Episode 22: Homes of Expansion Network

Scaling a Real Estate Team Across Multiple Markets: Lessons from Homes of Expansion Network

In an ever-evolving real estate industry, some teams are breaking new ground by expanding their presence across multiple markets. One such team is the Homes of Expansion Network, led by Eric Estrada, based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. In just a few years, this dynamic team has grown from operating in one market to a multi-location network that spans across 8 different regions—and they’re not stopping there. With plans to add 2-3 more markets within the next 24 to 36 months, their rapid expansion is turning heads in the real estate world. But how have they managed to achieve such remarkable growth?

The key to their success lies in a combination of strong organizational foundations, strategic lead generation, an exceptional client experience, and thoughtful leadership. Here’s a closer look at the lessons from their journey that can provide valuable insights for other teams looking to scale.

Building a Strong Organizational Foundation

The backbone of Homes of Expansion’s success is their well-structured organizational setup. At the core of this network is their centralized “hub” in Colorado Springs. This hub houses a dedicated internal support team consisting of transaction coordinators, a director of relocation, a marketing department, and mentors and coaches. This centralized support enables the rest of the team to focus on driving local market growth.

Yet, despite their solid base in Colorado Springs, the real strength of Homes of Expansion lies in empowering leaders in each local market to run their own operations. “We want to create opportunities for people in those local markets,” says Eric. “If we kept everything centralized here, we wouldn’t be doing justice to those market centers.”

In each market, they have team leads, expansion owners, and coaching/community directors responsible for steering growth. This decentralized approach allows for greater flexibility and local decision-making, while still benefiting from the overarching support and resources provided by the Colorado Springs hub.

Strategic Lead Generation: The Fuel for Expansion

Scaling across multiple markets requires a steady stream of high-quality leads, and Homes of Expansion has developed a well-oiled machine for generating and converting these leads. While organic lead generation is always part of the strategy, the team has gone a step further by partnering with major portals like Zillow, Realtor.com, and Movoto.

What’s particularly unique about their approach is that Homes of Expansion pays for these leads upfront—a deliberate strategy to keep themselves accountable. “If we’re paying out of pocket upfront every single month for these leads, we’re either going to make or break ourselves,” says Eric. This financial investment ensures that the team remains motivated to convert leads into sales.

Agents on the team receive rigorous training on lead conversion, including regular script practice, weekly accountability check-ins, and performance monitoring. This results-driven culture has enabled the team to maintain a high level of productivity and deliver consistent results across multiple markets.

Delivering an Exceptional Client Experience

At Homes of Expansion, it’s not just about the numbers. The team places a premium on delivering an outstanding experience for their clients, fostering loyalty and building long-term relationships.

“We want people coming here to build something good with us,” explains Eric. “Our goal is to never have them leave.”

To achieve this, the team organizes regular community events like private movie screenings, fall festivals, and holiday celebrations. These events not only delight clients but also help to establish a sense of community and engagement with the Homes of Expansion brand. Even small gestures, such as offering free items or hosting exclusive events, are designed to create excitement and value for clients, ensuring that they remain loyal and invested.

Leadership and Growth: Learning to Let Go

Growing rapidly across multiple markets presents its own set of leadership challenges. Eric Estrada candidly shared that one of his early struggles was feeling like he needed to control every aspect of the business. “Early on, I was too controlling,” he admits. “I felt like I had to do it all and that I had all the right answers. And it was defeating.”

As the team expanded, Eric learned to let go of control and trust in the strengths of his team members. This shift in mindset has allowed his team to flourish, as leaders in each market are empowered to make decisions and drive growth independently.

Regular feedback has also been a critical component of their continuous improvement. Every 12-18 months, the team conducts surveys to gather input from both agents and clients. “We value that constructive criticism because it helps us adjust and pivot as needed,” says Eric. This feedback loop ensures that Homes of Expansion is always evolving and staying ahead of industry trends.

Creating Opportunities for Agents and Consumers

As the real estate landscape continues to shift, Homes of Expansion Network is setting an example of how to build a thriving multi-market business. By focusing on strong organizational foundations, lead generation, exceptional client experiences, and leadership development, they’re not only creating growth opportunities for themselves but also for the agents and consumers they serve.

For other real estate teams looking to expand into new markets, Homes of Expansion’s success highlights the importance of building a solid foundation, maintaining accountability through smart lead generation, and fostering a culture of excellence in both leadership and client care. With these elements in place, the potential for success in today’s real estate market is limitless.

As Homes of Expansion continues to grow, they serve as a beacon of what’s possible in an industry where innovation and strong leadership can transform a local team into a multi-market powerhouse.

Transcription

Daren Phillipy 00:02

All right, guys, welcome to this week’s ot super stoked, because, in fact, Sean, you, you may want to tell ed to pay attention, because we got an amazing an amazing expansion team here. Eric Estrada, he’s based out of Colorado, Colorado, Springs, Colorado, and then it’s just all over the place. What? What sea cities are you actually in the market?

