Team not growing? Your the problem

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Team not growing? Your the problem

If your real estate team cannot function without you in every decision, every deal, and every problem, you do not have a leadership system yet  you have a bottleneck. 

This episode breaks down why so many team leaders feel stuck, overwhelmed, and unable to step away without everything slowing down or falling apart.

In this conversation, we unpack the real reason teams stay chaotic: unclear roles, too much micromanagement, weak decision-making systems, and no repeatable follow-up process. You will learn how to identify where your team gets stuck, how to stop being the approval point for everything, and how to build a team that can operate with more ownership and less dependence on you.

You’ll learn:

- How to identify the bottlenecks slowing your team down
- Why micromanagement destroys ownership and confidence
- How to delegate responsibility, not just tasks
- Why gradual training leads to stronger team performance
- How feedback loops and reviews improve decision-making
- Why checklists and systems are essential for scaling
- How clarity helps your team perform without constant supervision

Whether you are leading agents, admins, or coordinators, this episode will help you move from hero mode to true leadership where your job is not to rescue everyone, but to create clarity, empower decisions, and build consistency.

Timestamps

 0:00 If your team cannot perform without you, you are the bottleneck
 1:24 Why micromanaging kills ownership on a team
 3:31 How to identify where your systems are breaking down
 5:35 The hidden bottlenecks that slow real estate teams down
 8:48 How to empower decision-makers instead of holding every responsibility
 10:18 Why delegation must happen gradually
 11:37 The importance of feedback, reviews, and accountability
 13:22 Why every team needs checklists and repeatable systems
 14:35 What real leadership actually looks like
 15:03 Why clarity is your biggest advantage in today’s market

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#ScaleYourBusiness #RealEstateTeam #ThinkLikeACEO #BusinessSystems

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

If our team can't perform without you being there, I hate to break it to you, but you're not really leading. You're actually probably getting in the way and your bottleneck and everything else. Nobody can do it as good as I can. Do not let that go out with my name on it. Well, yo, as soon as you created a team, you gave them license to use your name. All right, y'all. If your team can't perform without you being there, I hate to break it to you, but you're not really leading. You're actually probably getting in the way and you're bottlenecking everything up. But before we dive in, if you're a team leader trying to scale without burning out, do me a favor. It really helps. But hit the like and subscribe button because this content in this series is just for you. And we want to make sure that you're getting it. If your team can't perform unless you're in every deal, fuck it.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

Brad has been performing consistently for over 20 years. So Brad has been part of over 3,500 closings. Dude, you've done this, you built teams, you've seen people build teams and do it the right way, the wrong way. All the different things that can go right and go wrong. And I've been coaching for you know a couple decades, coached thousands of people through this. So let's go through and talk about like, man, what does it take to get through this? Like you're you're you're closing deals, your team is producing, but you still feel like you can't leave for five minutes because you can't, right? Like you're at the point where, like, if you do, stuff falls apart and it is not a pretty place to be. So let's give them some practical things on why it happens and what you can do to uh to do this and get through the the the crazy.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Yeah, I mean, I've seen it time and time again where these teams are they're good, they're functional, but they're always in chaos because nobody has ownership over the role because the team leader is a micromanaging psychopath because they're telling themselves, nobody can do it as good as I can. Do not let that go out with my name on it. Well, yo, as soon as you created a team, you gave them license to use your name. So either they don't need to be on your team or you need to trust they can do their job. And people aren't good at doing their job if they're micromanaged.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

Well, and it doesn't feel bad at first, right? Like you start your team and and you're you're kind of the bottleneck, but like you're also the hero at that point.

SPEAKER_02 1:59

Yeah, right?

SPEAKER_01 2:00

Like, man, I and I I whenever I hear someone say, like, I love helping my team, I love solving problems. Like, hmm, like I kind of I get where you're coming from, but like also do you have hero syndrome, which is like, man, anytime there's a problem, I swoop in to save the day. That's awesome until you're on vacation and you don't want to swoop in for two weeks. You know what I mean? And then it's like, oh shoot, right? And then you're like, you're you know, one of your agents calls and you're actually resenting it at the same time, you like being the helper. So like it creeps up over over time. And here's one of the reasons that I think that this starts. In the beginning, it starts because like there's kind of there's several phases to a team or or any business. The first phase is the is is the the fun phase, which isn't really that fun. But phase one is like, let's see if we can do this thing, right? Like, phase one is like we want to build a widget, let's see if we can build it.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

I like you, you like me, we should work on it.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

Absolutely, and then it's like shit, we sold 20 widgets, that was pretty cool, right? Then, but that mentality of like it's a mentality of like everybody just grab an ore, right? Like, let's just let's see if we get to the other side of the river, and everyone just kind of grabs something, and that works for a minute, but then what you realize is uh pretty soon you get five, six people, and all of a sudden you see people the same person is touching an email four four you know, four people are touching the same email, right? There's no consistency to like do we give a refund, do we not give a refund? Like, there's no process, and what happens is you get people stepping all over each other, and in the name of we have a great team, we love helping each other. It's like, no, three people are doing one job. This is not good, so you got to get through what we're gonna talk about right now. Is you gotta get through white water, and white water is like the chaos of like, well, when do we give a refund? We should probably have a process for that, right? Right? Who is responsible for making sure that the pictures got ordered, right? Because it can't be all four of us, that's not working anymore. And and then if you get through that phase, you can get to predictable success, which is beautiful, but we we got to talk about this part.

