Offerin' Real Estate Insights

Mastering Ninja Selling: Systems, Mindset & Results That Scale with Kayla Carosella

• Offerin.io • Episode 11

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When your real estate business starts to feel more chaotic than consistent, it's time for a strategy reset. In this episode, powerhouse agent and team leader Kayla Carosella breaks down Ninja Selling—a proven, relationship-first philosophy that’s helped her lead 35+ agents to record-breaking results, even in one of the most challenging markets to date.

If you’re a real estate agent juggling lead generation, offer overload, and the mental ping-pong of client emotions, this one's for you. Kayla shares the exact mindset, systems, and daily structure that turn her team into time-blocking, relationship-building machines.

We unpack the three pillars of Ninja Selling—mindset, skill set, and results—and how they fuel consistent client satisfaction through transparency and trust. Kayla explains why a solid CRM and active sphere of influence aren’t optional, but essential, and how knowing the difference between working in your business versus on it can transform your trajectory. From smart structure and self-care to daily systems that prevent burnout, she also shares tactical steps for new agents to go from hobbyist to high-performer with purpose.

Brand new to the game or already running a top-producing team, you'll find Kayla’s insights on time management, offer management, and referral-generating relationships refreshingly actionable. Her clear-eyed optimism? Absolutely contagious in the best way.

👉 Discover how Offerin helps agents win more deals, save time, and look like heroes to their clients. Visit Offerin.io to learn more or schedule a demo today.