Eric Estrada 00:27

So we’re actually homes of expansion network. Our hub is here in Colorado Springs. We also have expansion teams into Denver, Colorado, northern Colorado, so out of Westminster and then down south and Pueblo Colorado. We expanded into Cheyenne Wyoming about a year and a half ago, and we recently, roughly about a year ago, launched in El Paso Texas. We have Las Vegas, Nevada. We have Phoenix, Arizona, Orlando, Florida, Anaheim in San Diego on our two to three year plan this year, Las Vegas and Arizona, for sure. So, right, that’s

Daren Phillipy 01:05

right. And that, in fact, that’s how we got connected. I got, I got a phone call for from your sales manager, and she says, are you guys open to having an expansion I’m like, What are you talking about? It’s the greatest thing in the world to have an expansion team in your office. So, super blessed, super blessed to have that. So you’ve got lots of markets, Well, currently in and we’ll include Las Vegas and Colorado. I mean, Las Vegas and and Arizona. Are you in eight? Nine markets

Eric Estrada 01:35

with those two? It’ll be a eight different markets.

Daren Phillipy 01:39

Fantastic. What is your word chart look like when it comes to running an expansion team? And by the way, for those who don’t know what a hub is and stuff like that, you may need to break that down. You said the hub is in Colorado Springs. What does that look like with your admin in Colorado Springs and the hub? And then what is the organizational chart from there? You can go ahead and sharing that

Eric Estrada 02:01

screen Absolutely. So this is currently what homes of expansion network looks like. So we have expansion teams. Obviously, we’re growing pretty rapidly, a little quicker than I had anticipated, but there’s opportunity, you know, and it is still very much so a shifting market. But we’re we’re kind of just taking the bull by the horns and just doing our best to just implement everything we’ve learned over the years in other markets. And so currently we have the expansion network. We have expansion teams everywhere I’ve kind of laid out, including the states that we anticipate branching out into over the next two to three years. And then we’ve also implemented the indie model. So indie offices, not sure how familiar you guys are with that, but essentially it’s a branch office of the Main Market Center. And so I opened my very own office in northern Colorado Springs, kW Aspire through Keller Williams clients choice roughly about a year ago as well. And so getting the swing of that, obviously, the goal would be to eventually have independent offices through these different market centers in each of these expansion locations, once we build it to a place where, you know, for example, our local hub has gone over the years, we also want to implement some sort of a powered by model, and then a coaching program, a national coaching program. And so all of this is kind of, what are two to, I’d say, total, two to five year plan, and getting all this implemented, we also have a pretty robust internal support team. And so that all starts here. We also have a leadership team that kind of is that, I mean, they’re, they’re the oil behind the machine, you know, essentially, between our agents, our leadership team, and our and our administrative staff, they’re the ones who make the magic happen. They’re the ones that actually do the work each and every day to make sure that we’re operating efficiently and effectively, and so anything from transaction coordinators. We have a total of four transaction coordinators who help across all states. We also have a director of relocation who’s with me here today. He does everything from lead gen to making sure that our agents are making money and that they’re converting business, and that he’s holding them accountable and giving them these opportunities to help them grow. And then we have our expansion director, director Becky Wilson. She’s here with me as well today, and she goes to different markets and looks at those markets and looks at, you know, economic forecasts, and really just try to gather, tries to gather as much information about those markets and those market centers as possible, to see if it’s a viable fit, you know, to see if it’s something we want to that one our system models and tools will be easily implemented, but to where we’re going to get the support on a local level. So. And then we have Alex, who runs our marketing department. We also have a group of mentors within the expansion team as well. And then, you know, on the leadership side, which is more the bottom of this organizational chart, we have a mix of team leads for all of these individual market centers. We have expansion owners and ownership opportunities within each market center, and then coaching and community directors who help us kind of spread the word support our local community through philanthropic endeavors and so on and so forth. So that in a nutshell, is our org chart. It’s pretty well organized, and there’s, there’s still room for growth, right? So you’ll see a couple of these locations or positions that are vacant at the moment. And one, we either need to find the right fit, or two, you know, just waiting for a little more growth before we take that next leap. So

Daren Phillipy 05:56

for sure, for sure now, and I’ve got a couple of questions when it comes to your org chart and your your internal support team, are the majority of them, like, for instance, your transaction coordinators? Are they all based in Colorado Springs or in the hub? Or are they in across the country,

Eric Estrada 06:16

across the country, in in those respective markets?

Daren Phillipy 06:19

Gotcha very and then the rest of them are in in in Colorado Springs. Or do you have some of your hub in other parts of the country?

