Powering a $89M Real Estate Team: Systems and Strategies for Success

In the competitive world of real estate, building a top-producing team is no small feat. In a recent episode of *The OT Only Teams in Real Estate* podcast, host Daren Phillipy sits down with Dan Williams, a high-performing real estate agent and Maps coach based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Over the past year, Dan’s team has achieved remarkable success, closing 340 units and generating $89 million in volume across two markets. So, what systems and strategies power Dan’s impressive results? Here are some key takeaways from his journey.

1. Build a Strong Leadership Team

Dan credits much of his team’s success to a robust leadership structure. A “right-hand” person is essential to scaling, he notes—someone who could step into his role if needed. For Dan, this leader is his Director of Operations, who he considers the “CEO” of day-to-day business. This role isn’t just about loyalty; it’s about finding someone who can challenge him, bring a new perspective, and handle the financials alongside him.

“You need somebody that’s going to honestly follow and walk with you in the business,” Dan explains. This leader can’t just be a “yes man” but must instead offer fresh insights and be capable of guiding the team with integrity. With a dependable leadership team, Dan’s business is resilient, even amid challenges, and can continue to grow sustainably.

2. Systematize Lead Generation

A consistent and scalable lead generation system is another cornerstone of Dan’s team structure. Each agent on his team dedicates two hours daily to prospecting, ensuring a reliable flow of new leads. Beyond daily prospecting, Dan’s team participates in a weekly “pond day,” when agents reconnect with stale leads, reviving potential opportunities.

Dan notes the importance of reevaluating these older leads: “If you have a pond, determine if it’s really a pond or just a trash can.” By maintaining a systematic approach to leads, Dan’s team extracts maximum value, preventing potential clients from slipping through the cracks. This disciplined approach also builds accountability across the team, making lead generation a collective effort rather than an individual one.

3. Focus on Listings for Leverage

While many agents focus on buyer leads, Dan prioritizes listings, viewing them as the key leverage for his team. He centers his strategy on educating sellers about current market conditions and home equity, building trust and positioning his team as expert advisors. Dan believes that educating clients is crucial to building relationships and creating a competitive advantage.

“Education is the main thing we need to focus on to get our listings,” Dan says. Without proper guidance, sellers often rely on media sources that might misrepresent market conditions, so his team aims to bridge that knowledge gap. This educational approach differentiates Dan’s team in the market and generates a steady flow of buyer leads and referrals, creating a self-sustaining cycle of growth.

4. Ruthlessly Manage Your Team

Dan understands that high performance requires making tough decisions, especially when it comes to team alignment and productivity. He doesn’t hesitate to let go of someone who isn’t a cultural fit or who doesn’t meet team standards. As he puts it, “If you’re questioning your trust for someone, it’s time to figure out an exit plan. You can’t afford to have the wrong person in the wrong seat.”

Accountability is central to Dan’s management style. Each agent has personalized goals contributing to the team’s overall targets. To maintain high standards, his team has minimum production requirements, and agents who don’t meet them lose access to shared resources, including leads and office space. This level of accountability helps foster a high-performance culture where everyone’s commitment aligns with team success.

5. Track Everything

Dan’s team operates with a rigorous focus on metrics, tracking everything from conversion rates to cost of sales. By analyzing data consistently, the team identifies areas for improvement and makes adjustments that drive growth. “Don’t assume anything. Look at your numbers; know your numbers,” Dan advises. This data-driven approach enables quick, informed decisions and helps the team stay agile in a competitive environment.

Tracking key metrics also allows Dan to pinpoint strengths and weaknesses. For instance, if a particular prospecting method yields high conversions, the team can allocate more resources to it. Likewise, if certain agents consistently outperform others, Dan uses that insight to refine training and processes. This relentless focus on data empowers Dan’s team to optimize its strategies and maintain a strong competitive edge.

Key Takeaways

Dan Williams’ journey illustrates that building a top-producing real estate team is about much more than ambition—it’s about creating a culture grounded in systems, accountability, and consistent learning. Here are a few essential insights real estate teams aiming to scale can take from Dan’s approach:

• Strong Leadership: Invest in a trusted leader who can operate as your “right hand.” This person should offer honest feedback and bring unique insights, ensuring resilience and continuity within the business.
• Structured Lead Generation: Systematize lead generation as a team-wide effort, with consistent prospecting and regular follow-ups. This not only enhances accountability but also helps maintain a healthy pipeline.
• Leverage Listings: Listings are powerful tools for growth. By educating sellers and establishing themselves as trusted advisors, Dan’s team secures ongoing business and generates buyer leads.
• Ruthless Accountability: Uphold high standards by setting clear expectations and making difficult personnel decisions when necessary. Every agent should be aligned with the team’s vision and goals.
• Data-Driven Decisions: Metrics matter. By tracking performance metrics, Dan’s team continuously improves, adapting strategies and optimizing performance.

Dan’s dedication to process, education, and team accountability has propelled his team to impressive success, and his insights serve as a blueprint for any team looking to scale in the real estate market.

To learn more about building and managing a successful real estate team, tune into *The OT Only Teams in Real Estate Podcast*, where top agents share their journeys, strategies, and the lessons that brought them to the top.

Transcription

00:00

Welcome to the OT only teams in real estate.

Dan Williams  00:16

When I first started, a salesman that I went to church with, he’d been in insurance sales 51 years, very successful. That’s what’s the key piece of stay on your phone, and so that’s just what we did when we didn’t know that was what we’re supposed to do. And

00:32

talking to people seems to work.

00:37

Education is the main thing that we need to focus on get our listings, because if we don’t educate them, the media will, and the medium is not media is not going to tell them the truth.

