6 Steps To Scaling a Successful Real Estate Team and/or Real Estate Brokerage with Joshua Smith

Summary

In this real estate-focused podcast, the host outlines six key steps to building and scaling a successful real estate team or brokerage. The fundamentals include establishing a solid compensation structure, creating an effective onboarding process, providing ongoing training and support, developing a strategic recruitment plan, implementing systems and processes, and integrating ancillary revenue streams. The host emphasizes the importance of creating a true business that operates efficiently and autonomously, allowing for financial success and personal freedom.

Takeaways

• 🏢 Building a successful real estate team or brokerage requires identical fundamentals, despite different models and nuances.
• 💰 The primary goal of creating a real estate business is to achieve financial success, autonomy, and freedom to enjoy life.
• 🔑 A true business can operate without your day-to-day involvement and should continue running even in your absence.
• 🤝 Understanding the three main reasons agents leave (internal issues, lack of production, and outgrowing the business) is crucial for retention.
• 💼 Having a clear and adaptable model with different tiers allows agents to grow within the organization and reduces turnover.
• 🔄 Reverse engineering your compensation structure based on the value provided and costs ensures profitability and sustainability.
• 📈 Establishing a solid onboarding process is essential to set agents up for success and to start producing deals quickly.
• 🛠️ Ongoing training and support are vital for continued agent success and for achieving their goals within the business.
• 📊 Tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) for every aspect of the business is crucial for making informed decisions and scaling effectively.
• 🤔 Developing a strategic recruiting strategy for both agents and key staff members is necessary for business growth and success.
• 📈 Adding ancillary services at the right time can increase revenue streams and profitability without adding extra work to your plate.

Q & A

What are the six fundamental steps to building and scaling a successful real estate team or brokerage?

The six fundamental steps are: 1) Nailing your comp structure and overall model, 2) Nailing your onboarding process, 3) Nailing your ongoing training and support, 4) Developing a solid recruiting strategy for agents and staff, 5) Establishing systems, processes, and tracking, and 6) Integrating the right ancillaries at the right time.

Why is it important to have a clear compensation structure before recruiting agents?

A clear compensation structure is crucial to ensure profitability and sustainability of the business. It helps in attracting and retaining agents by offering them a fair share of the revenue while also covering the business's operational costs.

What does the speaker mean by 'reverse engineering' the compensation structure?

Reverse engineering the compensation structure means determining the splits and compensation based on the value provided by the team or brokerage, the level of support, and the systems in place. It ensures that the business hits healthy profit margins without losing money.

Why should a real estate team or brokerage focus on the onboarding process?

Focusing on the onboarding process is essential to set new agents up for success. It helps in integrating new agents effectively into the team, ensuring they have the necessary tools, knowledge, and support to start producing deals as soon as possible.

How does the ongoing training and support infrastructure benefit the real estate team or brokerage?

The ongoing training and support infrastructure ensures that agents continue to grow and improve their skills. It helps in maintaining high productivity levels, achieving goals, and reducing turnover rates by providing continuous learning and development opportunities.

What is the significance of having a robust recruiting strategy for both agents and staff?

A robust recruiting strategy is vital for the growth and scaling of a real estate team or brokerage. It ensures a continuous influx of new talent and the right staff to support the team's operations, leading to a sustainable and scalable business model.

Why is tracking and measuring key performance indicators (KPIs) important in a real estate business?

Tracking and measuring KPIs provides insights into the business's performance and helps in making data-driven decisions. It allows for the identification of areas that need improvement, monitoring of progress towards goals, and ensures that the business is on the right track.

What are ancillaries in the context of a real estate business?

Ancillaries in a real estate business refer to additional revenue streams or services that complement the primary business activities. These could include strategic partnerships, property management, or offering services like mortgage or title companies.

How can strategic partnerships with mortgage or title companies benefit a real estate team or brokerage?

Strategic partnerships can provide additional revenue streams and enhance the value proposition for agents and clients. They can also improve the overall client experience by offering a seamless and integrated service package.

What is the speaker's recommendation for someone who is stuck or unsure about how to grow their real estate business?

The speaker recommends scheduling a free Zoom coaching call with him to get a personalized deep dive into the business, identify goals, and map out a strategy to achieve those goals in the most effective and efficient manner.

Why is it important for a real estate team or brokerage to have a system-based business?

A system-based business ensures consistency, scalability, and efficiency. It allows for the replication of successful processes, holds people accountable, and reduces the need for micromanagement, as the systems manage the people.

How can a real estate team or brokerage ensure they are providing superior service through their ancillary services?

They can ensure superior service by having ownership or a significant influence in the ancillary companies, allowing them to dictate processes and select the best service providers, thus enhancing the client experience and business profitability.

Outlines

00:00

🏢 Building a Successful Real Estate Team or Brokerage

Joshua Smith introduces his podcast aimed at teaching the six fundamental steps to building and scaling a successful real estate team or brokerage. He emphasizes that the core principles for both are identical and discusses the importance of creating a business that operates independently, allowing for financial gain and personal freedom. Joshua offers a free Zoom coaching call for those seeking to elevate their real estate business, promising a personalized strategy session to identify and overcome business obstacles.

05:01

🤔 The Importance of a Solid Comp Structure and Model

The speaker discusses the critical nature of establishing a compensation structure and business model that cater to the needs of both teams and brokerages. He highlights common mistakes, such as not understanding why agents leave, and stresses the importance of creating a model that allows agents to grow and stay within the organization. Joshua shares his own experiences and the three-tiered model he uses to accommodate different agent needs, advocating for a reverse-engineered approach to ensure profitability and sustainability.