Eric Estrada 06:28

We do have some of our hub. So our main hub, which is our expansion director, our director of relocation and marketing, that is the core of of our hub here in Colorado Springs, but team leads, transaction coordinators, mentors, those will all be specific to that market. And I think the idea behind it all is we want to not only help the market center grow, but we also want to create opportunities for people in that local market. So if we kind of held it hostage here locally, we wouldn’t be doing justice to those market centers or allowing them the opportunity to grow to a level that we’ve seen here in Colorado Springs.

Daren Phillipy 07:02

Yeah. Now, no, I agree. I love that. And then how large is your admin support team, the behind the scenes? How many people are we talking about? Your Org Chart?

Eric Estrada 07:13

You know, combined five to seven, with half of those admin administrative staff being licensed as well. If you wanted to count coaches and mentors and team leads, we’re looking at about 10 to 12 total.

Daren Phillipy 07:29

Okay, and then how many? How many agents do you have on your team away from the admin?

Eric Estrada 07:34

So we have just over 40 agents right now.

Daren Phillipy 07:37

Gotcha. And And Eric, why? Why did you want to torture yourself by expanding into eight markets and beyond?

Eric Estrada 07:45

You know, I ask myself that question every day. I It’s always a struggle, it’s always a challenge. And

Daren Phillipy 07:51

there’s what’s the motivator, what drives you to expand? Because, first of all, love it, and there is no doubt that you’re aggressively growing. I mean, Becky reached out to me, and she’s an amazing ambassador for for your team, and she told me her vision, what you guys were doing, and super excited about that. What’s that driver? What’s the driver for expanding helping

Eric Estrada 08:15

people I grew up, I don’t want to say less fortunate, but I grew up in a pretty poor family, and so I always had that mentality of of giving back to others. And I think once we you know, I’ve been doing this little over 16 years now, and I’ve I failed many, many times, but I’ve also learned a lot through those failures. And I think that for me, it’s always just been giving back and helping others. And I’m the kind of guy that, you know, I don’t need the whole pie, like if we have something good, I want other people to experience that. I want them to to be able to live fulfilling lives. I want them to be able to use their strengths to implement into something like this and to make their life more fulfilling. And I think the satisfaction of seeing people grow and succeed is is probably the best thing that I could ever get out of life. You know, is just helping people and making sure they’re taken care of and watching them just succeed right by my side. So

Daren Phillipy 09:16

I love it, man, I love it. Let’s bring down this org chart. And let’s get into, how do you feed 40 agents across the country and eight different markets? How do you create those leads? You

Eric Estrada 09:29

know, we talk about the 3l all the time, listings, leads and leverage and leads is how we feed them. You know, I think our industry as a whole, if you don’t have leads, you’re not growing to your full potential. And I think for a lot of people in today’s market, is affording the leads, I think is one of the most challenging things, and it’s taken time, don’t get me wrong. I mean, we’ve had great partnerships with several national companies. Um, in generating those leads, but over time we convert those leads, we’re given more opportunity, and our budget grows and the opportunities grow, and so, yeah, I mean, truthfully, over the last five to 10 years, we’ve just had to slowly start crawling our way up to where we are today. And it’s all about Legion. You know, for our team, you know, we’re changing lives, not only for agents who are great at converting those leads, but for agents who don’t believe in themselves at first. You know, getting into our industry is cut through. It’s a challenge. You know, it’s a very difficult industry to be a part of, and we’re constantly shifting, you know, whether it’s NAR settlement, whether it’s, you know, the market shifting, whether it’s covid, whatever, all the stuff that’s happened over the past five years, it’s constantly evolving. And you have to have some tough skin to be in this game. And it’s not easy. It’s not easy, for sure,

Daren Phillipy 10:55

for sure. So then let’s talk a little bit more about that. So you you didn’t talk specifically. Are they internet leads? Are they? Are they? Isas? Are they? What sources are we talking about when it comes to these leads that you’re partnering up with? I guess your

Eric Estrada 11:14

your partners? Yeah, so we partner with some of the big names, like like Zillow, for example, movoto, which is previously known as ojo. They just changed back to movoto. We partner with realtor.com we partner with Homelight. We partner with at the time, 72 sold. But even those partnerships change over time, right? So they might be something good until you try it, until you try to implement it, you’re not going to know the worth of that company, of that organization, and I’d say some of our strongest are movoto, which is led by Chris Heller. And then we also have, you know, Zillow is obviously, there’s a love, hate relationship with Zillow, and that stays on this call. We look at Zillow as an opportunity. We don’t look at them as competition. We look at them as an opportunity. And they carry us because we carry their leads. And I think you have to have that type of relationship with any business, with any partnership, unless you’re converting the business they don’t want you. And you hear a lot about that today, where you know, you hear Zillow and all these companies like lovoto, they’re getting rid of agents, and it’s causing a stir in the industry. Well, they’re getting rid of agents because they’re not doing their job. They’re not doing what they’re here to do, you know? And so if you are converting it, you’re not seeing that side of it. You’re you’re seeing growth and opportunity, as opposed to the lack thereof. So,