00:50

And so I’m looking for that person that if they don’t work, they don’t eat,

00:57

because, you know, nothing motivates like broke

01:04

here’s your host, Daren Phillipy,

Daren Phillipy  01:09

everybody welcome this week’s ot only team for real estate agents. My name is Daren Phillipy. I’m your host, and you guys are gonna love me this week because we got someone that just knocks it right out of the park. Dan Williams, the Williams group from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, close 340 units and 89 million in volume. Now, first of all, super cool guy. Got the coolest accent, and he is a Maps coach. Not only is he doing a big business, but he’s also doing coaching. Now, for those of you who don’t know what maps coaching is, think of one of the world’s largest coaching companies for real estate, and that’s what he does. You have to be a top a top producer to even be considered, and it is a grind to get in. So he’s an amazing coach. He owns Marcus centers. This guy is got tons and tons of knowledge you’re going to love. You’re going to love his sayings. He’s got, you know how I have at the very beginning that you guys just listened to with some drops. I had so many, I could only just pick three. There’s so much. And you guys are going to love this, so I want you to pay attention now, guess what, and you guys in the room too. We are now doing it every Tuesday at noon. Put it in your calendar, lock that sucker off, and make sure that you’re in the room at noon every Tuesday, Pacific Standard Time. That’s three o’clock for you guys in the East Coast, and I don’t know where you are in Hawaii, but don’t worry about it. Just jump in the room. Love to have you guys. Now I’m done talking. You guys gonna love this take some awesome notes. Dan, you’re gonna love this guy, and I’ll see you guys the end of the OT.

02:58

Alright, hey everybody. Welcome to the OT. I’m super stoked to have Dan Williams here today. Tracked him down, and who knew his team leader was bragging about him, and who knew, not only was he an amazing agent, but he’s actually a Maps coach. To be a Maps coach, you have to be a great producer, and you have to work your way. It’s, it’s like torture trying to get into the maps coaching program. And so, you know, when you’re being coached by maps coach, those are the best of the best in the industry. So last, last 12 months, Dan, he’s in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and, I guess, also burning Birmingham, and he’s closed 340 units and 89 million in volume over the last 12 months in two different markets. So we’re going to talk a little bit about that. Dan, tell us about you and tell us why you’re so awesome.

03:51

The awesome parts because I’m an Alabama fan. Most of the country hates us, but that’s kind of what happens when you win all the time, and but born and raised here in Tuscaloosa, as I was just telling him, is I knew I was an Alabama fan for I knew I was a boy, and so just kind of raised around that grew up here and 61 watched this community change greatly. My dad was a builder, realtor, broker, and so I was in ministry for 30 years, and nine years ago, retired from that only other thing I knew was real estate, and so jumped in it and was scared to death, but seems to have worked out pretty well.

04:39

So you got in the industry nine years ago? Yep, that is, that is nine years this October dude. That is so cool to be able to to, to go from, I mean, all there is, is God football and real estate, right

04:53

in Alabama, you’re correct.

04:56

I love it. Well, let’s, let’s talk a little bit about your leads. How do you.

05:00

Build a massive team. Oh, for oh, sorry. Before I get into that, I want to talk about your org chart. What is your org chart look like, and who’s in your who’s in your life there?

05:10

Of course, I’m the rain maker, and we’re probably around level five, four and a half, four, b5, they keep changing up how they want to number that thing. But have a Director of Operations who functions pretty much like CEO. He makes sure everything runs all the time. We meet pretty much every day. We have a director of success that works with our coaches. We have listing coordinator, transaction coordinator, and just now bringing on a full time marketing person, and then we have

05:48

total everybody in the building has a real estate license, which is 17 of us,

05:53

very good. So 17 is that including the staff? Yeah, perfect. How many agents do you have on your team?

06:01

Well, they all are licensed. We have 13 that are in day to day production. And

06:07

do you do, are you’re a buyer and you’re a seller? Or do they do both? What does that look like? They do both,

06:14

and I co list on everything. And then they bring both buyers and sellers, commercial, residential and land. I love it so cool. So now you’ve got, if you’ve got that large of a team, you gotta be able to feed them. So tell us, how do you feed your agents? How do you get your leads?

06:33

Uh, we have multiple sources of leads. Is we use Boomtown, so we use it as our CRM and also use it to drive some leads.

06:46

We’ve always used realtor.com on some level, but about

06:53

about half of our business is from center of influence, referrals and

07:01

the people that we know do business with, and that’s where the majority of our business comes from. Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, you, you’ve been there for 61 years. Amazing for a guy who’s only been alive for 40 of them, but that’s that you’ve grown up in the area. How are you able to get half of your business working your database. What are some of the things that you do for that?

07:26

We definitely have a systematic plan, similar or, you know, it’s the 36 touch or more, where we work those databases. And, you know, as everybody comes in, they bring their database with them, and so we work their database, and then we also work it as a whole, so they can get individual stuff from their agent, but also from us for everything else, communicating with them, making sure we do have the conversations with them.

07:57

Have as many

08:01

talking everywhere you go and wherever you at, you need to be on the phone.

08:08

When I first started a salesman that I went to church with, he’d been in insurance sales 51 years, very successful. That’s what’s the key. He said, stay on your phone. And so that’s just what we did when we didn’t know that was what we supposed to do. And

08:24

talking to people seems to work.

08:29

It does seem to work. I guess we have a regional director that says, the more people you speak to, the more money you make and more checks you get, and the less people to talk to, the less checks you make and less money you make. And so there’s a correlation there. Yeah, I tell them, you know is, that’s where relationships come from. Every baby started with a conversation.

08:52

That’s that you’re spitting facts. Hey, write that down. Ed. Every baby starts with a conversation, okay, I love that. I think I can figure that out, buddy.

09:02

It’s just that first, hey, hello, and then for you know what, there’s a kid on the way.

09:09

So, so do you guys have some sort of organized process to do your lead generation together as a team? Is that an expectation? What’s that look like? It is an expectation every morning

09:22

from nine to 11, for sure, everybody needs to be prospecting. On Tuesdays, we have what we call pond day,

09:30

where those leads that have been put into the pond that we call all on one day we report

09:37

just so we’re doing it all together. We found great success with that in COVID, and then we took it and just kind of brought it into this. Because if anybody on here, if you have a pond, you need to determine if it’s a pond or a trash can. What I find with most people is trash can, and you start calling it, and you find.

10:00

People bought houses in there, and they didn’t use you, and you had all their information.

