Episode 47: Restructure Your Team, Reclaim your Freedom – Curtin Team

On Episode 47 of The OT Only Teams for Real Estate Podcast, Daren Phillipy sits down with powerhouse duo Joanne and Tom Curtin from Roswell, Georgia (part of the Atlanta area). This episode dives deep into what it takes to build a real estate team that is not only highly productive but also designed to thrive without the founder needing to stay in daily production.

Whether you’re an agent aiming to scale or a Rainmaker looking to step out of production, the Curtins drop insights that can shift the trajectory of your business.

🏡 Building a Legacy Team, Not Just a Business

Joanne shared that one of her proudest accomplishments is the legacy she has created through her team — not just the income. The feedback they’ve received from clients and team members alike has reinforced the idea that their mission is bigger than commissions. It’s about impact, leadership, and creating something sustainable.

“Those words of affirmation mean more to me than the money I was bringing in.” — Joanne Curtin

They’ve built a business that allows their team members to shine — by creating an environment where people can be their authentic selves and contribute meaningfully.

🎯 The Kids Were the Best Marketers?

Yes, you read that right. One of their earliest and most creative lead gen strategies involved movie parties their kids thought were just for fun. The reality? It was a brilliant community outreach strategy. Their kids invited classmates, classmates invited parents, and before they knew it — they were closing 13 homes from one classroom!

This shows how grassroots marketing and community involvement can turn into real, trackable ROI when done with intention.

💸 Compensation Models That Support Profitability

One of the most tactical parts of the interview is the deep dive into compensation strategies — especially when trying to pull the Rainmaker out of production.

Joanne explained how she restructured team splits and systems to ensure the team stayed profitable even when she wasn’t actively closing deals. This is a massive challenge for growing teams, and her blueprint is a must-hear for anyone scaling.

They touched on:

• How to pay agents and ISAs in a way that aligns with business goals
  
• Why profitability matters more than just top-line volume
  
• The importance of tracking your numbers and making adjustments proactively
  

📞 ISA Strategy That Works

Another key takeaway was how they work with Inside Sales Agents (ISAs) effectively. Their ISAs aren’t just appointment setters — they’re integrated into the team’s culture and accountability structure.

Tom shared that their clarity around expectations often helps agents self-select out of the team early on — and that’s a good thing.

“Sometimes when we explain the process, they self-select. That’s a great barrier to entry — it saves us the trouble.”

👑 The Best-Looking Team on The OT?

Well… according to one of OT’s regulars, Ozzy, the Curtins were declared “the best-looking team” to ever grace the OT Zoom room. While that’s definitely up for debate, what’s not up for debate is the value they brought in this episode.

💡 What You Can Do Next

If you’re serious about building a team that runs efficiently and profitably — whether you’re in it or not — this episode is a must-listen.

👉 Watch the full episode on YouTube
👉 Subscribe to The OT Only Teams for Real Estate Podcast
👉 Visit onlyforteams.com and hit “Join The Room“ to be part of future live Zoom masterminds
👉 Join us every Tuesday at 12 PM PST to hear from more real estate leaders who are building scalable, values-driven businesses.

Transcription

00:00

Welcome to the OT only teams in real estate.

Joanne Curtin  00:15

The feedback we’re getting at Pi Day or just against redo people like your team, so good. I mean, those words of affirmation mean more to me than the money I was bringing in. I mean, that is a legacy of a business that I dreamed building, and it you’re not gonna necessarily get those great team members unless you’re willing to hand them

00:39

something that you could totally be yourself.

00:44

We had a big ray of return when our kids were little. They were the best marketers in the world because they thought the movie parties were their their parties, and so they invited their whole class, or you come to the movie party, and then the friends be like, I’m gonna ask my mom to bring me to the movie party, and then it was just like peer pressure movie party, and everybody’s information. And then before you know it. I mean, Tom, did we sell like, 13 homes out of our kids classroom? Like, yeah, everybody was, you know, we were helping them all.

Tom Curtin  01:17

Sometimes, when we talk to agents and we explain that process of what they’re going to have to do, they will self select they don’t want to do it. And that’s that’s a great you know, barrier to entry saves us the troubles.

01:32

Here’s your host, Daren Phillipy,

01:35

everybody welcome this week’s ot only team for real estate agents. My name is Daren Phillipy, and I’m your host, and like always, it’s another great week of OT Ness. And before we get into who the guest is and start dropping all this knowledge on you, I want to reminisce on what we’ve done over the last 40 something OTS that we’ve had.

02:01

We have had massive production, massive agents coming and sharing how they do business at a super high level. And you guys have been in there listen to the OT you’ve listened to the people on your in your podcast. You’ve watched them on YouTube. And one of the things that I’d like to challenge you now is push that subscribe button. You may have not subscribed yet, but if you want to make sure that you get updated on everything with the only team zoom mastermind and the only team podcast, you need to make sure you subscribe. You mean, make sure, make sure you follow, make sure you subscribe, make sure you leave a little review, all those things that help make sure that people are able to hear this greatness of what we call the only team, Zoom mastermind,

02:54

that is pretty much it. So if you haven’t done that, this is my guilt coming to you and saying, subscribe.

03:01

Okay, we’re officially guilt now, let’s go on.

03:06

I am so excited to introduce you guys to the curtain team, Joanne and Tom Curtin. They’re from Atlanta. Oh, sorry. Rosewell, Georgia, which is the Atlanta area, and we have an amazing time with them. They’re so smart. They’re they we spend quite a bit of time talking about isas and how that works, along with really how to do compensation where a team is able to be profitable, and especially if you’re trying to remove the Rainmaker, the remove one of the main pieces out of the everyday production, Joanne was very purposeful on getting out of the business and making sure that her production, her the splits and everything like that made sense, so they could still stay profitable. So we spent a lot of time talking about that. And then, of course, one of my favorite moments that you’re going to love is Ozzy, one of our regulars that’s always in the OT declares this is the best looking team that we’ve ever had on the OT. So congratulations Joanne and Tom for being good looking. And I’m sure Ozzy is going to be handing out that medal at the end of the year. So look in the mail for that. That’s pretty much it, guys. I’m so grateful for you guys to show up. You guys know that you could be in the room talking to Joanne and Tom about how they’re doing the compensation, or how they’re able to work with their isas, if you’re not in the room, you can’t ask the question. You can’t really get involved in the conversation. It’s great to listen, but it’s a whole nother level to be in the room. So all you need to do to be in the room is go to only four teams.com

04:50

and click that little button that says, join the room. That brings you right into the room on Tuesdays at noon, Pacific Standard Time. Those are kind of the two.