Daren Phillipy 12:40

so are those, are those leads? Is it costing you up front, or those referral fees? So how do you, how do you bankroll that sucker? Because you’ve got lots of different market center, or lots of different markets, and you got to play red light, green light on all of those. How do you bankroll that, that

Eric Estrada 12:56

stuff? You know, I think for us, we’ve never liked the pay on closing model, because you end up paying more to the to those partnerships, to those businesses. So we pay everything up front, but that also gives us more opportunity to hold ourselves accountable. If we’re paying out of pocket upfront every single month for these leads, we’re either going to make or break ourselves. And if it’s kind of a motivator. It’s a driver for us. Where we’re paying for it, we need to convert it, no questions asked. I feel like all these companies that are moving to pay at closing model one, you’re paying them more, but it takes away the motivation. It takes away the the accountability, because you may or may not close that business, whereas it’s coming out of your pocket. It’s coming out of your your family’s meals and vacations and all of that. It’s going to drive you. It’s going to push you, for sure.

Daren Phillipy 13:47

So so then when you go and you decide to go and expand into a market, is, is the lead, the the driving force of I can create leads in this market center, or in this in this market, or is it the person finding a person in that area, or is it the opportunities? What? What’s driving you when it comes to picking out those markets?

Eric Estrada 14:08

It’s a mix of all of it. So we do look at it from an economic standpoint. You know, what kind of activity is happening in this market? Are there people moving to and from? Or are there more people moving out? What does that look like? What does a 510, Year Economic Forecast look like? So really, just, I think that’s the cornerstone of everything that we base our decisions off of. And then I think from there, it’s yeah, you need to find the right leader to help lead this and run with it. And you know who they are. When you meet them, they ask the right questions. A lot of it is driven by success and helping others, as opposed to the numbers and what that looks like. Any team you’re going to have splits, any team you’re going to have an overhead and not That’s not for everybody. You know, there’s some incredible individual agents who are doing the same. Amount of businesses we are, and they’re they’re doing a fantastic job and great job to them. That’s a different type of business model, and you could succeed at either or, but yeah, for us, it’s just fine. You know, looking at it from an economic standpoint, finding the leadership to help tell our story and help implement that in that market, and before all that happens, can we sustain a team in that market? Are there enough leads? Is there enough opportunity there for that? And then obviously, from there, you also talk about listings. You train your agents the right way, and you make sure that everybody’s on the same page and telling the same story. So for

Daren Phillipy 15:37

sure, for sure. So are those aggregators that are coming in, they they’re dumping those leads into your system. Is, is, is you have, are you having a database work? Those are, are the agents expected to do the lead gen what? What are those when it comes to the lead gen portion, your responsibility and the things that you do, and the agents responsibility and the things that they do.

Eric Estrada 16:01

So as far as the leads, I’d say 90% of them, they are direct, warm leads. So they’re coming through to the phone, they’re they’re coming to you. So what makes

Daren Phillipy 16:10

that you as the Rainmaker or you as the agent on your team? So as the agent

Eric Estrada 16:15

on our team, they’re getting direct calls. So the agents have to be trained, so we’re training them. We’re making sure they complete our list, our checklist of items, before they even take a lead, before they pick up a phone. So we’re giving them the script practice. We’re giving them the coaching, the guidance to help position them, you know, in a better place, so that they know how to handle those leads and what’s expected of them. They also signed a two year agreement with our team. And again, it comes back down to accountability. You want this opportunity, you’re going to have to work for it, and it’s not going to happen overnight. You’re going to it’s going to be an ever evolving partnership. And so for us, scheduling, I mean, it kind of comes back down to accountability. Mondays, we have one on ones with every single person on our expansion network, and that’s to give them individualized time. Sometimes they’re in group settings, sometimes they’re individual. But we want them not only to get the script practice into place, we want them to be able to use their peers as leverage and ask them questions and see who’s doing what and what they’re doing and how they’re doing it, to do it well, right? We have team Tuesdays, which is today, we actually just spent all morning in you know, we had our monthly relocation, which is our lead program meeting this morning. We had our weekly team meeting, and that’s everybody across the expansion. And then Wednesdays, we have in person prospecting. So we have people come to the office. We have leads to distribute, and these are all leads that have been kind of dried up, maybe leads that we haven’t been able to successfully convert or get in contact with. And we do cold calling every single Wednesday. And again, it just comes back down to your organization and how you’re holding people accountable. And we’ve done it both ways. We’ve done it where we had one meeting a week and that was it. And you know, now we have three meetings a week, but they’re short, sweet and simple. You know, they’re not two hour long meetings. I mean, you don’t need these long meetings. You just need to, again, show up, hold people accountable and and guide them. You know, I think that’s what lacks in a lot of team, is they, they don’t have the guidance or the support they’re just expected to do and we do do it right by their side. You know, I’ve converted leads before. Our director of relocation has converted leads. We’re talking the talk and walking the walk, if that makes sense. You know, we’re not expecting them to do things we’ve never done before. So love, love

