Episode 24: Christina & Company

Lessons in Generosity, Grit, and Growth from Christina Ward’s Thriving Real Estate Team

Recently on the OT Only Teams in Real Estate podcast, we had the pleasure of hosting Christina Ward from Christina and Company, a standout real estate team in Boise, Idaho. Christina’s story is full of incredible insights, shaped by her unique journey from a college volleyball player to one of the most generous and successful real estate team leaders. Here’s a look at the key lessons she shared about generosity, grit, and growth in real estate.

Generosity as a Growth Strategy

For Christina, real estate is more than transactions—it’s a way to make a positive impact on her community. With a bold mission to be “the most generous real estate team in the world,” Christina and her team have a tradition of donating their 100th commission each year to a nonprofit chosen by their clients. They even come together annually to revamp a home for a local family in need, enlisting the support of their network of vendors and clients in the process. This community-centered approach not only strengthens client relationships but fosters a loyal network of advocates eager to refer her team to others.

Christina says, “Our clients get to vote on the nonprofits, making them part of our mission. This connection keeps them engaged with our team’s purpose and makes a bigger impact.” Her story reminds us that when business aligns with purpose, it leads to deeper connections and sustained growth.

Weathering Adversity with Grit

Running a top real estate team comes with inevitable challenges. Recently, Christina had to jump back into an operations role unexpectedly when a key team member faced a medical emergency. Instead of letting this setback derail her, she took the opportunity to reestablish systems and standards, ensuring her team’s resilience through future obstacles.

“I thought a lot about it, and decided that this is happening for me, not to me. It’s an opportunity to grow,” Christina reflected, attributing her resilience to lessons learned from her time as a college athlete. Christina’s story underlines the importance of grit and adaptability in building a sustainable business.

Intentional Leadership Development

Christina understands that her team’s success relies heavily on her commitment to developing her people. To achieve this, she is now dedicating more time to hiring and mentoring key team members, like her new Director of Operations. By empowering her hires to step into leadership roles, Christina is laying the groundwork for her team to scale without sacrificing their signature level of service.

“My goal is to spend less time at the kitchen table selling and more time teaching my team how to lead,” Christina said. Using frameworks like the “four conversations,” she ensures her team members receive regular feedback, setting them up for success. Her approach demonstrates that long-term growth is deeply rooted in nurturing future leaders within the business.

Balancing Sales and Service

Christina’s success isn’t solely due to her skills as a listing agent—it’s also about the balance she’s struck between sales and service. Following a 50/50 model, half of her team is dedicated to operations and administration, while the other half focuses on sales. This ensures that her clients always receive a high standard of service, even as the business expands.

“We’ve always been 50/50 because we’re referral-based and service-focused,” Christina explained. She strives to create a supportive environment where agents can thrive, and her dedication has allowed her team members to earn significant incomes. Her experience showcases the power of maintaining balance within a team, giving both sales and service the attention they need.

Expanding Reach Through Referrals

Although Christina’s business has always been driven by referrals, she recognizes the potential in diversifying her lead generation strategy. By hiring an inside sales team, she aims to expand her reach, allowing her team to connect with even more clients.

Through a robust 52-touch program, she stays in close contact with her clients via newsletters, phone calls, and personalized touches. This outreach ensures that her brand remains at the forefront of her clients’ minds, resulting in consistent referrals and repeat business. Her journey exemplifies the benefits of maintaining strong client relationships while embracing new opportunities for growth.

A Final Thought

Christina Ward’s journey reminds us that growth in real estate is about more than just closing deals—it’s about creating a meaningful impact. By prioritizing generosity, leading with resilience, and staying true to her values, Christina has built a team that not only thrives in business but also uplifts her community. Real estate professionals looking to elevate their teams can learn from Christina’s example: when you lead with purpose, the success of your business can become a powerful force for good.

Transcription

00:00

Welcome to the OT only teams in real estate.

