Latest / Massive Agent Podcast / MAP 094: How to Hire Your First Assistant, Videographer, or Buyers Agent w/ Lee Adkins

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MAP 094: How to Hire Your First Assistant, Videographer, or Buyers Agent w/ Lee Adkins · Massive Agent Podcast

0:00
SPEAKER_01: On this episode of the Massive Agent Podcast, we're talking all about hiring.
0:03
SPEAKER_01: How to hire your first graphic designer, how to hire a videographer, how to hire a buyer's agent, a listing agent, an office manager, whatever it is, no matter what level you're at right now in your business, at some point you're gonna need to hire someone to help you do the things.
0:18
SPEAKER_01: To do all the things we talk about on the show, you've got to get some help.
0:21
SPEAKER_01: So you've got to learn how to hire.
0:23
SPEAKER_01: Luckily, we have Lee Atkins, one of the founders and the head of growth over at Amplified Solutions, to join us today.
0:30
SPEAKER_01: He's one of the best in the business at hiring, specifically in the real estate space, and he's gonna give us some pointers on how to do it.
0:46
SPEAKER_03: I like to buy houses, I like to sell houses.
1:16
SPEAKER_01: When I say hang out, I mean spend time in his office for about half an hour.
1:20
SPEAKER_01: It was frickin' awesome.
1:22
SPEAKER_01: And it was not for my podcast, unfortunately, although still trying to get him on the show, but I was able to tag along as my good buddy and business partner, Phil Treadwell, who's the host of the Mortgage Marketing Expert Podcast, which you should definitely check out.
1:36
SPEAKER_01: He interviewed Gary in Gary's office for his podcast for half an hour.
1:40
SPEAKER_01: It's an amazing episode.
1:42
SPEAKER_01: So go check out the Mortgage Marketing Expert Podcast.
1:44
SPEAKER_01: That episode comes out, I think, today, maybe tomorrow.
1:48
SPEAKER_01: But you got to go listen.
1:50
SPEAKER_01: Agents, loan officers, doesn't matter.
1:52
SPEAKER_01: That was one of the better interviews I've ever heard from Gary Vaynerchuk that's relevant to us in this industry.
1:59
SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Massive Agent Podcast.
2:01
SPEAKER_01: If you guys are new to the show, my name is Dustin Brohm, your host.
2:04
SPEAKER_01: I am a real estate agent with EXP Realty in Salt Lake City, Utah.
2:07
SPEAKER_01: I've been an agent for about nine years.
2:09
SPEAKER_01: I am a national speaker, trainer, and real estate marketing coach.
2:13
SPEAKER_01: I host another podcast called Industry Connected.
2:17
SPEAKER_01: It's uh it's available wherever you're listening to this.
2:19
SPEAKER_01: Just look for Industry Connected.
2:20
SPEAKER_01: And uh I'm a I already told you I'm a realtor.
2:23
SPEAKER_01: I'm a co-founder of the Industry Syndicate.
2:26
SPEAKER_01: We are a proud founding member of real estate's media network.
2:29
SPEAKER_01: It's called the Industry Syndicate.
2:30
SPEAKER_01: You can find all of the best shows in the industry, whether you're a mortgage guy or or gal or a real estate agent, an appraiser, doesn't matter.
2:39
SPEAKER_01: Anyone in the in the real estate industry looking for more awesome shows, we have them in the industry syndicate.
2:45
SPEAKER_01: They're part of our network.
2:46
SPEAKER_01: Go to industry syndicate.com and check them out.
2:49
SPEAKER_01: You can also go to the app store or Google Play and look for the Industry Syndicate app.
2:55
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
2:56
SPEAKER_01: You're hearing it first.
2:57
SPEAKER_01: I've teased it before, but yes, the app is available.
3:01
SPEAKER_01: This this app, totally free, is the first podcast app made specifically for real estate pros.
3:07
SPEAKER_01: So go check it out.
3:08
SPEAKER_01: It's super simple, it's very sleek.
3:10
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna want the Industry Syndicate app because I'm telling you, I'm leaving some, well, not so subtle hints here.
3:16
SPEAKER_01: There are big things coming for those using this app.
3:20
SPEAKER_01: And right now it's it's the smallest it will ever be.
3:24
SPEAKER_01: It's the least cool it will ever be, and you have a chance right now to uh become one of the first users.
3:29
SPEAKER_01: So it is live.
3:30
SPEAKER_01: Go check it out in the app store.
3:32
SPEAKER_01: Industry Syndicate is the name of the app.
3:34
SPEAKER_01: And if you like it, please leave us a review.
3:35
SPEAKER_01: It helps us to be found more organically within the app stores.
3:40
SPEAKER_01: So there you go, guys.
3:41
SPEAKER_01: Go get it.
3:42
SPEAKER_01: Industry Syndicate app.
3:43
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna be doing a big marketing push next week because this is really cool.
3:47
SPEAKER_01: It's not just one central spot to find the best, uh, the best podcasts and flash briefings and video shows in our industry.
3:55
SPEAKER_01: It's the only podcasting app specifically for real estate.
3:59
SPEAKER_01: For it's made for real estate pros by real estate pros.
4:03
SPEAKER_01: It's a it's one central place to to take all the different communities, all the different audiences for all these different shows into one place.
4:11
SPEAKER_01: If you want to, if we if you want to network with more like-minded people, you need to get in this app.
4:17
SPEAKER_01: There's a news feed in there, you can create a quick little profile, and um and you're gonna be able to get exclusive content from me, from Phil, from from Jason and Josh over at Shred Media, uh, from Chelsea Pitts, from everybody involved in the syndicate.
4:32
SPEAKER_01: We have about 30 different shows from 21 different hosts, and you're gonna be able to get exclusive content from us only in this app.
4:42
SPEAKER_01: Super cool to announce that.
4:43
SPEAKER_01: Super excited.
4:44
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna be seeing it all over social media uh next week.
4:47
SPEAKER_01: But uh there you go.
4:49
SPEAKER_01: I spilled the beans, Industry Syndicate app now available for free.
4:53
SPEAKER_01: All right, guys, today uh today we have Lee Atkins on.
4:56
SPEAKER_01: Lee's somebody that I I respect a lot.
4:58
SPEAKER_01: He he has a background in real estate.
5:00
SPEAKER_01: Well, he's a musician, actually, who got into real estate, and he uh he realized he's great with with the business, the real estate business side of things and operations, hiring, team building, stuff like that.
5:13
SPEAKER_01: And now that's what he does full-time with a company called Amplified Solutions.
5:16
SPEAKER_01: He's helped some of the biggest teams in real estate build their team and structure it in the right way and hire the right people to help it grow.
5:24
SPEAKER_01: So he has better perspective than almost anybody.
5:27
SPEAKER_01: So it's a it's a great interview.
5:29
SPEAKER_01: Before that, I'm I'm super excited about another announcement.
5:32
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so with the Industry Syndicate app, I'll be totally honest, I was not planning on spilling the beans on it just then, but I did, and you know what?
5:39
SPEAKER_01: I'm freaking excited about it, and it's an awesome app, and it's already out there, so go get it and play with it.
5:44
SPEAKER_01: But the big marketing push comes next week.
5:47
SPEAKER_01: Um, anyways, but I'm super excited to announce this.
5:50
SPEAKER_01: So we have officially partnered with one of my favorite vendors in the in the real estate industry, Easy Agent Pro.
5:57
SPEAKER_01: They are officially a sponsor of the Massive Agent Podcast.
6:00
SPEAKER_01: Super excited to have them on board and honored that they would link arms with this show in this way.
6:05
SPEAKER_01: But I cannot say enough great things about Easy Agent Pro.
6:10
SPEAKER_01: They are a website company for real estate agents and mortgage brokers and loan officers.
6:15
SPEAKER_01: So if no matter what you do in the industry, they have a website solution for you.
6:19
SPEAKER_01: I've used these guys for my personal website for Search Salt Lake for I think what, three, three and a half years now.
6:26
SPEAKER_01: They are the best value in the industry.
6:28
SPEAKER_01: I they just released a bunch of new stuff.
6:30
SPEAKER_01: Like now they have a CRM.
6:31
SPEAKER_01: They're like, oh, by the way, here you go, guys.
6:33
SPEAKER_01: Here members, you don't have to pay anymore, but here's a CRM for you.
6:37
SPEAKER_01: And it's awesome.
6:38
SPEAKER_01: You can have drip campaigns, automatic, and everything.
6:41
SPEAKER_01: They don't quite have text messaging yet, but they're working on that.
6:44
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but it is the best value in the industry.
6:47
SPEAKER_01: I swear by them.
6:49
SPEAKER_01: Look, guys, I you know that I've built my whole business off of being found organically through Google and content creation and building a local media company.
6:57
SPEAKER_01: This is the website I've used the whole time.
6:59
SPEAKER_01: Okay, they it helps you rank really well with your content in Google.
7:04
SPEAKER_01: It's extremely easy to use.
7:05
SPEAKER_01: It's extremely easy to build out new pages.
7:08
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to be a professional web designer, because I sure as hell am not.
7:12
SPEAKER_01: And the education, the walkthrough videos, the tutorials, like it is so foolproof.
7:19
SPEAKER_01: It it they make it so easy because if you just go get a WordPress website, uh good luck.
7:25
SPEAKER_01: WordPress is fairly easy to use once you know how to use it, right?
7:29
SPEAKER_01: This is fairly easy to use before you know how to use it.
7:32
SPEAKER_01: Then once you know how, you're like, oh my god, this is easy.
7:34
SPEAKER_01: Another blog article, boom, another video, boom, another another page created, another you know, team member profile, boom, another testimonials page, another home value request page, another landing page, and it's all included.
7:46
SPEAKER_01: So landing pages, don't go get lead pages, don't go pay extra for unboun not is it unbounce or uh yeah, unbounce.
7:54
SPEAKER_01: I think unbounce is another one of those uh landing page creator companies.
8:00
SPEAKER_01: They have it all.
8:00
SPEAKER_01: You can create landing pages, single property websites, uh home value request pages.
8:06
SPEAKER_01: You can lock down any page on your website uh into a lead capture just by putting um forward slash lock at the end of the URL.
8:14
SPEAKER_01: It has IDX.
8:16
SPEAKER_01: The IDX is the best I've seen in the industry.
8:18
SPEAKER_01: I can't say enough good things.
8:20
SPEAKER_01: So, anyways, super excited to announce officially that today is the first episode sponsored by and brought to you by EasyAgent Pro.