Daren Phillipy 18:43

that, dude. So is there anything else you want to share with us when it comes to your leads portion of your business that you think are important to share? You

Eric Estrada 18:51

know, leads, if you’re if you’re doing it now. I mean, look, look at what you’re doing. You know, are you holding yourself accountable? Are you holding your team accountable? And if you’re not in leads at all, just know it’s going to take time. You’re not going to convert it right away. Be okay pouring money in for six months and letting the work do itself. I mean, you have to do the work, but don’t it’s, it’s, you have to be in it for the long haul. You know, it’s not going to happen overnight, so love

Daren Phillipy 19:23

it. Love it. Well, let’s talk about the listing side of things. You’re you’re in eight markets. You have a, my, I’m assuming, a listing presentation that should be consistent across all markets. Tell us a little bit about, how do you tell the same story, or how do you show the value in your listing presentation all those different markets,

Eric Estrada 19:42

you know, I think for us, it’s more about telling the story. You know, we we are very consistent with Keller Williams. We use the Keller Williams listing presentations. I don’t think we have to reinvent the will. But what I think the listing presentation lacks is is a story. Say, you know, who are you? Why should somebody choose you? And not just my guarantee to you? You know that we have in every single Keller Williams presentation, but you honestly, you, what have you done? What has the team done? And I think when people understand and see a bigger vision, when they see that you’re plugged into different markets, and even if it’s not you, in particular, as an agent doing all of that, you’re a part of that story. And for us, you know, we’ve always touted, uh, client experience and agent experience, and how that resonates not only within our team, but within our local community. And I think you hear that too much nowadays, where you hear teams and businesses and organizations saying, it’s about experience, and it is, but what are you doing to create that experience for us? It’s, it’s relationships. You know, we do private screenings throughout the year. We do fall festivals where hundreds of our clients come and spend a day at the farm, and they get free pumpkins, and there’s photography and there’s video, and there’s bounce houses and hay rides. And I mean, we we go that extra step to just create an experience that’s unlike any other I remember that we did back right before covid, when frozen two came out, we did a private screening. And sure, you can do a private screening, anybody can do a private screening. But what does that experience look like for us? It was having every single character there. We have videos on our on our YouTube channel of that event, and it’s you have to take it a step further. You can’t just show up and expect the magic to happen you have. There has to be a process behind everything. And for us, it was having all the characters there, meeting and greeting our clients. It was going in front of the theater, and even though you get nervous and you don’t want to do it, you know, welcoming everybody and telling them how thankful you are that they’re there and that they’re supporting your business and picking up the phone after the fact and thanking them for joining you. And I mean, we’ve we’re not perfect, but we’ve perfected our marketing processes, and that comes with follow up that comes with a monthly pop by program that all of our agents have access to, so anything from local events to monthly pop by programs to regular social marketing. I mean, you kind of have to have it all, and you have to do it all. If not, you’re falling behind, you know, and it’s hard, it’s hard work, but leverage the support you have.

Daren Phillipy 22:32

So when you say local, when you say local events, are we talking? Each one of the markets have a local event, and it’s consistent, like you’re having a viewing party or whatever, and you’re doing that in all the different markets. Is that

Eric Estrada 22:48

correct? That’s correct. So perfect example, July 3, fourth and fifth, we’re doing private screenings of Despicable Me for and so we have taken that event across every single market. We have someone dressing up as a minion for that event. They’re going to be taking pictures with the kids. We’re giving away freebies. We always give away something free at our events too, because there’s value behind it, and there’s an experience. So this time around, we did a mini Funko Pops and keychains, and it’s all minion themed. It’s all Despicable Me themed. But people go and, I mean, it’s crazy. You have a line of 100 people, and they want that, that free item. They want something free. And they’ll wait there for hours. You’ll tell them not to get there till six o’clock, and they’re there at 330 then that afternoon, they want to be the first ones there. And again, that’s it’s kind of exciting. Like, I don’t know if you guys remember the days when you would actually go to a venue to purchase concert tickets. You didn’t have Ticketmaster, you know, AXS tickets or anything like that. You’d actually go wait in line. And sometimes there were lotteries, and there was excitement behind what you were doing. And creating that excitement in our business is what we live for, you know, it’s what we want to do.

Daren Phillipy 24:01

You know, that’s super smart. So no lie. I was just thinking about back in the day, and when I was in college, Ken and crows had a concert that was for free, but you had to show up, and you had to stand in line. And it was in a created I remember my dad was in town and and we stood in this long line. There’s 5000 people there, and it was an event and stuff like that. And I stood there probably three hours my old dad and we just hung out. And you’re hanging out with your accounting crows, people, whatever, and, and if you’re able to produce that, that’s pretty dang cool, dude.

