The Alan K Show

Stop Overcomplicating: The Real Estate Lessons With Andrea Madison

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0:00 | 52:58

On this episode of BEST Life Builders is a real conversation with Andrea Madison about how she went from survival mode to building teams and producing consistently by surrounding herself with high performers and modeling what works. We also break down her lead-gen reality, especially how open houses, dialing, and follow-up stack into predictable pipeline (not just hope).

0:00 — Alan opens the episode + Andrea Madison intro (15 years in real estate)
2:00 — The Taylor Swift / Frozen video story (how it started and still drives business)
6:00 — Real estate mindset: “bar isn’t that high,” and why staying “untouchable” hurts agents
12:00 — How Andrea actually sells: making herself the “dumbest person in the room” to level up
20:00 — Leadership journey: becoming a team leader (recruiting + coaching responsibilities)
28:00 — Mentorship + emotional control (simple solutions, don’t overcomplicate)
38:00 — The Place partnership + taking over leadership (systems, support, and earning the role)
52:00 — The 60-day production challenge (metrics, accountability, and why open houses worked again)

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SPEAKER_03

I intentionally made myself the dumbest person in the room for a very long time. I wanted to get around people that were doing this at a high level. I still am like that.

SPEAKER_01

Welcome to another episode of a Best Live Builders podcast. And today we have a very special guest in our studio. Andrea Madison Rikley.

SPEAKER_03

Andrea Madison.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. 15 years in real estate.

SPEAKER_03

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01

Business. Right? Was featured on In Men News.

SPEAKER_03

That's my peak.

SPEAKER_01

That's your peak. For a video, right? Yeah, a couple of videos. A couple of videos. Well, there's one in particular. That was a Taylor Swift video. Shake It Off. That was the one. That was the one, right? That was the most fun ever. Seriously. I tell you, I probably, no joke. I think, I think it was it back in 2015. Definitely. I probably watched that video, no freaking joke, a hundred times. Thanks. To the point where like I cannot listen to this anymore. I know. And you did such a great job, right? I mean, it was just perfect. It was just a perfect. I think you did another one, uh, frozen, right? Was it frozen? Frozen one. Frozen one. How did you how did you come up with that particular, like, I don't call it a shticker, like, but it was something like where you're like, man, you just crushed.

SPEAKER_03

Well, I would love to keep doing that. I have more. I just kind of personal life went off into a world where I was like, I can't do these right now, right? We talked about that before the show, ages of life kind of thing.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

I grew up with parents in 80s cover bands.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_03

So literally our going to sleep at night was band practice in the basement, you know, and uh going to the bars on the weekends because it's a lounge on Sunday in one bar.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Just so I always was surrounded by music. I used to write songs and I sang churches, I sang for CCV for a long time, even just like background vocals. And that was actually what kind of triggered it. I had girls who listened to Taylor Swift, my daughters were young at the time. I had a deal going sideways, and I just write lyrics. I've always written lyrics and songs and poems, and I was joking around, the song came on at the house, and I said, Well, you know, my lender's gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake, so my buyer's gonna flake, flake, flake, and then I was like, kept doing it, just kind of singing it as a joke to the girls, and then I she my daughter's like, just write it. You just know you want to. She was and then writing it was one thing, but it was actually in between services at CCV.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

You know, where I'm sitting with the band, and I was like, okay, my fellow music nerds, I have this ridiculous idea, but I want to do it right. I don't want it to be cheesy, like the sound's gotta be good, the videos gotta be good. This is before TikTok, this is before all that stuff. So they all just were like, oh, we can do this. So I had this whole group of my AV friends rally around. They helped me write like create our own track, and like we're in the studio, and then we did the whole video, and then it was just so fun. We wanted to do the next one.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And it, I don't know, it's how many views did you get?

SPEAKER_00

Like, have you ever like looked back and said, Man, I got like a million views or two.

SPEAKER_03

I did not get a million views. So I also I am very ready, fire aim. This is like the entrepreneurial struggle, right? Ready, fire aim. I work on this, so I'm just like, I have this, I go.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And so that's what we did. So I literally just was like, I don't know, just put it on. You know, I don't have like a YouTube channel, I don't have any sort of like way to streamline this. I think the official first video on Facebook had, I don't know, almost 400,000 views, 350,000. That was just raw, the not produced video, just the raw feed.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's incredible.

SPEAKER_03

Well, and it just kept going crazy, and I was like, oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01

I remember seeing it every day. I know. Like, I remember seeing it every day. I was like, she must be killing because I'm right away, I'm thinking, you know, she's probably getting a lot of DMs. She's probably getting a lot of business out of it. Why? Did you get a lot of business out of it?

SPEAKER_03

I still get business out of it.

SPEAKER_01

Are you serious?

SPEAKER_03

Yes, I do, because I honestly, I went to a listing appointment two months ago, and I sat down at the table. I did not know these, I had not met these people, right? They got referred to me by a past client.

SPEAKER_02

Yep.

SPEAKER_03

And they said, okay, well, before we get started, is this you? My video from 10 years ago, and I was like, that is in fact me. And the the frozen one, I was like, this is how you're gonna feel on this market right now. Is that the show anymore? Right? Like the first one was for the agents, and then the second one was for the the clients. And yeah, I do have listless baby floating around out there. I performed that for like a YPN fundraiser. I don't have a legit video, but that one's probably my favorite.

SPEAKER_01

That's your favorite one. That's my favorite. I gotta check it out.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I'll post. I actually will post it. I have the raw video that like I never posted it myself, like it got shared, I got tagged in it, and but I I got it back recently. And so, like, I might just I don't know what to do with it. Yeah, but it's just funny. Yeah, I love to bring the levity to our industry because it can be so stressful and so serious.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, they're just ebbs and flows pretty much on a daily basis, right? I mean, your buyer's under contract, oh, your buyers can't qualify as that. I was talking to a buddy of mine, he's on a contract on a million-dollar house, and he's supposed to close today. And for the last week, he's been trying to get a hold of his lender.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, that's oh no.

SPEAKER_01

And he's got $20,000 fake, fake, right? And the buyer's not flaking. No, he's got $20,000 going hard. So he's like, Alan, I gotta close this thing. And I'm not representing your I cannot help. It's like you gotta talk to your agent, you gotta find another lender. Like, obviously, the I mean, the file's already pretty packaged in, right? So, like, you just gotta find somebody else who can probably not close today, but maybe in a week or two, right? But you cannot just sit and wait for this lender to call you back. One week, oh, that's a million-dollar house, $20,000 going hard.