10:02

📈 Onboarding and Conversion Machine for New Agents

Joshua Smith emphasizes the importance of a robust onboarding process to ensure new agents can start producing deals as quickly as possible. He details the need for a conversion machine that includes a proper follow-up protocol and a strong tracking system. The speaker outlines his own 14-day onboarding protocol, which focuses on setting up essential tools and systems, and ensuring agents know how to utilize them effectively to convert leads into deals.

15:03

🛠 Ongoing Training and Support Infrastructure

The speaker discusses the necessity of an ongoing training and support system to keep agents productive and achieving their goals. He stresses the importance of having a clear infrastructure in place that provides continuous learning and assistance. Joshua outlines the components of effective ongoing support, including regular meetings and tailored strategies for individual agents, to ensure they can reach their full potential within the team or brokerage.

20:04

🔄 Developing a Comprehensive Recruiting Strategy

Joshua Smith explains the need for a two-pronged recruiting strategy that focuses on both agent recruitment and hiring key staff members. He likens recruiting agents to selling, emphasizing the need for a structured approach with defined strategies and tracking mechanisms. The speaker also discusses the importance of identifying and recruiting the right staff to eventually remove oneself from day-to-day operations, creating a self-sustaining business.

25:05

📊 Systems, Processes, and Tracking for Business Growth

The speaker stresses the importance of having a system-based business to ensure consistency, accountability, and scalability. He talks about documenting processes and having them live within systems to achieve replicable results. Joshua also highlights the need to track essential KPIs within the business to create predictability and make informed decisions. He emphasizes that without proper systems and processes, a business cannot be considered a sellable product or one that can operate without the owner's constant involvement.

30:07

💰 Integrating Ancillaries for Increased Profitability

Joshua Smith discusses the concept of ancillaries as a means to increase revenue streams beyond traditional commission splits. He suggests exploring strategic partnerships and additional services that can provide extra profits without adding extra work. The speaker advises on the importance of timing when integrating ancillaries and ensuring that they enhance the overall client experience while contributing to the business's profitability.

35:07

🤝 Partnering for Superior Service and Profit

The speaker talks about the benefits of partnering with excellent vendors to provide superior services to agents and clients, which in turn can lead to additional profit centers within the business. He uses the example of a joint venture with a mortgage company, where both parties have specific roles to ensure the service provided is top-notch. Joshua emphasizes that while profit is important, the primary focus should be on the quality of the partnership and the service provided.

🚀 Scaling a Profitable Real Estate Business

In the concluding paragraph, Joshua Smith reiterates the importance of the six fundamentals in scaling a successful real estate team or brokerage. He encourages those who are stuck or seeking to grow their business to take advantage of a free Zoom coaching call to map out a strategy for success. The speaker promises to provide tailored advice for agents at any level, from new to seasoned, to help them reach their business goals more efficiently and profitably.

Keywords

💡Real Estate Team

A 'Real Estate Team' refers to a group of real estate professionals working collaboratively under a shared business model to buy, sell, and manage properties. In the script, the speaker discusses the importance of building a successful real estate team and the identical fundamentals required for scaling both a team and a brokerage, emphasizing the team's role in creating a true business that operates efficiently even in the absence of the team leader.

💡Real Estate Brokerage

A 'Real Estate Brokerage' is a business entity that employs licensed real estate agents to buy and sell properties on behalf of clients. The script mentions that the fundamentals of building a successful brokerage are similar to those of a real estate team, highlighting the need for a bricks and mortar approach, leveraging a designated broker, and focusing on creating a sustainable business model.

💡Comp Structure

The 'Comp Structure' or compensation structure refers to the way a company compensates its employees, in this case, real estate agents. The speaker stresses the importance of understanding and correctly implementing a comp structure that incentivizes agents, retains them, and ensures the business's profitability, as it directly impacts the financial health and growth of the real estate team or brokerage.

💡Onboarding Process

The 'Onboarding Process' is the systematic approach to integrate new agents into the real estate team or brokerage. The script describes the necessity of having a well-defined onboarding protocol to set agents up for success from day one, including setting up tracking systems, CRM, and defining goals and strategies, which is crucial for the rapid growth and development of the team or brokerage.

💡Ongoing Training and Support

This concept refers to the continuous education and assistance provided to agents within a real estate team or brokerage. The speaker emphasizes the importance of establishing an infrastructure that supports ongoing training and development to keep agents productive, motivated, and aligned with the team or brokerage's goals, which is vital for maintaining a high-performing real estate business.

💡Recruiting Strategy

A 'Recruiting Strategy' is the plan and methods used to attract and hire new agents or staff to a real estate team or brokerage. The script discusses the need for a dual-focused recruiting strategy that not only brings in new agents but also identifies and hires key staff members who can contribute to the growth and operational efficiency of the business.

💡Systems and Processes

In the context of the script, 'Systems and Processes' refer to the established protocols and mechanisms that guide the operations within a real estate team or brokerage. The speaker highlights the importance of documenting every process and having systems in place to ensure consistency, efficiency, and quality in service delivery, which is essential for creating a scalable and sellable business.

💡Ancillaries

Ancillaries, in the real estate business, are additional services or revenue streams that complement the primary business activities. The speaker discusses the importance of identifying and integrating ancillary services such as mortgage, title, and property management at the right time to increase profitability and provide a comprehensive service offering to clients, which is key to enhancing the value of the real estate business.

💡Strategic Partnerships

Strategic Partnerships are collaborative agreements with other businesses to offer additional services to clients. The script mentions creating partnerships with companies like mortgage providers, title companies, or home warranty services to provide agents and clients with a full range of services, thereby increasing revenue and enhancing the client experience, which is a smart business move to diversify income and add value.