Eric Estrada 24:32

It is. It’s really cool. And again, implementing that, I mean, it’s not rocket science, right? But again, you could, you see this across every industry. You can show up with a booth and just stand there and smile and welcome people and check them in, or you can go all in, all in and just make it an unforgettable night for those, Eric,

Daren Phillipy 24:51

what concert were you standing in line for?

Eric Estrada 24:54

So I’m going to be honest. I’m going to be honest. So I was a big wrestling fan when I was younger. I’ll.

Daren Phillipy 25:00

To try this down cool by saying music, but it was a pro Rey Mysterio. I get it. There you go. Rey Mysterio with his mask off, everybody, yeah.

Eric Estrada 25:09

So funny story, if you know Rey Mysterio, you know Eddie Guerrero. So, yeah, we related to Eddie Guerrero and his family. And my uncle actually taught Eddie how to wrestle. I mean, it’s long story, but that’s for another another meeting. No,

Daren Phillipy 25:25

I’ve got nothing else to do. Everybody says, let’s talk about Eddie Guerrero. No, that is fantastic. So pro wrestling, huh?

Eric Estrada 25:32

Pro Wrestling, all about it, all about it. And we would go at six in the morning, and tickets wouldn’t sell till 11 o’clock, and we’d wait there the whole time. Look at that.

Daren Phillipy 25:44

My pro wrestling need.

Eric Estrada 25:45

I’ll borrow that from you one day.

Daren Phillipy 25:49

Oh, that is awesome. Okay, I love to stay focused. So is there anything else you need to cover about the listing side of things?

Eric Estrada 25:57

No, no, no. Listings like I said, Don’t reinvent the will, but be confident. We were talking about credibility today during our team meeting. You have to, you have to be credible. And if you’re not, how are you going to share your value with others? And so that’s what our industry is talking about right now. I encourage you guys to take a full class. KW is offering incredible classes on the value we bring as agents, and it’s now more important than ever to make sure you know what you what your value is, what your worth

Daren Phillipy 26:27

is. So yeah, that value squared class is so good. Talking about being able to articulate your value to your clients is no doubt. As the industry evolves, you got it. You got to be able to articulate that value. But let’s talk about, you’ve got a bunch of you got 40 agents. You’ve got 10 to 15 or eight to 15 admin. What is, what does it look like to lead that crew?

Eric Estrada 26:57

You know, it’s a lot of trial and error. And I say, like, I said, we have failed. We failed miserably. I mean, we were to the point where, yeah, Zillow was kicking us off. All these different companies didn’t want us anymore, and that was kind of the no brainer, where it’s like, well, do we want to continue failing, or do we want to succeed? And it was that reality check that that really took us to another level. And it helped us break through a ceiling, you know, and it helped us realize that this is not easy, but if we put our minds together. And I think for me, everybody has good and bad qualities, I always tried to perfect the system, which is impossible. And so what I started doing over the past few years was identifying individual strengths. They might not be good at lead gen, they might not be good at conversion, they might not be good at marketing, but that’s okay, because we have somebody to help them with those things. So again, our whole idea of having an expansion team is, how can we leverage one another to give our team members more time with their families, but most importantly, aside from that, is also to give them more time to focus on their clients. You know, forget the marketing. We have somebody to do that for you. Forget the lead gen. We have somebody to do that for you. All you have to do is pick up the phone. Yes, you have to know how to carry a conversation. Yes, you have to understand what questions to ask and the scripts behind all of that. But I think our industry gets so overwhelming with everything you have to do, and now you’re throwing AI into the mix, and it’s overwhelming. You feel like you have all these things to do, but not enough time, and you might not be good at some of those things, leverage, leverage, leverage, leverage, so important for us. So,

Daren Phillipy 28:44

so then, how do you, how do you organize your leverage? Yeah, you, you said you have three meetings, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. If I believe that, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, correct, how do you coordinate that and who’s leading that? What is, what does that look like?

Eric Estrada 28:59

So it’s a mix. I lead Tuesday meetings, but not without everybody else’s support. We also have our leadership team, which consists of expansion owners, some of our coaches and mentors, some of our team leads. They run our accountability meetings. And so it’s a different thing every single week, on Zoom, on Zoom and in person. Some offices get together, some teams get together, but we want it to be accessible by everybody. And then Mondays is all leads and relocation. Sure Sean runs that ship. And again, it truly is like they’re not hearing from me all the time. They need to hear from everybody else on the team as well. And sometimes that’s agents. You know, sometimes we have a rock star agent of the month, and we’re making sure that they’re plugging into the conversation. And again, there’s value in what everybody brings to the table. Be okay with that. Open yourself up to it and let them shine. Let them shine.