SPEAKER_03

So, this is this is the thing about real estate that I think it keeps people out. There's like this idea that, oh, it's this big, prestigious, untouchable. And is it super important? Yes.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And I say with all respect and love for my fellow agents, the bar is not that high sometimes, right? Like the people out there, there honestly, I think that was a big thing that got me into the industry. I sort of saw from the loan perspective, my ex was a lender, and I saw people asking these questions, and I was like, the agents asking him questions as an LO, and I was like, how do they not, how do they not know? They're representing these people. Oh, I have to go help them. They need representation. You know, like it's it's sad.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, but you're also on a LO side of things, you also have, you know, LO's.

SPEAKER_03

Well, that's what I mean.

SPEAKER_01

That's another way, is like, like, you know, I don't know if you notice. I only found out about this like less than a year ago. It's 24 hours of of education or schooling to get your loan officer's license.

SPEAKER_03

I got my loan originator license, had it for about six weeks, and then I was like, forget this, I'm going back to the real estate words.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So what got you into real estate? So 15 years ago you got your real estate license. Your ex-husband was a lawn lender, lending.

SPEAKER_03

And so I got kind of some exposure to it that way, right? Because he was this was 2009, he decided to get into the prime side of lending, which we know was horrible.

SPEAKER_02

2009.

SPEAKER_03

Had four babies under the age of eight when I got my license. Oh wow. And just needed, you know, when you I had two in school, two at home, and you're in that can't really afford to work because all it's gonna do is pay for dick care. Because then I have to have an afterschool program for the older two. And so I was trying to figure out what I could do to bring in just anything. And my goal at that point was, you know, if I could even just pay my car payment. It was like 350 bucks a month. I can sell a couple houses a year, right? I know I can do this, I can make it flexible around my schedule. I just need to make my car payment. So I got my real estate license and, you know, just started talking to everyone, everyone. The the kids' events, kids' birthday parties, moms at school. Like, I think I closed my first deal. Actually, I had my first escrow. I was so excited. I got my license like November 1st, and I got my first escrow within a couple weeks.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And we're halfway through it. We're gonna close in December, and my client gets job transfer and has to move to Florida. That was my very first transaction, right?

SPEAKER_01

Why am I doing this?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I'm so glad that I am doing this now.

SPEAKER_01

So your first transaction didn't come up with it. It didn't even happen. And that was back in 2010 or 11?

SPEAKER_03

2010.

SPEAKER_01

So you were getting in a business where like a bunch of agents were still like getting out of business, right?

SPEAKER_03

I mean That was the thing that made me feel like it was safe to get in. I was I seriously watched these people just like quitting and leaving, and I was like, oh, well, now there's fewer, there's less competition. I didn't also I didn't see the high glory days, right? Of just the handover fist money of the bubble. So I was like, anything for me is good, and I'm just gonna go see what happens. Right.

SPEAKER_01

Again, your goal was like, if I could just close a couple of deals a year. Yeah. That was it. That's it.

SPEAKER_03

And then it just started to go pretty quickly, and I had to learn boundaries really fast because I couldn't afford daycare. And so I would have people wanting to see houses or they're calling me to help with listings, and I I finally got to a point where I could put the little two in daycare from eight to noon on Tuesday and Thursday. So I said, okay, I this is when I'm available just me. Outside of these hours, I may have some or all of my children with me.

SPEAKER_01

And just put in front of them, like, I may Were you driving like a minivan or were you having those days as well because during that time my kids were also like under age of five, right? So three kids, but they were going to daycare. My my my wife had a job, but all the way in uh, you know, uh downtown Phoenix. But I remember those days putting them, like getting them in a van, trying to get them out of the like like buckling them up, and the buckles are super hot. It's 110 degrees outside, and they're yelling and they're screaming. I was like, God help me, please.

SPEAKER_03

The day that they could all like get into the car by themselves on their own seatbelt was just like this own its own independence day for me.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

The little things that you don't realize. Yeah, and my baby just graduated high school, so that's how long this has been now, and it it's crazy.

SPEAKER_01

The oldest one just graduated? No, the youngest graduate. The youngest one. Okay, my oldest one graduated. Yeah, well, my youngest one just graduated.

SPEAKER_03

Graduation.

SPEAKER_01

So you're down with high school, schools, girls off to college, that's what they're doing?

SPEAKER_03

I've got one in college, and then one they one moved out. She moved out the second she turned 18. She was just like, Yep, I got an apartment with my friend. Bye, and works for Dutch Bros. I'm just loving it. And then I've got one who uh works for wired cable right now, like the internet.

SPEAKER_01

I hate calling it cable.

SPEAKER_03

I'm old. So he's working door number one.

SPEAKER_01

Systems and house and everything like that. Yeah, fibropting and everything like that.

SPEAKER_03

So he's working for them and he wants to get his loan originator license and his real estate license and wants to do all the things. So we'll see.

SPEAKER_01

All the things. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

He's yeah, he had time to do all this.

SPEAKER_01

Awesome. All right, so going back, get your real estate license. First deal didn't go through.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

What about the second deal? What was the second deal?

SPEAKER_03

The second one that I remember that actually the first deal I actually remember closing was a little condo in Sun City for $17,000. That was closing.

SPEAKER_01

My first my first deal was a hundred thousand dollar listing, but I wasn't in it.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

But it lit like literally felt like it was like a million dollar listing. It was like a $2,500 commission check.

SPEAKER_03

So I think it it was a lender-owned property, so the bank was offering some sort of bonus. So it was like I made about a thousand dollars, I think twelve hundred dollars or something. And for me, that was four months of my car payment because that was my goal. That's right. So, you know, that's right. When the the goal was low.

SPEAKER_00

That's right.

SPEAKER_03

I was like, hey, you can do that a couple more times. And then it then it became the oh, well, what if I could what if I could pay the mortgage? And then it was, what if I could pay all the bills, right? You know, then it was kind of like a oh, I didn't think I could do that. It just was a not even a thought when I got started. It was simply like survival mode.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And I'm assuming most of that business was coming from, you know, word of mouth, referrals, people in church, schools, and all of that. All of that, all of that, right? So kind of give us like as I was looking at your production, and I think you're you're closer to like 200 homes in the past 15 years.

SPEAKER_03

Personally, yeah, personally, yeah. Personally, I was gonna say with my team, I've generally done more than that.

SPEAKER_01

Much more that, right? So personally, right? So easily that. That's a lot of homes. So how are you able to get like so many transactions in such a short period of time?