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Hey, we are having fun in the studio again. Part two with, my favorite guest, Kayla Kiera Sela with local real estate. The first time Kayla, we had you in the studio, we talked a little bit about your story and kind of what got you to where you are. The focus on people, focused on, like, your unique, approach to networking, hosting, networking events and how powerful that's been for your business. Today we're going to bring you, to talk a little bit deeper into the networking. We're going to get a ninja selling your mindset to the business. So hope this episode is, is is a great ad for for many of the agents that are listening. So let's, let's dive right in and do ninja selling. So a lot of people have heard the term so ninja selling for dummies on the dummy here. So what is it, what is it. What is Ninja. So the book was the published in 2018 by Larry Kendall and Ninja selling is a relationship selling philosophy. Okay, break that down for us. What is what is that. Yeah. So it's it starts with your mindset, your skill set and then results. And so those are always the three things where I'm teaching around okay. And those three parts, you know we can dive into. So deeply. But the first one being mindset is just how the way understanding how the way your brain works. Your reticular activating system that raz do you know what that is? No. Okay. I can I can give an example. So your reticular activating system is when you go to buy a car. Okay. And so what kind of car you drive? Ford F-150. Okay. What color? Black. Black. You go to buy that car, but you don't buy it the day you're there. Okay, okay. Then the next day, you go out and you get in your car and you start driving around. What is all you see. Black f-150s. Because what you focus on expands. That's the mindset. So it's an abundance thinking. It's understanding that in real estate there are a ton of highs and lows. Case in point yesterday I close a very challenging deal when this morning I woke up to my my flip flooding. Bad news takes me two steps back. But I know that this is just a moment of scarcity. This is just a moment I'm going to let myself feel that, and then I'm going to pivot into what I need to do to get the job done. That's the mindset. That's the resilience you need to build in this business. So that is what I focus pretty much 100% of the time on awesome. And then there's skill set skills labs. We do weekly, we run weekly skills labs. And they're all around the ninja selling processes. And so there's a 16 step seller process. There's a buying consultation and all these processes, when I read the book, gave me clarity around and direction around what it is that I should be doing. But then once you start getting those, the last piece, which is results, you just want to do more of those things that work. And it's that simple, but it can always feel that complicated at the same time. How do you separate the logical steps right from the actual emotional work? So experience. Yeah. So I think it's experience and it's the way in which and the last episode we talked about when we had talked originally, going from title to lending to the outside world. So I know what the outcome, the outcome is. They buy it or they don't buy it. There's a closing or there's not a closing. That's very logical. That's every single and that's how simple, right. If you want to simplify it, that's how simple. There's a buyer and a seller and every transaction and there's an agent who sometimes is representing both. But most of the time in a traditional buyer is represented by the buyer agent sellers represented by the selling agent. And then there's a title company involved, and then there's a lender involved. And then if there's a lender, they're getting an appraisal, which also comes with a survey. See how many people I just talked about on top of just the two people that are working the transaction, what I teach them is that's your team for that deal. It's your job. And the other agent's job, whether they're from Keller Williams, Howard Hanna, exp. I don't I don't care where they're from. They could be from local. You're going to treat them the exact same way. But that is your team. It is in your best interest. One common goal to get this deal to the finish line, all the other stuff in between is the gray area right. That's what I went out in 2019 and I started putting the gray areas together. I would start going out and realizing, because when you're in title, it's very simple. When you're in lending, it's very simple. The contracts come to you when you're an agent, you go out and get the contract and bring it back. Yeah. And then you become a different player in this game. So it's a very difficult thing for me to answer, because you find your rhythm in that and you find that through experience. And this worked this time. But it might not work this time. But why? The why is always the important part of it. Because it's always emotional and it's always life or death and everything's always important. It's we're closing or we're not. It's your home, it's your investment. It's the biggest decision you're going to make in your life besides who you marry. Yep. If you do that, that's a huge decision, right? That's a partnership. So does that simplify it enough? I think that's great I don't know. No. Very very good. I have a couple clarifying questions. So maybe not clarifying but two of my favorite words or the concept to think about is scarcity and the opposite being abundance. Right. So kind of what ninja selling is doing is taking this abundance mentality. Yep. And saying, hey, I have all these skills, there's all these great opportunities. There's a lot out there and. Focusing on that. Yeah. So how do you get that? Like you said, you woke up or yesterday bad your bad hard hard deal to close today flooded slip and then those feelings. How do you come here to the studio with a positive attitude. How are you doing this. Because of the end game. Which is. The end game, which is? I'm not finished. That's not solved. I haven't even done my greatest deal yet. I don't know, I've closed a sweet deal at 24 unit at $1.8 million. That was my best deal year to date. But where's the next one? Real estate's a long game. You signed up for this. Is it. This is the commitment that I made to myself in this industry. And I take those commitments serious for myself, for my clients, for my team. It is my job to be that trusted financial advisor, that trusted advisor for my clients and so again what you focus on expands. I am always going to find that solution right? I am never going to let the problem weigh me down. And I think once you start really believing in that, what happens is the people around you sort of adapt it. And that's what I've seen happen in the past two years in my office is and I know this to be true because we're in quote unquote, a very difficult market right now where sales are down and, you know, homes aren't selling for at the value. And that's the perception of it. But my agents are at 210 transactions year to date. That's the most the company has ever done since it's been opened. So what I have to give that to is I have bought so much into ninja selling, and