10:05

So, so how do I What happens if I’m a mega agent and I find out that it’s a trash can? What’s your advice? Because some of these guys that are coming into your their single agents, they’re bringing their database. How do you convert a trash can into a pond.

10:22

We that’s what happened to us, is I looked and like, we got 13,000 people in a pond, and we’re like, okay, so I started pulling them up and looking, and some, you know, new agent, not from here, would work it, because they didn’t have a sphere from Tuscaloosa or whatever. So they were, but nobody else was, and so nobody was getting contacted. And so I said, what we’re going to do is we’re going to set one day, and that’s all they can call is people in the pond. We took our database in the pond, divided it up by agent, and each agent has about 400 500 people to call out of that and report the results. The thing is, we started that probably six weeks ago. We probably found somewhere around 20 people who bought homes with a different realtor.

11:18

So what’d you do?

11:21

Cried for a little while, and and what it is, is a wake up call for agents is, you know, they’re calling people that they might have put in there, that they just forgot about, because we try to keep them around 100 in their own lead pool, because I don’t feel like they can work more than 100

11:43

and it’s a wake up call is I need to be calling my people, that fifth, you know, 80% of the people then that buy something. They make that decision between the fifth and the 12th call, the other 20% or in the first four calls. And so

12:04

there’s a, you know, if, if, in our database, our pond, if the rules apply, that 5% of them will buy or sell or know somebody does this year, there’s 450 deals in it.

12:21

So then, what do you do

12:24

because you, you’ve, you’ve kind of had, I guess, some ahas, or some Wake Up Calls, because you’re finding out that you’re, you’re missing out, what is some of your best touches, or what are some of the best things that you’re using in your database that has created business in the past for you out of the pond, or just generic? Well, my guess is, the pond is your database? Is that, right? Well, we know we the pond is not in our database because we possibly have never met them. Gotcha, I wasn’t sure if we’re fishing and getting catfish or something. I I know itself, yeah, what? But our database is, what would be everybody that we have done business with over the last nine years, our center, our sphere of influence, all of our Mets that we have, their name, address, email address, phone number

13:15

and address on. So I’m a little slow so your pond is not your database, right? It’s just leads that have came in over the years that you know somebody calls them, they don’t get an answer two or three times. They know they’ve gotta work their database. So they like, oh, this ain’t any good. And they put it in the pond and

13:39

and that’s how the ponds created. Is your pond held in the same Boomtown or is in a different system? Yeah, it is. It’s much like a person in Boomtown,

13:51

but it’s accessible by everybody. So if you know, the thing that you hear people say is, I don’t know who to call. Nobody in our office can ever say that.

14:02

We’ve got plenty of people they can call and so they can everybody has access to it. And then if you talk to somebody, you can throw them back into your line, and that way, you kind of adopt them. It doesn’t matter who got them initially. They did not work them correctly. And you know, it’s made us shore up the way we handle our flow charts and our leads coming in. Okay, good. Let’s talk a little bit about listings. My guess is, being a guy who’s been in that town for a long time, listings is is your bread and butter. How do you get listings? How are you able to leverage listings in your business?

14:42

Uh, yes, the leverage question is the listings are the leverage to everything we do.

14:49

You know is we, our conversations are around listings. Leads bring in plenty of buyers who might turn into a listing.

15:00

But it’s constantly right now, just educating people on, you know, where we’re at. It seems like they’re getting used to the interest rate, realizing it might drop to five and a half, but we’re not going back much below that. I mean, right now we’re pretty much at pre COVID interest rate, and it’s educating them, you know, because in our market is kind of mirrors, the mirror image of the national market. Over the last year, we’ve had a 5.2%

15:32

increase in prices, where the national average is 5.3

15:36

and so if they want to wait, it’s on cost them, you know, the longer the way to more some calls. So what we’re finding is having that conversation of education, and it can come from the equity in their home. They’ve been in it all over five years. Most of them have no idea how much equity they have.

15:55

You know, I did a listing yesterday of a condo here I sold

16:01

seven years ago, and it was $92,000 in it’s $145,000

16:07

now.

16:09

You know, it’s like they said, wish we’d have bought 10 of them. So most people don’t know that. So education is the main thing that we need to focus on to get our listings. Because if we don’t educate them, the media will, then the medium is not media is not going to tell them the truth. What are you doing to tell the prop? The Best Story

16:31

face to face is the best thing is, if you’ve been, you know, I’ve only been in it nine years, I’m sure there’s others on here, much more seasoned than myself. But when people realize real estate, they ask you, how’s real estate? Everywhere you go, it can be in a restaurant, it can be at the ballpark, it can be on a walk down the street. And how we answer that question is good. I’m a big, big proponent of Phil Jones.

17:01

He’s got another thing tomorrow or Thursday that you can still register for us, an all day event. Also was Monday that I went to, but like he’s somebody ask you, how’s the market? Just say, interesting.

17:13

Well, what that does? That creates curiosity? Well, what do you mean by that? And then I can go into an educational process, because if, if somebody has said, you know, it’s hot, cold, whatever, good, bad. I mean, that’s kind of like malpractice. The market is just what it is. And so we have to get into that education. And we were given that opportunity, usually multiple times a day, and we fail.

17:44

Yeah, love it. Let’s talk about leverage. You said, When? When? Before we got on here, that your bread and butter is, is helping teams scale, right? What are some of the the first couple of things that that someone needs to look like in their look at in their business, where they’re building their team, where do they need to be focusing on to scale?

18:05

First thing is, if somebody hadn’t hired anybody, it’s going to be that first hire they have already made. That hires making sure that

18:15

the second hand, right hand, whatever you want to call, that next person, if you were to die today, who’s going to sit in your chair and who can handle it, that person’s got to be on Team.

18:27

You know, was very poor. I hired a dude that was 19. First hire made it. He was a student at University. He’s still with me. He’s 27 he runs everything I do.