Daren Phillipy 29:52

So who are your key people that you need to have to lead your. Expansion teams. I saw that you have, you’re lacking a director of operations. We are. How are you able to function without that? So Sean,

Eric Estrada 30:09

in a sense, is kind of our Director of Operations, slash relocation director, and that’s because he’s so involved with everybody and all the day to day processes and but, you know, we did have a director of operations in place. Wasn’t the best fit. And I think in any business, you also have to be okay letting people go. You have to be okay, and you have to be strong enough to identify when somebody’s not a good fit, because that will be the biggest obstacle in your way from breaking through that next ceiling, from growing. And I’m actually taking a coaching session right now with Matt brutal, and it’s the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, which I’m sure you guys are all aware of. And I think one thing that just sink in to everything we’ve done over the years is I want to say it was one of the first two laws, and they said, What do you do when you take over an organization? What do you do when you merge or when you acquire business? And the first thing he said is, I get rid of the leader. I get rid of the leader. And that resonated with me, because it’s like, yeah, I mean, somebody could have a title, somebody could have an image, but are they doing the work? And a title is great, but unless you’re converting, unless you’re doing the work, unless you’re producing results, it means nothing, you know. And so we try to look past the titles. I think everybody pours in equally on our team, having Sean, you know, kind of oversee operations, and our lead generation and our partnerships, and then having Becky making those connections with market centers across the country and marketing, helping our agents, day in and day out, just build a brand, you know, build their own brand, but also keep our team brand and our expansion brand flourishing. I mean, we can’t do it without each other, you know. And I think as you continue to grow, as long as you feel that, that that that sense of camaraderie with each of those individuals, you know you have something good going, and sometimes you don’t, and that’s where you have to pivot, and you have to make a change on that org chart, and it’s okay. I mean, we’re going to constantly fail. We have to, we have to,

Daren Phillipy 32:24

let me ask you a question, if it’s okay for me to dig a little bit deeper on this. Because I think, I think when you’re running a big team like you’re running, you’ve got people who are talent. You hire them, they start doing what they’re supposed to do, what you expected, and then they start showing you that they aren’t doing what you expected them to do. Those expectations are not being met, and then you need to part ways. How? How long did it take for you to be able to see that your your person, was not the right person?

Eric Estrada 33:00

I mean, initially, it took me years to figure that out, and I could always see it, and I always sensed it. But I think after that first parting of ways with somebody you thought you were going to be in business with forever, it was the best thing to ever happen for both of us, right? I think we were both holding each other back, and so we do have an accountability system in place right now, and I think we’re getting better at just again, not reinventing the will, but taking the 3060, 90 more serious. I think within 90 days, you should know by then if somebody’s a good fit or not. I’ll lie to say that there are people on the team that maybe we’re not the best fit for right now, and sometimes we let them naturally go, as long as there’s not any turmoil or any you know, as long as it’s not causing friction within the team. But we’re getting better at it, and I’d say 90 days to six months, if you haven’t figured it out by six months. I mean, that’s too long. You know, 90 days, I think, is a good, a good time period.

Daren Phillipy 34:08

So so somebody does a 3060, 90, and they are a culture fit, but falling short on the 90 days. Do you keep them around?

Eric Estrada 34:22

It depends what they bring to the table. So if they’re let’s just say they’re producing five to 10 transactions a year. It’s all personal, but they’re not great at converting. Maybe it’s them coming off of our LEAD program and them not messing those metrics up and not bringing the rest of the team down. But we’re going to be okay with them doing their five to 10, and maybe they’re really focused on helping our community program thrive and prosper, and maybe they’re comfortable with those five to 10. We’re not going to run those types of people away. But if it’s a repetitive issue, you know, we had somebody, it was all about the numbers, and it was all about what, what value we’re going to bring to him. And. Not an equal partnership. We’ve had those situations where, yeah, 60 days in, we’re like, hey, it’s not a good fit, you know, but we wish you the best, and you just have to do it. Sometimes, if not, you’re just, you’re kidding yourself, you know, you’re just going to create a an ever revolving door of people coming and going. And I’m proud to say, we, we’ve let go of one agent over the past 18 months, one agent. We had another that joined a different organization because it was right for them. Everybody else has stayed, you know, and I think it just comes back down to you. Just as much as we focus on relationships with our clients. We need to do the same with our teams and our offices and our brokerages, because if you don’t know about somebody’s family, or you don’t know what their favorite candy bar is or what their favorite drink is, whatever that looks like, again, you’re not you’re not trying hard enough, you know. And we we have all of our agents fill out a questionnaire before they join and we get to know about them. And so we know when their kids birthdays are, we know when their pets birthdays are. We know when they have anniversaries. We know what their favorite food and candy bar is, and soda or alcoholic beverage or non alcoholic. I mean, we know everything about them the second they walk in that door, and we use that as leverage to get to know them even more so well.

Daren Phillipy 36:23

Just to answer your question, s’mores candy bar is definitely on the top. It’s hard to find. I know that’s what you were asking. Write that down, what? What’s, what’s, what’s a mistake that you’ve learned most from.

