Real Estate Agents: Stop Avoiding Tough Conversations (Here's What to Say)

Most agents know they should have tough conversations. Few of them actually do. In this episode, Kristi sits down with Steve LaCrosse, co-team leader of the Ladd Group — one of the top producing teams in central Oregon — to get specific about what those conversations actually sound like and how to have them without damaging the relationship.

Steve spent nearly 15 years as a futures trader before making the jump to real estate in 2015, and that background shows up in everything from how he builds monthly market reports to how he frames a price reduction conversation. His team closed 167 sales last year with an average price point of $1.2M, and the way they operate is worth studying.

In this episode you'll hear Steve break down his exact framework for price reduction conversations, how to deliver news clients don't want to hear, how to set expectations with buyers so they stay anchored to their real motivation, how the Ladd Group uses Thursday team meetings to make tough scripts feel natural, what top teams give you that you can't replicate on your own, and his one non-negotiable piece of advice for any agent who's behind on their numbers right now.

The phrase that stuck with us from this conversation: clear is kind. You'll know exactly what he means by the end.

Connect with Steve LaCrosse at bendpropertysource.com or find him on Instagram and Facebook at @bendpropertysource

If this episode gave you an idea you can implement in your business, don’t just listen — take it and run.

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🎙️ About the Podcast

Take It and Run is the podcast for ambitious professionals—especially real estate agents—who want practical strategies they can implement immediately. Each episode delivers mindset shifts, frameworks, and real-world insights to help you move from thinking about it… to doing it.

Transcript

— Introduction

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Most agents avoid tough conversations, but our guest today has built a business on having them. He studies the market harder than most agents study their own listings. He's the co-team leader of one of the top producing teams in Oregon. And you're going to want to pen because I promise you that there are things that you're going to implement into your business.

SPEAKER_03 0:18

Welcome to the Take It and Run podcast. We've got Steve Lacrosse here, and we're so happy to have

— Meet Steve LaCrosse

SPEAKER_03 0:24

you.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Thank you. I'm happy to be here. Thanks for inviting me.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Before we tell everybody who you are, right? I'm curious from your perspective right now. What's one conversation most agents in your market are afraid to have right now?

SPEAKER_00 0:39

I would say the conversation around pricing, both buyer and seller, having that conversation upfront as to what's realistic in the market. You feel like you want to tell them what they want to hear, but that's not always what they need to hear.

SPEAKER_03 0:54

Ooh. Solid burn. What do you think agents get wrong when they try to talk about the market? Oh, I guess you decide besides the like telling them what they want to

— The conversation most agents are afraid to have right now

SPEAKER_03 1:11

hear.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

Yeah. Um, you know, I would say it sounds like a lot of times in those conversations that you're having with your clients, you're you don't ever want to sound like you've got an agenda. Like the goal is not to get them to believe something or make them wrong in the conversation. The goal is to help them understand what you're seeing. And then that allows them to do what they want with that. At least you're giving them the information. I don't have an agenda that I expect someone to follow. I just want to do my part in letting them know what I'm seeing so they can make the right decision.

SPEAKER_01 1:49

I like that. You're putting, you're, you're putting the information out there to them, not hiding it, not trying to uh, you know, buy the listing, if you will, tell them what they want to hear. Sometimes, and in fact, you said it's our job to tell them what they need to hear, not necessarily what they want to hear. And then they can make the decision on what they want to do with that.

unknown 2:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:08

Okay. Um, so that's there's a lot of gold in there, but we want to get to know you a little bit more. So for the audience, um, who are you? Where do you work? And what does your business look like today?

SPEAKER_00 2:19

Okay, so well, I'm Steve Lacrosse. I am on a team. We've got, I think we're up to nine agents now. Um, we've intentionally tried to stay the SEAL team. We're in Central Oregon. Um, so I don't know if you can see the pictures behind me, lots of outdoor activities and uh river adventures and mountain biking. And um, you know, we get a lot of people moving here for lifestyle. And so it's important that we all um understand why people are looking. And um, so we've got, yeah, we've got nine agents, we have two full-time marketing staff members, we've got a full-time listing and transaction coordinator, we've got another office admin who jumps in where needed and helps with on-site stuff on top of the Suthead's brand that we leverage as well.

SPEAKER_03 3:08

Very cool. So just a bit about you and your personal background. You spent almost like 15 years as a features trader, right? Before real estate.

SPEAKER_02 3:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:17

What did that life kind of teach you about how to run and co-run this business?

