00:00:06:20 - 00:00:24:16
Speaker 1
Welcome back to the weekly round up with the P.S. coaches on this side. I got Mike Russo on that side, I got Jennifer Silver. Nicole I'm Dylan. Silver. Nicole. This is a show where we talk all things real estate with realtors in mind. We were talking about what we're seeing in the industry, what we're seeing in the market, what we're seeing in our coaching program.
00:00:24:17 - 00:00:50:00
Speaker 1
You're looking at about 40 agents and one another, 30 and another 70 agents. Any given week that are doing transactions and what they're coming across. So that is what we like to talk about. Today, specifically, we're talking about getting leverage in your business. And Mike, I'm going to throw it to you because I know we've been we've been going through the shift book kind of on and off pretty consistently throughout this year as we've noticed that shift in the market.
00:00:50:00 - 00:01:10:13
Speaker 1
Right. And so it's buckling down and taking a look at these strategies and principles and making sure that our business is kind of bulletproof in that sense as much as it can be in a in the transition. So, you know, why don't we just start there? Why don't we talk about how your experience has been, as you've been using those principles as a guiding light, moving your business forward?
00:01:10:14 - 00:01:30:17
Speaker 1
Yeah, absolutely. So, I mean, it is a great lesson. So obviously, tactic number three is this. In essence, it's doing more with less and then it's kind of all about the leverage, right? So the importance of having leverage in your business, number one. But number two, and I think this is the part that's really missed out on a lot is like the first part of the sentence says doing more with less.
00:01:30:18 - 00:01:54:18
Speaker 1
Right. So a lot of us as our business starts to grow, we start to invest a lot more resources, a lot more stuff into God knows what, right? All these different things that we can do. And so when that when the market does shift, so does our or so should our business plan. Right. And by doing that, we need to reassess what can we do with less.
00:01:54:19 - 00:02:15:09
Speaker 1
And so this jump in, I think it might be helpful to outline some of what those costs could look like for an agent. Maybe you really upgraded your CRM. Maybe you're spending a lot on an admin or social media ads or extra like ancillary business that are helping you out in terms of that even that might be your cost per sale.
00:02:15:09 - 00:02:35:07
Speaker 1
Like maybe you've been spending a lot of money on your cleaning services, a lot of money on your extra drone footage or marketing materials, making sure that all those are still in line with with what you need to do to sell that house and run your business. So that's exactly it. Like some of the most some of the biggest areas that agents will spend money is on lead generation.
00:02:35:09 - 00:02:59:15
Speaker 1
So when they start when when money starts flowing in a lot more, they'll start spending more money on lead generation methods. They are more hands off on. So, for example, you'll have online leads, Facebook ads, stuff like that that start coming to them more organically. This increases the cost of your lead by a lot. Right. So if you have a database lead that it costs you very little to maintain that versus the social media lead that costs you maybe ten bucks per lead or whatever that might look like.
00:02:59:21 - 00:03:23:10
Speaker 1
It's a heavy, heavy cost. And so that's one of the easiest ways that you can cut back on or trim off to really make sure your business is running a little bit smoother and you're doing more with less. So for example, if you're just strictly paying for social media ads, maybe it's time to reassess your business and say, Can I do the same task but not spend as much?
00:03:23:13 - 00:03:43:10
Speaker 1
Can I go doorknock an area and farm an area and get the same result but not have to spend maybe my money, but more so my time. Right. Which can obviously help the bottom the bottom line. That's the biggest thing that I always take away from this tactic. But not only that, but the leverage side of it, right?
00:03:43:10 - 00:04:05:10
Speaker 1
So when we are running a successful real estate team or our team is building up and we're feeling really good, we start investing in different avenues. Sometimes we'll bring on team agents, sometimes we'll bring on admin, and these are things that cost a lot of money. And so we want to make sure that when times get tough that these things are still operating at a high level and making the return worth it, right?
