a level where you are only spending 20-40 hours per month involved in the daily operation. The goals in your Business Plan are crucial to reaching your definition of success. This is why it’s best to check it every month. If you’re struggling, then do it weekly.

“Toss around the idea to open a second location for years, finally write it down as a two-year goal, and the next thing you know, you’re getting it done in six months to a year because you have focused on it.” Jim Knowlton WSS Director of Coaching & Master Coach

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If you are like me, you’ll go from not having a plan—besides selling as many homes as possible and not thinking it was important—to fully embracing the business planning process and enjoying the laundry list of benefits it provides your life and business. Make annual business planning a habit. Think big, plan it, write it down, stay the course, and get there twice as fast. To learn more about the business planning process, head to profitpitstops.com.

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CHAPTER 18 Perpetual Improvement “The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.” – John F. Kennedy

At the time of the writing of this book, the COVID-19 pandemic has broken out. My team has been working remotely and depending on video conferencing, phone calls, and virtual house tours to keep things running. Zoom is king. In that spirit, I’d like you to meet Agile. Agile Even as the world’s norms dissolve, I’m thankful my team adopted the Agile methodology before the coronavirus reared its ugly head. Using Agile has allowed us to continuously improve without feeling overwhelmed. It’s simple to incorporate as an organizational tool into any team dynamic without having to get too techy. Agile is reminiscent of The Kaizen principle, a Japanese management philosophy that translates as “change (Kai) for the better (Zen).” This principle helps improve the productivity of a team by continuously taking small steps that lead to improvements.

A Quick Background on Agile For those who aren’t familiar yet, I’ll break Agile down a bit. 151

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Agile transformations have been popping up everywhere since 2001 when the “Agile Manifesto” came out, helping businesses in the IT and Software Development industry transition to fast, customer-focused solutions. Technology companies were encouraged to adopt and value change when it came to giving consumers what they wanted—and this continues to be the case. The Agile process is tracking gradual improvements in their business, which is similar to what is going on with the big tech companies that sales agents love. The Agile methodology builds projects out in sprints, which could be two or three weeks long—allowing teams to focus on completing projects. Successful real estate team leaders are starting to embrace the simplicity of using Agile, and those that do, see significant benefits that are especially impactful at times of uncertainty. Like right now…while I’m stuck in my house.

Being Effectively Agile in Real Estate

“Take all of those Post-it notes, those random ideas in your head, those little slips of paper, and put them all on one page. That's your Agile project list. It will be a huge relief to get everything in one place. Once you start creating your Agile list, you will finally feel a release of pressure, [and be] more organized, and more focused. You can do it in an hour.” Sarah Bernard WSS Senior Coach When I am using Agile, I first make sure that my workflow is perfectly organized.

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This is a full 180 as compared to when I used to track everything with sticky notes and those free mini swag notebooks we all get at conferences. You know…the same ones you are probably using right now. Establish Normalcy for When Sh*t Hits the Fan Agile provides a regular cadence for your operations staff. Your business development will also start to depend on it. When your operations team feels uncertain or if a Team Leader can’t be available at a certain time, having a steady and practiced methodology allows your team to continue working without a blip. Use Agile, so everyone knows the status of projects. The more you use it, the more Agile will become a positive ritual and provide a scoreboard of the status of your business development. Christy Buck’s team runs Agile. She loves that she can see what her team is working on from a high level at any point. Having their projects laid out and organized keeps them from repeating and recreating what they’ve already done. She recommends getting administrative team members to manage the Agile methodology, noting that everyone’s brains think differently, so admins and agents should sit down each week to go over their priorities and strategize where to meet in the middle. Having that shared vision and support for each other allows your team to make the calls necessary to complete projects on time and meet customer needs. Sprints We all know that as we work to meet our targets, quick adjustments may need to be made, or priorities may shift.

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Agile encourages you to break down each component/goal into small units so you can work through them one piece at a time. These small components are also known as sprints. Each sprint consists of the work needed to do in a shorter and more manageable amount of time so that after each sprint, you can take into account what went right and wrong, as well as you can determine what direction to take for the next sprint. Or you can take it from WSS Coach and Team Leader Christi Greene of Keller Williams DFW Preferred: “Sprints in Agile allow you to shape the strategy of an event like a Thanksgiving pie giveaway, and then have a documented plan for executing the project every Thanksgiving. Building Sprints in your Agile is an organized way to continually build on and improve your annual reoccurring events.” Within each sprint, allow yourself time to constantly inspect your work and the quality of what you’re putting out so that you can adapt. Make yourself accountable by partnering with a team member to review your work and give their perspective if changes are needed. Internal reviews and feedback will also ensure that your customers and clients have the most optimal team and strategy. Prioritize Your Work When it comes to your personal work, make sure you segment your time in a way that prioritizes key tasks. For issues, projects, or ideas that aren’t pressing, create a backlog in Agile, so they don’t go away while also not allowing them to take up your time. Segmenting or “time-boxing” sets limits for tasks and ensures nothing takes longer than it should. Lee uses Agile while working with real estate agents on their backlog, and after they come back from events. On a call recently, he discussed how to help his 154

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clients (real estate agents) get to 1,000 listing appointments in a year. That plan was on the backlog, and his client’s team wanted to start building it out and work it into their current sprint — so that’s where the focus went. A good rule of thumb to follow is: have an Agile account for yourself, your team, and your personal investments. Every week go over your team’s Agile. You may come back from a sales conference loaded with ideas, so choose the top three that you want to add to your Agile. Decide what’s low on the totem pole or high on it. Some of them may have to go on the backlog. Organizing Those Aha Moments Incorporating Agile is important because it allows you to retain all your ideas into a backlog — which is where those bright, shiny objects should go. Put them here, and then you can focus your energy on the initiatives that have the highest priority and need to be executed first. You don’t want to lose those ideas. They can still happen; they just need to happen when it’s appropriate. So use that backlog to record what you need to remember to ensure you can get to what you want to do later. Shifting the Entrepreneur Mindset For entrepreneurs, the biggest and best value is found in the project backlog, not in the projects you complete. By putting what you want to eventually do on the backlog, you can turn your mind off and stop thinking about it so that you can focus on the real priorities. Enter the Agile application. Most entrepreneurs’ minds run non-stop. They can’t write down all their ideas fast enough, much less do anything about them. In this way, the entrepreneurial mind is quite disruptive to the organization.

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Agile alleviates a lot of that disruption for the majority of people who Cleve works with. For the most part, his real estate agents are hardcore entrepreneurs, and he has found that they are causing whatever problems they have. The good news is that they’re causing whatever their business is doing right, as well. Agile helps to calm the entrepreneur’s mind by utilizing the backlog to its full potential. Retrospectives Another crucial aspect of managing your process is allowing yourself time to reflect and review your progress. At the end of each sprint, project, or closing, hold a retrospective to ensure that things went as planned; record what changes happened and how to pivot if need be when you embark on the same or similar goal down the road. It’s so valuable to take the time to understand how things went. In fact, it is a predictor of your future.

“We tend to overestimate what we can do in the short term and underestimate what we can do in the long term. We put glass ceilings on ourselves. We need to dream big and live big.” David Wiesemann WSS Senior Coach Broker/Owner Team Leader RE/MAX Heritage Blue Springs, MO

Agile will get you living big. Using Agile makes prioritizing your workflow easier while helping everyone on your team feel more in control. Agile encourages uncomplicated responses to complexity and empowers us to work effectively when we’re working differently. Pandemic or not. 156

CHAPTER 19 Track Everything & Stay Profitable “I know how to make the money. Now I'm gonna have to figure out how to keep the money.” - Terri Murphy

I asked Paul Sessum, who is a Master Coach with 20 coaching clients, what percentage of his coaching clients tracked numbers before they started coaching. Answer: zero. Paul has clients that have been doing real estate for over two decades, and after a couple of years of coaching, they will tell him that tracking their business has made the biggest impact of anything they’ve done in their business. Depending on what report to believe, we hear that 60% to 87% of all new agents fail after five years in the industry. Agents don’t leave the industry because they are rolling in the dough. Nope, they leave because they didn’t make enough or don’t know what they did with the money they made.

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“One of the best things I’ve learned in maintaining profitability is to know your numbers. What is your goal, what is normal for your industry, and how are you doing on a daily basis?” Paul Wheeler WSS Senior Coach I like to have conversations with agents about their numbers as Lee did with me during our lunch. I’ve found that one in 10 has a great system, but the majority merely hustle, put commissions in the bank, try and pay quarterly taxes, and hope that there is enough left over to live on and run their businesses on.

“As you systematize your business, you’ll appreciate that tracking everything is at the core of success.” To get your team closer to “Operational Excellence,” you need to track leads, presentations, conversions, under contracts, transactions, commissions, and a few other breakouts of data.

“You never want to mistake volume for profit.” Rick Geha WSS Master Coach I can’t underscore enough that you must know your numbers. Numbers tell you the real truth about your productivity as well as forecast what you are likely to earn. Knowing your numbers means that your decisions are educated as you move forward. From your numbers you can determine when to add new technology, when to outsource services to vendors, when to hire and when to take action. You can operate from a place of truth in your business.

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As shocking as it may sound, most small business owners do not review their numbers regularly—monthly, quarterly, or annually. They don’t understand how to read a variety of statements and don’t think their finances are even accurate. If this is how they feel, naturally, they will not have the confidence that they are making smart financial decisions—and that will affect their business negatively. If you don’t know where to start to get financially confident, here are some questions to consider to get you to a better place:



• • • • • • • •

Are you making money? If you invest money into lead generation, how much profit will you have in 30 to 90 days? Do you know your conversion rates? Do you know your expenses? How much do you owe in quarterly income tax payments? Are your sales growing or shrinking? How fast? What lead source do you get the most ROI from? When can you afford to hire more admin staff?

“Stop looking at how many sales others are doing and focus on beating your own numbers year after year. Olympic runners don't run looking over their shoulders at the competition, and neither should you.” Mark Boyland WSS Senior Coach Knowing your numbers and having the right business processes enables you to 159

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tap into these answers when you need them. Every business needs to make key decisions daily. You need to know where to get the information to make the best, smartest, and most informed decisions.

“If I’m tracking my numbers (both in activities and results), it is done so in vain if I don’t stop to inspect, scrutinize, and explore what it is I’m seeing. In that analysis, I discover the answers to two crucial questions: ‘How?’ and ‘Why?’ “‘How’ shines a light on activities, systems, and processes. “‘Why’ digs into motivation, skill level, and human behavior.” Kat Rockwell WSS Coach and Team Leader CB&A, Realtors Houston, TX Like many real estate agents who’ve resisted using a system, I tracked my business in the simplest of ways. I knew that the outlook was good if I had 40-plus deals under contract and that my peak months should be fifty. I tracked revenue by checking the bank accounts to see the commissions. Maybe twice a year, I would look at a P&L, but I wasn’t doing a good job tracking lead sources or the conversion rates of leads. I’d estimate how much I could spend and how much was coming in. As I rushed through my numbers, my last step was to make sure that my revenue was higher than my expenses. WSS Coach and Team Leader Bob Sokoler of RE/MAX Properties East says, “At 160

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Workman, we are taught to track everything. If something isn’t making us money, it gets cropped the following year. Finding the source of a lead can be challenging, especially if you use different systems to bring in the lead. The most important question you can ask when talking to a new client is ‘What drove you to call me?’ If they give you several answers, you dig a little deeper and say, ‘Is there one specific thing that inspired you to call me?’ Often, I’ll get the keyword [I’ve used in] video, radio, or TV, and then that needs to be written down and tracked every month, and later, every year. You’re wasting your time if you don’t do any tracking because there’s no way to determine where the lead came from.” The Workman Way®, AKA the right way, requires that you track the right things. (not everything). "that which gets measured gets done." We now track active listings, pending and closed transactions, lead sources, Daily Success Habits, conversions, etc. You name it; we track it. It’s been amazing to know exactly how much revenue is coming in and where it’s coming from. We have learned what our good months are and when to hit the brakes on spending when necessary. Lead Tracker You want to track leads because you want to know where to reinvest and make sure you’re investing in the areas that will give you the biggest return on your investment.

“The lifeblood of your business is leads. Tracking everything about them is critically important.” Our lead tracker sets the foundation for tracking all the leads the same way, every time. It makes you accountable and allows you to easily see your pipeline so you can predict future income. You can also source your leads, which gives you valuable information and data so you can track the return on your investment.

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Lead Data to Track

Transaction Tracker Tracking all active and closed transactions for the year will help you understand the direction of your business in real-time. Tracking transactions is a key component of your Key Business Numbers and will provide real data to see if goals and projections are on track for the year. Using a transaction tracker and inputting your numbers on a regular basis will allow you to derive where you are in (GCI) Gross Commission Income and Units throughout the year. The Transaction Tracker is used to monitor listings and closed properties in any given year and will also be used to compare data year over year. Sarah Bernard, on the importance of transaction tracker: "The Transaction Tracker is your business in one workbook. It's a quick glance at where you're at and where you're going. Take 15 minutes each Friday to update it for the week, and you will always have a document that you can pull up in an instant for an overview of your year-to-date business (and a look back). Keeping up with it is easy if built into a routine (and it’s best to have an administrative staff member manage it). It will consolidate everything in one place, so as your business and your team grow, you, as the Team Leader, will always know where things stand in the business. I keep 162

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mine saved as a favorite on my desktop, so it's easy to find." Key Business Numbers If you worked through your Income Goal Worksheet, you would have a plan for a certain amount of buyer and seller sales. If you’re using scripts, you’ll get better at converting and need fewer leads for the number of closings to hit your sales goals. Top performers track their key numbers to stay on top. Lee tracks everything at every stop in his sales funnel. He can pull up trackers on his phone, iPad, or laptop and show you data from any year as compared to his current stats. He is dialed in. He spends hundreds of thousands of dollars a month, so of course, he needs to know quickly what’s happening with his business. Tracking allows you to be so much more responsive to the shifts in your business.

“Tracking your numbers is the best way to see if there is a shortfall or if you need to beef up your contracts. You can be flexible and respond quickly. But if you let tracking data slip and don’t pay attention where you need to, you could look up in June and be like, wow, we're 40% shy of even being on track to hit our goal, what happened?” Sara Guldi WSS Master Coach

When you see the wheels start to fall off the wagon, you can ask yourself, what’s causing this? You can be the investigator and unearth that you need to do more prospecting and following up. Instead of guessing about what the problem might be, you KNOW what it is, and so you can act on it rapid-fire and resolve it.

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You want that info ASAP, so it doesn't derail your whole year. Your Key Business Numbers give you the clearest road map to measure your success. You need quantifiable data that can be measured year after year to give you a clear picture of where you are going. The numbers on the next page should be updated weekly to provide the most accurate number reporting for your business.