8:27
SPEAKER_01: And what's nice is they're not just sponsoring it, they're like, hey, since you have the best audience in the industry, obviously, uh let's hook them up.
8:35
SPEAKER_01: So they're actually running a promotion right now, um, and then they're doing a little something extra special for you guys.
8:41
SPEAKER_01: So if you need a new website, if you're a real estate agent, a loan officer, a mortgage broker, and you need a website or a better website, or you have one that's crazy expensive, like most of them, and you want to save a bunch of money and get a hell of a lot more for it, then what you need to do right now is go to MassiveAgent Podcast.com slash EAP for Easy Agent Pro.
9:01
SPEAKER_01: Massive Agent Podcast.com slash EAP.
9:03
SPEAKER_01: And what they're doing from now until the end of October, till October 30th, no, 31st.
9:09
SPEAKER_01: Jeez, I forgot about Halloween, till October 31st.
9:12
SPEAKER_01: Uh if you use that code, you have to use that link.
9:15
SPEAKER_01: You can't just not use it.
9:17
SPEAKER_01: You got to use MassiveAgent Podcast.com slash EAP.
9:20
SPEAKER_01: Then they'll know that you get this deal.
9:22
SPEAKER_01: You get December for free, the month of December, so you get a free month.
9:25
SPEAKER_01: They give you the Pro Designer package to help you design your website when you set it up.
9:30
SPEAKER_01: Um that's I think that's a$200 value they're throwing in for free.
9:33
SPEAKER_01: Then just for you guys, for Massive Agent listeners, they're giving you the CRM for free as well.
9:39
SPEAKER_01: Uh at some point, the CRM will be a standalone product and they're gonna be charging, you know, 20 bucks a month or so for that, but you guys get it free, all right?
9:47
SPEAKER_01: Uh, permanently, not just on the trial basis that their current members have.
9:51
SPEAKER_01: So MassiveAgent Podcast.com slash EAP, go check out the pricing.
9:55
SPEAKER_01: You will not find a better value for under$200 a month anywhere in the industry.
10:00
SPEAKER_01: Find it.
10:00
SPEAKER_01: Show me.
10:01
SPEAKER_01: Good luck.
10:01
SPEAKER_01: I've looked.
10:02
SPEAKER_01: At one I don't know if I told you guys, I think I did in a previous episode.
10:06
SPEAKER_01: At one point, I'm like, you know, you know, the whole grass is greener thing.
10:10
SPEAKER_01: We all do it.
10:11
SPEAKER_01: Um, like, I like Easy Agent Pro, but is there something better out there?
10:15
SPEAKER_01: Like, maybe I should look at this one, maybe I should look at that one.
10:17
SPEAKER_01: Let me let me start looking.
10:18
SPEAKER_01: I wow, uh, that really solidified how freaking awesome they are and the value you get because you look at some other websites that don't even have the the bells and whistles that are four, five, six hundred dollars a month.
10:30
SPEAKER_01: It's just crazy.
10:31
SPEAKER_01: So save yourself some money, get the best value in the industry at Easy Agent Pro.
10:37
SPEAKER_01: One more time, easy uh MassiveAgent Podcast.com slash EAP.
10:41
SPEAKER_01: All right, let's get into the interview with Lee Atkins.
10:45
SPEAKER_01: If I get asked all the time, how do I hire a videographer?
10:49
SPEAKER_01: Or, you know, who should I hire first?
10:51
SPEAKER_01: Or how do I do it?
10:51
SPEAKER_01: How do I compensate them?
10:52
SPEAKER_01: Do I do I pay them a salary or do I give them a percentage of the of the commission or how do I work that?
10:58
SPEAKER_01: That's exactly why Lee's on the show.
11:00
SPEAKER_01: So let's jump into it.
11:01
SPEAKER_01: Lee Atkins on the Massive Agent Podcast.
11:03
SPEAKER_01: What's up, guys?
11:04
SPEAKER_01: I'm sitting here with Lee Atkins.
11:06
SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Massive Agent Podcast.
11:08
SPEAKER_01: How's it going?
11:08
SPEAKER_01: Hey, Dustin, it's great.
11:09
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for having me.
11:10
SPEAKER_01: You bet, man.
11:11
SPEAKER_01: Hey, so so we've had a chance to meet at at two consecutive Inman Connect conferences.
11:17
SPEAKER_01: So back in let's see, January in New York City and then in Vegas.
11:21
SPEAKER_01: And and it's funny, Shannon Milligan happened to be uh involved in in both encounters, her being hilarious uh when having like a sip of a drink turns her into a I mean, she's hilarious anyways, but uh that's a whole other story, guys.
11:36
SPEAKER_01: So let's not go there.
11:36
SPEAKER_01: But but Lee, I've you know, we we've become friends, and I've I've kind of seen what you're doing from afar, and so I wanted to have you on because I get asked all the time, how do I make my first hire?
11:47
SPEAKER_01: And and that's that could be hiring a graphic designer, a videographer, your first buyer's agent, an assistant, whatever.
11:54
SPEAKER_01: And so I could not think of a better authority in the industry than you.
12:00
SPEAKER_01: So, Lee, real quick, bring everyone up to speed on who you are and how you got to you know being the head of growth at Amplified Solutions and what you do.
12:08
SPEAKER_01: And let's start there.
12:10
SPEAKER_01: Cool.
12:10
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for that great intro.
12:11
SPEAKER_00: I might have to have you uh intro me every time I uh I go on.
12:16
SPEAKER_00: That that was that was great.
12:18
SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, a big hat tip to Shannon too for linking us up.
12:21
SPEAKER_00: But um, in essence, so my background um predominantly actually was in music initially.
12:28
SPEAKER_00: I played music professionally, um, traveled and toured for about six years with the band and had had pretty good success with that.
12:35
SPEAKER_00: Um, but that kind of became uh to me working with a company where I ended up growing music camps into multiple markets.
12:44
SPEAKER_00: And so a lot of experience, you know, strangely enough in music, but actually scaling a business, hiring people, empowering them to have success.
12:53
SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, from that, um, I actually won't go into a lot of detail about kind of how that didn't continue on, but I did that is a whole other podcast.
13:07
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm sure there's stories.
13:09
SPEAKER_00: There definitely are.
13:10
SPEAKER_00: But uh, but all good.
13:11
SPEAKER_00: And I have always had an interest in real estate and had an opportunity to jump into selling full time.
13:16
SPEAKER_00: So um I know a lot of people don't have that.
13:20
SPEAKER_00: It can be very difficult to do part-time and kind of make the leap.
13:23
SPEAKER_00: I was very lucky, just straight up call it lucky to be able to jump full-time.
13:27
SPEAKER_00: So after I sold for about six years, I um really was kind of burned out and loved the business, but just didn't really want to go one-on-one, you know, putting people in the car or scrambling to go show property.
13:42
SPEAKER_00: Um, so ultimately linked up with a team here in Atlanta as their operations manager and really had success growing that.
13:49
SPEAKER_00: And as part of that, I just met other people who said, Wow, what do you do?
13:53
SPEAKER_00: I need a you.
13:54
SPEAKER_00: And so uh thus Amplified Solutions was born as a way to consult with other people in other markets, you know, trying to grow their team or brokerage, um, or solo agents as well, just trying to grow um, you know, smarter, not harder.
14:11
SPEAKER_01: So I uh so today's flash briefing, the the massive agent minute flash briefing.
14:17
SPEAKER_01: I I was kind of letting everybody know, or I guess no, it was yesterday's, because this is coming out the day after we recorded.
14:24
SPEAKER_01: Confusing.
14:24
SPEAKER_01: I'm confused.
14:25
SPEAKER_01: Uh I was mentioning who you are and what you do and why people need to tune into the show.
14:29
SPEAKER_01: And and it looks to me from the outside like you guys are a consultant, you're a can or a consultancy, whatever, and you're recruiters too.
14:38
SPEAKER_01: So so you guys do a few things for real estate businesses, is that right?
14:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
14:44
SPEAKER_00: So basically, it's funny, it's not a term that's used a lot in real estate, especially, but I like to kind of consider us behind the scenes more of what I would call a people ops company.
14:54
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, it's not always about hiring.
14:57
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's just about restructuring the people that you have or or either promoting them or making sure they have a clear job description or KPIs, or you know, just just who are these people and what are they doing and and what's the plan that they're all you know, hopefully moving towards together?
15:14
SPEAKER_01: That's interesting because I think a lot of a lot of people that I talk to, a lot of agents, they think that they're always focused on new stuff, hiring somebody new, putting a new butt in a new seat when they may already have butts in seats.
15:30
SPEAKER_01: Right.
15:30
SPEAKER_01: And so you're saying that it might actually be the best move to just shuffle people around and make sure that they're in the right spot?
15:37
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, potentially.
15:38
SPEAKER_00: So and quite frankly, that was born out of my work um scaling the camp and then being in real estate.
15:44
SPEAKER_00: Because when I first met with this team about joining them, you know, I said, well, you know, I actually have experience scaling a company and hiring people.
15:53
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I was even kind of naive to the fact that people need that, you know, and and people are like, wait, you know how to do all that?
16:00
SPEAKER_00: We we need that.
16:01
SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, same for me.
16:03
SPEAKER_00: And real estate, frankly, is a second, third, or fourth career for a lot of people.
16:08
SPEAKER_00: So digging deeper into, you know, oh wow, you used to, you know, work at a big I don't want to say any names, but like a big corporation, or you know, people a lot of times have skill sets that they could bring to real estate, but you know, those conversations aren't often had.
16:23
SPEAKER_00: We're all kind of running and gunning and and not just talking about you know not talking about the strategy.
16:30
SPEAKER_01: Right.
16:31
SPEAKER_01: And you know, most of us we're we're agents first.
16:35
SPEAKER_01: And and then to to once you get to the point where you have to grow and and get some help to run your business and to scale it, you're like, oh my God, now I have to be an HR manager.
16:45
SPEAKER_01: I don't know how to do any of that stuff.
16:47
SPEAKER_01: Like right.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: You know, you get another hat, because you know, we all need another marketing hat, our finance hat, our recruiting hat, you know, we gotta Yeah.
16:57
SPEAKER_01: I mean, they're they're fed up with me already because I'm like, look, you've got to be a marketer who sells homes.
17:02
SPEAKER_01: So you have to have the marketer hat on, and it has to be a pretty big one.
17:05
SPEAKER_01: Right.
17:05
SPEAKER_01: And and now we're telling them you have to be an HR manager as well.