00:04:05:10 - 00:04:24:13
Speaker 1
So setting that return, understanding what that return looks like for you and making sure that that works. Because during these times everybody needs to be hands on deck, right? It becomes a lot more difficult to do stuff. And if you don't have that great talent working with you, then maybe it's time to cut, right? Don't fire anybody. But that is not the thing.
00:04:24:15 - 00:04:44:19
Speaker 1
I think on that note, it's important to acknowledge that we never want to cut the things that got us here right is usually the bloat that we add on as we're going, because we found a few things that made us really successful. And then we were adding in items to gain some of that leverage. Some worked, some didn't, but they times were good, so we didn't really worry about it as much.
00:04:44:21 - 00:05:07:22
Speaker 1
Or maybe they were working in a different avenue. And so, Jen, I know that's something that we talked a lot with our advance guys is like, Yeah, we want to be mindful of our budget, but we don't want to cut the things that got us here right? And sometimes it is that it is that admin, it is that coach, it is that, maybe it is that print advertising that you've been doing or it is your hard copy marketing because you've been farming an area so much.
00:05:07:22 - 00:05:24:10
Speaker 1
And if you're getting a lot of business from your farm, we want to make sure that we're not cutting those items. So. So Jen, what does it look like when you have those discussions with an agent about making sure like, yeah, we want to trim and be prepared, but also at the same point, we don't want to cut what got us here and what's working.
00:05:24:11 - 00:05:57:02
Speaker 2
Yeah, it's usually interesting because when you start the initial conversation, the general reaction from everybody from the brokerage side, from the agent side, from the team side, it's kind of the same conversation across the board because at every level we're having the same discussion, right? Because that's that's just your business management and everybody automatically looks at what's the biggest expense that they have, whether it's office space, it's salaries and overheads, or it's, you know, lead generation or something along those lines.
00:05:57:02 - 00:06:16:16
Speaker 2
It's usually one of those areas and they automatically want to cut that piece. But in reality, you really do need to sit down and kind of do a bigger big picture audit because the last thing you want to do is, is and the part in the book that I love is when they talk about, you know, finding the right talent.
00:06:16:16 - 00:06:45:16
Speaker 2
So when you are looking for leverage and doing more with less, the key to that, the secret to that is people you're doing it with is the talent in the team you hire and your training systems, right? How are you training them? How effective are they? Do they have the same mindset as you? So bringing in someone who's a fit, who's hired, who's trained, who's efficient, and then cutting them because they're the biggest output you have makes zero sense when you go out and actually look at how your business functions.
00:06:45:22 - 00:07:08:12
Speaker 2
But most people initially automatically think they need to cut their admin or they need to cut their coaches or they need to cut whatever it is. What ends up happening is when you start to look at all the different areas that the little pieces add up significantly more so than we think because it's like, you know that daily Starbucks, well, it's like seven bucks a day or whatever the super price of coffee is at Starbucks.
00:07:08:12 - 00:07:28:07
Speaker 2
But people justify it because it's only seven bucks a day. But when you look at seven bucks a day over 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, 120 days, all of a sudden you're getting into the hundreds of dollars that you can be saving. And it could be something as little as that times ten in your business that actually add up to save you thousands of dollars a month.
00:07:28:07 - 00:07:48:19
Speaker 2
Right. So it's more about doing an actual full blown analysis of your business and audit, as we would say, and making sure that we understand how our leverage is working. What's the part that's vital to keep our business pumping and the blood flowing in our business and keep us active because if you cut that, you're you're in trouble, right?
00:07:48:19 - 00:08:07:06
Speaker 2
And oftentimes our admin is the life source of our business, our database management, our, you know, deal pre-processing processing, all the things that we don't have to do because someone else is doing them and doing them. Well, if you cut that out, all of that goes back on you and you got rid of it for a reason at the beginning.
00:08:07:06 - 00:08:21:15
Speaker 2
It's either you weren't good at it or you hated doing it. Usually both of those are combined and then oftentimes it's because you had so much business, you didn't have time to do it, which is the right time to hire, by the way. And a side note, when you have too much is you don't have time to do those things.