SPEAKER_03

I don't know any different. You want to know the the real truth. I intentionally made myself the dumbest person in the room for a very long time. I wanted to get around people that were doing this at a high level. I still am like that. Yeah, right. So, like we mentioned Kesley, you had her on your on your show.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

She's one of my best friends. And so she and I push each other. And we call it cooperation. We have our cooperative competition every month to see which of our teams, and we go back and forth, which is great. And then we're the only two that were pushing each other. So I gotta find another room.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

People doing more than me to get me to that next level. And so that's always what I did. Like I went, I was with Keller Williams for most of my career. I think 2013 was the first year I went to a convention.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_03

Major imposter syndrome, right? Like, oh my gosh, everyone here is a multimillionaire and sells a thousand houses a year. And I have sold like 10 in my entire career, right? Just this overwhelm. And what I learned though was obviously that's not true. Yeah. Right? What I learned is that everyone was there to better themselves and I got involved in a culture of self-development, personal growth, and the business came with that. Yeah. Right. Because when you realize it, when the goal I could make my car payment, if that was still the goal, I'd sell one house a year. That's not, that's not it. It changes, right? Then it becomes how am I empowering my clients to make the best decisions?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And then it grows to how can I empower other people to get into real estate and then live this life they never thought they could have. Like the why changed. I think that's how you sell more homes is you you work on yourself.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And then the the business follows.

SPEAKER_01

Right. And the vehicle for that is that environment, I feel like, right? So like Tony Ro Robbins talks about this all the time, right? Proximity is power, success leaves clues, right? Like one of the biggest blessings that we all have is the ability to compress the time. And that's not trying to reinvent a will, but being in a room with people that have done what you're trying to do. And in those rooms, that's exactly what you're talking about. Like learning from others, modeling after others, getting inspired by others, right? I know we have a tendency as entrepreneurs to try to figure out everything ourselves and everything like that, but a lot of times it's already been done, right? It's like, how do we just copy it and model it? Like my uh a good buddy of mine and partner of mine, uh Joshua Smith, I'm sure you're familiar with it. Josh. He's always talking about R D off and duplicate. Like, hey, dude, like we had a conversation yesterday. This guy like brought in like 670 agents in the past 16 months. The guy is a freaking savage. I was like, Josh, how are you doing? He's like, dude, I'm showing you how to do it. Just rip off and duplicate. That's it. Rip off and duplicate.

SPEAKER_03

That's I think the funniest thing because it is that simple. It is that simple. It's not easy to do though. We get in our own way, we get in our own heads, we get ideas, and especially, you know, when you're entrepreneurial and creative and you, I want to do it this way. And you can, and you won't get the same results. You have these proven models. Yeah. Follow the model, get the result. Yep. So it's you're not special. We try to be special.

SPEAKER_01

No, we try to find a hack or shortcut. Yep. Right? Or that that magic pill, all right? Like, no, no, it doesn't work that way. You just gotta do the work.

SPEAKER_03

You gotta do the work.

SPEAKER_01

Got it. Okay. If you're an agent listening to this, let me ask you something. How predictable is your pipeline? Because most agents aren't struggling with the skill, they're struggling with the opportunity. You can be the best agent in the world, but if you don't have conversations with buyers and sellers, you're not closing deals. That's where fastlead.io comes in. We help agents create consistent opportunities. No random leads, no guessing where the next deal is coming from, a real pipeline that turns conversations into closings. That's what we're here to build. If you want my playbook to increase your business without burning out, book a call below. So uh being in a room with the right type of people, modeling after them, right? So is that with just uh like a KW rooms or were like where you have any other coaches that you look like?

SPEAKER_03

I would uh I would find people who I So really when I started kind of growing personally was that 2013 year and I kind of was just in KW world.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

So I would went to that first convention and there were people who I really enjoyed, like speakers who I really enjoyed, and I decided no one is off limits on social media. So I started following them, I started messaging them, I started intentionally interacting with like their posts on Facebook and and just they're just people.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, right?

SPEAKER_03

They're just people, and so I would ask questions and I would find out where their next class was or if they were doing like a webinar or how like how can I get around this person who I want to be like?

SPEAKER_02

Got it.

SPEAKER_03

And that ended up just putting me in rooms with a lot of other people who were doing the same thing. And then you just start, you know, collaborating with those people. And so now I'm friends with, you know, I've got this network of agents across the country because we all kind of have the same people that we're following and business models that we're working to run and and and that. And it I think that that was a big deal, just meeting the other people who we're seeking out. Right, right, just being around growth-minded people.

SPEAKER_01

Interesting. Okay, all right. So, fast forward, right? Uh you mentioned to me that at one point you were a team leader.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Of uh, of a Keller Williams. Keller Williams, over a hundred agents.

SPEAKER_03

So actually, the first time I was a team leader, yeah, I was recruited to Washington.

SPEAKER_01

To Washington. So I was So you're local.

SPEAKER_03

I wanted to I wanted to leave Arizona.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, you wanted to leave Arizona, okay.

SPEAKER_03

Uh I wanted my sisters were in the Pacific Northwest, wanted to be by family, and I grew up in this in South Dakota in the Black Hills. I just missed green. I still miss green and trees and weather. So I got recruited and I was like, this is closer to my my sisters. Yeah. So that was actually 300 agents.

SPEAKER_01

So who recruited you?

SPEAKER_03

Ben Kinney.

SPEAKER_01

Ben Kinney. Yeah. Okay, that was what a year? 2017. And he said, hey, come over.

SPEAKER_03

Kind of. No one's off limits on social media. So we had connected in a couple Facebook groups. I he's one of the people who I wanted to be in the room with. Yeah. Right. So I'd gone to a couple of his events. He posted that he was looking for leadership in Washington.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And I said, okay, like, I'll do it. Like, I I'd be interested. And he was like, really, you would move? And I said, yeah, I was. I wanted to move up. I'm looking at Pacific Northwest anyway. I want to get close to my sisters. If you have an opportunity, I'd love to explore it. And I don't think I ever really thought in a million years that that was gonna pan out. I don't know. I just was like, sure, why? Let's just explore it. Then I thought, man, what a cool opportunity would that be to work with somebody like Ben. Right? That was one of the hardest things I have ever done was work for Ben Kinney. He's amazing. He's one of my favorite humans on the planet. He treats his people so incredibly well and is so good at what he does. Yeah. And it's for a reason. He is so committed. And the expectations are, the standards are very high. The expectations are very high. That was where I really learned recruiting.

SPEAKER_02

Wow.

SPEAKER_03

Because I jumped in and I didn't know anybody. I didn't know any of the agents in the market, which was kind of a great thing for me, right? Because then I wasn't afraid to call anyone.

SPEAKER_01

So were your role as a recruiter, your role as a team leader for the market plan?

SPEAKER_03

When you're a team leader, you are a recruiter.

SPEAKER_01

You're a recruiter.

SPEAKER_03

You are a recruiter, you are in charge of coaching your top agents, you're running the day-to-day of the office, you know, you're getting all the training on the calendars, classes. I'm meeting with, you know, new agents, people who want to get licensed, producing agents. Like that is that role. It is it is a major role.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, it's a powerhouse role. It is a powerhouse role. Absolutely. So but you didn't have any experience before that though. Right. You were not you didn't have a team in 2016. I had a team. You had a team. Okay. So what did you do with the team?

SPEAKER_03

They were still producing when I went up to Washington.

SPEAKER_01

Interesting.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And what was the size of your team?