💡Autonomy and Freedom

'Autonomy and Freedom' refer to the independence and liberty to make decisions and enjoy life outside of work. The speaker concludes the script by emphasizing the goal of creating a real estate business that not only generates income but also provides the freedom to enjoy life and pursue personal experiences, which is a core motivation for many entrepreneurs and business owners in the real estate industry.

Highlights

The six fundamental steps to building and scaling a successful real estate team or brokerage are identical, emphasizing the importance of foundational strategies.

Building a real estate business allows for financial freedom and autonomy, a key motivation for creating a team or brokerage.

A true business can operate without day-to-day involvement from the owner, a critical distinction from merely having a job.

The importance of having a sellable product in real estate, which involves building a business that can operate independently and yield a return on investment.

Offering a free Zoom coaching call to real estate professionals to diagnose business challenges and provide tailored strategies.

The necessity of a strong compensation structure and model that adapts to different levels of agent growth and needs.

Understanding the three main reasons agents leave a team or brokerage: internal conflicts, lack of production, and outgrowing the current structure.

The concept of reverse engineering compensation structures to ensure profitability and cover costs, rather than starting from a predefined split.

The importance of having a robust onboarding process to set new agents up for success and ensure they start producing deals quickly.

The need for ongoing training and support infrastructure to keep agents producing and achieving their goals within the team or brokerage.

Developing a strategic recruiting strategy for both agents and key staff members to grow and scale the business effectively.

The significance of tracking essential KPIs in the business to create predictability and measure the success of different initiatives.

Establishing systems and processes to ensure consistency, accountability, and the ability to replicate success within the organization.

Identifying and integrating the right ancillary services at the right time to increase revenue without adding extra work.

The importance of strategic partnerships for ancillary services to provide added value to clients and additional profit centers for the business.

Creating a business that allows for work-life balance, where one can enjoy life while the business operates successfully without constant personal involvement.

Transcripts

all right what's up my peeps Joshua

Smithy with another GSD mode podcast

real estate tip and T I'm here to break

down the six overall steps to building

and scaling a massively successful real

estate team and or a massively

successful real estate brokerage and the

reason why I'm including both in here

talking about a team and a brokerage is

for this simple fact that the

fundamentals to building and scaling a

truly successful real estate team and a

truly successful real estate brokerage

are absolutely identical I get there's

some nuances to the models and really at

the end of the day a team is really just

a brokerage instead of a brokerage where

maybe you're going out there and

leveraging you know bricks and mortar

you're leveraging some liability maybe

you're leveraging a designated broker

but the overall fundamentals that we're

going to cover here today these six

fundamentals when it comes to scaling a

successful team or scaling a successful

real estate brokerage are absolutely

100% identical so before I jump into

these six fundamental steps though

because these are the steps that when

I'm working with team leaders and

brokerage owners on on like a one-onone

on a coaching basis and they're wanting

to go out there and scale into building

again a highly successful real estate

team more business these are these six

things that we laser focus on make sure

they get in place make sure that they

get right and make sure that they you

know do brilliantly that allows them to

massively scale on a huge front now the

first thing though is just you know

answering the question as to why you

might want to go out there and build a

team or brokerage and I'm not saying

that it's for everybody but look the

reality is this is if you want to create

a true business and buy a true business

I mean build something that allows you

to make the money that you want to make

but eventually allows you to have the

time the autonomy the freedom to go out

there and enjoy life okay it's going to

take you building some element of a real

estate business and the two most popular

ways to do that in our industry there's

other ways to go out there and do it but

the two most you know popular are

building a real estate team and or a

real estate brokerage now when I'm

talking about a business a business is

something that okay you built that you

can go disappear from for a month two

months two years years and it's

still running and operating without your

day-to-day involvement because otherwise

until you build that out you've got a

job you don't have a business you've got

a job when you stop it stops so if you

are somebody that wants to go out there

and build a a true business build a

machine that allows you to go out there

make the money that you want to make

again gives you that freedom and

autonomy to go out there enjoy life and

do the that you want to do and

eventually have some element of a

sellable products you're not just making

money as you're doing it and building it

but then okay you can go out there and

sell this thing for you know for a high

multiple

and get a big payday at the end of this

you know this podcast is 100% for you so

before I jump into these six actual

steps and again these six actual

fundamentals not just steps but these

actual fundamentals these actual

foundations where you got to nail all

six of these things and do this and do

this right if you want to go out there

and scale team or brokerage but before I

jump into those look real quick if you

are an individual agent if you are a

team leader or you are a real estate

broker jiner your business is not

exactly where you want and need it to be

it's like maybe you're operating down

here but you know your true potential is

up here and look your business might be

declining might be stagnant might be

growing just not growing at the exact

Pace that you want it to grow out if

that is you I invite you to schedule a

100% free 100% zero pressure Zoom

coaching call with me personally we're

on this one hour long Zoom coaching call

we're going to do a deep dive into your

business breaking down where your

business currently at what your 12-month

goals are what your long-term goals and

Visions are for your real estate

business what you're currently doing

what your biggest bottlenecks and

obstacles are then from there I'm going

to break down what my personal

recommended strategy is based on your

goals and your own unique situation

there's a lot of nuances that come into

play here when we're building our real

estate business so based on your own

unique situation I'm going to break down

what exactly what my recommended

strategy is to get you from exactly

where you're at to where you want to go

in the quickest most effective efficient

profitable manner possible so if you

want to room up all that guess work if

you want to have extreme Clarity within

under an hour period of time on exactly

what you must do to go up and get from

where you're at to where you want to go

in the quickest most effective efficient

profitable manner possible I invite you

to schedule a 100% free Zoom coaching

call with me personally you can do that

by going to

www.