17:09
SPEAKER_01: So thank God there's thank thank God, Lee, that you're here to to give some guidance.
17:14
SPEAKER_01: And look, guys, even if you're not in the spot right now where you need to hire, it's good to get the information Lee's about to give us so you can uh begin with the end in mind, so to speak.
17:25
SPEAKER_01: You can start moving in that direction, knowing how to knowing what the path should look like and knowing which moves that you should eventually make so that you can be making the right moves to get there.
17:37
SPEAKER_01: Definitely.
17:37
SPEAKER_00: I I I think I to a fault, I probably say this too much, but I I think you know, I I'm known for saying you don't even need a good plan, you just need a plan.
17:46
SPEAKER_00: Like literally, yeah, just some ballpark idea of where this is all headed.
17:51
SPEAKER_00: And the other thing, you know, there's been a lot of and social media has been, you know, dangerous with all this, but you know, not everybody necessarily needs to build a team or become a boutique brokerage.
18:03
SPEAKER_00: Like it's okay if that's not a part of your plan.
18:06
SPEAKER_00: You don't need to do it because a bunch of other people are doing it and it looks amazing.
18:10
SPEAKER_01: Now, wait a minute, Lee.
18:12
SPEAKER_01: But then they can't put in in their Instagram profile that they're a team leader or that they have a team that's under their name.
18:20
SPEAKER_00: Well, but hey, let's redefine what's a team.
18:23
SPEAKER_00: I mean, come on, if it's you and assistant or you and one other agent, like that's a team.
18:27
SPEAKER_00: If you have a lender that you work with, that's part of your team.
18:30
SPEAKER_00: But you know, I think we need to be careful when we have this ambition of having a 10-person team because there's a that's a whole other deal.
18:40
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and it's always been weird to me.
18:43
SPEAKER_01: Like, look, I understand having teams.
18:45
SPEAKER_01: Like, that's how you scale and you can serve more people, close more deals, and you know, it it's it's awesome.
18:52
SPEAKER_01: You have to have there's only 24 hours in the day, you can only do so much yourself.
18:56
SPEAKER_01: So you've got to have people.
18:57
SPEAKER_01: I get it, but it's funny because I some people that I'm connected to on social, I'll see that they get their real estate license, and then three months later they're like, Oh, we're looking, you know, I'm I'm bringing on a buyer's agent, I'm bringing on a listing specialist.
19:09
SPEAKER_01: Cool.
19:10
SPEAKER_01: I I think that maybe they just don't I'm trying to figure out how to word this so I don't step on toes too violently, uh, even though I'm totally fine with that most of the time.
19:22
SPEAKER_01: Um what do people like let's let's get to the foundation here.
19:27
SPEAKER_01: Like if somebody thinks they need to start a team or thinks they want to at some point, like where should their mindset be?
19:34
SPEAKER_01: What what what should they be thinking?
19:36
SPEAKER_01: Is do they need to first figure out why they want to do it in the first place?
19:40
SPEAKER_01: Or let's let's go on that.
19:41
SPEAKER_00: Well, so yeah, so I think ultimately what really you know the the smartest thing is is really just to be honest with yourself or dig deeper up front on what you are good at.
19:52
SPEAKER_00: Because one of the great things about real estate is that you know you can basically swipe a credit card for a couple hundred bucks or you know, four to eight hundred bucks and have your real estate license, which is a great opportunity for almost anybody.
20:05
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to have a college degree, you don't have to have you know all of this you know stuff that you may have to have to get a job at a big company.
20:13
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of those people have massive success in this industry, and I think that's awesome.
20:17
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad that opportunity's there.
20:19
SPEAKER_00: Um, but by the same token, there's no really kind of framework for how any of that is supposed to work.
20:26
SPEAKER_00: So I think if you start with a deeper self-assessment, I mean, I I won't mention any names, but I have a friend who actually opened a brokerage the day he got his real estate license.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: He had to hire a broker to do it because you can't get your brokerage license for three years.
20:40
SPEAKER_00: But, you know, he found a smart way, he went and interviewed with a bunch of companies, didn't like any of them, so he started his own right out of the gate.
20:47
SPEAKER_00: Now, that's not normal.
20:49
SPEAKER_00: Do I advise anyone else necessarily doing that?
20:52
SPEAKER_00: You know, he had a unique skill set to pull it off.
20:55
SPEAKER_00: But, you know, I think just the more you can be honest about what you're good at, because maybe if you are a great leader, you might not be as good a salesperson, but you may be good at managing multiple other salespeople.
21:06
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, it's funny when I do talks with people or do interviews, you know, people everybody wants that silver bullet.
21:12
SPEAKER_00: Everybody wants to say, just do this.
21:15
SPEAKER_00: And part of what I love about our company, and it's I realize it's not super scalable, it's taking a deeper look at what it is that you want to do, and then filling in those gaps.
21:26
SPEAKER_00: So the first step, no question, is just being open and honest about what you're good at, what you love to do, um, you know, and your your skill set.
21:35
SPEAKER_01: This is so important.
21:36
SPEAKER_01: And I know because I've been there, I've been one of these people.
21:40
SPEAKER_01: When some some people listening hear that, they're like, damn it, Lee, just tell me what to do.
21:44
SPEAKER_01: Like, I want the tactics.
21:45
SPEAKER_00: Give me step one, then step two.
21:46
SPEAKER_00: Tell me what app to get to do this.
21:48
SPEAKER_00: Yes, exactly.
21:49
SPEAKER_00: No, yeah.
21:50
SPEAKER_01: What what single social media post can I do that grows my team and brings in a million and commissions?
21:55
SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
21:55
SPEAKER_01: I I know I'm I'm uh being dramatic there, but that's literally the mindset.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: Mindset that a lot of you guys have.
22:01
SPEAKER_01: I know because I've been one of those people.
22:04
SPEAKER_01: When I even before I really started in real estate, as I was trying to like, I was just learning about entrepreneurship in general.
22:11
SPEAKER_01: And I'd go to some seminars or conferences or or you know, be listening to a new book or something.
22:16
SPEAKER_01: And I always got pissed when they started with this.
22:19
SPEAKER_01: You need to know your your why, you need to have the foundation of you know what you're trying to do, you need to have goals.
22:24
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, my goal is to make a million dollars.
22:26
SPEAKER_01: Like just tell me what to freaking do.
22:28
SPEAKER_01: And I got so pissed.
22:30
SPEAKER_01: But I they all do that.
22:32
SPEAKER_01: And now that I'm kind of on the other side of, you know, having had some success and and uh kind of have my feet under me, I realize just how damn important that is and how foolish and uh naive I was thinking that you could just jump in totally green and then just get started on the tactics and that that would work out for you.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's part of the whole problem is that you it has to be a blend of of strategy and tactics.
22:56
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you have to have the overarching strategy of the five-year, 10-year plan.
23:01
SPEAKER_00: And here's the other hard thing about that it's probably gonna change.
23:04
SPEAKER_00: You're probably not gonna nail your five-year plan in year zero, you know, but you still have to have it.
23:10
SPEAKER_00: I mean, referencing back to your begin with the end in mind.
23:13
SPEAKER_00: Um and again, like we said before, being realistic about that.
23:17
SPEAKER_00: If the goal is not to have a 10-person team, then you don't need to go take a bunch of classes on hiring and recruiting and all that stuff.
23:24
SPEAKER_00: You know, that's not that's not gonna be your thing to get to the point of adding, you know, one other agent or to being able to exit and hand your business over to another agent and uh you know get referrals.
23:35
SPEAKER_00: So um, but it is, it's that delicate balance of and then the up the flip side, you know, quite frankly, of even people like me is that if you have all strategy and no tactics, then you know, you're not gonna ever do any of them.
23:50
SPEAKER_01: Right.
23:50
SPEAKER_01: We all know people like that, and you know, they're all ideas, they always have some new thing, but they never actually do anything.
23:57
SPEAKER_01: Right.
23:57
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you you're right.
23:58
SPEAKER_01: You have to have a balance of the two for sure.
24:01
SPEAKER_01: Um with that in mind, what are some of the biggest when you go in and you work with a team or you work with a real estate agent who wants to start building a team uh or an organization or whatever you call it, uh, what are some of the biggest mistakes you've seen of how they have things set up that then you have to go in and kind of rearrange or or fix?
24:24
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's a great, great question.
24:27
SPEAKER_00: Um, I'll I'll try to stay with some specific examples, again, kind of going back to the idea that each you really need to listen to what they're trying to do and who they are and what what they're good at.
24:37
SPEAKER_00: But typically, you know, people who are are good at selling real estate or at the actual activities of selling, you know, that's not typically a skill set that's congruent with being a business owner.
24:51
SPEAKER_00: Just because you're good at selling real estate, it doesn't give you all the tools to be a business owner.
24:56
SPEAKER_00: Now that said, some people already have the tools of being a business owner, and the real estate is just a means with which to get there.
25:04
SPEAKER_00: So I want to be fair to those people.
25:05
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to say that if you're good at sales, you're bad at business.
25:08
SPEAKER_00: But there, it's not uncommon that a successful agent um needs to find a way to leverage some of their business skills.
25:17
SPEAKER_00: That could be outsourcing, it could be bringing on a partner.
25:23
SPEAKER_00: I'm seeing a lot more of that.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: It's funny, five, six years ago, people, you know, were saying, Oh, partner, that's crazy.
25:28
SPEAKER_00: You can't do that.
25:29
SPEAKER_00: And now I see a lot of people that are partnered up and they're very different.
25:33
SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, that that's that's part of the thing.
25:37
SPEAKER_00: It could be an assistant that grows up into more of an operations type person.
25:42
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I think that that blend of somebody who's kind of got their eye, somebody who's not getting phone calls, and somebody who's not like, oh man, we got to get this email out today, and somebody who can really because it's real easy to stay in the sales activities and some of the marketing activities, especially if that's what you love, and never really take those right steps to grow.
26:02
SPEAKER_00: It's it's I always say those are the things, if they're the things you never get around to, those are the things you need to try to hire.
26:09
SPEAKER_00: And let's dig into that for a minute.
26:11
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
26:12
SPEAKER_00: When I say hire, this could be a VA, it could be an intern, it could be a family member.
26:19
SPEAKER_00: If you have grown kids, I mean you might have grown kids that could may want to get in the business with you and they may have a different skill set.
26:25
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's a lot of spouse.
26:27
SPEAKER_00: Right.
26:27
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
26:28
SPEAKER_03: Right.