SPEAKER_03

I had three producing agents.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_03

A full-time admin and a TC.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. Got it.

SPEAKER_03

And that year we did 60 units.

SPEAKER_01

60 units. That's in 2016, 17, right?

SPEAKER_03

17.

SPEAKER_01

Got it.

SPEAKER_03

And then 18 we did, or no, sorry, 16 we did 60. And then 17, we did 75. I think that was our highest year that I ever did. And and then my personal life went sideways and ended up just not having the team here. Got divorced. Like it was just that whole, I felt like I was failing. And so I took a step back and I I left. And I wish I hadn't. I wish I had stuck through that, right? And just kept going. I was doing okay in my job, but I felt like I was failing as a person, as a mom, and I was in that like I can't do make everybody happy in all the places.

SPEAKER_01

And that was happening in 2018. Yeah. So you you took your entire family, you moved to Pacific Northwest, including your husband, ex-husband.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Got it. Okay. And he's a lender.

SPEAKER_03

Correct.

unknown

Okay, got it.

SPEAKER_03

That was just, it was not good. Our relationship was was pretty not good. You know, it was pretty, it got pretty toxic at the end. And that was a big to-do with, you know, kind of things falling apart in that. So I loved that role. I loved Washington. I loved that Ben gave me the opportunity. And I needed to be there. I had a soft place to land. My sisters were there.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Right. Yeah. So I was able to to get away from a situation, get my life back on track, get healthy mentally. Yeah. And move forward.

SPEAKER_01

Move forward.

SPEAKER_03

So that's what we were able to do.

SPEAKER_01

And when did you decide to come back to Arizona?

SPEAKER_03

So that was uh 2020, is when I got I came back to Arizona. Right, right during Oh gosh, right during COVID. Yeah. So this was so fun. So I I was in Idaho because that's where my sister was. Yeah. I got my license there, had sold a bunch of houses in Idaho. I was actually at that point because I was like, you know, I have a team in Arizona. I have a team in Idaho. Like there's a national cap that just made sense to me.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

So I'm recently divorced, moving back to Arizona, January of 2020, going back into I'm going into this little apartment was perfectly fine, right? And I'm like, Right, starting over, I have first week of Jan or last week of January 2020, I have five deals in escrow. Four fell out. Four fell out. I'm like, this is, I still have two littles at home. Right. And I'm a newly single mom. And now I'm looking at almost no income for this apartment I just signed. And I don't know what to do. So I was just going to work, doing what I could, calling people and telling them I was back in Arizona. And I reached out to our broker here in Glendale, because this is the Keller Williams I started at, and said, Hey, I just want to let you know I'm back in Arizona. I don't know if you guys have any leadership opportunities or what's going on. But she said, You need to call Tom right now. He's the owner. She was like, he needs a team leader and I know he'd want to talk to you. So they fast tracked me, got me hired, put me in that role. I started March and closed the office March 15th for COVID. Locked down. And got to recruit virtually.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And that's when you were taking my people.

SPEAKER_01

They recruited a couple of top reasons. That's all right. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

We clearly you had something that we didn't have to give them. That's also the nature of the beast, right?

SPEAKER_01

But that's when I started my brokerage. Opened the doors to my brokerage on January 14th.

SPEAKER_03

Oh yeah. Perfect time.

SPEAKER_01

2020, right? And then of course March 15th, the freaking lockdown. And I was like, holy shit, what do I do? Right? Fit it. Yeah. That's it. That's it. And there are a lot of agents that I brought in that year, like most of them didn't even come to the office. Yeah. Even right now, most of our agents don't come to the office.

SPEAKER_03

No, they still don't. That I don't think that the office world really recovered from that as far as real estate goes. We all learned, like, oh, we can do this from home. Thanks.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So you became a team leader in January 28th, right? Or sometime there in 2020. How was the second experience being a team leader? What did you learn from the, you know, Ben Kinney's mentorship and guidance and coaching, and how were you able to apply?

SPEAKER_03

Um he the thing that's great about Ben is Ben is very focused on emotional intelligence, emotional control, personal growth, change. He's very it's very simple. Everything is the simplest solution, has been my experience, right? Like you don't like it, change it.

SPEAKER_01

Don't overcome overcomplicate it.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. I think a quote, I don't know if he's the one who originally said it, but he's the first place I heard it was we overcomplicate the simple to justify our own inactions. Love that. That's a good gut punch, right? Like we overcomplicate the simple to justify our inaction when it really is simple and we don't want to do the work. Lead generation is simple. You pick up the phone and you dial it. We have an auto-dialer. I click select all call and it dials. It cannot get more simple than that. But then we get paralyzed in, but what am I gonna say? And who's gonna answer? And why do how do I know this person? And we start overcomplicating when it really is, hey, at one point we were in touch. Just touch and base again to see where you're at with your real estate goals. How can we help? It is that simple. My I think that was the biggest thing I learned from him was like our tendency to overcomplicate.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And then I learned that I had to do a lot of personal growth because I let an emotional crisis derail my professional world because I wasn't capable of handling what was happening from an emotional perspective. I did a lot of work. A ton of work, a ton of books, NLP, went through all of the classes for that, and then got went through master practitioner, things that were going to give me tools to break the patterns, you know, those sub those deep-rooted beliefs that get you stuck in those cycles and you keep doing the same loop. So I had to go do a lot of work. So that was a lot of what I learned from Ben. But then that went into translated more into leadership of doing the work in leadership, keeping your emotions between the lines. Can't let things get personal.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_03

Keeping the mission at number one.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

You have to do the work. You have to do the work, and and you have to also understand that, you know, whatever happened to you happened for the reason. It did. Right? Like, you know, God throws us into fire to remove the blemishes that we have, right? It tests us all the time. I remember what I went through financially, personally, in 2008 during the Great Recession. Lost everything, close to a million dollars in debt, lost our personal property. We have a second child coming up, and my wife is just freaking out. So I had to send her to New York to her parents because we're losing her, we're losing our home. Like and she needed stability. And she needs stability, and I was worried. And uh the lowest part about that whole ordeal was the fact that she gave birth to her son and didn't have the money to even go there initially to see the birth of my son. I was trying to find a place here to find to rent, right? But looking back, it probably was one of the best things that happened to me because it really prepared me for to when I get my real estate license, and then trying to close my first deal, which took six months.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, because it does.

SPEAKER_01

It does. But at the same time, I started having uh GI symptoms that that uh resulted into me having an autoimmune disease, which is all certocolitis, which is not fun at all. No, because like you physically it's taxing, you go to the to the bathroom eight, nine, ten times a day, number two. But again, like it hardened me in 2008, 2009 to really was able to for me to overcome these mental barriers in 2013 as well as 14. Right. And then when the whole COVID situation happened, me starting a brokerage, you know, even though at first I was kind of like internally freaking out. Yeah. And I was like, you know what, I'll figure it out.