gsd.red so when you book that you're

going to land on a quick video I highly

want like I encourage you I want you to

watch that whole video it's a quick

video but that will allow you to be the

most prepped for this call so we can get

the most out of it okay so now let's

just move forward here and jump on into

the six foundational steps to going out

there and growing and scaling your

overall real estate brokerage now with

this and this is you know sometimes with

coaching clients like we might spend a

year two years sometimes two months

depending on on what level that they're

out really nailing and getting these

dialed in so there's a lot that goes

into each of these so I'm going to be

covering these at a very high level but

the most important element is that you

know what these six steps are because

you want you know what you got to build

out know what to focus on then from

there you can figure out the how and so

forth from there right okay so number

one is you got to make sure that you are

nailing your comp structure and your

overall model now that can be different

based on whether you're team or

brokerage and look let's face a lot of

brokerages operate as teams and have

different levels in there um and a

couple things to think about here

whether your team or whether you're

brokerage you know one thing that I

highly encourage you to consider one of

the big mistakes I made early on in my

journey is not understanding the the

three reasons why agents will leave you

over time right number one the number

one reason and these aren't any specific

order so number one is actually the

least number reason why agents leave you

but number one okay somebody internally

does something to piss them off now that

can be minimized based on building a you

know strong culture and whatnot but that

can happen because it could be agent to

agent or another staff like there there

can be some element of that that's out

of your control but number one you know

somebody does something internally to

piss somebody off okay number two your

agents are not producing agents that are

producing making money hitting their

goals tend to be happy retention you

know uh uh tends to be very strong

you're able to retain them for a long

period of time and turnover rate tends

to be very low okay then number three

your agents eventually outgrow you where

you don't have and this is one of the

mistakes I made very early on when I say

very early on was about the you know

first six seven years of of building my

team um is I'd get these agents up to

kicking ass and producing you know

between 10 and20 million on an annual

basis for with their own gross volume

sales but they'd get to the point where

they wanted to go out there and start

building their own teams and I didn't

have a place to grow so they had no

choice but to leave me so I you know

with those top producers eventually you

know all of them end up leaving because

I didn't have an Adaptive model so

something to be considering when you're

thinking about okay what is your model

going to be and within your your model

what is the different comp structures

that you're going to have so with me

personally you have three different

models you know when I say this I have

you know really three different paths

that they can take inside our

organization you know we run the you

know typical kind of team you know uh uh

style division where it's okay we're

providing a lot of opportunities

providing a lot of leads providing all

the systems and that's going to be a

specific split you right then from there

we have what we call a full service

division you know which is in there you

get pretty essentially everything that

you get as part of the team but you

don't get leads so you get you know all

the equ equipment all the systems all

the coaching all the training all the

equipment everything but leads okay and

that is a different split so because the

agents get to the point where maybe they

want the support they still need the

systems they still need the guidance

they still need the very high level of

mentorship but they're able to go out

there and self- procure Deals they built

up their book of business so that's kind

of our second tier then we've got you

know what we call entrepreneur model

which is more of like a traditional

brokerage model right where you know as

they evolve and they have their own

systems and they you know have their own

staff and they want to go out there and

start building up their own teams okay

then boom you know they can progress up

in that model or we could recruit them

in that model so I have different tiers

that allows them to continue to grow

with us where I can continue to help

coach support Mentor them through the

different phases of their Journey so I'm

not saying that you got to follow my

model I'm understanding you need to

identify okay what is your model going

to be model Andor models and then within

there then identify what your comp

structure is going to be what your what

Your compensation structure is now my

recommendation when it comes to comp

structures is to reverse engineer this

you know so so many will you I see so

many I posts in Facebook groups and I

get these questions all the time too

like oh Josh what splits do you

recommend that I have right and that is

a wrong question to be asking I get why

you might be asking that question but

really you want to reverse engineer this

based on what the model is that you're

offering what what the level of support

what the level of systems are that

you're doing and then reverse engineer

what your comp structures are to ensure

that you are hitting the healthy profit

margins that you need to be hitting you

know number one rule in business is

don't lose money you know number two

rule is okay make sure that you're

making money always but number you know

number one rule is make sure number one

that you are not losing money then from

there hopefully not that you're just not

losing money um you're offsetting all

your costs at least you know breaking

even you know but then from there

hopefully you're making money and start

thinking about this and really reverse

engineering this this is again mistakes

that cost me millions of dollars on my

overall Journey you know the 20 years

that I've been you know building my real

estate company that didn't think through

early on I Didn't Have You know when I

first jumped in this game there there

was no podcast like this so you know I

didn't have some of this guidance you

know so I had to learn some of this

stuff the hard way you know but not

think you know one of my big mistakes

was I didn't think through certain

scenarios I didn't think through certain

things like as an example okay you bring

on an agent because it's gonna happen

you bring on an agent they're with you

they never sell a single deal they end

up getting out of the business like it's

just going to happen you're in this

business long enough that's going to

happen and probably happen more than you

think it's going to happen right um

there's there's a lot of people that say

they want it that they say they're

committed words are Hollow action show

it they truly value we all know what the

failure rate is inside this industry so

thinking about that okay if I bring on

somebody I recruit somebody and I bring

them onto my organization and they never

close a deal how can I ensure that

number one I don't lose money off of

them but then number two how can I

ensure that I'm profitable through that

you know through that ideally you know

profitable in that situation so this is

where again taking the time to reverse

engineer what your compensation

structure is going to be be based on the

value ads that you're offering and

whether you're off running a team or

brokerage and then even that within the