26:28
SPEAKER_00: And I you see more and more of that too, where people's spouses are joining them.
26:32
SPEAKER_00: And quite classically, they do have a bit of a different skill set or a different background.
26:37
SPEAKER_00: So I want to be clear that we're not just talking about hiring, you know, a hundred thousand dollar a year position necessarily.
26:43
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about leveraging skill set and focus.
26:47
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
26:48
SPEAKER_01: And that's a great distinction too.
26:49
SPEAKER_01: Um, and in fact, when this podcast comes out, I'm I've got to work on the headline a little bit to make sure that it's it's not just hiring, because that that does give the impression that we're talking about like hiring an employee that's W-2, that earns a salary.
27:05
SPEAKER_01: And most agents listening to the show aren't there.
27:08
SPEAKER_01: They're not to that point where they can even do that.
27:11
SPEAKER_00: Right.
27:11
SPEAKER_00: And the other thing is, and I I say this with all the love in the world, but a lot of real estate people are very black or white.
27:18
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of like full on or full off.
27:21
SPEAKER_00: There's not a lot of that kind of gray area.
27:24
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's something, you know, back to kind of the concept of self-assessment to really kind of step back and say, hey, do we have somebody who's kind of in that that middle space, not the full on all the time, or I'm not doing anything.
27:39
SPEAKER_00: You know, somebody who's kind of I I always use the analogy of a boat.
27:44
SPEAKER_00: The bigger your boat gets, I don't know if people relate to this, if they've driven a boat or been on a boat, but you know, the bigger your boat is, the more you've kind of got that momentum and it has to, it has to keep going.
27:55
SPEAKER_00: You have to keep your eye on things, you can't just stop it or make sudden changes.
27:59
SPEAKER_00: You know, you've you've if you're on a yacht or a cruise ship, you can't just be changing stuff all the time.
28:05
SPEAKER_00: There's a there's a forward path that needs to be kept going.
28:09
SPEAKER_00: If you're in a smaller boat, if it's you and an assistant or you and a buyer's agent, it's a lot easier to pivot and make some of those changes.
28:17
SPEAKER_00: But, you know, you also note, you know, there's a whole crew for a yacht or a cruise ship.
28:23
SPEAKER_00: You know, there's a whole set of people with defined roles to make sure that that thing doesn't run into something.
28:30
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for sure.
28:30
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, I I think that's and look, a lot of this, a lot of this discussion is helpful because it gives, myself included, it gives anyone listening perspective on just what we're trying to do here.
28:43
SPEAKER_01: And when you do grow, you start getting more people, or you know, you have a bunch of clients, a bunch of transactions, yeah, you're you're not gonna be as nimble as when you're just a solo agent doing whatever you want, whenever you want.
28:55
SPEAKER_01: Uh and and that's good to know because then we can expect that to happen and write and know.
29:01
SPEAKER_01: Um and I'm a firm believer that that when you visualize and and picture yourself doing a certain thing, you start moving towards doing that thing.
29:10
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
29:10
SPEAKER_01: And and so that this is this is all good.
29:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and naturally that thing that's gonna come to you is gonna be the thing that you enjoy and you're probably good at.
29:18
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, again, back to that putting yourself in the right seat before you figure out what the other seats even are.
29:24
SPEAKER_00: You know, you mentioned kind of the butts in the seats concept, and that's great.
29:28
SPEAKER_00: And something else I want to touch on super fast um is that, you know, the first person that you bring on to do this may not be your be all in all person.
29:36
SPEAKER_00: But as long as you're not taking advantage, as long as one person's not taking advantage of the other, then that's okay.
29:43
SPEAKER_00: You know, you may not hire your 10-year operations person as your very first assistant.
29:48
SPEAKER_00: But as long as you know they're learning on the job and you're getting some of the help that you need, you know, that's that's okay.
29:56
SPEAKER_01: Uh okay.
29:57
SPEAKER_01: So that this is this is a great place to take this conversation because in my very limited expertise, my very limited experience in outsourcing to a videographer, uh, an assistant or a virtual assistant, um, you know, stuff like that, I've realized that even doing that is a learning process.
30:19
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
30:20
SPEAKER_01: Finding the right people is a learning process.
30:22
SPEAKER_01: For me, it is not natural.
30:24
SPEAKER_01: And so I've I've done some things or brought some people on board, so to speak, out of necessity, which made me act a little bit more hasty than I should.
30:33
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I don't have a problem with that because I think for me, that served me because I was able to bring someone on board, get them going.
30:42
SPEAKER_01: And then once you're doing that thing, like it's just like when I say if you don't know how to do video, start doing video.
30:48
SPEAKER_01: If you don't know how to podcast, start podcasting and you'll learn how to do it.
30:54
SPEAKER_01: Like hiring bringing on your first virtual assistant, VA, is the same thing.
31:00
SPEAKER_01: Once they start doing stuff, you're gonna realize what you actually need in a VA and and things they need from you.
31:07
SPEAKER_01: You would never know that if you just are sitting there like, who should I hire?
31:11
SPEAKER_01: Right.
31:11
SPEAKER_01: You've got to just bring someone on board.
31:13
SPEAKER_00: So uh, you know, I think Yeah, that's I I want to go even deeper on that because I that is really where it's at.
31:20
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's where either the paralysis by analysis comes in or whatever, because you're like, well, I don't know what to do, so I don't do this, I can't get the, but who's the person?
31:28
SPEAKER_00: And it just becomes this, well, oh, the phone's ringing, I'm out of here, I'm showing a house.
31:33
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I think it people need to understand, and again, social media makes this so hard for us because we just see that the highlight reel for people, but the reality of it is is you are essentially figuring out what you don't want.
31:47
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you are ultimately, you're probably gonna have more success eliminating the things that you don't want than you are having this magical perfect plan, you know, uh up front.
32:00
SPEAKER_00: And let's be real too, the the market is shift is all you know, is is always changing.
32:05
SPEAKER_00: It's seasonal.
32:07
SPEAKER_00: I mean, models are even changing, you know, like there's so many moving pieces to this.
32:11
SPEAKER_00: It really, I think it's important to be really honest that this is a matter of doing, you know, you shouldn't just do completely haphazardly, but knowing that you're gonna execute, and that's I think why using a VA or some sort of outsource type of thing at first is the easiest thing.
32:29
SPEAKER_00: If it's not working, you can cut ties and find another one.
32:33
SPEAKER_00: It's not that big a deal.
32:34
SPEAKER_00: You can send an email, you know, you don't have to sit somebody down that's worked for you for five years and and fire them.
32:39
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's a whole different, it's a whole different deal.
32:42
SPEAKER_00: But I think it's really important to be honest that most of these people that have been really successful with this have been through a slew of people or have shifted people's roles or you know, they've they've done that work.
32:57
SPEAKER_00: And it's not the carrot is always moving.
32:59
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's not just like, okay, once we get this person hired, then we're done.
33:04
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be amazing.
33:06
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I love what you said there.
33:08
SPEAKER_01: You're really figuring out what you don't want.
33:10
SPEAKER_01: That's exactly how it's been for me.
33:13
SPEAKER_01: In like I said, in my limited experience doing this, it's not that I'm like, ooh, I really want them to do this.
33:20
SPEAKER_01: It's it's I start figuring out what I don't want or how to make it.
33:23
SPEAKER_00: We don't have time for, or yeah, yeah.
33:26
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's like this thing isn't working, we need to do it this way, or oh my gosh, I wish they did this or this or this.
33:31
SPEAKER_01: So so yes, it all gets you to the same place of figuring out like figuring out what you don't want by default helps you figure out what you do want.
33:39
SPEAKER_00: And if you want extra credit, you can document it as you go, or have somebody or hire an intern or grab a new agent in your office just to document it a little bit so that when you hire the next person, you're like, hey, here's our guide to our videography program, you know, which which didn't exist two months, you know, two weeks ago or whatnot.
34:02
SPEAKER_01: But the one so you're saying hire someone to help you hire someone?
34:05
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, pretty much.
34:06
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I like it.
34:08
SPEAKER_01: No, because that's what I start doing.
34:10
SPEAKER_01: I just, you know, people have heard me say this many times.
34:13
SPEAKER_01: For organization, I really use Apple notes and I just have different notes for different topics and and then put them into groups.
34:20
SPEAKER_01: That's it.
34:20
SPEAKER_01: That like that's my organization.
34:22
SPEAKER_01: And so I have a running list of of things that I like or don't like about an assistant or a graphic design person or whatever.
34:28
SPEAKER_01: So then I know for the next person.
34:30
SPEAKER_00: No, absolutely.
34:31
SPEAKER_00: And it's funny, one thing that I do, um, one of the companies I work with here is affiliated with a startup hub, a real like super techie building with all these really great people in it.
34:41
SPEAKER_00: And it's funny, I like to go down there with my pen and paper and write down all the things I'm doing, or I do that, I do that, put them into categories.
34:50
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's marketing.
34:51
SPEAKER_00: And I literally personally do this myself still.
34:54
SPEAKER_00: Um, put those in the categories and go, look, these five things that are marketing, anybody could do a college kid could do that.
35:01
SPEAKER_00: We need an intern, you know, and just because it is an ever-moving process, you know, I'm also not proclaiming to be perfect at this.
35:09
SPEAKER_00: I am in a position where I can focus on it and I have a lot of experience.
35:14
SPEAKER_00: But, you know, again, there is no finish line.
35:17
SPEAKER_00: I'm always every day getting better at doing this and outsourcing stuff that I don't want to do anymore, that I've outgrown.
35:23
SPEAKER_00: So um, you know, I think if there's I know that's again not the sexy answer.
35:28
SPEAKER_00: That's not the, you know, if I could just do this post and do a million in GCI, but uh, I think it's more real than than that.
35:36
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it it is real.
35:37
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that that's that's real life.
35:38
SPEAKER_01: It's funny, because like I said before, and I'm gonna rant about this for just a sec, and then I then I have a couple questions, and I want to get into comp like how do you compensate someone you've just brought on?
35:48
SPEAKER_01: Do you pay them a salary or do they get bonuses?
35:51
SPEAKER_01: Do they get a you know, commission split, whatever?
35:54
SPEAKER_01: I want to talk about that.
35:55
SPEAKER_01: Um, but but just for a second.
35:57
SPEAKER_01: So my wife is is on this journey of uh health and fitness.
36:02
SPEAKER_01: Like she, after after our first or sorry, after our um second child was born, uh she I mean she gained a bunch of weight.