18:38

And that one hire is one of the main reasons we’re where we’re at. So we strategically make sure that is the most important is if you ain’t there who’s in charge, and you need to be able to trust them with your life, because you are if you don’t have that person,

19:03

that would be the first place, I would say, you gotta put a criteria together. You gotta know your culture really well to put that person in there. But if you got in the plane alone, as there’s a lot at stake.

19:19

So how, how do you if you have a team and you don’t have that person that you can trust with your life,

19:29

what do you do?

19:31

Pray that you live long enough to find that person

19:36

is they might already be there in another role. It might be an agent that’s on your team. It might be a transaction broker. It might be somebody that you’ve walked alongside long enough that you possibly have that relationship.

19:51

You know, the thing is, is they probably don’t need to have all the same strengths. You do?

19:58

You know, I would definitely.

20:00

My kPa and theirs, and I don’t want them to mirror image each other, because I don’t need a Yes, man, I need somebody that’s going to honestly follow and walk with me in the business. Look at the finance you know, I look at financials. He looks at financials. We see two different things, so same numbers, but we can see two different things, and so

20:25

they probably don’t need to be a good friend, spouse or family,

20:30

just you need that honesty, that you can sit down and talk forth, right, without worrying about feelings. You know, I try to say I’m not very hard to work for.

20:43

You know, I just expect you to get your job done and and so with that person, just make sure that their first cultural fit and second that they’re they’re not a yes man, yes woman, whatever. That’s going to just go along with you on anything you need somebody to challenge you on your decisions. Where you find that person?

21:08

If you have a college in your town, you possibly can hire that person, nurture them and create your own that’s what I did. I have found finding experienced people,

21:23

I have to untrain more than I train, and untraining is hard. It’s harder than training because we have these habits that we just go back to. You know, it’s easy to build up, and all of a sudden you’re running 10 miles a day. You take a month off, and then all of a sudden you just quit. And it’s because you just it’s so easy to revert back to that old pattern. So if you could find somebody, bring them alongside you, walk with you.

21:54

That’s going to be put them in an office with you.

21:59

Now, not in office with me, but initially they were because I wanted them to hear how I talk to people, how I treat people, how I handle business, because they did need to mirror image that,

22:13

because I’ve worked long and hard for my integrity, and I don’t need somebody else that’s in charge for me to destroy my integrity, so they need to know how I handle business. So that’s a shadowing, and it’s, truthfully, it probably takes three years, four years, to get there. But you know, I would assume most of us on this call, you know, we’re here for the long haul.

22:39

And if you don’t have that right person, but you have somebody, I’d say, fire em today.

22:46

Why? Why? What? That’s that. That’s a big statement. You’re just walking you’re continuing to walk down a path that’s costing your business, culture, time, money and reputation. So then, how do you get out of business with someone that is, I guess, in that situation where it’s like,

23:07

they’re okay, but they’re not your culture, they’re not your fit. How do you get out of business with them? What’s that sound like to you?

23:14

Very hard. I hate those conversations. I don’t want to hurt anybody. I realize that people, when I hire them, that’s pretty lengthy process, because if I bring them on, also bringing their wife and their kids and all of those things into my world that I feel the responsibility to provide for. And so if I’ve gotten somebody in there close, we might go through a new 3060, 90

23:41

is, you know, just forthright and honestly speaking, is we’ve gotta shore this up or that up. And, you know, one of the things in our area is we needed to get better at our marketing. And so I could take my current marketing person and say, Okay, we need to get better. Or I could just say, I’m gonna bring in somebody else, and then this person’s good, just that’s not their strength, so they’re going to stay with us. Do something that brought somebody else in,

24:09

but it’s just having that conversation. You know, we’re we’re looking at everything. Every year, we look at absolutely everything, and we say, here’s the adjustments we gotta make, and we’ve been very fortunate that we don’t have high turnover, but a lot of that goes to the hiring process. But

24:31

you just you can’t afford to have that wrong person in that seat. You gotta have if you if you’re questioning your trust for them, you’ve got to figure out an exit plan.

24:44

So so it sounds like you use the Career Visioning process and you go through the KPA and you do a 3060, 90, for those who want to skip some steps. What’s your advice?

24:57

I don’t interview 100 people.

25:00

Gene river says, interview 100 people. Don’t do that. Okay?

25:06

We will when we advertise, first thing is my Director of Operations, he screens all of the applications first. And so hopefully you got somebody in your organization that could screen them first and you can advertise on Indeed, like, say, if you have a university, you have people there,

25:27

and there’s all kind of other places you can get, you’ll get more resumes and you want to look at, but you have somebody kind of filter through that and get it darled Down, probably to 10 or less. And then you do, we do a zoom interview. I don’t want to inconvenience them, or me, as far as you know, them coming into the office, whatever we do about a 3045, minute. And then we will narrow that down to about three,

25:53

preferredly, two, but usually it ends up three. And then we have a face to face

25:59

with me and the directive operations, and then if they make it through that, we have a face to face with me, a directive operations and our success coach. And if we’re not at all in agreement, we don’t hire them.

26:13

Anybody can veto the hire, because they know our culture so well, and they’re like, I just don’t know.

26:21

Well, we gotta know too much is at stake. We’re handling some, a lot of business, and we, I don’t, I don’t want to invest my time in problem solving for my staff.

26:33

You know, my dad said one time he died a couple months ago. He said it takes a really, really, really, really, really, really, really good person to beat. Nobody.

26:44

Okay, nobody doesn’t give you any problems. Somebody’s going to give you problems. So you gotta limit that on the front end.

26:52

Through a really good career visioning process, did you ever not listen to your advice and what did that do? Yeah, I felt like I had to make some hires. We had so many leads coming in, things happening right around the first part of COVID, and brought in some agents that we did, y’all, I don’t know, and none of them worked out.

27:16

One thing that we have found,

27:20

and if you think it was Gary IN THE LAST mastermind could be they, we have so much stuff. KW, I get things confused.

27:30

The leadership pyramid, yes, and first thing is, lead yourself. And when you lead yourself, Well, eventually you’ll start to attract leaders. And so people will call you to be on your team. And so that has great, lot more value is because people come in they want to work with you, because they see your success. And that’s where we found our best recruiting.