SPEAKER_00 3:23

Yeah, um, it's actually there's there's a lot of similarities. I mean, it's market, right? It's real estate market or it's financial markets. Um, it's really hard to pick the top to sell at. It's really hard to pick the bottom to buy at. Those are a couple of things that come up in both. Um, you know, really, if you put in the time and the effort with my last career as well as this one to learn and make educated decisions, usually, if your time horizon is long enough, you're in a good position. You'll find some success. And so I think the two are really similar in that regard. I think the one that's really different is just the interaction with people. One's of my prior career was very isolated. I did have a partner. I bought into the team concept in that career. And I know we'll talk probably more about the team here.

— From futures trader to top producing real estate team co-leader

SPEAKER_00 4:10

Um, so you know, interestingly, there are a lot of similarities.

SPEAKER_03 4:15

Yeah, that is interesting. So, what you said you'd Central Oregon, but like specifically Bend, right?

SPEAKER_02 4:21

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 4:22

Um, what made Bend the place and why why the LAD group specifically? Why did you choose that to build this team like with? Why are you choosing them?

SPEAKER_00 4:31

Yeah, so um Bend became the place I got introduced to it just like a lot of people did. I was 10 years before COVID, but similarly, I could work remotely, came out, took a look, realized it was a great lifestyle choice, um, a good place to raise my boys. Uh, I could get them into skiing and mountain biking and some fun outdoor activities. Um, and so from that standpoint, it made perfect sense. And then uh when I decided I was gonna have a career change in 2015-16, I knew Brian. I knew the team that he had built. I, you know, believe in you're better together, you're better with a group around you. Everyone brings a different skill. Uh, and I liked how he operated, both you know, uh what I saw of him in his professional life as well as who he was on

— Why Bend, Oregon and why the Ladd Group

SPEAKER_00 5:24

the sidelines. It was at Little League that we knew each other, so it was literally the sidelines. Um, but yeah, I just I I I the it there it's a group of people that operated the right way, and I wanted to be a part of that.

SPEAKER_03 5:37

Yeah. I get that. I've been with Marilyn Christie for 10 years, so I understand wanting to be with people and do things the right way, and there's there's a value to it. There is. You don't want to leave, you're like, why?

SPEAKER_00 5:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:48

Yeah, that's great. All right, Christy, take it away for the next part.

SPEAKER_01 5:52

Okay, so uh you know because I am your coach and have been your coach for a while, but I tell my coaching clients all the time that the agents who study the market become the agents that everybody wants to hire. And from the moment that I first got introduced to Steve, I was like, yes, he's a numbers guy, he gets it. Um and you do you do a beautiful job every single month. And I would love for you to walk, you know, our audience through like, you know, what what is your process for understanding your market numbers? What do you do with it? Uh yeah, like take us behind understanding the market and using it as a sales tool.

SPEAKER_00 6:33

Yeah. So a lot of people put out market updates, and I I just always found myself reading them, and it was just like uh, you're just reciting the median did this. That's X percent from last month and X percent from last year. The number of new listings is this, which is an increase of, you know, it was just very formulaic. And I

— Why agents who study the market become the agents everyone wants to hire

SPEAKER_00 6:54

always just would think to myself, what does that mean? Right? Like someone who's reading this, uh a customer, a client, whomever, someone's reading this, like, how do they apply that? What does that what does that mean? And so, you know, I've decided that I was gonna start writing a market, a monthly market update, and we were gonna start diving into the the what does this mean for you as a buyer? What does this mean for you as a seller? And maybe what's like an interesting take on that? That the median went down. What does that mean? You know, is that the sign that the mark is coming down, or is it

— Steve's process for building market updates that actually mean something

SPEAKER_00 7:24

the sign that maybe a certain segment of the market is more active this month?

SPEAKER_01 7:28

Is you know, how much time does it take you to build it?

SPEAKER_00 7:32

Uh, it's usually about two hours. Um I know I can streamline and I have been using AI to streamline some of the data gathering. So I'm not spending quite as much time going out and getting the data and inputting it. Um, but I have not outsourced it to just churn out the market update. I really do want to make sure I keep the focus on what our clients are asking us, what I'm hearing, right? Like that's the benefit that I have is I get all of the questions very local. I know you can go online and pull what questions are people asking, but locally, with the team doing as much volume as we do, we get a lot of questions. And so we can guide each month's market update to be exactly what we think people have been asking, and what are those data numbers and how do they apply to that and help them get past that.