it is who I am, and it's what I've become. And the only thing I can think of is motivation wears off. Yeah. But when you're inspired and you get that inspiration inside of you like I, I've read ninja selling six, seven times, you pick up something different every time you read it. But every single time I read it let's go. Like I took something different and guess what? Okay, now we got a whole new process we're going to put in place. That's right. And that's I always tell them objects in motion stay in motion. So regardless. Yeah it's good the outcome. If you're a brand new agent that's listening to this podcast, doesn't really know what's up with, with, with you know, doesn't know ninja selling also may not have a lot of clients like what is the 1 or 2 core ninja selling. Call them techniques or thoughts or recommendations that you can give to a new agent brand. What's the one thing they can they can implement like immediately, immediately? So the first thing I tell them to do is start with everything you have right now. So start working what we call your sphere of influence. So anybody around you, your friends, your family, people you've worked in the past with, anybody that you know, start reaching out to those people and just let them know what it is you're doing. That's the first thing. Let them know what it is you're doing. While you're doing that, make sure you're getting yourself some sort of database together because when I read Ninja selling, I read ninja selling in 2019 when I got licensed. And that was the start of my business. And so 2020, I did 3 to 4 million read that book, and then I doubled my business. But what I didn't have was a solid data base. Yet I was still what Larry refers to a hobbyist, which is you're in the business, you're closing transactions, but you're not on purpose. You're winging it. You're not an accident realtor because you're not running a business. Really. You're bringing people to the finish line. But what about after that? Where's the next one coming from? So once I realized that, and I realized all the sales in the past, that I wasn't capitalizing on, or I wasn't realizing that there were other referrals that I had left on the table that made me put my database together real quick. So I would say first, first things are reach out to everybody that you know and then to let them know what it is that you're doing, because what you find is people want to help if they can, they want to help. And then have a system put it down and just be be obsessed. Be obsessed with becoming a master at your craft. Be obsessed with all those skills that you need to learn to get you to constantly closing those deals. And not just sometimes. It's the things that you do every day. So that's my next question. Yeah. What does a typical day look like in your life? Because you're not just running your own business. You're also leading a whole bunch of agents. How many agents do you have with with you right now? 35. Okay. So you have 35 agents. You're motivating, you're educating, you're inspiring to go out. Yeah. And do their business and be honest. My days are very chaotic. They start they start at 6 a.m. so that I can get my, my, my time is from about 6 to 8. And that's my time because that's the time that everybody's sleeping and people are kind of just getting up. And that's quiet time where I can think, yeah, and I go to bed early. So, I wake up with a ton of energy, so I kind of start nailing things down. And I have certain days and time blocks where I do certain things. Like, for instance, Monday, we have a winds and roots call with the team. I'm able to check on them on Tuesday I host a training and then on Thursday we do our skills lab. So I give my agents the option to come and plug in. If they can't make a Monday or Tuesday, they can still get their skills on a Thursday and they can make all of all, all of these other things around it kind of work. So for me, it's I know that this may not sound great, but my clients, I've got them like they I have. I've been selling on my own without help the entire time I've been licensed. I've been a solo agent. I had a transaction coordinator for a little bit. I find being able to know what's going on through the whole transaction just makes me move through it a lot quicker. So all that to say, I'm able to handle 6 to 8 million a year on my own because I was doing that on my own before I had everybody else. So then I had to learn, okay, they still very much need you. And so you're going to get calls in the middle of the day, and you're going to work on your stuff and just understand that we are a team. And that's what I remind myself of on those days where they don't, I'm not able to get my stuff done or it has to wait till the end. But it's it's basically nine to, you know, between the hours of 9 a.m. and 6 p.m., I am full, full go. And then after that, it's, you know, you answer emails for a few hours at night and then you get yourself together for the next day. You never go to bed without having your plan for the next day. And that's ninja selling. Just kind of engraved that in you. But when you have a system that you've been working through so much and you're just trying to get 10% better at certain things every day, this crazy thing happens where it's just you find the time to do everything that you need to do. So a couple interesting things I want to clarify. So first off, I heard personal time. It take some time for Kayla. Make sure you're good and you're healthy and you. Can say that. Yeah. Second, I heard a structure on Mondays we do this. Wednesdays we do that. Thursdays you do a structure? Yes. Like, maybe a system. Yeah. Right. So, yeah. Structure system. Personal time. Yeah. Oh. Planning, planning. For the next day. Yeah. Planning for the next. And that's, that's part of my, that's that's part of the system. And then the thing that throws a wrench into all of this is every week changes. Yeah. So why you have this plan and we have this core core like schedule. I'm also very lenient in. Hey it didn't get done at this time. I don't care though. It still needs to get done. And so if we weren't able to do that this time, now we have to take a block and this goes into the next day. And just coming up with that rhythm and how to kind of make all that work, and you're always stopping and reinventing that. Some things work in the third quarter that don't work in the second quarter or the first. And so that's part of it, is talking to your team, seeing what struggles we're obviously going through in the market and being able to be what your team needs for you on the other side of it. So very proactive. You got to be very proactive on all cylinders. Yeah. That's awesome. I guess, one of the thoughts I was having is like this is a relationship business, but you're talking about all the structure and all these people, all these conversations moving forward. But like, how do you balance that time between relationship building and doing the business of real estate? So they book simplifies it in two ways, which is working on your business and then working in your business. Right. And they're very there are two very different things. And they look different for realtors, for title