05:00

Key things you can’t push the button join the room when no one’s in there, it’s gotta be at noon, Pacific Standard Time on Tuesdays, and that’s pretty much it. So I can’t wait to hear what you guys have to say. Until then, I’ll see you guys at the end of the OT. Alright guys, thank you so much for being here. I I’ve been sitting here staring at my calendar, waiting to hang out with Tom and Joanne curtain from Atlanta, Georgia. It’s actually not Atlanta, but they cover the Atlanta area. It’s the north part of Atlanta. What is that town? Here you’re at Rosewell, Georgia. Yeah, we’re in, we’re in Roswell. So Roswell, yep, 30 minutes north of Atlanta. So Roswell, Alfred and Milton, kind of that whole area, beautiful part of Georgia. So it is gorgeous. You guys, last 12 months, did 177

05:52

units and 190 million in volume. You’re an awesome team. I’d love for you, and Joanne and Tom to tell us your story we’re dying to hear. Okay.

06:06

Well, so, Ozzy, I think it was you that asked, like, when did we started Keller Williams before we were really on record, and I wanted to jump in, but I wanted to make sure everybody heard the story before I did. But So Tom and I’ve I got into Keller Williams first into well, in 2002 we were, we joined Keller Williams. We were in real estate a year or I was a year before, and then

06:33

Tom joined me about a year later. But I was a teacher for five years. I have a master’s degree in early childhood, about five years in, I was like, read the Rich Dad, Poor Dad book. And was like, I mean, I’m, I’m quitting my job. I mean,

06:50

that’s, that’s basically what I what I did. So I remember, you know, taking the real estate course, telling my principal, I’m taking a turn. And then I was so scared, you know, Tom, can we do this? Do we even have the money. He was like, We got six months. We’re good, we, you know. And then got into real estate in in 2001

07:12

and saw at the sales meeting a speaker that just talked about how to get listings. He was basically a coach, and I walked up straight up to him after that sales meeting, and said, I need, I need you to coach me. And he was like, come to Greenville, three day conference sign up. I mean, he was selling his conferences. So I did everything he, you know, have, I came into his funnel and went to Greenville. And was, he was basically a mike fairy type of protege, um, double headset guy, calling, calling, calling, how to get listings. Gave me the gave me the playbook. I love the I’m a model follower, so I love playbooks. And he showed me the model to how to get business. And I was like, right? This is, this is what I didn’t get in the business office I was in. So did everything he said. But there was also this one small, petite woman in in the group. Her name is Sherry puffer, and she was an agent, top agent in the Carolinas, in Nashville and

08:16

and then she and I kind of gravitated mainly because she was, you know, a woman. And I was like, I mean, let’s role play, let’s practice. And she was so sweet. And we would role play together after we got home, and she taught me how to overcome scripts. I would write all of the objections on the board for the week. I’d call my role play partner in the morning, 15 minutes or not even maybe 10 minutes inch let me win. At the end, we’d hang up, I’d overcome the objections with her on that call, and then go for it every day for three hours. I mean, that was just basically, and I was telling Daren on the call, you know, before we got on the record, anytime you’re coming from gratitude right in a job, a business, an endeavor, that’s when, like, great things come to to you when you’re in that gratitude state. I was not in a grinding state. Why the hell am I doing this? I’m scared. Well, I was scared. I didn’t want to pick up the phone and get rejected. But I was in a gratitude state during that time of my business, because I could have been in the classroom at 7am with heels on, dressed for success. I mean, you know, with a bunch of kids, I’d been there done that, I was in my pajama pants in the basement with a headset three hours, you know, walking, you know, walking down the stairs for home commute. I mean, it was nothing better than that. So I was super happy. I did everything I was told. And then Sherry puffer, um, told me, Hey, you know our company’s CEO, and she kept talking about Gary like he was her friend. And I was like, Who the heck talks about their CEO, their company like their their friend?

10:00

This, like, creepy cultish type. And eventually she’s like, you know, when you get really busy and you will, you’re going to want to look at your business more like a business, not as a sales job. And when you do, I want to connect you with somebody in Atlanta named Sean Rawls. And eventually I, you know, was getting busy, and she said, It’s about time for you to go talk to Sean. So I went talk to Sean, sat in his office, and he said, you know, we look at the agent, not the brand, and basically just told me all about the company. And I was like, wow, I don’t even want to, but I don’t want to be down here in Atlanta. I don’t even live near here. I want to be up in my town of Roswell. And he, you know, but there’s no Keller Williams anywhere near us. And he said, Well, you could change that. I mean, what a stand up like op. He was like, not even, didn’t. Didn’t even recruit me to his office. Said, Hey, you could change that. And I was like, Who do I talk to? So we grew Roswell. We were founders at the Roswell Market Center. We had to incubate in other offices. And, you know, long story short, I had one more appointment with a team leader that we did incubate with. I was in tears, found out I was in sales, not business. And then Tom and I moved to Keller Williams because we needed to know leverage. Because at that point, with that coach, I was, you know, I had a terrible conversion ratio. And this is when I do panels with agents who don’t have any teams, and they don’t, you know, this is like, the numbers of like my fails really speaks to them. But I did a lot of appointments. I’m really kind of embarrassed now to say how many I went on before I got listing.

