Broker Rehab
Broker Rehab is where independent brokers come to recover from burnout, rebuild their freedom, and recharge their love for the business. Hosted by Courtney Twiss and Jeff Sutherlin — two brokers who’ve lived the highs, the hustle, and the 2 a.m. emails — this is where real talk meets real recovery.
Broker Rehab
Episode 14 - What we Wouldn't do Again
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In this engaging interview, broker Brian Domingos shares invaluable insights on building and leading a successful real estate brokerage. Topics include the evolution of industry training, creating a strong company culture, and strategic growth tips for brokers and team leaders.
Key Topics
- Industry training evolution and its impact
- Building and maintaining company culture
- Strategic growth and agent recruitment
- Value proposition and profitability management
- Adapting to industry changes and future trends
Well, welcome to Broker Rehab. I'm Courtney Twist. I've got my partner in crime, Jeff Sutherland, here with me, coming at you from Arizona. And we are so excited today to have Brian Domingos on, longtime broker in the Central Valley of California. Um, he's been, we were just discussing a broker since 2009. He's seen a lot of changes in this market. Um, correct me if I'm wrong, Brian. I believe you have like right around 30 agents or so in your brokerage.
SPEAKER_02Uh, you know, we have about half of that. We're about 15, 16, yeah.
SPEAKER_0015 agents in his brokerage. And today I've asked Brian to join us in a conversation about the things that we would never do again if we were starting our own brokerage or our own team. So I think this is gonna be a lively and fun discussion. Brian, thank you for joining us today.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely happy to be here. Appreciate the opportunity to chat with you guys.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Well, go ahead and tell our listeners um a little bit more about you and and your background.
SPEAKER_02Sure. So I got licensed in 03. I was 21. I worked for a Century 21 franchise here in Fresno and then uh detoured for a little while and worked in commercial entitlement consulting for a company that would be hired by developers to get their projects through the entitlement process. So we would take raw land, uh, we would negotiate with neighbors and kind of tell the story of what the project would be to get support. And then we would go to planning commissions and local city councils to um lobby them on behalf of the developer to get projects approved. So that was a very interesting kind of detour out of residential sales for a while and um allowed me to kind of really understand the the diff the connection between politics and land use locally and how cities get built and developments get made and how important those relationships are with elected and appointed officials. So I did that for five years and then um missed the real estate side, you know, the sales. I missed um working for myself, I missed having an opportunity to try to build something I kind of always envisioned early on. Like someday I would walk into a lobby and there would be my logo of my own company behind this wooden reception desk. And um I just it that never went away, that feeling of wanting to try that and kind of roll the dice on myself and see how that would work. So uh I did, I got my broker's license in 09, still worked in development consulting for a while, actually did some uh work with the Farm Bureau for a while as well as I was kind of getting back into the residential sign and then um, you know, was back full-fledged, really not with a huge vision of what the brokerage would look like. I don't know that I took a lot of the time that I would now to kind of think through a lot of that. So you're like, you know, you start, you build your own clientele, and uh you're working on developing you're building an engine and an airplane that's in the air, right? So very little prep work, got a logo, got a couple of signs, got a cell phone number, and then just kind of went to work. And um that's you know, that was gosh, what oh nine? So that's been it's been a while, right? And um I really always just kind of thought that I would focus on my own sales and my own team and my own clients and my own uh kind of world with my own operations people that would support me. And then we grew, started with an assistant, and uh, which was the hardest hire for me because I didn't think I had could afford it, right? You know, I thought, gosh, I don't know that I can afford to hire an assistant and kind of share my commissions. And I just got married at the time and um I just thought, you know what, I don't know if I can do this. So you have kind of like you start, I started with this fear of the unknown. Like, what what am I what do I sign up for? What are my costs? You know, like what's this budget gonna look like? Can I afford to you know pay my bills? And and so the one assistant, we started with systems. You know, we can get into this later. I'm sure you have questions about what I think is important looking back now, all of the things I didn't know and had to learn on my own. Um, but we started implementing systems, for example, like if I was gonna maintain my own business, what did that look like? How often was I gonna touch my sphere? What was my relationship gonna be with them once we closed a transaction? How was that gonna be managed? Who was responsible for all that? And then uh, you know, along the way, I just started picking up agents that I had worked with who said, Hey, you know, I'd like to work with you. Can you know, can we meet about joining your brokerage? And um grew kind of without a plan and or a real, I was never a recruiter, I was never good at that. I never took the time to to call um agents to come over. So we we kind of just grew based on word of mouth people that I'd worked with at Century 21. I have a few of those who've come over now at different stages in their career 20 years later, which is fun. And uh, you know, we've diversified into other other things too property management, pool maintenance, cleaning, that kind of stuff. That's the quick version of the last 20 years.
