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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Guys, 60,000 agents have already left the industry, and another two to 300,000 are projected to follow.

But here's why it's good news for us as REALTORS:

Each departing agent likely had one or more transactions last year. As they leave, those opportunities come back into play, and we have the chance to handle them as real estate professionals. So we can expect to get busier with each agent's exit.

However, there's an even bigger opportunity that most agents are overlooking:

Every agent who leaves the industry leaves behind a sphere of influence, a network of family and friends who may have some influence that we can tap into.

Here's what you can do:

Reach out to these exiting agents and express your condolences about their departure. Then ask them a quick question: Would they be interested in monetizing their hard work by earning referral fees? Since their license is still active, they can leave it hanging and...