11:43

And Tom, if you want me to say the number, I will. Otherwise, it’s ridiculous, okay. But then my conversion got better, and then I got to 11 appointments before to assign listing, and then five. And then I was basically at a three to one, three to one before I was in a two to one, okay? And then it was just the ones I just didn’t want. I didn’t take. So that was kind of how I got in the business. I was just very coachable. Never not had a coach, literally, from, you know, the first few months of the business. And so we went to Keller Williams. Tom was like, I I mean, let’s grow a business. And that’s basically when we really work together, like the rocket fuel book. You know, if y’all read the rocket fuel book, that’s what we were doing. I had the vision, Tom had the execution, and we went, we went up from there. So, so awesome. Love that story. Um, tell us a little bit about now, currently my friend too. He’s my

12:43

friend. Look oddly. Knows that Marie a better than Gary.

12:49

So how, what does your org chart look like now with your team? Yeah, so neither Joanne or I are in production anymore.

13:02

So currently we have,

13:05

we have two full time in person staff. We have a somebody dedicated to marketing, marketing manager, and then we have another position that we call account manager. So they’re basically a listing manager and contract to close. And then we have a virtual assistant that supports both of those folks.

13:27

And then we have an in house Isa,

13:32

so that’s, that’s our success team, the admin side of things. And then we have

13:39

five

13:41

agent partners.

13:44

So agents that are on your team? Those partners? Yes, yep, very good, very well, tell me this, then you’ve got five agents that you gotta feed. Yeah, where do you get your leads? How do you get those leads to feed those guys?

13:58

So the vast majority of the business is going to come through our database, just having been in it for so long, and I feel like we’ve done a good job at staying in touch with that database and marketing to the database. So, you know, with having that full time marketing person, part of her job is to market to the database, right? So,

14:22

newsletters, events,

14:26

calling, so we’re in touch with the database, so we’re going to get past clients, referrals, that kind of thing.

14:35

We also have,

14:38

I think we I’m trying to think of the number, but

14:43

I want to say seven or eight. Just direct like calls like, Hey, I found you online. So Google search, we do pay for some Google advertising,

14:57

which I’ve found to be beneficial for.

15:00

Us. You

15:01

know, it’s expensive, like, it might cost you $120

15:06

for that one phone call. But generally speaking, they’re, like, super qualified. They’re calling you, you know, maybe you’re competing against one other person. But it’s like, hey, I want to talk to you about selling my house kind of thing. So I would pay under $20 for those all day long.

15:24

And then outside of that, I mean a few third party we’re not like a Zillow Premier, any of those big we have a few other like third party sites that we get some leads from. And then our ISA is obviously looking to generate business, so she’ll do some circle prospecting.

15:44

Agents will do open houses to generate their own

15:48

leads as well.

15:52

Like, I’m forgetting something Joanne, well, I mean, a lot of it’s nurture. Are we not in a nurture business already? I mean, this is why it’s just so hard to hang on, because people have just been nurtured for so long. So she does a lot of nurturing. I mean, she listens very well. She decides what bucket to put him in after she’s on the phone. I mean, just phone time is a lot of bucket dropping, and that, you know, for an agent with low patience, man, that’s, that’s, that’s, she’s such a value. So we, you know, talk about people that came in for about a week, and then we’re done, and she’s like, I’ll take them from here. You know, they’re, they’re bad behavior. They’re not calling us back, and we thought they were hot. She gets them back. So, I mean, there’s just that,

16:41

you know, we feel security knowing that she’s picking up, What? What? Clearly, agents drop all the time. So I’m curious about this. I haven’t talked, we haven’t talked to isas in a while on the OT, and it is so crucial to do exactly that, keeping them warm. I am curious, how do you compensate the ISA with, with the the bonus of of when they close a transaction, and does the agent that is receiving or getting the closing, are they paying part of that? Because that’s we gotta, we gotta stay in the model of the 3030 you know, 30 3040 Yeah,

17:20

about that. She’s salaried. She’ll be salaried, plus bonus. We did so we’ve, we’ve changed it, and I’ll tell you why we changed it. It used to come off her, so she’s licensed as well. So she receives

17:40

five to 6% you know. And we’ve got an average price point of 650,000 so you can do the math on that, five to 6% of the closing commission right as a bonus. And we used to take it off of the agents side, but what we found was there was this they want to hang on to it because they don’t want to pay the ISA like that tendency, and then that cut out. I felt like we were losing more than we were gaining, right? Because they weren’t wanting to give it back to nurture. So they would hang on to it, and then, you know, two months later, we’d find it lost in the database, right? Because they were reluctant to give it to her because they didn’t want to pay that. So we removed that

18:25

as part of our compensation model. So the agents, it’s just a pure value to them.

18:32

You know? I mean, obviously I think about the cost of it, but whether or not I’m going to send a lead through Shelby to qualify or not, but

18:42

I think it’s been positive that we change that so they’re not, they don’t have any resentment. Or there’s never like, oh, I don’t want to give it to her, you know, she only called them a few times, whatever, that kind of stuff. Yeah, that. And that’s, that’s that challenge there, since we’re on that topic, then both of you being out of the business, you can kind of cheat the system by closing deals yourself when it comes to the model and the and the cost of sale and all of that kind of stuff. Yeah, you being out of out of production. And also, it sounds like you’re taking the the the five or the five to 6% on your side from the ISA, yeah. How are you able to stay in model, to be able to be as profitable hit that number, right? So one of the things we did, as we knew that Joanne wanted to transition out, was we started to move towards, even if she was the listing agent on the deal, I was paying her like a listing agent, right? So I was working that in, and then I can see how those numbers were going to work, and like, Hey, can’t, can she pull out without just destroying our P, L? So we had started to work her that way. We made that change. And then.

20:00

It was gradual for for joy. And so it was so when we set goals for her, we we would set the number, like, lower each year, like, that was our goal. Like, you’re only going to close this many, yeah. I mean, she would want to get to zero as fast as possible. I was like, Well, you know, the business needs time to transition, and we really need to do it this way. So, you know, I can’t remember how we started it out, but it was like, one year, I remember it was like, you’re only going to close 15, and then I think the next year,

20:31

I don’t know anyway, you were then you were out by the next it wasn’t just the closings for me, it was, it was the appointments. Like, I’ll go on because we had a goal of 11 for the month. I’ll go on 11 next month, I’m going on like seven. And then we were ramping up the agent who was taking over all of those things, so that I could see the runway was really small. Wow. I can do anything for three months. I gotta get some air, you know, I’m just going going. So I liked that appointment goal, not the closing goal. It just all of a sudden turned out to where it did turn into zero, but it was, I was getting weaned off, you know, all the appointments, and I think that’s so go ahead. Tom No, I was just going to say financially. I mean, we did have to adjust, you know, it, you are going to, there’s no way around it. You’re going to take a hit if you are not the one in production.