style of team and The Brokerage that

you're running if you're giving leads if

you're providing full support staff all

the equipment you know and all that

obviously that splits are going to have

to be much more you know intense for me

to go out there and coverage uh uh you

know cover all of my hard costs into

that and ensure that I'm hitting the

margins that I need to hit you know um

versus okay if I'm running more of a

traditional brokerage I'm not providing

all those things and the agents are

responsible for a lot of their own

equipment responsible maybe for their

own business cards like essentially

they're just a place to hang their like

you know most brokerage are with a place

to hang your real estate license they

don't really give you a you know

right just you know cut your commission

checks when they come in okay that might

be a you know a Lower Split structure

you know write your margins you know um

um but anyway you know enough on that

but hopefully you can grasp that concept

of I'm saying there is make sure that

you're running the math on this running

through different scenarios and reverse

engineering what your comp structures

need to be based on the margins that you

want to and need to hit inside your real

estate business that will save you an in

insane amount of future pain okay so

then from there so number one is nailing

your comp structure in your model number

two then is making sure that you are

nailing your onboarding process right so

so many of team leaders and broker

owners do this ass backwards no

different than most agents do in their

own business and what I mean by ass

backwards okay what do most agents do

they go out there and they start trying

to go out there and generate clients

they go out there and do all this lead

genin you know um but before they do

that and they start generating all these

leads before they have a conversion

machine in place okay before I'm going

to go out there and start generating any

leads I'm going to make sure that I've

got the right follow-up protocol I've

got the right systems in place and the

right tracking system in place to ensure

that I have a place to feed those leads

to and I have that conversion machine so

I can go out there and get the cost per

acquisition the conversions that I need

to out there so I'm not just wasting an

abundance of of time and energy you know

have that Lead Gym which is what the

vast majority of Agents do I talked to

so many agents they're like oh I got a

Lead Gym problem that's my biggest

obstacle in my business I've I I can't

even think of a time where I met one

single agent that actually had a lead gy

problem right the the problem almost

always every almost every single time as

we do a deep dive and break down their

business is their inability to convert

those leads into appointments they have

no follow-up protocol or or you know a

hardcore lacking follow-up protocol they

don't have a CRM or they've never logged

in they haven't taken the to master

their CRM they haven't fed the right

instructions in their CRM they don't

know tonality they don't know scripting

they don't know like they have no idea

how to go out there and follow up with

the right process with the right skill

set to convert these leads into

appointments so it doesn't matter how

many leads they go out there and

generate they're just going to do a

shitty job with this so thinking of that

in this way okay before you go out there

and you start recruiting to your

organization your team or your brokerage

okay let's make sure that you have the

Fulfillment piece in place you know and

this is what I look at okay your product

as a team or a brokerage really boils

down to okay your ability to facilitate

the experience that your agents want

need to get them from where they're at

to where they want to go that is our job

as team leaders and brokerage owners our

job the reason that we exist solely in

those our agents you know lives and

Worlds at the highest level is to get

them from where they're at to to where

they want to go AKA accomplishing their

goals in the quickest most effective

efficient profitable manner possible so

I want to reverse engineer this before I

start stacking an agents because you

start stacking in agents you're just

going to let them down you're going to

have high turnover rate and you're just

going to exhaust a bunch of time and

energy there so we want to make sure

that we got that conversion machine in

place so step number one of the

conversion machine um so this is you

know step number two of the fundamentals

but step number one of the conversion

machine here is getting that initial

onboarding protocol in place so when you

think of your onboarding protocol so an

example my real estate company I have a

14-day onboarding uh protocol onboarding

process now the 14 days that's a Target

date look if I've got agent maybe that's

part-time or that has a lot going on in

their life and they don't have a lot of

time to devote to it might take them 30

days I'm not saying if somebody takes

more than 14 days I'm like peace out see

you later and then look if somebody's

full-time and they got a bunch of time

allocation they might get it done in

seven days you know but the goal is to

get everybody as much as we possibly can

to encourage them to get this done

within the first 14 days now what are we

walking them through in that first

14-day onboarding process not going to

go through my whole protocol because

that would take too long here for this

podcast but overall I'm looking at okay

what are the essentials I'm not looking

to over train them because then we're

going to have part two of this which is

the ongoing you know training and

support So this initial onboarding

though is just what are the essentials

what are the essential tools the

essential systems the essential pieces

of information knowledge that we need to

get them that they need to have to go

out there and start Pro procuring deals

and producing deals ASAP like my my

whole obsession with my onboarding is

okay making sure that everybody that

gets through that is putting deals on

the board in 90 days or less so with

that now for me going through my onboard

and protocol there's five things that we

really hone in on focus on there getting

their tracking system set up getting

their CRM fully set up and dialed in

making sure that they know how to

utilize it effectively to go out there

and convert right tracking system and

CRM systems are most two important

systems as agents that we're using

inside of a real estate business okay

then making sure that their buyer

consultation listing presentation is

dialed in making sure their past client

s influence strategies dialed in then

making sure that we identify the right

client acquisition strategy AKA their

lead gen Le fall protocol to go out and

start generating customers ASAP and that

is obviously going to we got to have

walking through goal setting and

business planning it claring what their

goals are what their strengths are what

their weaknesses are what their

immediate goals are long-term goals are

all of those things come into place of

putting together that right strategy for

them because every agent is different

right people have different strengths

and different weaknesses and you know

different targets that they want to go

out there and hit different ways that

they want to grow in their business you

know real estate is that one one siiz

fits-all you know so for me I really

cater that to the agent that we bring on

and make sure sure that we have them

focusing on the right things in the

right ways that's allowing them to

accomplish what they want to accomplish

but that is all I'm laser focus on that

14-day onboarding strategies again what

are the tools knowledge resources what