36:10
SPEAKER_01: And you know, like most not just women, but but people, like we we fluctuate, we have stuff go on and so sometimes we let it get out of control.
36:20
SPEAKER_01: And she's been uh she's been killing it, like being very dedicated, working out.
36:24
SPEAKER_01: Um like I see how hard she worked just meal pre and like eating when she's gym every day and all that while taking care of kids.
36:37
SPEAKER_01: And she posted a before and after photo the other day on her social media, and it's like it's dramatic.
36:42
SPEAKER_01: It's crazy.
36:42
SPEAKER_01: When we first saw it, we're like, oh my God, I didn't realize that's how far you'd come.
36:47
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
36:47
SPEAKER_01: When you're in it, you're in it and you don't quite realize it.
36:50
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
36:50
SPEAKER_01: But some of the comments she started getting from friends were basically saying, like, well, what's the what's what's the one supplement I should take?
37:00
SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
37:01
SPEAKER_01: What's uh, you know, what's what's the magic exercise you should do?
37:05
SPEAKER_01: And she's like, uh, guys, we all know how to do this diet, exercise, consistency, do it.
37:11
SPEAKER_01: Right.
37:12
SPEAKER_01: Right.
37:12
SPEAKER_00: That that's the silver bullet.
37:14
SPEAKER_00: That's the silver bullet is you know, take six months out of your life and do all the right things at every moment.
37:20
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
37:21
SPEAKER_01: And it's funny because she she brought it to me and she's like, What the hell is wrong with these people?
37:25
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
37:25
SPEAKER_01: And I am like, babe, like I get this all the time from agents that are like, okay, what's the what's the one post I should do on LinkedIn?
37:33
SPEAKER_01: Right.
37:33
SPEAKER_01: That's gonna, you know, grow, bring me fifty, you know, 5,000 new followers, and what's the one video I should do that's gonna help me close 10 deals?
37:41
SPEAKER_01: And I get it all the time too.
37:42
SPEAKER_01: It's just we all want that quick fix.
37:45
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
37:45
SPEAKER_01: Uh it's it's crazy.
37:46
SPEAKER_00: And I think we're conditioned to that even more now.
37:49
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, in the world of the app, you know, like I literally taught a class a couple of weeks ago, and and it was funny because I did give some apps.
37:58
SPEAKER_00: I reluctantly gave some apps, and somebody literally at the end gave written feedback that was like, I just wanted them to tell me what apps to use.
38:04
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, Yep, okay, okay.
38:07
SPEAKER_01: No, exactly.
38:08
SPEAKER_01: And whenever I speak now, I make sure I give specific app recommendations or sp or I give those specific post ideas because I know that that's literally all some people want.
38:18
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
38:18
SPEAKER_01: Uh look, if that's what they want, cool, but you you've got to have that and the good foundation that we've talked about.
38:24
SPEAKER_01: Right, right, for sure.
38:25
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
38:26
SPEAKER_00: So that that totally makes sense.
38:27
SPEAKER_00: And I and it is, I think we do have that tendency, and I do think it's exacerbated by current society.
38:33
SPEAKER_00: It is, it is kind of like the go-to to say, hey, just what's the thing?
38:38
SPEAKER_00: What can I download?
38:39
SPEAKER_00: What can I read?
38:40
SPEAKER_00: What can I post?
38:41
SPEAKER_00: What can I do?
38:42
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, besides the work.
38:44
SPEAKER_00: So but that said, you can you can bring on somebody else that has some talent and figure out a way to compensate them justly.
38:53
SPEAKER_00: So um and that is the thing.
38:55
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad you mentioned it that way because I do think a lot of people, their head immediately goes to like, oh, I don't have$60,000 a year to pay this person, or I don't have, you know, all this extra money to do that.
39:09
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, from like a VA type perspective, it's easy to pay by the task.
39:15
SPEAKER_00: It's easy to pay per closing for contract to close.
39:18
SPEAKER_00: It's easy to pay somebody$400 a month to do two or three social media posts a week for you.
39:26
SPEAKER_00: That said, you still need to be able to delegate a little bit.
39:30
SPEAKER_00: You still need to be able to get them your logo, get them specifics about your area if they don't live in your area that they can use to post.
39:38
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you still gotta give people some basic direction.
39:42
SPEAKER_00: You can't back to the app thing.
39:44
SPEAKER_00: You can't just click a button on a VA's website and then they magically start doing posts for you.
39:50
SPEAKER_00: It just doesn't work for you.
39:52
SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes.
39:53
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so I it was kind of frustrating.
39:55
SPEAKER_01: So I went with um with this company called Design Pickle, and it's basically just you can pay a monthly recurring subscription and you have a graphic designer who's will do whatever you want.
40:07
SPEAKER_01: Right.
40:08
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like awesome.
40:09
SPEAKER_01: I got so frustrated though, because my expectations were jacked up going into it, I realized that I was spending almost more time than it would take me to do the graphic myself to tell them what I wanted done.
40:22
SPEAKER_01: Right.
40:23
SPEAKER_01: And that now, if I had someone in my office or someone who I had been working with long term that I could zoom do Zoom calls with and and all that, they would get to know my style and what I want.
40:34
SPEAKER_01: And it wouldn't take so much freaking time.
40:36
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
40:37
SPEAKER_01: But I I had to fill out this form.
40:39
SPEAKER_01: And look, guys, this is a great solution.
40:41
SPEAKER_01: It really is.
40:42
SPEAKER_01: It's like 400 bucks a month.
40:44
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but for me, I just found it wasn't worth it.
40:47
SPEAKER_01: I can do it quicker myself.
40:48
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
40:49
SPEAKER_01: So you can fill out this form, tell them what you want, they'll send you the graphics, you can make revisions and all that.
40:55
SPEAKER_01: But I was like, damn it, like why can't I know what I want?
40:59
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
41:00
SPEAKER_00: Well, and to be fair, I think with some things you can potentially do that.
41:04
SPEAKER_00: But I think especially with marketing, I mean, think about how much you're shooting yourself in the foot if you have somebody posting stuff that is appropriate for Manhattan and you're in San Diego.
41:15
SPEAKER_00: Like that's just not, it's not the same market.
41:19
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, for better or worse, you're gonna pay for that experience.
41:25
SPEAKER_00: So this ties us nicely back into compensation.
41:28
SPEAKER_00: If you're capable of hiring a super talented person and paying them the money, then that's always gonna be quote unquote easier than finding somebody just to outsource bits and pieces to, but you're gonna need to take more of the time.
41:43
SPEAKER_00: So, but there's always a happy medium, you know, somewhere between a you know,$25 a post intern type of person and a$150,000 a year experienced operations person, you know, it goes back to that black and white thing.
41:57
SPEAKER_00: Like you have to understand there, you have to find where kind of on that continuum you want to be.
42:02
SPEAKER_00: You know, if you can pay the money to rock it out, then you should do that.
42:06
SPEAKER_00: That'll probably launch your business, you know, 10x.
42:10
SPEAKER_00: But you know, if you're just in a spot where you need to have a$400 a month or a per post type of payment, then just be better prepared to hand them more of what you expect.
42:22
SPEAKER_00: You know, I worked with somebody and I thought this was really brilliant.
42:25
SPEAKER_00: Um, where they similar to what you just said, they would either do a Zoom call or just record a selfie video and shoot it over and let the person take that because they're getting some of the inflection or they're getting, you know, you can just kind of give them some of the details and the nuance by just talking.
42:42
SPEAKER_00: You could be in your car driving around, talking into a video and then just sending them the video to turn into a post.
42:49
SPEAKER_00: So sometimes it's just about you know, goes back to smarter, smarter, not harder, not not to harp on that too much, but uh, you know, it it's a thing.
42:57
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
42:58
SPEAKER_00: Uh so let's dig into compensation a tiny bit more though, if if okay.
43:03
SPEAKER_01: If that's okay.
43:03
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, cool.
43:04
SPEAKER_01: I'm just uh I'll make a note of the question I was about to ask.
43:06
SPEAKER_01: But yeah, let's do that.
43:08
SPEAKER_01: So you bring somebody on board.
43:10
SPEAKER_01: Uh how like give us give us the whole thing, because I I know it depends on who they are and what they're doing, but let's let's talk about compensation.
43:19
SPEAKER_00: But I think tying, you know, tying things to production for roles that are that are connected to production.
43:25
SPEAKER_00: You know, if they're a marketing person and they're really an all-in working for you marketing person, you know, there's no reason not to potentially reward them on either a per closing basis or a total revenue base.
43:37
SPEAKER_00: If they're driving, if they're emailing people in your database who are coming around and who you would not have reached out to in all reality, and they're becoming transactions, then it it not only, I mean, it really just makes sense to potentially compensate that person.
43:54
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, if they're licensed or not, there's some different compensation, you know, possibilities there.
43:59
SPEAKER_00: Um, But you know, it's it it there's a lot of different ways to do that.
44:04
SPEAKER_00: But I do think rewarding people for increased production directly tied to them makes sense.
44:10
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, if you could say, hey, I have$2,000 a month to pay this person to make it worth their while to be focused on me, but I'm gonna give them, you know,$50 a closing on every closing, or you know, pay a referral fee on found business if they're capable of, you know, if they're licensed and can bring that in.
44:29
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's a lot of different ways to structure that, but you know, rewarding people for success is always gonna help you keep better people because they're gonna want to grow.
44:39
SPEAKER_00: You know, stronger people are gonna want to grow with you, and you would rather have them with you than replace them every year or two.
44:45
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
44:46
SPEAKER_01: I I've thought this way before too.
44:49
SPEAKER_01: Who can I get to do the best job ever and pay the least amount of money to get it?
44:55
SPEAKER_01: And and I think that's I think that's natural, you know, because we're not HR managers.
45:00
SPEAKER_01: It's natural, you're like, I want to pay as little as possible and have great results.
45:04
SPEAKER_01: But sometimes that's not well, that's not gonna get you the results.
45:07
SPEAKER_01: Right.
45:08
SPEAKER_01: Very interesting.
45:09
SPEAKER_01: So I've been working on some some projects in uh in the startup space, you know, with launching new businesses and new platforms and stuff, and and have a little bit of insight into what's going on there.
45:21
SPEAKER_01: So there's a a a big investor named Chris Sokka.
45:24
SPEAKER_01: He's been on Shark Tank.
45:26
SPEAKER_01: I I think he was an early investor in Twitter and a few other things, but very, very well known in the the venture capital um space in Silicon Valley, Chris Sokka.