SPEAKER_00Nice.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, I mean, I heard you say something that's definitely touching on the topic that we're talking about that you you grew basically without a vision early on. And I think that's something that's very common for us brokers and team leads, is exactly what you said, right? We're getting so busy, so now we need some support. And how how do we just grow our own business versus what do we really want this to look like five years from now? And how do we get a consistency with all these people that are now working with us? And yeah, it's awesome.
SPEAKER_02It you know, it's it's chaotic, and I feel like when you're exploring the idea of creating a brokerage or a team, you really owe it to yourself and your future team members to think about like what do you what are you gonna do? What's the day-to-day look like for you? If if producing is important to you and something that you need to for your bottom line to produce on your own, and you're gonna be available to your clients more than you're gonna be available to those that may need you, then you need to think about the type of agent that you're recruiting. Because if it's if you're building a team of new people and the the training industry, the training in our industry has drastically changed since I started. When I started in 2003, you pulled up to a brick and mortar with a tie on, you sat in a room with somebody that was 35 years older than you who walked you through a contract, taught you how to measure a house, told you if your appointment's at six, you sit around the corner at 555 and you pull up right at that time and make sure you're knocking at the time. I mean, that was the training that we were exposed to. And you sat and you read contract by contract, line by line, and um things are different now. Technology's changed, how we train, brokerage's models have trained, changed how we how we train. So I think really understanding if you think about I'm gonna start this team or this brokerage, like who's what's your ideal agent avatar, right? We talk about that with our clients. Who are we, who are we targeting when we want to service uh our real estate clients? And so the same, I think, would apply as a leader of a brokerage. These people or a team are coming to you with different needs. And you have to understand if you're able and equipped and ready to meet their needs. And if not, then whose needs are you ready to meet while you're maintaining your own business? If that's the model that you're gonna do. If you're not, if you're fully dedicated to sitting in the big office in the corner or and checking in on a regular basis while other people work to make money for you, then what does that structure need to look like? And I think that fundamental, you know, um fork in the road really has to be explored before you're experimenting. And maybe, maybe you won't have it all figured out because we don't know until we kind of start getting into the trenches and exploring how it's gonna work. But I think if an agent asks you, what's my training gonna look like? Who's gonna do it? If I'm writing a contract at six at night and I'm stuck, who do I call? Those are questions you owe yourself and the agents that are gonna be working with you the answer to.