SPEAKER_00 3:53

Yeah. So I think the building stage in a team is like a honeymoon in a marriage, right? It's fun because you're building something, you give each other grace, you might fart a little bit. It's cool because you're still kind of getting to know each other. But once you get to that plateau of like, it's a drag, it's everyday, it's a really marriage is really a better analogy than I thought. It's a drag, it's an everyday thing. You gotta empty the dishwasher, and then all of a sudden you notice that you're the only one emptying the dishwasher. So thank you for coming to my therapy.

SPEAKER_02 4:17

Stick around for more of Brad's marriage advice. Yeah, no, it's good, and then it's really not good. You should go get married. No, that was that was great. That was a great plug for for for yes, the hardware.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

Our marriage, we're gonna be hosting a marriage retreat. If anybody wants to, I'm just kidding. Um, but no, for real. Everybody's cool, and so everybody's not cool. And that what you have to do first is you have to identify where you're I call it peck to death, you'd call it a bottleneck. Where is the process getting jammed up and it can't move without four people making a decision?

SPEAKER_01 4:42

Yeah. There there's always a linchpin, or there's always always a narrow part of your business and and and start looking at what questions come across your desk, what are the emails you're getting from your team? What are the things that only you feel like you you can answer? Kind of in and then start kind of making a list of those things. Where are you relied on? And and do you want to be relied on those? Like, does that, and here's the thing, does that allow you to go on a two-week vacation? Does that allow you to go away for a month? Um, and if you're the only one that knows the code for the back door, if you're the only one that knows how to fix the printer, if you're the only one that can make a call on if somebody gets a refund or not, um, you are essentially tied to your business. And also, like the bottleneck analogy is great because it slows it down, right? Like, we can't resolve this issue until Wayne signs off on it. Like, that's okay on some high-level things, but if that's everything, man, that is so it man, it it's like yanking the brakes on any kind of forward movement in that business.

SPEAKER_00 5:34

Yeah, and the bottlenecks are gonna be several things. I've seen agents do a lot. Pictures. I need to see every picture, I need to approve every picture. Okay, cool. Or I need to be there when the photographer takes pictures first of all.

SPEAKER_02 5:45

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 5:45

That let's take all the time that you put in that.

SPEAKER_02 5:48

I get even with that one, but keep going.

SPEAKER_00 5:49

Yeah. Let's take all the time that you put in that and imagine, just imagine you put that time into training somebody on how you like photos to look, right? So, yes, you're still doing it for the next two months, but you're also training somebody. And the problem, I'm only saying the problem so many times, but one of the ways you can resolve this is have a conversation loop closer. Hey, I've picked out the top 25, Brad, and for the next two months, I'm gonna let you look at them once I picked them out. And then you get some saying it, like, I don't like this angle, and you document it and they'll start to know how that works. So you had a lot of people.

SPEAKER_01 6:27

What do they know? Sweet photos. Baby Jesus. First off, if your photographer's bad, fire them, right? Like, we can get somebody else. We're not doing rocket science here, and fire them or train them. Like, I'm okay with that, but like I'm not okay with you having to go to everything because you don't trust them. Like, this is not okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

Well, and then my question to always is who are you, right? Like, Karen, you were a fourth grade teacher two months ago. What do you know about real estate photography? Okay, oh, you didn't see the real stuff today.

SPEAKER_02 6:52

Okay, all right, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:53

Okay, I'm a professional photographer and I don't even go to the photo shoots. But I'll send their ass right back out there if I don't like if a toilet seat's up. Yes. If a thing, you know, if the lights aren't on, I will send your ass right back out there. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 7:05

Absolutely. And it could be even as clear, it could be as clear as like, hey, make, you know, let's just talk about photos. Let's standardize it, right? Hey, here's what you say to your client that's gonna happen. Here's the email that goes out to them, you know, two days before the photos. Here's here's what this needs to look like. Hey, with with with your with the photographer, here's the expectations, here's the sample pictures. It better look like this. Here is our review, right? If you do have a question and it's about, you know, if if if this is off, don't tell me, tell the photographer, right? Or if you need to prove on something because it's sketchy, here's what would here's what would merit you you asking me about these before before they go out. A simple, beautiful little process that that might take 30 minutes to figure out, and then you're done and you don't have to do it a thousand more times.