00:08:21:15 - 00:08:47:15
Speaker 2
That's when you should hire that person. But it comes down to having the right people and then truly understanding how your business works and what pieces are required versus what pieces are luxuries or wants versus needs being the other way to have that conversation. So that yeah, that combo usually looks like that. It's a bit of a roller coaster and then it's a it's an analysis and a deep dive.
00:08:47:17 - 00:09:04:12
Speaker 1
Yeah. Yes. And the one thing I want to add in there, sorry to cut you off there is that sometimes when you're reflecting on your business, you also have to reflect upon yourself as well to make sure that I'm living up to the standards that I've set up for my own team in my own vision. So, for example, a perfect world example is me personally.
00:09:04:18 - 00:09:19:18
Speaker 1
I don't convert very well at open houses. I just not my thing. I'm not I'm very much numbers based, open houses, very much personalizing, talking to people, just not my greatest thing. So if I spend the entire year going, I'm just going to I got to master the open house, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it.
00:09:20:00 - 00:09:37:15
Speaker 1
It might just be time wasted versus maybe hiring someone onto your team that absolutely kills an open houses and having them run your open houses. Right? That might be a small cost, but it might net you more money at the end of the year because of the opportunity loss to you. I would have had, if I did it all year versus somebody else you would hire onto your team.
00:09:37:15 - 00:09:54:11
Speaker 1
That's better at doing that. Right. And there's I know there's some six basic topics that they kind of highlight in this chapter. And I want to throw it a little bit to you here, Dylan, because it always talks about getting back to the basics. And the basics are, number one, being lead generating, capturing and converting to appointments, right?
00:09:54:13 - 00:10:18:15
Speaker 1
Number two, presenting to buyers and sellers and get agreements. Number three, showing buyers and marketing sellers. Number four, Right, right. And negotiate contracts. Number five, coordinate the sale, the closing, and six managing the money. At no point in that was there anything else that we do in our business that we add on. Right. Everything else that we add on to our business is outside of those six core items that we need to focus on every single day.
00:10:18:16 - 00:10:37:10
Speaker 1
And don't I just want to kind of throw it to you to talk a little bit about why that is so important that we stick to those six main things. Yeah, and I love that the book is there for us to use as a tool, because even just hearing those six items, you just get reminded, like when people say like, Oh, you got to get back to the fundamentals, you got to do money producing tasks, right?
00:10:37:12 - 00:10:55:21
Speaker 1
Well, there they are. It's that simple. If you just focus on those six things, you'd be in great shape, right? And so moving your way through those, obviously that focus on the generation and converting to that appointment in whatever form you want to do. Right. Like Mike, you've talked a little bit about open houses and noticing a weakness there.
00:10:56:00 - 00:11:11:18
Speaker 1
You know, if I look back at when I used to do a lot of cold calling wasn't always my greatest strength. I made a lot of my money at the beginning, built up my database a lot through open houses. That was where I was showing, Right. And so, yeah, like you said, acknowledging where you're spending your time is important.
00:11:11:18 - 00:11:35:12
Speaker 1
And as coaches, we don't particularly mind too much which method you choose as long as you're consistent in it, but also that it's a method that allows for enough conversations, right? Like if you're saying I love doing face to face and you know, I'm great at booking coffees with people and that's all great, but I only do two a day and I don't do them five days a week.
00:11:35:14 - 00:11:55:12
Speaker 1
Right? So, you know, the four days, that's great. You had eight conversations, but is that enough to sustain your business? Right. And a lot of the time, the simple answer there is that it isn't. So we don't mind which method you choose, provided it's given you enough conversations to break down to what we feel is a reason. Table Conversion Number two appointments for you.
00:11:55:13 - 00:12:11:20
Speaker 1
And we use numbers from the millionaire real estate agent as examples because they have great conversion numbers there. If you don't have your own, we will use those as a baseline. But at the end of the day, as long as you're getting the conversations out there, then we just need to focus on like, okay, I'm converting to an appointment.