45:35
SPEAKER_01: And I remember on, I think it was the startup podcast from Gimlet Media, uh he was one of their first investors, and he was he actually wanted the founder to have much more equity than the founder was willing to give up.
45:49
SPEAKER_01: He's like, look, I want you to have more skin in the game here.
45:52
SPEAKER_01: Right.
45:52
SPEAKER_01: Sure, I could take more for myself, but I want you to be more incentivized to build this sucker.
45:59
SPEAKER_00: That and that's super that's super relevant for our industry because exactly you know, wouldn't you rather have 1% of like a hundred million dollar sales company, or would you rather have 50% of you know a$10 million company?
46:13
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's not no, and I know that episode.
46:16
SPEAKER_00: Actually, I'm a huge fan of all of those, of those people in that podcast and and all that you speak of, but those people, Lee?
46:24
SPEAKER_01: Those startup people.
46:25
SPEAKER_00: Those startup people.
46:26
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
46:27
SPEAKER_01: Well, specifically the the Gimlet startup podcast is I love yeah, great podcast.
46:32
SPEAKER_01: If you've ever wanted to launch a business, even as an agent, go listen to this.
46:37
SPEAKER_01: It's called Startup.
46:38
SPEAKER_00: It's really good.
46:39
SPEAKER_00: And even as just the pitch, the the particular Chris Saka pitch episode is probably the best one that that there is when he just gives the the worst pitch ever.
46:48
SPEAKER_00: Right.
46:48
SPEAKER_00: But but yeah, no, you're right.
46:50
SPEAKER_00: I mean, again, if you're beginning with the end in mind and you're thinking of, you know, hey, I'd I I'd rather, you know, and and again, maybe you don't want to blow it up.
47:00
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're not looking to have a hundred million dollar company, and that's fine too.
47:03
SPEAKER_00: But you should structure some compensation around what you're trying to do and reward that person for growth if if they're a part of that growth.
47:12
SPEAKER_00: If they're just an assistant and they just need to pick up your dry cleaning and get some stuff done, then you can pay them 500 bucks a week or whatever that is.
47:21
SPEAKER_00: But just being real about that.
47:23
SPEAKER_00: And I love I love that example because you're right.
47:25
SPEAKER_00: Like bringing people into that, you know, feeling ownership is really, really important if you want them to stay.
47:33
SPEAKER_01: That's how you get people to stay.
47:34
SPEAKER_01: That's how you get them to perform.
47:36
SPEAKER_01: Uh they'll never, you know, Gary V talks about this all the time.
47:40
SPEAKER_01: You will never find someone who cares about your business more than you because it's not theirs.
47:46
SPEAKER_01: Right.
47:46
SPEAKER_01: You'll never do that.
47:47
SPEAKER_01: But the closest you can get to that is making them feel like they have an ownership stake in it.
47:53
SPEAKER_01: And have, you know, give them as much uh upside as possible.
47:58
SPEAKER_01: Uh so give us some ideas, Lee, on how to structure that for let's talk assistants, let's talk buyers, agents, and listing specialists.
48:07
SPEAKER_01: Because I think those are probably the most common fires, I would think.
48:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
48:12
SPEAKER_01: So we have some ways to do that.
48:14
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think for an assistant, the easiest way to do it is to probably do a flat dollar amount.
48:20
SPEAKER_00: If if you're gonna do that.
48:21
SPEAKER_00: If I mean for for like a bonus.
48:23
SPEAKER_00: So let's just say you said, hey, I'm gonna pay you 500 bucks a week and I'll give you 25 bucks for every closing that happens.
48:32
SPEAKER_00: You know, I I think you still have to look at the tasks that they're doing.
48:35
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if they're literally picking up your dry cleaning and like pressing go on something, then maybe they don't have a bonus that's tied to that.
48:41
SPEAKER_00: But if they're you know sending out an email newsletter for you, if they're responding to emails, if they're you know in any way doing income-producing activities that you either never get around to or don't like doing, I mean, literally as small as like a$25 or closing bonus, it's easy to measure.
49:01
SPEAKER_00: At the end of every month, you can say, hey, we had five closings, here's$125 extra.
49:07
SPEAKER_00: Like that'll go, that'll get you a lot more than$125 worth of buy-in to your business.
49:15
SPEAKER_00: So, but just that reward for them doing those extra activities that they're doing, it could be$25, it could be$500.
49:22
SPEAKER_00: It may depend on your market.
49:24
SPEAKER_00: Um, but picking one of those things, um, and you can always bonus people more.
49:29
SPEAKER_00: If somebody does a great job or you have a great year, you can always give them a$500 check or a thousand dollar check.
49:37
SPEAKER_00: Um, I think for a licensee role, it's definitely different.
49:42
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I if you can afford to pay them a fixed rate plus a bonus, I mean, you're you're always going to make more money when you have a fixed cost in a commission-based business.
49:53
SPEAKER_00: But I think most people are of the model where you know it's a true split.
49:59
SPEAKER_00: It's a 20, 30, 50% split to the company.
50:06
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's important to look at the procuring cause of the business too.
50:09
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if the listing agent is out there getting listing appointments and going on them, then obviously they should get a higher percentage.
50:16
SPEAKER_00: That's the only way to keep them, because if they're getting their own appointments, then they might not need you one day.
50:22
SPEAKER_00: But if you're providing lead or marketing or sphere contacts and they're just kind of managing the listing, then you know, maybe it's a smaller, maybe it does come down to a flat.
50:35
SPEAKER_00: Um, I think you just have to look at the actual tasks that are being done.
50:41
SPEAKER_00: And and I mean, procuring causes, I think, always an important measure because we all know that you know, getting the business is really honestly the hardest part of this industry.
50:51
SPEAKER_00: If if if the agent is generating more of their own business than you're giving them, then it's gonna be really hard to keep them unless you come up with a really smart structure for that.
51:01
SPEAKER_00: Um but I do think typically those positions are more of a closed business, like a listing specialist and a buyer specialist, um, a percentage of a clo of closed business.
51:14
SPEAKER_01: Are there any rules of thumb?
51:17
SPEAKER_00: Um that's a great question.
51:20
SPEAKER_01: For compensating a licensed individual, a buyer's agent or a listing specialist?
51:24
SPEAKER_00: It's really tough.
51:25
SPEAKER_00: I mean, obviously the model, so to speak, is around a 50-50 split, but I think that's if you as a team are providing the business, if you're providing contract to close, if you're providing some marketing, I mean, you have to really be providing a lot to earn 50% of that check.
51:42
SPEAKER_00: And I think people a lot of times look at it the other way around.
51:44
SPEAKER_00: You know, they're like, oh, the agent's, you know, getting 50%.
51:48
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, well, the team is getting 50% or the brokerage or whatever in that model.
51:54
SPEAKER_00: Um, what are they really getting for that?
51:56
SPEAKER_00: And is that something they could go out and if they could go out and hire a VA to do it for 400 bucks a transaction or 400 bucks a month, then they're probably not going to keep giving you 50%.
52:06
SPEAKER_02: Right.
52:07
SPEAKER_00: Right.
52:08
SPEAKER_00: They're just looking at the actual tasks.
52:10
SPEAKER_00: I mean, again, I would personally sit down with a piece of paper and say, for 50%, you're getting contract to close.
52:17
SPEAKER_00: 75 or 80% of your business is coming from us.
52:20
SPEAKER_00: We're doing email marketing to your sphere.
52:23
SPEAKER_00: We're running, you know, retargeting ads to people that come to our site.
52:27
SPEAKER_00: I mean, to really just make sure that it is an equitable split overall.
52:34
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
52:35
SPEAKER_01: Uh how much does it matter to have personal experience doing uh what you're hiring for?
52:43
SPEAKER_01: Um I want to get your take on this.
52:45
SPEAKER_01: So personally, I know uh so out of necessity, everything I've ever done or outsourced, I've I've first done myself.
52:54
SPEAKER_01: So I've I've done my own graphics, I've edited video, I edit my own podcasts, yeah.
52:58
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, all of this stuff I've done myself.
53:02
SPEAKER_01: And I feel like that helped me because then I knew what good was.
53:07
SPEAKER_01: I I knew if someone that I was bringing on board was any good at what they do, because I had done it myself and I know what's involved in that task.
53:15
SPEAKER_01: I I imagine though, and I don't want to put words in your mouth, so I really want to get your full uh take on this before we jump into our uh rapid fire questions that we ask each each guest.
53:27
SPEAKER_01: But uh I imagine that doing that, if you're gonna be wearing all the hats and have experience doing all that stuff, that also limits you in in a certain way or uh slows down your potential growth.
53:38
SPEAKER_01: Where do where do you come in on that?
53:40
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's a brilliant matter.
53:42
SPEAKER_00: No, that's a brilliant question.
53:43
SPEAKER_00: And quite frankly, I don't think I've ever been asked that.
53:46
SPEAKER_01: Um I think that surprises me.
53:50
SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, uh well, I think there's a couple of things at play there.
53:55
SPEAKER_00: I'll I'll try to give a concise enough answer that that makes sense and cover covers enough of the bases there.
54:01
SPEAKER_00: Certainly, if you've done it before, you're in a much better position to delegate it.
54:06
SPEAKER_00: Um, I mean, if you kind of know what you want, I would also argue that that could bring in a bias around you wanting it a certain way.
54:15
SPEAKER_01: Totally.
54:16
SPEAKER_00: Whereas you may, and it ultimately just comes down to the talent of the other person.
54:20
SPEAKER_00: If you're hiring a videographer because your videos that you do with your phone are pretty good, but you're really looking to break into the next level, you probably shouldn't be talking to them about camera angles and background music and editing and all that, because they're probably a step, hopefully they're a step ahead of you in all of those things.
54:41
SPEAKER_00: So the only argument against that, I think, is just being careful that your bias of the way you do it doesn't fall into that.
54:49
SPEAKER_00: But I think back to what we talked about earlier, you're always going to be better at delegating something, at least that you understand.
54:56
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if I put the caveat on it that you have to have actually done it, but having the understanding around, you know, great example I've had with some people in the past, and I won't obviously call it anybody by name, but you know, we've done a lot of, we helped a lot of people that we work with execute some email marketing strategies, not necessarily executing it, but like, what is the content?
55:19
SPEAKER_00: What platform do we use?
55:20
SPEAKER_00: How does that go?
55:21
SPEAKER_00: Who does it go to?
55:23
SPEAKER_00: How do you follow up when people actually click and open?