“If you don’t know your numbers and they don’t make sense, today could be the very beginning of running out of business, and you wouldn’t even know it. If the numbers don’t make sense, every day, you get close to going out of business.” Cleve Gaddis WSS Master Coach You should know where you stand in each of these areas at any moment in time. Before you do anything else, start tracking these numbers now. This is not optional but doing so is a 100% must if you develop a team.

“So many business people don’t know their numbers. Know yours, and you’ll be immediately set apart as a top achiever.” Sarah Bernard WSS Senior Coach Use a bucket system to divvy up your revenue. Your first bucket should be your profit or allocated to paying yourself.

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Paul Wheeler explains: “We tend to sell, sell, sell, and then subtract operating expenses, and if there is anything left over, we call it profit. But even then, so many of us just plow it back into the business. Your process should be, sales, minus profit, equals expenses.” Paul is passionate about profit and wealth building and goes on to say, “If you are going to be profitable, dividing up your income immediately upon receiving it is a key concept. You want to pay the profit bucket, [the] Owner’s salary, and tax buckets first. Then put the remaining income in the operating expense bucket. If your business can’t run on that amount, it is screaming at you that your expenses are too high.

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“In my first business year, I made $32,000 and spent $32,000. I didn’t know I’d done that until my accountant told me that was the case at the end of the year. Having a baseline goal for total pending dollars and contracts as well as a daily income number and tracking those figures will help you stay on top of where you are. “You won’t get surprised at the end of the year or quarter or even month. Isn’t that refreshing? “My favorite figure to track is the daily income number. Every day throughout the month, keep track of the income pending from sales contracts. If your goal is $3000 per day, you should have pended $30,000 in commission dollars by the 10th. If it’s the 30th, you should have pended $90,000. Knowing where you’re at daily is eye-opening and eliminates surprises. “Knowing what to do in most cases, is not the problem; it is the execution where we get bogged down. “We get so sucked into the daily minutia of working ‘in’ our businesses that we forget to work ‘on’ our businesses. “Quarterly goals are your highest priorities in developing and growing your business. They are essential to your continued prosperity. Understanding what to do daily and executing on those priorities will keep you in business over the long 166

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haul. If you are growing a real estate business/team, every day, your focus should be on business development, people development, and recruiting.” As Verl likes to quip: “Inspect what you expect.” I can’t say it any better than that.

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CHAPTER 20 Your Marketing Plan “People do not buy goods and services. They buy relations, stories and magic.” - Seth Godin

By this point in your career, you’ve learned a number of things that will direct your marketing forward. Your lead tracker will track your marketing source, so you will know what your ROI is for each type of marketing. This allows you to focus on high ROI marketing activities. Measurable results are crucial. When you implement these mandates, there is no more wasting money on elements of your business that you can’t measure. When you stick to proven, measurable methods, you will stretch your marketing dollars. When you don't track leads, you have no idea if your marketing is working. Have you ever seen a seventh restaurant in the same location? Each new owner’s ego and their $150,000 new interior gamble drive their dreams of success where all others failed—and they think they will be the ones to pull it off and finally succeed in the doomed location. For the same “ego” driven reason, every six months, you see a new Sales Agent’s glamour shot plastered on local billboards and shopping carts. The sales reps in both situations realize and target the endless line of big egos that have money and will spend it on something that doesn’t work, whether that’s a new restaurant or a billboard that doesn’t generate leads. P.T. Barnum famously said, “There’s a sucker born every minute,” so don’t let your ego blow your marketing budget. 169

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“You could spend $500K on a restaurant to make $1 a plate or spend less than $4K on real estate and make $100K in that first year.” Jim Knowlton WSS Director of Coaching & Master Coach

I know agents who excel so much at the bullet points above that they spend very little on marketing. When they do spend money, it’s spent on high-ROI marketing. As an individual Agent, you can direct your marketing to fill in the lead gaps as you focus on the proven basics. Then you can add some advanced marketing to cover whatever else is missing. You can also prepare to grow a team using marketing that you can turn up or down on the fly as needed.

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Every listing you have is permission to market, call capture, meet neighbors, hold open houses, and send postcards that set you apart. There are multiple touchpoints around every listing in your pursuit of 6-8 leads per listing per month. Good measurable marketing will help you obtain the number of leads you need based on your income target and conversion rates. Most top producers execute all the basics and pick through the advanced concepts to help brand their business and address the lead-gen gaps. Create Demand I’ve built a business with what Joe Marconi calls Cause Marketing, so naturally, I am a huge fan. Cause Marketing means building an image and contributing to the common good in the community. And when you do good, it will save you a lot of marketing dollars. Your social network can smell what WSS Master Coach and Broker/Owner/Team Leader Julie Timms of Hilton Head Island Real Estate Brokers calls “commission breath” a mile away. It puts people off. But these old-school chase tactics are still pushed and used by many. So many sales agents can’t help themselves from pursuing that precious commission that they hurt their chances of creating the demand their business needs. The idea stack in my book Create Demand and Stop Chasing Business created an alternate route to achieving high volume sales without going door-to-door or relying on cold-calling tactics. These concepts are just as important today as they were a couple of years ago. Massive effort in your branding, adopting a performance mindset, understanding science-based tactics to build relationships, growing your sphere by giving back, and simple social media rules that help and not hurt your business: this is where you will truly shine. These have been my business’ building blocks. That’s how 171

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much I value them. Now, add in a Serve Regardless of Opportunity mindset, a robust Top 50 program, and a good contact plan for your Sphere of Influence, and you take creating demand and saving marketing dollars to the next level. Here’s another piece of that benevolent puzzle. Top 50 Program Done well, your Top 50 Program can provide more leads than you can handle. When a Top 50 member is ready to buy or sell, it’s like starting on third base. You skip having to establish trust and trying to connect. This type of business comes from people that know you, trust you, and want to work with you. Hone this area, and you’ll have to do very little else. To get started:



• • • •

Download and read 86-50-1 to fully understand marketing to your Top 50. Talk to everyone in your Top 50 once a month. You’ll talk to three people a day. Send a monthly email to everyone in your Top 50. Send a quarterly mailer to your Top 50. Sphere of Influence (SOI)

Next to your Top 50 program, your next best type of lead-gen will come from your SOI. You’ll cultivate your Top 50 from this group, and if you communicate with this network regularly, they should provide a steady flow of leads. Here’s how to do it:

•

Create a 12 x/year, once a month email drip system.

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• • •

Make personal phone calls quarterly. Send birthdays and anniversary notecards. Send a letter or postcard once a month.

When your sphere keeps you as top-of-mind because you won’t let them forget you, you can look forward to client referrals and for people to remember your name.

“Don’t spend a dime on any general marketing until you’ve mastered staying in touch with your Sphere of Influence. It’s the most profitable return on investment. Why waste it?” Mark Boyland WSS Senior Coach

Lead-gen Website Pay-per-click leads are great because good website companies provide a service to manage your lead program, and you can turn it up or down as needed. As we covered a couple of times, you only need 25 leads per Agent. But having a robust website will be a key to growing and fueling a team with leads. After all, you are only as good as the tools you use, so don’t skip this part. I also want you to keep reading because, in Chapter 23, I am sharing our website company picks that both individual agents and large teams can use. These are the recommendations as it pertains to running your site:

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• • •

Use personalized autoresponders. Utilize stealth websites where your branding is minimal. Many good website platforms have built-in robust CRMs. Prospecting Recommendations



• • • • • •

Geographic Farming – Target with Facebook ads or postcards. For Sale by Owner – Call and set a mailing campaign. Expired Listings – Call and set a mailing campaign. Out-of-town Agents – Call and set a mailing campaign. First-time Homebuyers – Do a workshop 4 x a year. Referral Networks and Clubs – Join or start a non-profit. E-Marketing Recommendations



• • • • • • •

Consciously collect email addresses. Return emails in a timely fashion. Have multiple websites. Include eSignature with a call-to-action. Give away something of value. Capture emails for drip campaigns. Use your own domain email vs. Gmail.

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Sharpen the Sword and Stay Up to Date…



• • • • • •

Read four business books a year. Attend a minimum of four seminars a year. Attend national conventions such as NAR. Foster relationships with agents who are where you want to be (financially, in their lifestyle, and transaction-wise). Mentor with agents who are where you want to be (financially, in their lifestyle, and transaction-wise). Find a coach who has your values and the systems you are missing to get to your next level. Notecard Strategy

It is widely agreed that notecards have a huge ROI and impact. Some large coaching programs are even built around sending out notecards, but the median Real Estate Agent doesn’t do it. I liken using notecards to this analogy: When you stop going to the gym, it’s tough to start up again. So, you don’t want to stop. My slow-moving ritual starts with putting what I call my “go bag” with clean workout gear in my car, so I’m ready “to go” the moment my ego can’t handle squeezing into my tight pants. Well, you can’t and won’t send a notecard if you don’t have them ready “to go.” So, have a stack of notecards on your desk. Send one a day to your Top 50, SOI, or a past client. Add it up, and that’s 365 notecards a year. Sending these off might even provide you with more leads than anything else you do in trying to generate business from strangers.

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Social Strategy

“Social media is a key component of our branding; it isn’t just about sharing our success; it’s about sharing who we are as a team, our values, and all the things we love about our community.” Josh May WSS Senior Coach Team Leader of May Group Realtors RE/MAX of Grand Rapids Grand Rapids, MI You need a two-part strategy here. Routinely post good content and sticky leadgenerating posts of your listings. In my first book, I shared simple ideas that stand the test of time. They are on the next page. Video I asked Bob Sokoler, who is also a video marketing expert, to share a few pro-tips with me. Bob is a two-time Emmy-Award-winning journalist and has anchored and reported on many highly regarded TV stations. Here’s his take: “An Agent is often afraid to pick up the simplest of cameras like an iPhone or Android phone to start creating videos. The best video camera is the one you use, and a smartphone in your pocket can work wonders to get you going.” The advantage of having your videos out there is the same as what comes from watching local or network TV and getting to know the personalities on the station you watch. You feel like you know them and they’re your friends. That friendship

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breaks down barriers as an Agent looking to expand your clientele. Shooting your first videos can be as easy as taking the smartphone out of your pocket and recording. Try it at your new listing or at a new restaurant (with permission from the owner). You can even shoot videos of you and your kids and pets around your house. Here are some video tips for inspiration. 1. Be yourself. You can simply commit a basic outline to memory and then follow it. Don’t worry about what you’re wearing, your makeup, or your hair. Just be presentable as if you were going to a listing or buyer consultation. I’ve found that clients relate more to you if you dress down and are in your home environment or at a restaurant. 2. Always make sure your light source is in front of you and not backlit— behind you. So, if you’re shooting in a room, make sure the windows are in front of you, illuminating your face. If you’re in the kitchen and there are no windows, turn the lights on. If you’re outside, look toward the sun. Yes, it could make you squint, but you need to force yourself to keep your eyes open as much as possible. 3. Always hold your phone or camera a little above your face, so you are looking up to it. That will smooth out wrinkles and make you look thinner. Additionally, learn where the camera lens is on your phone and look directly into it. All too often, we look at ourselves on the screen as we record a selfie video instead of looking into the camera. 4. When recording a video, audio is 65% of the total project. That means if the client can’t hear you because of background noise, your video looks (and sounds!) unprofessional. So, make sure that you are in a somewhat quiet location. There are additional external microphones available for smartphones that you can buy on Amazon to reduce exterior noise. 5. Before you post the video, play it back and check the sound. If it appears 178

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you’re not happy or smiling, do it over. Additionally, play it back for your friends or family to look at and critique. If they don’t see it as inviting or friendly, redo it. The last thing you want to do is come off like you’re angry when doing the videos. 6. There are many places where you can upload videos. The easiest one is Facebook, but you can also create a YouTube or Vimeo channel. Then take the link from the upload and put it in your signature when you send out an email. 7. Once you are ready to move up in the video world, you can purchase something as small as a GoPro Hero 8 version or newer. You can also use any DLSR that records video and its external microphone. Your methods are only as good as your ROI, which is tricky when it comes to video marketing. Sure, you could count clicks, have tracking pixels set up to follow the video viewer’s journey, and hope it’ll eventually lead to a sale. But I’ve found the best way to measure ROI on video marketing is to keep track of when clients reach out to talk about a video I posted on social media or a company site. Personally, we post 2-3 videos per week to my sphere and potential clients. Social media and online algorithms favor videos, guaranteeing that they’ll show up on more screens. An Open House That Works If you’re going to do an open house, you have to do more than put it in the MLS, stake out one yard sign and pray people see the balloons and stop in so you can show the seller it was a success. But don’t go off the deep end either with 15 signs and a $1,500 promo video. A good open house strategy requires a couple of hours of time. That’s enough to get you an amazing result.

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Lead Collection There are many iPad open house apps you can choose from. I recommend CINC. Virtual Open Houses Workman has a great virtual open house download available at www.profitpitstop. com. Look Outside Our Industry Sarah Bernard is passionate and an expert marketer. She recommends approaching your success holistically. "To be successful, try new things. Be bold, be different. Do things that no one else is doing. The best way, I've found, is to look at other industries, not at our own. Read business books, network with business leaders, find out what other people are doing to be successful. Learn about new marketing ideas outside of real estate so that you can bring something new to the table. Your clients will love that you are thinking outside the box and that you can speak to business as a whole. People will appreciate your ability to be creative, on the cutting edge, fresh. Not everything will work out, but you'll be constantly learning and will be seen as a leader."

“The only constant in our business is change. Your marketing plan must always be in the remodeling process to maximize your ROI.” David Wiesemann WSS Senior Coach We’ve all gambled our egos on new marketing ideas hoping to generate better leads, but the longer you are in in this game, the sooner you’ll realize a few things:

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1. Tracking your leads, sources, conversions, and ROI is critical so you can turn up what works best. 2. You should be able to dial up or dial down leads as needed. 3. Stop letting your ego gamble. If you spent $12,000 a year on marketing that didn’t generate leads, the sales rep that sold you said marketing service would say it was “good branding” or it “branded you.” P.T. Barnum had a name for what it branded you. It’s a “fool,” in case you didn’t know. Nurturing people that know, like, and trust you will generate a ton of business, fill in the gaps with a few proven marketing techniques and track the ROI so you can turn it up or down as needed.