Christina Ward 00:15

What are you doing right now in your business that feels like you’re doing it for the first time, but you do it every day. It’s like something that you do all the time, but you’re doing you’re being an entrepreneur around it. And what is the system? Just one thing, like everybody list five, but you take it one at a time. What’s the system that could be where this every single time this happens? If you would give your time and energy and confidence to the team that you give to the clients, your business would grow exponentially. Have standards and hold and be clear about them, and hold people and be confident about it. And it’s okay if it doesn’t work out, because it already hasn’t worked out. Anyways,

01:09

here’s your host, Daren Phillipy, Hey

Daren Phillipy 01:14

everybody, welcome to this week’s ot only team for real estate agents. My name is Daren Phillipy, and I’m your host, and this week we did it. Another one guys. Let me tell you something. When I started to when I had the idea of doing the OT where I was gonna be talking to teams that were just amazing, I didn’t expect that actually they’d be as good as they are, and I didn’t think they were gonna be as open and sharing as they are. So I want you guys to be ready for one of your guys’s favorites, because I know she was one of mine, Christina Ward, Christina and company in Boise, Idaho. She is, she is such a cool lady. She runs her business awesome off of massive drive to give back to the community, and one of the things we hit her at a perfect time where she’s able to share some really valuable insights and experience from having to transition from an admin into her holding her holding the fort by her own and rebuilding that team and her admin admin staff. So she’s so cool. She’s so open. She shares some great nuggets for us. You guys are going to love it. She’s so cool. She She played college, college volleyball for Boise State, and we talk a little sports there, but not a whole lot, but just enough to make me happy. So you guys can love this. Take massive notes. Listen to this sucker. Listen to it again, and let’s see what we can learn from Christina. You guys are going to love it. Um, the last last note before I get into this whole thing. Sorry, you guys got really excited for a second last note. Um, this is the last week from this point moving forward, we’re going to be moving the OT to noon, Pacific Standard Time. So you’re going to want to check your calendar, make sure that you move all of that stuff around and join our room Tuesday at noon from this point moving forward. So there you go. I will see you guys after the OT. Thanks for watching. Alright guys, it is that time for the OT Christina, Ward of Christina, and company from Boise, Idaho, rocking us today. I’m so stoked to hang out with you. I We fought hard. We fought hard to get you here. We’ve had you booked a couple of kind times, but apparently Gary Keller gets first right of refusal. And so we’re so stoked to hang out with you today. Thanks for hanging out.

Christina Ward 03:46

Thank you. Yeah, Gary always changes the dates on me, so it’s like, hard to time block, but he’s like, Oh, we just, you know, change something. And so we all 100 people have to reschedule for him.

Daren Phillipy 03:58

So for all of those who are listening, but don’t know exactly. So Gary Keller has a top 100 and he has a top 50, and Christina, you’re in his top 100 is that correct? Yeah.

Christina Ward 04:09

And I think it’s more like top 400 but you have to do 1.7 million. The line is about 1.7 million. GCI, and have something that he wants to learn from, so we can share it with everyone. Like the idea is that he can’t be one on one with all 170,000 of us. So if he learns from our businesses and then creates models and systems or playbooks, then that helps all of us. That’s the point of it, right?

Daren Phillipy 04:32

Well, and you know, it’s interesting that kind of one of the the ideas that came that created this. Ot Gary Keller during COVID, said the reason why I know so much about real estate is because I interview top producers every day. I need to do that. And so here we are doing it. So Christina, tell us a little bit about you and about your business, and then we’ll go into the next step.

Christina Ward 04:58

I’ve been selling real estate in Boise. For 18 years. It was my only job right out of college. So I was a college athlete. I didn’t really have very many jobs because I was an athlete. Like that was my job. I was babysitter, barista, you know, kind of an entrepreneur. Actually growing up, I had, like, kids clubs, swimming lessons. I like making money. I like helping people and doing great work and then getting compensated and having no limit to the compensation. So I like entrepreneurship, so I babysat a family of Realtors, and that’s how I got into real estate at 22 and that was before the Great Recession. So I got to sell in my 20s. Through the Great Recession, I learned how to sell and produce at that time, and then took a class called Bold, because, honestly, I was about to get out because I hadn’t, hadn’t sold anything for six months, and oh 908, I was fine. For some reason. Oh nine was the harder year for me. Um, so I was writing my resume. I moved to Keller Williams from a boutique brokerage. Took bold, and I was just like, all right, this is my last chance. And then I did the homework as an athlete, like the coach flew in, I invested $799 I almost didn’t have so I did my 100 contacts a week. I did the affirmations. I did the affirmations for two years. Actually that homework. I did the homework that they tell you to do, and then that three months later, after bold sold seven houses in a month. And I never done that before in my 20s. And then I was like, oh, Keller Williams is legit. Bold is legit. I’m a lead generation works. And so I started just lead generating to my database for years, kind of building out of the recession. That’s why I took market share in my 30s. I started mid 30s, I started having babies, so I learned how to leverage. I’d already started to leverage my business through people, but I had to, because I was going to be a mom, and nursing is a part time job, and being a mom is a full time job. So I learned I was I learned how to how to I was learning how to lead. I was going from sales person to leader. And in my 40s now my goal is to look to. I think legacy is, like, overused. That’s like, an annoying word, but to make an impact on the world, it’s more I don’t think the transaction is doing it for me anymore. Like I can list I can I’m a really good listing agent, but it’s not good enough. So I want to make a difference in the world, and my goal is to give a million dollars in one year. Our team’s known for now. Used to be known for being like the best service, like referral based business, right? We do 120 550 sales a year, all by referral. And we’re working on becoming known for being the most generous real estate team in Boise, and with the goal to be the most generous team in the world, we donate our 100th commission to local nonprofits, and we make over a family’s house in need every year. Love that.

