Incentive Drives Behavior

Incentives can quietly shape everything your team does, for better or worse. Travis Wells shares the simple principle he heard from a high-level mentor and never stopped using: incentive drives behavior. From virtual assistants to in-person staff, the way you pay people becomes the way you train people, because your compensation plan tells them what “winning” looks like every single day. 

We walk through how we structure pay for a fully remote VA team using a steady base plus performance-based commissions, and why salary alone often turns stale over time. Travis explains the “fat cat syndrome” problem, how over-comfort can reduce urgency, and why a base should create stability without removing the drive to grow. Then we get specific about a teamwide commission model where everyone gets paid when any deal closes, including how this changes collaboration, onboarding, training, and deal velocity. 

We also dig into why we rarely give base raises and instead revisit commission structure as the main incentive lever, especially when the goal is more revenue. If you run a business with measurable outcomes such as leasing, rentals, sales, or service delivery, you’ll leave with practical ideas for building an incentive structure that rewards results, encourages teamwork, and keeps motivation high without creating internal competition. Subscribe to the Property Profits Podcast, share this with a business owner who’s rebuilding their pay plan, and leave an honest review with your biggest incentive question.

Transcript

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Why Incentives Matter

SPEAKER_00 0:00

What's up, fam? So I want to talk about something that's super important, at least to me, that's helped me in my business. And as you know, as I've talked about in the past, I run a completely virtual assistant team. All right. But this works with humans across the board. Remember this saying incentive drives behavior. Incentive drives behavior. I saw this one time or heard this one time at a meetup, very expensive meetup from a high, high, high level mentor coach that I had at the time that had a lot of very high, high-level people in there. And what he told us that day was incentive drives behavior. And that has rang through my mind ever since. It was years ago. And here's what it means. And here's how I apply it. And it might look different for you and your team than it does for me and my team. But universally, this is a human nature law, in my opinion. All right, here

Salary Gets Stale Over Time

SPEAKER_00 1:00

we go. So I've got a team of VAs, right? Badass VAs, not just VAs, badass, been with me for years. They onboard other VAs, they train them, they make them badass. How are they motivated? Why do they want to work at my company? Why would they want to work? I don't even want to say for me, with me, because I'm working with them, right? Which is another reason they like working there because I'm not just pointing fingers, I'm working with them. And I see very high-level people talk about this too. Don't skip out on that. You don't just hire people and go hide. Anyways, I mean, well, that's another discussion. So you can pay somebody some crazy amount of salary, right? And maybe you've been in that position before in a job. Like, no matter how much money salary-wise they throw at you, eventually the feeling becomes stale. Why is that, right? And I think this is my personal opinion, as humans, we like to evolve, we like to grow, grow, we like to set goals, hit those goals, and then keep achieving more. I say we, I'm talking about me and people that I've just observed and what's like worked for me with my virtual assistant team. And even whenever I used to manage a ton of non-virtual assistants in the WTO role when I was a vice president back in the day, but we won't talk about that of a company. All right, it worked the same. The principle is always the same.

Base Pay Versus Fat Cat Syndrome

SPEAKER_00 2:36

So I pay through incentive structure, I pay through commissions. All right. Now I always pay a base because people generally feel comfortable if they can feed themselves, clothe themselves, and feed their families and some somewhat comfortable, whatever that base is, not overly comfortable. I call it fat cat syndrome. You give them too much or put the golden handcuffs, it just creates ease and it creates laziness a lot of time, even in the best, hardworking, most motivated people. Okay, trust me, like I've been there. If you haven't been there and you're like, well, damn, that'd be nice if somebody paid me X amount. It doesn't matter, right? The incentive portion of this, like, I'll pay my team a certain commission for every deal they

Teamwide Commissions That Create Teamwork

SPEAKER_00 3:30

close. But here's what I do so that they work together as a team. Not only do they get that commission, everybody gets that commission when the deal closes. And when the other one closes, they all get that commission. Now, VAs, I'm talking like 50 to 100 to 150 to 300 bucks, those kind of commissions. And then double commissions if it's like nights, weekends, something spectacular over a certain dollar amount. But not only one of them gets it, everybody gets it. So what does that what does that uh make them do? Incentivize them, not make what does that incentivize them to do? That incentivizes them, a to close more deals, b to work together to close more deals, and what can you do? Can you do more by yourself or more together? You can do more together as a team. So that's my philosophy. We can close more deals, do more business if we work together as a team. So if we get paid together as a team, right? Or if stuff isn't happening, we're not doing what we need to do as a team. So for me, the incentive of commission and everybody getting a commission when deals close really works for my team personally. And now different people are different commissions based off of tenure, you know, and based off of like how well they're performing and what their uh level is of like what they're you know, everybody's at a different capability at a different time because you know, people have been there. I don't want to say time makes you more capable, but maybe they're more knowledgeable in the systems, you know, or maybe they do more, maybe they have a larger job scope. So their base is different, their commissions might be different, but they all get a commission, right, for stuff that produces revenue and a base.

Why Commission Beats Base Raises

SPEAKER_00 5:20

Now, I really think this is important. So rarely ever do I give base pay raises. I do it every now and then when it's very warranted, but I really 95% of the time really reanalyze commission structure because that's my main incentive driver. Because I want to close more deals, I want to rent more spots, I want to get more revenue coming in. So I want to incentivize getting more revenue coming in. When I raise a base pay, that doesn't incentivize more revenue, it just incentivizes a party for doing well. I hope that makes sense. I hope it maybe sparked some interest and maybe it could help you with your pay structure. So next time you need to give somebody a raise, or maybe you don't agree, that's cool. Maybe it doesn't apply in your industry, your field, or your expertise or whatever. I'd love to hear about it because I'm always open to learning. This is what works

How It Fits Mobile Home Parks

SPEAKER_00 6:22

for me in particular. Now you got to remember, I run mobile home and RV parks. We get paid for lease subs, value ads, uh creating equity, you know, leasing stuff, renting stuff, rent to owns, all that stuff. So that's why it works so well for me. Okay, so leave a comment below, hit like if you like this, share it with a friend or family member, would love it. Leave me an honest review, would love the hell out of that too. My name's Travis Wells. This is the Property Profits Podcast. Thank you so much for jumping on. Until next time, peace.