00:12:11:22 - 00:12:26:20
Speaker 1
I an appointment, I'm doing my consultation and my goal there is to get a contract signed, right? And then we just go through and do our job. We're not worried about that new thing that's on Facebook that nothing is on Instagram. I'm not worried about how do I create a script for this? How do I do a video for that?
00:12:26:20 - 00:12:50:04
Speaker 1
How do I make sure that that's on mute? We're just talking about getting back to the fundamentals and I think that, you know, one of the I think there's multiple times in my career and I know gems as well where we've reminded ourselves that we have to go back to the basics. But one of them most recently for us was COVID, like when everything shut down, just going back to database care calls.
00:12:50:06 - 00:13:07:17
Speaker 1
And we felt that slow churn as everything was not kind of certain. But then as soon as everything got rolling through all those conversations and through people, then reaching back out to us because we thought of them in their time of need, now they're thinking of us when it was their time of excitement, ready to make those moves.
00:13:07:19 - 00:13:24:07
Speaker 1
And so I think that even if you just look back at like as long as I'm engaging with people, especially your database, people that I already know, they can trust you, you're in great shape. And then we make sure that we're adding in that new lead generation to continue to feed that database. Yeah, yeah. And and that's exactly it.
00:13:24:07 - 00:13:47:07
Speaker 1
Going back to the basics, right? And that is as simple as following your schedule, sticking to your routine, because a consistency will outperform anything else, right? It will always you will always come back down to the consistency. Right? I always talk about this, but it's that Nike swoop, that constant. You want that little upper part of the swoop where it's that that easy, predictable business, right.
00:13:47:07 - 00:14:06:03
Speaker 1
And that comes through consistency and sticking to the main things. And actually funny enough, an hour ago I booked an appointment for a listing consultation for Thursday, and the only time the lady had was 930 in the morning, which is a big no no in my schedule. It's like that is my lead generation time. That's when I talk to people.
00:14:06:03 - 00:14:21:17
Speaker 1
That's the only time that she could work. So I booked it in. I got off the phone and I literally said to myself, I'm just like, I'm like, I am like mad that I did that. And I actually called her back and we rescheduled it for a different time that was better and actually worked out to be tomorrow.
00:14:21:17 - 00:14:37:10
Speaker 1
Now I'm going to meet with her, but I'm meeting with her at 1:00 as opposed to 930, right? Because I was like, I just I can't do this. This is not bugged me that much that I had to physically call her back and change it because it was just the thought of it. I got excited that she wanted me to come over to an appointment.
00:14:37:10 - 00:14:53:17
Speaker 1
This is great. Yeah, it works, she said. Thursday. I said, Excellent. Thursday works for me. And I did the one thing that I don't normally do, but I let her dictate the time instead of normally. I always typically say Thursday I have 2:00 or 3:00. This time I said Thursday, what time works for you? And she said, 930.
00:14:53:17 - 00:14:56:14
Speaker 1
And I was like, Damn.
00:14:56:16 - 00:14:58:01
Speaker 2
You could.
00:14:58:03 - 00:15:13:01
Speaker 1
You know, back to the basics, right? Yep, the basics. This is the way that we operate. This is the way that the system runs. This is how this is why it runs this way, right? Because if I do that at 930, the rest of my day is now thrown off, because now I'm missing on that lead time that I would have had.
00:15:13:03 - 00:15:30:11
Speaker 1
I think, something that can or can't be missed there is the effect that it had on you because it wasn't in alignment with where your mindset is. And the biggest challenge, you know, you and I have talked about this mindset is that buzzword now that it almost doesn't mean anything anymore because people are talking about it so much.
00:15:30:13 - 00:15:45:08
Speaker 1
But this is the power of it is a lot of agents would have just been like, No, I'm good. I got my appointment. I don't need to worry about it. And that's how easy it is to fall off track. And then, you know, it's a sliding scale. There's people in there that would have got off that phone and be like, Okay, crap.