SPEAKER_01 8:19

How is it delivered? Like, is do you guys print it? I mean, I think you could do a video. Like, tell me the channels of distribution.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

So it gets put on our website, it gets posted as a blog, uh, it gets it goes in our monthly newsletter, we pull out pieces for mailers. We'll usually take like one data point and have that be kind of the catch on one side, and then a quick, what does this mean? Could it mean this? Could it mean that? Interested in a consultation. Um so uh, you know, thanks to our coach, we reuse a lot of that content in a number of different formats so that we can get people wherever they are. It's social posts. It's um Brian will also do every other month, roughly, he'll do a video market update. So it'll be slightly different content, um, another perspective, kind of the video version of it. And so I'll do my monthly, Brian does every other month or so. We'll do a webinar, he'll do a video update, and then twice a year we put together a real in-depth kind of macro state-of-the-market report that gets put in a really nice mailer and mailed out to a really

— How the Ladd Group distributes market content across every channel

SPEAKER_00 9:30

large farm.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

How has how has being the market guy changed the kind of clients you attract?

SPEAKER_00 9:41

Well, um, certainly the analytical uh like it. Um they like to have some data. I would say over the course of the last year to year and a half, uh just having the confidence, um, I think people are scared. I think buyers and sellers are scared. No one wants to make a mistake, sellers don't want to leave money on the table, buyers don't want to overpay or you know, have a misstep of some sort. And so when you have a client reach out to you, whether it's a referral from a past client or a new online lead or someone coming in to visit your open house, uh they're they're attracted to uh expertise. They're attracted to,

— The twice-yearly macro market report that gets mailed to a massive farm

SPEAKER_00 10:23

you know, feeling like the person that they're talking to and working with is going to not guide them based on my opinions, not guide them based on, you know, some preconceived idea of what that person wants, but you know, guide them with, well, here's what the data is telling us, here's what the market is showing us, here's where we've seen activity, you know, and then ask questions and get at what which of those things are the drivers for that client. So I think I think really everyone right now is attracted to like we've taken the philosophy of we're more advisors than we are brokers. Um and and I I believe that. I believe that you know wholeheartedly right now.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

So what what's happening is that you are using this knowledge as a strategy, right? It's not just something that you study and you know put on social media to your point. You're breaking it down what it means to them, and then it's part of your follow-up strategy. It's part of the tough conversations around pricing, what to offer, what to list at, right? Like all of that, it's truly a business strategy.

SPEAKER_00 11:31

Yeah, it's it's a part of the outreach, the the prospecting, the reaching out with something other than just checking in, or are you are you liking the listings that you're seeing? Has anything jumped off the page at, you know, like that? What value is that? You want to reach out to them with something of value. Hey, I was reading this article and saw XYZ and thought you might be interested. Hey, I was going over the data this month. And although the headline says this, there's actually this other data point that's telling us something conflicting. If you want to, if you're if you're interested in hearing more, reach out. I'd love to have a conversation.

SPEAKER_03 12:06

Yeah,

— Using market knowledge as a real estate prospecting and pricing strategy

SPEAKER_03 12:07

I love that. And something, a common theme that I'm hearing just you say in how you guys, how you operate and how the LAD group operates is like you said it best when you said people are attracted to expertise. They're not it might like it might catch their attention if people say, like you were saying, what agents agents think you want to hear, but it doesn't last. It's it's more like smoke and mirrors. And but when you're an expert and you communicate like an expert that that earns trust, and that you know, we know that trust earns clients. Um, so I I really like that. And it's it's not the short way, it's the long way, it's the you know, it's it's the the calculated way, but that's that's that's how things get done. Um and that it kind of leads us to one of the whole reasons why we were so excited to bring you on, Steve, was that you are an expert in tough conversations. And so the the strategy that Christy was talking about is a bridge to those tough conversations because the market is only useful if you know how to say it out loud. So that's what we're gonna talk about next. Christy, why don't you lead them?

SPEAKER_01 13:29

Yeah, so uh I I love working with the Ladd group because they are some of the best talent out there, and I've seen it come through their conversations. So we know that agents should practice, you know, role-playing, all of those different things, but I'm often find that nobody tells them exactly what to say. So I'm hoping, Steve, that you'll get you know specific with us, right? Um, um, let's start with the price reduction. Why don't you walk us through the last price reduction conversation you had? What did you say? How did you frame it? And and did it work?