SPEAKER_00 7:46

So to identify, we know we're harping on photos for a minute, but to identify these, what you need to do is after every single file closes, or even during it, document where it got gummed up. Document where somebody called you and said, Hey, how do I do this? Or do you approve of this? And just write it down, y'all. Keep it in your phone. Because if those things become consistently the same thing, there's a way to solve it. And honestly, you probably don't care who does it at that point. No, there are gonna be some things you care about, but again, we can put some close the conversation loops in there so you still get to approve it, but you're not doing 90% of it. You can do the 10%, right? You talk with them, you tell them what you want, let them do the 80% of the work, and then you tweak the 10%. That's what I like to do. If I want to be involved in that idea. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:27

Hey, real quick, you know how YouTube works. Like and subscribe so we know this is working and it keeps pushing the content out.

SPEAKER_00 8:32

Yeah, this is what we do as a passion project. Wayne's got his own coaching, I got my real estate, but we've come together because we want y'all to learn from all our scars and mistakes. So that like and subscribe means the world to us because it means you care and it means we can keep giving, and also it makes us look cool with my mom. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 8:47

So, so I identify it, document it, and then the third step is is empower the decision makers. So I I love I love one of the things that you said the other day is like your role is to become the decision architect. Like, your job is to write out here's how the decision is made, and then your decision is not to make those decisions anymore, right? It's like like here's how to make this decision, cool. Here, here's the thing. And then your job is to let them then or force them then to go make the decision. So give away the task and the responsibility. And I think that sometimes we give away the task, but we hold the responsibility. If you and maybe you need to do that in the raising up phase, but pretty quick, I should be able to give this person the task and the responsibility. And I think a lot of times we we see that like they gave the task, but they held the responsibility, which means you didn't actually give it away.

SPEAKER_00 9:32

Yeah, you didn't empower them to make decisions, so they're afraid to make decisions because they're gonna get yelled at. So that's a big key there. I want to share with people. If people make a mistake, do not burn the house down with them, right? Take a minute and look at it and say, Did do you think they did it on purpose or do you think our system is off? Now, if your system's on point and everything else stacks up and they keep making a decision, you hired the wrong person.

SPEAKER_02 9:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:55

That that's the that's the problem. You hired an assistant, not a doer. I call them coordinators because they own their part of the process. If something red flags, they'll pull me in. But other than that, they we list a dozen houses a week. I don't know about them until they're alive. And I still don't know about them because the system's there and they know what they're doing because we built it that way.

SPEAKER_01 10:13

Well, and I think the other thing that could be happening, and I think I I applaud you about this all the time, and and because I think it's important. The third thing that could be happening is it was given away too quickly. It's one thing to teach someone to have somebody read 500 books about driving a car, it's another thing for them to watch you drive, it's another thing for them to actually begin to drive, right? And what any of us are raising kids, you don't just show them how to drive and then jump out of the car and let them take the car. You go, all right, I'm gonna show you. Now we're going in the biggest parking lot with the fewest things and we're gonna do some circles. You know what I mean? But you sit there. So I think the other thing is like, and you you're so good at this, on-the-job training, give away gradually. Step one is watch me do it. That's boring, but it's part of it. Just sit here and watch me do it.

SPEAKER_00 10:58

Which is a video for most of you.

SPEAKER_01 11:00

Which is a absolutely which is a video, whatever's right. Watch me do it, and then you know, let's do it together. Then I'm gonna watch you do it, right? And then I'm gonna let go of it. Hopefully, eventually somebody else can come in and watch you do it and go through the same process. That's when you're a leader, when when then somebody else can watch you do it and and rough the races. But but I used to delegate like hot potato, and I and it was like, All right, you're in charge of pictures, right? And it's like, uh, I don't, you know, not mine anymore. Like, that was that was that was shitty. That wasn't delegation, that was just throwing somebody to something else. So, like, step four is like, yeah, give give it away gradually. Realize it's gonna take a minute, but if you rush it, it's just gonna take you twice as long.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

And you have to with this have a culture, and I'm a little bit of pot calling the kettlebell here. You have to have a culture of feedback, and everything needs to be debrief. Hey, those photos stunk. Let's look at why they stunk, right? And let's not let that happen again. Yeah, those that was not good. Those remarks, not good. Why'd you why'd you put those out there? Well, I thought that okay, cool. Well, let's not do it again. But like you have to give them feedback to to to put the bumpers on what you want to have done.