Daren Phillipy 07:46

No No wonder everybody’s been dying to have you. Christina, you played my guest volleyball in college. We’re at

Christina Ward 07:54

Boise State. Oh,

Daren Phillipy 07:59

you’re still a good person. We’ve last 12 months, my notes say that you closed 276 sides, 150 3 million in volume. That’s wrong. Well, that’s just so you know, this is what I did when we were going to talk a couple while ago. So what’s your numbers? Now?

Christina Ward 08:18

We did 124 units last year’s 80 million in sales, all by referral. This year, I think we’re gonna get lucky to get to 100 so we’re going to get to 100 because we’re going to donate our 100th commission.

Daren Phillipy 08:30

That’s right, that’s right. I love it. I love it. Well, then tell, tell me a little bit about your org chart. What does that look like?

Christina Ward 08:37

Well, so what it’s supposed to look like, or what it is

Daren Phillipy 08:42

weird. There’s a book that talks about what it’s supposed to look like. Does it look like?

Christina Ward 08:48

I’ve had some major turnover on the operation side. The last year, I actually had a medical emergency that happened with a team member that where she she was my right hand, she had to be gone in a day. And so since then, it’s been almost like triage for a year and year and a half. So what, I think, what would run the business, the very best would be a director of operations and a couple of virtual assistants in the Philippines, and maybe a transaction manager. But at this point, right now, as we’re rebuilding the operations again, I don’t I only have the two virtual assistants in the Philippines, we’re running without anyone, so I’m about to make an offer to a director of operations and and then she’ll be re growing the business, and then we’ll TC out our transactions, and then eventually hire a transaction manager. Great. I really need to hire one person at a time and really develop each person, like, really slow down and spend time with that person. Because I don’t, I just go, like, you’re hired good. And then I’ll move on to, like, selling and stuff, doing fun stuff, like doing a home makeover. So I do all these distracted, distraction things. It’s easy. Yeah, on the sales side, I’m the listing agent, and then we have. Have three buyers agents, but I just asked one to leave a team because we just weren’t a fit. So she’s amazing, but we weren’t a bit so we have two buyers agents in order to get to our goals. Because our goal is we’re not going to hit this year, but to do 175 200 to work our way up to giving the million, right, we have to make a lot of profit to do that, we’re going to be hiring a lot more agents to do that, like, it’s not going to be me giving a million dollars, you know, gonna take a lot more people?

Daren Phillipy 10:30

Yeah, we, that’s why, that’s why we’re here, is to figure out a way to give in life by design, right? Let’s, let’s talk a little bit about leads. Where the heck do you get your leads? I know you have an amazing touch program. How do you get your leads in your business?

Christina Ward 10:48

So we have a 5052, touch. Can we have to show it to you? I would love

Daren Phillipy 10:53

to see it. We got, yeah, I guarantee you lots of people would love to see that. Okay,

Christina Ward 11:00

so we do two six, so all of our business comes from referral repeat, and my phone just rings so people that have already worked with us in the past, or that have told someone about us or heard about, you know, heard about us through a referral, usually calls and says, I need to buy a house. I need to sell a house, or I need help. Like yesterday I was helping someone with a divorce. Or always, like helping people all the time, like helping, helping, helping. So we do an email newsletter. I get it from by referral only or not, email print newsletter. It’s like a clean cosmopolitan to save money. We moved it from 12 times a year to six because it’s printed. We said we mail it to about 2500 people. So it’s expensive. I have 2000 past clients. There’s a lot of people we need to mail to 12 email newsletters. I don’t know what this looks What’s this? There’s a link that’s about what it looks like.