SPEAKER_00Definitely. I mean, Jeff, what's your thought on that? Because you kind of came at this different than I feel like Brian and my experiences are really similar. I grew in a very similar manner to Brian and didn't figure out vision or any of that till I started getting my first real estate coach, which was like years later. Whereas you, Jeff, like got your broker's license and were like full steam ahead in the throes of it early on with managing a bunch of people versus it all being about more your production.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, when we went it, I basically spent most of my career building people and building companies. So when I started my own company in Chandler, my my goal was to scale as quickly as possible. So um I think I hit some some flatlined areas. Like when we hit agent 75 around that aging count, we flatlined for about six months until we had another breakthrough. Um, but when I look back at what I would have done differently, it's clear to me I would have had a different split. Uh, we did a flat fee, which was very, very affordable in Phoenix at that time. So we brought in a lot of people and they were quality people. We vetted everybody and we had excellent production per agent. Actually, the number one in Phoenix in 2013 and 14. But because of the uh lack of a split, my profitability really suffered. So I found myself working endless hours and not taking home the amount of money I really wanted to take home. So it was kind of unfulfilling in that regard. And I wish I would have started with a different uh fee structure at the very beginning and actually brought in less people and focused more on, you know, retention and quality versus numbers. Because, like in the Phoenix market, it's difficult to compete on numbers because you're you're amongst some giants of companies that have 5,000, 6,000 agents. So you're constantly competing against them in technology, right? And when you're a new broker, you can't. You don't have the war chest of cash, you don't have the resources or the strategic alliances. So it's those are some challenges, you know, when you're, I think when you're if you want to grow, those are challenges at the beginning and from my experience.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. And yeah, I mean, you bring up a good point. I think one of the things I didn't realize early on is whatever my value proposition was gonna be as a broker was gonna cost me money. And you have to back into that number to know what the, what, how, you know, what is your sp, what do your splits look like? And how do you justify them? And is that something that you can communicate that's subjective and consistent to the same person? Or are you saying, you know, it looks like you sold a lot of real estate last year. I'm gonna start you at this really high split and hope that you continue, and then we have a major market change like we've had. And so those numbers don't work. So the budget piece of being a brokerage now where the expectation of value is high, and the expectation that the split is also going to be high, puts the broker in an interesting, excuse me, position in terms of how to figure how to pay for it all, right? So I think, you know, just like I tell my agents, you have to know your value proposition. If you're sitting at somebody's dining room table and they've given you an opportunity to sell their property, you have to be able to explain to them why you're the best choice, which means you have to know what you're good at and what value you bring to the transaction, right? That's beyond putting a sign in the ground and putting it in the MLS. So, same for us, I think, team leaders and brokers. We have to be able to articulate to the people that want to hang their license with us what our value is and what it costs. And you know, that that for me is later in my career where I've start to really been able to say that I can articulate what you're this is what you're gonna get here. And uh, we have to have a conversation about if we're a good fit or not. And I my challenge to brokers and team leads would be don't give away your value. Right. I mean, if you're investing time and resources into training somebody and help them find their why and develop a passion and be able to understand a contract and try to implement boundaries and have good service and you know, manage all of the things that we have to manage and be a TikTok star and be able to be on, you know, all of those things, we quantify your time and make sure that it's worth it for you.
SPEAKER_00I so agree. Although sometimes, I mean, over years, we've all been brokers for a long time, your value changes or your value proposition changes, and sometimes your splits have to change accordingly. And that is a tough conversation when you have to either change splits or fees. But I I feel like it's almost inevitable at some point in the road. I don't know. It's hard to nail that down in the early days because so much is changing and tech is changing and all the things.
SPEAKER_02And I think one of the things I've struggled with is the letting the company evolve when it's supposed to, versus holding on to kind of old things that we're comfortable with or routine or policies or splits that that made sense at one time and maybe don't now, and and confronting those, having those conversations with your with your team, whether it be your admin people or your agents, is hard. You know, the timing of that sometimes is off.