SPEAKER_00 14:03

Yeah. So um one of the things that we so so our our sellers know that we're not the type that just pushes for price reductions, right? We always break it down into is it the market or is it the marketing? And let's talk about those two in their individual silos. Like let's talk about marketing. Are we presenting it well? Are we capturing the essence of the house? Are we telling the story story? Are we getting the clicks and the views and the exposure? Do

— How top teams practice tough conversations without formal role play

SPEAKER_00 14:30

we feel like our video and our photos have captured the house the way it should be captured? And if the answer is usually yes, and we're open to tweaks, we move around photos. But then the next conversation is the market. And, you know, the the if we it's a lever that we can pull, right? It's something that we don't ever want to do unless we think it's necessary. But we just frame it like if if if it's not the marketing and we're getting the showings, or we're, you know, we're getting, we're not getting the showings, we've got to, we've got to be realistic with is this possibly price? And you know, one of the things that we try to remind ourselves of

— A real price reduction conversation, word for word

SPEAKER_00 15:05

is the the you know, the philosophy of like clear as kind and saying to them, you know, it it is there, is there anything that we can be doing here to increase the exposure or increase uh what we think we might be able to get back from it? And and if the answer is no, then then we have to fall back on price. And we have to say, I I I Mr. and Mrs. Seller, I agree. I wish the market would accept that price. I mean, that's the reality of it, is it's we we frame it in the context of market. I wish the market would accept that price, but the market is not showing us that it's being accepted. And so one of the things that we can do is try to get it on the right eyeballs, get it into the right price category. Um and I and I would say uh uh uh on that note, one of the data points that we use is absorption. It's it's it helps put in perspective, you know, when you talk about days on market, um, I'm sorry, when you talk about like uh months of supply and you talk about four months of supply. Well, what does that mean? It means that the absorption rate's about 25%. And so when you look at 10 other homes, are we in the top two or three of those? And and that really has helped us when we just pull up the list and say, all right, let's look at our competition, let's look and see where we fall in here. Um that helps the seller understand and see visually, okay, we're if our expectation is to get this home sold in the next 30 days, we've got to be in that top 25%.

SPEAKER_01 16:36

And the fact that you lean on the market data, this is one of Merrill's uh biggest pet peeves. Actually, we talked about this this morning, is he gets so annoyed when he asks someone, well, tell me about the market, and they're like, Oh, I feel like you know, I feel like the market's doing pretty good. I think it's you know, and they don't lead with expertise, but they're leading with feelings. What you just walked us through, it's it's just clear. It helps them, you know, see what is actually happening. Now I'm curious oftentimes we have to deliver news to buyers and sellers that it's it's not comfortable. Um, something maybe they don't want to hear. How do you deliver tough news and still keep the relationship intact?

SPEAKER_00 17:29

So when we when we talk to the seller, you know, it's usually as a follow-up, a second part of a listing appointment. We're sitting in the office, we're talking through it, and we usually lay it out in the context of our job is to tell you what we believe the market can bear, what we believe would be acceptable in today's market. And the goal of that is not to tell you we don't think your house is worth more. We're trying to set expectations accurately based on what we're seeing and hearing. And so ultimately that price decision is up to you. But what we don't want is for you to make a decision on what price you should list your home or what we what you should do and next steps to take and start looking for replacements with a faulty assumption on what the market would bear. This isn't our opinion on your home. If we were to go list our houses, we would have other team members come in and give us their opinion so that we can remove ourselves from it. But ultimately, we'll support you. And if if your hope is that we can try to get a little bit more out of it, we can be on board with that and we will do everything that we can to make that happen. But

— How to deliver news clients don't want to hear and keep the relationship

SPEAKER_00 18:32

we just want to make sure we're setting expectations so that those two are in line. Because that's the worst part is you set the wrong expectations. They make get emotionally attached to an outcome that just you can't deliver on. And so I think when you're when you're honest and you say, I appreciate your home, I like what you've done with your home, here's how we would position it, and here's how I think the market would accept it. You're you're removing that like personal aspect of, I don't think your house is worth what you think it's worth, which isn't accurate.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

How do you open conversation with, say, a buyer and set expectations? Because you you bring up a really good point. It's it's managing and setting expectations. So what in your marketplace right now, what's one of the most important conversations around expectations with buyers?

SPEAKER_00 19:20

So it's it's back to what I alluded to earlier of you ask questions, you find out what started the conversation, what started this search? Was, you know, more than likely, yes, we're we're market data-driven uh advisors on our team. But most of the time, people are there's they're searching for a fundamental need, right? They're taking a job, they need a bigger house, they, you know, the kids are starting school. I don't know, you you name it. And so we like to show them that we have the expertise, that we've got the data to help drive a decision that they're going to make, but we ask questions and try not to get that analysis paralysis. And so we we do try to back it up back to why did we start looking? Did we start looking because it was 6.25 instead of 6.375 in interest rates? Or did we start looking because the you know the kids are about to start school and we want to get settled before school starts? And if that's the case, then we've got a window of time that we want to be focusing on. And so then that helps us structure okay, well, on average, this time of

— Setting buyer expectations so they don't lose sight of why they started

SPEAKER_00 20:22

year, we see X number of new listings in your price point. And so then it it helps frame here's here's what the expectations should look like. And also let's not lose focus on why we're doing this.