Daren Phillipy 11:55

Yeah, you are currently the Director of Operations,

Christina Ward 11:59

yes, yeah. I made this, yeah. Oh, it’s fascinating. We do, like, Okay, this, this is a good example. We we do a market update, evidence of success that we show people we’re selling a lot of houses. So I don’t have to tell them we’re selling a lot of houses. That’s embarrassing. We teach classes. We are humans. We are, you know, Ward, family update. Client says something about us, and then we show them the houses. That’s all. It’s the same thing for years and years and years. My My advice around this is to just do something and do it consistently, and then, yeah, sometimes I look at it, I’m like, oh, that could be better, but we just do it, um, handwritten notes, phone calls. It’s gone down to four a year just to MVPs. David. It’s too big for me to call the whole thing, and I don’t. People don’t answer their phone anymore. It’s hard for me to even get 12 contacts a day. I used to get 20 contacts a day. It’s just hard. So dialer text, I text people to set appointments to call. I can talk. I cannot set a listing or a buyer appointment without a phone, usually without a conversation about their motivation. So I’m constantly videoing my face. Hey, I’m so introduce myself. When can we, you know, set up a time to talk, and then we get on the phone, and then that’s when we set an appointment. And then we have reasons to call. Nobody calls without a reason. I mean, I know. So what are your home projects that you’re working on? How you know, who can I refer to help? So it’s like a connector call. We want to be like your financial planner. Can we do a review of your assets? Do you need a quick market analysis? How many homes do you own? Like, we just asked them a whole bunch of questions. Follows. We’re grateful for you. I usually am really specific with like, You referred me three clients that have made a big impact on my life. Thank you. Without you, I would have never met those three people. So we’re only saying thank you. And then what are your real estate plans for the next year? And then we do our home makeover. That’s the pillar of our business. So pretty much whatever we do to get a house ready for sale, we do in one day for a family in need. All right, I could do a whole another class on this. This take way too long for me to explain the details, but pretty much our database nominates a family. We pick the family, we clean, paint landscape window, wash carpet, clean like everything we do. To list a home, a stagers, Kevin came in and like, huge up the house. We put them up in a hotel. The next morning, they come see it just like a reality show, and we all cry together. So cute. We do a summer barbecue. We do a masquerade ball for our MVPs. It’s a black tie, fully hosted. That’s our most expensive party. Almost everything else the Home Makeover is free. Everyone donates. Nobody’s allowed to be a part of my home makeover and get on my database list. My email list is 5000 so like Terry’s Tree Service donated to take away two dead trees, they’re. Logo gets in front of all my clients. So that’s free. They don’t charge for that, or I don’t pay for that. And then, yeah, the mask grade ball is pretty expensive. It’s like a $10,000 party, but it’s like an open bar and food and black tie and masks required. Eye masks required. So fun. And then pie giving we do, like what all the realtors do. But I feel like I started it because I did it 15 years ago. I copied someone, though, um, the only, the only thing I didn’t copy was the home makeover. I don’t know who else does that, but it’s

Daren Phillipy 15:33

a super awesome idea. I love how I love how I love how you said that you let, let your database give give nominations. That’s so cool.

Christina Ward 15:45

Yeah, and our database, also, this isn’t, it’s not on here our 100th home or 100th sale commission giveaway to nonprofits. Our database, our team votes on their favorite nonprofits. And then we have like, seven. And then if we send out, like, our 100th sales, about to come out, come up, you know, so lots of touches around that, which nonprofit is your do you care about the most? And people vote, so it’s like a percentage. It was $22,000 commission last year. And then, like Idaho suicide got 4000 they were the highest voted one. And then catch, which was for homelessness in Idaho, in Boise, got like 3500 so it’s all based on votes. And then that’s actually a capture of contact information, because people forward it and said, like the nonprofits, especially, they say, vote, vote for us. So we build our data. I mean, we get a huge database from people voting on our nonprofits. So

Daren Phillipy 16:43

you’re working out of your database. How many? Again,

Christina Ward 16:47

there’s 5000 emails and 2500 addresses. Okay,

Daren Phillipy 16:56

the phone, the phone just rings. You don’t have a system. It’s just doing this gives you your business that you have. Is that correct?

