Here's a question for you:

If I were to look at your website today—pull it up and review it together—would it truly represent the market or niche you serve? Would it showcase what you actually sell?

Or would it just be a big, beautiful picture of you, with no clear indication of your market? If your website doesn’t clearly reflect your niche, that’s a mistake. Your website should visually and contextually align with the market area you serve. The photos, the language, and the messaging should all match your target audience. This is key to becoming a hyperlocal agent.

A hyperlocal agent is someone people immediately associate with a specific market. So take a moment today and analyze your website—does it truly reflect the area you serve? Making this small adjustment can significantly improve engagement.

Now, let’s take it a step further. Look at your social media. Are you a strong representation of your market there? Are you showcasing all aspects of your local area? Do you have a Y...

If you're a recruiter for your company, a brokerage owner, or a team leader, there's something important you need to understand: you have to recognize the strength in every weakness and the weakness in every strength to succeed.

We can't be all things to all people in real estate. You might have a large brokerage or a small one, a great physical office or none at all, be part of a franchise or independent, have top-tier technology or limited resources. The key is not to get hung up on what you don’t have. If you use it as an excuse to avoid recruiting and prospecting, you’re holding yourself back.

Instead, ask yourself: what's the strength in the weakness? What's the weakness in the strength?

For example, let’s say someone tells you, “I don’t want to work for a competing broker.” That’s a valid concern. If you are a competing broker, you need to be prepared with the right response.

You could say:

"I totally understand where you're coming from. But can I share why being a competing...

Let’s do a quick quiz for team leaders and brokerage owners to test how well you know your agents. This is essential for agent retention. While recruiting is critical, retaining your agents is just as important—if not more so. Retention is all about re-recruiting your agents consistently: every week, every month, every year.

Here’s the key: friends don’t leave, and friends refer friends. Your agents—your customers—need to see you as more than just their leader. They need to see you as a friend. And that kind of relationship only happens when you invest time in them and approach your interactions relationally, not transactionally.

Many brokerage owners and team leaders make the mistake of thinking transactionally. They view agents as numbers in a model—hiring 10 new agents a month and watching eight leave. It’s a churn-and-burn approach that feels like a meat grinder.

That’s not how you build a strong company.

A successful brokerage or team thrives on community, culture, and relatio...

Every year, NAR studies home buyers and sellers and compiles the data into a report called the NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. It examines metrics like how buyers and sellers behave, how they find agents, and what technology they use.

I pulled out some key insights today that are especially relevant to lead generation.

First, let’s talk about how sellers find their real estate agent. Any guesses? Here’s the data: 77% of sellers find their agents through a referral or repeat business. That number is increasing, not decreasing. Last year, it was 69%, and now it’s up to 77%.

Despite predictions that online leads and new technologies would reduce this percentage, that hasn’t been the case. Referrals and repeat business remain the dominant ways sellers find agents.

Now, how many agents do sellers typically interview before hiring? You might think there’s a lot of competition, but the reality is this: 81% of sellers interview only one agent. While we should be prepared for compet...

If I were to walk into your office right now and put my hands up in the air, asking, “What do I feel? What’s the energy in the room?”—you might think that sounds a bit new agey, especially when it comes to running a real estate company or team. But it’s true.

You can feel the energy in a room.

Let me give you an example. How many of us have been to a concert? You can feel the energy, right? A better example is a sporting event—you can feel the waves of energy when a point is made or lost. The energy is palpable.

Now, who sets the tone for that energy? It’s the players on the field, the musicians—the people performing. They create the energy in the room.

As a leader, whether you're a broker or team leader, you are the one setting the energy in your office. You create the weather. And how do you do that? It’s through your positivity, your enthusiasm, how you carry yourself, and how you walk into the building.

If you walk in with your shoulders slouched, talking about your bad mornin...

If you're coaching agents as part of your real estate brokerage or team, which we all do, one of the best methods I’ve learned is the 1-3-1 Method.

When someone brings you a problem, start by asking:

First, let's clarify the problem: What’s the one main issue we’re dealing with here?

Not 55 different things—just the one big issue we need to solve.

Then, ask: What do you think are three viable solutions for solving this?

If they can’t come up with three, help them brainstorm.

Finally, have them choose: Which do you think is the most viable option for actually getting this resolved?

Encourage them to go out, try it, and see how it works.

As a leader, whether you're a team leader or a brokerage owner, make a note in your CRM to follow up with that agent in a day or two. Check if the resolution actually solved the problem. Sometimes they'll come back and tell you, but if they don’t, reach out and ask, "Did that solve the issue?"

By using the 1-3-1 Method, you’re teaching them to f...

If I were to sit down with you today and talk about why an agent should join your firm, what would be the top five reasons?

I do this all the time—teaching live classes and coaching brokerage owners and team leaders. This is a conversation I love to have. Often, I'll hear things like, "We're a family-oriented organization, we have a great culture, we do a lot of social events, we're really engaged with the community, and we're hyper-local. Staff is great, we have an open-door policy."

Those are all great things… But these are centered around what I call “soft value.”

Soft value is what keeps agents at your company. It’s important for retention—and trust me, you want to retain agents.

But if you’re going to move agents from one company to another, you need a different conversation, one focused on “hard value.”

Hard value moves agents, soft value keeps them.

So, what's hard value? It’s anything that helps me close more transactions in the next 12 months. When I'm sitting across fro...

Hey guys, as a team leader or brokerage owner, there's one key metric that defines your success:

Per agent productivity.

This metric encompasses every aspect of your role as a brokerage leader. It includes your recruiting plan, retention plan, marketing, branding, technology, training, coaching, mentoring, staffing, and location.

Essentially, everything you do at your brokerage is reflected in what your agents produce on a per-agent basis.

When I come to you and say, "Let's open up the hood of your company," we'll look at the average agent production over the last 12 months. What does it look like? If your average agent is closing six deals, seven deals, eight deals, three deals—whatever the number is—you'll have a starting point.

Our goal is to raise that number over time. The higher we push that number, the more likely you are to attract more agents to your business.

The number one way to attract agents is by demonstrating that your system drives higher sales than your competit...

Whether you're a top producer doing $30, $40, $50 million in business, or someone struggling with just a handful of sales a year, we've all faced this. And we'll face it again in the future. It's called the downward spiral.

Think of it like getting a cold in the industry that affects your performance. It's inevitable, and what we do about it makes the biggest difference.

First, you'll notice an attitude shift. Something influences your attitude, making you less effective. Maybe you've been beaten up by a listing or a sale, and you're feeling down.

Next, your work habits shift. You might go home earlier, let priorities slide, and change your work habits. Then, your commitment wanes. You'll start putting things off without a sense of urgency.

As a result, your performance suffers, and your results decline. This can create a vicious cycle, leading agents to spiral out of the business.

I don't want that to happen to you. So, what can you do?

Recognize the downward spiral and take act...

Hey folks, let's talk about the big picture in real estate—how long are you planning to stay in the game? Is it a year, two, five, ten, or even twenty? Are you testing the waters with just a toe in or is this a full-blown career for you?

Many agents tend to have a myopic view, making crucial career decisions based solely on today's market conditions. Yes, sales volume is currently at a 20-year low, but assessing your entire career based on a single down year is shortsighted.

If you envision being in the business for the next 10 or 20 years, one year of reduced sales shouldn't define your career. Recessions in real estate occur every 10 to 12 years, and what follows is typically a decade-long period of rising prices and increased sales volume. It's a market reset, not the end of the road.

For those considering exiting the industry for a "real job," think about the earnings over the next decade in that new job. If you're fortunate, maybe a hundred grand a year. Now, contrast...