21:32

But if you look at the trade off of, I mean, I think Joanne comes once a week for one hour, unless she decides to call in for that meeting. So sometimes it’s zero hours in the office. So, you know, I to take a little bit less. I think again, it’s that trade off right time, yeah. But also, you know when, when you have a million or $2 million Listing you’re just handing over

22:03

all of a sudden. You know, we the feedback we’re getting at Pi Day or just events we do people like your team is so good. I mean, those words of affirmation mean more to me than the money I was bringing in. I mean, that is a legacy of a business that I dreamed of building, and it you’re not going to necessarily get those great team members unless you’re willing to hand them, and something that you could totally do yourself. So good, yeah, if I, if it’s okay, I’d like to just talk a little bit about this, because I think I was talking to

22:39

shields about this topic earlier this year. When you’re when you’re the producer, you’re getting that commission in and you’re not there, the cost of sale is just the money that you’re paying to your brokerage at KW. It’s nothing once you’re capped. But at other places, you’re still paying that where, where, if you hand that off to someone else, your cost of sale goes to your split with that agent. And, and being able to go from, and I don’t know if that swing is 30% 40% 50% on the listing side, but that’s a significant amount of percentage going towards someone else that you’re used to putting in your pocket and, and I loved how Tom you were able to say, hey, we just started looking at the books as if, as if Joanne was was closing deals, and she was a buyer’s agent. And I think if you’re, if you’re going to get out of the out of out of production, that’s the best. I love that way of doing so smart guys. Yeah. And it really starts when you know you gotta listen to your staff. I mean, I was coming in with a listing, and the staff would say, Oh, we love it when Joanne brings in a listing. And I was like, What do you mean by that? Well, we love it when you do, because we make more. And I was like, Oh my gosh. So I ran into Tom’s office, closed the door and said, Nope, we need a placeholder. Placeholder. It doesn’t matter who’s taking this listing, because now I’m in jail and I can’t get out because I’m in you know, I’ve created this page. So how can we make this a, literally, a business worth, worth owning that. That was the start of that make a placeholder so that you can step out. Well then, so we’re breaking the rules. I don’t really care. This is the last one of the year.

24:30

How do you do that? Because you’re going to be giving someone more of your commission, and the likelihood is they’re going to convert less than you. What does that place? Held? Hold it look like, and how do you get the right person into that spot? Well, I think what, what Joanne meant, what we did was, so let’s just say, for example, if a listing agent was going to make 30% on our team, we you.

25:00

I started to pay Joanne 30%

25:05

and then the team would get only 70% right. So it was like we would take we would just pay it like she was an outside agent, and that money would leave the business and show up on the PnL as a cost of sale, and all the things as if she was an agent on the team. So that’s, that’s how we did it.

25:27

I mean, we had to, again, we did have to hire, and we hired multiple people, you know, until we found one that was the right person that was capable of taking over, right and providing that level of service on the listing side and being able to convert and all the things I mean that that took years

25:49

to do that, so that was like a separate so there’s like the financial side, but then there’s also the finding the right person side. Is there

25:58

anything else you want to share with us about where you get your leads and how you work your database, or anything like

26:05

that.

26:07

I mean, I can, I can just quickly kind of run through the events that we do for our database, if that would be helpful. Love that.

26:15

So we just

26:19

finished our we do a photos with Santa. So we just had that last weekend. We host that in our office. We have a separate we have a mega agent office building. So we host that event here.

26:35

And then, prior to that, we do pies. So we give, you know, pie people come, and we have people come pick up. We’ve tried it different ways. We tried delivering that was a nightmare.

26:48

So we basically do it over the course of two days. We give them kind of these windows of hours to pick up, and people just come as they come. What’s good about that is it spreads, naturally, spreads people out, so you can actually have conversation, and you’re not like, inundated, and you can’t talk to the person. So we we like, we’ve found that to work well for our model.

27:11

And then so in February, we’ll have a happy hour, just client happy hour. This is for past clients. We do at a local brewery,

27:21

barbecue, beer, that kind of stuff. We’ll have one of our lender partners help sponsor that.

27:27

And then we have, in our town, they have what’s called alive in Roswell, and it’s the third Thursday of every month, but that runs April through October, so we kind of do, we just do the kickoff one, and we’re close to that where that event happens. So we host at our

27:52

again, at our parking lot of our building, which is close to the event,

27:56

food and drinks and people can meet up here and then walk to the event.

28:01

So that’s a community event. So we kind of differentiate between

28:06

past client events, and then what we would call a community event. A community event, really, the goal is to grow the database as well, as you know, see our past clients, but kind of put it out there to everybody and just see who shows up. Kind of thing,

28:21

more of a networking thing. So that’s one of those. And then in the summer, we do us a movie party. Summer Movie party. So we easily try to pick whatever we think is going to be like the big hit movie for kids, then try to time it to do at the releasing weekend so nobody’s seen the movie yet. That’s, again, that’s a community event. So for example, we’ve been doing that for a long time. We’ve got people in our database that were still selling homes, and it was because they were in our kids first grade class. I mean, they’re in college now, right? So if they come to that movie, they register for it. It’s free to them, but they do register. So we capture their information, and then, you know, we are going to start marketing to you.

29:03

So that movie event is really a Database Builder for us.

29:09

And then the last one, we do a fall happy hour as well. And again, this is for past, past clients. Yeah, we had a I saw someone ask about rate of return. We had a big rate of return when our kids were little. They were the best marketers in the world, because they thought the movie parties were their their parties, and so they invited their whole class, or you come into the movie party, and then the friends would be like, I’m going to ask my mom to bring me to the movie party. And then it was just like peer pressure movie party, and you get everybody’s information, and then before you know it. I mean, Tom, did we sell like, 13 homes out of our kids classroom? Like, yeah, everybody was, you know, we were helping them all. So when the kid we don’t have a lot of little kids on our team anymore, so, but maybe that’s a cycle too, that we’re seeing with more of a boomer.