27:58

That’s, that’s, I think that’s, that’s awesome. I love hearing them. Tell me. What other systems do we spend a lot of time talking about people. What other systems do you would you advise to focus on when it comes to scaling your business? Where do you look at first thing I definitely have a lead gen model is how when that lead comes in, what’s expected of it?

28:25

How are they categorized? How often are they called?

28:30

And that everybody has to do it the same. And so we only have one voice with nobody can come in here and say, I’ve got a different system. No, you’ve got to run our system. And so that lead comes in, that lead comes in, is new when you call them, it’s titled New lead. When you call them, if they answer,

28:52

they become a prospect, or you kind of walk through that. If they don’t answer, you just move them.

29:00

I mean, if they answer, they go to active. If they don’t answer, the go to prospect, and then we just got away. It works all the way through that.

29:08

And so everybody has to do that same. They have to know what follow up is and what lead gen is.

29:16

What I’ve found is a lot of people, they’re like, Yeah, we’re doing two hours a day of lead gen. And in reality, they’re doing two hours of follow up. They’re calling people they’ve already talked to, not calling new people.

29:29

Lead Gen is new conversations with new people. Somebody’s got their hand up there. Ed’s going to have to wait. He knows the rules. He doesn’t get to ask his questions until we’re done, get in line. Ed, alright, it’ll lock.

29:45

Keep on going. You’re good.

29:48

And so you know you’re gonna have leads come in, whether they’re from your center of influence, any of those type things is you got to have that lead gen model. Know what you’re what’s happening when they do come.

30:00

In, who’s getting them, and are they working them? So you gotta have a really good tracking mechanism to know, okay, they’re having this many conversations. What’s their conversion rate? How many are there closings? And first starting, you’ve you just feel like it’s almost useless because you don’t have enough data. And so you just have to be patient. And as you go, you get six months in, you start to say, Okay, this person’s converts this and it’s weird. We’ll have people that will convert a realtor.com lead at a really high level, and Boomtown at a low level, and their center of influence is almost non existent. And then we’ll have other people that pretty much is all center of influence, never take a lead, but whatever they’re working we want to see a good conversion rate, otherwise they’re just chatting.

30:52

Gotcha love it. What other so a lead gen model or to be able to track that, what other systems do you advise that we need to look into, when it comes to scaling for this group, stay within the economic models and realize what’s in the mrea is a model,

31:13

and in order to follow that model, you have to start out like that. If you looked at my financials, we’re not a 30, 3040 because we didn’t hire like that. Our business has a little different structure to do that. 30, 3040 about your splits? Going to have to be a 7030 with most of your agents for you to be able to accomplish that.

31:36

And so but you figure out what we can run. So if I can get between a 20, 25% profit, I’m in a really good spot. And but just knowing what your expectations are, looking at that know what you cost sales are,

31:53

and then you know we I can reduce my expenses, or I can increase a decrease my cost of sales. And that’s only two numbers I can use. Most people right now. They’ve looked at their expenses. A lot of them have cut too much in their expenses. You know, they’ve cut things like coaching, they cut their leads and those things. And Gary warned us in the beginning, don’t do that.

32:20

Just increase go into that shift mindset, talk to more people, convert, do more business, because you just gotta hunker down and get it done.

32:30

Hunker down is an Alabama term. I think, hey, it’s it’s also up in Washington, one of my favorite, hunkering down. It feels good to say hunkering down. Oh yeah, yeah, when you leave after you hunker down all day. I mean, you feel like you run through a wall. For sure, I’m gonna hunker down right after this for lunch. What have you learned over the last 12 months in leading your team?

32:56

Don’t assume anything.

33:00

Look at your numbers, know, your numbers.

33:04

The pond thing, that was one of those things that

33:09

it surprised us,

33:12

and that’s when I realized it was a trash can, you know? And I’m a Maps coach, I’m talking to people every day to make sure you don’t have trash cans. And then I look around and I’ve got a trash can with 13,000 leads in it where I have a name, address, email address and a phone number on them, and they’re not getting contacted. And so don’t assume anything. Don’t assume people are doing their job. Don’t assume is, track their numbers, make them put their conversations in their appointments. I mean, you know, I have form I sent out to all my clients. We track about eight different things every week.

33:51

Because, you know, I was talking one day, I said, something happened four weeks ago on your leads. What happened? And he said, we cut back on our budget because it went from like 30 of these type leads down to five. And I’m like, something happened there? Well, if you ain’t paying attention,

34:09

it’ll bite you, and typically it’s when you come up for that read. We want to be proactive, not reactive, and by staying on top and tracking absolutely everything you can and sometimes you just, you see an agent, and they start going off and something’s wrong going on in their life that you don’t even know about. You know, because people, I love the people on my team, and I care about them. I care about their families, and if something’s going on with their wife’s sick or something, I only know, you know, I want to be able to help them, whatever way that is. And so if they’ve, if they’re falling off, but you see them trying, there’s something else going on. So just always have your finger on the pulse. Even though I have, I would put up best director of operations in the world. I’ll still keep my finger on the pulse. You.

35:00

I think that’s I’ve heard that time and time again from Mega agents. You find that the those key people, everything’s running well, and if they aren’t checking in on a consistent basis, they do, they they miss that pulse, yeah, and they, because you’re in relationship, you’re able to get back into it and and stuff. But it’s, it’s really keeping that relationship close. Yeah. And the other big lesson I’ve learned probably is, like increasing my production. I’d virtually got out of production, and just realize, you know, because when I step back in all the Commission’s 100%

35:41

because we’ll cap, you know, when my cap comes around, we’ll cap in four weeks, or something like that, and then. And so

35:50

when you know things get a little tight is I know I can step in, and I can generate business,

35:58

and

36:00

it’s just natural for me to do it where might say we need, you know, right now, I know I probably need seven more agents. Okay, I don’t want to do that right now. I’d rather me step into some production and maybe bring on one or two, maybe three. I don’t want to jump into seven.