SPEAKER_03

Figure it out.

SPEAKER_01

Well figure it out.

SPEAKER_03

I think that's kind of the the mantra. What that really did for me was I, you know, I had to get really real with what I was tolerating in my life, in my children's lives, and decided that that wasn't the life that I wanted for them or for me. And it was a new boundaries experience, right? Of hey, I don't have to allow this in my life. And I don't think I had given myself that kind of permission or power to stand up for myself and say, like, you know, that's just that's not gonna be okay, and we're not gonna live like that.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And it really was that simple. It didn't need to be me having a meltdown, and obviously, like when you're in the moment of it and some of those things are pulling you and those emotions take over, you get stuck. But I also didn't have the tools, and I went and got the tools and did the work.

SPEAKER_01

Well, it's it's I remember having those conversations with my mom and she's no longer with us. Um, but she told me plot out, she's like, the only reason why I did not leave your dad was because of this, you know, she was afraid. You know, what is it gonna do, you know, for our family, what's it gonna do for us, right? And back in the day, we're you know, back in Russia, like women didn't really have rights. I mean, if you're divorced, I mean you're you're they put a yeah, a mark on you, a mark on you, like this and that, right? But she said, you know, one of the things that that I I felt like, you know, the whole life, and they lived a decent life, but they never how should I say this? Um they never were happy. Yeah, there was always something, right? They were not compatible, yes. They're all constantly bickering, arguing, so stupid shit. Like, and we witnessed that as kids, and it's not healthy. No, right? And you know, I have this conversation with someone else right now, uh, where they're kind of going through similar stuff, and I was like, dude, like we got kids and everything like that. Like you're you cannot you cannot continue doing this. Like kids deserve better.

SPEAKER_03

The separation doesn't hurt the kids as much as the conflict. And I think when you feel that you've committed to something, you're trying to fix it, fix it, fix it, fix it. But really, it's okay to recognize that something's beyond repair. Yeah, there was someone who I was sitting with my son, I think we were like at the ice skating rink, and this person I know was like, Oh, hey, I heard you guys split up. But I'm like in front of my son, who was probably 10, right? And I'm like, Yeah, I still want to have this conversation with you. But he was just like, gosh, are you happier? Or and he asked my son, like, or is your mom happier? And I'm like, So rude. Okay, but he said, Yeah, so is your mom happier? And my son goes, I don't know, I'm happier. And I went, Okay.

SPEAKER_02

That's it.

SPEAKER_03

That was what we needed. Yeah, that was what we needed. It was the best thing for all of us, and uh, he's doing well, we've co-parented the kids. It's it's good, right? We're good, yeah, and the kids are great, everybody's happier. It was the right thing to do, and it's one of those things that you can look back in hindsight and wish you had done it sooner, but I had to be in the right place to do it.

SPEAKER_01

So, and I don't think there's always ever a perfect time. No, like no, there's just you go through such an emotional roller coaster with this stuff, yeah. You know, especially with four kids.

SPEAKER_03

No, and I'm not gonna judge myself for feeling like I was in survival mode and doing what I thought I had to do. Yeah, would I do things differently? Yeah. Do I have regrets? Yep. And if we can learn from it, that's all I can do is grow.

SPEAKER_02

That's what I can do.

SPEAKER_03

That's all I can do is grow. And I will I share these things with people so they know that it's okay and you're not stuck. You can't really make a wrong decision. You can make a decision that maybe didn't go the way you wanted, and then you can course correct. Like you don't have to stay here, and that goes for anything, not just relationships, right? You can say you committed to something and change your mind, and that's okay. Or it may not be a healthy situation for you, and that's okay.

SPEAKER_01

And it's okay to start over at times. It's okay.

SPEAKER_03

It's okay.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

So I think starting over with uh with the clarity and knowledge of what how you want something to be or not, yeah, is definitely better than just winging it in the first place. So love it.

SPEAKER_01

Love it. All right, so team leader, KW.

SPEAKER_03

Yep.

SPEAKER_01

And again, I, you know, I kicking those agents was not really intentional. It wasn't like those KW. You mentioned it multiple times too. Because I kind of deal with this right now. I got a few of my agents that were uh poached by another brokerage, and uh they're always going to see and you know, a couple of people are just like, well, Alan, aren't you gonna do something about it? And I was like, listen, I mean we'll figure it out.

SPEAKER_03

I'm so I hope you know that I'm kidding.

SPEAKER_01

I know I know, I know, I know, I know, I know. You have to trust me, I know, I know, I know.

SPEAKER_03

You have to recruit agents.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I know. You have to. That's that's that's ultimately that's how we grow. You know, we grow by you know recruiting agents. You know, some people talk about agent attraction, but ultimately it was not recruiting agents, right? Like that's what do you do? That's that's how the teams grow, that's how the bro coaches grow.

SPEAKER_03

A hundred percent. That's it. No, it was no hard feelings. That's just how it goes. I just like to rouse you a little bit because you know, it's like, oh, this guy wants me on his podcast. Does he? Okay. I have words.

SPEAKER_01

So when did when did you decide to re- uh quote unquote retire from the leadership position?

SPEAKER_03

What happened? We had an agent in our office, so around so who is a place partner.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, familiar with place. Familiar with place. A buddy of mine who's actually a partner of mine at EXP, Kevin Kaufman. I don't know if you know what I'm saying. I know Kevin.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, Kevin and Frank.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, he's also really good friends. Kevin is really good friends with Ben Penny. Yeah. So talk to me about the a place before.

SPEAKER_03

Well, it's I think you should talk to him again. It's obviously it was started, founded by Ben and Chris Suarez, and I believe it's the next iteration of real estate. And we had an agent who was a place partner who's been she was retiring, Susan Ramsey, who's been in the business. Gun deals with her in a right, like almost 40 years, I think, in the valley. And I was the team leader, so I'm trying to help find her replacement. I know Ben, I believe in place. I'm like, this, and I know Susan and her business and how she runs it. I'm like, how am I having such a hard time finding someone to step into this business? Like, we're getting Susan's book of business, you're getting to step into place and all the opportunities that are with place. Like, I couldn't get agents to understand, and maybe this speaks to me as a recruiter, but I couldn't get agents to understand the opportunity that I was really presenting. Somebody who's gonna be leading the team, somebody's gonna lead the team, but they couldn't get over the oh, but a 50-50 split. I'm like, yes, with group health coverage and like full admin support and all the overhead, you have a legal team, a finance team, HR department, and a book of business and a company that's pre-IPO where you can earn stock options, right? Like they're the idea of place is to have everything in one place and for agents to have m be the center of that with opportunities for multiple streams of income. So I'm trying to explain this opportunity to agents who I think still even have a hard time understanding the concept of a team. Because, you know, they say you you have a split for your team and they see it as they're giving up income that may not may or may not even be there. It's potential.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, they're seeing it seem almost kind of like a middleman.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Where in reality, I think the brokerage is the middleman.

