I Almost Quit Real Estate… Instead I Fixed My Lead Flow. Here’s The Plan.

I almost quit my first year. Sick, broke, no consistency, and I couldn’t even control my next deal. Then I rebuilt my business with four income decisions and I’m breaking down exactly how I got to 75 homes and 500k in income.

0:00 — Year one: sick + broke + losing listings
2:55 — “Fast forward three years…”
7:30 — Difference #1: predictable lead flow
14:20 — Sphere isn’t the system
19:50 — Difference #2: relentless follow-up
28:40 — Speed to lead + cadence discipline
39:20 — Difference #3: mastery habits
52:10 — Difference #4: focus on appointments + leads


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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

My first year in real estate, I almost quit. I was broke. I was scared. I didn't know where my next deal was coming from. I remember coming home at the end of the day, looking at my wife and three kids and feeling like I was letting my family down. No money that day again. That feeling is something that I wouldn't wish on anybody. I remember going on a listing appointment after a listing appointment, walking into those kitchens full of hope, and then bombing. Sitting across from Celershaw looked at me like I didn't belong there. Driving home with nothing to show for. And if that wasn't enough, I was dealing with serious health issues at the time, all sorts of colitis, autoimmune disease. Anybody who had it knows what that means. I remember that day driving on a listing appointment, one that I desperately needed to win. Rehearsing my presentation. And the only thing I could think about was where the nearest bathroom was. Not my pitch, not my sales price, not my presentation, the bathroom. That's where I was. Sick, struggling, losing deals, feeling like I was failing my family. And to be honest with you, I almost walked away. There were days when mentally and physically I wanted to give up. Now, fast forward three years, 75 homes sold, over half a million dollars in income earned. Same market, same license, same guy. So what changed? That's exactly what I'm bringing down today. Because the difference between a $100,000 agent and a $500,000 agent has nothing to do with the market, your broker, or how long you've been doing this. Stay with me. This might be the most important video you watch this year. If we haven't met, my name is Alan Kushmakov. I personally sold over 500 homes in my first nine years, built a brokerage from seven agents to hundreds of agents. And our brokerage did over 4,000 transactions, solding more than $1.5 billion in sales. For several years, I've been helping agents, teams, brokers across the country to increase their productivity, their production, and income through done for your lead generation systems powered by AI. I see an up close what separates agents who grind forever at $80,000 or $90,000 or even $100,000 a year from the ones who blow past $500,000 of income and never look back. It comes down to four things. Let's get into it. So difference number one, consistent and predictable lead flow. Here's the truth that most agents don't want to hear. Your income problem is a lead problem. $100,000 agents wake up every day wondering where their next deal is coming from. $500,000 agents wake up every day knowing because their lead flow is predictable. It's systemized. And here's the biggest trap I see agents fall into. They rely almost entirely on their sphere or past clients. Look, I love the sphere. Your sphere is an asset, it's an incredible one. When someone in your network needs to buy or sell, they call you. That's the best lead you're ever gonna get. High trust, high conversion, zero ad spend. But here's the problem: you can't control when they need you. Your sphere doesn't operate on your timeline, it operates on theirs. And building a business on leads that show up whenever they feel like it is not a business, it's hope. Hope is not a strategy. I learned this the hard way in year number one. My sphere wasn't ready to transact. And honestly, a lot of them wanted to wait and see how I would do it first. I was a new agent. They weren't going to hand me the biggest financial transaction of their life on day one. Absolutely not. And I get it now, but back then it stung. So I had no choice. I picked up the phone and started co-calling expired listings and for sale by owners every single morning. I worked open houses on the weekends as well. I had to go and find the business that my sphere wasn't giving me yet. The problem was I had no skill yet. I was leaving business on the table every single day and I didn't even know it. A homeowner would push back on a phone and I didn't have the answer. I would lose him. I sit across the for sale by owner who was motivated to sell and walk out without a listing because I didn't know how to handle the objection on the table. The activity was there, but the skill wasn't. But here's what saved me. You know, I kept going. I did more. And every single time I failed, I forced myself to figure out what went wrong and do it better the next time. Rep by rep, call by call, appointment by appointment. The skill started to cop, and when the skill caught up the activity, everything changed. Because here's what I know, what I wish I knew that. Your sphere is the asset, but it's not the system. You need both. A predictable lead source you control every single day, and a sphere that sends you business when the timing is right for that. $500,000 agents have both. $100,000 agents are waiting for one. Because the lead flow only works when you can actually convert them when they come. 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 fastly.io comes in. We help agents create consistent opportunities. No random leads, et cetera. No guessing where the next deal is coming from, a real pipeline that turns conversations into closers. That's what we're here to build. If you want my playbook to increase your business without burning out, book a call below. Which brings me to the number two the dialed-in conversion system. Here's the reality most agents refuse to admit. Most agents don't just have a lead problem, they have a lead conversion problem too. And for a lot of agents, that's actually the bigger problem. I've seen agents with thousands of leads sitting in their CRM doing 10 deals a year. Thousands. I've seen agents with a fraction of those leads doing 40, 50, 60 transactions a year. Same market, completely different results. The difference is not the leads. The difference is what happens after the lead comes in. $100,000 agents follow up when they feel like it. $500,000 agents have a system that follows up relentlessly until the leads are ready to move. Look, 10 years ago when I was building my business, there was no AI. There was no automations or text messages that automated, none of that stuff. There was no magic technology doing the work for you. There was a