36:19

Yeah, I bet you taking on seven at one time would be exhausting. Well, I’d be jumping off a bridge,

36:27

alright? So before I open up the room, for those who have questions, it’s great. Start raising your hand. I’ve got two more questions for you. Main, main thing is, we don’t get a Maps coach too often. There’s something you want to share with us or something you want to coach us up on?

36:42

Well, the main thing is, is everybody has coach. Tiger Woods has a coach. Nick Saban has a coach. The best coaches in the world have coaches.

36:51

And that is one of the top three reasons that I’ve been able to build this business with people around me, is I’ve had, you know, started with Mike ferry. I was a realty executives, went to a mike ferry

37:08

event and felt shame because it didn’t have all the COVID time. My hair slipped back.

37:14

But

37:16

and then when I came to Keller Williams, you know, it’s like getting off country road and jumping on to the Audubon all of a sudden and drinking out of a fire hydrant.

37:26

And

37:28

they always had me future paced. We always knew who the next hire was. We always knew what we needed to be tracking. You know, they would point out blind spots to me. And so those coaches, over eight years, seven years, really made an impact. There’s, you know, now I have two coaches.

37:49

I have a coaching coach and then my business coach. I have four agents and coaching, the Director of Operations and coaching, and they keep us on track. And I love having an outside perspective of somebody saying, you know, are we doing this, this, this and this, and then what have you thought about this?

38:10

And then just the sharing of information and documents and forms and spreadsheets and just getting better and better and better. And I believe I read John Maxwell’s book, again, on growth, 15 laws of growth. And one, the first one is, is that you gotta do it. You gotta take ownership of it, and you gotta grow. And typically, if you don’t have a coach, you’re not growing. And it changed my business, and I want to give back. And so that’s why I’m in coaching now is to give back to people, to help them realize their dreams, and to be able to bounce something off somebody that they might think this sounds preposterous, when really it’s a good idea. Yeah, you know, I had a conversation with a really great producer, and she was struggling with the idea of having a coach, and to me, it’s like, it’s my it’s my partner that I don’t have to share my profits with, right? And so it’s like having that person to be able to bounce ideas off of and challenge things and question things. And like you were saying, I need someone that that’s willing to say no and challenge the way I’m thinking is, yeah. And so here’s your exact right to me, and I want to be that for somebody else. Love it best, Alabama quarterback,

39:27

whoa,

39:29

probably

39:32

I’d say Joe Namath, just because he was so entertaining as well.

39:37

Kenny staber turned out fairly well. You know, these new guys, they they’re good, they’re slick too. Is good. It’s with Miami now Jalen Hurts, who’s with, you know, forever, we didn’t have anybody a quarterback in there, but the guys that came out from under Saban, a lot like our business, they understand, they focus on the process.

40:00

Process and not the the outcome, and that’s what’s going to give them the longevity, and that’s what gave them the careers they have. You know, Joe mammoth was just a rare talent as Kenny staber, but these guys, they know the process, just like we have a process for what we do. It’s, you know, in football, they these guys learn, if I’ll do my job, every snap will be okay. Well, if Realtors would learn that as well,

40:28

every snap I just do it right. Everything else, your deals are going to work out your and so you just gotta handle it.

40:36

So good, so good. Well, Ed, you, we’re going to give ed the patience award for having his hand raised for three quarters of the call. And so. Ed, congratulations. And for any of we’ve got Ivy coming up after. Ed, anybody else in the room, you have a question? Find that little digital hand raise, and you’re welcome to ask. We’ve got we’ve

40:58

got them until for another 1517, minutes or so. Go ahead. Ed,

41:06

can’t hear Yeah. He’s where, yeah. Ed,

41:11

Mr. Patience,

41:15

are you muted? Ed, you’re not muted, not muted.

41:20

We’re gonna, we’re gonna put, put him on, on mute, then we’re gonna go ahead. Can you hear me now? Oh yeah, there you go. There you go. Sorry about that, Dan, thank you very much for being here. Number one, number two, thank you for saying something about tua. Appreciate that. I’m a dolphin fan, so,

41:36

yep. So I got a question for you. Have you thought about switching your team over to command, because I’m struggling with that now

41:44

we run them parallel. Okay? For you know, I’m 61 I did a lot of database testing in the 80s and 90s for different software companies. I’m too old to do database testing, okay? And for so long, I

42:04

would try to jump into command and lock up, flip out, do this or that. So what we do, where we’re at right now is they’re trying to earn my trust,

42:15

and we’re running parallel, okay?

42:19

And that’s where we’re at right now. And

42:24

what I wish would happen is that Gary would buy boom town

42:29

or KV core, whoever owns it all now, and bring it all together. But I like Command. Command is surprisingly better than it was, but it’s still, I don’t want to lose, I don’t want, I don’t want any headaches. Yeah, no, I get I get it. We’re doing the same thing. We’re running parallel to kind of figure out if it could do 70 to 80% of what our other CRMs do, then I guess I’ll be okay with it. So we’re still testing the process. Now, you talked about the

43:05

the Career Visioning. Do you do you career vision just the people that you’re looking at in leadership, or do you do all of the agents on your team, all the agents? So you do everybody? Because I’ve heard different conversations where some people say, well, agents are just going to be agents, so as long as they’re a culture fit they do what they need to do, then that’s you don’t necessarily have to do that and spend the time to do that leadership. It’s super important in your organization to do that for Yeah, the main thing on an agent is that they move fast and that they’re growth oriented.

43:42

You know, if I if the cape, if kPa, reveals that, you know, they’re more of an introvert, and they move real slow,

43:53

they might not be for our environment there. I mean, there’s agents like that that do absolutely wonderful, but wouldn’t fit our environment, because we are highly structured

44:05

and but at the same time, my kPa said I would not be a good mega agent,

44:13

my Director of Operations wouldn’t be a good director of operations. And so who knows? Yep, and then my very last one, and thank you for answering these questions,

44:25

commercial. You said you do commercial, which is unique. Not a lot of teams do both. We happen to do both. So

44:33

do you have the agents that are deciding, do you let all your agents do commercial, or do you have certain agents that those are the only ones allowed to do commercial, and you kind of groom them little by little to get into the commercial

44:46

depends on the property. You know, each agent, when they’ve got a commercial, they definitely bring it into us to evaluate it with them, because commercial is a whole different animal. Oh, yeah.