SPEAKER_01Is it could I ask Brian, is it difficult for you? You have 15 agents. Do you uh first question would be do you have a standard that you look for when you bring people in certain production levels? And second question is how do you do that in terms of balancing your own production and then leading the company? Is that is that sometimes difficult or how is that for you? Sure.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, no, um, I think I look for work ethic, ability to communicate, you know, prior sales experience. Like one of my best agents used to sell copiers for 20 years. She's incredible. Her presentation is top-notch, her knowledge about her products she takes very uh seriously because that's how she competed in one before with a low margin um business like copy machines, which I didn't know anything about. And so production's important, but sometimes people with a lot of production come with a lot of baggage. So I um yeah, you know I I come with a lot of baggage. If I was an agent out there looking, I know that I'd I'd be walking into the big list too. So I get that. We get you know comfortable with our our process. So it to me, it's not I don't really have a set standard, it's more of a conversation. Um what I learned probably too late was that I needed to be able to establish value and make sure that there were people in place to help the agents when I'm busy, because there's times that I'm not here very often. I am I'm here every day, but some days, like tomorrow, I'm out of the office most of the day, whether that be meetings with local associations or uh doing a walkthrough or showing property. And so if somebody has a question at two o'clock tomorrow, they won't, I won't be at that in my office for them to answer that to. So I we we put a you know, a training calendar was really important for us so that we could consistently communicate to people this is when you're gonna be trained. This is what I'm this is what availability looks like. If I'm not here, I have one of the best operations people in the business who works for me full-time and sits in my office and helps the brokerage uh work when we have technical questions about contracts. She's incredible. What form do I use? How do I fill it out? All those things she's available for when I'm not. And every Wednesday we have a uh team meeting that we help people learn not only the technical, we have a separate technical training, but help the develop the sales piece. And we talk about the funnel. How are you getting people in it? I ask that all the time. But the ones you know and the ones you don't, what's your strategy for both? How are they gonna find you out of 4,000 people on Armed Fresno Metro area? And then when they find you, what are you gonna say to them? Because the statistics say you probably won't capture that lead unless you do it certain things, right? So there's we have focused conversations around things that I think are important. We talk about time blocking, we talk about what did the what is your job as an agent? It really comes down to talking to people, showing property, making appointments, and follow-up, right? And uh, if you want to record some of that on on Instagram and social media, great, go for it. But you do you have to know the fundamentals. And if someone calls you and says, Do I sign this liquidated damages paragraph on this contract as I'm driving down the freeway and doing it on my phone? Like, what does it mean? And you say, I don't know, then you start to erode the value that you bring uh to that to the transaction. So I want my agents when somebody calls them and says, Hey, in theory, like I'm trying to explore what this means. These contingencies, you said they have 17 days. What does that look like? What are those off ramps for me and how does that affect me while I continue to pay the mortgage and maintain the property? I want them to be able to answer those questions. So we talk about that. Did that I don't even know if that remotely answered your question. So my I built a team that supports my personal production. Um, and then we have I have another admin too that's in the office of helping order signs and making sure MLS statuses are changed. So it's you know, to your point though, that that there's overhead associated with those things. And I have some benefits because I have other companies that can share and the cost of that, but that's that's how I structure it.
SPEAKER_01And you made one point I just want to follow up on. You said some people come at a big cost, right? And there's a lot more with high producers, and and that is absolutely fax, right? Because in some companies you have a capping system, right? And when you have a capping system, you know you're only getting X amount of money from that prima donna, that agent that wants your staff all the time. And and and sometimes they're honestly they're toxic to the culture. So, you know, I bet I bet over the years you've probably had to make some difficult calls because at the end of the day, you have to get a return, you know, off the time you're putting into these agents, and you want them to be in culture. And if they're out of culture, you really have to kind of you have to kind of question that, I think.
SPEAKER_02Culture is really important. And you know, I um have always been an independent worker that's never really worried about that part. And and that for me personally, the culture is important. You want to you want to be able to enjoy the people you you work with, and then you want to be able to have fun with them. And and this is a tough business, you want support when you need it, and you want to be able to say, like, gosh, I'm really struggling with this, and what would you do? That stuff's always been really important to me. But I had to kind of learn through a couple agents, say, like, are we ever gonna do anything fun? Are you gonna ever do like an ice cream social or can we do a beer test tasting one night? Or uh, what was one that they wanted to do? A vision board night where we brought magazines and cut out and had some wine? Like that stuff didn't even dawn on me uh initially. And that culture is important in a business that's hard. Like culture is important anywhere. But I had to stop and go, oh gosh, how how do we connect as humans in a way that we feel like we have a true support system and we actually get to learn and know something about these people that we work with in a different, more personal way? So, you know, it's funny, you get you get the title and the power and the ability to be at the top, but you don't doesn't mean that you're equipped to know all of the right ingredients for what a perfect culture looks like, or rules, or policies, or procedures, or how how do I get my check, or when does my stuff get uploaded to your review system, right? Like we have to learn those things, and sometimes we have to hope that there's some grace that comes along with those of us on the on the journey to help us be better.