30:00

Situation, but that was, that was great of rate of return. And now I think it’s just those connections with getting your families all together. So Santa, we just got through the Santa event. Have both parents, kids all dressed up. I mean, we do mimosas. That is really good. Belly to belly time.

30:20

Good. I think, I think events are difficult to measure the rate of return. So what I look at on an annual basis is what percentage of business is coming from our database, and then kind of compared to the year prior and the years prior, I can track them. So one year this was maybe, I don’t know, seven or eight years ago, I saw a dip. Like it was, it was dipping down, like the percentage was going down that we were getting, we weren’t having as big of a capture rate. And then that’s when we kind of brainstorm, like, well, what can we do? I mean, have how, besides calling them all the time, right? What can we do that? We’re just in front of them, and we’re top of mind, and that’s where we really started to focus more on events, then and then, since then, you know, it’s held pretty steady, or it’s, you know, gone up a little bit. So I don’t know if that’s the reason I would, I would, well, that is but, and also, you know, I go to happy hours and lunches and stuff with girlfriends and church group get togethers. And this year, after we started doing Christine awards, you know, we call it the Roswell home refresh. Oh, yeah, talk about that, people are like, wow. Like you do so much for the community. Y’all, your team is yours. And those again, like words of affirmation. You can tell that’s my love language. Like I love when people love our team, remember that? Tom,

31:50

yeah, I actually have, oh, we did. Gratitude notes. I won’t show it in focus, Tom, but you wrote me a nice words of

32:00

Yes. Gratitude note to all those good we do that all November. We all write five notes a week, and that piles up, and it kind of gets stressful. But boy, does that feel good to do. So we really do a lot of gratitude, and I feel like that’s where the awareness, I think of our team, is changing. We you know, you heard my story. I started out as very transactional, but to stay and be relevant and have good leads that are going to use any, I mean, we’ve got people that email and say any Can you just send someone from your team over like that’s a referral, that’s a database lead people, people that are transactional. You’ve got to know how to close them. Close them. Good. You gotta be scripted. And I mean training. Tom knows me, and I tried to replicate myself five years after I got to the business, it took me 15 years to go more database and higher level agent to be able to really service the people like you know that are our friends. So love it. Let’s, let’s talk a little bit about leveraging. How if, if both you guys are out of the business, as in, like out of production, I should say, and you have five, five teams, five agents to lead, and a staff.

33:15

How do you lead that? What does that look like when it comes to accountability systems, things like that.

33:23

So we’ve got a few set meetings that we do every week. So on Mondays, at 10am we all come together as a team, and we review that’s kind of morphed, but we review all of our listings, like our coming soon, our active listings, we go over buyer needs. It

33:44

kind of just sets the tone for the week. It’s everybody on the same page from whatever might have happened over the weekend.

33:51

And

33:54

we tried, like going through leads. That hasn’t really worked. We’re still playing with that. So now Shelby has a spreadsheet, and the agents are supposed to update their new leads on that spreadsheet. So we’ll see how that goes. So we’re still playing with that.

34:10

I Who leads that? Who leads that meeting? That’s our train, our account manager. Lynn leads it because she’s really, you know, the listing manager. So she’s running through all the

34:22

all again the Coming Soon, starting with coming soons and going through the actives, and then she’s handling all the contracts, so just kind of running through every all the business. And then our marketing manager will talk about any marketing or events or anything like that.

34:38

So everybody kind of has, you know different pieces of the meeting is that the admin, yep, what about the agents? That the agents? I mean, that it was created for the agents, because the admin are talking these clients more than us throughout the week, right, with whatever feedback or showings or what.

35:00

Or so photos like all that. Yeah, it’s a brain dump for staff to say. You know, she’s not, she’s telling me this, and the agents like, that’s not what she told me at the house. And so then we’re like the principal’s office. We sometimes we have to call and, you know, nobody can hide when we communicate like that every week, no, no client can hide from this, and then, oh, by the way, so and so is working with them as a buyer, and they’re like, Oh no, they told me this, like we are all in to try to help, help our clients, and that that agents don’t want to skip the meeting they call in, they do not miss that meeting because that’s communication that that’s going to make you look like you have egg on your face if you don’t know what’s happening. So, and there’s no better you know thing to say to clients other than you know, hey, I was just with Lynn this morning, and she knows all about it. Don’t worry. We got you that feels really good. So that’s a set, that’s a set Monday appointment, and the Monday is is purposeful, because everybody’s clients want to know exactly what happened after the weekend, and you better have some information. What’s the most what’s the most valuable thing you cover in that Monday, meeting with with the team.

36:20

I mean, I for the for the sales team, I think it’s we review all the Coming Soon. Because if you’re a buyer’s agent, you know, you need to know about these listings that are coming. And you can kind of plan, like, do I want to when are we listing it? Can I do an open house? You know, it’s really just the inventory, like, knowing what the status is on all the inventory, that’s what that meeting’s about, yeah, because then the staff are so conforming and thoughtful about, you know what? It’s Father’s Day, we can’t do an open house. I’m like, oh, shoot, that’s right. Like the agents are who we’re out to lunch. We can’t remember. Oh, yeah. Like, that’s the rocket fuel right there, that Tom and I ran our whole life. Like we just recreated rocket fuel in a room. You got the visionaries, which are the agents. They know what they want, they just don’t know how to execute. And you got the executors who are like, we you can’t do it that way. Here’s how we’re going to do it. It’s really good. Love it. Love it. Are there any other accountability systems? Yeah. So we, did have a director of sales at one point, we no longer have a director of sales, so I am basically Director of Sales again. So I do one on ones with each agent every other week,

37:35

and then we have them enter their numbers. We call it a scoreboard. So they’re individually entering their numbers on the shared spreadsheet we can all see it. So that’s you know, contacts,

37:48

appointments, signed agreements, pendings, closings. So kind of your your key numbers are there