Christina Ward 17:03

Yes, I do a lot of lead follow up. I don’t do I do lead generation, I guess to if like those four phone calls to my MVPs, which is 200 people. My MVPs are people that I know, guaranteed they’re going to work with us if they need buyer real estate help, I even ask them, like, Hey, you’re my MVP. Like, this means that, like, we’re always working together forever. It’s okay if you change your mind and you want to go work with someone else. I just want to know so you can be my MVP or not, and then, and then get invited to the master grade ball. I’d like to do more for them, but I just don’t have any other plans right today without very much staff.

Daren Phillipy 17:45

That was my dating tip technique. When I was dating my wife said, we’re going to marry each other eventually, eventually,

Christina Ward 17:53

we just need to know, I don’t really care. I just need to know, are you my MVP or not? So they refer, they refer all the time to us. They work with us all the time. It’s like they’re on our payroll, you know, like they just go out of their way to refer. They’re just those awesome people. And I think that, like, there’s some people that are just at nor natural advocates, and there’s some people that need to be taught how to be advocates and asked, that’s why we need to ask, like, what are your real estate plans for 2025 for example, and then there’s some people that will never refer. They’re just not like they don’t want to take that risk. But the more that we can have systems where we deliver the same thing every time, even if it’s not amazing, it’s just like, consistent systems and delivery of service, the better chance that we get referrals, because people don’t like to go take a risk on you all you know, like they’re, if they’re not sure we’re going to do a great job, they’re not going to refer them. They’re just going to keep their mouth shut.

Daren Phillipy 18:52

Yeah, no doubt that that is, that is the bomb. Let’s I know these guys are going to have some questions about that later on in the Q and A section, what? Tell me a little bit about your listings, and how do you get listings? And you you have a couple things that that really separate yourself from from everyone else.

Christina Ward 19:12

So listings, what I realized a few years ago, because I my business has been more buyer heavy, especially starting in my 20s, it was just more natural to work with buyers, because I was just young and, I mean, I listed houses, but I made so many mistakes in my 20s. I mean, they should know

Daren Phillipy 19:31

what the 20s are for. Yeah,

Christina Ward 19:32

I just didn’t like I would feel they told me they didn’t have a lot of money, and then I’d feel bad about saying you should paint the whole inside of the house, you know, like there would just be like this. It was a maturity thing. It was a confidence thing that I just struggled with listings. And then a few years ago, I realized I was like, good at it after 18 years, I’m like, Oh, but I wasn’t. I was wondering, how many kitchen tables Am I missing out on being on from not being. Loud about it. You know, there’s louder agents in my market, and then they even will say that their luxury. And I’m not, I guess that’s what people say behind my back. And I’m like, I sell so much. I sell luxury. I just don’t only select for yourself at all because it’s referral based. Like, we’re gonna sell a manufactured home. And we did sell the highest volume home ever in this area, $6.2 million to a Tony Robbins type dude. He was really cool. Um, anyways, we do sell luxury, but I guess whatever, that’s what they say. But I just realized that I might be missing out on people’s kitchen table because I wasn’t clear in my value proposition. Our business was a little bit of like a secret business, kind of like Keller Williams is, you know how you have to experience Keller Williams to know it’s awesome. Yeah. Like, how do you explain, like, so many things, too many things, actually, like Daren, you miss out on recruits, probably because there’s a brokerage in Las Vegas that’s simpler than yours, that has three values, and they’re like, we provide signs and we provide whatever, like stupid stuff they provide. But then someone can wrap their head around that and they’re like, oh, I want to go to that brokerage, because they have these three things that I need. I need signs, or I need a website, or whatever it is, right? But Keller Williams has so many things. How do you even know what the value is? So I realized I had to get really clear in my value, on our website, in our marketing and in the appointment leading up to the appointment and in the appointment. So we do five things better than anyone. Number one, we make our clients more money list to sell ratio, 2% more than the MLS I make my clients $18,000 more. Number two, we sell our homes two times faster than our competition. So days on market is 19, and the MLS is here in Boise is 40. We know that when we sell homes faster, we sell them for more. It’s a stat, a national stat, number three, our expertise, 2000 homes sold, 84% referral, repeat business. We do more and we earn. We have a proven track record from earning all of that referral repeat business, and our expertise prevents problems and fixes problems better than anyone else. And number four, we have a full concierge home transformation system that makes our clients more money and saves them time. So we help our sellers get their houses ready for sale through our contractors and staging. And number five, we make a difference in the community. We give back to our amazing community that’s given us so much so we donate our 100th commission, and we make over our family’s house in need. That’s our value proposition, and that’s again, on the email leading up to the appointment. On a slide in the appointment, there’s a video about it. There’s just stuff about

