Play Bigger in Real Estate with Raquel Q.

The Agent CEO Method for Money: Structure, Systems, and Freedom

• Raquel Quinet • Episode 383

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In this episode of The Raquel Show, I’m diving into a topic that so many entrepreneurs — especially real estate agents — often overlook: financial organization. I’ve learned that most agents don’t actually have an income problem; they have a money organization problem. 

This episode is all about helping you take control of your finances, make smarter decisions, and truly step into your role as the CEO of your business and your life.

I’ll walk you through:

  • How to create a solid financial structure
  • Why discipline with your money matters just as much as earning it
  • How to build systems that help you grow wealth and invest intentionally. 

👉 My challenge to you is by the end of this week, open up maybe a new account or organize your money or open up a tax account or commit to transferring a percentage from one of your next closing.

And if you want a step-by-step guide on setting up your finance systems, your visibility systems, your lead generation systems, this is what we all do in Agent CEO. So do me a favor, if you're interested, send me a DM on IG @itsraquelq with the word AgentCEO, because you deserve to feel like a CEO, not just a hustling agent chasing the next commission check. 

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Thank you for joining me on this episode of The Raquel Show, and remember, keep pushing your limits to achieve your goals.

For updates and collaborations or opportunities, go to www.LetsPlayBigger.com

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Organizing money isn't just about taxes. It's about actually paying yourself and multiplying your money. And here's a tip. I want you guys to set a percentage, even if it's five, 10, whatever it is, and start to automatically move it. Why this matters is when you respect profit, you create discipline. And I think overall having discipline around money is going to create some different types of habit and the way you look at money, especially in your business. And over time, this builds the capital you'll need for real estate investments or other investments.

Welcome back to another episode of The Raquel Show. This show is for entrepreneurs who want to play bigger in business and in life. And I just want to say thank you for hanging out with me today. I really appreciate you being a part of this community. I still cannot believe it's been four years of doing this podcast and nothing reminds me to keep going. Then when I get a DM from a listener like you, or you share this episode with a friend,

Today, we are going to be talking about something that makes most agents, or I would say most entrepreneurs cringe, and that's money. And I'm not talking about making money, because here's the truth, most real estate agents or even entrepreneurs don't actually have an income problem. They have a money organization problem. And here's what I mean is you could sell 20, 40 or even 100 homes and still feel broke. And I know this because I've been there and I see this because I've also coached agents out of this. 

And if this is you, it's not because you're lazy. It's not because you're not smart enough. It's because no one taught you how to organize your money like a CEO. So today we're going to fix that. And I'm going to break down the exact financial structure that every single real estate agent should set up or begin to set up. If they want to stop going on a hamster cycle and actually build wealth. 

I am also going to share a few key takeaways from our recent session with Klarissa McNeely, an investor and realtor who went from zero investments to managing $99 million in assets in less than three years. And I want to share with you her system for organizing money. So simple, but yet it's so powerful. We just have to take the steps to do it. So grab a notebook. 

This episode could save you thousands of dollars and years of financial stress. Let me take you back to when I first got into real estate. I was young, I was hungry and I was making a ton of money. Plus I had no kids, no husband, but no one had ever told me that closing deals does not equate to keeping wealth until a mentor of mine told me that. And I remember looking at my bank account after a big commission check, sometimes I would have several and think, where did it all go? Taxes hit, bills hit, lifestyle crept up. And suddenly I could see I was selling houses and out the door, money went away.

Years later, I had different mentors. I now have studied the art of money. I've been in wealth masterminds. I've hired wealth coaches and I met Klarissa. Now, she didn't grow up wealthy. She didn't have a trust fund, but what she figured out was that organization beats income every time. And what I love about her is that she is so down to earth that she can actually explain. And for the first time this year, my friends, I'll tell you, she explained to me K-1's taxes and I've been in business for over two decades and like how to read them, what to ask my CPA, what to look for in a tax strategist, all the things. 

So I was so excited when she said that she would come into our Agent CEO Accelerator Program because she is truly one of my gifts and she's one of my coaches and I love sharing her with our community. So she set up bank accounts with clear jobs and that's what I learned from her. She created tax buckets before she even made a lot of money. And that discipline allowed her to snowball wealth faster because she learned different things as far as tax codes and how to actually multiply money faster than most real estate agents will ever do in their entire career. She talked in our Agent CEO Accelerator Program because I wanted her to share her knowledge with my community. 