SPEAKER_03

I think the brokerage is the middleman.

SPEAKER_01

I think the place a brokerage or it's brokerage agnostic. Okay, interesting.

SPEAKER_03

It is a business platform for top producing teams. It's really is it's partnership in a box, basically, right? Is you've got somebody helping you with eyes on the back end and providing things like I love the idea of if I have when I hire my full-time admin, I can give her actual benefits. I didn't have that opportunity, right? Like I had I had an assistant for three years that I'm like, I can just basically say you have unlimited vacation. That's basic that's the just as long as the job gets done, that's all I can do. So it helps, I think, to bring a lot more opportunity to agents and help them. And it's just the systems are there, right? The models are proven. So I was working so hard to try to find someone to take over Susan's business. And then I went, Susan, you know why I can't find someone? It's me. And she goes, you know what? I think you're right. So that was when I went back full-time into production. So I just merged my team with Susan's. We kept the Ramsey team name because it's just been around for so long. She's got such a great reputation here. And I'm like, I don't need my name on stuff. And yeah, so I've been building, rebuilding the Ramsey team now for the last four years.

SPEAKER_01

Interesting.

SPEAKER_03

Because and so we're place partners. You know, she's retired.

SPEAKER_01

She keeps she's gone.

SPEAKER_03

She keeps saying she's gonna retire.

SPEAKER_01

Hold on, is she still doing production or not? She's not doing production.

SPEAKER_03

Well, she says that, but then she's like, Well, my granddaughter needs to buy a house, and so I'm gonna go help my granddaughter. So no, she's really not.

SPEAKER_01

It's it's to retire. I mean, I don't know. I I don't see myself ever retiring to be custody.

SPEAKER_03

Well, I don't think, and I don't think she will either. She keeps her license active, she keeps plugged in with things, and yeah, she's you know but she's like retire day-to-day stuff, like yeah, like she's sending me her her clients, you know, that reach out to her now or new uh referrals, things like that. She's sending them to me.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

But for the last four years, it's been having to earn that. It's funny because I think there was that thought in my brain too, it's like I was just gonna step in and take over. And it's like I you don't get to just take over for someone like Susan Ramsay, right? I had to earn it. Yeah, had to go in and earn that right to do work with her clients. And so that's been a process and it's been fun, but it's been hard and it's been a lot of growth. And now we're finally starting to see that grow this year.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, you mentioned to me or 45%.

SPEAKER_03

Yes.

SPEAKER_01

So it's pretty impressive.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you. It's the thing I will give place credit. They're doing these production challenges twice a year. Like going to the place event is different because you have to earn the right to be in the room. They do these production contests and they give you these metrics, and you have to hit a minimum of three to be able to go to the convention. You can't just buy a ticket. Wow. So talk about being in a room, right? That was been my whole with high performers.

SPEAKER_01

With high performers.

SPEAKER_03

So, for instance, the one we're in right now started April 28th that ends July 4th. 5,000 dials, 50 open houses, 50 full contacts, new contacts added to the database. We have an AI coaching call platform that does like role play calls. You have to do a hundred of those. Plus your listing agreements, buyer agreements, like all there's you have to hit three of those individually. It's not your team doing 50 open houses. It is each individual agent in this amount of time doing 5,000 dials in the open houses.

SPEAKER_01

In 90 days.

SPEAKER_03

In 60 days.

SPEAKER_01

60 days. So April, May, June. Yeah. So it's 60 days in two months.

SPEAKER_03

Two months.

SPEAKER_01

50 open houses.

SPEAKER_03

Yes.

SPEAKER_01

5,000 dials. Correct. And what else?

SPEAKER_03

You have to add 50 full new contacts to the database.

SPEAKER_01

50 full new contacts.

SPEAKER_03

100 of the AI coaching calls.

SPEAKER_01

That's through iDaler, like a coach. I would have that too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

So 100 of those calls. And then 10 buyer and or seller agreements or five listings. So if five of those agreements are listings, that counts as a metric. Yeah. It is.

SPEAKER_01

And who's holding these agents accountable?

SPEAKER_03

Your team leader.

SPEAKER_01

So you that's you.

SPEAKER_03

Yes.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_03

That's yeah. Uh-huh. And so some agents don't even want to play, and that's fine.

SPEAKER_01

Well, yeah. Most of the agents are probably.

SPEAKER_03

Most won't. Yeah. Most won't.

SPEAKER_01

Or they start and then if something happens. Let's go back to something interesting, right? So you said that you have this challenge. It's a 60-day challenge.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_01

5,000 open houses, bunch of other things, like 2,000 doorknob.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

You have to pick three, right?

SPEAKER_03

Well, you have to meet three.

SPEAKER_01

Three.

SPEAKER_03

To qualify to go to the event, the place event. So like we don't have a conference that anyone can just pay to go to. You have to earn the right to go.

SPEAKER_01

Got it. So to go to that event, you have to complete three. Complete three. Correct. And then what else you get as an agent?

SPEAKER_03

If you complete five, then you earn $1,000 worth of stock, which is pre-stock options. We're pre-IPO. We're still private, right?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So it's just that incentive of which could be eventually be worth $10,000, $15,020, $30,000, something like this. Who knows? You never know.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, who knows? It's I like the concept of us being able to build something ground up and we're a part of it. It's our company.

SPEAKER_01

Loved it. Okay. How many of them are actually in the game?

SPEAKER_03

On this one, last time I had four that completed.

SPEAKER_01

Out of how many?

SPEAKER_03

I don't remember how many I had. That was when I was just putting everyone on the team. I stopped that method of recruiting.

SPEAKER_01

You mean you pretended to be a brokerage?

SPEAKER_03

I treated my team like a brokerage. Well, listen, to be fair, that was my recruiting experience, right? Because it is not the same.

SPEAKER_00

It doesn't really work out.

SPEAKER_03

I mean it can, but it's no. I have, I think I had like eight or nine agents, quote unquote, on the team. I had probably five that were showing up, and three of them and myself completed the last challenge.

SPEAKER_01

That's pretty healthy.

SPEAKER_03

So it was not too terrible. This time we've cleaned house with a bunch of agents, starting with a clean slate. I've only I've got just my current husband, my husband, not I shouldn't say current, but my new husband and myself are the two that are really in it. And then I had one girl who just joined us, uh gosh, like two weeks ago, and she signed up. She's already done 10 open houses and knocked a hundred doors. Oh, I forgot that was another one they added 2,000 door knocks. So she's knocked a hundred doors.

SPEAKER_01

It's pretty intense.

SPEAKER_03

It's super intense.

SPEAKER_01

Wow. So you gotta do all of these things? Three.