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CHAPTER 21 MVP Fan Clubs & Events "There are no traffic jams along the extra mile.” - Roger Staubach

I tell any loan officer that will listen to stop going wide without going deep. They’ll throw reciprocity-creating and overly crowded, “free-drink” Real Estate Agent happy hours but won’t follow up and do the one-on-ones that allow you to go deep and build a real relationship. Or if they are a loan officer paying to have their office in a real estate brokerage, they might think that’s enough to magically get transactions from the sales agents. But the loan officer forgets they are paying the brokerage for the space, not the agents. Not to mention, the agents couldn’t care less. The loan officer still has to build the relationships with the agents, or they will see no benefit and move out like the loan officer before them. A loan officer can’t take a shotgun approach toward building relationships with real estate agents, and real estate agents can’t do this with clients either. It doesn’t work in the long or short-term. Shotgun Approach In Create Demand and Stop Chasing Business, I explained that I built my business by serving with many non-profits, meeting hundreds of good people annually and that I invited everyone to great parties we threw or sponsored throughout any given year. We would sponsor or host over a dozen events annually because we liked to provide a fun time for the neighborhoods where we worked. We would invite all

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our prospects, clients, and friends, thereby creating a community that anticipated the ritual of our over-the-top, top-shelf events. We became known for our great events, and they became rituals. These ritual triggers, combined with community triggers, are strong and magnetic. They pull people together in a powerful way. Our waterfront office has been a great venue to throw most of our fundraisers/ parties. And we would usually invite 1000+ people for a typical event. Despite the people invited, we would always expect a couple hundred and plan for food and drink accordingly. I thought it was a great way to build our business until I learned about the “Top 50.” Then I discovered there was a better plan. The Top 50 strategies we learned about earlier in the book are a little more surgical and intentional. Instead of everyone on the team inviting their whole database, each of us focuses only on our Top 50. So instead of throwing big events with 1000+ invites, our list shrank to include just our Top 50 clients and referral partners. With the same budget, we make the events even better. Instead of 300 hamburgers and hotdogs, we upgraded to a raw bar, lobsters, and more savory food. We added bartenders in place of selfserve booze and upgraded the live music aspect as well. Focusing our efforts on our Top 50 has been a game-changer. We’re more focused on our intentions and, as a result, spend our money better. The goal is to have a business model not dependent on cold calling but on strong relationships. Make this adjustment, and you will shift your focus from chasing leads to lasering in on the best of your Sphere of Influence—both past and present. I was never good at reaching out to past clients and asking for referrals and thought that our extreme events built good reciprocity with our SOI. 184

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But I had a lot to learn. I now know that MVP (Most Valuable Program, in this case) clubs take being intentional a step further, that they are a great way to build community through anticipated rituals, and that they create social proof—all of which are super mental triggers. MVP Rewards Clubs, AKA Top 50 on Steroids Mike Coke, a WSS Senior Coach, Broker/Owner, and Team Leader of the Mike Coke Real Estate Team, uses a Most Valuable Partner Program that he describes as a “Top 50 program on steroids.” His program is called “Mike and Anne’s MVP Club,” and it’s designed to share appreciation with those who have hired him or referred him business. The MVP Rewards Club is no different than the awards programs we all join through airlines, coffee shops, or just about any big business that we frequent. The simple premise of a real estate MVP club is that you invite clients and referral sources to be members who can earn benefits by referring business to you. Many have pitched similar MVP programs, so maybe you are familiar with this idea, too? The first time I heard about an MVP program, I was at a Star Powers event in Crystal City, Virginia, where one of the “stars” shared their version of a program. Back then, they were called “Raving Fan” Club events that were geared toward families that were moving. Bounce houses and shaved ice slushy machines were provided for the kids, parents’ cars were power washed, and they were lent your moving truck if they needed it. I’ve seen different coaches pitching their version over the years as well, but I’ve never really looked into it until Mike Coke explained his MVP program to me last year at a coach training event. It’s working for him big time. He enjoys that it brings him closer to the people who are already big fans, friends, and family. 185

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Mike explains that since he has been in real estate for 20 years, he has a pretty big sphere, and he didn't want to limit it to just a few friends and family members. So many people have done business with him or referred business to him over the years that he wanted to recognize and thank them on an ongoing basis. It's not a watered-down, “Hey, thank you for thinking of us.” No, he asks himself, how can we engage these people at a higher level? Think about the difference between what the garden-variety Real Estate Agent partakes in and how you can show up for your community a little differently. Are you doing business with people who already know you, love you, and trust you? Are you able to serve them because you have already established the trust factor? Is having fun one of your Core Values? Are you building your MVP club around fun people you want to have a good time with? Why It Works My wallet holds six rewards program cards: Safeway, Harris Teeter, 7-11, Royal Farm, CVS, and Giant. They work because they keep me coming back for more rewards—like free coffee and decent discounts. I’m in about two dozen other rewards programs, from hotels and travel websites to airlines. Heck, I put all my business expenses through my Southwest credit card to earn my wife the reward of a Buddy Pass so she can fly for free on Southwest all year. Take the marketing sales funnel we’ve all learned where you meet a prospect at the top, nurture their journey through to the bottom, and when the deal is done, you have a transaction. Wrong.

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Turn the original funnel sideways, and add another funnel to the right side so it looks like a bowtie. This is your "After Closing" funnel, and if done correctly, it could last 20 years and add $100K+ worth of commissions from the average client. The first commission with a new client is just a small part of their overall value. If the left side of the bowtie is the "Old Funnel," the MVP and rewards clubs are the right side of the funnel—where the real relationship-building and money are. Most large companies have rewards clubs. Once you’ve earned the points you need to get into the club, you do what you can to maintain your membership status and its rewards, right? That same approach overlaps onto the MVP Real Estate Agents’ clubs. Everyone who has a rewards club says it provides the best ROI of anything they do. Liz Johnson in Perk Your Sphere says you can expect a 15-1 ROI, Mike Coke agrees.

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That kind of ROI is unheard of, and it’s why after interviewing Mike, I decided I couldn’t put off this type of ROI any longer. I took Mike’s lead and created a program. These are the steps I took:

Six Steps to an MVP Program

1. Get Broker Approval Get your Broker on board from the start. Without a proper explanation, your Broker might have a stroke. Make sure you become familiar with Section 8 of RESPA (Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act [“…enacted by Congress to provide homebuyers and sellers with complete settlement cost disclosures. The Act was also introduced to eliminate abusive practices in the real estate settlement process, to prohibit kickbacks, and to limit the use of escrow accounts”]), and that you’re not offering gifts or rewards with the intention of influencing, closing, or funding any real estate transaction. All

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gifts and rewards in a program cannot be tied to a contract, transaction, or closing.

2. Brand Your Program

I’m an avid mountain biker and snowboarder and love the outdoors. I wanted my MVP program logo to look like an adventure sports brand. I call my program the RH&A Summit Club. This is my logo.

3. Decide Who Gets In The next step is figuring out who gets to be a member of your club. The general rule is that your rewards members should be people who know you, like you, trust you, and would go out of their way to tell others about your service. Everyone on my team has a Top 50 who meet that criteria, and so they automatically became a member. For a quick refresher, our Top 50 is drawn from past clients we want to work with again and includes our friends and family members who trust us and would tell their friends about us if given an opportunity. Our original list was somewhere around 600 people, but it will work with five members if you’re just starting out.

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4. Administration of the Program In the past, the thought of managing the program kept me from moving forward. Managing and tracking this program requires a little time. Thankfully, I have an admin staff that helps with this. Most of our members were in our database already, so we just had to create a new label to organize them.

5. Decide a Budget You’re going to spend some money on this program. We are following the lead of many. The $15,000 to $25,000 we spend annually is better targeted and more precise than when we spent $65,000 + a year.

6. Launch the Rewards Program You have to launch in an organized fashion with planned touches. Here is a good approach, so you don’t confuse people. My First Touches 1. (Day 1) Send an announcement letter on team letterhead via snail mail. 2. (Day 3) Send an email version of the same announcement. 3. (Day 4) Make a phone call. 4. (Day 5) Invite people to our new RH+A Summit Club private Facebook group. 5. (Day 10) Send an announcement (via email and in the private FB Group) about the first monthly giveaway and first quarterly event.

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6. Facebook page. Posts should let the rest of the world know about your group. There are many different types of MVP programs, and no two are the same. At their core, MVP programs are a more organized way of showing customer appreciation. Some agents have multiple reward levels, but ours does not. The simplified idea is to nurture and strengthen relationships with people who will passionately share your contact information when they know of anyone with a real estate need. Managing an MVP program will provide you with one of the highest ROIs of your marketing dollars. Need I say more?

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CHAPTER 22 Virtual Operational Excellence “Home is where I work, and I work everywhere.” -Alfred Nobel

Working from home took on a whole new meaning during COVID-19…and who knew using FaceTime or TikTok would be the most efficient apps that prepared us for our new virtual world? For two years prior to COVID-19, my team and I had been using Zoom for our daily huddles. We had all the wrinkles worked out, which made us an early adopter of virtual technology. Now we had to start using it for showings, buyer consults, listing appointments, open houses, and just about everything else in the workflow of our jobs. We didn’t miss a beat. We had expected sales to decrease and, instead, productivity rose. Commute times were replaced with more prep time, which made CMAs and presentations better. Of course, we all dealt with Zoom fatigue, feelings of isolation, family driving us bonkers, and the boundaries between work and personal time blurring. I can’t think of a sales force better prepared to get over the emotional ups and downs than real estate agents. Operating virtually definitely added to the chaos, but since we deal with emotional stuff every day, navigating this new reality was a piece of cake. If the stress got too much for me, I’d think of Leslie Nielsen from the famous scene in Airplane smacking me and yelling, “Calm, down! Get ahold of yourself!” Then I would laugh and get back to work.

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“Adapting to technology is more critical than ever. Too many are still relying on poor pictures and no videos of their listings or themselves.” Bob Sokoler WSS Coach Team Leader of the Sokoler Team RE/MAX Properties East Louisville, KY Workman Success Systems wrote a fantastic paper on running your business virtually and an extremely detailed paper that covers what you need to do from A to Z while holding a virtual open house. Both papers can be downloaded at www. profitpitstops.com.

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CHAPTER 23 Build a Team or Join a Team “If you take out the ‘team’ in ‘teamwork,’ it’s just 'work.' Now, who wants that?” - Matthew Woodring Stover

If your business is running like a well-oiled machine, you will feel pressure to take tasks off your plate. You can’t stick to the “10-hat-wearing supply chain” forever. Of course, you already know this. There are two ways to handle this situation: hire some help to start a team, or join a well-run team and get the leads, support, training, and coaching you need to be successful. Almost a bigger problem than team leaders not knowing how to run a team is team members not knowing what to look for in a team. Either way, it’s your decision to use this book to help you build a team or know what to look for while looking for a team to join. When you join a team as a Buyer Agent, you want to make sure your Leadership emphasizes three things: 1. Prospecting 2. Showing houses 3. Negotiating deals I will tell you that it is a lot easier to join a team. By now, you’re probably really 201

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good at what you do, and with the right support, coaching, and leads, you could hit the revenue goals you’ve set for yourself and your family. I know amazing agents who have built big careers on well-run teams. That said, you could join a team with a split that’s too high that won’t be able to afford to do much for you — because of this, they likely haven’t been coached to operate properly, so before long, you will be looking to make a move. Leadership, managing people, and the ups and downs of running a team isn’t for everyone, so if you’re looking to join a team for the long run or before starting your own, download the AMP Scorecard at www.profitpitstops.com so you can use it while you’re interviewing potential teams to join. The AMP Scorecard will guide your questions while you try and figure out if the team you’re interviewing operates at a high level. Starting Your Own Team Most of you probably bought this book to start a team, so let’s get rolling! The concepts in this book have been crowdsourced by 7-figure real estate agents who all started where you’re at. The big difference is that many of them failed forward to give us the fastest route to success without all the speed bumps and car crashes. This next section is all about taking the financially stable real estate selling business you built using the concepts we shared. With this info, you can create a platform, and as a true leader, can help agents and employees reach their business and life goals.

“For business and life, if you are not experiencing growth, you’re possibly dying.” Nkem Paul Best-selling Author

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Team Build 1st Stop: Growth Strategies Could Kevin Plank, the founder and former CEO of Under Armour, my favorite sportswear brand, lead a five-billion-dollar company the same way he did a $150,000 company—that operated from his grandmother’s basement—and incorporate the necessary growth steps in between? Some of the original Under Armour employees wondered if Kevin could lead them through the next big phases of their business, which were happening very fast. The answer is yes, and he did it masterfully. When your growth perpetually pushes you through different and unique business models, you 1) need to know this and 2) be prepared for it. Just like Kevin, you will start by wearing all the hats. However, understand how you prepare, hire, and delegate for the next phases of your growth will determine your success. Our hometown Under Armour in Baltimore had a 26-quarter streak of 20% sales growth, an amazing feat that ended in late 2016. Under Armour was cruising down the sales highway for quite some time, but somewhere along the line, the performance and athleticwear industry shifted. UA didn’t shift with it in time. How can you tell a new company, competing with industry giants, with a 26-quarter streak of 20% sales gains, that they are doing things the wrong way? It’s tough to make that case. My point is, just because you have had no problem climbing up the real estate sales board, it doesn’t mean you understand how to scale your growth, stay profitable, and focus on and address the problems hiding in your blind spots…even if sales are going insanely well. Everything we’ve covered so far is to keep you out of any late-in-the-game pitstops or give you an amazing understanding of where to start. 203

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Let’s assume all cylinders of your business are firing, and you’re ready to build your team. So, what’s next? This perspective examines the real-life need for “If This Then That.” Also known as IFTTT, this conditional term is a software programming platform that acts as the connector for applications and services to automate certain processes. You've probably heard of this or even set a process up yourself. For example, “if” you make a call on your smartphone, “then” a log of that call is added to a Google spreadsheet. “If” you add a new task to your Alexa to-dos, “then” it will be added to your Reminders app. “If” you developed yourself into a strong person who can run a real estate business and implemented all the systems and models to run your business, “then that” will put you in a position to build a profitable and scalable team. It also means that you’ve done most of the hard work. Before you bring your first employee or Agent on, you should have considered what you are trying to accomplish. What is the master plan? Do you want a small team or a big team? Once you know that, then it’s time to strategize your growing business. Make sure you do this before you jump into what I call the eight phases of a real estate team. This is where I share what to do at each phase, and you won’t be ready unless you have spent some time on strategy. First Things First In his bestseller, The E-Myth Revisited, Michael E. Gerber provides the optimal layout for business plans, strategic growth, and employee management for the entrepreneurial-spirited Real Estate Agent figuring how to structure a team. His focus on business procedures, processes, and systems needed to manage any business, including the real estate team you are planning, can help get you on the

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profitability and performance track. Real estate agents, like most entrepreneurs, fail to understand the importance of systems to make a business work. The beauty of Gerber’s book is that you take out the mystery of what systems and strategies you need and follow his lead to breaking it down into the areas to focus on. Organizational Strategy Most real estate teams organize themselves around personalities rather than functions. The result, Gerber suggests, is almost always chaos. What you need to do is determine the exact organizational structure that allows you to build on your strategic objectives or your big-picture goals.