And I also want to share a few things that stuck out. So the first thing is creating a bank account structure. The mistake I see with agents today is everything gets dumped into one account. The fix for all of this is the reason why you need some type of banking account structure is you want to give every dollar a job. Some of the accounts that you may need is an operating account for your business. A tax account because we are 1099 and sometimes the taxes are not taken out and we don't know how much to put away. A wealth coordination account, it's an account that is a system that where things go, where money goes. 

And then the investment account. Even if it's as little as $10, $50, $100, just start with the habit because once that compounds, you can start making big investments without having to say, like I used to say, I'll just go sell more houses to go buy this investment. 

So step one is structure and not mixing your personal funds with your business funds. Step two is protecting yourself from the IRS. So most agents nightmare is tax season. I know because I've been there. So some of the most common mistakes is waiting till the very end to get things done, guessing on the whole write off game. And sometimes, you know, what I've learned recently is don't write everything off, especially if you're going to be purchasing other investment properties. Don't zero it out. There's other ways that you can do it and not pay taxes legally, right? So the fix is if you can create buckets early, such as taxes, maybe even a self-directed IRA, T-bills or whole life insurance as a savings account vehicle, or even a high yield savings account, you might be able to let money work for you while it's sitting. 

So Klarissa has leveraged the tax code so strategically that she has paid zero taxes legally, which I love sharing what her knowledge is to our group. But organizing money isn't just about taxes. It's about actually paying yourself and multiplying your money. So agents wait until the end of the month to see what's left. CEOs actually pay themselves first. And here's a tip, I want you guys to set a percentage, even if it's five, 10, whatever it is, and start to automatically move it. Why this matters is when you respect profit, you create discipline. And I think overall having discipline around money is going to create some different types of habit and the way you look at money, especially in your business. And over time, this builds the capital you'll need for real estate investments or other investments. 

And now we tie it in to a rhythm because you know I'm all about rhythms. So money pulse check routine. Know your burn rate and that means have some awareness on what you spend to have the lifestyle that you want that matters. And I'm not saying don't buy the Starbucks like Klrissa said, you know. Know what your lifestyle is and know how much your burn rate is, right. 

The next thing is having a monthly routine for me. I take the first Friday of every single month. I can actually call them financial Fridays where I review our P & Ls from our different entities, investments, and what we brought in as a company and where we need to make adjustments. Then as far as quarterly goes, I try to sit down with some of our financial teams. That could be a CPA, that could be our tax strategist, that could be our financial person. And the reason why we do that is if we have to make some moves to not pay taxes legally, is we have enough time before doing everything at the very end. And when you actually have a rhythm, guess what? You have peace of mind. 

So you know your money is organized, you actually stop playing catch up and start playing bigger. So I want you to ask yourself right now, do I even know how much of each commission check goes to where? Do I have more than one account? Am I actually paying myself first or am I just surviving to the next closing? And what would it feel like if you opened your bank account app and saw things in order instead of chaos?

So my challenge to you is by the end of this week, open up maybe a new account or organize your money or open up a tax account or commit to transferring a percentage from one of your next closing. Think start there, make some organizational moves, small steps. Remember, create momentum, my friends. 

And now if you're listening to this and you're realizing, gosh, Raquel, this is exactly what's missing in my business. You're not alone. This is why I have built the Agent CEO Accelerator because inside we just don't talk about getting more leads and more sales. We build systems that allow you to keep your money, grow it and leverage it into investments that set you free.

And if you want a step-by-step guide on setting up your finance systems, your visibility systems, your lead generation systems, this is what we all do in Agent CEO. So do me a favor, if you're interested, send me a DM on IG @itsraquelq with the word AgentCEO, because you deserve to feel like a CEO, not just a hustling agent chasing the next commission check. 

So here's the bottom line, friends, making money is only half the game. Organizing it, protecting it, and then multiplying it, that's when you step into your CEO role. Most agents will never make the shift, but you're not most agents. So you're here, you're listening to this podcast because I know you're ready to Play Bigger with your money, your business, and your future.

I want to thank you all for hanging out with me on another quick episode. I'm sending you so much love for the week ahead and I cannot wait to hear all the breakthroughs you have when you start organizing your finances like a CEO. And until our next episode, don't forget to keep Playing Bigger.