SPEAKER_01 12:01

So call it out early, set the expectation that you're gonna get feedback, and then nobody gets butthurt, right? And one of my clients this week, he owns a huge company, uh, actually one of the guys is uh an E5 member. His his guys in the field needed to have more freedom to make responsibility, right? So he goes, All right, I'm gonna let guys in the field think you spend 200 bucks to resolve an issue at their own discretion. Right. People in his office, he's like, Hey, these guys can spend five thousand dollars at their own discretion, right? But here's the key, and here's the thing that helped them realize the second piece to make this work, you're going to instill reviews, especially for the first couple months. Hey, every week we're gonna look at the 200 decisions you made, the 200 decisions you made. I'm gonna give you some thumbs up, some thumbs sideways, or some thumbs down, right? Hey, every week we're gonna look at the big uh the big spenders you made. I might love them all, right? Or I might like I'm the expectation is I'm gonna give you feedback weekly on what those were so we can improve and grow and change, and you can really understand where I would spend that money. It's not it's not punitive, it's like, oh, these $200, great. This one, I would have done this a little differently. This I would like, let's never do that again. But when you set the expectation of, like you said, of feedback, then then it's such a more beautiful experience for you.

SPEAKER_00 13:10

100%. So that was the fifth part, right? Is having the the close-the-loop conversations, the reviews. You gotta measure it, you gotta adjust it, you gotta repeat it. And if you have the system in place, and this is where you've got to stop and do it, you gotta create that system the very beginning. But it can be a working system. So as you have these reviews, these debriefs, you're finding out this cog didn't spin when it needed to, you go back and change the system. And the system equates to a checklist, y'all. I'm sorry, there's a book you can read. The checklist manifesto was written in the 70s, but it's awesome because it talks about how checklists help not make mistakes. So, therefore, your employee follows checklist, you're good. Your employee messes up, you go back, say, show me the checklist, they skipped a step. Now we know the problem. So you've gotta have I can't, I cannot scream from the mountaintops enough about having a checklist for them to follow. It's like a map to get to a destination.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

And and I'll reinforce the the coaching we do and and and the masterminds and the e4 and e5 we do where you get to come and copy and paste. So, like you don't need to do all these on your own, right? Like, copy and paste them. If you're looking for a a picture checklist, like reach out to us. If you're looking to build some of these, like get to e45 where we share these kinds of things, and it's like, hey, here's my five templates. Feel free to tweak them, but you're not starting from ground zero. So there's so much power in getting in the room and being able to RD from each other, which is which is one of the hidden benefits of of all the work that we do.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

Yeah. So remember, y'all, being a being a leader is not being the hero everybody comes to. It's empowering your people to make decisions so you can do more with your time, whether that's sales or more family time. So that's being the leaders empowering others to do stuff, not just bitching at them when they get stuff wrong. So this this one is probably the most important.

SPEAKER_01 14:53

Your biggest advantage right now is clarity. Being the clearest voice in a chaotic, confusing market. Right now, the loudest person does not win, the clearest one wins. Your biggest opportunity right now is to go. Here's the stats, here's what that probably means. Here, here's what's happening here, here's what that means for you. Here's who this market is for. Here's who maybe who avoid this market, here's what buyers are looking for now. Here's they don't give a rip about anymore. Clarity is powerful right now. Clarity with your buyers, clarity with your sellers, clarity with your database and your market. So I you don't need to be the loudest, but but I think the way you stand out right now is giving clarity and and and being that calm in the store.

SPEAKER_00 15:36

Yeah. And I to quote a lady that was a guest speaker, my daughter's uh National Honor Society thing yesterday, like you are who you surround yourself with. And it was so basic for eighth graders, but it was so on point, right? If you're in a spot, a company, a team, or whatever, and they all think the market sucks too, you're around the wrong people. And that's holding you back because the market can be good for you if you find your way and push through it. But if you think everybody thinks it sucks, then you're gonna think it sucks and you're gonna suck and you're not gonna make any money and everybody's sucking.

SPEAKER_01 16:04

Yep. What what what are you gonna make of this market? So here's here's the truth, right? Ask yourself, is there anything you've been avoiding? What you need to take action on, and then really go like, hey, what do I want to be proud of over the next 90 days? What are the key actions I need to take that will guarantee I hit my goals? Right. And then do I need some accountability, some help with with that, and then and then get that. But this is gonna be a beautiful time for those people to get clear and take the right consistent action and say no to a whole lot of the other stuff. Preach. Preach. See you on the next episode.

SPEAKER_00 16:33

Hey, real quick, if you're liking this content, imagine having a full day immersed with people that are on this like us that are learning from each other.

SPEAKER_01 16:42

Man, we do these kind of events, these intensive, a couple times a year. And if you know that you are the smartest person in the room and you need to get into bed at the rooms, this is the place to be, right? So apply, send us a message right now. We'll send you the application link and see if you are the right fit to be in one of the rooms.