44:58

And I.

45:00

Um, so depending on the piece of property,

45:04

we might bring in as a co listing agent, Joe Duckworth, who’s out of our market center, and all he’s ever done is commercial. So he’s forgot more than we know. However, if it’s a building up the road, you know you’re not worrying about environmental stuff, all of this, we can just handle it, and then we’ll co list it with them, but I would be on all of those listings also, just to make sure that everything’s done appropriate through, you know, you know, we get offers on commercial stuff, on a residential contract, and you’re like, that person don’t need to be doing,

45:45

selling this. Need a certain level of education, and we realize, you know, sometimes it’s going to get messy for somebody gets really good, but we’ll walk beside them in that okay, all right. Thank you very much. Yep, thank you, appreciated bunch Great question ed or great questions. And Ed loves football just as much as me. He just picks bad teams. All right. Ivy, your turns next well.

46:12

Thank you very much, Dan. It’s been very enlightening.

46:15

So I had a very enlightening so I have a couple questions. One, I’m kind of interested in because I really didn’t hear it like, what really is your mission statement, or what is the culture that you’re cultivating within your team? Like, what’s that whole purpose?

46:34

We narrowed it down. Our mission statement is to love well and live well. You can see it on top of my wall back there, right below a bunch of pictures of my family, which is why I do what I do.

46:48

And we had it. I had this long thing about our culture and who we are and all that. And then one day I was out walking and just it came to me as if we’ll love well, we’ll live well. And the people, if we just take care of our clients, live above reproach, we’ll be okay. And so that’s how we’ve narrowed it down

47:15

for the whole team. Okay, okay, and okay. So I just was wondering, I usually like to ask sex. I kind of kind of get, like, an idea of culture, because that’s what it’s really all about. Yeah, I kind of want to switch gears for a second, because I didn’t hear I want to talk a little bit about your accountability. And, you know, knowing that where we are today. So what, what are you doing to hold your agents accountable? Or, what do you have standards on your team that you hold them to? We do the way we set our annual goal is simply by their life by design. So I have a life by design calculator that does really good on it. If you don’t have one, you could let me know. Dan [email protected]

47:57

be glad to send it to you. And so everybody does their own life by design. So some people might have a goal of 20. Some people might have a goal 50, because I don’t want to have to motivate them to for my life by design. So we take all of those life by design, we add them up, and that’s our that’s the goal for that year.

48:18

What we have found a lot of people in their life by design that’s a wish list instead of a work list. And so they wish they had those things, but they don’t want to work hard enough to get them. So this coming year, we will have a different conversation around that. So, but that’s how we set each individual goal, and then to to get leads and to have a desk in our office, you have to do a minimum of 16 deals, 4 million next year, that’ll be go up to 20 deals and 6 million.

48:51

If they don’t do that, they just don’t get paid lead. They don’t get leads that we own. They just they have to create their own lead pool, and they don’t have a desk in the office. We have a table that they can use, but they won’t have a private desk. I provide computers for everybody

49:08

in the office, and so I try to treat them really well in the office. And then on that accountability

49:16

and Monday, Yeah, yesterday, I was pulling all the numbers, so I’d be ready next week to start my accountability meetings with each agent to see if they’re on task for their life by design. If they’re not, what are they going to strike off that they really didn’t want? And so we’ll refine those things. And then every week, they meet with our success success coach, and he says, Okay, here’s where you are, here’s what you got, here’s where we’re going. What’s your pipeline look at like, last week you made 34 calls. What went on? Why’d you only make 34 calls? So we ask those hard questions every week of our agents, they have about a 30 minute meeting with him every week.

50:00

You. So as a success coach, like the because I heard you mentioned that is that like a Maps coach? Is that like your director of sales, or he’s like a director of sales, and he has a Maps coach that,

50:11

Sarah, that really helps guide him in this and keeping the right questions before everybody. And like Wednesday, we will send out a questionnaire to all of our agents

50:23

around the accountability because you need to be doing quarterly accountability meetings. It’s almost like the 12 month year. Is it? First week, April, you need to be reviewing that first quarter second. Because lot of people wait to it for the end of the year, and they realize everybody’s in a bad place, but nobody told them. So we want to keep them up to date every quarter, realizing, you know, first quarter ain’t going to be as good as second quarter, but we do want them by the end of the second quarter, if they’re going to reach their goal, they need to be at least 60% done.

51:00

Okay, okay. Daren, is there anybody else ask a question? Because I can ask one more. Ozzie chucked up, thanks, Dan. I want to give Ozzy a chance. Thank you.

51:11

Thank you. Now, now I’m curious, what was that last question? So you gotta, you gotta go so

51:17

well, because he kind of dived into it. My next thing was really about motivation. Like, well, how are you keeping them motivated? Right? It’s like you see them underperforming, you know, so what tools or what structures are in place, but I could always email them after so, yeah,

51:36

do think it’s critical, and be careful how I answer it.

51:42

One thing is,

51:44

I, I’ve learned I can’t motivate anybody. Okay, you either bring that motivation or you don’t. So what I have learned is, if I hire breadwinners, and we live in a day and an age now where that doesn’t mean one person, sometimes, if it’s husband and wife, and it takes both of them being a breadwinner for them to live their life by design, they don’t need motivation because they got power bills and car payments and house payments. And so I’m looking for that person that if they don’t work, they don’t eat,

52:18

because, you know, nothing motivates like broke and so

52:26

three there I don’t have I don’t have to say, hey, you need to show up every day. Because I do feel everybody want to hire them. If you look in our MLS, the people who are succeeding show up at work every day.

52:38

You know they’re not playing golf in the morning and go into the ice cream stand in the afternoon, calling that contacts.