SPEAKER_03 20:35

I like that. And uh just to jump in here because we hear a lot of agents, or you know, we tell a lot of agents and agents here work on your scripts and have no idea what that means in practice. And you know, hearing you share what you say in these tough conversations, they're just rolling right off your tongue. But I'm sure that you practice these things. Or could you show us what that practice looks like for you? Do you role play? Do you like rehearse it in the car on the way to the listing appointment? Like, how do you stay fresh in these tough conversation scripts?

SPEAKER_00 21:08

So we we don't do a lot of, you know, quote unquote role play with like you play the buyer, I'll play the seller. Um, but we do a lot of at our at our team meetings on Thursdays, we do a lot of, hey, this came up for so-and-so on the team. Here, how would you respond to that? And then we throw it out there and we talk through it. And then someone says, Well, I would say uh da-da-da-da-da. And then someone else jumps in and says, I will say that. And so one little moment that, you know, like if one little moment that happens to one of the agents on the team, instead of it being lost and just kind of going into the ether where they just took care of it and we don't learn from it, we now put it back in front of the team. And then we have two or three different versions of, you know, my my response sounds different than Brian's response or Aaron's response or um. You know, so so it's it that we do a lot of that. Every week we have, I don't like to call it objection handling or role-playing, but it is very much this came up, how would you answer that?

— The Thursday team meeting habit that makes real estate scripts feel natural

SPEAKER_00 22:10

And then we we work through it, and it usually leads into two or three more points that everybody in the room has also dealt with. And so you do that enough and you hear uh so many different versions of it, uh, you you you believe it, right? Like you it it's it comes second nature, you know, it's not a it's not a script if you if you believe what you're saying.

unknown 22:31

Right.

SPEAKER_01 22:32

Well, and you internalize it.

SPEAKER_00 22:34

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:35

It that made me think, how do you when you onboard new agents? I don't know, I know you said you kind of keep it small. I don't know how often you're taking on new agents, but how do you teach them those scripts? How do you like, you know, it doesn't sound like you use like you know hardcore scripts and you guys are doing script practice all the time, but what does that education look like for a newer agent?

SPEAKER_00 22:56

Yeah, it's a lot of shadowing. So it's it's shadowing on listing appointments, shadowing when going out with buyers, coming in and sitting at open houses, sitting in the room when you're making your calls. Um it's a lot of together time, a lot of just hearing, you know, like on any given weekend, you can go pop into a couple different open houses and hear a few different approaches for the same goal. Um and so, yeah, there's a lot of of shadowing. We every new agent will end up doing a listing appointment with another member of the team, a few different members of the team, and and we have a listing presentation and a listing discussion that we like, but we never stick to every point that we want to make because we want to adapt to the people that are in front of us. And so um that's how the the new agents, when we do bring them on, they they get to see it firsthand and hear it.

SPEAKER_01 23:49

I like it. So before we jump into the next section, I want to close this one out. If you know, if if there's someone out there listening and they

— How the Ladd Group onboards new agents through shadowing

SPEAKER_01 23:58

know that they need to have a tough conversation, right? Whether it's around pricing or setting expectations and they're avoiding it, what would you tell them? How would you help them approach that?

SPEAKER_00 24:08

Well, I would say you're not avoiding the conversation, you're just delaying it. And you're delaying it when it does come up, it's gonna be a lot harder to have. And so, you know, it's best to be proactive as opposed to reactive, right? As you've we've talked about before. Um, but yeah, you're not you're not gonna avoid the conversation. It's better to reach out and say, hey, here's what we've done. We don't have any activity right now, but here are some of the things that we're working on. I don't have an update, I don't have anyone that's just quite ready yet, but I wanted to let you know that I'm still there. And and people appreciate that. I mean, people would rather hear from you or hear out of the gate what they should expect than have you tell them something you think they want to hear just to have that. You will have that difficult conversation. It's not, it's not going away. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:57

I I remember um when we saw Chris Voss in uh, I think it was a Tom Ferry summit, he spoke and he talked about um no news is still news, right? So even if you don't have news, you

— Why you're not avoiding the tough conversation — you're just delaying it

SPEAKER_01 25:10

still need to deliver that, right? Like don't hold your clients hostage from the news, right? Like they even even if it's no news, no news is still news. I've called it, I'm calling you like I said that I would. I don't have you know that. So okay, I like that. Um let's switch, let's switch to uh client experience and team leverage.