Daren Phillipy 22:49

it. You’re constantly telling your story through the the I guess the experience of your listing

Christina Ward 22:59

well, and if I mean, there’s so many realtors out there, how do they even have you guys heard that before? Like, what’s the difference? You’re all the same, right? And so it’s just, it’s just simply say, like, showing them, like, how could they argue? We make you more money, we save you time. Like, what else that? What do all sellers want? I mean, sometimes they want a friend, sometimes they want, I don’t know, but they they all want that. So it’s just, I get I’ve, I’ve gotten on more kitchen tables since transferring my business to being centered around the value proposition. And then I’ve also, if I’m competing, I win more. So I just wanted to show you really quick in the listing appointment, I tell them, thank you. There’s 8000 agents out there. I can’t believe I get to sit on your table tonight and talk about selling your home. We do a really quick video on the marketing plan and the promise, and then we go right into the value proposition, and then the rest is all about them. Comments you

Daren Phillipy 24:03

Okay, love it so, so cool. Let’s talk a little bit about leverage. And you run a team. You said you had a, had a kind of a team in place. I’d love to hear about what that process was like when you had your admin person, your your key higher and, like, everything kind of fell apart for a little bit. What was that like? And what advice can you give to us in the future?

Christina Ward 24:33

I have so much advice. Well, I think that everyone’s replaceable in a really loving way. And I still, even though I was like, curled up in a ball, like I’m going to die, I can’t do this, I still had my database and my clients, the phone is still ringing. And that’s actually was the most stressful thing about the whole thing is I was like, I when she had to go last year, we had 25 under contract. I. And I didn’t have as many systems in places I have today. I just had to turn over again in my business. And our systems are like and the virtual assistants are getting us through it right as I’m hiring someone else. So because I was pretty much the Director of Operations all last year, I rebuilt it’s taken, I guess what I learned is that I took my eye off the ball right like I just got into the sales mode, which I love, and I didn’t inspect what I expected. And when I got into the operations, I saw a huge mess. And I was actually surprised that we sold so much real estate with that big of a mess. And then I started to build auto plans through brevity. And you know, like, every time this happens, this happens, the best advice I got from someone is to, like, with this building system, since I’ve become all of a sudden a system filter in the last year at a really high level, is, what are you doing? And I want everyone to write this down, like, what are you doing right now in your business? That feels like you’re doing it for the first time, but you do it every day. It’s like something that you do all the time, but you’re doing you’re being an entrepreneur around it. And what is the system? Just one thing, like, maybe you list five, but you take it one at a time. What’s the system that could be where this every single time this happens, you know, like, I used to run my business like, Okay, I was telling everyone what to do. Okay, on this one, I want Eliza to do that, and Clarice to do this. And, do, you know, no, every time I list a home, here’s the five things that happen. And then slowing down to build out that email that goes out, that video that goes out, the confirmation that goes out. I mean, the the whole I just, I just show up to listing appointments like a doctor, like I open up the file and I go, because I slow down to write a system on exactly how we list at home every single time. Once in a while I can say, Oh, this is a weird one. It’s an investor, and they’re in California, and I’m going to do a zoom, you know, but otherwise it’s the exact same every single time. So we can go fast even when we’re short staffed.

Daren Phillipy 27:10

So what do you do? So so we’ll call it, you learned your lesson. You used to be all sales, and then you’re dealt

Christina Ward 27:19

with. And then I learned again,

Daren Phillipy 27:22

how do you make sure to keep that balance, to keep to keep your eye on, you know what you inspect is what you expect, and continue to lead the team through growth and sales.