SPEAKER_00That's basically what prompted us to create broker rehab is I know for years I was looking for resources for brokers specifically. Like, where can we go? Who can we talk to that is not competition necessarily? Like, how where can we go that's like somewhere you can get vulnerable or hear um from others and other markets of what they're doing and what's working or not working? Because there's kind of a lack of resources, I think, in our industry for leaders specifically. There's a lot about production and for but where do we go when we don't know the answer? Which happened?
SPEAKER_02I just re-engaged a new a coach. I had a coach for a long, long time that looked at structure, and she I flew, she was in Florida, I flew her out to the Brookridge, and we did two weeks of extensive deep dives into our everything. And uh we would meet every week electronically, and and I could let that go for a while, and I just re-engaged a new coach because I'm at the kind of the point now where the collaboration piece and the exploring, like, what could this look like? And you have all this experience talking to having these conversations nationally. Like, what what are your thoughts on this? Because there's nobody in this building that I can go walk to and ask, what do you think about this? Like, what is this a good idea or a bad idea? So you're right. I mean, there's not a lot of um of structure around where we go to to talk. And I and I think now more than ever, it's so important in this industry as there's been so many changes and an interesting market, so much happening with mergers and acquisitions. We need some outlet to be able to compare notes and chat and support each other because it's it's it's interesting right now.
SPEAKER_00I mean, I think that kind of brings up, or maybe this is just my opinion, but you don't know when you go in that it can kind of be lonely when you're that leader and you don't have someone, like you said, to bounce it off of or to be vulnerable with. You're like, oh, leaders are lonely. They can be sometimes.
SPEAKER_02No, absolutely. Yeah, very much. And and what do you do? Like, how do you even I think it's good, you know, to have somebody that intentionally makes you stop for a minute and just say, hey, how are we like, how are we doing? Are you the are is your life consistent with the intentions that you've set out and the dreams and goals and desires? Are we still doing the right things that are going to support the life that you want, right? Because if we don't take the the time to evaluate what we're working on on such a regular basis and we're pouring our our money and time and soul and life into it, and what if it's not the right path? Like, what if what if we're being nedged a different direction or we're being told by the universe or whoever to slow down and say, hey, why don't you explore this a little bit? Or that connection that you had with this person felt really good, even though that's not in your normal wheelhouse. Like, why don't you sit with that for a minute and see what that could look like for you? And I think a lot of us, maybe I'll just you know I'll speak for myself, kind of get tunnel vision about this end place we think we're going without understanding that the journey is kind of the most important piece. And let take a detour if you need to take a detour. Go have an exploratory conversation with somebody, go partner with somebody in a new way that makes you feel uncomfortable. I mean, those that's how we grow. And when we've reached a certain point with production, I think we're exploring other ways to feel more effective and and look at how do we how do we have a bigger impact or how do we give back in a way that we want to give back, right? And I think those are all really good things to wrestle with.