SPEAKER_03 25:31

Yeah. Um sorry, it's just still ringing in my head. I love how you said you said it a while ago, and it just feel like it wraps it that part up is um clear as kind. And I'm just like that's something that I'm taking from this conversation with you, Steve, is like I I love that clear as kind, and that applies to so many, so many conversations outside in real estate and outside of real estate. Um so I love that. Um okay, so you are not doing all this alone. You are a co-leader um inside a top-producing team, and our audience is mostly solo agents or like small teams trying to figure out how to leverage, how to scale. So we're gonna start there. What does the LAD group give you that you couldn't replicate on your own?

SPEAKER_00 26:19

Yeah, I mean, uh a lot. Um it's it's marketing, it's exposure, it's brand recognition, it's trust and experience, um, it's uh support, uh, whether it's like professional and administrative support or emotional support. It's it's trying, you know, doing this and working with clients and having to to you know like have these tough conversations. It's it's good to have, you know, we we leverage and we lean on each other a lot. We have a team that's really spread across marketing and appraising and finance and projects and checklists, and it it allows

— What a top producing team gives you that you can't replicate solo

SPEAKER_00 27:03

us to lean on each other. And so, yeah, I mean, I did not do this on my own. I joined the team that I knew was trusted and respected, and um you you learn a lot from other people. You're not in a silo. You you can can lean on what's been built and you can build something together, which is super fun.

SPEAKER_03 27:24

Do you is there anything that's is there any point in the you know start to close process that is difficult about say you bring in a personal lead and trusting your team with that lead? Is there anything that's difficult or did you ever struggle with that?

SPEAKER_01 27:43

Yeah, I I I see that a lot of times so I think what what we're saying is so many times Kelsey and I are working with people, they're like they want to hold everything so close to their chest that they don't trust. But for you, right, like that's you know, that's not an issue. You have a lot of trust. But was it ever difficult to kind of open kimono, as Tom would say?

SPEAKER_00 28:11

So um I will say I had a good example. Brian has been out of production. Brian Ladd, who's obviously started the team and is the head, um, he showed us. I mean, he didn't ever hold anything close to the vest. He introduced us to his biggest developers and his biggest clients and said, this is the way the team is set up. My team can serve you better by having the right person help you, whether that's our admin who's focused strictly on making sure we don't miss anything with our checkbox and our disclosures, and um, or having this agent who is most knowledgeable in equestrian properties or resort communities. Or, and so it's just always been phrased about we're we're setting it up and we're we've we've built a team where people are good at what they do. And the goal is to put our clients with those people that can help deliver. And so I'm not um so egotistical that I think I can do it better than everyone else. I do know that there are people on my team that can handle certain things better than I can, can serve them better. They know areas outside of my region, they know areas better that that um, I mean, I we we all believe we're serving our clients in the best way. And I think that really comes across. We we don't have, you know, much in the way of pushback when when it's phrased like that. I'm I'm gonna be your person, I'm gonna stay involved, but I want you to talk to, you know, whomever on the team who who can really dial you into that area because they just did two or three closings down there, and I just don't have the expertise. People love that. They feel like they don't feel like they're getting handed off, they feel like they're being raised up the ladder.

SPEAKER_03 29:52

Do you set those expectations with clients every time that there's either a handoff or that, you know, here's my transaction coordinator, you know, all that. Do you do that every time?

SPEAKER_00 30:01

Uh yeah, we do. We, I mean, it is part of who we are. We are a team. Here's who you're gonna be talking to. I won't pretend to know the subtleties of geographic targeting on the digital channels. We've got people that do that, and here's what they're telling us, and let's have a conversation with them. Um, but yeah, we we lay it out. Here's the team that you're getting. I'm gonna be your point person because sometimes people don't like to feel like they're just who am I supposed to talk to about this? So we do reiterate that. But like I said, people feel like they're, oh, they've got there's a there's a there's a SEAL team surrounding them.

SPEAKER_03 30:39

Okay. One question that I want to make sure we ask is what does the team structure let you say yes to, and what does it let you say no to?

SPEAKER_00 30:50

So the what it allows me to say yes to is more FaceTime. So by delegating tasks and by having certain people take care of them, by removing the paperwork

— How to set client expectations around team structure without losing trust

SPEAKER_00 31:03

from my um plate, it allows me to have more time with my clients. It allows, it frees me up to have that extra conversation, that extra little bit of nurturing and discussing and contemplating. So it gives me more time with the clients, which is what I want, right? That's that's where the real value is. Um, and so I'd say that's what it allows me to say yes to. And, you know, I would say that the brand that we've built and the um expertise that we we bring, it does allow us to say, like we have to be with, we have to be working with people that feel like it's a collaboration, that it is a partnership. And so that isn't always the case. And so I would say just that it allows us to say no if we don't think something is the right fit, or that we can deliver what we think we need to deliver for that client. And so, you know, there is that mindset of abundance of like, I don't need to hang on to every little thing and take it. You know, there are things that we're gonna be really well suited for, and there are gonna be some things that that maybe it's not the right fit for whatever reason. And so um, I think that's a that's a luxury that we that we have now is being able to stay focused on the things that we really think we can move the needle on and you know, interact and work with our clients at the highest level.