Christina Ward 27:33

Well, I honestly thought about quitting for real, cuz I’m like, how does how am I? Why am I keep learning these lessons over and over again? Like, this is insane. So I thought about striking a match, throwing I like, could see it, right? I wrote it down. Now, like, who cares? I know how to make money. I’ve made money since sixth grades. I’ve been having business that, you know. So I was like, I can make money a different way. I’m quick. So I thought about that, and then I thought about my goals to give, like my big giving goals, and I if I go small or blow it up, I don’t get to give a million dollars, or that would take me longer to get there. And the blessing is, is that we have enough investment properties and passive income, but we’re I’m making $8,000 a month passive, and it’s not enough to run my family and my lifestyle, but it’s a little bit of security where I could blow it up if I wanted to. So that’s great. And I want to get to 20 after what I’ve gone through the last year. 20 is the number, and I want to go faster that, because they have all the options in the world. But I just decided that a lot. I just thought about it a lot, and I thought a lot of people give up too soon, and this is happening for me, not to me, and it’s making me better. And there’s going to be, like, a ton of great there already has been a ton of great blessings that have happened from it. So I just got up and thought, well, I want to give lots of money and help a lot of people. So I want to help more Ornelas, you know, I want to do that like 100 times, and I can’t do that without continuing. So it’s having the it’s having a big, big purpose. The craziest thing is, is this year, our goal is to give $50,000 and it had not been our best year, right? Like, I just told you, we’re going to get barely to 100 if we’re lucky. And I was one, I was worried about the giving goal because there wasn’t the profit that I usually see. Like, usually we rented about 30 to 40% profit, and it’s been bad. And so I thought, Well, where am I going to get $50,000 if I’m not only paying my employees and not paying myself right now, right? And then out of the blue, one of my clients, estate, the executor of the state, emailed me, and they said they’re giving $30,000 to Boise State volleyball in my name, like out of the blue. Uh, when I like put that intention out there? And I said, well, like my goal was wrapped around the 50. My goal wasn’t in unit sold. It was unit sold around how many units do we need to sell in order to give 50? And then the next year is 70 in a higher unit sold, how many units we need to sell to give 70? And then working our way up. So I already found $30,000 this year from my clients estate.

Daren Phillipy 30:26

Love that dude. That is so cool. That is so cool. Well, I’m sure we’re going to pick up some referrals for you after we get done. Chat with this. Let’s, let’s transition into, what have you learned in the last 12 months by running your team,

Christina Ward 30:49

hiring to values above personality. Personality is the only cake like, right? Like, if you’re in operations, you need to have some kind of finishing skills. You need to have some sort of organizational skills, but that’s not as important as being in alignment of values. And so it’s really filtering our the people that we hire, not I feel like I put so much weight on personality in the past through like the KPA, like the Career Visioning process, and kPa and I have another amazing personality assessment that I love, called cultural index, and it’s awesome. And I would rather, from what I’ve gone through, I’d rather work with people that align. If I’m going to choose between the two, I choose values over personality. If I get bold, then that’s like, rad,

Daren Phillipy 31:35

yeah, for sure. Where do you get your people? Where do you find your talent? Best

Christina Ward 31:39

people have come through a database. And that was another AHA that I’ve had. If I hired like a hiring company, especially when I was in like triage last year, I couldn’t I could not hire when I had all those transactions and no staff and and in an emergency situation, and no systems, really preppy systems. So, so I just hired a whole bunch of people to help me, and the hiring companies are great, and they don’t care about us as much as we do. Just like, if you go to your doctor, they’re great. They know way more than us. But like, we know ourselves. We kind of need two opinions, I think, too. But like, we need to be an advocate for ourselves and our business. We can use hiring companies, but we have to be very involved in my first few rounds of hiring companies. I wasn’t involved at all. I was like, Oh, I leveraged this. Here you go. You guys do it when this is, like, my hire and my decision. There was a hire I almost made through hiring company, and I do, like, a final dinner, like, with Dave Ramsey does that, right? He takes people out to dinner and with their spouse

Daren Phillipy 32:45

to see if the wife is crazy or

Christina Ward 32:48

husband the spouse, yeah, see if the spouse is crazy. And she was just like, I didn’t get it. She was like, a top producer for a builder, and she wanted to be a transaction manager with us. And, and I was like, she was making, like, $250,000 a year, and she’s, she’s like, I just need to be, you know. And I knew the builder and all the people that worked there, but for some reason, the hiring company and my director of operations at the time hadn’t gone second and third deep. That’s another lesson gotta go in the career vision. Yeah, you do, huh? Yeah, your references, references, references, tell you the truth. And they they’re always like, they would never give us references. Every time I pick up the phone and I ask the question, Who else do you know? This is exactly what it says in there. Who else do you know that could give us a different perspective on this person, person that I can call, and then I’m quiet, just like, who do you know that’s thinking about buying or selling a house that I should call today quiet, because if they’re not answering either of those questions, they’re thinking about an answer for us. So we’re so afraid of the silence, but we have to let it be silent when we ask. And so I didn’t go two or three deep with those people. I got all the way to the dinner, and then I made one phone call the next day and found out she was in a lawsuit with that builder. And then I didn’t hire right? So those are my lessons. Inspect. Be the only person that should do it is you. Is