00:15:45:08 - 00:16:09:10
Speaker 1
You know, I, I did that wrong, but maybe I can replace that lead gen. I'll put it in a different time, which is okay as well. But then the the bulletproof mindset that you had there where you're like, no, that's, that's just not in alignment with my business plan the way I. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. And so to call back and rebook that with that same mindset that's what propels you to do your lead generation every day.
00:16:09:10 - 00:16:29:05
Speaker 1
So you like the Nike swoop? I like the idea of just it's a compound effect. If I'm adding five and 20 every day, what does that look like? If I'm not consistent, if I do it within the whole year of that? Right. And the Mirror teaches that you can have $1,000,000 database within a year if you just follow those things every single day, right?
00:16:29:07 - 00:16:50:18
Speaker 1
So I think that system, right, it comes back to the system. This is our system. This is the way that we operate. And when you break this system, things break, right? So it's making sure that you're not breaking the system and it's going back and reflecting on your system. Right. There are certain things that, you know, when when times become tough and the, you know, the shift happens and you need to kind of reevaluate everything.
00:16:50:18 - 00:17:06:02
Speaker 1
You also have to reevaluate your systems as well. Right. And you have to cut maybe something that's a little bit unnecessary or something that might be a luxury because it's not maybe getting you the results that you might need at this time. Right? So you go back to your systems and you reflect on that. And this is our this is our lead generation system.
00:17:06:02 - 00:17:22:16
Speaker 1
This is the time we do it every single day. This is how it operates. And we're not going to sway from that. Right. And the minute that we do, I'm not going to feel it on Thursday when I go to the 9:00 appointment, but I'm going to feel it down the road when I know I'm missing out on some certain numbers that I need to hit.
00:17:22:18 - 00:17:32:16
Speaker 1
Right? That's when it starts to reflect in my business, which again creates a lasting effect three months from now, not just today. So that's when it starts to hurt.
00:17:32:18 - 00:17:56:14
Speaker 2
Yeah, it reminds me of I've been listening to the book The Road Less Stupid by Keith Cunningham's a big business guy. I love that book. It's in my thing. I'm on my third time through right now, but the chapter that I'm on and it's kind of like atomic habits as well. He's talking about the roadblocks that people have around these types of conversations because everybody gets stuck on doing it perfectly right.
00:17:56:14 - 00:18:14:13
Speaker 2
And, you know, we kind of talk about it and you could even take the conversations we have. We we talk more about our wins than our losses, and we talk more about what's working and what's not working. It doesn't mean there's not a counterbalance to that conversation. It's just that we're sharing the stuff that we know is is working to try and help other people.
00:18:14:15 - 00:18:33:20
Speaker 2
And sometimes that should generate the story of perfection that, you know, you have to be so good at it. Like Mike, you're an anomaly in a way, and I love it so much about you. How dedicated you over that lead in time? Mostly struggle with that You you were just it was just ingrained in you from like when you were a baby realtor.
00:18:33:20 - 00:18:46:22
Speaker 2
And it's just it's you have right it is true it's just your have it even when we started coaching and we talked about shifting and doing it as well as cold calling, you had a hard time with that conversation.
00:18:46:22 - 00:18:50:19
Speaker 1
Yeah, that was tough. Yeah. I don't love those days. Yeah, that was a tough call.
00:18:50:20 - 00:19:15:10
Speaker 2
Opposite for you, right? And you kept falling back into your old habit and still you built that new routine. But he's talking about that in, in that book. And he does that. You know, we talk about making big changes and having to shift everything and cut things and do this and do that. But the reality of it is we we just need to figure out how to do something like 10% differently, five differently.
00:19:15:10 - 00:19:34:15
Speaker 2
And the example he gives is Southwest Airlines and how they run at such a high profit margin when they have such a minimal service. And if you've ever flown with Southwest like they don't you know, they don't have first class, they don't have business, they're very basic airline. They don't even give seating. It's like first come, first serve and you kind of line up and get on the plane.