Eric Estrada 36:39

I think the mistake the biggest mistake, right for me, at least, was being too controlling. I felt early on in my career, I felt like I had to do it all. I felt like I had all the right answers and I didn’t need anybody else. And it was it was defeating. It was defeating over time, you’re just digging yourself in a deeper and deeper hole. And one, you’re not being a leader. Two, you’re not being approachable. Three, I mean, you’re in it for yourself, you know. And even though I always had that mentality of giving back, I gave back in other ways. But yeah, I was a control freak. I controlled every aspect of our business. And over the past, I’d say five, six years, I’ve learned to let go, and I’ve learned just it’s the hardest thing. I mean, you have to find people to leverage, and I think that’s the most important thing. If I’m not good at process a I need somebody for that, and I need to be able to learn to trust them. It’s not easy. It doesn’t happen overnight. But letting go of leads like Sean, I mean, he knows more than anybody. He’s been riding this roller coaster with me for 15 years, and he’s seen the good, the bad and the ugly. And I think what it down to is, yeah, you have to, you have to just dig deep within yourself and just say, you know, what am I good at? What do I need help with? And be okay, letting go what you’re not good at and be okay, identifying things that maybe hurt a little bit, you know, it does it? It’s not the best feeling when you try to find the bad qualities you have, but it’s important if you want to grow. So yeah,

Daren Phillipy 38:17

I’m pretty good at that for myself, not for you, Eric, what have you learned from leading your team in the past 12 months?

Eric Estrada 38:26

Past 12 months? I would say it’s not a 5050 street like I hear that a lot is you pour from 50% I pour in 50% and we’ll meet in the middle. Now you both have to give 100% you know, if you’re not giving 100% on both sides, it’s probably not going to work out. You both have to want that prize just as much as the other person. And you’ll, you’ll find your people, and it’ll take time, and you’re going to go through people that you you think they’re the best, and maybe you’re not the best for them. It goes both ways, you know, but again, both pouring 100% or more and you’re going to have something good, you’re going to have something good.

Daren Phillipy 39:07

What do you feel like you need to learn over the next 12 months?

Eric Estrada 39:11

I think, honestly, I think I need to learn to let go a little bit more, because that’s something I struggle with every single day. But I think being okay slowing down as well, like we’re growing, we’re expanding, everything’s great, but it’s only going to go so far with the people we have and just being okay to slow down. You know, it doesn’t have to be opening a new market center every quarter. It doesn’t have to be, you know, let it happen naturally. Let it, you know happen when it happens. And I’m a firm believer that there’s a right place and time for everything. Okay, Russia,

Daren Phillipy 39:47

last last, hard hitting one and all the rest are going to be soft. What advice do you have to other really big teams like yourself, something that you feel like you’ve supervised? Able information like, man, do this or look out for this, or whatever. What is your advice to other big teams? You

Eric Estrada 40:07

know, the biggest advice I think I could have for other big teams is understand your processes. I think for us, we kind of winged it for a very long time, and we were afraid of pouring in the time and the energy of looking at our organization and gathering the feedback needed to make it better. So what we’ve done every we do it every we roughly every 12 to 18 months, we send out a survey and it goes to everybody on the team and feedbacks the most intimidating thing to business owner, because you don’t want to see or hear the bad and so ask your team for feedback. Ask them for feedback. Ask them how things are going. We’re due for one this June or July, mid year, actually. And I think that’s important. You know, ask for feedback. Get better and take the criticism constructively. They’re They’re your people. They know you better. They you should know them better, and if you don’t, then you’re probably not doing it right. So get the feedback, adjust, pivot, do it all.

Daren Phillipy 41:12

Okay. I love that. So this one, I asked a really stupid question, and I can’t get over how great your hair looks and and is this something that you cut yourself? Who’s your who’s your barber? Because I think everybody on here would agree you, you’ve got a great cut.

Eric Estrada 41:32

So my barber, she has been doing my hair for close to 20 years now. I have getting ready to list her daughter’s house. We buy each other Christmas gifts every year. We know everything about each other. And, yeah, I mean, it’s relationship building right at its finest. I mean, she’s been there for and I’ll still drive 30 minutes just to get the haircut, you know?

Daren Phillipy 41:56

Well, I wish I had that good looking haircut. I just don’t, dude, I shake my hand. I got lots of hair. I shaved head. Um, alright, well, let’s I’m going to go ahead and open up the room. Raise your digital hand if any of you guys have any questions for and I should have told you guys earlier, I usually do, but got wound up with Eddie Guerrero and this whole pro wrestling thing and and stuff. So if you have a digital or a question, raise your digital hand, and we’re going to go ahead and get going. And then we probably have another 1010, minutes, 15 Max, or whatever. So look at Ivy’s saying I gotta fix my hair too. It’s going to judgment another man with amazing hair, Shawn Marion, everybody. Man,