are the things that they need the

essentials that they need so they can

start stacking deals as soon as possible

okay so that's number two is nailing the

onboarding process step number two okay

fundamental step number three then is

nailing the ongoing training and support

infrastructure in side of our team or

brokerage what is that going to look

like ongoing we got the onboarding the

immediate so we we can get them to start

putting deals on the board right away

right how you on board somebody how you

bring somebody on really sets the

momentum for the rest of their career

and the rest of their experience with

you but then what do ongoing look like

yeah right so we can continue keeping

them producing get them producing and

making sure that they're achieving their

goals so coming up with that what is

your ongoing infrastructure what is your

ongoing training what is your ongoing

support ongoing meetings you know right

um um there's a lot that goes into that

but making sure that you have that

ongoing support you know with that um

for those different phases so then we

can keep them going out there and

ensuring that they're because I know I'm

being repetitive here but this is so

damn important and and success happens

through

repetition us as team leaders and

brokerage owners we exist in our agents

Minds to get them from where they're at

to where they want to go in the quickest

most effective efficient time uh uh

possible right so the most effective

efficient Prof way possible to get them

from where they're at to where they want

to go that's all they want you right is

like okay like here's where I'm at

experiencing these pain points there's

where I'm at it's why they come join us

because we're hopefully articulating

that we have a better path to get them

from where they're at to where they want

to go their current brokerage their

current team their current environment

got them to where they're at but isn't

getting them to where they want to go

right so we this is the whole point of

recruiting we sell them now okay we're

the best environment to get you from

where you're at to where you want to go

now the Fulfillment piece with on you

know initial onboarding and then the

ongoing is to ensure that I'm fulfilling

on that now I can't execute for them

look there's a lot of people that talk a

big game you know there's so many people

in our industry that talk a big game and

oh I'm so good I did I'm such a hard

worker well words are Hollow actions

show what you truly value right we all

know the stats out that the average

agent would make more money working at

McDonald's full-time than they would in

the real estate business you know not

what's it 7% of agents make 93% of the

income 93% of the agents in our industry

are broke as a joke you know can barely

just sustain in this industry they just

figure out a way to kind of repeat the

same mediocre year for the rest of their

career that's the majority of our

industry you right so I'm not going to

sit there and say that's my job to get

them from where they're at to where they

want to go no they got to execute they

got to commit they got to do the work

it's my job it's your job it's our job

as Leaders to facilitate the best

environment for those that choose to do

the work and that choose to plug in to

get from where they want to where they

want to go so my job is to eliminate the

guess my obsession when it comes to my

onboarding and my ongoing training and

support is that okay there's never a

situation where an agent can come join

my organization and ever come to me and

say Josh you know I didn't succeed

because I didn't know what to do I

didn't succeed because I didn't have the

training I didn't have the road map I

didn't have the support I didn't have

the resources all they can ever self-

admit you know if they're willing to not

be a victim and not be a whiner and and

actually you know take responsibility

here but all they can do is self admit

that hey I didn't succeed because I

chose to not show up and do the work so

that's my obsession is making sure I'm

eliminating any excuse or Reason outside

of the fact that they choose to not

execute and do the volume of execution

that they need you know I want to make

sure that they have the training the

resources the equipment the systems the

support everything that they need where

if they choose to plug in they can get

from where they're at to where they want

to go in the quickest most effective

efficient profitable manner much more so

than any of our competitors in the

marketplace so that is nailing that

ongoing that onboarding and that ongoing

okay so number three is your ongoing

training and support okay so step number

four here then is nailing what your

recruiting strategy is going to be now

your recruiting strategy is going to be

twofold right because you're going to

need two different types of recruits as

you're growing your your highly

successful team or scaling your highly

successful brokerage we're talking about

agent recruiting which is what where

probably most of your thought processes

are going right now we're talking about

recruiting strategy you know um and I'll

break down and elaborate on that a

little bit here but then you also we got

to recruit the right key staff members

inside your organization right as you're

bringing on staff and continue grow and

scale this where eventually like I said

with a business what we talked about the

very beginning of this podcast

eventually your your objective is to

fire yourself and Place yourself out of

every position in the organization so

then now that you have this machine and

you got people running the machine for

you so you are no longer necessary

inside your own organization when it

comes to DayDay operations and

production and all these different

things so recruiting is going to be twof

full right like we got to have the you

know acquisition component of amazing

staff and and you know your leadership

personnel and so forth but then also on

the agent side now when it comes to

agent recruiting look when with this

business the reason I'll bring this up

is because look if if you're a team

leader a brokerage owner aspiring team

leader broker owner you guys all

understand this component here of going

out there and recruiting buyers and

sellers right recruiting agents is the

same thing right in this business you're

either recruiting buyers recruiting

sellers recruiting agents or eventually

recruiting your leadership team to go

out there and do those things for you so

no different than if I'm going for

buyers and sellers what am I going to do

I'm gonna go out there and identify you

know my two three or four different uh

uh consistently genin

strategies um um then from there I'm

going to make sure I have a CR RM I've

got my presentation I've got my

follow-up protocols you know right so I

have those in my business and then from

there you track the numbers and you you

you you you know you know how to go out

there and play the game so based on my

average agent productivity you know um

if I want my business to grow by X

percentage well now I can reverse

engineer that my business planning know

exactly how many agent recruits that I

need to go out there and recruit over

the next 12 months to hit those targets

I know what my turnover rate is so I

know exactly you know how many agents I

need to recruit after that turn you know

prior turnover to make sure I'm hitting

those numbers so then from there I can

start just like in our our going for

buyers and sellers let's just say okay

you're converting one out of 42 with

your Facebook leads and and you know

exactly how many dials combos

appointment set and so forth with that

okay now you know exactly what you got

to do to win every day every week every