“We don’t have people problems; we have process problems.” Verl Workman CEO, Workman Success Systems Here’s how it goes: 1. Create an organizational chart for how you envision your sales team. 2. Fill in your name for each position listed. Since you’re starting out, you’re more than likely handling all of them. 3. In chapter 26, I describe positions, which Gerber calls Position Contracts. You’ll create a summary of the results needed to be achieved by each position, the work done by the person, and a list of standards for the results to be evaluated against. The point is for you to understand the system within your sales team based on the

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standards that you value, rather than letting others fill in the blanks for you. When the tactical parts are accounted for, it frees up your time to work on business strategy. For example, you can’t place an ad for a Buyer’s Agent until you've created the Operations Manual for buyer agents. Creating position contracts allows you to define the standards that need to be met for each role. Management Strategy Once you create your organizational strategy, it’s time to develop your management strategy, which Gerber suggests, is the system you create for the business, instead of relying on people. The key is to automate what you can. Do that, and you will have the most effective system possible. At its core, your management strategy is a collection of checklists for everything that needs to be done inside the business. For example, your Customer Care Coordinator would have a checklist of what was expected, and your Buyer Agent would have one as well. To ensure the work in the checklist is being done properly, you should have a mechanism built into your system for following up on your team. For instance, you can use the Daily Success Habit tracker to make sure your agents are getting their 61 points. Make this a requirement and clarify that using the tracker is expected upon hiring them. If they don’t use it, then you have a check in place. You will be forced to let them go if they are a habitual offender. On my team, if you are in the bottom half of the sales charts and you go three days without updating your DSH points, we let you go. There is no mystery to success—it involves follow through and consistency. If you can’t take five minutes a day to track your success habits or lack thereof, then it’s time to go, "bye, Felicia!"

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Implement what I’m talking about, and the people you hire will have clearer expectations of what you need them to deliver and what they are responsible for. They will train-up more quickly and perform their duties with results more often seen in seasoned agents. Systems, Software, & Tech Strategy In 1990, before I got into real estate, my first career was in technology. I was 20, traveling the country to teach “trash-hauling” accounting software and setting up small Novell Networks. Even though we had a computer room growing up, I had logged very little time on a keyboard. I’m still amazed that knowing five DOS commands got me the job. Years later, in 1995, I was a partner in a thriving tech company, and we were approached to develop residential real estate software to automate contracts for one of the local real estate boards, which we did, and ProForms was born. It worked really well but initially didn’t have as much buy-in as the real estate board had proposed it would. My introduction to the real estate industry came through the creation of software, and boy has it evolved since then. The residential real estate industry has new software and technology to choose from every day. Sifting through it all can be time-consuming, and much of it doesn’t live up to its hype. All-in-one solutions never seem to truly be all-in-one, so how can 10 different CRM’s claim to be the best? Solutions are organized by where they fit in the sales funnel. Most of us focus on the lead-generating top of the sales funnel, but as you grow your team, the middle and bottom parts of the funnel will need attention. On the following pages is a substantial list of tools, applications, and systems that we have tested out and that we depend on most to keep us operating at a high level.

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Top of Funnel Pay-Per-Click Lead-gen, SEO, Lead Management, and Conversion Tools

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Real Geeks

This website company is great for individual agents and small teams. It includes a feature-packed and affordable IDX website with a built-in lead manager CRM. It also has a property valuation tool, Facebook marketing, SMS responder, automated drip email, and an in-house marketing team that is equipped to manage PPC to drive traffic.

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CINC

CINC is a solid app for a medium to large-sized team. We love and use CINC. They manage our low-cost lead-gen campaigns on Google, Bing, Facebook, Instagram, and their proprietary ListCast. It has a fantastic CRM where we can track ABC Leads and nurture our Top 50 and SOI. The behavioral messaging, video texting, Autotrack campaigns, and now AI has been game-changing for our business.

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BoomTown ROI

A fantastic website platform, it’s one of the industry leaders for large teams. They offer expert lead-generation, IDX websites, intelligent CRM, lead management services, and more. And they provide various levels to their services. You start at Launch and then move to Core, Grow, and Advance levels as your team grows.

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Firepoint/Realvolve

Firepoint, a fantastic lead-gen company, recently merged with Realvolve, a CRM with automated workflows, and has some amazing tech. This is definitely a website company to consider while growing a team. Farming /Just Sold/Just Listed

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QuantumDigital

It’s an easy to use, inexpensive turnkey postcard platform that we use and love. Video Marketing

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Animoto

We take our professional photography and make high-energy slide show videos that are perfect for Facebook or Instagram posts. It takes 10 minutes 209

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to create a high-impact video, is inexpensive, and perfect for driving traffic to a capture page on social media. Social Media Management

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Keeping Current Matters

We love the Keeping Current Matters materials. The KCM graphics, videos, and posts give us what we need to share our market expertise in a simplified yet attention-grabbing format with clients, prospects, and SOI through all our social platforms. Virtual Tours & Floorplans

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Matterport

Matterport is a 3D data platform used by thousands of agents around the world. The software and camera are easy to use and have served as our go-to.

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Zillow 3D

A great way to make your listing stand out on Zillow is to use their free 3D tour software. When people are searching Zillow, it drops a 3D Tour pin, which is effective in getting more traffic. Sign Rider-Capture Solution

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VoicePad

Hearing recordings from branded yard sign numbers and sending information via text are tried and true methods to connect with prospective clients. The team at VoicePad has taken this to the next level by building mobile-optimized sites and providing lead source and engagement metrics for agents.

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Mobile Apps for Agents

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Homesnap

This tool is a real estate search portal that provides access to home listings by partnering with local multiple listing services (MLS) where available. We use it to easily see the experience of the Agent we are dealing with and have just started to test their lead concierge service.

Middle of Funnel Customer Relationship Management (CRM)/Lead Routing

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Follow Up Boss®

If you have leads coming in from many different sources and want to bring them into a feature-packed CRM, then Follow Up Boss® is a perfect solution. It works great, is inexpensive, provides effective drip campaigns, and the company continues to innovate. Homeowner Market/Home Value Reports

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Homebot

This site was originally built for lenders, but after researching home valuation sites for months, I found that nothing even comes close to the information that Homebot provides. As of the time of the writing of this book, the cost is only $25 a month for a service that is light-years ahead of its competitors. Comparative Market Analysis/Listing Presentations

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Cloud CMA

I looked at Cloud CMA years ago and wasn’t a fan. In late 2019, I looked 211

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at it again, and wow! It's come a long way! A comparative market analysis is one of the most important tools you can have as a real estate pro. The dynamic CMA web pages that are created for each CMA are an amazing tool for us. Super impressive.

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Remine

I use the Remine CMA to show how different the automated valuation sites are from each other. Remine is a quick and easy way to show the consumer that automated valuations shouldn’t be trusted to come up with a home’s value. Texting Platforms

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Avochato

This tool is a great way to text your database. My operations staff finds it easy to use. Video Email and Messaging

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BombBomb

This is the industry standard in video messaging to your clients, friends, and Sphere of Influence.

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Vyral Marketing

An inexpensive video marketing service that does a lot of the work for you, Vyral is a convenient and easy way to stay in touch with your database.

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Bottom of Funnel Transaction & Listing Management

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Trello

My team cannot live without this incredibly useful project management application. It offers seamless collaboration across teams and helps us organize the chaos whenever possible. Forms & E-signature

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DocuSign

This is an industry-leading transaction platform that allows access to interactive forms and customizable templates. Apps We Love

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PicJointer

Easily combine multiple photos to make a nice multi-pic main photo for your listing.

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Enlight Quickshot

Use Quickshot to effortlessly replace cloudy skies with sunny skies. Incredible.

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Ripl

Create attention-grabbing social media posts in a snap.

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First I/O by RE/MAX

An amazing way to predict people in your social network’s likelihood of moving.

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ShowingTime

Easily see who is showing your listings and access analytics and reporting capabilities.

■ Sentrikey

We depend on this app heavily to access sentry lockboxes instead of carrying around a card. The right software can give you 10 times the return and help you operate like a much larger business. As your team grows, you’ll develop employees to efficiently run these systems. Verl likes to say, “I don’t know how they work; I don’t care how they work. I KNOW that they work, and I know who to call when they don’t.”

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CHAPTER 24 Team Build 2nd Stop: Hiring & Developing Talent “Tell me, and I forget. Teach me, and I remember. Involve me, and I learn.” - Benjamin Franklin

If you get it right, your first hire will someday run your business as the CEO. If you get it wrong and your first hire is a dud, your team runs the risk of never properly getting off the ground. Let’s say you hire a good Customer Care Coordinator. That means when you’re ready for the next growth phase, they can advance to the next position as the team grows. Ultimately that person can become a strong COO or CEO.

“Hire slowly and fire quickly. The bad hires cost a lot more money than the time spent getting it right.” Nicole Bostrom Cogan WSS Coach Attorney Broker/Owner The Real Estate Center Pewaukee, WI Here's a process that I’ve seen work really well when you’re looking to hire either an Agent or employee.

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Step 1: Your Value Proposition Elevator Pitch If you ask most team leaders what their value proposition is, you get something like, “We have CINC, BoomTown, Zillow, and we provide leads, blah, blah, blah…” The first time I heard Jim Knowlton explain the value proposition of a well-run team, I said, “Could you repeat that a little slower?” As you’re learning in this book, leads are necessary, but if you want your team members to stick around, you have to provide much more value than just leads. Jim clarifies that as a Team Leader, your value proposition is this. (And please make sure you read this as many times as necessary): “An Agent gets to use your business name, reputation, reviews, and stats. As a Team Leader, you provide administrative support, 1:1 coaching, CRM, marketing, so they only have to do three things: prospect, show houses, and negotiate. On day one, they get everything you’ve built over the years. “NAR says 11 transactions is average for the average Agent. So, the structure, support, training, and coaching should easily get them up to 15-25 transactions a year. “And your team will provide enough leads to generate another 15-25 opportunities, which will put your agents in the sweet spot of 30-50 transactions a year. “Your goal is to teach them how to run their business within your business, but also provide them an upside of 3-5 times the average income so it doesn’t matter what split they are on; they will make more money in less time with a better experience than anywhere else.” Step 2: Find Talent When I had 30 agents, most were opportunity hires. We had done deals together, and every single one of them came to me for work. The first five of my core group

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were magic in a bottle; we all regularly did 40-90 transactions each per year.

“The leader is responsible for providing every opportunity to succeed for the new team member. It is incumbent upon them to make the best choice so they can do that.” Paul Sessum WSS Master Coach I wasn’t so lucky on the next 25 agents. Some were incredible; some squeaked by, but many created drama and more problems than transactions. We weren’t using DISC at the time, and I didn’t have Core Values to align with. Although I’d interviewed them, it wasn’t hard to make the team. I needed volume to make up for a lower margin—so they were in! In 2020, I do it all differently now by using a balanced and organized hiring process entailing five parts.

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DISC & Resume – For all candidates



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Interview for integrity.



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Interview for intelligence.



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Interview for Core Value Alignment.



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Check references

We use WizeHire.com, a central online recruiting service that fuses recruiting software with the personal service of a hiring coach. It helps us find the best candidates for the job that can do all the heavy lifting, so we can stay focused on what's important. We pay $199 a month. It’s insanely powerful, and I am not even 217

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an affiliate. I am just that impressed with them. We answer a few questions about the role we’re filling and what type of person we’re looking for. We then use one of their templates to create and submit a job ad for our assigned hiring coach to review. They have a perfect template for every job you can think of on a real estate team, including Transaction Coordinator, Buyer, Agent Listing, and Agent. Our Wizehire hiring coach reviews and fine-tunes our job ad. When it’s approved, it goes live on 60+ job boards, including Indeed, Monster, and ZipRecruiter. They monitor our ads to ensure they are performing well. We can share individual jobs or the entire hiring board on Facebook or other social media platforms. It’s a top-notch turnkey service. When candidates apply, they are automatically sent a DISC behavioral assessment, and the site houses their cover letter, resume, and answers from our preferred screening questions. Candidates apply and appear in our applicant tracking system and are scored based on how their personality fits the job. This allows us to interview the right candidates first. Hiring is now a system and is done with ease. Once we've found the right person, we move to the next steps. But the search for talent never ends; it’s what fuels our growth. Step 3: DISC Behavioral Assessment & Resume When hiring agents and employees, we use a couple of key tools. First, we give the candidate a DISC behavioral assessment by emailing them a link or letting Wizehire.com take care of it. The data-rich report we get back helps us understand if they have the right personality for the job. You’re probably wondering what exactly DISC is. It’s a behavior assessment that 218

Team Build 2nd Stop: Hiring & Developing Talent

demonstrates how people will behave naturally or under stressful situations. It shows their tendencies and allows leaders to know how to communicate effectively with their people. Growing teams use DISC as a behavioral assessment to boost productivity, strengthen communication, and, most importantly, find the right employees for their team. No scores are alike. The DISC assessment reveals what behaviors your candidate leads with. Each of us has a different combination of behavior components to create our own unique DISC profiles, compiled from a composite of four key areas. In Chapter 27, I share the ideal DISC profile for agents and employees, but here are the behaviors that each letter represents as taken from the DISC site:

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Dominance (D): Emphasizes accomplishing results, the bottom line, is confident. A high “D” sees the big picture, can be blunt, accepts challenges, and is straight to the point. CEOs usually rate high here.



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Influence (I): Focused on influencing or persuading others, values openness, and relationships. A high “I” shows enthusiasm, is optimistic, likes to collaborate, dislikes being ignored. Most salespeople rate high here. I’m a high "I,” and all my salespeople are as well.



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Steadiness (S): Sees strength in cooperation, sincerity, and dependability. These people don’t like to be rushed, have a calm manner and approach, and show supportive actions. High “S” indicates a good team player. My second leading behavior is "S,” and that is what we look for in all our agents and employees.



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Conscientiousness (C): Values quality, accuracy, and competency. High “C” people enjoy independence, display objective reasoning, want the details, and fear being wrong. You want your admin to be a high “C” and a high “S.”

Lee uses DISC to make sure he puts everybody in the right seat on the bus. It helps him ensure that he doesn’t put a person with the wrong personality in a job they hate. Because of that, most of his employees have been with him long-term. 219

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You can easily Google "DISC behavioral assessment,” and many sites where you can take the test will show up. We prefer WizeHire because it sends a DISC assessment to every recruit. Years ago, I went with my gut decision 100% of the time instead of what DISC told me. I was wrong and chose many bad hires.

The Resume Here are the things that I look for in a resume:

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Correct Spelling and Grammar – Attention to detail is crucial. If it’s not important here, it won’t be important later.



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Job Longevity – If I’m scanning a resume and noting five jobs in five years, it’s a no-go for me.



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Relevant Experience – For example, there is a high demand for real estate admins in our market. It shouldn’t be hard to find a job for this position. Relevant experience is great, but you should interview and check 220

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references to confirm that the candidate has the right reasons for being in the job market. Step 4: Are Core Values in Alignment? After I look over the DISC behavioral assessment, we set up an interview. I start by spending at least 30 minutes asking questions in relation to my Core Values. Check out my Core Values on the next page and the questions I ask to check for alignment… Based on the applicant’s answers, I have a better idea of if the candidate’s Core Values are in alignment or if they are open to developing Core Values that align.