SPEAKER_03

To get in the room.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, got it. Because I'm not really a door knocker.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, me neither.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. I mean I can dial. I'm in the autodialer.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. I've done 3,000 dials.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

I've done today is open house number 45 for me.

SPEAKER_01

For you. Yes. With open houses, you said, hey, like I'm doing 45 open houses so far. When you're doing open houses, what's your do you like door knock? Do you introduce yourself? Do you do any of that stuff? I haven't been. You haven't?

SPEAKER_03

Do I tell them that's the playbook? I'm supposed to be door knocking. Honestly, trying to cram all these open houses and I haven't door knocked every time.

SPEAKER_01

Well, because if you're moving from one open house to the next one, you just really do not have the time to do it.

SPEAKER_03

You're better about circle prospecting and calling ahead of time. Right. But like I have one agent on our team who loves to door knock.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And so she'll go out the day before with flyers and have all of our open house times on there. So it's not just hers, right? She's like, hey, we're here this many times this weekend, come on out. And she'll knock, you know, 20 doors.

SPEAKER_01

Got it.

SPEAKER_03

So that's where I'm seeing our growth was we did we started these challenges, and it's basically your job wrapped up in a package and like it to go to go to your job. But somehow it makes it more fun. But what I noticed was last year, only two of our transactions came from open houses. Two of our closed transactions came from open houses because this was not a big lead gen lever for me. I haven't done open houses for a very long time. I think I got I thought I was special and earned the right to not have to do this anymore, right? Like it's beneath me. I don't think that. But but we get so caught on, you know, referrals and past client business that comfortable.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

I'm coasting. And uh this year we've uh we've got seven closed from open houses and two from circle prospecting already. And that's not counting the pipeline that we've built by doing these challenges.

SPEAKER_01

So that's probably close to a hundred thousand dollars a year. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

By just adding a little bit of extra effort on a different lead gem lever.

SPEAKER_01

I tell this to my agents all the time, and they're like, Yeah, Alan, you're like a freaking broken record. I was like, if you just place me in any part of the country, right, with no marketing budget, no listings, I don't have a sphere, don't have past clients, I would hold open houses five days a week. Five days a week, I'd hold open houses and I'll door knock the other two days or show homes, whatever that is. But that's how I'm gonna be able to get one deal on the ask for the next 30 deals. Yeah, right? 30 days, and that's not me spending any money, none of that stuff. I'm gonna borrow somebody's listing, I'm gonna borrow somebody else's science. I don't care. I'm gonna do open house.

SPEAKER_03

I think you had asked my open house script. Yeah, like when people come into my favorite script, because this is what I teach my agents. Hi, my name's Andrea. What's yours?

SPEAKER_01

I'm Alan.

SPEAKER_03

Hi, Alan. What brings you to my open house today? I'm just looking. Yeah, cool. But I mean, like, sorry, I wasn't, but my favorite, I like to say like my script is hi, my name's Andrea. That is my script. That's it. It's just dope.

SPEAKER_01

But yeah, it's so my script is very similar, but I just kind of ask, I was like, hey, do you guys live in a neighborhood or you're shopping area next home, right? And that would kind of tell me like if they're like a seller, potentially a buyer, or just a buyer.

SPEAKER_03

So the actual script is, you know, like people usually come in because they're either, you know, looking to buy or sell. So which one of those is you? And it's that simple. But I like to always just because agents are like, what do I say? What and it's like, say hi, my name is, and go from there. We can build on that, right? Hi is the high as a script.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

That well, and what we do, we make it fun where because in order for it to count as an open house in this challenge, it has to be in our app, right? We have because we can capture leads in our app. That's how we have people register, and it has to be a minimum of two hours, different address every day. You can't have the same address different address every day.

SPEAKER_01

So you can't So how do you find listings?

SPEAKER_03

Uh we go get them, or we've you also had Rebecca Durfee on your show, right? So the goal is. Rebecca, and she's like, Yes, please hold my listings open. So, what we do, like Paul, my husband, Asusana, and I have like Three open houses, we'll leave the signs out and we just rotate. I just go to the next one, I go to the next one, you pick up the signs at your last open house and we got three in a day.

SPEAKER_01

That's badass.

SPEAKER_03

Right? It's been, it's been really cool collaboratively as a team. It makes it so fun because we don't want to put out signs. It's 150 degrees outside right now. We don't want to put out signs. So if you only have to do it once, but you get three different open houses, it makes it worth it. I love it. It's more of a plugged-in team collab. Oh. Yeah. So we've gotten really creative and I've had to get really creative with my schedule. That's another thing I don't like as an entrepreneur. I don't like being told what to do, even if it's my schedule.

SPEAKER_01

Of course.

SPEAKER_03

Don't even if it's me putting it in my calendar. Right. But I've had to get 50 open houses in that amount of time, I've had to block like, okay, I have to do like I do Wednesday, three to five, and then it's Thursday, Friday, Saturday, 10 10 to noon, and then 12:30 to 2:30. So I have them blocked and I'll just block them in there and then I put the address in once I know what listing we're gonna go to, usually the week before. But I had to block them in so and I had them like open house one, open house two. So I'm counting as I'm scheduling and planning it.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

It's made me have to really pay attention and get intentional with my business again where it's easy to coast. And so that's just not a coincidence that being intentional translates to being up 45%.

SPEAKER_01

45%, seven closings from open houses, and two from circles.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. So yeah, that's nine average prices.

SPEAKER_01

Essentially that's free business. You're not paying for any of that. You're not paying 40% to Zillow.

SPEAKER_03

Nope.

SPEAKER_01

Or realtor.

SPEAKER_03

No referrals, no, yeah. No, it's just, and then it's following the model. You can't just hold open houses and get people's data and put them on a drip and think they're gonna call you. Right.

SPEAKER_01

What's the next step after that?

SPEAKER_03

The next step is you call them.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And then you follow up as they're engaging, right? You you treat your database the way it's supposed to. We know if it's marked as hot, they're gonna move within the next three months. So we're calling them every week. If it's a nurture, it's you know, maybe once a month and they're moving within the next six months, whatever that may be. But there's running your filters. It is so easy the way that it's set up through the place model. It's here's the first lead generation step today. You click a link, it filters for you. I hit select, all, call. Now my dials go. That's it's that simple. And I still don't do it every day, right? Like this stupid.

SPEAKER_01

Because we have that mental blockages or mumbo jumbo that we're constantly, you know. We know what we have to do. But most of the agents know what they have to do. They're just not doing it.

SPEAKER_03

Or we're like, oh, but I have this email, or oh, this deal's going sideways.

SPEAKER_01

They get busy with things that are just not really making them money.