55:26
SPEAKER_00: And I don't think people realize people, a lot of people who are in sales just think, oh, just send an email.
55:32
SPEAKER_00: We just need to send an email.
55:34
SPEAKER_00: But coming up with good content, coming up with good images, driving them to your site through the links, determining a right audience with the right message, that's not just sending an email.
55:46
SPEAKER_00: There takes a lot of planning and thought and digging up good images and making sure they link to the right place and making sure they're royalty-free.
55:56
SPEAKER_00: And it's not, we're not just sending an email.
55:58
SPEAKER_00: So I think ultimately to answer your question, it helps to have a strong understanding of it.
56:04
SPEAKER_00: Um, so I think that's certainly a plus.
56:06
SPEAKER_00: But I think by the by the same token, if you're if you're hiring to your weakness, then the the I guess the kind of the converse of that is you know, just just don't get in their way if you are hiring somebody talented, um, and you've hired them to do a specific role.
56:24
SPEAKER_01: Right.
56:24
SPEAKER_01: No, I I love it.
56:25
SPEAKER_01: I I think that's that feels like the right answer to me.
56:28
SPEAKER_01: I and I wanted to get your perspective on it because I I know that I think with those specific things I talked about, graphic design, editing, video editing, podcast, like knowing how to do that and knowing what's possible.
56:42
SPEAKER_01: That it's not a that's not a big thing to like it doesn't take uh a year of experience to get familiar with that.
56:51
SPEAKER_01: Right.
56:52
SPEAKER_01: That's easy.
56:52
SPEAKER_01: But you are you're right, you're hiring people who are better than you or that know how to do something you have no idea how to do.
56:59
SPEAKER_01: That's why you're hiring them in the first place.
57:00
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, good stuff.
57:02
SPEAKER_00: Then your job is to get out of the way.
57:04
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
57:06
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
57:06
SPEAKER_01: So sometimes easier said than done.
57:09
SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes.
57:10
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
57:11
SPEAKER_01: All right.
57:11
SPEAKER_01: So Lee, every uh every time we have a guest, we do these rapid fire questions.
57:16
SPEAKER_01: They're they're either or questions.
57:18
SPEAKER_01: Call it the lightning round, if you will, or don't, because I've never called it that before, so I don't even know why I brought it up.
57:23
SPEAKER_01: The rapid fire questions.
57:25
SPEAKER_01: So either or pick one or the other.
57:27
SPEAKER_01: You don't you don't need to elaborate or explain your answer if you don't want to, but it it just helps give a little glimpse into who you are and and what's important to you and all that.
57:36
SPEAKER_01: And then we'll we'll end with getting uh one app recommendation for you.
57:40
SPEAKER_01: Again, everyone loves the app recommendations.
57:43
SPEAKER_01: So yep.
57:44
SPEAKER_01: And it doesn't have to be real estate or business related at all.
57:47
SPEAKER_01: Just curious which uh which app you're obsessed with right now.
57:50
SPEAKER_01: Cool.
57:50
SPEAKER_01: And then we'll we'll wrap it up.
57:52
SPEAKER_01: So awesome.
57:53
SPEAKER_01: All right, Facebook or Instagram?
57:56
SPEAKER_00: Oh, neither.
57:57
SPEAKER_00: Instagram, if I have to give one.
58:00
SPEAKER_00: What what would you answer?
58:01
SPEAKER_00: I I'm honestly pretty checked out of social.
58:03
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of there's a lot of noise.
58:06
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of noise there, and I'm focused on doing what I do.
58:09
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I I fully give everyone permission to check out of Twitter.
58:12
SPEAKER_01: That is the cesspool of of society, it really is.
58:16
SPEAKER_01: Instagram or LinkedIn?
58:18
SPEAKER_01: LinkedIn.
58:20
SPEAKER_01: Books or podcasts?
58:23
SPEAKER_00: Podcasts, but barely.
58:25
SPEAKER_00: There's a place for both, but podcasts.
58:27
SPEAKER_01: Sure.
58:28
SPEAKER_01: iPhone or Android?
58:29
SPEAKER_01: iPhone.
58:30
SPEAKER_01: Good.
58:31
SPEAKER_01: You you keep your credibility.
58:33
SPEAKER_01: Alexa or Google Home?
58:36
SPEAKER_00: I have both, but I have to go with Alexa.
58:39
SPEAKER_01: Nice.
58:40
SPEAKER_01: Burgers or pizza?
58:41
SPEAKER_01: Pizza.
58:42
SPEAKER_01: New York or LA.
58:44
SPEAKER_01: New York.
58:45
SPEAKER_01: Good call.
58:46
SPEAKER_01: Um, are you a sports fan?
58:50
SPEAKER_00: Yes, not not rabid, but yes.
58:53
SPEAKER_01: Kind of.
58:54
SPEAKER_01: Baseball or football?
59:00
SPEAKER_00: That's tough.
59:01
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'll go gonna go with baseball.
59:03
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
59:04
SPEAKER_01: Um let's see.
59:07
SPEAKER_01: Pro or college?
59:12
SPEAKER_01: Pro mountains or beach?
59:15
SPEAKER_01: Mountains.
59:16
SPEAKER_01: Are we in a nationwide real estate bubble, or is this not a bubble?
59:22
SPEAKER_00: I would call it a plateau.
59:24
SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't call it a bubble compared to what we've seen in the past.
59:27
SPEAKER_01: Sure.
59:27
SPEAKER_01: That is fair.
59:29
SPEAKER_01: Podcast or vlog?
59:33
SPEAKER_01: Podcast.
59:35
SPEAKER_01: YouTube or Facebook Live?
59:37
SPEAKER_01: YouTube.
59:38
SPEAKER_01: Gary V or Grant Cardone.
59:45
SPEAKER_00: Gary V.
59:46
SPEAKER_01: Uber or Lyft?
59:48
SPEAKER_01: Uber.
59:50
SPEAKER_01: Delta or United.
59:51
SPEAKER_00: Mmm.
59:53
SPEAKER_00: Delta, but full disclosure, I fly southwest a lot.
59:56
SPEAKER_00: I'm from Texas originally, so.
59:58
SPEAKER_01: But you're in Atlanta.
59:59
SPEAKER_00: I know.
1:00:00
SPEAKER_01: And you still fly southwest, huh?
1:00:02
SPEAKER_00: Well, they're here now, so.
1:00:03
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's true.
1:00:04
SPEAKER_00: They bought AirTran, so they could be here now.
1:00:06
SPEAKER_00: I used to fly AirTran when I traveled a lot.
1:00:08
SPEAKER_00: So did they really?
1:00:09
SPEAKER_00: Delta to answer your question.
1:00:11
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I freaking love it.
1:00:12
SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to stick to the rules here, sort of.
1:00:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yes.
1:00:15
SPEAKER_01: No, this this is interesting to me.
1:00:17
SPEAKER_01: I I didn't realize Southwest bought AirTran.
1:00:19
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:00:20
SPEAKER_01: Huh.
1:00:21
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I I like Southwest.
1:00:22
SPEAKER_01: To be honest, I get a little fancy sometimes and I like my upgrades to Comfort Plus or First.
1:00:27
SPEAKER_01: Right.
1:00:27
SPEAKER_01: And Southwest doesn't exactly have that.
1:00:29
SPEAKER_00: Right.
1:00:30
SPEAKER_00: No, you don't even have an assigned seat.
1:00:31
SPEAKER_00: It's it's a different thing.
1:00:32
SPEAKER_00: But when you when you grow up, I grew up um I went to college 12-hour drive away from where I grew up in Texas.
1:00:41
SPEAKER_00: Um so flying Southwest was you know the way to go home on the weekend.
1:00:44
SPEAKER_01: So sure.
1:00:45
SPEAKER_01: And I will say that Dallas Love Field is one of the nicest airports I've I've been to.
1:00:50
SPEAKER_00: I haven't been there in a long time, but I'm sure I'm sure that it is.
1:00:53
SPEAKER_01: Oh, it's so nice.
1:00:54
SPEAKER_01: Cool.
1:00:55
SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
1:00:56
SPEAKER_01: And Lee, what what app are you obsessed with right now?
1:00:59
SPEAKER_01: Any app, your favorite app?
1:01:00
SPEAKER_01: What what what could you not live without?
1:01:03
SPEAKER_00: That is also a really good question.
1:01:06
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I if I had to honestly really, if I was stuck on an island and somehow had phone signal and a charger, um, Evernote, I literally live with Evernote.
1:01:17
SPEAKER_00: I mean, from my list of what to buy next time I'm at Home Depot to clipping articles to read later.
1:01:27
SPEAKER_00: I mean, even for this podcast, you know, I had a couple of notes that I wanted to make sure we touched on or whatnot.
1:01:33
SPEAKER_00: Throw them in Evernote, always know where to find them.
1:01:36
SPEAKER_00: Same thing on my phone, on my computer, on a tablet.
1:01:40
SPEAKER_00: Um, but really Evernote, also having a high a really hierarchical uh organization structure to it so you can actually find the stuff when you need it.
1:01:50
SPEAKER_00: Um, but definitely Evernote.
1:01:52
SPEAKER_00: I always joke that I would like to have to like buy the company if they went out of business because I just I literally couldn't live without it.
1:01:58
SPEAKER_01: You're not the first guest that that's been obsessed with Evernote.
1:02:01
SPEAKER_01: I who was it?
1:02:02
SPEAKER_01: I think Bill Risser.
1:02:03
SPEAKER_01: You know Bill.
1:02:04
SPEAKER_00: Yes, and that would not surprise me.
1:02:06
SPEAKER_01: He said, I think he said he's like a certified Evernote, blah blah blah, whatever.
1:02:12
SPEAKER_01: I would believe that.
1:02:13
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:02:14
SPEAKER_01: I've used Evernote and I've just I don't know.
1:02:16
SPEAKER_01: Apple Notes works for me, but I know Evernote's a hell of a lot more robust.
1:02:20
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:02:20
SPEAKER_00: I just haven't done it.
1:02:22
SPEAKER_00: You can do tags and have different notebooks.
1:02:24
SPEAKER_00: I even have some shared notebooks with some people I work with, so we can, you know, kind of keep keep our thoughts in there, not totally in synchronized time.
1:02:32
SPEAKER_00: I can add notes when I add them, they can add them when they add them, and then we can review them all together.
1:02:36
SPEAKER_00: I keep meeting agendas in there.
1:02:37
SPEAKER_00: Every time if I have a meeting, I'm you know, bullet point.
