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...

Here's an interesting question I was asked recently:

What is your unique genius in the real estate industry?

If you're a brokerage owner or team leader, I really want you to think about this. What's your unique genius? What sets you apart? What are you exceptionally good at? That specific thing is what you should lean into when it comes to recruiting and building your company.

Maybe you're great at investments and have built a large investment portfolio. Maybe marketing or social media is your strong suit. Perhaps you're an expert negotiator or a fantastic listing agent. Whatever it is, figure out your unique genius in this market and industry.

Then ask yourself: How can you leverage that strength to inspire others to join you?

What you're doing is creating a category of one—something you're so good at and so different in that people want to model it. This helps you create what Seth Godin calls the "purple cow." A purple cow is someone doing something completely different from...

People ask me all the time, Jim, how do you retain amazing agents? You've recruited and retained some of the best agents in America. They've stayed with you for years. You took a company from a hundred million to 1.4 billion over 10 years, created a company from 39 agents to one of the top companies in America. How'd you do it?

Well, the answer is, I want you to think about the people that work for you. Just think about the landscape of people that work for you today. And I want you to ask yourself, how many of those people consider you to be their personal friend? And if the answer is, I don't think any of them do, you have a problem because you're looking at them transactionally. And that's the first mistake.

It's the same mistake agents make when they look at their clients and customers transactionally too.

I look at the top agents in America. The top agents in America don't look at their buyers and sellers as buyers and sellers. They...

Are you over scheduled and underpaid? 

During a recent podcast on Inspired Forward my friend with host Dan Trinidad we discussed some of the biggest mistakes we’re committing that makes it hard for us to have fulfilling personal lives and the best business we can have? As well as how we can build wealth so that we don’t have to stay in production longer than necessary? 

Three Things We Learned From This Episode

• We won’t always find alphas to hire, but we can train and coach
  Alphas are quite rare. Most people aren’t, so when we hire them, we have to help them, coach them, educate them to reach their full potential.
  
  
• Build your business around your life
  This is business planning season, and as we think about how 2020 is going to look, we have to start with our lives, families and personal goals. After that, we can add our business goals into the picture, and create a system that allows for more balance in our lives. 
  
  
• Financial freedom helps...