Daren Phillipy 34:24

is that? Well, when you, when your admin and your your operations, is your culture, it’s difficult to outsource, outsource culture. Yeah, very, very wise. What do you feel like you need to learn over the next

Christina Ward 34:40

12 months? Um, I I’m gonna, it’s gonna be okay to not have a, like, a winning year, if this because I’m going to sacrifice my I’m going not a sacrifice. I’m going to invest my time. I’m. In my people, and not invest my time in my clients. So I called my runner after I had, you know, I let some people go, and some people, you know, had another little turnaround in my on my team, a little little cleanup, or whatever you want to call it, I called my runner who’s been on my team for eight years. Her name’s Nicole. And I said, Nicole, what’s wrong with me? I think I’m a really crappy leader. What do I do to do better? And she was like a client, and then she became a friend, and then she became a team member. And she’s a mom. Her kids are really are super athletes, so she’s super busy, so she runs errands like 10 to 12 hours a week for us, and she loves her job, and we’ve worked together for eight years. And Nicole gave me the feedback. She said, if you would give your time and energy and confidence to the team that you give to the clients, your business would grow exponentially. And she’s like, and I kind of wonder, because she’s like, I’ve seen the evolution of you as a confident listing agent. And she said, she said, so we had this client that was, he was a realtor, and he didn’t want to stage, and I made him stage like I was so comp. I was so confident in that that house needed new paint and carpet and staging, and that I was going to make him a lot more money. I ended up getting a bidding war and made a bidding war and making them $40,000 more than asking price. And he’s like a believer now, but we got to the point where he hated me, literally as his listing agent, a realtor from Portland, to loving me because I got him to his goals. I was unapologetic about here’s what we’re going to do to get you to your goals. It didn’t matter if you hated me or not, but with the team, I don’t have that confidence. I’m like, Oh, I might hurt their feelings, or it might whatever. I don’t want to hold that standard so tight because they might leave. And so she’s like, it. She’s like, I think you’re in the journey to get there. It just takes more time and more practice to get the confidence that you have for listings that you need for being a leader. So that’s my lesson. Love it to have standards and hold and be clear about them, and hold people and be confident about it. And it’s okay if it doesn’t work out, yeah, because it already hasn’t worked out anyways,

Daren Phillipy 37:26

that is such an awesome advice. This is where I ask you some random question. While I’m asking this question, those who have questions, raise your hand. Ed’s being a perfect example. Ed, I’m also so proud of your patience. He’s had questions since like, three minutes into this thing, so And if nobody else raises their hand, if I know Ed, he’s just going to keep on asking. So that’s perfectly fine, great. I usually ask questions like, what’s your favorite donut, or any of that kind of stuff, but I want to know. I love college athletes. What’s your most valued experience as a college athlete. What’s your favorite moment?

Christina Ward 38:14

Wow, I might cry. All right. I this summer. So my junior year, we actually were the most losing team in the country for division one. We only won one game. And I went from being like top five in the country. I have a silver medal in junior Olympic beach volleyball, like a lot of winning right through my high high school years, and then I got to college, all the winners are together, and someone has to be a loser. And so we were like big losers my junior year, the biggest of losers. And you know, losing begets losing. You just keep losing because winning begets winning. It’s amazing. Then that summer, my our center, our team captain passed away in a car accident, and so like we’re losers, plus we’ve lost our team captain, right? And are my best friend and I went into my senior year and we won. We won half of our games. We like won, which I would have never thought to be proud of that, but like, I think it was even more than half, like we had a winning season, and those girls are, like, my bestest friends in the world, and we probably wouldn’t be so close if it wasn’t for all that we went through. But I’m just super proud of that senior year, 52% winning average, or whatever it was.

Daren Phillipy 39:46

I know that is an amazing story. I’m so grateful that you shared that I when I wrestled in college, I lost my first 17 matches in a row. Whoa, and so, yeah, losing definitely does something to you. And. Same time, it does something to you. Yeah, I love that story. Well, let’s go ahead and pass. You’re the best, by the way, let’s go, dude, you’ve got an amazing question I feel in your be easy, honor, by the way,

Christina Ward 40:16

do make me cry? No, so