1:02:40
SPEAKER_00: So I mean it's pretty nerdy, but you know.
1:02:43
SPEAKER_00: Hey, it's that's it works.
1:02:45
SPEAKER_00: I can see Bill and I both being very I bet I I bet if you compared our Evernotes, they would probably be pretty similar.
1:02:51
SPEAKER_01: You should shoot them a message and and just uh set up like some some Evernote nerdery nerd out session.
1:02:59
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, just totally nerd out.
1:03:01
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
1:03:02
SPEAKER_01: Like talk about all the Evernote hacks.
1:03:04
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
1:03:06
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
1:03:06
SPEAKER_00: I'll be an Evernote guru.
1:03:08
SPEAKER_00: That'll be my next title.
1:03:09
SPEAKER_00: It'll be great.
1:03:11
SPEAKER_01: Run with it, man.
1:03:12
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure there's a huge crowd out there, a huge audience for that, because Evernote's Evernote's big.
1:03:17
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's a good one.
1:03:18
SPEAKER_00: But that would be my one if I was if I was mandated to delete everything off my phone, then uh that would be the one I'd keep.
1:03:25
SPEAKER_01: So if you were stuck on that island and you happen to have power and a charger, uh you would you'd feel you you'd want Evernote so you could organize like how many coconuts you have.
1:03:35
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean I I literally I I probably would, and I'm sure I'd get around to finally reading all those articles that I clipped in my two-week book.
1:03:43
SPEAKER_01: Yes, fair enough.
1:03:44
SPEAKER_01: You can catch up on all that.
1:03:45
SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
1:03:46
SPEAKER_01: Hey, Lee, thank you so much, man.
1:03:48
SPEAKER_01: I appreciate it.
1:03:49
SPEAKER_01: And let everyone know where can they find you?
1:03:51
SPEAKER_01: Where can they learn more about you and and what you do?
1:03:54
SPEAKER_01: And if you know, I imagine there's people that are like, well, Lee, why don't you come help me and and my company because I want to grow too?
1:04:00
SPEAKER_01: How can they find you?
1:04:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so the best way um to connect is through our company website, which is amplifiedsolutions.com.
1:04:10
SPEAKER_00: Um, hopefully we can drop that into the notes.
1:04:12
SPEAKER_00: I know it's a long URL and it's uh it it uh connects back to some of my history and and my business and the fact that I'm passionate about providing solutions for people.
1:04:21
SPEAKER_00: So amplified solutions.com, there's a ton of free resources there.
1:04:26
SPEAKER_00: We do have a free hiring guide.
1:04:28
SPEAKER_00: Um I just did a post, it's actually not even up on the site yet, but we'll get it there shortly, um, about some of the tools to do that self-assessment that we talked about.
1:04:37
SPEAKER_00: Nice.
1:04:38
SPEAKER_00: Um, but that's the best way.
1:04:39
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I am on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
1:04:42
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, those are good places to connect.
1:04:45
SPEAKER_00: Um, it may take me a couple of days to uh accept your friend request, but uh always happy to connect on any of those platforms.
1:04:51
SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
1:04:52
SPEAKER_01: So I highly recommend you guys go get his free hiring guide.
1:04:55
SPEAKER_01: You say that's just on your website?
1:04:56
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
1:04:56
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's under the resources tab on our website.
1:04:59
SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
1:05:00
SPEAKER_01: All right.
1:05:00
SPEAKER_01: Lee, thank you so much, my friend.
1:05:02
SPEAKER_01: We will we will definitely link to your site and your social media and everything in the show notes over at massiveagentpodcast.com and uh and then in the show notes on whichever podcast platform you're listening to.
1:05:14
SPEAKER_01: This Lee, I appreciate the hell out of you for doing this and uh good stuff, man.
1:05:18
SPEAKER_01: Appreciate it.
1:05:18
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, thanks for having me, Dustin.
1:05:20
SPEAKER_00: I really enjoyed it.
1:05:20
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
1:05:21
SPEAKER_01: Talk to you soon.
1:05:22
SPEAKER_01: All right, man.
1:05:22
SPEAKER_01: Take care.
1:05:23
SPEAKER_01: I hope you guys feel a little bit more empowered to go out there and just hire somebody, okay?
1:05:28
SPEAKER_01: Hire that first virtual assistant, have them do two different things for you, okay?
1:05:32
SPEAKER_01: Like have them edit a video for you, have them do a few graphics for you.
1:05:35
SPEAKER_01: You've got to jump in and have them and start outsourcing, but do it small, because then you can figure out a system and figure out if that if that helper is even going to be a a good fit for you.
1:05:47
SPEAKER_01: And then you can start to figure out what you want, but you can't do it until you start outsourcing.
1:05:51
SPEAKER_01: I don't know about you, but I'm so bogged down with so many things to do, and most of them don't require my voice.
1:05:58
SPEAKER_01: Like all the content I do.
1:06:00
SPEAKER_01: I will never outsource.
1:06:01
SPEAKER_01: I can't outsource this podcast episode being done.
1:06:04
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't make any sense.
1:06:05
SPEAKER_01: But having somebody take a clip from it and turn it into an Instagram video or into a graphic or whatever, that I personally don't have to do.
1:06:13
SPEAKER_01: That's the stuff I can outsource.
1:06:14
SPEAKER_01: You hiring your first buyer's agent or listing specialist, you've got to start doing that stuff because that is how you scale.
1:06:21
SPEAKER_01: If you want to go from selling 20 homes a year to 150, you can't do that by yourself.
1:06:27
SPEAKER_01: You just can't.
1:06:27
SPEAKER_01: You've got to outsource certain tasks.
1:06:30
SPEAKER_01: So Lee, Lee Atkins, thank you so much for being on the show, man.
1:06:34
SPEAKER_01: Um I'm saying this like you're still on the interview, but we already recorded that.
1:06:38
SPEAKER_01: Anyways, if you're listening, thanks again.
1:06:40
SPEAKER_01: Awesome stuff.
1:06:41
SPEAKER_01: Quick reminder that our daily Alexa flash briefing called the Massive Agent Minute is still available, you know, every day, seven days a week, on the Alexa platform, but it's also available on Apple Podcasts.
1:06:53
SPEAKER_01: So if you don't have Alexa or you don't want to uh miss out on, you know, uh uh maybe you don't want to uh listen every morning, you just want to like catch up on a bunch of previous episodes through the Alexa platform, you can't do that.
1:07:07
SPEAKER_01: So we made it available pretty much as a podcast on Apple Podcasts.
1:07:11
SPEAKER_01: So you can not only listen to this show, but industry connected and the Massive Agent Minute all on Apple Podcasts, and you can catch up with previous daily episodes of the Massive Agent Minute.
1:07:22
SPEAKER_01: And I I ask you guys because this this show is totally free.
1:07:25
SPEAKER_01: Uh there's there's no fee to listen, you don't have to do a damn thing.
1:07:28
SPEAKER_01: But I ask you if you received any value, help us spread the word, help us to grow the audience so that we can help more agents and get this in front of more agents and loan officers.
1:07:38
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so two ways to do that reviews and ratings on whatever platform you're listening, ideally on iTunes, huge.
1:07:45
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
1:07:46
SPEAKER_01: Leaving a written review is one of the best things you can do to help us to reach more people.
1:07:51
SPEAKER_01: Um short of that, just leave a rating.
1:07:53
SPEAKER_01: Just click the number of stars, hopefully five.
1:07:57
SPEAKER_01: Five would be the correct answer if you've been receiving value from the show.
1:08:00
SPEAKER_01: Click that, hit submit, boom, takes four seconds.
1:08:03
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but then also just share it with a colleague, share it within your office, share it within a Facebook group.
1:08:08
SPEAKER_01: If your brokerage has a Facebook group or a workplace group or your local uh between local realtors, share an episode of the podcast.
1:08:16
SPEAKER_01: Okay, whatever you do to share it, it's up to you.
1:08:19
SPEAKER_01: But that helps us out so much, and you have no idea how much I appreciate it.
1:08:23
SPEAKER_01: Um so if you can, if you would, if you're willing, thank you so much.
1:08:28
SPEAKER_01: If you have in the past, I appreciate you more than you know.
1:08:31
SPEAKER_01: Guys, thank you so much for listening.
1:08:32
SPEAKER_01: I appreciate it.
1:08:34
SPEAKER_01: And uh we didn't really mention it at all on the show, but uh the Massive Agent Society, we are growing and more markets were taken off the board, and permanently um people have claimed their markets permanently with lifetime memberships.
1:08:47
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we only allow one agent per market in our lead gen program.
1:08:51
SPEAKER_01: And you can find out more about that over at Massive Agent Society.com and see if your market is available.
1:08:59
SPEAKER_01: You just go to the website, click on claim market up in the top in the menu if you're on mobile, and uh it'll show you a map.
1:09:06
SPEAKER_01: If your market's available, you're able to claim it, which gives you exclusive access.
1:09:10
SPEAKER_01: Only you for if you're doing it monthly, annual, or lifetime, however long you're a member.
1:09:16
SPEAKER_01: No other agent or loan officer can join in your market.
1:09:19
SPEAKER_01: So you're the only one with access to our online course, you're the only one with access to our private Facebook group, to our weekly coaching calls, to one-on-one coaching with me.
1:09:28
SPEAKER_01: You're the only one with access to the database of Facebook ads that we give you to copy and paste and run.
1:09:34
SPEAKER_01: That's it.
1:09:34
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
1:09:35
SPEAKER_01: Good luck, good luck uh competing with that Zillow, where oh, you get exclusive access with eight other people.
1:09:42
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exclusive doesn't mean what you think it means, Zillow, but to us it does.
1:09:46
SPEAKER_01: So MassiveAgenSociety.com, check it out.
1:09:49
SPEAKER_01: I firmly believe that is the best value in the industry if you're looking to become a lead generation master.
1:09:55
SPEAKER_01: Okay, not just with Facebook ads, even though it's it's all about Facebook ads, but the principles you will learn will translate into all your marketing, and I promise you you will become a much better, more effective uh real estate marketer, and you will your business will change, okay?
1:10:12
SPEAKER_01: But you have to be a member to do that.
1:10:14
SPEAKER_01: MassiveAgen Society.com, claim your market once and for all.
1:10:19
SPEAKER_01: I appreciate you listening, guys.
1:10:20
SPEAKER_01: Go close some loans, go sell some homes, have a great weekend.
1:10:23
SPEAKER_01: Take care.