SPEAKER_01So I don't know how people do this business without a coach. Um, so I applaud you on doing that. Um, you know, I think that we're at a point in the in the industry now where we've had a lot of um uh a lot of growth in the in. In 2021, everybody could do well, right? You could get hit by a deal. And now it's like you got to work hard, right? This is a hard market. And I see a lot of agents out there suffering. Um, so you know, so I we actually started a coaching company and Courtney's one of our coaches, and it's called Growth Yard Coaching because we feel like there's a need for a new vibe, a new approach to coaching. And our coach for our staff that started the company is uh somebody that used to work with Tony Robbins. So I do believe a rising tide lifts all ships. You know, you have to collaborate. Without collaboration, you're isolated in this business and like any other business. You know, it's like we need ideas, we need collaboration, somebody to challenge us. And I think as an indie broker, when I was there, I I wanted that, I yearned for that, right? And the deeper conversation, like you're talking about, Brian, let's peel back the onion, you know, and find out am I really happy with this and what's really going on? And I think we just go through the motions sometimes for years without anybody really asking us these really tough questions. It's the the the missing conversation is the worst conversation you can have.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. No, and and I mean, just just from my own experience of being able to go, you know, I earlier this year I had pneumonia for a couple of months, and that really took me out of my normal, fast-paced life where I didn't have a choice, but I had to lay in bed and try to recover because I just physically didn't have the ability to do what I thought. And it was really kind of the identity crisis I always needed because all of my identity was stripped from me. I couldn't, I couldn't go to work, I couldn't service my clients like I normally did, I couldn't answer the calls that I wanted to answer, I couldn't physically be the places I needed to be, I couldn't be out with my kids and watch her get, you know, all of that that I took for granted at a you know relatively young age, very, you know, physically try to keep take a care of myself. And I had to really sit alone in the middle of the night at three o'clock when I was awake trying to breathe and think about what am I doing? Like, what does this look like? What is am I on the all those things I brought up earlier that I got to ask myself because I was forced to slow down and get better physically, which allowed my mind the time to really process like, what is this, you know, what does this look like? Are we are we on the right track? Are we making the impact we want to make? And you know, it went from total fear, which is why I think I I've I can bet on myself because my track record's good at being successful, because I within a two-week period was like, I'm gonna go bankrupt, I'm gonna lose all my clients. How am I gonna pay for me? You know, like such a drastic um place in my mind that I went. And guess what? My team was great, all my clients were wanting me to get better and take care of themselves. All of the escros closed, all of the garage door remotes got found, the final walkthroughs got, you know, nothing the world didn't end. So uh it was a good lesson for me that I'm not, you know, that's I'm not the axis or the center of the earth, and and it's okay to take care of yourself and have a good team, and everything worked out fine. But the the the kind of final blessing for me was I got to really think about like what what do I want to do with my time? And which pieces do I really like? I think the other thing about leadership and brokerages and team leads is we get we wear so many hats that we just assume are all of our responsibility, and so we we wear the weight of that, all of those things, keeping agents happy and productive and worrying about their income and making sure they have value and then making sure we have value and that the you know, all the things we do, all the hats we wear. And I think it's important to audit those things and say, like, what what brought you joy today, Jeff? Of all the the 15 things that you just listed that you did, which like which made your the hair on your arm raise, or which did you think, gosh, I really like this, or which pieces did you really hate that you thought, gosh, if I have to do this every single day, I don't know if I want to do this anymore. Right. And those just like those audits of ourselves and and our and all of the things we pour our energy into, and then being able to make decisions with how we felt based on that. I, you know, I think that for leaders that's really important, and we're usually too busy to do it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. It's uh what the rich dad poor dad quadrant of like what you're good at and what you also enjoy, and to try to outsource some of the areas that you're not so strong in, or find people to fill those blind spots to help you.
SPEAKER_02Right. Because some of the stuff that we don't like takes a toll, right? And then we have these layers that we're trying to sort through when we're we feel the burden that maybe we could delegate that piece, or maybe we could restructure how we do that so that it doesn't feel like such a burger. And I and I think those are those are all good things to think about.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, what have we missed for someone that's listening to this that's says, I want my name or whatever on the sign, I want to do my own thing. What is one other thing that you would say, I would never do that again, or I wish I had thought of this?