37:56

for all of us to see. And then

38:01

I do the one on ones with the admin

38:05

team as well. Once a month, we do a whole team lunch meeting. It’s a little bigger picture, where we kind of go over team numbers, and then we collaborate like if there’s things we want to change or tweak or have discussion about. It’s in that,

38:23

that

38:24

monthly meeting, and then also what I really like, the sales skills. We implemented that a few years ago,

38:32

and we were not sure how the structure would be, but it’s, it’s Tom on the call, right as the as well as the agents, it’s not the staff, because Tom is like, you know what? This is what we need to talk about. Like, we need an agents. Need someone to complain to. Let’s just see, be honest, and that’s, that’s who we welcome. He welcomes our complaining, which sometimes isn’t complaining, because we do start out the call with wins, but at the end, if we have issues, Tom will stop the or get off the call and go execute it, which is what he’s always done. Now, not necessarily he does it, but the staff will do it, but he hears the issue, and then we go fix it, or he tells us things we need to know, because he’s looking at the calendar at a 30,000 foot view, and we’re not. So we do that by zoom with the sales team. That’s every Wednesday morning at nine o’clock. Yeah, and that’s more strategic, like, I’m working with a client. They don’t know what they’re they’re not under contract. Here’s, I don’t know what to do. Well, here’s a language of sales. I’ll drop that into Slack. We have a Slack channel, and then we all can share good verbiage that it was done a lot of heavy lifting over the 20 years we’ve been doing it. So it’s a good mastermind every middle of the week. So good Tom, by the way, Tom, when, when you said you were this, the sales manager Joanne, gave the biggest smile. That must mean that she’s so happy she’s not. Yeah, she had that hat on.

40:00

Briefly,

40:01

it was not a good fit. Never fired more people than when I was

40:07

let’s I want to talk about this before we get into the dumb questions.

40:12

Not it’s the not that ivy in in aus,

40:17

he’s going to ask dumb questions. I just have one dumb question I ask, um, if, if you are both you guys out of production, that has got to be massively attractive for people to be on your team. How do you attract that talent? Because, you know, if I’m going to be on your team, I got a better shot of making really good money. How do you attract that that talent and make sure that they are talent?

40:41

Yeah,

40:43

I, you know for us,

40:47

I think that you know the numbers kind of speak for themselves, right? So I think if you’re have been consistently that top team in the office, you have that reputation, and then people do know that it’s, it’s a difficult process to to get on our team, right? We’re not ones that just, you know, let’s hire volume and see who works out. We do follow the CV model,

41:15

you know, that whole process. So we definitely

41:19

hire less people than we, you know, talk to. I mean, the majority of people we talk to, we’re not bringing on, right? So there’s this,

41:29

if you do get on it, you know, you made it right. It’s like an elite, more of an elite thing.

41:35

So, I mean, I think that’s just all part of the reputation of it. And in the process, you know, we’ve, we’ve we’ve learned from years of hiring the wrong people. But,

41:45

yeah, so we, you know, it’s we get referred. People refer to us, even other agents in the market center. If they know somebody’s newer and they think that they might be a good fit, they’ll, they’ll recommend that they talk to us, because they know the reputation. And then, of course, we can point to,

42:06

you know when, when you have agents on your team getting recognized for their GCI numbers and that kind of stuff, then people tend to notice that

42:16

how

42:18

high is going to ask a question after it verbally, I know she’s, she’s, she’s wanting to sneak it in, like Ozzy. See, Ozzy, what you did? You? You asked a question in chat, and then everybody thinks they could do that. Come on. Now

42:32

I am curious, what is your onboarding process look like to be able to what does that look like when someone joined your team that first. Obviously, 3060, 90 is massively important. Do they get leads? What is that process to be, to be up and running? From a lead standpoint, we have what we call a pond, a lead pond, right in our database. So that’s, I mean, there’s, there’s 1000s of people in there, but that’s where everybody starts. So, you know, it’s a numbers game. These are just,

43:07

you know, a big variety, but majority are probably online leads that have come to us some way or another over the years, and just nobody’s connected with them, or nobody’s connected with them recently. But every time we have somebody start and go through it, they pull something out of there. You know, that’s just where their first deals come from. So they start there. They’re going to shadow Shelby the ISA, because she’s the most familiar we use for our database. We use brevity. She’s the most familiar with brevity. So they’re going to get, you know, lessons from Shelby and how to use brevity and start in the pond.

43:45

Start with pond and open houses. I mean, that’s really where they they start. I mean, of course, they market to their database, and I would hope that they can,

43:54

through the marketing, that we can help them do right as as a team, and

44:00

pull something from their database as well, but they’re really starting out just we don’t give them the silver platter leads until they go through a certain metric that they have to hit with us. So for us, what they have to do.

44:17

The expectation is that, and this would be, if you’re a brand new agent, the expectation would be that you would have two under contract in the first 90 days. But they’re also needing to set an appointment for each agent on the team and then shadow that agent. Right? So part of them going through that process is they’re going to set a buyer appointment for an agent, they’re going to set a listing appointment for an agent, and then they get to shadow. That’s how they’re going to learn. You know, they will get paid a small percentage on that. But it’s not really about that. It’s more the the opportunity and the training

44:52

that they, you know, have to go through. So sometimes, when we talk to agents and we explain that process of what they’re going to have.

45:00

To do. They will self select they don’t want to do it. And that’s, that’s a great you know, barrier to entry saves us the trouble. So

45:09

well, let’s, I’m I’m going to skip my last questions, and we’re going to just go ahead. Hiya has been beating her computer and pounding on on the keys so she could ask a question. If it is your time to ask your question, go ahead and all those, all those who have questions, raise your raise your digital hand, right? No, it’s not that bad. I mean, you know,

45:34

but I just want to know what is the retention with the agents. Because, you know, as having a team, we always have to be hiring, hiring, hiring and getting people, and what is the retention that you have with the agents that you bring in, yeah, and what are the incentives for them to stay? Yeah. So,

45:56

I mean, I think we now, I think we have pretty good retention. We’ve certainly learned some lessons

46:04

on that, and that starts with who you hire and kind of the expectation you set up front

46:09

that we set now

46:12

we did, you know, as I mentioned, we had a Director of Sales who was really our lead agent that that left

46:22

earlier this year, and she had been with us for almost six years.