00:19:34:17 - 00:19:56:04
Speaker 2
But what happened was they realized by studying the different business models of different airlines that the key to a profit margin in the airline industry is the speed at which you can get people on and off a plane. That's the key, that one small key. And when they figured that out, they realized they just focus on that piece, that their profit in their business will grow exponentially.
00:19:56:04 - 00:20:14:04
Speaker 2
And that's what they did. And they stripped out all the rest of it and they went literally back to basics. Here's a plane, here's a seat, come and get on it and get off it at your destination. That's it. Right. And you have the biggest profit margin because of it. And it just all everything we're talking about is reminding me of that.
00:20:14:04 - 00:20:36:17
Speaker 2
I just don't want people to get caught up in the concept of needing to do everything perfectly fine. The news that is going to have the biggest impact on your business, whether it's cutting expenses, it's increasing leads or it's getting better conversion on your leads or whatever that might look like managing your schedule better, which is a big win, especially for new agents and just double down on doing that better.
00:20:36:21 - 00:20:55:21
Speaker 2
10% better. That's it. It will completely shift your business. And then, like you guys said, to just cut out all the noise, like keep it clean. And when it's. Yeah, the end of the chapter, they talk about running a lean business, right. Won't have a lot of overhead, don't have a lot of extra stuff. You really don't need it in real estate.
00:20:55:21 - 00:21:08:02
Speaker 2
It's relationship is conversation. How many people you talking to a day? That's an awful You need to run your business. It's not it doesn't have to be expensive. Right? So it just reminded me of all of that.
00:21:08:02 - 00:21:13:02
Speaker 1
So I love that. Sounds like a good book. I should probably pick that up. Excellent.
00:21:13:04 - 00:21:13:16
Speaker 2
Excellent.
00:21:13:16 - 00:21:32:09
Speaker 1
Yeah, I love that. Jen. And there was you know, I was meeting with somebody today and we were looking at CRMs and, you know, there's there's a lot of things that a CRM can do for you that can get you bogged down. But if you just look at it as that one, that one lens, for example, like how is my CRM helping me talk to more people a day, right?
00:21:32:09 - 00:21:53:08
Speaker 1
Is it through organizing to make sure that I'm on track on top of my calls? Is it helping me lead, generating my running ads through it? Like what does that platform do for you? And if you just shifted that lens to say, okay, I'm going to look at my CRM as a way to just make sure that I'm having as many conversations as I can, as I should be with the people in my database or bringing new people into it.
00:21:53:10 - 00:22:11:12
Speaker 1
It's a whole new look at it as opposed to like, Oh yeah, I'm spending so much time in here, I'm updating contact cards, I know who does this and does that. Mike and I did a referral webinar last two weeks ago. Now, I think where we talked about the importance of categorizing your people and knowing a lot about them, which is, which is amazing.
00:22:11:18 - 00:22:27:16
Speaker 1
And it's something that our team lives by. But at the same point, you can't get lost in that stuff, right? You've got to you can't have information for information sake. You can't have a tool for the sake of having the tool. You can have this bloat that we're talking about in your business just because it's bright and shiny and whatnot.
00:22:27:16 - 00:22:58:05
Speaker 1
If it's not helping you towards that end goal, then you got to cut it or you got to look at it differently. How do I look at this tool that I've got currently and make sure that it is helping me have more conversations or convert to more appointments or convert to more sign contracts. Right. And I think that as we've learned, even with Mike today through his story of the importance of mindset is if you just make one of those little shifts, some of those tools that you already have and that are using will go a lot further.
00:22:58:07 - 00:23:19:15
Speaker 1
Absolutely. Absolutely. I love that. All right, guys. Well, I want to thank everybody for joining us today. If you want to reach out to us, you can find us on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube at Peace and coaching. Yeah, that's that's the main places. You also find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, all that stuff. There should be no shortage of a way to reach out to us.
00:23:19:17 - 00:23:24:07
Speaker 1
And thank you so much for joining us and we will see you again next week. Bye for now.
00:23:24:09 - 00:23:24:19
Speaker 2
My.