52:45

Sorry if I’m there a little bit now I’m not Tyler’s great job. Ivy Dan, I’m not going to lie. That was one of my favorite lines of all time. Nothing motivates more than broke. Yeah,

52:59

that was broke when I started, that’s a whole another class. Most people have felt the taste of broke so it you’re not joking. I love it. Ozzy, show up. You rock it out, buddy.

53:12

Alright. Dan, so my question was actually in lines with motivation, because when you’re doing the life by design with somebody, whether you’re coaching, it’s a coaching client or it’s a team member in your team. I’ve noticed that there are wish wishful like you’ve mentioned before. This is what I wish my life would be by design. And then there’s the need, like I must have, the non negotiable. How do you whether it’s with your coaching clients or with your team sales people,

53:45

how do you differentiate when they are just wishful thinking and you know they’re aiming high to sound good,

53:54

versus when it’s a must have, non negotiable goal,

54:00

the must haves definitely are the motivator. The thing is, is, like in our form, it’s called profit allocation, and so they list whatever above their personal budget, business budget is up there. And like, I talked to a client today, and he’s gotta adjust his because it would require, like, 69 deals, and would have been great for him to reach it, but he’s not going to reach it. And so what I would do on the front end of that is, okay, what? What happens if you don’t do this, and if there’s not significant pain attached to it,

54:35

there is probably a dream. Okay? Everybody would like to put $120,000

54:41

back a year in savings and invest 160,000

54:45

and you know, do this with another 50,000

54:49

but if you don’t have a pain associated with it, it’s probably just a good idea that they’re like, I feel I feel real nice. So you’re.

55:00

Job in talking with them or even doing your own is, does this cause me pain if I don’t do this?

55:08

And then, you know, what I think you could do is you could sub categorize that is okay. Here’s the things that if they don’t happen, it’s gonna be painful. And then here’s some dreams,

55:21

because the you know, if you

55:25

have to tell your family we can’t go on that vacation, it was in that top part right there that don’t feel good. There’s pain associated with that. But if it’s like I didn’t get to put that $10,000 back this month, we’ll be i. And what I found is with people that aren’t,

55:47

they don’t have a lot of obligations that do drive them for motivation, or they’re just, you know, some people, they could not owe anybody, and they still wake up motivated, okay, but those who their income is not critical to their household. They suffer greatly from success, complacency.

56:07

Things start going good, and they have a great month, and they get $25,000

56:12

in in GCI, and then next month, they forget they’re in real estate because they don’t have to have the money.

56:21

And so that’s, you know, I don’t rule people out if they’re not a breadwinner.

56:28

I love investing in the younger generation.

56:32

Most, a lot of my agents are young.

56:35

You know, I got a 20 year old. Her dad’s a builder here in town. You know, last month, she sold $2 million worth of property. And in our market, that’s, that’s pretty, pretty hot.

56:47

And so

56:50

if you if that person can attach some pain to what’s in that profit allocation, that’s probably a dream. That’s the wisdom I was looking for it. Thank you so much. If, if it’s not backed by that pain, it’s wishful thinking. Thank you, Dan, yeah, absolutely great question.

57:09

Dan, you did it, man, I’ll tell you this, all of us could sit and just listen to you talk, because you got such great nuggets. You got the coolest you got that coolest microphone that throws that Southern drawl in there. It just sounds extra good, and you’ve been dropping some killer nuggets, and we’re really grateful for you. There’s this microphone to do a little British accent, because they always sound smarter. But I can’t get it to, I can’t get it to do that yet. That’s, that’s alright. I’ll, we’ll, next time around, we’ll make sure you get that microphone? Yeah, yeah, the British accent.

57:44

So Dan, if, if we had some listeners that were dying to send your referrals to Tuscaloosa, Tuscaloosa and Birmingham, Alabama, what’s the best way for them to send referrals to

57:56

you? Dan [email protected]

57:59

My phone number is 2052, 9221, 220, 108, I actually answer my phone.

58:07

Text message is great.

58:10

You know, if you got anybody coming to the University of Alabama after their freshman year, they’re going to make them leave campus, and so they’re going to need to find a place to live

58:19

buying they can save about $40,000 over a four year period, as opposed to renting

58:27

and

58:28

but would love to help you anywhere in Alabama.

58:32

You know, we cover the big central slots, which is the most populated Birmingham, Jefferson County and everything. So my son runs that office and out of Birmingham, and you said that when we’re in the area, you’re a great chef, and so we can just come over you cook us something great too. Is that right? That was our I know you’re coming. It will be a Fauci

58:56

from a local place called March marked that man. I don’t know where they get their meat from, but it sure is good. Oh, love it. Alright. Well, I’m going to go and pound some food right now. Grateful for you. Thanks everybody for being on the OT. You’re the coolest, and I will see you guys next week. Thank y’all showing up, coming. Thank you. Thank you, Dan, thank y’all be blessed. Hey, hey, what do you say? You love them. You love Dan Williams. You want to pack them around saying, Hey, will you hang out with me all the time and just drop all of this real estate knowledge on me? I love it. It just makes me happy. And I learned so much, and so I hope you guys learned a ton too. Now you guys know, I don’t do this as a hobby. I do this because I run one of the largest real estate companies here in Vegas, Keller Williams, the marketplace, and I spend most of my time coaching and helping non kW agents with a business, specifically working on agents who are building teams or have teams. And so.

1:00:00

If you are needing some help here in Vegas and you’re needing help with building teams or or adjustments on your team, or anything like that, contact me. My number 702-706-4949,

1:00:13

and I’ll be the guy to help you out. Now, most you guys aren’t here in Vegas, but I can still help you. You know the same number. Call me. I’ll connect you with also someone who knows all about the team models, wherever you’re at. So I can’t wait to see you guys next week. And pretty much, that’s it. I’m done. Listen, Dan, again, he’s cool, and he’s got a lot of stuff. And I’ll see you guys later, and until then, go out and do some good.

1:00:45

Thanks for coming to the OT. Remember, you can join us every Tuesday at 1130 Pacific, Standard Time on Zoom, gain zoom, access the OT archive and other team resources at only four teams.com.

1:00:59

See you next week, you.