46:29

Part of that was stage of life, you know, she had younger kids, and just decided it was, you know, she needed to spend more time at home. So there’s nothing we can do that. Part of it was

46:41

just some differences with

46:44

anyway. I won’t get into all that, but, you know, so five, five to six years was, I think, pretty good average.

46:53

That’s what we’ve been seeing lately.

46:57

You know, life happens. I mean, we had another agent that what had was just older and decided they wanted to kind of take a step back, you know. So we try to get ahead of it and and again, we do the, you know, we do as part of the hiring process. We do the life story and the motivation, you know, part of the seat, familiar with that, but it’s just part of the hiring process within Keller Williams, and part of that is kind of talking about, you know, your goals and what you want to achieve in these different quadrants of life over the next few years. And we do that as part of the hiring process, but then we also repeat that every year with each of the team members. So we try to get ahead of it that way, where we can because it changes, right? So if we can figure out, like, oh, their motivation is now they want to work less, or they want to spend more time with their grandkids, or whatever, you know, is there something we can do

47:53

to change?

47:56

And I was bad. I mean, it’s bringing value to whatever they’re they need in their life, and they have to feel like we’re bringing value, not just like, hey, you know, my turn for a lead. I’ve been seeing some expensive homes, and I’m not getting one. Like, no, no. Like, what do they feel like? You know, the team is going to offer them. It’s, it is a symbiotic relationship, right? And and you just have to to know that that is is reciprocated, or you have to feel that it is so can’t be Win, lose. It’s gotta be the Win, win for both sides.

48:34

Awesome question. Aya, thanks for asking oz. Oz sent me a message. He’s like, I’ve got 14 questions.

48:43

You’ve got, you’ve got six minutes. Oz. I wasn’t a treadmill, so I had to stop. Rapid fire.

48:49

No no, but Joanna and Tom I’m glad you told me that. Told us that you’re from Georgia, because I thought you guys were from Hollywood. You’re like, the most good looking team couple I’ve ever seen you. I thought you were in rom coms and stuff, so let me step up my game. Hold on to him. Step up my game. Oh, look at that.

49:11

I got some good questions, though, for you. The first one is, have you ever had to let go of a team member that before working with them they were a friend or a database past client. Um, I’m asking because I’m always scared of if it doesn’t work out with me and the team and our goals and our KPIs, that when we let go of them, that it’s going to destroy that previous friendship that I had with them as a past client or as a friend. What do you have to so I’ll start in on this. Tom can finish it, but I, you know, I, I have been fired from recruiting. I used to be in all appointments, recruit, select. I’ve taken it all set with Tom. We used to tag team. The whole thing. One day, Tom looked at me and we had just gotten off a Gary call.

50:00

For three hours or four hours, or maybe two days. And he looked at me and was like, Did you not hear anything Gary said? So I wanted to recruit. I’m a recruiter. I could be a, you know, I, I can’t. I love to sell. So I’m selling everyone. I’m hiring everyone. And I was fired like, Tom’s like, you cannot. And that’s where we had the worst problems, where I wanted all my friends to be on my team. And then it got like, oh, wait a minute. We got some metrics, and if you don’t hit your metrics, we can’t afford to keep you. We gotta let you go. And that’s when it got ugly. So you’re in the place where Tom he needs like you. I mean, you need that, that staff person, the success team lead, to go through that process, not the agent who is emotionally charged.

50:50

Well, like for us, we, we have written standards. I don’t know you might have that, but I mean, that was part of that changing our process was it’s just on one page, right? And it just talks about the standards of the team, and these are the expectations. And I go through that in the first meeting, you know. And that, again, that’s a lot of times people are like, Oh, I don’t want to, you know, for us, our minimum standard is 15 closings in a year, and that some people don’t want to do that, you know? And that’s the minimum, right? So that’s,

51:22

that’s fine. I would rather they self select. So we try to scare them,

51:27

try to scare them away from from the beginning, but we have, yeah, to answer your question, yes, we have been in that situation. And you know, unfortunately, it’s, you don’t want to do it. You don’t want to it doesn’t end well, but,

51:43

you know, it’s that’s a challenge. But if they, you know, I feel like, from our standpoint, if we lay out all these standards, and this is the expectation, and this is, you know, we treat everybody the same, right? Just because we’re friends, you know, you you can’t have an exception to this, and they sign up for that then, yeah, no, they’ve agreed to Right, yeah. And on the other flip side, I mean, one friend that did come on board, she did because we’re friends, and then she she opted out just to say, look, I’m I feel like I’m letting y’all down. Like she knew she didn’t want to commit to, you know, a structure. She wanted to be completely flexible. She just wanted to be an individual agent, but be on my team. You just No, it’s a T, E, A M, right? It’s a team so that don’t put them in an uncomfortable situation either. God, I took notes on that. Appreciate the wisdom on that. My second question here, my final question is, you guys seem to have a good

52:44

energy around protecting your your culture. Everybody seems productive and and

52:52

efficient. So what’s an instance where lately you’ve had to protect your culture? Maybe a team member wasn’t in culture and you had to do something about it. How who attacked it, who went head on, who brought the team back, and how well Tom, I think we had just some a little stressful situation on the team,

53:17

and they were worried, you know, the staff was worried, like, wow. Like, you know, is this going to affect us our jobs, you know? And you were like, Hey,

53:28

y’all, are the team like this? And by the way, this sales people, we used to think we were the team. Now the new team is the success team. That is the team, the agents. I mean, we need them, and they need us. And that’s, that’s kind of the switch that was switched, or the flip, whatever, when they heard Tom say, you know, y’all are the team. Don’t worry about, like, what happens to us. Y’all are the team. So let’s, you know, let’s remember that, because we they, we are the value. That’s why the team was created, because agents can’t do this by themselves. So I think the lead person has to lean into the fear and thank goodness, like someone voiced to say, we’re scared, right? No, that, yeah. I mean, we’ve had this happen in a couple instances. And I think just leading the team and showing the team that you put the culture before even the profit right, like we’ve had to let some gotten out of business with some highly productive people that, you know, there were some culture issues or whatever. And when they see that, you know, then they realize that it’s not just talk right, that you are you will take action around those kind of things.