Hearing from the experts: How important are Core Values and the DISC assessment? If the DISC assessment and Core Values are in alignment, that means we’re halfway through the hiring process. We can move on to interviewing for integrity and intelligence. Step 5: Interview for Integrity Warren Buffett believes hiring someone with a conscience lets you know from the beginning where their decisions and motives lie. When your hires have integrity, you have a good pool to choose from when it comes time to appoint the leader for your team. Select someone who walks the walk as a role model for others to follow. Agents with integrity are the ones you want on your team. The big question is, how can you truly determine someone’s integrity? It just takes one question in the interview to “make or break” the candidate and allow you to dig deeper into the core of that person’s character.

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“You’re hiring for three things, generally, in a person: intelligence, energy, and integrity. And if they don’t have the last one, don’t even bother with the first two.” Warren Buffett CEO, Berkshire Hathaway The question is: If we ever got into a bind with a client, would you be willing to tell a little white lie to help us out? This answer is critical to understanding if this person can vibe with your company’s culture—as long as it’s one built on honesty and integrity, of course. If the candidate answers “yes,” or seems shaky and unsure of how to answer, thank them for their time and end the interview. I hope it’s clear that the right answer is a direct “no.” If they answer “no,” follow up by asking them to explain their reasoning. When you cut your losses with the uncertain candidate, you have the space for someone who better aligns with your company and values.

“Integrity is the choice between what’s convenient and what’s right.” Tony Dungy Best-selling Author, Uncommon It may be easier to hire the person who has the perfect DISC behavioral assessment or the perfect resume with top recommendations. But if their morale doesn’t match or exceed yours, you’ll always have doubts about what they do when no one else is around. 223

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If you’re growing your team, you can only afford to hire the best. Once the major question has been answered correctly, you can interview for intelligence. Step 6: Interview for Intelligence It’s helpful to have an Agent or employee candidate who is self-assured and charismatic, and a well-structured resume reveals a lot of what you need to know of their background and experience. But it’s no replacement for their intelligence and how they truly understand the industry. Thinking critically is crucial for a busy Real Estate Agent or admin and is largely determined by their intelligence. Some agents and admins rate high on IQ tests but could never make it as a real estate salesperson. So how do you interview for the right type of intelligence? There’s a commonly used method hiring managers swear by called “Past Behavioral Interview” (PBI) that focuses solely on performance and potential. It involves questions that examine the candidate’s experience doing certain activities — managing deadlines or resolving conflicts — indicating how they’ll really do at your company. Since these questions require in-depth answers, they can help determine if the candidate is a procrastinator, deadline-driven, passive, or reactive when solving problems or completing projects. PBI questions allow you to get past easy “yes” and “no” responses and dive deeper into the candidate’s history and past successes, giving them the floor rather than the interviewer. Getting this type of intel provides you and your team with a clear view of how this candidate handles situations and conflict. Here are examples of questions you can use based on the position a candidate is interviewing for.

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Give two suggestions you have made to your Broker in the past year. How did you come up with the ideas? What happened? How did you feel about the way it went?

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Describe a situation where you were responsible for getting others to make a change. What role did you play, and what actions did you take? What was the outcome? If you had to do it again, would you do anything differently?

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Talk about the most challenging negotiation in which you were involved. What did you do? What were the results? There are times we work without close supervision or support to get the job done. Tell us about a time when you found yourself in a similar situation and how things turned out.

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Talk about a time when you had to analyze information and make a recommendation. What kind of thought process did you go through? What was your reasoning behind the decision?

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In your current job, what organizational change have you made or contributed to that you are proud of? What was the process of making the change? What has been the impact?

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Share an example of a time when you used good judgment and decisionmaking to solve a problem.

If you give the interviewee the space to speak freely, you’ll get pages of information on who they truly are, which will allow you to confidently make a decision in the end. Depending on how the interview goes and how much time I have left with the interviewee, I like to ask questions that they probably haven’t planned for to see how they think on their feet. These questions from LinkedIn have helped me better navigate interviews and make stronger hiring decisions in favor of people more suitable to our positions and core values.

• • •

Describe yourself in one word. Tell me about an interesting experience or encounter you’ve had recently. What is your biggest pet peeve?

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• • • • • • •

How do you define success? Do you consider yourself lucky? Tell me about a time you disagreed with a manager’s instructions or point of view in the workplace. What did you do? How will you tackle this specific project expected of the role? (Provide an example.) When have you failed? What did you learn from this experience? What two or three trends in our industry might disrupt our work, and how should we go about meeting these changes? Why are you memorable? Step 7: Check References

This is the last piece. I know it probably seems like the candidate is the right fit if they’ve made it this far, but don’t let checking references slide. It’s one thing to get that person’s point of view on how they handle issues and how intelligent they are, but it’s more important to understand how others who know them view their work. Here are a few important things to consider when checking the references of a candidate.

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Checking references should be the last thing to tick off the list before extending an offer. It saves everyone time in the long run. Allow a level playing field for all job candidates by using a standard format for your application and other documents. It not only keeps you organized; it provides the structure that allows you to compare the information of the different candidates being considered for the position.

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Instead of asking “yes,” or “no” questions, stick to asking open-ended questions about the position. Make it easy for references to give feedback. 226

Team Build 2nd Stop: Hiring & Developing Talent

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BONUS: Go one level deeper. Ask the candidate’s reference for another reference of someone they know who knows the candidate.

Hire & Develop Talent Checklist Give this much weight to these five areas:

Coaches’ Tip…



• • • • • • •

Use Wizehire to help you find talent. Have the candidate complete a DISC behavioral assessment and assess their resume. Interview for integrity and intelligence. Check for alignment with your Core Values. Check references. Consider diversity and inclusion in all that you do. Put an Agent Development and Coaching program in place. 227

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Diversity & Inclusion Policy As this book is being put together, we are deep in the middle of a major shift in our culture and how we treat others who look and think differently than us. It’s more important now than ever to offer a workplace that celebrates and appreciates our different traits that make us unique while instating best practices to allow people to feel welcome. There is no question that the world is abundant in diversity, whether we’re talking about race, ethnicity, gender identity, disability, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, varied backgrounds, and ways of thinking. I want my daily workplace to reflect and respect diversity. Everyone on your team should feel empowered and comfortable coming to work. That’s why diversity and inclusion are major parts of my values and culture, and it’s my mission to embed diversity and inclusion in everything we do. It should be the standard of our businesses to reflect the diverse communities we serve. It makes a better company and gives us room to grow and innovate. There are four major goals I’ve adopted for our business. Use them if they make sense for you. Goal 1: Have a diverse workforce. We seek to recruit and support team members who best represent our customers and surrounding communities. Goal 2: An inclusive workplace. Everyone should respect each other at work, and have the opportunity to grow, contribute, and work toward their greatest potential. Goal 3: Involvement at the community level. Work with a diverse group of community organizations. Goal 4: Hold our vendors accountable. Work with vendors that align with our same beliefs. 228

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Agent Development & Coaching After a year of being coached, I was asked to become a coach myself because I had implemented and used all of what WSS has to offer. I agreed to become a coach because I knew it was going to make me a better Team Leader if I went super deep with our concepts—to the point that I could coach others. Because of my involvement, I could take Agent Development and Coaching to a whole new level. Now, I am only interested in new or newer agents who don’t have 10 years of bad habits to break. We created an in-house Agent Development Coaching program packed with Workman courses, and I now have a Director of Education, Sales Manager, and Ambassador of experience, that are also certified to facilitate the same live WSS courses that I can. We integrated them into a program we call 90-thirtysix, detailed on the next page from a promo we do. It has worked amazingly well. My Sales Manager, Director of Education, and Ambassador of Experience are all paid out of the new agents’ transactions. To make it minimally time-consuming, we distribute training responsibilities, and they each make a few hundred dollars out of the new agents’ first ten transactions. 90-thirtysix has allowed us to develop top-producing agents right out of the gate. Whether you are a new Agent coming thru our Agent Development Program or a seasoned veteran, everything we do as a team is to help our agents get to a 30-50 transaction-pace a year. That is our value proposition.

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CHAPTER 25 Team Build 3rd Stop: Accountability & Non-negotiables “Accountability is the glue that ties commitment to the result.” - Bob Proctor

It’s a hard truth; most real estate team leaders avoid accountability like it’s COVID-19. Not only do they dislike being held accountable for what they said they’d do, they also don’t feel comfortable holding others accountable for what needs to get done. Cleve Gaddis believes team accountability begins with awareness. Sticking to your word and holding others accountable, especially in the real estate business, is critical. In his business leadership bestseller, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni lists absence of accountability as the fourth dysfunction. Meaning most real estate team leaders are uncomfortable or don’t know how to hold team members to commitments and point out problems or deficiencies. It’s just as important to hold yourself accountable as it is to hold your team accountable, even if it causes temporary friction or debate. According to Patrick, avoiding accountability creates resentment among team members who have high standards. It encourages mediocrity, allows for missed deadlines and key deliverables, and relies on the leader as the sole source of accountability. This can create a toxic work environment where, as the Team Leader, you won’t be able to adequately delegate tasks or trust employees to work together. When a team holds each other accountable, it ensures that poor performers feel pressure to improve, quickly highlights potential problems, establishes a mutual 231

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respect for those who are held to the same high standards, and avoids excessive bureaucracy around performance management and corrective action. How You Can Overcome a Lack of Accountability Time blocking, living your Core Values, and tracking your Daily Success Habits are the three best tools to hold yourself accountable. Now, let’s focus on holding your team accountable. In most cases, your agents are going to be 1099 contractors and not employees. Part of your ICA (Independent Contractor Agreement) should have a list of commitments the Agent has to make to be on the team. Jim Knowlton created a composition called The Ten Things to Be on the Team, which I and many others use as a template with our teams. Essentially, team members have to show up and do the things on this list. If not, they are asked to leave. I call mine the “Ten Things to Become a Real Estate Rockstar, AKA Minimum Team Agent Activities.” 10 Commitments To Be On Our Team A team member could live a well-funded life by doing the 10 things on the next page. It’s that simple. Daily Huddles A daily huddle is how we ensure everyone starts their day aligned and energized. Christy Buck’s Team’s Daily Huddle Goal is to get all her team members excited to go to the office in the morning and get them pumped for the day. When they huddle, it allows all team members to get on the same page about what is going on within the team. The huddles should be no more than 15 minutes each morning.

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Huddles are the best time to openly clarify what the team needs to achieve and exactly what each team member is expected to contribute for that to happen. You can talk about results. Our daily huddle is a great time to discuss and keep in alignment with our Core Values. Lencioni advises that you should also consider shifting rewards away from individual performances to team achievement so that people feel the need to not only ensure that their performance is up to par but that their team members are also living up to their end of the bargain. Even football teams in last place huddle before every play. Your 15-minute daily huddle is a great way to get your agents thinking about yesterday and today. Hold them accountable. Get them up to speed, enhance communication, and build camaraderie. Role Play – LPMAAM & FORD Something that I used to scoff at is now an instrumental part of my week. We role-play a minimum of once a week during the busy season and up to three days a week when it’s a slower month. Most of us then go right into making our calls for the day. Senna’s take on testing before a race reminded me of the importance of roleplaying or testing out your interaction with clients. “Testing is a little like preventative medicine: it allows us to speed up our work and concentrate on the very important, in fact, fundamental, honing of the machine.” To have a successful role-play session, follow several guidelines. Using them with your role play blueprint will allow you to have more fun, and your prospecting results will improve! 1. Make a schedule for your role-play session. Right after your Daily Huddle is a good time.

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• • •

Be on time. Be prepared. Be focused on becoming more confident with your scripts.

2. Set the stage before you begin your session. You will need:



• • • • •

Seller Information Sheet

Buyer Information Sheet Structure of a Call Our Schedule Glass of water

3. Get rid of distractions.

• •

Turn off your computer. Turn off your cell phone.

4. Do NOT face each other when doing a role-play session. Prospecting is done over the phone, and to get more confident with your scripts and dialogue, make it as real as possible. When you face each other, you will be easily distracted by body language and facial expressions. 5. When you are the buyer or seller, be realistic. Sometimes we want to make it tough on the Agent but be the kind of prospect the Agent would want to work with. The highest percentage of prospects are kind and appreciate that you are calling to provide more information regarding the purchase or sale of a property. I never even considered role-playing with my team. I thought that was for new agents and assumed we, as a team, were past that. But wow, I was dead wrong. Role-playing has been amazing. I used to laugh at it; now I embrace it, as do the agents on my team. 235

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Time Blocking – My Perfect Week Time blocking means being honest with yourself. I embrace it because it allows me to squeeze every minute out of each day. I make sure every single one of my agents accepts accountability at this level. An Agent who accepts time blocking communicates the same thing as a 700+ credit score on a rental applicant. They mean business. All my agents set up a “perfect week” schedule that has the whole week timeblocked with everything they need to do to hit their goals. It breaks every day down, so you’ll focus on the day, then the week, and that makes you hit your monthly, quarterly, and annual goals. It’s where the rubber meets the road. When you implement these tactics, you will chase some agents away. But you’ll be thankful you did in the short and long run.

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CHAPTER 26 Eight Evolutions and Growth Phases to Team Build “You are the result of four billion years of evolutionary success. Act like it.” - Unknown

Are you drowning in contracts and paperwork? Are you tired of working 100-hour weeks? Do you want to see your family again? Do you need to make more money to hit your financial goals? If so, it may be time to hire your first employee. If you’re a solo Real Estate Agent with a growing business, piled-up paperwork, and an overwhelming list of day-to-day tasks, it’s time to grow your team. But take heart because it’s not as painful as you think. Your first hire will help you run the systems we shared in this book so you can focus on sales and growth while creating more time and money. Like I mentioned a few pages earlier, the best way to explain when to move thru each phase is with a format similar to the “If This, Then That” (IFTT) concept. Here’s an example. If This: You have 15 deals under contract, and you’re spending 70% of your time on paperwork.

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Then That: Use our hiring process from Chapter 24 to transform into a small business with employees. You may have gotten good at working with buyers, sellers, and implementing systems, but now you need to get good at hiring people. Recruiting the right people for your team will allow you to go from worried about the added expense to elated and instantly making more money. Your sales volume, revenue, and profitability create opportunity (in the form of being able to hire).