SPEAKER_03

Well, and that's what we talked about, me putting my phone on do not disturb since 2016. I wasn't care for you. I have, I think, two, I have like my kids and my husband that are allowed to get through my do not disturb. You can call two times in a row, three times in a row, I just not getting through my do not disturb. And I did that to take control of my timeline and not get distracted. You know, like I have to sit down and make those follow-up calls, yeah, or we're not gonna have that business.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And if I'm checking my email first thing in the day and see that somebody's freaking out about something, now my morning's derailed. Yeah. And now I didn't do my lead generation, and now I don't, now I don't have a paycheck in 90 days. That's what it translates to. It's not, it's simply getting off by going on someone else's agenda.

SPEAKER_01

You know, I remember one of my mentors used to tell me, Alan, if you show me calendar today, I'm gonna predict what's gonna happen in the next 60 to 90 days.

SPEAKER_03

Yep. It's so accurate. And it's simple. That's one of those foundational things that we think we're special and don't have to do, right? We don't put it in the calendar. But that was one of the first things I learned in real estate and probably didn't implement until about three years ago.

SPEAKER_01

And here's another thing about the open houses, going back to the open houses. By the way, probably one of my favorite lead sources out there, open houses.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, I love it.

SPEAKER_01

It's like the more you do them, right, the better you're gonna get them.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01

Unless, of course, you're brain dead. Right. Just doing them for the sake of doing it. But I don't think that should be the case. Just 115 degrees outside you're putting out sides. Yeah. The more you do them, the better you're going to get. And with so many resources that are out there right now, there's so much information, there's so much content on open houses and everything like that. You can learn so much, but at the same time, it paralyzes you because am I am I doing this correctly? Am I like I need 40 signs, I need this, I need, I need flags. No, no. Like, all you need is maybe 10 signs.

SPEAKER_03

If I do 10 is minimum, right?

SPEAKER_01

Make sure it's a good location, make sure the house is presentable, ideally moving ready, right? And that's it. Yeah, just open the doors.

SPEAKER_03

Anything works and nothing doesn't.

SPEAKER_01

It's like I had a conversation with my sister, she's uh on my team a couple of weeks ago, and it was like on Friday or something like that. And she was like, I don't know if I want to do the open house. I was like, remember, we said at least one open house a week. She's like, I don't know, but it's gonna be a hot degrees outside. And she was planning to do it on Sunday. I was like, again, it's mental. Let's get it done. So she put out 17 signs that day. She didn't want to do the open house. She was there for three or four hours. Guess what? She's got five people on a door. Yep. One of them she just listed and they're also looking to buy. She listed a $600,000 house and they're looking to buy a $600,000 house. There you go. Four-hour open house that she didn't want to do.

SPEAKER_03

No, I've had, you know, in hitting these challenges, we've had to get kind of unconventional with the times. I'm like, well, I guess I'm having an open house on a Tuesday at 10 a.m. because that's what works for my schedule this week. I've had buyers come in. I have gotten buyers at Tuesday at 10 a.m. because they're like, oh my gosh, this I have this weird, crazy schedule, and I can never get to open houses. There's always someone, and you do get the ones where nobody shows up. That's just part of part of it.

SPEAKER_01

Well, it's the same thing. You're also gonna get those that never answer their phone. Like you can dial 100 people, 200 people a day, and most of them will not answer. Oh no. You can text a bunch of people using auto text, and most most of them are not gonna respond to you. It's just part of the process, you know. Right. Disattach yourself from the outcome, marry the process.

SPEAKER_03

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01

Let's talk about the future for you.

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Let's say you and I were having a conversation five years from now. Where do you see yourself?

SPEAKER_03

I like this question. I see myself still with this team building it out because You enjoy it. I do. And I've also gone back and forth. I've questioned things, you know, like, oh, is this really where I want to be? Do I want to stay here? Do I want to go do my own team? Do I and all that does is take away from the opportunity that's right in front of me, right? So what I want is to stay consistent, stay committed, follow the course and build this out. I want to get my agents confident, the ones who have decided to partner with me. I want them to feel that they have a partner in the team and let them build their business as big as they want to under our umbrella.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

That that's it. I'm looking to partner with people who want to work collaboratively the way that we do. You know, just do what you said you were gonna do, show up and do the work, and everybody benefits. And uh, we'll see what how big that goes. Like, I don't need to, I don't need to put this like, we're gonna have a billion dollars in sales. Like, I don't, it's not about that for me. It's about feeling fulfilled, the joy that I get from empowering buyers and sellers and empowering agents to live big lives. I want to just keep doing that on a higher level. In the next five years, I'm gonna be in the same place doing the same thing.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I love that. Waking up every single morning, having a purpose, enjoy what you do, love the people.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Like I had a conversation with another member of mine. I was like, man, what is your strategy? With what you have, he's got thousands and thousands and thousands of people in his organization. Thousands of people. I mean, you probably know him. I'm not gonna make sure that's a good idea.

SPEAKER_02

That's okay, that's sure.

SPEAKER_01

And he's like, my biggest strategy, my number one strategy is love on people. Yeah, love on people. That's it. That's it. That's all you gotta do.

SPEAKER_03

Yep.

SPEAKER_01

Respondable.

SPEAKER_03

Yep. And not everyone's gonna be in the same place. Kind of gotta meet people where they're at. You know, like some people are gonna come in guns blazing and want to sell a hundred houses a year, and some are gonna want to sell two.

SPEAKER_01

That's it. That's it. And you're also gonna have people that kind of been kind of coasting, or you're trying to kind of figure out why they haven't done the things that you said they're not supposed to do or they said they're gonna do, and then eventually something just clicks and they're like, Okay, Alan, I'm doing this, right? Like I had those conversations, and you know, there's that saying, right? That the teacher appears when a student is ready to learn.

SPEAKER_03

Yep.

SPEAKER_01

You're gonna have those as well.

SPEAKER_03

Yep. And sometimes that's me.

SPEAKER_01

All of us took me, uh took me eight years to see uh the place that I'm in right now. Yeah, you know, eight years. Had that initial conversation with Kevin and Fred eight years ago.

SPEAKER_03

That was when I was joining them, because that's who I joined EXP with.

SPEAKER_01

Holy shit. Yeah. And I said, no, you know what? I'm gonna I'm gonna start my own brokerage. Uh-huh. Yep. But again, no regrets. No, but lessons learned. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03

That's it.

SPEAKER_01

All right. Well, listen, I appreciate your time. If our listeners, uh viewers, uh they want to contact you, reach out to you, where they can find you.

SPEAKER_03

Gosh, social media is easy, right? Facebook is the easiest one.

SPEAKER_01

Facebook?

SPEAKER_03

Anyone can just text me. I'll give my phone number to anybody. Like, so yeah, 623-256-4229. Easiest.

SPEAKER_01

All right, just text.

SPEAKER_03

But you'll be on Do Not Disturb. I'll get back to you eventually.

SPEAKER_01

Thanks so much, and appreciate it.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you. I appreciate you having me here.