SPEAKER_01 32:24

So I know that there's someone out there listening that that just says, yeah, but I can just do it so much faster. Right? Like it's just it's it's easier for me to just do it. Like I they do everything themselves. So what would you tell that person that is not leveraging whether it's a transaction coordinator or your awesome marketing team, Ronald Rox, right? Like, you know, the the whole the whole like what should they let go of first and leverage?

SPEAKER_00 32:52

Uh like specifically, should they uh I mean if you if you can let go of the you know, you try to automate any back-end thing that you can automate so that it brings up into your, you know, like it, you have your daily briefing, you've got anything that brings up, these are the things that I need me for, you can't replace you. You can replace, you can fill in paperwork, you can put paperwork in files, you can, but all of that stuff is super essential. But if you don't have those items being taken care of and being managed, and you have

— The first thing solo agents should delegate right now

SPEAKER_00 33:26

to do them yourselves, it's taking away time for you to be able to go sit in front of a client and get them to see you, relate to you, trust you, know you. And so, yeah, I would say any any of the things that you see that are taking up time and preventing you from being in front of your clients, whether, you know, if it if it's too much transactional support that you need, if you need some type of assistant that kind of fills a bunch of gaps, does a little marketing, does a little transaction coordination. Um, you know, we have uh really experts at every one of those levels. Um, but it didn't start like that. And so, you know, you start with a little bit of assistance and then you see where you need that that additional assistance. But anything that you can do to preserve time to put you in front of your clients, that's what you want to be doing.

SPEAKER_01 34:09

Awesome. Let's uh I I'm curious now, let's go down this vein a little bit more. Why don't you tell us, like take us through a typical day, right? Like what is you know, what does an agent at your production actually we didn't even talk about production.

SPEAKER_00 34:25

Um, tell us what the team, you know, production is so we do last year we did 167 sales. Um we this year we'll do somewhere between 175 and 200. Our average price point is right around one 1.2. Um the median in our in our market's about 700 right now. Um, and I would say that that the volume is spread across the team. We've we've done a really good job of uh it's not just one or two producers on a team, it is really spread nicely across a team where um yeah, everybody's out there and everybody's working it.

SPEAKER_01 35:07

Okay, so he's not gonna brag on himself. And I told him I wouldn't embarrass him, but I just want you guys to hear those numbers, right? So he's a busy agent. He's selling a lot of homes. So now walk us through what does your typical typical day look like?

SPEAKER_00 35:24

So it is a 5 a.m. start time. I will get try to get caught

— 167 deals a year and what Steve's actual day looks like

SPEAKER_00 35:32

up on the things from the night before, lay out my day, look at my day, see what's what's you know, what I have on the agenda, um, get caught up on some emails, go through my Monday tasks, go through any boomeranged emails that have come back that need some assistance or need some follow-through. Um, you know, I try to do the same things. I mean, I guarantee that almost every every broker deals with the same things of I have this perfect schedule, and then it just goes out the window. And then I've got to try to bring it all back together. But I try to silo, you know, my mornings into um follow-up, proactive outreach, prospecting, you know, getting some things accomplished, project level, bigger picture team stuff, try to schedule my appointments in the afternoon, try to wrap that, you know, at a time where I can have some family and some downtime. Um and then I try not to do a whole heck of a lot before I go to bed, and then I just start it again the next day.

SPEAKER_03 36:31

What's um what's typically something that falls off when you get busy? And how do you catch back up to it?

SPEAKER_00 36:40

Self-care, self-care, uh physical activity, working out, um, all of those things. I mean, it is it is the it is the number one thing that I think I I know that I have struggled, Christy can can vouch for this, is it's just keeping that consistency because I do all of us on the team, we we want to serve our clients at the highest level. We want to give. Um, and there are certain things that don't feel like they can be uh that you can cut back on with regard to you know working with clients. But I do have to remind myself, I'm not the best best version of me if I'm burning the candle at both ends and you know not working out and not doing the things that you know that I came here to do, right? Go out and you know, free up the mind a little bit and then come in fresh.

SPEAKER_01 37:36

Yeah. So what's something you never skip, right? So like if you know, out of that whole schedule, what's what's the non-negotiable thing that never gets skipped?