SPEAKER_02Gosh, that's a good question. I I think, well, one of the things that I would the the industry's changed from when I became a broker to what it is now. So I think that you what you could miss is the future of the industry and where we're going. And really what's your passion? Is your passion leading people and not producing and growing teams and making watching people's careers flourish? Because there's there's a really um great part of what we do when we watch somebody that walks through the door who had no idea they'd be successful and we watched and helped coach them and and helped them believe themselves and develop systems and routines that made them a lot of money because this industry could they can change your life, right? And then they provide vacations and opportunities to their family that they wouldn't have in it because they worked hard and they they have something to show for that. And I think that's an incredibly rewarding seat that we have in the front row of watching that transformation happen for people. Um, but the the downside is you have to know the cost, you have to know the value, you have to know how you're gonna share your time, you have to know how many agents you need to be able to produce the type of income that you need to keep your doors open, right? So I think I think the math is important. And um I didn't take the time to plan at the beginning because I didn't even really know what I was getting into. So I think the the other thing critically, and maybe maybe you guys agree or not, but I think the real estate industry is at a massive fork on the road right now. I think major changes are coming. I've never in my years, you know, like I said, 2003, seen government entities coming after us, suing us, losses and lawsuits being investigated by the Department of Justice, um, us needing to articulate our value, us having such a low uh viewpoint from the consumer standpoint where they're feeling like we're taking money from them through our commissions without understanding the value that we bring. We're at a critical place, in my opinion. And um really need to fight as an industry to maintain the professionalism that we all, those of us that do this on a high level and provide a good service, we need to protect that. We need the consumer to know that they're in the right hands. But that's gonna require that the industry itself do some exploration of how we train people and how we engage them and how we prepare them to go out and help people. Uh, we have work to do. I think we need to be honest with ourselves about the work that we need to do to get the respect that we deserve from the consumer and how we treat each other and how we work together and um what what we know. And I and I think there's a huge opportunity for those of you that are in the field of teaching and training and helping people uh benefit from that because things are different, and it's time to to fix it, or at least start talking about it in a in a more real way. And maybe that's happening in a lot more areas than I'm seeing, but that's that's my kind of personal asterisk is it's time to get serious about how our industry and the people that are in it trying to elevate. Absolutely, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01I think we've gone through more change in the last year than I've probably ever seen in my career. You know, half of me, Brian, says, Boy, I'm glad my runway's short. And because I I don't know if I want to be in that new world. And then the other half of me says, Man, this is exciting, you know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, because there's opportunity to like exactly like you guys were talking about, creating pathways for leaders to talk, have these kind of conversations in a safe space where we say, How do we do it together? How do how what does it look like? What is training somebody in this world, in this environment with these changes? What does it look like? How do we make sure that they're successful and what do they need from us? And we don't collaboratively have a lot of opportunity around that. Um, I don't think. So, and then you know, who's really in charge of of the industry? When you is it the you know, the national associations or the the trade groups, or is it brokers getting together like this and and just having a conversation about how do we how do we give back to an industry that deserves to have competent people at it? I don't know. You guys will figure out the answers for us, I'm sure, and loving that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Well, I mean, I think currently it mostly comes from the broker level because we've all have new agents and they come at it with nothing after they take their test. Like it's actually, at least in California, and maybe Arizona's different, Jeff. Excuse me. But seeing my daughter got licensed, and so I looked at, you know, when she was taking her courses, and I'm like, oh, this is actually not very helpful. And there was nothing on the contract. Like she took her test, got licensed as a realtor, but still really had no clue how to recontract. And that was very eye-opening to reiterate my feelings on that. I think our barrier to entry is too low for our industry and that I'm okay with weeding out some of the realtors that are currently licensed in our market that don't sell any real estate, and yet they have the title. I think we need it. I think it's time. It's time to make it more difficult, like a fiduciary or something along those lines, and like you said, provide better training for our agents as a whole, collectively for our industry. I think it's crucial.
SPEAKER_01And when 70% of the industry has no transactions in the first quarter of the year, you got a problem. Even if the market's bad, it dumbs down the entire industry. So I'm 100% behind what you're saying, Cordy. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. That's and it and it negatively impacts those of us that are transacting and are investing in our careers and are growing and are doing all the right things and learning our content, right? I mean, I there's been years that I've made more money than some of my friends that are attorneys and accountants. But when you were to rank our professions, I would always be at the bottom, right? Of who's even though I've just as educated, I have a master's degree, I have ex business, you know, like you're fighting for, well, I'm I'm like worth being respected as a real estate broker who helps people and provides a high level of service. Like that's worth respect, right? You know, but like there's this barrier that we've created, on my opinion, on our own, that we have to overcome because there's so many people that don't deserve the the title that have it.