phone, there was a script, and there was discipline. Yes, discipline, intentionality, and focus. Repeat on a daily basis. I built a follow-up system around one simple rule. Whoever follows up most wins. Speed to lead. Call within five minutes of a lead coming in. Then call again, text, email. Follow a set of cadence and please don't deviate from it. I know at times it's mundane, it's boring. You're looking at it like, what am I doing? Why am I doing this? It's not working. But that's where you have to continue to push through. Now most agents call a few times, get no answer, and then move on. That's a recipe for inconsistency and ultimate disaster. I call until I got a conversation or a restraining order. I tracked every lead in my CRM. I had a daily call block, same time, every morning, but if for some reason I got too busy or something going on, I would call during the day. When I worked my pipeline systematically, no skipping days, no excuses, not because it was fun. Trust me, a lot of times it was not. Getting rejected, it was no fun, right? Getting cast at is no fun. Getting cursed at is no fun. Because I learned the hard way, that money lives in the follow-up. And whoever stays in the game the longest with the lead almost always wins the business. Look, the agents I see stalling it, $100,000 or even $150,000 are inconsistent. They follow up and burst, and when they motivated, then they go cold for two weeks or three weeks. The $500,000 agent has a non-negotiable system that runs every single day, regardless of a mood, regardless of feelings, regardless of how busy things feel. Well, scripts matter too. I studied every objection until I had an answer I believed in. Not a can line, a real response that came from conviction, from belief. That's what converted leads back then. And honestly, that's still what converts leads now. The tools have changed. The discipline hasn't. Alright, difference number three, mastering the skills that actually matter. Here's something nobody tells agents. You don't need to be good at everything. You need to be a lead at four things lead generation, lead conversion, buyerslash listing presentations or consultations, and negotiating. And then there's a fifth thing, which is also very important, providing an exceptional service. That's it. $100,000 agents spread themselves, I think, way too thin, trying to master everything. They become decent at a lot of things. And decent doesn't get you to $500,000 in income. $500,000 agents are obsessed with their craft, their role play, their scripts. They debrief every lost deal. They study the top producers in the market and model what works for them. Not copy, but model. I told you I was leaving business on the table in year one. Lost listings, fumbled objection, sellers who should have been mine that walked out and listed with someone else. Every one of those losses is stunned. But I made a decision early on. I was not going to lose the same way twice. After every failed appointment, I asked myself, what did I say that landed? What fell flat? Where did I lose them? What would I do differently? Then I get back on the phone, back on the door, and do it better. That's it. That's the whole secret. And with so many resources out there right now on social media, there should be no excuses for you to get better. More reps, more commitment of being the better next time you're gonna go there and get the job done. Look, mastery isn't a moment, it's a habit. It's all about the repetitions. The $100,000 agent is always looking for the next tactic. The $500,000 agent is perfecting the fundamentals over and over and over again. Alright, difference number four. Hyper focus on income generating activities. This one will hurt a little. Stay with me. I have to be honest with you. Most agents are busy, but almost none of them are productive. There's a massive difference. Busyness does not equal productivity. $100,000 agents fill their day with activity that feels like work, focusing on one, maybe two prospects, redesigning their marketing materials, sitting in classes, scrolling for content ideas. Busy? Again, not productive. $500,000 agents are ruthless about one question. Does this activity directly generate income? If yes, they do it first. If no, they eliminate it, automate it, or delegate it. The three activities that actually generate income in real estate are simple. Generating leads, converting leads, and going on appointments. Everything else is a support function. When I was sick for the first two years, I couldn't afford to waste a single hour on the wrong activity. Like my energy was limited, time was limited, money was limited. I had to get intentional and be laser focused. And when I did, when I started blocking my first three hours every day for nothing but lead generation follow-up, everything changed. Most of us know what moves the needle forward. We just don't do it or don't do it enough. And then you leverage out the rest. Hire a transaction coordinate, like I did, get a VA assistant like I did, build a team around your weaknesses. Look, you cannot do $500,000 work if you're doing a $15 an hour task. Your job is to be in front of people, on the phone, at the table, generating and converting business. Everything else is distraction dressed up as a productivity. Protect your time like it's your most valuable asset because it is. Let me bring it full circle. Look, I almost quit in year number one. I was coming home to my wife with nothing. Losing listings at the kitchen table, driving to appointments thinking about bathrooms instead of business. I was making calls every day, working in spires for sale by owners, open houses, and still leaving most of the business on the table because my skills weren't there yet. But guess what? I refused to lose the same way twice. I kept going, I kept pushing, I got better, rep by rep, call by call, appointment by appointment. Year three, 75 homes, half a million dollars in income. If you're sitting where I was in year one right now, I need you to hear this. It doesn't have to stay this way. The gap between somebody who's struggling, making $100,000 or $150,000 and $500,000 in GCI, it's not talent. It's not luck, it's not the market. It's for decisions. Predictable leads. You have to have leads, a consistent flow of leads coming in, right? You have to have enough opportunities and that's relentless follow-up. You follow up until they say no. Mastery of your craft, developing your skills every day, and ruthless focus on what's actually makes you money. Make those decisions, build the systems, put in the reps, challenge yourself to be better every single time. And stay on this channel because I'm going to show you exactly how to execute every single one of them. If you want to talk about joining our community or learning more about how we help agents build and scale their businesses, link is in the description. Let's get you to $500,000 in income soon.