“To keep this one simple, I believe you just need to go from a self-serving mindset to a serving mindset. From this point forward, your job is to serve your team and help them accomplish their goals. Your goals will be accomplished by serving your team.” Paul Wheeler WSS Senior Coach To see if you are ready to bring people on, use my budgets as a guide. The sample budgets are easy to follow, using a $6,000 average commission that goes to you after any commission split to your brokerage. Just replace the $6,000 sample with your take-home commission. If your average sales price is high enough, you can make a decent income as a solo Agent, and the pain of paperwork and admin duties might never PainFuel you to the next level. No two teams grow the exact same way. From Agent to small business to team leader, everyone seems to add a small variant. What makes these eight evolution and growth phases unique is that each one is distinctly different than the previous. They can happen fast, and you need to be prepared. 238

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Regardless of your average sales price, if you want to build a team, this chapter will show you the distinct evolution and growth phases your business will experience. As I explained earlier, making strong and dependable hires is key, and this chapter will explain what position and when to hire. Chapter 27 covers the job descriptions, salary ranges, popular pay structure, and the perfect DISC behavioral assessment for each role. On the following pages are the eight evolutions and growth phases to build a team, covering target volumes, next moves, PainFuel promises, minimum benefits, Pro Tips, and including organizational charts and sample budgets for:

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Phase 1: Solo Agent



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Phase 2: Your First Admin Employee



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Phase 3: Your First Buyer Agent (You’re a Team Now)



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Phase 4: Three Full-Time Buyer Agents



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Phase 5: Listing Partner & Additional Support



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Phase 6: Management, Agents, & Additional Support



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Phase 7: Operational Excellence



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Phase 8: Expansion Team

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Phase 1: Solo Agent Even if you do a fraction of what we covered in the Personal and Business Development sections of this book, you can make a decent living. Embrace what we teach in this book, and you will create a unique opportunity to evolve and grow into the next phase of your business. You will become part of the 7% I mentioned earlier.

Target Volume (Solo Agent) If you’re aligned with everything we share in this book, 36 transactions per year or three transactions per month is an achievable target for your business.

Phase 1: Solo Agent



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24 transactions - Minimum



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36 transactions - Target



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48 transactions – Top Producer

At 24-48 transactions a year, there is a great chance you are spending 50-70% of your time doing admin work. Revenue should be good, but you’ll be working long hours. The average agent does 11 deals a year because they spend most of their time getting ready to do something great instead of doing it. The faster you focus on dollar-producing activities and come up with an admin solution, the faster you will unlock real success. You can’t make a million dollars a year if you spend all day on $20-an-hour activities.

Next Moves Once you are on the 36-transactions-per-year pace and have at least four months of reserves, plan your first administrative hire. Many will debate who you 240

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should hire first: a Marketing Coordinator, an Executive Assistant, a Transaction Coordinator, or a Customer Care Coordinator. It can be confusing with every expert recommending someone different, but I’ll clarify all of this in the next phase. Jim Knowlton believes when a solo agent without an admin gets to 15-20 transactions a year, to maintain great service, you need some type of part-time assistant. When you’re at a 25-transaction-a-year pace, it’s getting busier, but it’s the three-transactions-a-month pace that will affect your service and bottleneck your business if you can’t delegate to some of your admin staff.

I’m not going to give you the hardcore sales pitch for coaching, but I’d hire a coach regardless of where you are in your journey. Ask Cristy Buck, Lee Tessier, or Cleve Gaddis what made the biggest impact in getting their business to where it is, and they will tell you coaching.

PainFuel Promise – Hire an Admin and Do One More Transaction Per Month

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Hire an admin so you can focus on sales.



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Take 80% of the administrative work off your plate.



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Do one more transaction per month and easily pay for your admin hire.



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Top producers usually increase their business by double or more with an admin.



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Split an admin with another rising Agent.

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Verl, Jim, and every coach interviewed would say hiring or contracting a transaction coordinator on day one will unlock the next levels 10 x faster.

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Minimum Benefit Plan to do one extra transaction per month. You can take the average commission of $6,000 and multiply by 12 to get $72,000 in additional revenue. In most markets, you can hire a good admin between $35K-50K, and when you do, you will make more money and do a better job of taking care of your family’s needs and paying down credit card debt. You’ll probably smack your head that it took you so long.

Pro Tip – Wax On, Wax Off

Phase 1: Solo Agent

Serve regardless of any opportunity. Hold yourself accountable to fix invisible anchors, live with a Growth Mindset, and believe in your “why,” and you will find creating successful habits with grit will be easy with the chill of a Zen master. Leadership and finance skills are a must and for God’s sake, make sure you can explain the negotiating method you use.

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If your drive and commitment are being rewarded with transactions and revenue, the downside is an administrative burden that will hold you back. Do not accept the solo Agent “start-up” phase as normal, like so many other stuck solo agents that wear it like a badge of courage. You’ve likely heard it all: “I don’t need a team, I’ve been doing this for 20 years, blah, blah blah….” You’re a business. If you are making $100 an hour and can pay someone $18 to do the admin work, guess what happens? You start doing more business, and what you make an hour goes up.

“Hire your first assistant ASAP. It will help you make the money to be able to afford them. It can be just a few hours a week at first, but you need to quit doing the non-dollar producing activities and focus on finding more clients you can serve.” Paul Wheeler WSS Senior Coach

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Phase 2: Your First Admin Employee

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Your first admin hire must take as much administrative work off your plate as possible. A CCC (Customer Care Coordinator) is a smart first hire. This person should be able to handle transaction coordination, listing management, marketing coordination, and simple admin tasks. As your volume grows and you move into the next phases of your business, your Customer Care Coordinator will hire Transaction Coordinators, listing managers, marketing coordinators and will delegate and oversee those duties. The goal is to evolve your CCC into your COO or CEO someday.

Phase 2: Your First Admin Employee

Some solo agents contract (TC) transaction coordination and or (LM) listing management services and pay per transaction (usually $250 to $450 a file). If this works well for you, your first hire could be more of an Executive Assistant. An Executive Assistant will have a lower salary, provide general admin services, and manage the contracted TC & LM services. If your sales volume is increasing, and you plan to do a lot more, the Customer Care Coordinator is the way to go. If you’re doing lower volume, don’t plan to get too big, and are contracting TC & LM services, an Executive Assistant could work well.

Quick Rundown- Who to Hire first? Customer Care Coordinator – This person is paid a little bit of a higher salary than an Executive Assistant and initially does a little bit of everything: transaction coordination, listing management, marketing coordination, and general admin. Executive Assistant – If you already contract out your (TC) transaction coordination and/or (LM) listing management service, an Executive Assistant can handle managing your contracted TC & LM, marketing coordination, and general admin. Whichever route you take with your first hire, you will work with them to implement concepts taught in this book with the goal of achieving Operational Excellence. You should focus on sales and lead generation for you and your first Buyer Agent.

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Your new target should be 48 transactions per year. Twelve more transactions per year should be easy, with over 50-80% more of your time opening up from not having to do admin work.



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36 transactions - Minimum



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48 transactions - Target



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60 transactions – Top Producer

Next Moves Make sure you work out the kinks in your Chapter 20 marketing plan. Focus 100% of your efforts on generating listings. Do a good job marketing your listings online and through postcards and social media to generate 6-8 buyer leads for each listing. Fill in the gaps with PPC leads with a target of 25 leads per month for your first Buyer Agent—which will be your next move.

PainFuel Promise – Get Your Operations Running Smoothly

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Admin should be using all trackers.



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Make sure your organizational, management, and system strategies are followed.



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Make sure you continue to get your 61 DSH points daily.



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100% buy-in from your employee as to how you want to run your business.

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Target Volume (Solo Agent + 1 Admin)

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Minimum Benefit - More Time, More Money or Both

Phase 2: Your First Admin Employee



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The feeling of drowning in contracts and paperwork goes away.



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You’re no longer forced to work 100-hour weeks.



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You’ll start to see your family again.



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Having a dependable first hire makes you into a small business, so it’s game on.



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If you don’t like where you live, you can probably afford a better house.



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You can stop closely budgeting your lunch money.

Pro Tip – Hire Slow and Fire Fast Undisciplined growth will kill you, especially if it’s your first hire. A lot of agents hire fast and fire slow. When an opportunity hire appears (someone says, “Hey, you need an admin?”), you hire them because they’ve made it easy. You know how I feel about opportunity hires. With the added business you’ve allowed yourself to handle, you’ll be so busy that you’ll put off the awkward and hard conversations. All of this will then amount to suffering with an underperforming employee sucking the life out of you instead of sustaining the business you were trying to help. I’ve seen this time and time again. Follow the Chapter 24 hiring process, and you can prevent this from happening. This person should easily be able to transition to coordinate your volume. A fulltime TC doing only transaction coordination should be able to handle 20-35 transactions at a time.

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Take your time and bring on your first Buyer Agent using the hiring skills in Chapter 24: DISC behavioral assessment and core value alignment, and interview for integrity and intelligence. Again, do not employ an opportunity hire—you deserve great, not good talent. You need 100% buy-in from Sections 1 and 2 of this book and to have this person commit to all the Chapter 25 commitments and non-negotiables:

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10 Things to be on our team: minimum team activities



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Daily Huddles (Monday through Friday)



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Role-play three times a week



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Time blocking



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Track Daily Success Habits



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Create a Strategic and Business Plan (every October)



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Use 3,2,1s to get 61 points



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Build Top 50



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Track A, B, C Leads, SOI and Top 50 in CRM 251

Phase 3: Your First Buyer Agent (You're a Team Now)

Phase 3: Your First Buyer Agent (You’re a Team Now)

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Keep the CRM up to date

Team Target Volume (You + Admin + 1 Buyer Agent)

Phase 3: Your First Buyer Agent (You're a Team Now)



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72 transactions - Minimum



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84 transactions - Target



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96 transactions – Top Producer

Next Moves Focus 100% on listings. Make sure you generate 25 leads per month for your first Buyer Agent and figure the cost and how to increase your lead-gen for your next Buyer Agent. Score your business with the Chapter 16 AMP Scorecard. Any part of your business that scores below a five, add as a project to work on in your Agile Project Manager from Chapter 18.

PainFuel Promise – Stop Working with Buyers Remember, you can do triple the business when you’re focused on listings. Listings marketed properly generate the leads you need to feed buyer agents. It can be tough at first to hand off your million-dollar buyers, but the sooner you do, the sooner you unlock the next levels of building your team. Focus 100% on listings and give 100% of buyer clients to your Buyer Agent, including your family. Especially your family.

Minimum Benefit

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More time and money.



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Better workflow. 252

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More listing appointments and fewer miles on your car.



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Lease yourself a nice new car every three years; you’ve earned it.

Make sure you invest in a lead-generation platform like CINC, BoomTown, or Realvolve/Firepoint so you can easily turn up leads with a great CRM on demand.

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You should have a Buyer Agent for every 25 buyer leads a month.



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You should do 1.5 x buyer transactions for every listing transaction.

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Pro Tip – Master Lead-generation

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Phase 3: Your First Buyer Agent (You're a Team Now)

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Phase 3: Your First Buyer Agent (You're a Team Now)

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Phase 4: Three Full-time Buyer Agents

Phase 4: Three Full-Time Buyer Agents

Give your team with one Buyer Agent 3-6 months to work out the kinks. In the meantime, be on the lookout for new Buyer Agent talent. Once you get one Buyer Agent running smoothly, it’s not too difficult to bring on your next one.

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Have a good Buyer Agent ICA (Independent Contractor Agreement).



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Get your operation running smoothly.



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100% buy-in to the structure and requirements you have created.



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Hone your Leadership skills.



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Use those hiring skills and tips taught in the last chapter.

Team Target Volume (Team Leader + 1 Admin + 3 x Buyer Agents)

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120 transactions - Minimum



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156 transactions - Target



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192 transactions – Top Producer

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Eight Evolutions And Growth Phases To Team Build

Next Moves

Or if your CCC likes doing the listing management and marketing coordination, then hire a Transaction Coordinator. Your operations machine can grow in a couple of different ways based on employee skillsets. As your volume picks up, your CCC will delegate the duties and processes to new admin/operations employees where your CCC was originally handling most of it themselves. You are also doing the same on the sales side with buyer agents and listing partners. You and your CCC will hire and delegate these admin roles as necessary over the next couple of growth phases.

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General Admin



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Listing Management



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Transaction Coordination



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Marketing Coordination

PainFuel Promise – Maintain Core Values, Systems, and Processes... No Matter What Do not make changes to your Core Values, hiring criteria, or commitments to be on the team to accommodate an Agent. Let’s say a great producer wants to join your team but doesn’t want to do daily huddles. Do not hire that Agent; it will unravel your team and everything you’ve just worked so hard to build.

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With three buyer agents and your lead-gen ability, you can plan to hire a Listing Partner. Follow hiring and DISC behavioral assessment guidelines from the previous chapters. If your first hire is a CCC, you both will need to figure out the next admin hire together. Your CCC could keep the contract to close transaction coordination duties and hire a Listing Manager that could initially also handle marketing coordination for the listings.

Profitability & Performance Pitstops

Minimum Benefits

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More time and more money.



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You’ll feel more like a small Business Owner than an Agent.



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Your vacations get better and longer.



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Saving for your kid’s college fund becomes a reality.

Phase 4: Three Full-Time Buyer Agents

Pro Tip – Leadership Skills The success of this growth phase will rely heavily on the Leadership skills we discussed in Chapter 4. You have transformed into a leader of a small business, making your Leadership skills more important than ever.

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You will start to focus more time on managing the sales team with your CCC. By now, you will have learned the best practices for listing lead-gen and should be ready to hire a Listing Partner. Your growing volume will create the need for additional admin support. You’ll still be doing listings but will focus on getting your first Listing Partner to do the same great job with which you’ve built your business. Start pulling away from the operations side so that you can prepare to add another level of management that hopefully your CCC can handle.

Target Volume

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156 transactions - Minimum



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204 transactions - Target



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252 transactions – Top Producer

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Phase 5: Listing Partner & Additional Support

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Next Moves Hire a Listing Partner and feed them decent leads. You’ll find yourself in need of even more admin support. Your CCC is going to have their hands full, and by now, you will have figured out how to hire for your marketing coordination, listing management, and transaction coordination needs. Depending on your average price point, you might need 1-3 new employees handling your operational needs. 

Phase 5: Listing Partner & Additional Support

PainFuel Promise – Give Listing Partner Good Leads Since you will be used to running all the listing leads, it might be difficult at first to share them with your Listing Partner. Once you do, you can focus more on leadgen, building the team, and working a bit more on the team than within the team.

Minimum Benefit When you recruit a Listing Partner, you will really start to feel like a successful Business Owner, and you will find more time to focus on family and your wellbeing. At each step, you will realize the key is making great hires.

Pro Tip – Admin to Agent Ratio Most teams I interviewed had one admin role for every 3-4 agents. If you follow our commission structures in Chapter 27, you can afford the proper amount of support for your agents.