SPEAKER_00And which is why people equate us to use car salesmen sometimes, which we want to get away from.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely. There's value, and I think that you know, that's worth fighting for. That's worth being able to articulate. That's worth the consumer feeling confident and using us when they're they need somebody.
SPEAKER_00Well, Brian, I really appreciate you and I thank you for coming on today and sharing your wisdom. I have admired you and your career for so long. I don't want to sound like a stalker, but like that's too fast.
SPEAKER_02You've done great things too. It's been fun to watch you.
SPEAKER_00Well, it's fun to for us to to grow together and change with the times, really.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. Yeah, I went to I went to Yosemite High, so I always would pay attention to what you mariposo people were doing up there. So yeah.
SPEAKER_00Trying to teach you in sports, that's what we're doing.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, where can people find you, Brian? What's the best way to reach you if they want to reach out after?
SPEAKER_02Oh, that's gosh, that's a good question. That would require that I like knew what my social handles are. But Brian, if you search my name, Brian Dominguez, my you know, my cell phone, your people are always welcome to call or text me. Or I am on Instagram, Brian Dominguez Broker, I think, and uh Facebook as well. So happy to connect with anyone that wants to chat.
SPEAKER_00Well, we appreciate it. And Jeff, per usual, Brian doesn't know this, but at the end of each of our episodes, we leave with what we call our recharge room, where we just give a little bit of Zen and recharge our batteries, and Jeff does that for us with his plaster background. It's you're pretty good at it.
SPEAKER_01Awesome. So, so today I'm gonna put a little bit of technology into the mix, right? Um, I love deeper conversations, right? I want to be able to have good conversations with people. You know how we've always been taught you sit down with a coffee with somebody and you ask the pleasantries, hey, how you doing? Tell me a little bit about yourself, right? What if we actually used AI? Can you believe this, Courtney? I want to talk about AI and how it's gonna make our life better. Proud of it, yeah. Let's go. So you get you get on Notebook LM, right? Ryan, do you know what that is? I don't. Oh, you're gonna get taught something today, brother. So Notebook LM is one of the little apps you get on your Google Suite. Just go over to the nine dots, scroll down. Let's say I'm gonna meet Courtney, and I don't really know much about Courtney. I'm gonna go search, do a deep search on the internet and everything about Courtney. I'm gonna bring those websites into Notebook LM and I'm gonna say, tell me all the accomplishments that Courtney has had in her life, things that are really important to her. I'm gonna have a list of things right there that I can internalize. So when I sit down with people, whether I'm interviewing them for a position or just want to, you know, form a better relationship, I'm gonna have provocative, thought-provoking questions to ask that person. And they're gonna know, oh my goodness, Jeff took the time, right, to get to know me, you know, before this even happened. That is game-changing stuff, you know. Uh, both Courtney and I have NLP practitioner licenses. We talk about building rapport, that is a major way to build rapport. Things are changing and people are using these things uh than just the old-fashioned things, you know, like notes, you know. So um, this this is the kind of stuff that's been helping me. And I do think it gives you a recharge, right? Because there's nothing better than connecting with somebody at a deeper look deeper level. And now we have all these new tools that can help us do that. What do you think, Courtney?
SPEAKER_00I love it. I love it, Jeff. Good job. Good job. All right, well, gentlemen, thank you so much. Uh, now that our our batteries are recharged and we have all have all this advice out there for our new brokers and team leads, I think we can go off and lead our people, right?
SPEAKER_02And thank you for the opportunity to talk with you guys. It was fun.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, thanks, Brian. Appreciate you.
SPEAKER_02And you got it.