companies, for lenders. But I do find when I open that training up to other companies, so to say, they come because they're able to see the difference in working on and working in, and that you need to have a schedule for what that looks like. Also, some people find, you know, as a business owner, you bite off a lot more than you can chew. When you get into that role. You're learning the accounting. You're learning all sort of. If you're like me, you want to know the process for everything that the company's doing, because you either need to make it a little bit better, you need to change it a little bit. So I need to learn that and then I need to learn it good enough to teach it to somebody else. So I would say as a leader, I think that's one thing that has been the biggest awakening. The rudest awakening is, is, is that peace and not understanding what a huge undertaking that could be? Wow. So having the energy from your agents when they go out and they crush it. Yeah. And then you just find this energy back. And say, where does that come from? It comes from Kane capping last week, and it comes from me being able to put him in my teaching somewhere along the line, put him in a situation where he knew that there could have been this opportunity and he went for it, and that is what I'm talking about. That is what I want to give to people. And it seems very personal, because what I'm talking about is it's business and it's life. Yeah. And these things, and it doesn't turn off. It's a passion that you have. This is just my life. This is just what I do. Yeah. You're committed to it. Yeah. You're dedicated to it. And, nothing can stop you. Yeah. You just. Yeah. And you have, You have to be. Like I said, it takes a certain level of obsession to make it work. I love it. Yeah, I've been obsessed. So we're going to, wrap up today's conversation, do a quick lightning round. I'm ready for this. Yeah, let's do it. All right, so, You're gonna fire the hard one? Yeah. You just say the first thing that comes to mind. So what's your favorite book? Ninja selling by Larry Kennedy. Come on, that was a all right. That was, you. But another. But another one, that I really like, is the four disciplines of execution. That book, and especially anybody in leadership. And, I've actually given it to my broker to read. I passed it right to him. Is it has put so much into perspective by me that author is totally slipping my mind. But the four disciplines of execution and I'm I'm going through the book, the last couple chapters again to implement a system that I'm putting in place right now. Oh, that's a good one. But Ninja selling takes the cake. Okay, here's my life. So what's a quote that you live by? Oh, from Ninja selling I would say what you focus on expands. Lately the quote that I've been living by is less is more cool. Yeah. So, who is someone that's inspired you in business? Wow. So, of course, Larry Kendall in his book, but there's a huge piece of that that was going on that Mario Russo. Mario Russo is an agent at local and he was before he got rolling like he has rent. He does a rental company and he has flips that he does very similar to me. But he was doing all those things first and then he bought a winery and I just saw him go out and do literally anything he set his mind to. There you go. And he was also the person at the brokerage that was taking over that training role. And so naturally, when I'm hearing somebody like, close all these deals, for the first thing I'm doing is I'm looking in like, how is he doing it? But what I did was I said, I need to do this and I need to do this with you. And so I see what you're doing. What I did is I saw him going out and getting sellers, and I just went and I got buyers because I wanted to work with him and learn more from him. So Mario's definitely somebody that throughout my career has been a huge positive influence on me, both in the in the real estate world and we have a great relationship in real life. Also his his wife, they actually just had a baby. Love them together. Another little local baby. But she owns a very successful staging company and so all of our agents are really spoiled with that. They've just I saw them doing it, and they really made it look so easy. And I remember thinking to myself, I can do, I can do this. And he was that person in real estate that really gave that to me, because I didn't have it in title and I didn't have it in lending. Yeah. I think the lesson there is finding someone that. Is doing the things that you want to do and, and just make sure that, yeah, just, you know, trade your trade money for their time and just learn everything that you can't you can't skip that part. The main person would definitely be my mom and my dad, and that's cool. They're just my dad's a business owner and he's incredible. And my mom has this ability to turn anything into gold that she touches. So that's. Special. That's there. Yeah, yeah. I'm very. If you worked in real estate, what would you be doing if something else that's your issue? Oh my. You're like no, nothing real estate related at all. Yeah. If you're not. In. So I'm not doing this. What would you be doing with your passion project. Anything like that? Unlimited money I would time yeah I'd buy a bit, I would buy. So I would say the, Pilates. I'm a huge fan, so I'd probably buy a plot studio. There you go. Because that would make everybody look and feel great. That's something I would love to do. And then I would say, maybe I'm missing out on this. Like the VMD spies and like the revital spies of the worlds like, that is not going out of style anytime soon. So that would maybe be something that I would get into, but. Something to keep your eye on. It's something to keep my eye on, for sure. But, for right now and for the past, since 2014, this is my arena. So somebody is going to have to come and take me out of this. A couple of hard ones, a couple hard ones to finish. Coke or Pepsi? Coke? Oh yes. All day. Baby. Oh, day. Puppies or kittens? Puppies. Okay. All right. I had it easy ones. Those are great. Okay, good. All right. Awesome. So, you know, I'd love for people to get to know you if people want to reach out to you, people want to even join. Local people want to come to these networking events. How do they what's the best way for them to to find you? Yeah. So, you can connect on any social media platform, local with a K if you spell that out. La Calle aka Y, that's my Instagram. And then, you can find us on Eventbrite if you just type in local real estate, those all those networking events are going to pop up. They're free. So go ahead and you can just, you know, get your ticket and then show up will be there the third Thursday of every month. And then if you're looking for one of my agents to contact you as far as buying or selling or investing local real estate.com, and then I can always give my phone number, which is (216) 482-7188. If there's something that you need help with or there's a pain point in your business right now, call me. I would love to chat about it. Great. And thank you so much for having me. Thank you so much for being our guest today. It's been an. Honor. Too much fun. All right, we'll see you all right. All the best.