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Phase 5: Listing Partner & Additional Support

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At this point, make sure you’re celebrating the wins. You’ve come a long way from the all-day grind of being a new Agent wearing multiple hats. To make it this far, you’ve done a great job at what initially seemed like basic ideas, but they are what will bring you to this phase:

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Continue to become a strong leader by reading everything you can get your hands on



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You and your agents write annual strategic and business plans every October for the next year

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Phase 6: Management, Agents, & Additional Support

Profitability & Performance Pitstops

Phase 6: Management, Agents, & Additional Support



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Fuel your business with listings and leads.



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Hold you and your team accountable for tracking DSH Points.



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Enjoy the simplicity and success of ABC lead tracking.



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Squeeze every minute out of every day with time blocking.



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Hire the right people.



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Track everything and know your profitability

“The real estate business is a communication and education business.” Paul Wheeler WSS Senior Coach Put differently, if you truly want to be successful, you should master your communication and education skills in this phase.

Target Volume

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360 transactions - Target

Next Move You should have a solid income in this phase and will be looking to step out of such an active day-to-day role. You should be able to go on vacations and enjoy the life you’ve built. Everyone seems to do this phase a little differently, but here are the options:

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The Sales Side of the business

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Sales Manager – You delegate running the sales side of the team from you to them.



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Executive Assistant – You can work with your CCC to delegate and execute operational tasks and serve as the main point of contact for your team members.

PainFuel Promise – Paybacks Getting to this type of sales volume can be a grind, and let’s face it, it’s hard to get here without borrowing time from activities that should come first. If you’re guilty, now is the time to readjust, refocus, and pay back borrowed time. What good is success if your kids don’t know you, your marriage falls apart, and when you straggle back into church, no one recognizes you because you’ve gained as many pounds as you’ve lost friends?

Minimum Benefit

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Your life is starting to look like the life you want to live.

Pro Tip – Remember what got you here, and don’t deviate

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Phase 6: Management, Agents, & Additional Support

The Operations Side of the Business

Profitability & Performance Pitstops

Phase 6: Management, Agents, & Additional Support

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Phase 6: Management, Agents, & Additional Support

Eight Evolutions And Growth Phases To Team Build

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Phase 7: Operational Excellence

Phase 7: Operational Excellence Your business should be humming. Build and scale as needed. Explore expansion if your business is running with Operational Excellence. Very few of the 7% of real estate agents who become team leaders make it here. Embrace and celebrate the wins.

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Target Volume

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480+ transactions

Next Move The Sales Side of the Business ■

Chief Executive Officer – Recruit someone to take over your whole team. Your Sales Manager reports to them.

The Operations Side of the Business

■

Chief Operating Officer – Have someone to lead, execute business plans, and maximize the performance of the team.

PainFuel Promise Most things have a start and an end. We are born, live a good life, and then we die. You must expect even your best employee or Agent to leave your team regardless of how great a leader you are. Perpetually be on the lookout for new talent.

Minimum Benefit You will have enough money to buy your mom a house like Lee, send your kids to great schools, live in just about any neighborhood, and give to your favorite charities. By helping all your team members succeed, you will have built a fantastic life and business with Operational Excellence.

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Profitability & Performance Pitstops

“A good system provides consistency across the organization, saves time, gives peace of mind knowing nothing slips through the cracks, builds confidence in team members, allows team leaders to trust the team. Systems are the key to that elusive work-life balance.” Nicole Bostrom Cogan WSS Coach

Phase 7: Operational Excellence

Pro Tip Continue to stay humble and help others. You got successful by having all the right behaviors. Don’t let success change you—unless it’s for the better.

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Eight Evolutions And Growth Phases To Team Build

273

Profitability & Performance Pitstops

Phase 7: Operational Excellence 274

Eight Evolutions And Growth Phases To Team Build

The pre-requisite to expand into another office, market, or state is “Operational Excellence.” Just like you don’t want to make opportunity hires, you don’t want to “opportunity expand” before you have achieved Operational Excellence. Expansion is taught, trained, and promoted as a great way to start a business in a new area with minimal costs. But many who are driven by ego jump into it a little too soon and crash. My good friend Vlad Kats was the CEO of one of the largest expansion teams in the country and had this to say, “An absolute must is first winning big in your first/ home location with solid profitability and not ‘on pace to win big’ or ‘we're close to winning big,’ or ‘I think we're going to win big.’ You've already proven that you can win big at home. In the NFL, if you can't win at home, you have little chance of winning on the road. In expansion, until you are winning big at home, do not go on the road. Your home base is the foundation for your business. Expand too soon, and your new locations can drag the home base with you.” Too many teams have expanded when an opportunity arose and failed this concept forward for the next adventurous souls. I have to check myself, too. My ego wants to expand so badly, but my focus on Operational Excellence and profitability have prevented me. Before you expand, you must have met these achievements. 275

Phase 8: Expansion Team

Phase 8: Expansion Team

Profitability & Performance Pitstops



■

Have a rock-solid management team where you can focus 100% on the expansion.



■

A team of great agents and employees.



■

Continued 100% buy-in as to how you run your business.

Target Volume

■

600+ transactions

Next Move

Phase 8: Expansion Team

Take your time and continue to do what got you here. Don’t let success get to your head. Once you believe everything you touch turns to gold, that’s the beginning of the end.

Minimum Benefit As we speak, I am planning my expansion (have been for three years) in a market 30 minutes from my current market with double the average sales price.

Pro Tips – From Vlad Kats 1. If you're not expanding for profitability's sake, please stop it! 2. Inspect your business system: you are not expanding a business; you're expanding a business system. Do you have one? 3. Inspect your organizational habits. In expansion, you're expanding your organization's good habits and bad. Do you know what each is and how they will play out in the new location?

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PainFuel Promise

Phase 8: Expansion Team

Don’t confuse your volume success with the Operational Excellence required to make expansion work. Don’t expand until you’re ready.

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Profitability & Performance Pitstops

Phase 8: Expansion Team 278

Phase 8: Expansion Team

Eight Evolutions And Growth Phases To Team Build

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Profitability & Performance Pitstops

The Eight Evolution & Growth Phases When I think of agents who spend their whole careers as individual agents averaging 16 transactions a year, it reminds me of all the potential Kevin Planks who didn’t make it out of grandma’s basement. Whether it’s fear of failure, bad habits, or just knowing what move to make next, this book will help alleviate a fear of failure, guide you to the habits you will need to make it work, and show you what to do next at each of the growth phases. If you’re equipped with great buyers and sellers and sales are going up like Under Armour, it’s time to get better at being a small business and making the right hires. Kevin went from making $17,000 in sales to $5.2 billion without a playbook or road map like you’re holding in your hands.

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CHAPTER 27 A Guide to Commissions, Salaries & Ideal DISC Behavior Types “When it comes to fate, you have to realize that it is different than destiny. Destiny is where things are predetermined, and it doesn’t matter what you do in life, because you will never be able to change your ending; however, fate is what you will need to think about when it comes to your choices.” - Hamid Hacker, Understanding the Law of Attraction

When I started my team in 2005 with two other agents, I wanted to be fair and generous, so I made up a commission structure that made sense at the time. I was generating more leads than I could handle, so I thought if someone generated the lead, they should make 80% and the team 20%, and if I generated the lead, they would keep 70% and the team 30%. My value proposition was a source for leads and Leadership at a fair price. I attracted great agents that wanted leads, the camaraderie, and someone leading the charge. Like many team leaders, I’ve always done a lot of my own business, and that mixed with the average 25% commission split from the team members made for a decent revenue stream for the team. But it also created many problems: 1) I personally provided the majority of the admin services and worked around the clock; 2) I couldn’t hire the right people because it would eat into the slim margin, and 3) because I couldn’t do the things a team should do, the agents did all their transaction coordination and listing management, leaving me to handle all the lead-generation. 281

Profitability & Performance Pitstops

The agents kept more of their money per transaction but still had all the transaction and listing administration duties that bottlenecked their ability to do more transactions and ultimately make more money with the proper support. Anytime I hired an admin, I needed to make more money. The only way I could make more money was by adding agents. I gave in to the fact that I was running a low-margin, high-volume model. At the time, I felt like I could explain and defend the reasoning behind my business structure. Many times, I talked to my core group about changing the commission structure, but nobody bought it. And why would they change? Each of them had built powerful spheres of influence, and most were doing 20-50 self-generated deals per year. My team of rock stars could easily go out on their own. Since our core group was killing it, a lot of people were attracted to the team. We were adding several agents each year until we were 25+ in 2016. But a problem was building up. Every time I added an Agent, it piled on an equal amount of expense, causing the team income to plateau as the workload increased. As we grew haphazardly, there was an influx of more drama, and the original five core group became less aligned. Once we got up to 30 agents, doing over 500 transactions, you could see that the high-volume, low-margin model wasn’t providing the services that the agents needed—regardless of their splits. We were derailing, and the wheels were coming off… The following crowd-sourced ideas aren’t mine, but they do come from a great crowd. The main takeaway is not to get caught up in the pay ranges. I’ve provided a template for your reference and not to set your prices. Just adjust for your area, whether you’re in Miami, Florida, or Whitefish, Montana.

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The Right Way Meanwhile, only an hour away, Lee, who had been coached from the beginning, and who knew to use a commission structure in the neighborhood of 50/50 after the cost of sale for the team and self-generated leads, was killing it. His volume had always come up short compared to mine. His team was smaller. My awards were bigger and shinier. He was still climbing in his market, where I was number one in mine…but his revenue was at least double mine. Even though he kept a leaner team, it was comprised of all the right employees. Somewhere around 2017 or 2018, his sales volume passed mine, and his Lambo blew past my broken-down kit car on the side of the road. Verl explains that being on a team is a 50/50 partnership. You provide a platform that your agents can run their business more smoothly on than if they did it themselves. They show properties, write contracts, and close deals. You, in turn, pay for support, space, leads, training, coaching, and all the minor details. You—the Team Leader—are not going to pay all the expenses and then do a 50/50 split. It’s a 50/50 partnership, so pay the Agent 40%. This allows them to pitch in for expenses. If you’re going to use this commission structure, you are guaranteed to nurture a team that provides support, marketing, training, coaching, and leads. Your goal should be to have every Agent on that plan make over $100K per year. When you’re starting a team, your commission program can make or break you before you even get going. A properly run team has different Agent roles, and those roles should have different commission splits based on the expense your team generates. Next, you can break down those roles, share great commission structure and use DISC behavioral assessments for success.

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Profitability & Performance Pitstops

“We are 50/50 partners on gross profit or 50/50 partners after expenses. The first few transactions at 40% and 45% help cover your share of the expenses. We invest in support, leads, and marketing, and let you focus on meeting clients, showing houses, and writing contracts.” Jim Knowlton WSS Director of Coaching & Master Coach

Roles The following pages detail the commission plans, DISC behavioral styles, and normal compensation range for:

■

Buyer Agent



■

Listing Partner



■

Lead Buyer Agent



■

Lead Listing Partner



■

Showing Assistant



■

Employee or Contract Positions

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Buyer Agent A Buyer Agent handles lead-gen and brings in qualified leads to the sales funnel. This person guides potential buyers through the process of buying a home by nurturing that relationship and determining their needs. They also regularly reach out to pre-qualified buyer leads, conduct open houses, show homes, present purchase agreements, and sell properties.

Commission Plan



■

The first 2 sales each month are paid 40% to the Agent and 60% to team.



■

Sales 3 & 4 each month are 45% to Agent and 55% to team.



■

Sales 5+ are 50/50, and the scale resets each month.

285

Buyer Agent

The minimum sales requirement is two sales per month.

Profitability & Performance Pitstops

DISC Behavioral Style

Buyer Agent

Normal Compensation Range: $75,000-125,000 Our goal as team leaders is to create an environment where our agents earn at least $100,000 per year. Our success depends on their success.

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Listing Partner According to WizeHire, listing partners work with sellers and handle all aspects of listing a home for purchase. They are well-versed in the local market, inspect and appraise homes to determine fair market value, and guide properties through the procurement process. They’re masters at networking and finding new business.



■

20-30% on listings. 100% focus on listings



■

Production: 80-125 listings per year target income $250K



■

20% up to first 50 listings taken



■

25% 51-75



■

30% 76+



■

Once Agent hits 76, then the next year Listing Partner stays at 30%

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Listing Partner

Commission Plan

Profitability & Performance Pitstops

DISC Behavioral Style

Listing Partner

Normal Compensation Range: $150,000-250,000

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Lead Buyer Agent The Lead Buyer Agent has the same responsibilities as a Buyer Agent but has a supervisory role over the other buyer agents. This Agent has to have 100% alignment with your Core Values and be completely on board with everything you are doing.



■

50/50 on all their transactions



■

Bonus on Agent’s productivity



■

Goal 30 units average per Agent



■

$50 per file (base pay)



■

Bonus base on goals suggested: 5% on qualifying agents production. (2 deals min before bonus per month per agent).

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Lead Buyer Agent

Commission Plan

Profitability & Performance Pitstops

DISC Behavioral Style

Lead Buyer Agent

Normal Compensation range: $80,000-150,000

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Lead Listing Partner A Lead Listing Partner has the same tasks as a Listing Partner but has a supervisory role over the other listing partners. This Agent, like the Lead Buyer Agent, must have 100% alignment with the Core Values and be completely on board with everything you are doing.



■

20- 35% based on volume



■

Bonus on Listing Partner’s productivity



■

Goal range: 80-125 units per Listing Partner



■

Bonus base on goals suggested:

• • • •

$100 per file available per quarter or annual 100% of bonus for hitting 100% of goal+ 75% of goal LBA = 50% of bonus Below 75% of goal: no bonus

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Lead Listing Partner

Commission Plan

Profitability & Performance Pitstops

DISC Behavioral Style

Lead Listing Partner

Normal Compensation Range: $175,000-375,000

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Showing Assistant

“Find new agents in your company and pay them a per-showing fee to take your buyers out as a showing specialist. They’ll appreciate the money and experience. You’ll free up dozens of hours per week that you can use to get more clients.” Mark Boyland WSS Senior Coach

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Showing Assistant

Showing Assistants help buyer agents by assisting throughout the entire homebuying process. They might find the right homes that meet the buyer’s standards, show homes, and schedule on-site property inspections with potential buyers and vendors. They also work with clients on their home-buying process and handle admin work to make sure all forms of communication are answered.

Profitability & Performance Pitstops

DISC Behavioral Style

Showing Assistant

Normal Compensation Range & Salary Parameters: $20-25 per hour cap at 20 hours or $500: paid by Buyer’s Agent. The showing assistant is capped and agrees to continue working with the client if they go over the 20 hours.

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Employee or Contract Positions Operational Excellence is what we all strive for and having the right employees is a key to making that happen.