SPEAKER_00 37:47

Uh every every morning, I I never start the day without looking at what needs to get done, looking at what's on the horizon, and making sure that I'm reaching out to the people that I need to. I've been really good with gratitudes for a long time. Um, that came with Merrill introducing me to a better way to do it. Um, but even that has fallen off in recent weeks. And so I've got to get back on that. And so um, you know, I wake up, I am super consistent about when I get up, when I get started, how I make sure I clean the plate from the day before, look at what's on the horizon for the day to come. It just puts me in the right mindset to make sure that I'm I'm not gonna miss the key important elements. I always start with that, and then I'll get to the prospecting and the you know, all of the pieces that need to fall in. But, you know, creating the plan, looking at the plan and seeing what's there, I think is the number one thing that I won't, I just don't skip. I don't just start rolling into it without a plan.

SPEAKER_01 38:50

Okay, I like that. Well, as we wrap up, um, we're gonna have our take it and run moment. Um, this is what our audience has been waiting for, right? And so what I want to do is I want you to talk to the person who's not having the year that they thought they were going to. So maybe they're behind on their numbers. Maybe they haven't, you know, sold as many homes or helped as many clients. What's the one thing you would tell them to do?

SPEAKER_00 39:20

I would say look around in your marketplace, look at some data points, look at some metrics that you know people are hearing, and think of an interesting take on that and use that as your talking points. Go into every week with a talking point or two because the number one thing someone will say to you is how's the market? And if your answer is, well, I don't it's it's no know the answer to that question. Know the answer to, well, it's it's actually really interesting right now. We've got a split market. We've

— Take It and Run moment: what to do if you're behind on your numbers

SPEAKER_00 39:53

got this segment of the markets transacting in about a week, and then there's this whole segment of the market that takes four, five, six months to sell. And so it's super interesting right now to see. I mean, have your talking point, whatever it is. That might not be everybody's, but know the answer to that question. It's the number one thing that comes up, and I'd say it's probably the number one thing that people tumble on.

SPEAKER_01 40:15

Mic drop.

SPEAKER_03 40:16

Yeah, seriously. Um, okay, so we're gonna close with some rapid-fire questions. I've got six rapid-fire questions. Um, I think you'll do great. Uh so here we go. Here we go. What is uh the best book or podcast for an agent who wants to get better at tough conversations?

SPEAKER_00 40:36

Um I like Phil M. Jones Exactly What to Say for Real Estate Agents.

SPEAKER_03 40:40

Okay. Uh, what's one habit you do every morning, no exceptions?

SPEAKER_00 40:45

Open the laptop, turn on some music, pour a cup of coffee, set up a plan for the day.

SPEAKER_03 40:51

Most underrated thing in real estate right now.

SPEAKER_00 40:55

Underrated? Um, I would say it's probably AI for the sake of efficiency. I think there's a lot of focus on AI for some like glitzy, gimmicky things. Um I would say underrated is how much time you can free up again to like make make the most of the time that you have with your clients.

SPEAKER_03 41:20

So then what's the most overrated thing in real estate right now?

SPEAKER_00 41:24

Um I I would say it is, I don't know, this probably isn't a great answer for it, but it's chasing whatever shiny new tool or gimmick is out there. It's always thinking there's a better CRM, always thinking there's some cool little video feature that you can do. And like you're just getting caught up in the noise.

SPEAKER_03 41:44

Yep. What's one piece of advice you'd give the version of you who just started in this business?

SPEAKER_00 41:52

I would say, and this goes back to Phil Jones headset it at one point do the basics at a super high level consistently. It's not one of my favorite quotes.

SPEAKER_03 42:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:03

No more complicated than that.

SPEAKER_03 42:05

Yeah. Lastly, how can people reach out to you? What's the best way to connect with you?

SPEAKER_00 42:10

You can reach out to us through Instagram, through Facebook, uh, we're Bendproperty Source.com. I think you can put all my contact information in the notes. Um, yeah, we would love to talk, individual agents who are struggling, small teams. We're all about sharing what we're doing and learning from you. You have little elements that we would love to hear about as well. And of course, we'd love to serve your clients. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:36

Thank you so much, Steve. I know uh I know that uh you don't always love to put a spotlight on yourself. So I appreciate you letting us spotlight the LAD group and you because you guys are doing amazing things. And I know that someone listening right now you said something that they're gonna take and they're gonna run with it. And it's gonna it's gonna change their year. They're gonna help more people. Because that's the whole point of this show. So um thank you so much for coming and uh to our audience. We've given you the information. Steve's given it to you. It's in your hands now. Go take some action. Take it and run.