54:48

And you know, even though it’s going to cost you money, basically right, that, that you’re willing to do it, then they’re going to have that much more respect for the culture. And.

55:00

You know, for you so and you know, having sharing our war stories, right? Like, that’s always fun, because we have so many of them, but just getting very personal, you know, what’s most personal is most universal. And just

55:15

very, be very personal about things that have happened to you, and then they’ll just relate that to wherever, whatever they’re feeling. So

55:26

awesome question. Oz, thank you, tons. I know he has a few more, but we’re running out of time. I don’t mean to pull you longer. Do you have five more minutes? You have one more question? Sure. Okay. Naj, you did have a question? If you’re able to ask it, I’d love to hear your awesome voice.

55:43

She may or may not be able to to speak.

55:46

I could see it in the chat, so I’m happy to answer it. The question is, let me drive right now. So that’s why I was what was my question? It was regarding goals. I can’t read and drive. I’ll read it for you now. It says, do you set individual goals for each team member? If, yes, how do you measure them, and how often would you re evaluate them? Yeah, yes. So we do have standards in this. You know, we’ve we’ve gone back and forth and we’ve done away with closing standards, and then we brought them back. But I think it’s important to have

56:29

a standard for the sales people that they have to hit a minimum standard, right? And that minimum standard, what you’re saying is, you know, let’s say your minimum standard is 15 closings. That means, if somebody closes 14, you are letting them go, right? So otherwise it’s just, you know, these suggestions, and that’s what we found was like before, if we had them and then we kept somebody, because our standard was 24 and they closed 20, but we like them, right? Then it’s like, well, now you just, there is, really is no standard, because everybody knows what happened. So you really have to be clear with what is, for you, the minimum standard. If somebody falls below that, then you feel like you shouldn’t be in business with them anymore.

57:14

So we have those minimum standards and and so we’re tracking, you know, on a weekly basis, we’re tracking everything. And,

57:22

you know, we’re not going to wait till we get to the end of the year to be like, Oh, you didn’t hit it. I mean, there’s going to be conversations that happen before that. And you’ll, know. I mean, if somebody’s off track, and they’re they need to get on track. So, you know, maybe we’ll do a performance improvement plan. We’ll expect them to step up, you know. And usually what happens with that is, you’re just raising accountability. So maybe, you know, if you were meeting with them every other week, now we’re going to meet every week, and then if they’re still off track, you know, now we’re going to talk every day, right? And you just bring more frequency to the accountability. And what happens when you do that is the person’s either going to rise up and they’re going to perform, which is great, or they’re going to they’re going to leave, right because they they’re not doing it, and they’ll sell.

58:13

So it’s like, either way, you know, it’s, it’s fine, but something’s going to happen. It’s pretty rare that if, if you’re holding somebody to these to a goal or to a standard, I just say not a goal, because they all have, they all do have individual goals, right? And for almost everyone, it’s above the minimum standard. So we’re, we are helping them get to their goal and tracking their goal. But you know, I’m concerned with the minimum standard as far as accountability goals,

58:48

so I don’t know if that answered the awesome, awesome question. Nas, thanks for for being on my screen.

58:57

So good. Alright, guys, well, that is it, Joanne and Tom. You guys filled it so much. We we’ve learned a lot. We had a little kind of little went little rogue. There no problem. What’s most important is we are dying to send, and I know people are dying to send referrals to Atlanta and North Atlanta. What’s the best way for them to be able to send referrals to

59:21

Yeah, I mean, I would just say, think of us for Georgia, because we know people, you know people. Don’t really know geography, right? But if you hear somebody moving to Georgia, we know the best agents and all the whether it’s our team or we can direct you of where they need to go.

59:37

So our website is and our last name is curtain, C, u, r t i n, so no, a n, curtain, but we’re curtain team.com so you can go there, or Tom at curtain team is my email, and J C at Curtin team is mine, but we’re on social sites, messages, we’re still put it I can put it here. Yeah, we’re we’re available. So good. Well, and.

1:00:00

Apparently, oz has declared you guys as the best looking ot couple in in the the history of the the year of of the OT. So we’re looking at greatness. Tell me Thank you. I do see Tom has this look of, Hi, I’m Ant Man, uh, he has that look. He’s

1:00:21

got more more Keanu Reeves likes

1:00:26

that one.

1:00:30

Definitely a good looking and charming couple and successful, which makes it perfect. There you go. Someday I can grow up to be like you guys. I’m bald, though I got you Alright, dude, Cool. Bye. Guys, bye, bye. Well, there you have it. It has been declared Joanne and Tom, they’re good looking, and they’re amazing agents too. I’m so grateful for them to be able to share all that knowledge and being so open with their business, and I love having them so. So if you guys have referrals in Atlanta area, send it to them. That’s that’s what they would they’re happy to send referral fees and all that other kind of stuff. So

1:01:12

other than that, you guys do know I don’t do this as a hobby. This is what I run, one of the largest real estate companies here in Vegas, and it’s color. Coloring is the marketplace, and I spend most of my time coaching and helping non kW agents for the business. So you’re probably not with kW. You’re probably not here in Vegas, and I can still help you. Don’t sweat it. That’s what I’m here to do. I had a conversation earlier this week for about 1015, minutes, specifically talking about some accountability issues with one of their team members and how to lead their leader in their team. And it was awesome. That’s what I’m here now, if you’re here in Vegas, contact me and get down and dirty. But if you’re not here in Vegas, you guys can all call me. My number 702-706-4949, 70649,

1:02:02

49 and I’m here to help you guys out. Let’s grow your team. Let’s make your life easier, life by design. That’s what this is all about. So that’s all I gotta say. Tom and Joanne Curtin, you guys are so fantastic. And

1:02:18

until then, go out and do some good.

1:02:21

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

1:02:36

See you next week. You