The following pages detail employee or contract positions:



• • • • • • • • • • •

Customer Care Coordinator/ Administrative Assistant Transaction Coordinator Listing Coordinator Marketing Coordinator (ISA) Inside Sales Agent Executive Assistant / Office Manager Sales Manager Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Chief Operating Officer (COO) Runner Contract Services

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Employee or Contract Positions

Cleve Gaddis explains the trick like this: “As you go from 5-10 agents, it's when a lot of your back-office stuff becomes so important. What are your operations people handling from a listing standpoint, from a closing standpoint? How can you take as much of what needs to be delivered so that you produce a good experience for your consumer, and how do you bring that in-house, so your agents don't have to deliver that themselves?”

Profitability & Performance Pitstops

Customer Care Coordinator Administrative Assistant An Administrative Assistant provides clerical and customer service support to ensure efficiency. Depending on your setup, they may need to manage all paperwork, legal procedures, schedule appointments with clients, and much more.

Customer Care Coordinator / Administrative Assistant

Normal Compensation Range & Salary Parameters:

■

Salary for this position would normally be $35,000-70,000



■

Or $16/hour to $33/hour

If paying by transaction

■

Pay by file: ($250-350)



■

Full-time with low base: commission per file (must be a cap) ($12-16 per hour - $75-100 per transaction with a “100 transaction cap.”)

Hourly and salaried positions vary depending on geography. We suggest paying at the high middle of the market value for employees and then raise their pay quickly as you see they are A players.

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Customer Care Coordinator / Administrative Assistant

DISC Behavioral Style

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Profitability & Performance Pitstops

Transaction Coordinator A Transaction Coordinator (TC) handles all paperwork (timely filing, contracts) and deadlines in the selling and buying process. They’re in charge of escrow paperwork, making sure repairs and inspections take place, and check that offers and counteroffers are approved. They also schedule closing procedures, keep the client database up-to-date, and keep in touch with customers after the sale. Normal Compensation Range & Salary Parameters:

Transaction Coordinator



■

Salary for this position would normally be $35,00-55,000



■

Or $17/hour to $26/hour

If paying by transaction

■

Pay by file: ($250-350)



■

Full time with low base: commission per file (must be a cap) ($12-16 per hour - $75-100 per transaction with a “100 transaction cap.”)

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Transaction Coordinator

DISC Behavioral Style

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Profitability & Performance Pitstops

Listing Coordinator A Listing Coordinator ensures the real estate listing process is done efficiently. They prepare listing information, get signatures for listing agreements, and manage listings on MLS (Multiple Listing Service) and your social media channels. They also organize open houses, showings, and cleanings for properties and track the team’s sales activity. Normal Compensation Range & Salary Parameters

Listing Coordinator



■

Salary for this position would normally be $30,000-50,000



■

Or $15/hour to $24/hour



■

Or pay per closing ($250-400)

DISC Behavioral Style

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Marketing Coordinator The Marketing Coordinator’s ultimate goal is to help expand the real estate brand. They create and launch ad campaigns to advertise new listings and work with public relations, operations, and agents for details. They are typically strong digital marketing ninja masters who are skilled in social media and building a strong and consistent public image. Normal Compensation Range & Salary Parameters: ■

Salary for this position would normally be $35,000-65,000



■

Or $17/hour to $31/hour

Marketing Coordinator



DISC Behavioral Style

301

Profitability & Performance Pitstops

(ISA) Inside Sales Agent ISAs are responsible for prospecting for new leads, servicing inbound leads from sign calls and other marketing sources, and converting leads to appointments for a team's sales agents. Normal Compensation Range & Salary Parameters:

■

Salary for this position would normally be $30,000-50,000



■

Or $15/hour to $24/hour



■

Plus, a bonus for appointments set ($25-50)

(ISA) Inside Sales Agent

DISC Behavioral Style

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Executive Assistant/Office Manager An Executive Assistant tends to work for the Team Leader by acting as their main point of contact handling incoming messages and keeping their schedule up to date. They also keep the office in order and assist other team members when needed.

Normal Compensation Range & Salary Parameters:

■

$30,000-40,000 at $300K-400K (GCI) Gross commission income



■

$100,000 at $1 million (GCI)

DISC Behavioral Style

303

Executive Assistant / Office Manager

These roles essentially get paid 10% of Gross Commission Income. Ideally, they evolve into a Sales Manager, and then a COO or CEO as you grow.

Profitability & Performance Pitstops

Sales Manager A Sales Manager guides and leads your sales team. They set sales quotas and sales targets to achieve sales goals. They typically serve as a mentor and consistently come up with ways to keep the team motivated. This position will also evaluate the sales staff’s performance as well as supervise the lead-generation programs for the optimal ROI. Normal Compensation Range & Salary Parameters:

Sales Manager



■ $75,000-150,000



■

Non-producing Sales Manager: $3,000-5,000 monthly, bonus on team production. Set key performance indicators on recruiting/growth.



■

Producing Sales Manager: Allowed to work their Sphere of Influence with a higher split on personal production and an override on Agent sales activity.

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Sales Manager

DISC Behavioral Style

305

Profitability & Performance Pitstops

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) A chief executive officer (CEO) is the highest-ranking employee in your company, who will make major decisions and take over the team’s day-to-day activity. This person understands everything in this book and is a highly motived leader, possessing all the qualities listed in Section 1. They have the ability to run a business described in Section 2 and are charged with continuing the growth of the team described in Section 3.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO)



■

Develops high-quality business strategies and plans in alignment with objectives



■

Oversees all operations and business activities to ensure they produce the desired results

Normal Compensation Range & Salary Parameters:

■ $125,000-200,000



■

Base salary $75,000-100,000 with performance bonus per file ($50-100)

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Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

DISC Behavioral Style

307

Profitability & Performance Pitstops

Chief Operating Officer (COO) The Chief Operating Officer of a company is second in command. While a CEO is concerned with long-term business goals, the COO is tasked with implementing daily operations and aligned with that goal and the company's strategies. His or her individual role depends largely on the company itself and the CEO's personal style.

Chief Operationg Officer (COO)



■

Designing and implementing business operations



■

Establishing policies that promote company culture and vision



■

Overseeing operations of the company and the work of the management team

Normal Compensation Range & Salary Parameters:

■ $75,000-150,000



■

Base salary $50,000-75,000 with performance bonus per file. ($50-100)

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Chief Operationg Officer (COO)

DISC Behavioral Style

309

Profitability & Performance Pitstops

Runner The Runner is a unique role. They can install and pick up signs and lockboxes and drop off brochures and miscellaneous items for listings. They also assist photographers and help out with 3D Tours. Normal Compensation Range & Salary Parameters

■ $30,000-35,000

Or $15-17 per hour as needed Or per activity:

Runner



■

$35 for sign and lockbox delivery/attaching to signpost



■

$35 for sign and lockbox pickup



■

$20 for Zillow 3D Tour while installing sign/lockbox



■

$40 for Zillow 3D Tour on separate trip

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Runner

DISC Behavioral Style

311

Profitability & Performance Pitstops

Contract Services For every contract service I used, I asked other top-producing agents for recommendations. Once I heard the same name repeated two, three, and four times that’s who I went with.

■

Computer / IT Services

You want whoever you use to be able to log on remotely. In my opinion, 85% of our problems can be fixed this way.

■

Accounting / Bookkeeping

Contract Services

My accountant also does my bookkeeping. When you’re small, there’s not a lot of work, so the cost should be affordable. Expect this amount to increase as your sales volume does. Having good accounting services is critical.

■

Photography

We use the best photography company in the area, and we got a great price by signing an exclusive agreement that commits us to a certain volume— that we know we will easily hit.

■

Video

If you’re doing video on social media, track the video “insights” so you can see how long people are watching. We find better results with short, punchy videos. This is why we stopped doing longer home tour videos— they weren’t being watched all the way through.

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CHAPTER 28 Will It Work in a Luxury Market? “You’ll be on your way up! You’ll be seeing great sights! You’ll join the highfliers who soar to high heights.” - Dr. Seuss Oh, the Places You'll Go!

Like old school REO agents who don’t return a call, many luxury agents develop an image of success and grandeur. And most, but not all, develop and nurture a big ego to go along with it. The problem is, the bigger the ego, the bigger the sales volume validation needed to feed it, which puts you at exceptional risk for every problem shared in this book. As compared to a Real Estate Agent earning less, the luxury Real Estate Agent has a higher average sales price, but the marketing expenses are equally as high. These are the same problems at bigger numbers. My high-volume validated ego told me my busted up 30-person team problems were unique…even though they were not. Most BIG ego luxury agents will also instinctively say, “This won’t work in my market!” But guess what? What I am teaching you here works better. Anthony Marguleas explains why he thinks WSS systems work in a luxury market: “Contrary to what one might expect, Workman Success Systems actually work better in a luxury market. The reason is in most luxury markets, agents only need to sell a few units to get by, so they typically don’t have the systems set up with their CRM, drip email campaigns, prospecting, ideal week, time management, etc.

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A luxury Broker with the proper systems can be selling 50-100 units a year. Prior to Workman Success Systems, I was successfully selling $100M a year with two assistants, no team, and was working 80-100 hours per week with no balance in my life. They helped set up numerous systems, which allowed me to grow a team. Now I am doing close to $200M and work half as much. I have more time for my family, vacations, and a life.” Yes, your sales volume creates validation for your ego, but profitability creates growth opportunity as it did for Anthony Marguleas and as it does for Trish Nash. Trish is a WSS Coach, Team Leader, and luxury Agent at Signature Gallery Homes who implemented WSS systems to crack into and become a top producer in the Las Vegas luxury market. “When I started as a coaching client with WSS, I was one of the top REO agents in my market, closing over 500 transactions a year. I used no systems to speak of and did not have a team. I did no prospecting as I knew continual business would come from my bank clients. But the market changed, and thankfully, WSS helped me through the transition. I built a team, started prospecting, and began implementing the WSS systems. My business slowly transitioned to traditional residential sales, and we focused on profitability rather than on the number of closed transactions, as I had always done. My goal was to enter into the luxury market, and the same WSS systems helped me achieve that over several years. I was recently recognized by a local magazine as one of the Top 10 Ladies of Luxury Real Estate. Our team is having some of our best months in revenue, even in the midst of COVID, and I consistently am ranked in the top 1% of our market in sales. Regardless of where you practice real estate, the same principles apply. Coaching helped me become a better Team Leader, be accountable, and hold my team accountable, and track my prospecting and results daily. I am grateful to have an amazing coach who showed me a road map to success. I believe in coaching so much that I eventually became a certified coach myself. “I learned very early in my career that if I want to be successful, I must surround myself with those that I aspire to be like and admire. One of my favorite quotes is: 314

Will It Work In A Luxury Market?

‘If you are the smartest person in the room, you are in the wrong room.’” Think about it…$100M in sales is great, especially if you only have to do 25 deals to achieve that, but $200M in profitable sales is even better! 

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Need a Coach? You may be thinking you’ve reached the Finish Line after reading this book, but it’s only the beginning for you.

Are you doing your best in real estate? I’m not talking about the high-volume success where you’re working 90 hours a week. I’m talking about being profitable, operating with excellence, creating a strong value proposition, and spending quality time with your family. If you’re like I was and want more for your business and your life but are stuck on the wrong track, accepting accountability and working with a coach will fix that. Anybody can learn what to do. The key is how well you use what you learn and who you learn from. That’s where being coached made such a big impact on my business. If I could start over, I would have hired a coach in my first year like Lee did, instead of letting my sales awards trick me into thinking I was a success. Verl and the coaches at Workman Success are the ultimate rock stars. Whether you’re an individual Agent, Team Leader, or Broker/Owner, they have a coach who has been there or done that in every role. Not a hard sell here. If you just want to ask a few questions or learn more, get in touch at [email protected]. I’d love to chat about your situation.

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Interested in Becoming a Coach? WSS coaches are the elite in the real estate industry. Each of them has forged their own paths, failed forward, and developed proven methods so they can help others become successful agents and business leaders. But I believe that there are a lot more future WSS coaches out there who want to take other agents from where they are to where they want to be. That could be you. Even if you doubt yourself, I can say I had the same doubts. Again, my story is not unique. I went from being a self-coached, kit-car driving entrepreneur to a profitable leader to now a Senior Coach. I put in the work and training to get to where I am because helping others is my passion. Getting here has been the ultimate PainFueled journey. To qualify to become a coach with WSS, you have to be a student before you become a teacher while you learn and implement The Workman Way® into your business. The time flies by, but the lessons and tools you learn will last a lifetime because they work. Interested in becoming a coach? Shoot a message to me at [email protected].

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Must-Reads for Team Leaders 1. The Promise to the One by Jason Hewlett 2. The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino 3. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni 4. Profit First by Mike Michalowicz 5. Create Demand and Stop Chasing Business by Ron Howard 6. Never Split the Difference by Christopher Voss and Tahl Raz 7. The Two Motives by Patrick Lencioni 8. The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber 9. Atomic Habits by James Clear 10. You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero 11. Principles by Ray Dalio 12. The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, Mike Chamberlain, et al. 13. Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek 14. Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, et al. 15. 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey 16. Grit by Angela Duckworth 17. The Four Commitments of a Winning Team by Mark Eaton 18. Perk Your Sphere by Liz Johnson 321

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Okyle, Carly. "10 Awesome Tips for Being a Better Leader." October 21, 2014. Accessed January 01, 2021. https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/238747.

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"Ten Tips for Negotiating in 2021." Ten Tips for Negotiating in 2021. Accessed January 01, 2021. https://www.brodow.com/Ten-Tips-For-Negotiating.

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About the Author

Team Leader, Top Producer, Accomplished Writer, Senior Coach Ron Howard is a top-producing Team Leader, Senior Coach, and best-selling author of Create Demand and Stop Chasing Business. For the past eight years, he has earned RE/MAX’s highest annual sales award—the Diamond Club—and has been inducted into their Hall of Fame, received their Lifetime Achievement Award and the RE/MAX Circle of Legends Award in recognition of his career accomplishments. He has made an immeasurable impact by helping agents improve their businesses and lives by transforming them into profitable and high-performing business leaders. Year after year, Ron’s real estate team has held the rare distinction of being both one of the highest-ranked selling teams in the mid-Atlantic and also the most favorably reviewed, ranking high in The Wall Street Journal’s top teams and nearly 900 5-star reviews. Ron lives in Baltimore City with his wife Jeni, son Flynn and two dogs Bernie and Lucy.

Disclaimer The information provided within this book is for general informational and educational purposes only. The author and publisher are not offering such information as business, investment, or legal advice, or any other kind of professional advice, and the advice and ideas contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. Any use of the information provided within this book is at your own risk, and it is provided without any express or implied warranties or guarantees on the part of the author, editors, or publisher. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. You should seek the services of a competent professional before beginning any business endeavor or investment. Neither the author nor the editors or publisher shall be held liable or responsible to any person or entity with respect to any financial, commercial, or other loss or damages (including but not limited to special, incidental, or consequential damages) caused or alleged to have been caused directly or indirectly, by the use of any of the information contained herein.