month to hit your recruiting targets and

and inside your business so you want to

treat the same way have that intentional

game plan to go out there and do that

right but then the secondary component

of this is making sure that you have

your you know recruiting staff and

recruiting your your um uh eventual

leadership team right like eventually

okay you're going to need somebody to

you know handle all the day-to-day

operations you're going to need somebody

you know be that designated broker you

know if you're doing a brokerage or

depending on what your leverage

component piece is there with it's a

team more brokerage but then eventually

gonna have to have somebody do in the

agent recruiting and all the onboarding

and all that support all those things

for you if you want to create a true

business that doesn't need your

involvement on a day-to-day basis you

know so you can go out there and and

make the money you want to make but

enjoy life and have the autonomy of

schedule and and all of those things you

got to be able to nail these so you got

to have the ability to go out there and

hire identify the and know when and

identify okay when do I hire the right

people like who to hire when to hire

them and really go out there and master

the hiring process and I know I've

recorded many podcasts on on hiring

staff and and hiring leadership team so

you can go watch on that I'm not gonna

you know spend an hour walking through

out of hire staff or recruit agents in

here but making sure that you're honing

in this step um and really mastering it

one of my biggest mistakes throughout my

whole Journey here wasn't mastering that

early enough on in the overall process I

mean I spent years and years and years

just winging the agent recruiting and

winging hiring staff and it's one of

these things that again cost me millions

of dollars throughout this journey it

was a massively painful lesson for me to

go out there and learn okay so then it's

step number five so just to repeat here

okay step number one is nailing your

comp structure and model step number two

is nailing your onboarding protocol step

number three is nailing your ongoing

training and support step number four is

recruiting you uh or nailing your

recruiting strategy recruiting for

agents and recruiting for staff okay

step number five is making sure that

you're honing in and dialing in your

systems processes and tracking so

everything we talked about just this far

I got to make sure each element of of

this is tracked right every essential

kpi inside your business so when it

comes to recruiting agents you should be

tracking all that per lead Source you

know so you know how much energy and

effort it takes to to go out there and

and gain one recruit so you can create

that into a predictable you know you

know create predict ility there um then

from there okay when when somebody signs

on with you till they start contributing

average agent productivity so that would

be classified as your quote unquote

onboarding status okay you should be

tracking that how long people are

averaging your onboarding status okay

then you should be tracking things like

your average age of productivity what

your average company dollar is per per

closing unit how an agent along long as

an agent with you before they leave so

you know your overall you know retention

rate overall turn rate you know what

your lifetime value is of every single

agent all important essential things

that you need to go out there and track

plus them making sure that that your

agents have the trackers that they need

you know right so you got to track each

element of this game I mean so much of

success happens in spreadsheets I know

it's the unfun unsexy thing you know but

you got to have that dial and then from

there you need to make sure that you

have a system and process based business

you will never create a machine you will

never have a highly valuable sellable

product you'll never have something that

you can really you know step away from

if you don't nail the systems and

processes component of this so processes

is just step-by-step documentation of

everything a toz when it comes to our

overall strategies so anything done more

than once inside your organization needs

a documented process then those

processes live inside your systems the

systems then ensure that our processes

are executed on the same way each and

every single time right so we get the

same replicatable results the same

experience every single time and I don't

care how good your your you know like

people are that you hire you don't have

worldclass systems of process to plug

into it's very difficult for you to show

them their great their greatness then

from there as a leader okay if you want

to be able to inspect what you expect

and make sure that your people are doing

their job and winning yeah right you

don't you don't want to have to

micromanage your people you want to

manage the systems that manage the

people the systems manage the people

hold your people accountable and your

job is to inspect what you expect

through the systems so you got to make

sure that you're nailing component

number five and have everything inside

your organization documented process

around it have that process live inside

of a system so now you're system based

business and then from there every every

cenal kpi in your business is being

tracked and measure okay so then step

number six once you nail those first

five steps right then boom your business

starts to take off you start to grow you

know greatly scale from a productivity

standpoint agent count standpoint step

number six is being able to know when to

plug in the right ancillaries inside

your business first thing is just to

understand ancillaries but then you got

to know okay at what point does it make

sense to plug in what specific ancillary

so your ancillaries and this is how you

go out there and you get paid you know

five times per transaction versus just

once one of the biggest mistakes that

teams and brokerages make is they try to

just make money off of you know

commission checks just off company

dollar that's just one Revenue Source

like with my coaching clients I want to

get them as far as team leaders and

Brokers owners I want to get them up to

five Revenue sources as quickly as

possible so okay your your your agent

splits would be one Revenue Source then

from there okay doing strategic

Partnerships with like an example

mortgage doing a strategic partnership

with title maybe it's Insurance maybe

you're opening up a property management

leg maybe you're buying the you know bu

building and then leasing out office

spaces in there that's not just covering

the the cost of the building and

offsetting that cost but it's a profit

Center for you you know there's a lot

maybe you know doing a strategic

partnership with the home warranty and

you know there's a lot of different ways

to go out there and do different

ancillaries in your business but

thinking of this like a movie theater

okay you go to the movie theater you buy

your box office tickets you know you buy

the movie tickets okay that's one source

of revenue for for the movie theater but

it be very very difficult for a movie

theater to get rich off of selling movie

tickets after they got you know margins

are very thin they got to go you know uh

share those with the box office you know

and and whatever but then from there

okay same

building same staff same point of sell

software all same vertical now what are

they doing they're up selling you soda

they're up selling you popcorn they're

up selling you candy they're up selling

you all these other services that make

your experience a better more enjoyable

experience that they know that you're

going to want and need as you go through

that experience they're up selling you

those you know these are just add-ons

ancillary Services if you will that

become instant profit you know

profitability money makers for them the

quickest way to more Revenue isn't more

transaction is by increasing ticket item

per transaction right so then from there

and the key here is as you're adding

these ancillaries is to not add other

jobs to your plate right this is why you

know I I you know specifically said that

strategic Partnerships so maybe this is

like an ad joint venture with mortgages

like let's just use mortgage as an

example because it's one of the most

popular okay so now your agent is you

know you're making X after this split

with that that commissions on this deal

but then on top of that let's just say

they use your mortgage company now after

you know because you're a 50% owner in

that mortgage company so after all a

sudden done you net another 2800 bucks

let's just say then maybe they use your

title company and after all a said done

you another 700 bucks on that you right

so now you got paid three times off of

one closing Notch just once now the key

here again is making sure you're doing

strategic partnership so so I'll use

again the mortgage example there is okay

the joint venture I'm going to do with a

mortgage company their job and their 50%

of the partnership is to go out there

and do the loan right do the loan do the

underwriting provide all of that all of

that infrastructure right my job is is

you know the the joint venture partner

is to grow agent count and then

encourage and get our agents carry the

flag if you will to get our agents to go

out there and start utilizing our

internal mortgage company you know so

then from there when it comes to doing

these joint ventures you know a mistake

that I see so many make is that just

thinking about profit but here's the

thing is in and profit is very important

do not get me wrong profit is extremely

important however you need to First make

sure that you are partnering with

absolutely amazing vendor partners that

do and execute on a brilliant job for

your agents and your your you know buyer

and seller clients inside your

organization the cool part is when you

have ownership in those companies you

can dictate what those processes are so

it's not just that you know we're

providing the service okay we're

providing like our agents and our our

agents clients and our team in brokerage

right that they already need mortgage

companies they already need title

companies okay well if I can make sure

that we are providing them a far

superior service you know through our

processes and being able to pick and

choose what loan officers and all of

this stuff that we want so that you know

not only is it these services that they

need anyway we're making sure that the

process is done right we're providing

them Superior Service it's a great

amazing experience for agents great

amazing experience for your buyer and

seller clients and then on top of that

the bonus is man you you get an extra

profit Center inside your business so

making sure that you're nailing those

aners because you're just trying to make

money off of company dollar meaning you

know whatever your comp structure is

with commission splits or whatever

you're charging there per transaction

fees or splits or whatever that is you

know um um that's going to be a very

difficult way to go out there and make a

bunch of money in this business right

like every smart operator understands

the power of the aners no different than

just just start breaking down every

business that you do business with they

all do this right like all smart

operators smart businesses do this you

know I don't know you go you go buy a

car okay now they're you know getting

you back in there for you know oil

changes and servicing and you know all

all of those other things right are you

go go buy an airline ticket okay then

now they're up selling you luggage and

then they're up selling you Wi-Fi and

then they're maybe buying a cocktail and

you know all those different things

right those end up being additional

add-on money makers that might make it a

better experience or be something that's

a necessary essential component of of

you know whatever is that you're doing

there okay I go by you know an iPhone

you right well like I dude Apple isn't

you know the I don't know if they still

are but you know the are close to the

wealthiest company to ever exist on the

planet because of selling freaking

iPhones right no they're selling all the

accessories and then they got iTunes and

then they got like all this other upsell

upsell upsell all this other

right you know within there so step

number six is being able to identify and

then know though because there's going

to be right times to do this stuff you

know right so you got to be able to

guard your focus and be a you know know

what what which ones to add at the right

appropriate times inside your team

inside your brokerage but you nail these

six fundamentals man you will scale a

massively highly profitable highly

successful real estate team or real

estate business that allows you to

create a true business where again you

can make the money that you want to make

but then have the autonomy and freedom

to go out there and enjoy life because

I'm not sure about you but you know most

people that I meet including myself we

don't live to go out there and work we

work so we can go out there and live and

create the lives that we want to go out

there and create for ourselves and for

our family and make the money that we

want to make but then go out there and

have those experiences and if you play

this right you do this right you 100%

can go out there and do this so I'm

going to end it with this I know I

talked about this early but I want to

end it with this just in case this is

you look if you are stuck inside your

real estate business and you do not know

exactly what you need to do to get from

where you're at to where you want to go

I encourage you and invite you to

schedule a 100% free Zoom coaching call

with me personally it's going to be a

60-minute call with you and I we are

going to do a deep dive in your business

I promise you this I got your back I

will get you dial then I'm not here to

waste your time I will make this an

amazing experience where you do not

leave this free Zoom coaching call with

not knowing exactly what you must do to

get from where you're at to where you

want to go and I don't care what level

you're at maybe you're brand new maybe

you're part-time maybe you're seasoned

individual agent maybe you're team

leader Mega team leader brokerage owner

Mega brokerage owner like I promise you

I'm gonna bring massive massive value

and and and get help you get your

business to that next level like I said

I'm going to make sure that we I'm

breaking down and mapping out based on

where your business is at where you're

currently doing what your goals are what

my recommended strategy is to get you

from where you're at to where you want

to go in the quickest most effective

efficient profit manner possible so if

you want to schedule that go to

www.gdcjobs.com

or it should be struggling I'm throwing

you the lifeline right now man I'm here

for it I will get you dialed in and even

if you're not struggling like may maybe

you're maybe you're maybe you're doing

well but look maybe there's a much

better efficient more profitable

effective way to go out there and do

this like you have nothing to lose but

everything to gain so again if you want

to sced that

www.gso.com

zooom call all right guys I gotta Jam I

gotta go jump on stage at a speaking

event here in Scottdale but I truly

appreciate you being here truly

appreciate watching this keep crushing

keep kicking ass I will see you next

time peace